A Song, both Happy and Grimm

So far in the world of Obey Me we've seen hell, we've seen heaven, and now it's time to see purgatory. Or should I say, Purgatorio...

It's no secret that OM has taken liberally from Dante's Divine Comedy - most depictions of hell and heaven have! - going so far as to label the layers of the Underworld by the same names, right down to the four concentric circles of Cocytus, and the City of Dis above.

But while the Inferno isn't a one to one match for the Devildom, what with the seven deadly sins differing from those Dante deems hell-bound, and while Paradiso doesn't seem to hold much in common with the Celestial Realm, the middle volume, Purgatorio, has a great deal that is relevant to our fallen angels.

[Note: while the OG game was more in line with the Devildom and its layers being akin to the Inferno, but replacing the bottom frozen layer with the home of the sleeping Demon King, Nightbringer moved away from this, introducing the nine layers proper as a distinct realm from the eight-layer Devildom.]

The Underworld, as it is termed in NB, is set out in the exact same manner as the Inferno - nine layers, with Cocytus at the bottom.

The first, topmost, layer of Dante's Inferno is Limbo, a name often conflated with Purgatory, but the two have a distinct difference - Limbo is for those not condemned to hell, but neither afforded the ability to atone and work their way to heaven; while Purgatory is for those who are not condemned, but are given the ability to atone.

The bad but not bad enough and the good but not good enough yet, perhaps.

In the image released above, the title is Purgatory - so not Limbo of the Infernal realm, nor the gates of the Celestial. This is truly the inbetween.

~

Judgement - the Seven Sins

As I've written about before, the nine layers of the Inferno did not match up particularly well with the notion of seven deadly sins, and thus with our main OM cast.

But those very same sins form the structure of Purgatorio, where a soul must ascend up each layer, conquering each sin, in order to reach salvation.

And while the Inferno is structured to be travelled downwards, Purgatorio is structured to be travelled upwards. An inverse.

It is here, with some uh, educational methods that happen to look a lot like punishments, that relates directly to each sin, and the angel of the opposing virtue guards each gate.

The first of these seven layers... is Pride.

Guarded by the Angel of Humility, the proud walk with large rocks upon their backs, doubling them over, surrounded by sculptures depicting humility, and warning statues of Lucifer below.

The second layer is Envy, guarded by the Angel of Charity, where the envious have their eyes sewn shut with iron wire as they listen to examples of their sin.

The third is Wrath, guarded by the Angel of Peace, where the wrathful are swallowed by acrid smoke and visions of wrath.

The fourth is Acedia (Sloth), guarded by the Angel of Zeal, engaged in ceaseless activity.

The fifth is Avarice (Greed), guarded by the Angel of Moderation, where the greedy lay face down reciting psalms.

The sixth is Gluttony, guarded by the Angel of Temperance, where the hungry are starved of delicious fruits forever out of reach.

The seventh is Lust, guarded by the Angel of Chastity, where the damned run through terrible flames (direction dependent on sexuality which ew, but also surprisingly progressive of the time to not just send them to hell so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).

<art by Seymour Chwast>

All seven sins are said to be a form of twisted love. The first three are described as perversions of love into the harm of others (pride, envy, wrath); the fourth as deficient of love (sloth); and the final three as excessive or disordered love (greed, gluttony, lust).

What does this mean for Sinner's Choice? Well, see my full theory below ¬ᴗ¬ But it's pretty neat that each of the sins is represented as being in this Purgatorial space, alongside the opposing virtues and the opportunity to atone.

In the case of the world of OM, we know that the brothers do not want to atone - at least, not in the future. But upon their time of actually falling and grappling with their new identities? It may be more nuanced than that, and separate from their anger.

~

💫 Full theory and plot speculation below the cut! ↓

We lost an entire section of the MAIN STORY.

The livestream literally told us Valko's release was going to reveal more about the Aethercore—one of the biggest mysteries in Love and Deepspace and something that's been central to the plot from the very beginning.

So now what?

You think they can just delete him and nothing changes?

Do people genuinely think you can rip out an entire story arc without consequences?

Everything that was supposed to be revealed through Valko now has to be rewritten, redistributed, or outright cut. The main story is going to have to be retconned. Future updates are going to have to be reworked. Characters may have to be rewritten just to fill the gap he leaves.

If you're celebrating this because you "won," I sincerely hope you understand what you've actually cheered for.

You mean to tell me months—if not YEARS—of development. …and your solution was to throw the ENTIRE SIXTH LOVE INTEREST into the trash?

