(She/Her, 30+, Minors DNI)Hello and Good Day to all of you fine folks that have stumbled into this little place I now call home. Some of you may remember me as ShyMayfly from elsewhere here on Tumblr. If so, hello again! That blog was very messy, hence me scrubbing it entirely (Or it will be very soon). Expect a lot of Fandom things here, especially for Obey Me, Video Games in general, and sometimes you can catch me ranting about the many ills of society. As much of my content/reblogs will be of mature content, Minors/Ageless Accounts will be blocked on sight. Take care of yourselves, stay safe, and be kind.
Gotta tell you guys something wild in the Chinese fan sphere
So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.
So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.
And that is how this charity received over 1 million in donations in three days lol. Oh btw the “freedom of expression” side won by a landslide (960k to 40k)
People who use ai actually do deserve to be bullied relentlessly btw and you shouldn't baby anyone who tries to defend their use of it in fandom spaces. They believe they deserve recognition and praise for stringing a few words together in the plagiarism pollution machine, but all they deserve is to be spat on.
If someone doesn't have the skill and refuses to learn the skill to execute an idea they are not entitled to use ai to make all their uncreative little thoughts a reality. They should recieve nothing but hostility for thinking it's ok to trample on other people who put a lifetime of effort into learning the skills the ai scraped without consent to create it's worthless output.
“how to recognize AI in fanfic” — hey so this is another not-gentle reminder that AI stole from us. it’s using OUR words and OUR sentences and OUR styles.
writing “long” paragraphs is not a sign of AI — it’s a common narrative choice many writers make both in fanfiction and in traditionally published novels, and AI stole it from us.
using an em dash is not a sign of AI. it’s a stylistic sentence choice that’s been an option in place of commas and semicolons for a very long time, and AI stole it from us.
long sentence structures are not a sign of AI, but are yet another stylistic choice writers often make to create a cadence and tone that mimics the flow of poetry, and AI stole it from us.
“YA narrative breaks”? i don’t even know what the fuck this means, but i can guarantee that AI stole it from us.
italics are once again a stylistic choice that many writers love to use to create emphasis, and it’s a more stylistically acceptable and traditional form of emphasis than bold or underline text. oh, and just to be extra clear: AI STOLE IT FROM US.
stop creating fandom witch hunts over AI when you know fuck all about what it means to sit and write a story, and to spend hours fiddling with sentence structure and dialogue to get the exact right tone. writers will stop writing out of fear that their work “sounds like AI” — IT DOESNT! AI STOLE FROM US! AI SOUNDS LIKE US! — and after a while, all that will be available on AO3 is shitty AI-generated fanfiction.
because yeah, people are going to continue to use AI to write fanfiction whether you “call them out” or not. but making a laughable thread on X that uses asinine criteria is not going to fix that problem. it will just push the real writers out because people will accuse them of using AI when they haven’t, and they will (rightfully) stop writing for spaces that attack them.
>Particularly among Gen Z, our data shows an interesting duality: they are both the group most likely to agree that women who have a successful career are more attractive to men but are simultaneously most likely to agree that a wife should always obey her husband and that a woman should never appear too self-sufficient or independent.
I know these two things seem contradictory, but there’s nothing a conservative man loves more than to tear off an angel’s wings. There are plenty of women that would willingly choose the obedient SAHM lifestyle, but these kinds of men always seem to go for the opposite. Why? Because it’s a power play. There’s no need to break a horse that’s already broken, and that would do nothing to validate that man, his ego, and his place in a world he sees as designed for him.
