See that’s the thing. His curse is so vaguely defined to the point of nonexistence. His Love Spot is described as a weak charm spell that highlights his attractiveness, but the only ones who do crazy, destructive shit are women who already had plenty of motivation to act that way. Women who were essentially forced into loveless marriages acting out in ways that give them an outlet for their sexual agency that they otherwise wouldnt’ have gotten. Irisviel and Saber are both exposed to his ‘curse’ and it has no effect even when they are aware of it.
Framing it as “Diarmuid mind-controls women into wanting to fuck him by existing” is stupid and ignores both their agency and the situations that lead them to at the way they do. The women led to take drastic, destructive actions in both cases are women denied their agency and victimized by a system forcing them into partnerships with men they don’t want. And both these women respond by leveraging control over Diarmuid in turn. There’s just something…gross about how Urobuchi frames it specifically, in this kind of “Do women actually have free will?” sense that is unsurprisingly kind of sexist of him.
Then you pay attention to Diarmuid’s myths and different tellings of The Pursuit, and you find that the Love Spot is rarely, if ever mentioned, if it even exists in the story at all. More often, Diarmuid is an exceedingly handsome man who catches the eye of the princess Grainne, on the night she was arranged to marry Fionn Mac Cumhaill (in some versions, the marriage happens under false pretense, where she believes she is agreeing to marry Fionn’s grandson, so she’s obviously pissed about the whole situation)
https://youtu.be/fZNUcyAhOGI
Note that in this version the Love Spot isn’t even brought up. What’s more emphasized is Grainne placing a geas on Diarmuid to run away with her, which pretty directly influenced his free will.
Now I also want to bring up another point here regarding Kayneth, and specifically what is considered is most humanizing quality - his love for Sola-Ui and the genuine affection he feels for her. Some people see this as a kind of virtuous thing because it’s unusual among magi to care about their spouses, and some still even think it makes Sola-Ui ungrateful for not appreciating what a kind loving husband she could have had. Except, look at the way he treats her - does he ever even consider how little choice Sola had in their marriage? Does he even ask if she feels the same? No, he expects it - and when she begins to show affection towards Diarmuid, he blames Diarmuid rather than think she could possibly have those feelings on her own. Even when she mutilates and tortures him, Kayneth refuses to acknowledge Sola-Ui’s agency and instead attributes her actions to Diarmuid, going as far as to accuse him of violating her. This is supposed to make him seem sympathetic when in reality it’s textbook Nice Guy syndrome.
Diarmuid is only culpable inasmuch as he exists as an object of sexual desire, someone who women are drawn to rather than other men. There’s an intentional ambiguity to Urobuchi’s handling that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, implying that men just being attractive to women is itself an offense, which is just…literally incel rhetoric lmao. “Diarmuid steals other men’s wives” is just “Chads steal all the Stacy’s from us incels!” if you get right down to it and anyway Diarmuid did nothing wrong, actually.
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