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

I'm not saying people shouldn't have been angry about the 731 reference. They absolutely had every right to be. Unit 731 is one of the darkest chapters in history and if that reference was made carelessly, then yes, people deserved an apology and an explanation.

But explain to me how Valko became the sacrificial lamb here.

Who exactly does this help? The people who were hurt by the reference? They still deserve accountability.

The people who were excited for Valko? Congratulations, you just told them to go fuck themselves.

The developers who spent who knows how long creating an entirely new LI? Their work gets deleted overnight.

So what was the goal here?

Because this doesn't feel like taking responsibility. It feels like corporate damage control.

Fix the story.

Rewrite the chapter.

Delete the offending reference.

Delay the release.

Fire whoever thought using 731 and 611 was acceptable if you have to.

But deleting an ENTIRE CHARACTER because of a mistake in ONE PART OF THE GAME is such an absurd overreaction that I genuinely can't wrap my head around it. I'm just so unbelievably disappointed. because Infold's response was somehow even worse than the original mistake.

We lost a character.

The developers lost their work.

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

writing “long” paragraphs is not a sign of AI — it’s a common narrative choice many writers make both in fanfiction and in traditionally published novels, and AI stole it from us.

using an em dash is not a sign of AI. it’s a stylistic sentence choice that’s been an option in place of commas and semicolons for a very long time, and AI stole it from us.

long sentence structures are not a sign of AI, but are yet another stylistic choice writers often make to create a cadence and tone that mimics the flow of poetry, and AI stole it from us.

“YA narrative breaks”? i don’t even know what the fuck this means, but i can guarantee that AI stole it from us.

italics are once again a stylistic choice that many writers love to use to create emphasis, and it’s a more stylistically acceptable and traditional form of emphasis than bold or underline text. oh, and just to be extra clear: AI STOLE IT FROM US.

stop creating fandom witch hunts over AI when you know fuck all about what it means to sit and write a story, and to spend hours fiddling with sentence structure and dialogue to get the exact right tone. writers will stop writing out of fear that their work “sounds like AI” — IT DOESNT! AI STOLE FROM US! AI SOUNDS LIKE US! — and after a while, all that will be available on AO3 is shitty AI-generated fanfiction.

because yeah, people are going to continue to use AI to write fanfiction whether you “call them out” or not. but making a laughable thread on X that uses asinine criteria is not going to fix that problem. it will just push the real writers out because people will accuse them of using AI when they haven’t, and they will (rightfully) stop writing for spaces that attack them.

"If something immediately makes me feel anger, repulsion, or joy, with even a simple blurb, it's probably manipulating me."

First off, Newsweek is hardly an unbiased source these days. The majority shareholder is Dev Pagrad, is exceptionally wealthy, and has been repeatedly pushing newsweek to be an arm of the right wing's propaganda machine. It is HARD LINE far-right, Anti-trans, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-science To cite the Southern Poverty Law Center (by way of Wikipedia)

In November 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Newsweek had "taken a marked radical right turn by buoying extremists and promoting authoritarian leaders" since it hired conservative political activist Josh Hammer as editor-at-large. It noted the magazine's elevation of conspiracy theorists, publication of conspiracy theories about COVID-19, views such as support for a ban on all legal immigration to the United States and denying adults access to trans-affirming medical care, and failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest in the content published on Hammer's opinion section and podcast. https://web.archive.org/web/20221106005834/https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/11/04/newsweek-embraces-anti-democracy-hard-right

Newsweek, when even linking to the study it cites, doesn't... actually link to the study. It just links to newsweek's "study" tab. It does MENTION the study, which allowed me to track it down. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/almost-third-gen-z-men-globally-agree-wife-should-obey-her-husband IPSOS is a MARKETING FIRM, whose CEO Jean Laurent Poitou, was the former head of Accenture, under whose leadership, sure did a lot of fraud, engaging in tax avoidance, and other such conservative-leaning behaviors, and who generally is affiliated with the traditional right. Let's add another one. The group "Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s Business School, King’s College London" just so happens to be at the school that the Current CEO of newsweek is not just an alum of, but is a major contributor to the funding for. It's always weird when something extremely polarizing comes from, a group that's directly funded by the CEO or owner of the conservative newspaper that's publishing it, as well as from research done by a Marketing firm in the pockets of wealthy conservatives! Funny how that always seems to happen! But if we actually look at IPSOS's study, you'll see that a lot of the numbers have been gently massaged and their methodology is EXTREMELY opaque. After all, they're not a scientific institution. They're a MARKETING FIRM. The biggest conclusion if you read their own paper, is ACTUALLY, that MOST PEOPLE seem to hold progressive views on women's autonomy, but think that THEIR COUNTRY still majority holds draconian views on women's autonomy. Things their own study says:

A Majority of Gen Z believes that women shouldn't "always obey" their husbands.