Another factor is that these men avoid dating conservative women who already want the lives they want them to have because those women's standards are too high. Specifically, such women expect to be the obedient stay at home mum, but they also expect their men to be the masculine ideal from the other half of the equation -- they tend to look down on their men if they cry, they expect them to be able to financially provide for the household, they want them to uphold their end of the bargain. You see this again and again in groups of conservative men who go out of their way to date liberal women; there is a power play, to tame someone untamed and bring her into line with his expectations, but there's also her lack of expectations of him. They want a woman who will do all the household and keep the home but ALSO will not reject him for not being able to afford to finance the family alone. They want a woman who'll respect and obey him but ALSO be fun and relaxed and let him show whatever emotions he wants. They want the Perfect Trad Wife who won't expect him to be the Perfect Trad Husband.
You see the same thing in conservatives who complain that all their leftie friends are abandoning them, but who won't just hang out with right wing friends instead. They don't want to hang out with other righties because a group of righties quickly becomes judgy and hateful and socially competitive, and is only fun to hang out with when they want to vent, whereas their leftie friends were more relaxed and fun. They want license to be unpleasant and expect unreasonable things of others, but want the people around them to be pleasant and not expect unreasonable things of them.
We have some excellent commentary here, but I want you to keep in mind an adage that will serve you well on the modern internet.
"If something immediately makes me feel anger, repulsion, or joy, with even a simple blurb, it's probably manipulating me."
First off, Newsweek is hardly an unbiased source these days. The majority shareholder is Dev Pagrad, is exceptionally wealthy, and has been repeatedly pushing newsweek to be an arm of the right wing's propaganda machine. It is HARD LINE far-right, Anti-trans, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-science
To cite the Southern Poverty Law Center (by way of Wikipedia)
In November 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Newsweek had "taken a marked radical right turn by buoying extremists and promoting authoritarian leaders" since it hired conservative political activist Josh Hammer as editor-at-large. It noted the magazine's elevation of conspiracy theorists, publication of conspiracy theories about COVID-19, views such as support for a ban on all legal immigration to the United States and denying adults access to trans-affirming medical care, and failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest in the content published on Hammer's opinion section and podcast.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221106005834/https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/11/04/newsweek-embraces-anti-democracy-hard-right
Newsweek, when even linking to the study it cites, doesn't... actually link to the study. It just links to newsweek's "study" tab. It does MENTION the study, which allowed me to track it down.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/almost-third-gen-z-men-globally-agree-wife-should-obey-her-husband
IPSOS is a MARKETING FIRM, whose CEO Jean Laurent Poitou, was the former head of Accenture, under whose leadership, sure did a lot of fraud, engaging in tax avoidance, and other such conservative-leaning behaviors, and who generally is affiliated with the traditional right.
Let's add another one.
The group "Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s Business School, King’s College London" just so happens to be at the school that the Current CEO of newsweek is not just an alum of, but is a major contributor to the funding for. It's always weird when something extremely polarizing comes from, a group that's directly funded by the CEO or owner of the conservative newspaper that's publishing it, as well as from research done by a Marketing firm in the pockets of wealthy conservatives! Funny how that always seems to happen!
But if we actually look at IPSOS's study, you'll see that a lot of the numbers have been gently massaged and their methodology is EXTREMELY opaque. After all, they're not a scientific institution. They're a MARKETING FIRM.
The biggest conclusion if you read their own paper, is ACTUALLY, that MOST PEOPLE seem to hold progressive views on women's autonomy, but think that THEIR COUNTRY still majority holds draconian views on women's autonomy.
Things their own study says:
A Majority of Gen Z believes that women shouldn't "always obey" their husbands.
A Majority of Gen Z has concerns that their society holds draconian beliefs about women.
What the results of the SPIN on this facts, as well as how many in the comments are reacting, is actually perpetuating the Traditional Right's views on Gender and Marriage.
I need you to understand that it actively benefits the traditional right when you lean into gender essentialism and believe that Men Are Evil. That Men Are Monsters. It makes the default assumption of men be that they will always be predators, meaning that when they DO do something predator, nobody's surprised; well that's just how men are; when he finds the RIGHT woman who can Tame Him, then he'll behave; that's the duty of a woman after all; to put up with men abusing her until she finds one who is the Right One, who she can handle.
