Okay, who in the peck stole my notes? First @calluna basically kicks me and beats me to the punch a long time ago when philosophizing this. God dangit Danger Cally, gonna freaking buy you a box of chocolates so you don’t take my notes again and then improve upon them to make that awesome comment!!!!~ D^:< Then @dirge manages to sneak in and post a joke before I could. I bet Melinda’s behind this and is after me after Grimm placed her God knows where and didn’t think of keeping a Grimmkin to watch over her.
So let’s list off how they basically beated me to the punch and did my points way better c:
@calluna / @bananafish obviously remarked on every story having two sides, the hinting of the histories of the two, making familial instead of couple, possible lesbian point (<3) and the power grab of her. Now that I revealed this, she played perfectly to my trap card: I shall basically one up her like an imp~ c: - On the two stories aspect, philosophically at least, relates to a duo-chromatic dialectical struggle between the two. Where reading upon their lines, where they stick out in both agreement and disagreement, how their biases (justified and unjustified) affected them and then producing the scene of contact we can be more informed and see how deep this struggle gets. More particularly intensified as we reach into the contingent (necessity as its dialectical double) factior of her being a family member. Making more awkward and intense the entire situation had gotten. Coupled with her possible lesbian affinities and her practicing black magic (hey, entire World, can we figure out how Non-cishet women basically always got attached into dark arts, not a complaint but wondering), it just makes it easier for her to get at what she wants without remorse nor any struggle against her lowecase s stoic brother Leitner. Which I am glad she one the first few moments of this exxhange between the two, despite it being an interlude to the serious confrontation.
@dirge probably took best at expressing shock of them being familial, so I can’t play off the incest joke. Here I weirdly don’t have a follow up other than saying “welcome to the Feudal-Mercantile” World where the Taboo was still alive despite it being a long and protracted process... now since I dragged it long enough, lemme pull the carpet to talk about the hyprocrisy of enforced moralities. See with the Taboo being our only one we can site, the ruling classes basically cannot stand to see their own reflection from people lower than them, and so they enforce a rule against such. To make themselves as unique as possible while acting like the pure-beans they are. Before than breaking the law they were just enforcing and without a shame, going so far as to say that their class position justifies their actions. The Taboo, cuckoldry and/or incest is clearly perserved despite them wanting to “end” it. And it gets even more reinforced with factionalism amongst the ruling classes and not wanting to marry a family of a differing line. Thus making it easier to do such when the number of potential mates run out - despite them enforcing a rule for the working classes to not even dare think of the Taboo. And while some do get caught, exposed and live in shame, most get out of the hole rather quickly and the rest kept in their as examples for the hole of society.
Now what could I bring unto the table: well the form of any given action. Really? Really. See, with this two sided approach, we can see at least two forms of the same content here: the outlook over the practice of black magic. To Benjamin, who remains ignorant of his familial past while trying to live up to societal norms, it’s easy to see how he shrieks in cowardice. But to Melissa (which knock, knock I like to ask that q from earlier here agaib but for the totality of women here), she seen past the cloak enforced by the ruling classes and reproduced amongst the masses. To her, just another means to get at what she desires, the driving vehicle which managed to carry her forth her for the long stretch of time which she can’t guarantee herself she’ll find joy if she suceeds in it. Coupled with the fact of her manners after the disillusionment with the Leitners (and the rest of the Feudal-Mercantile aristocracy) which suggests she went beyond the limits of Partriarchal Heteronormativity (which maybe easier to say then saying she’s lesbian), no wonder she can’t give a crap of a long, abadoned art. Yet everything perfectly encapsulated (and affirmed actually happening) by the time of the lantern dropping, while also hinting at the defeat of Benjamin Leitner in the power seize by Melinda Leitner.