A Majority of Gen Z has concerns that their society holds draconian beliefs about women.

What the results of the SPIN on this facts, as well as how many in the comments are reacting, is actually perpetuating the Traditional Right's views on Gender and Marriage. I need you to understand that it actively benefits the traditional right when you lean into gender essentialism and believe that Men Are Evil. That Men Are Monsters. It makes the default assumption of men be that they will always be predators, meaning that when they DO do something predator, nobody's surprised; well that's just how men are; when he finds the RIGHT woman who can Tame Him, then he'll behave; that's the duty of a woman after all; to put up with men abusing her until she finds one who is the Right One, who she can handle. What this article ALSO does, is scare progressive women, scares queerfolk, scares young folk, and makes conservatives feel emboldened and empowered. You need to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, remind yourself: "If something immediately makes me feel anger, repulsion, or Joy, with even a simple blurb, it's probably manipulating me." And more than that, you need to remember the follow up:

So i would emphasize — if you fell for this, if you let it lead you to despair or anger, do not feel shame. It’s designed to take advantage of very basic human impulses. It’s a weapon designed to target us when we are already scared and tired and hurting. We’re the target. It’s difficult to dodge a trap specifically tailor-made to catch us.

Just remember — if it makes you feel strongly, positive or negative, if your first instinct is a strong emotion, you’re probably walking into a trap. And one of the fastest ways to inoculate yourself against that trap is to ask yourself “who benefits from making me feel this way?”

Eventually, like it did with me above, you’ll get lucky, you’ll “remember your training” (lol), and one of us will manage to recognize a trap for what it is so that we can tell others “hey, it’s not what it seems.”

I'm still playing, but I haven't read the valentines event yet.

I think what enthusiasm I had was just wiped out entirely by the lackluster (half!) Chapter 2 update, plus the ongoing refusal to address the game-breaking bug that has many players locked out of their accounts.

Up till Feast of the Fallen I was still pretty into gathering all the lore and such, and my love for the overall series was kicking in but now? I dunno.

It feels like the fandom enthusiasm has waned as well.

I think chapter 2 just confirmed how short these episodes are and how little effort has been put into this game. There's no main route, the characters are underwritten in specific cases (alcoholic Mammon, feet obsessed Belphie, Beel being moved miles away...) and even in the more fitting moments, they're so short and shallow, with MC having even less agency than before.

Nightbringer wasn't my cup of tea plot wise, but it didn't feel like a straight up cash grab - greedy, yes, but they were trying out new things, however misguided they turned out to be. And I wish of course that they'd just put that effort into the original game which remains the only successful one to this day with HUGE potential.

Ido is very much just a cash grab.

The crowdfunding proved how loyal the fandom was, how much any new game would be given every chance to succeed.

An adult human being should be able to decide what to have for dinner. Yes, some days it's rough and you don't wanna, but the point is, you can do it. And if you can't, you can learn. Hell, make post-it notes with dinner options, stick them on a dart board, and on days when you really can't decide, throw a dart.

You'd really rather put these decisions in the hands of an AI? As in, a company? And you don't see the issues with that? You don't see how easy that makes it for companies to manipulate you, influence your choices and your spending and your entire life?

And if your mental health relies on talking to a robot about your issues "because it listens and cares" - no, it doesn't. It can't listen. It can't care. It's lying to you. It's parroting phrases said by other people in similar contexts. It's an elaborate predictive text machine.

And again, you're just giving all of this information about yourself to a company. A company that wants to make money and likely has no compunctions about selling your data. You're trusting a software run by a company. And you don't think that'll be used to manipulate you? I've got a bridge to sell you.

What you need is actual human connection with other humans. And if you don't know how to connect with other humans then it's time to learn. Start by caring about other people. Take a genuine interest in them. Listen to them. That's how you connect. Not by treating others as entities to dump all your issues on or monologue at about your boring life. Sure, character.ai will put up with that and humour you, but there's literally nothing genuine about it and you will never ever learn to make actual friends.

Relying on genAI for any of this means you'll never learn, in fact you'll get worse, and if genAI ever goes away or you find yourself without access to a computer/phone/internet or the people running chatGPT or character.ai take down the website or put it behind a paywall, you'll be completely adrift. You are handing control of your life over to a piece of software run by a business. Instead of developing skills and independence you're just handing control over to someone else, someone who by the way does not care about you, someone who's only here to make money.