What this article ALSO does, is scare progressive women, scares queerfolk, scares young folk, and makes conservatives feel emboldened and empowered.
You need to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, remind yourself: "If something immediately makes me feel anger, repulsion, or Joy, with even a simple blurb, it's probably manipulating me."
And more than that, you need to remember the follow up:
It’s easy to fall for this shit. I fall for it all the time. I was lucky enough to remember the highlighted advice, given to me by many loved ones, and hammered home to me by one of my wonderful partners.
So i would emphasize — if you fell for this, if you let it lead you to despair or anger, do not feel shame. It’s designed to take advantage of very basic human impulses. It’s a weapon designed to target us when we are already scared and tired and hurting. We’re the target. It’s difficult to dodge a trap specifically tailor-made to catch us.
Just remember — if it makes you feel strongly, positive or negative, if your first instinct is a strong emotion, you’re probably walking into a trap. And one of the fastest ways to inoculate yourself against that trap is to ask yourself “who benefits from making me feel this way?”
Eventually, like it did with me above, you’ll get lucky, you’ll “remember your training” (lol), and one of us will manage to recognize a trap for what it is so that we can tell others “hey, it’s not what it seems.”
World be spooky. We’re all in this shit together. I love you, neighbors. 💪✨
I'm still playing, but I haven't read the valentines event yet.
I think what enthusiasm I had was just wiped out entirely by the lackluster (half!) Chapter 2 update, plus the ongoing refusal to address the game-breaking bug that has many players locked out of their accounts.
Up till Feast of the Fallen I was still pretty into gathering all the lore and such, and my love for the overall series was kicking in but now? I dunno.
It feels like the fandom enthusiasm has waned as well.
I think chapter 2 just confirmed how short these episodes are and how little effort has been put into this game. There's no main route, the characters are underwritten in specific cases (alcoholic Mammon, feet obsessed Belphie, Beel being moved miles away...) and even in the more fitting moments, they're so short and shallow, with MC having even less agency than before.
Nightbringer wasn't my cup of tea plot wise, but it didn't feel like a straight up cash grab - greedy, yes, but they were trying out new things, however misguided they turned out to be. And I wish of course that they'd just put that effort into the original game which remains the only successful one to this day with HUGE potential.
Ido is very much just a cash grab.
The crowdfunding proved how loyal the fandom was, how much any new game would be given every chance to succeed.
It's such a shame that loyalty was treated with such disdain.
I've seen a few comments now like "but without chatGPT I don't know what to make for dinner" or "but character.ai is vital to my mental health" and those are not arguments for genAI. They're signs that you need to sort yourself out.
An adult human being should be able to decide what to have for dinner. Yes, some days it's rough and you don't wanna, but the point is, you can do it. And if you can't, you can learn. Hell, make post-it notes with dinner options, stick them on a dart board, and on days when you really can't decide, throw a dart.
You'd really rather put these decisions in the hands of an AI? As in, a company? And you don't see the issues with that? You don't see how easy that makes it for companies to manipulate you, influence your choices and your spending and your entire life?
And if your mental health relies on talking to a robot about your issues "because it listens and cares" - no, it doesn't. It can't listen. It can't care. It's lying to you. It's parroting phrases said by other people in similar contexts. It's an elaborate predictive text machine.
And again, you're just giving all of this information about yourself to a company. A company that wants to make money and likely has no compunctions about selling your data. You're trusting a software run by a company. And you don't think that'll be used to manipulate you? I've got a bridge to sell you.
What you need is actual human connection with other humans. And if you don't know how to connect with other humans then it's time to learn. Start by caring about other people. Take a genuine interest in them. Listen to them. That's how you connect. Not by treating others as entities to dump all your issues on or monologue at about your boring life. Sure, character.ai will put up with that and humour you, but there's literally nothing genuine about it and you will never ever learn to make actual friends.
