#4062

That’s so sinister. It sounds like Her Condescension is outwardly as friendly as Feferi – but while Feferi’s demeanor merely concealed a slightly nasty streak, her Ancestor’s hides true evil behind a cheerful mask.

It could be any of the lethal brigades under her command to receive the orders, be it the Threshecutioners, Cavalreapers, Laughsassins, or Ruffiannihilators.

We’re really coming full circle with these brigade names. They’ve all been mentioned before, some as early as the beginning of Hivebent.

The first position was idolized by Karkat.

The second, by Tavros.

The third was mentioned by Gamzee.

And the fourth is for bruisers like Equius.

A place for everyone, and everyone in their place. Now, isn’t that just lovely?

She’s so evil... but she looks so cool... but she’s so evil...

The Empress doesn’t give particularly strong Feferi vibes, but that's mostly due to her outfit, as well as the undeniable aura of menace she exudes.

Feferi definitely has a dark side, and I’m fully willing to believe that this was what she could have been, if she didn’t break the mold by having a conscience.

If angered, she could simply express her grievance through communion with her ancient lusus of the deep, and turn its psychic devastation on her multitudes. The class hierarchy played into her hands politically in this respect. Killing off a haphazard swathe of the population, or an entire class, was suitable as a measure of last resort, but mass extermination does not lend itself well to practical governance. Its looming threat however is quite effective, especially while her empire was partitioned neatly into blood castes.

How convenient for her. It’s almost like this woman’s entire civilization was designed from the ground up to be impossible to improve, reform, or overthrow.

In fact, you could almost believe that Alternia’s entire purpose as a planet was to prepare twelve bloody-minded teenagers for the trials required to speedrun a video game, fall at the last hurdle, and ‘accidentally’ unleash a universe-eating abomination.