"But some people need--" to stop infantilising themselves, to start taking responsibility and control of their own life, to realise that they have agency and power, to learn that agency and control are not the same as blame and guilt and that someone trying to help them reclaim control is not trying to blame them for their situation.

for every billion dollars of revenue any of the big AI companies generate, they spend roughly 100 billion. those are numbers your brain is unable to comprehend the enormity of, and it is currently being burned like the flow of money is never going to end.

there is not a single generative AI product product that is being priced to consumers so that it is anywhere near covering the operating costs, let alone turn a profit. the moment they do they will lose the majority of their business, because regular people won't want to pay $1000+ a month for access to the "tell me what to have for dinner" machine, and businesses will not want to pay the even higher enterprise licenses per employee. even worse for AI, those businesses will evaluate how much money they made with AI when the licenses were dirt cheap to lure companies into deploying it everywhere, and they'll all realize that at best they didn't lose too much because they never figured out what to use it FOR.

there are only a few major investors world wide with the pockets to fund this madness, and they are all running out of patience and money. openAI has to turn from non profit to for profit by the end of the year unless they want to forfeit billions and billions of dollars from softbank, and they can't afford to do that and expose just how catastrophically unprofitable they are, but they also can't afford not to get the money from softbank, the biggest vibes-based investment fund in the world, helmed by the guy who gave WeWork most of their money, a company that did TREMENDOUSLY well when they did their IPO, as we all recall. (it went bankrupt within days, for those unfamiliar) this summer alone openAI has raised almost $20 BILLION in two rounds over three months, first in June and then again in August, because if not they'd go broke. if they try to launch an IPO they will be dead within days.

you DO NOT want to be exposed to investments in the technology sector when that unraveling happens, because the companies that make up the AI industry account for over 30% of the US stock market, and the resounding crack when nvidia tanks because their sales of ai chips dies overnight? so many people are going to lose their retirement funds and investments.

it's been burning money at an unprecedented rate for several years now, and the collapse could very well happen before the end of 2025.

either way, she always has at least three kids, sometimes more. you don't want to ask when she had them, but she had to have them young because her youngest had to have been born when she was at least seventeen based on how time works. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.

she's smiling but there's something missing in her eyes - a spark that should be there. there's no passion, there's just the movements of the day. sometimes she'll give an interview where she says she barely feels like getting out of bed, and other times she says nothing. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.

her world isn't real - it's neat kitchens and made from scratch cheese. she tells you how she doesn't need feminism because she likes this life, she likes wearing pretty dresses, don't you dare pity her. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.

you scroll up to an ex tradewife in her forties talking about how her husband divorced her and left her for a younger girl, leaving her destitute and penniless and twenty years out of the workforce. you scroll again to a pretty young girl saying she doesn't need a job, her husband will take care of her. you scroll again. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.

another woman, this time in her early thirties, talking about how she just managed to leave her abusive husband and has nothing and he took the kids, warning and pleading young girls to not fall for tradwife lies. you scroll again to a young tradwife girl saying that would never happen to her, and you're just jealous of her. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.

you scroll again. a teen girl tells you that she'll just track her period, she doesn't NEED a toxic chemical like birth control. you scroll again to an obgyn pleading with young girls to understand birth control is just hormonal, and that period tracking isn't effective. you just watch happen. you can't save her.

you scroll again, and it's jd vance saying how women belong in the homes and shouldn't be allowed to vote. that their husbands should decide how they should vote. you scroll again to a domestic abuse counselor telling women their vote is private and they can lie to their husbands. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.

a service that requires the stolen art of millions of uncredited artists in order to function

demands insane amounts of water and electricity, harming the environment and poisoning local communities around their data centers

used deliberately to take away paying jobs from real human artists so cooperates can save a buck, and frankly to my belief, implanted and encouraged the infighting so they could use us as a scapegoat and get away with it

Personally, I think the argument that "this disabled person in the past could do it via *this* way, therefore why can't you" is also harmful to the disabled community.

People are going to have different limitations and there shouldn't be a standard to uphold them to, and accessibility resources to creating art (as well as many other things in life) are going to vary by each person.

If the money and time spent on gen AI development was put towards social rights, resources, developing accessibility tools as whole, and accommodating disabled people without (1) trying to 'fix' them (2) pushing them past their limits and to ignore their disability and (3) using us as a scapegoat, and everything that would actually MAKE the world safer and more hospitable for disabled people, there would be no incentive to use something that's not only thieving, but actively poisoning the earth to insane amounts and with cooperates buying up land and driving people from their homes.