Relying on genAI for any of this means you'll never learn, in fact you'll get worse, and if genAI ever goes away or you find yourself without access to a computer/phone/internet or the people running chatGPT or character.ai take down the website or put it behind a paywall, you'll be completely adrift. You are handing control of your life over to a piece of software run by a business. Instead of developing skills and independence you're just handing control over to someone else, someone who by the way does not care about you, someone who's only here to make money.
"But some people need--" to stop infantilising themselves, to start taking responsibility and control of their own life, to realise that they have agency and power, to learn that agency and control are not the same as blame and guilt and that someone trying to help them reclaim control is not trying to blame them for their situation.
People, yes even people with your exact diagnosis or background or medical history, were living and making decisions and dealing with their issues and going to therapy and learning and coping for millennia prior to 2022. As in, before genAI was even an option. You can do it. Trust me.
and kids, genAI will die. and it will happen much much sooner than you think.
for every billion dollars of revenue any of the big AI companies generate, they spend roughly 100 billion. those are numbers your brain is unable to comprehend the enormity of, and it is currently being burned like the flow of money is never going to end.
there is not a single generative AI product product that is being priced to consumers so that it is anywhere near covering the operating costs, let alone turn a profit. the moment they do they will lose the majority of their business, because regular people won't want to pay $1000+ a month for access to the "tell me what to have for dinner" machine, and businesses will not want to pay the even higher enterprise licenses per employee. even worse for AI, those businesses will evaluate how much money they made with AI when the licenses were dirt cheap to lure companies into deploying it everywhere, and they'll all realize that at best they didn't lose too much because they never figured out what to use it FOR.
there are only a few major investors world wide with the pockets to fund this madness, and they are all running out of patience and money. openAI has to turn from non profit to for profit by the end of the year unless they want to forfeit billions and billions of dollars from softbank, and they can't afford to do that and expose just how catastrophically unprofitable they are, but they also can't afford not to get the money from softbank, the biggest vibes-based investment fund in the world, helmed by the guy who gave WeWork most of their money, a company that did TREMENDOUSLY well when they did their IPO, as we all recall. (it went bankrupt within days, for those unfamiliar) this summer alone openAI has raised almost $20 BILLION in two rounds over three months, first in June and then again in August, because if not they'd go broke. if they try to launch an IPO they will be dead within days.
you DO NOT want to be exposed to investments in the technology sector when that unraveling happens, because the companies that make up the AI industry account for over 30% of the US stock market, and the resounding crack when nvidia tanks because their sales of ai chips dies overnight? so many people are going to lose their retirement funds and investments.
it's been burning money at an unprecedented rate for several years now, and the collapse could very well happen before the end of 2025.
i will be celebrating their downfall VIGOROUSLY, and then feel bad because so many people will lose what they hoped was financial security while the top guys of ai will walk away personal billionaires even though they fucked over the entire planet to do it.
to me, there's an innate horror in tradwife content. it's always a pretty young girl in her late teens, early 20s. she's so young. she's basically a baby herself. maybe she's about your age. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
either way, she always has at least three kids, sometimes more. you don't want to ask when she had them, but she had to have them young because her youngest had to have been born when she was at least seventeen based on how time works. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
she's smiling but there's something missing in her eyes - a spark that should be there. there's no passion, there's just the movements of the day. sometimes she'll give an interview where she says she barely feels like getting out of bed, and other times she says nothing. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
her world isn't real - it's neat kitchens and made from scratch cheese. she tells you how she doesn't need feminism because she likes this life, she likes wearing pretty dresses, don't you dare pity her. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
you scroll up to an ex tradewife in her forties talking about how her husband divorced her and left her for a younger girl, leaving her destitute and penniless and twenty years out of the workforce. you scroll again to a pretty young girl saying she doesn't need a job, her husband will take care of her. you scroll again. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
another woman, this time in her early thirties, talking about how she just managed to leave her abusive husband and has nothing and he took the kids, warning and pleading young girls to not fall for tradwife lies. you scroll again to a young tradwife girl saying that would never happen to her, and you're just jealous of her. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
you scroll again. a teen girl tells you that she'll just track her period, she doesn't NEED a toxic chemical like birth control. you scroll again to an obgyn pleading with young girls to understand birth control is just hormonal, and that period tracking isn't effective. you just watch happen. you can't save her.
