I'm very hot-cold on till not because of his entire thing with mizi (i agree its not a human rights violation for a person to crush on a lesbian) but because of his entire thing with Acorn. It just... absolutely baffles me how he changed thesong during his round and set acorn up for death with 0 hesitation after knowing that they probably (probably close) friends? i mean by the vivinos comic till and acorn probably spent a lot of time together. like i know its a death game and everyone is putting their own needs first but the aboslute 0 hesitation... holy moly.
That's totally valid haha. What happened to Acorn seemed to slide under the radar for a lot of people (me included until you sent this ask)
What's interesting about it is that official content has always emphasized how pure Till and his feelings for Mizi are.
Till willing to risk everything for her and sing; this shows his pure nature. He's just a boy experiencing the innocence of first love.
— Final Round Behind the Scenes, Patreon
Generally, people take pureness to be an all around good trait. But no trait is inherently good or bad; it's all dependent on framing (ambitious -> motivated, honest -> inconsiderate, ruthless -> decisive, etc).
Alien Stage does a fantastic job showing this because they're never afraid to acknowledge or even spotlight the ugly sides that exist. Take Sua for example—she's described as sensitive and kind but these traits manifest in her being easily hurt and putting up walls to shut everyone out.
Mizi, another character closely associated with the word pure, gives us some insight on how they interpret this trait in her Drowing Bloom profile:
From the beginning, MIZI had a strong image of being untarnished, positive, and pure.
Sometimes the emotion of anger is so pure that MIZI acts savagely, and sometimes it's so pure that she has the courage to say “I love” what she loves.
Alien Stage considers both of these a reflection of Mizi's pureness.
And so similarly, Till's pureness manifests in both his earnest, heartfelt desire for Mizi to understand his feelings, and the utter callousness with which he dismisses Acorn's existence and life.
Because to Till, Acorn has no place in this story, this song. And the moment he tries to cut in?
Immediately and forcefully shunted out.
pure — without any extraneous and unnecessary elements, free of any contamination, untainted
Free of any extraneous and unnecessary elements => rejection/dismissal of extraneous and unnecessary elements.
Alien Stage really doesn't hesitate to express how there's always two sides to a coin.
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