I’d say that Cronus’s toxic behavior goes even a step further than that, and he’s not even seeing anyone around him as real people. And I think that’s something that’s REALLY reflected in the incel community. People don’t reject him because they have their own wants and needs, they reject him because they’re Mean People who have no goal in interacting with him other than to hurt him. He doesn’t see them as independent people with their own autonomy, he sees them as flat caricatures, with no real existence outside of how they relate to him.
Honestly, his meenahquest transcripts reads to me like someone playing an rpg and working the dialogue options to see if he’s got any entry point to exciting new content (sex). That kind of thing reminds me a lot of pickup artist philosophy, which isn’t quite the same as the incel community, but I’ve seen a decent amount of overlap between the two. Like, look at this transition. Meenah asserts her boundaries with regards to the humankin stuff, and Cronus says:
(052) Cronus: Forget I said anything. I wouldn’t want to compromise our friendship, not even to speak of the potential for us to develop into something more than just friends
# by which I mean two people who freely engage in sexual intercourse
(053) Cronus: Oh, RIGHT. You asked me how my music was going these days, didn’t you?
That’s not a proper conversation at all. It might be a decent transition away from an uncomfortable subject if it was worded differently. Something like ‘Oh hey, I’m still working on my music these days,’ would be okay. But he frames it so that he’s graciously showing Meenah these things, because she asked, you know? He’s doing her a favor. And he immediately uses it to proposition her and ignore her repeated attempts to shut down the uncomfortable sexual situation. He’s not treating her like a real person with real feelings. He knows she’s saying no, he just ignores it.
(056) Cronus: Here, listen to this track. I wrote it in anticipation of your arrival.
(057) Cronus: <punkin cravings (bubstep mix)>
(058) Meenah: Not clicking that.
(059) Cronus: Um, I see. Then, what about…
(060) Cronus: <punkin party in sea hipsters water apocalypse>
(062) Cronus: <lunar lust>, <aquasex renegade>, <less pale more pail>
(063) Meenah: Ew.
# creep
(064) Cronus: Wait… I probably shouldn’t have shown you those. Ok, hold on. I know I have something here you’ll dig.
(065) Cronus: <give him another look>, <under your fins all along>, <we put the us in royals flushed>
And that’s apart from how he treats Mituna. That whole set of dialogue is just too toxic to dig into in real depth, but I just want to call your attention to the part where EVERYTHING is about Cronus and romance sex. Even Mituna’s existence. Cronus’s failure to hook up with Meenah (despite her asserting her boundaries and turning him down multiple times) isn’t about Cronus. It isn’t about bad luck, even (she’d left by the time Cronus tried to go hit on her). No, it’s all Mituna’s fault.
(122) Wait… where’d she go? Dang it. Looks like she ditched you again.
# story of your life # this is probably CAPTAIN HELMET’S fault # you should go grill him
(123) Cronus: HEY! I thought I told you to stay put.
(125) Cronus: I told you to stay here in exactly this spot.
(127) Cronus: Well, she was gone. SOMEONE must have frightened her away.
(128) Cronus: You must have spaced out and wandered into view briefly. She probably got one look at you and couldn’t split fast enough.
(129) Mituna: No, I stayed here like you said.
(130) Cronus: Wonderful. This is exactly what I needed, what with all my frayed emotions lately. Thanks a lot, “buddy.”
(132) Cronus: No you’re not. You’re lying.
So that’s bad enough. And the dialogue leading into this was Mituna being really nice and friendly to Cronus, even though Cronus is treating him like shit. And oh hey, look at this manipulative strategy Cronus uses below. Like I said, really not seeing other people as people.
(133) Cronus: Your whole bifurcated demeanor is such an act. Half the time you are noxious and incomprehensible, and the other half you are mild and contrite? Sure, “PAL.”
(134) Cronus: As if I’m not SO on to you. You only pretend to say you’re sorry to get girls to like you more. Sure seems like Pyrope’s a sucker for the ruse. Like I’m not familiar with THOSE tactics. Who do you think wrote the book on that?
Eridan, on the other hand, even when he’s talking shit about his friends, he still respects that they’re allowed to turn him down. He’s upset when things don’t work out, and he’ll hit on just about anyone, it seems, but he doesn’t try to say that they’re OBLIGATED to hook up with him. To me, that’s the biggest difference between incel and not-incel. Eridan respects other people’s autonomy, even when he’s hurt by rejection. Cronus just gets angry and says he wishes he’d been born in a universe where he was allowed to kill a TBI’d guy (who got that TBI saving his life) without consequences :T
Cronus’s dialogue is a bit limited (I do wish there was more canon time to spend on the dancestors), but I see a lot of his supporters saying that ‘oh, if only someone had given him a CHANCE–’ That skeeves me out even more than most of his canon actions. You see people saying that kind of thing for like, the girl who turned down a guy who asked her to prom, and he killed her. That same idea that someone is OBLIGATED to at least try dating someone they don’t want to, how on earth is than an appropriate sentiment to express? I’m aware that it isn’t canonical Cronus, but it fits right in like with his whole ‘let me ignore those last couple of ‘no’s and try propositioning you again’ shtick. I haven’t seen anything from him that’s out of line with incel philosophy, and there’s a whole lot that suggests he’d be a part of that whole crowd. So yeah, I’m on board with this analysis.