you scroll again, and it's jd vance saying how women belong in the homes and shouldn't be allowed to vote. that their husbands should decide how they should vote. you scroll again to a domestic abuse counselor telling women their vote is private and they can lie to their husbands. you just watch it happen. you can't save her.
she doesn't want you to save her. how dare you pity her. you just watch it happen. you can't save her. a horrible feeling washes over you. you just watch it happen.
the fact that generative A.I. has created a completely new fundamental doubt in reality (checking to see if an artwork we see is manmade or not) and doubt in the instinct of enjoying art is unforgivable. its sickeningly tragic, and i mean it. NOTHING is worth this price and i hope that everyone will one day realize this.
So I've hidden this reply, both because it's obnoxious and because I don't want the person who wrote it being harassed for it, but I need you to understand: I don't know you. We are not friends. This is not fun or cute, we are not sharing a charming joke together. You are just being an asshole.
literally that is what the post is about, I am saying people should be less eager to jump on any chance to be snarky and rude to total strangers on the internet
past all arguments with gen AI 'art' being pushed as a tool to make art more accessible, as a disabled creator myself, it's important to remember that:
a service that requires the stolen art of millions of uncredited artists in order to function
demands insane amounts of water and electricity, harming the environment and poisoning local communities around their data centers
used deliberately to take away paying jobs from real human artists so cooperates can save a buck, and frankly to my belief, implanted and encouraged the infighting so they could use us as a scapegoat and get away with it
it's capitalism, it's greed and it's ableist. That's not a tool for accessibility, that's a tool for exploitation
I put this in the comments but I think it should be here too:
Personally, I think the argument that "this disabled person in the past could do it via *this* way, therefore why can't you" is also harmful to the disabled community.
People are going to have different limitations and there shouldn't be a standard to uphold them to, and accessibility resources to creating art (as well as many other things in life) are going to vary by each person.
If the money and time spent on gen AI development was put towards social rights, resources, developing accessibility tools as whole, and accommodating disabled people without (1) trying to 'fix' them (2) pushing them past their limits and to ignore their disability and (3) using us as a scapegoat, and everything that would actually MAKE the world safer and more hospitable for disabled people, there would be no incentive to use something that's not only thieving, but actively poisoning the earth to insane amounts and with cooperates buying up land and driving people from their homes.
We should have resources, rights, and accommodations as our right of being human. However, they don't think that providing those to us turns a profit, but using us as their mascot will
"Try our ai-powered-" and I've stopped reading. You've instantly lost me. I don't trust anything that labels itself ai-powered. I'd rather deal with something that's squirrel-powered. Like Norm. I trust Norm. He won't try to sell my data.
unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school
things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)
how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem
what common file types are
some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)
how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private
how to understand terms of service
(hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)
what a cookie actually is
internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl
basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)
common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)
as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on
vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)
how to not get a virus while pirating something
what a temporary email is and when to use one
red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)
what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls
ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)
an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous
a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps
a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)
some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself
Okay, if we look past the terrible image quality and watermark, what do the new demon outfits tell us?
Firstly, that colour theming is now fully on brand - no more Lucifer in red or Levi in purple. The boys are now showing their sins loud and proud.
But actually, there are quite a few more clues hidden here, particularly when we compare them to their existing demon outfits...
Couple of disclaimers! I'm not calling these new demon forms because they aren't - wings, tails, horns are all the same, as much as I'd have loved to see more monstrous forms for them all!
