My two cents on dl fandom ( and the relationship dynamics between yui and all the diaboys )
( please don’t kill me this might turn into a long post I’ll try keep it short )
1.) There’s always a drive to find an absolute, not nuanced , not grey area , just absolutes, I think there could definitely be more tentative ways of describing things AND to always remember there’s a block button nearby
2.) there’s a difference between headcannon and cannon , just because YOU personally headcannon something doesn’t mean everyone has to like it , there should still be a certain amount of tolerance , just as there should be tolerance to any person of different belief . Also , headcannons always tend to be influenced by cannon
3.) within cannon there are always things that are either implied / heavily implied , it’s just a writing technique , all writers use it , and there can always be multiple meanings in a sentence , the author is never going to just say “ he was sad and he was also crying “ duh that’s boring
4.) outside of the cannon you can cross refrencing texts , especially other texts that influence the media you are reading , I’m talking about Diabolik lovers , dl obviously wasn’t the first vampire media ever created , none of their ideas are new and are heavily inspired by a quite a few different representations of vampires . Also , you should be able to draw upon other things such as references of philosophy or psychology , eg . Genesis
Yui and the diaboys relationship
( heavily shortened and broad spectrum to include all really )
People love a perfect victim , as in a victim that doesn’t react and sort of sits there and takes it , and in Yui’s case , relives the abuse through redemption
In multiple routes in dl , Yui isn’t the “ perfect victim “ , instead, reacting to her abuse ( aka reactive abuse )
This typically happens after the victim has been pushed to the limit by the abusive partner. It could happen after years of emotional abuse or gaslighting, or because of escalating physical or sexual abuse . I dont think anybody disagrees with the fact yui was abused , both by the church , her father and the diaboys
I’m bringing this up to say that comparing the abused to the abuser in any situation is strange , even swapping the genders and showing bias to your favourite diaboy is at minimum showing favouritism and max showing internalised misogyny
Dl was made for masochists and ‘ yes what do you expect attitude’ in surface level fine , it’s upto everyone to decide what media they consume , however you can still analyse and criticise that media , especially the characters in that media lol
If you are never in a situation of abuse , it’s always easy to say “ I would never do that “ , until you are in a situation of abuse
Although I do criticise the writers of dl a lot , I’ll give them merit on how Yui’s mind warps depending on whose route she’s in to survive , her options are quite literally “ fight or fawn “ otherwise she dies , she adapts to all environments really ( even on a side note if you factor in she’s had NO experience with anything outside the church , imagine if she did have a super volatile upbringing, she’d lowk be terrifying )
Calling her ‘ annoying’ of ‘ naive “ in parts is yes understandable, she’s dense at times , but at other times is heavily hinted that she’s just …playing dumb to survive / avoid something , if you can sympathise with any of the diaboys upbringing , then yui was litteraly groomed into being nothing but an innocent bride , as all the other brides before her who had to survive five nights at misogyny’s ( pretty pathetic in my opinion on the sakamaki part , your the strongest preying on the weakest and then complaining about it but I could make a whole separate post on that )
There is no diaboy “ worse “ than another , they are all equally as bad , your favs prolly depend on what you deem ‘ acceptable’ or even just don’t like their design / voice / interests and that’s all valid ( eg I can’t sit through kanatos routes he just pmo )
The dl fandom has a range of ages really just remember be kind and don’t take things personally, and at the same time , people (sometimes! ) genuinely have a strong bias to their diaboy and try go through loopholes to justify their actions , usually I just use those 4 as a guide to : is this post helpful? Does it make sense ? Does it make me laugh a little ? or ……is this post really strange and weird? Does it make me uncomfortable? Does it have undertones of hate ? This works for most fandoms lol and remember that online spaces are to have fun and build community !