I also think/hope(?) that their old designs will still be used as well, and this is an addition, as the OG fits are pretty iconic!
And finally, these are deep dive thoughts so the tl;dr is thus:
Lucifer: 🦚👑🌿
Mammon: 😇💀👑🦚
Levi: 🐍🫧☯️
Satan: ☯️😇💀🦚
🍷 Lucifer
🦚 Peacock: Out with the red and in with the blue, Lucifer is sporting a blue gradient throughout his outfit, reminiscent of the peacock - which of course matches the feathers he's wearing too.
Lucifer's original demon outfit also featured said feathers, but as embroidery. Now he has the real thing, as befits the fallen angel who has a great deal in common with the mythological peacock angel, Tawûsê Melek, and in keeping with his official in-game colour.
Peacocks are synonymous with pride, beauty, and nobility throughout the world, due to their ostentatious display of their own beauty - the male ones that is xD
But peacocks also have a historical association with immortality, due to the myth (that holds some truth) of peacocks deliberately eating poisonous plants that don't harm them (true) to brighten their colours (not so much!).
Very similar to a certain demon that has rendered himself immune to poisons by taking them himself...
👑 Royal/noble - Lucifer has a more luxurious fit overall, a little less buttoned up, a tad more suave, but aside from peacocks, two more elements hint at a royal/noble theme.
Firstly, the small amount of silver he had before is replaced by a more extravagant amount of gold accessories. A chain still, but less binding, embroidery, tassels, collar and epaulette. All signal a more relaxed vibe overall, and a more luxurious one.
Secondly, that fur! Until now, it was only Diavolo that was known for having such a large amount of gold and a big fur ruff, another element associated with regal figures.
Lucifer's ruff is stylish and asymmetric, a more modern take but it is far more sumptuous than the prince's example.
And thirdly, the symbol on his ruff and chain is an equal armed cross, replacing the hexagram he wore previously. These actually have much the same meaning however, both predating today's western religions, and symbolising balance.
The equal armed cross however can also be found within Diavolo's castle, a castle that predates the prince.
Still though, it does add to the royal and relaxed vibes that Lucifer is now wearing, matching his more chill work environment.
🌿 Nature - the peacock feathers and fur ruff falls under this too, but Lucifer is also sporting some skeletal arm wraps that look much like creature spines (a nod perhaps to the skulls that Mammon and Satan both have) as well as some foliage embroidery on the side of his coat. Both in gold of course!
The foliage also has or mingles with some spine or wing like spikes, and there is what looks to be (the image quality is terrible!) some blue flowers as well.
This combination overall seems to symbolise both life and death, another element of balance for our previously stressed demon lord.
And incidentally, also ties in with his new workplace featuring the love of plants he seems to share with Lilith.
(The colour, ruff, and overall vibes also remind me of his Paws n Claws look, which I loved! Commissioned art by AngeryCookies ^^)
~
Mammon, Levi, and Satan beneath the cut! ↓
~
💳 Mammon
😇 Angelic - Mammon is almost rocking the same colour palette as before, albeit with a heavier focus on white - a colour more associated with angels than demons throughout the world.
The big white puffy sleeves also change his silhouette, blocking the more demonic shape of his upper wings giving him a rounder, more ~friendshaped outline.
Mammon had white in his previous outfit in the form of white diamond shapes, and those are still present as well, just in different locations. But overall this is a LOT more white, fully leaning into the guardian demon having a very different aesthetic vibe from the others.
💀 Skulls - In contrast, the three skulls he is wearing are all in shades of gold, albeit darkened in the case of the large one on his belt. The two on the shoes seem more bird shaped, a nod perhaps to his link with corvids.
Skulls of course symbolise death and the underworld, but they also have many positive associations - strength, change, good fortune and guardianship.
Not only can a golden skull bring the wearer great fortune and safety, it also wards off evil spirits, like ghosts...
A common superstition with bird skulls is that they are harbingers of good luck and introspection, or a reflection of change. Corvid skulls in particular convey wisdom.
Completing the more macabre elements are the soles of his boots, which look somewhat like monstrous claws or fangs - and I think are inspired by Mikio Sakabe's very recognisable designs (though they also lowkey remind me of Moxuan Zhang's art as well). Looking very wolf-like there, Mams... ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶
👑 Royal/noble - the elements that Lucifer has can also be seen here on Mammon, from the luxurious ruff to the gold belt, coins, chains, skulls, soles, and stars. My man is decked out.
Mammon has always had gold and metal in his demon fit - gold is his in-game colour after all! - but he's gone into overdrive here, not only in sheer volume but in symbolism too. His straps and chains emulate his previous look, but this more ornate, delicate, gold version is very reminiscent of Diavolo's demon form - as are the coins on his arms.
Mams also always had those BDSM vibes, but there is a whole lot more binding here, in both chain and leather form - a collar, various O and D-rings, leg straps, wrist chains etc. While on Lucifer such a fit would perhaps reflect the elder demon's oath that binds him to another, on Mammon it's a very different story.
This is a demon who has always looked like he's strolled straight out of a dungeon, and as a fashion model, he's wearing these adornments for pure style. The leg straps and wrist chains are loose, his belt too, and if anything he's showing a little less skin than before.
This is Mammon in peacock mode, strutting his stuff, and perhaps also symbolising how much control he uniquely has over his immense power.
(I'm unsure with this image quality if the white teardrop on the collar is an adornment, or if the collar is positioned over the white marking he has there in demon form.)
🦚 Peacock - Speaking of peacocks, I'd be remiss to not point out what that ruff is made of. Unlike the fur of Lucifer, Mammon's is made of feathers - black feathers, like the elder demon.
Mammon made it very clear in the first couple of seasons of OM that his loyalty to Lucifer is unmatched. He's the one who always has Lucifer's back, and is also the only one less powerful than him (other than MC) that can get Lucifer to listen to him - he is the fallen warrior.
His original casual form also sports feathers, but not nearly as ostentatiously as this. The feather ruff even has Lucifer's blue cast upon it.
This is Lucifer's right hand man after all.
(My Mammon from Wolf At Your Door, commissioned art by the great tetratheripper ^^)
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🐍 Levi
🐍 Snake - Out with the snakeskin pants and in with the sneks! Our snakeboy now has two serpents adorning his look - a golden snake as his belt, and a purple snake on his lapel.
Snakes and serpents are his symbolic animal, just as the peacock is for Lucifer, and the corvid for Mammon. Thus the three eldest brothers all have their symbology front and centre - both their animal, and their colour.
Across the world, snakes are often associated with all things sinister, as is often the case for any species with deadly members. But in places where it does not have a direct association with Satan, the snake is moreso a symbol of duality - protector of crops, but dangerous if provoked; bringer of good fortune, but volatile warning; a totem of renewal, but harbinger of floods.
I think the belt might also have a little purple on the rings, which along with the lapel snake are the only purple he now wears (the glasses might match as well), which is a big change from his original demon outfit in which purple was the main non-greyscale colour.
🫧 Aquatic - Speaking of official colours though, while Levi does have orange present here, it's far more restrained than either the blue or gold of Lucifer and Mammon. He has an orange scarf and orange shoes, but this is perhaps deliberately understated - it's hard to look fashionable if you look like a traffic cone after all.
Instead we get another complimentary colour introduced, an aquatic teal blue that is highly fitting for the Leviathan, master of the sea.
The way that his coat and cape loses opacity as it trails down, along with those curls and folds, gives the illusion of jellyfish like transparency, perhaps even movement as if in water, very delicately so.
Levi makes no secret of his appreciation of the ocean (at a distance, naturally) or his fondness for jellyfish.
It also lends the orange touches an aura of sea flora or coral, much like his own horns.
☯️ Balance/Duality - Levi's outfit overall has shapes that are very soothing and calm, like a jellyfish in a slow current. But at the bottom of his left leg, shattered pieces or gems can be seen, as if something has just been destroyed or thrown from his path.
The snakeskin shoes too have large X's upon them, that look more like a sign of warning than any traditional cross.
Much like the snake, much like the jellyfish, this outfit seems to be hinting heavily at the duality of Leviathan - soft and friendshaped yes, but holding a great deal of destructive power all the same...
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🦄 Satan
☯️ Balance/Duality - While Mammon and Lucifer have fairly subtle changes, Satan joins Levi in having quite a dramatic new look, and also having a theme of duality. Or rather, of balance.
Here we have black and white on opposite sides of his coat, a direct split down the middle with further black and white elements beneath.
Satan's original demon outfit does have some white on it, but I think it's fair to say that his old outfit is regarded as somewhat of a mess. Which was still fitting in it's way, for the demon who struggles the most to find his place in the world.
Here though, the dichotomy of black and white in such balance is very telling, and suggests a Satan who has found more inner harmony.
Now to be fair, it could also represent a tendency for black and white thinking, to be of one extreme leaning or another, but that doesn't seem to fit with the character who is known for being introspective and rational, even if his feelings are initially overwhelming.
This is also a very tailored and sophisticated look, dapper in fact, and the asymmetry of the cape calls to his original casual look in a fun way. This does rather hint at an older, more mature Satan, who is more sure of himself and where he belongs.
The amount of white also ties him in with the more angelic palette of Mammon. Speaking of whom...
💀 Skulls - Like Mammon, Satan is rocking a couple of prominent skulls, though his are in black rather than shining gold. They sit atop jagged black spinal columns, held in place by delicate white and green ribbons.
To my eye it reminds me somewhat of a dagger with a triple sided blade, which makes me think of the Tibetan phurba, albeit with a skull rather than the faces of Vajrakīla (a wrathful deity). Such knives are ritualistic in use, representing the usage of wrath to form stability among other things, and embodies the essence of transformative power.
🦚 Peacock - Although this time, when I say peacock, what I really mean is Lucifer. In his original demon outfit, Satan wore a feather boa, the same colour as Lucifer's (missing) feathered wings, a nod perhaps to his origins.
Now there are no feathers to be seen, and yet the green gradient on the inside of Satan's cape is a perfect reflection of Lucifer's gradient in blue.
I've talked before about how Satan's colour being green is a natural consequence of Lucifer's blue, but Satan is now also adorned with many diamonds - mostly black, but one large in green upon his shoulder.
Mammon also sports diamond shapes on his demon outfit old and new, and now Satan too has this additional nod to Lucifer - the same shape as the gem on the eldest demon's forehead.
One could also interpret the balance of Satan's outfit, the black and white, as an attribution of his origins - Satan first manifested within the Archangel Lucifer, and emerged as the angel was transformed into a demon.
Much like his brothers (or rather, his uncles and father), Satan is both demon and angel in origin, despite his lack of physical form within the Celestial Realm.
The loss of the black feathers he wore so brazenly before is perhaps an indication that Satan has somewhat made peace with either his origins, or with Lucifer himself. His embrace of a diamond motif though, definitely hints to the latter.
And what I find particularly interesting is that Satan has elements of all three eldest brothers in his outfit - the skulls and angelic white he shares with Mammon, the balance/duality he shares with Levi, and the diamonds he shares with Lucifer (and Mammon).
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Asmo, Beel and Belphie will be in the next instalment! Followed by their new work outfits 👀
The worst characters are the ones were you only get like three pieces of lore about them but the lore is so fascinating and hits your brain at just the right angle to have you behaving like a feral dog in front of your conspiracy theory cork board
