can't believe i'll have to return to my roots... for any mutuals trying to find me i'm Lita i'm toxicmew on ao3 and jaemstone00 on twitter pls find me my lovelies
"You should be scared of me" - Why Shiemi will need to break tradition to truly best Amaimon
The new chapter threw a heck of a lot of stuff at us at once, raising a hundred questions for the few it answers.
We're given a brief synopsis of Amaimon's history with Shemihaza, a relationship that has been hinted at in previous chapters, and the nature of Shiemi's final challenge: to "subjugate" Amaimon, as Shemihaza and all other 'successors' before her.
Shiemi's grandmother instructed her in such a way to make a violent battle between Shiemi and Amaimon inevitable, and Amaimon himself solidified this inevitability by deriding the strength of her abilities, implying a respect for Shemihaza's - whom he serves in a as-yet unexplained way. He may serve Shemihaza, but he is not servile to her, nor is he compelled to respect or serve her successors. Shiemi must prove herself worthy in the power department.
However, I believe that the long-term solution to her and Amaimon's respective barriers will require a change in approach to those before her. Even Shemihaza.
Amaimon's Anger
An unspecified amount of time ago, an angry Amaimon made the land. Given that he has a defined physical form, and the nature of it and his clothes, it is definitely a time in which humans are around and who nature a fear of demons.
It isn't made clear what made Amaimon so angry, but it's clear that it spurred a rage so intense that he took it out on the earth, making it inhospitable for any kind of life. This is when Shemihaza steps in, as Emperor of Creation and Amaimon's foil - she is life and creation, he is death and destruction.
Prior to this point they may have co-existed. Shemihaza may outrank him, but they share many similarities and can be seen as the two sides of the same coin, necessary to keep the world's natural order. Life and death. But Amaimon's outburst and complete annihilation of the land disrupts this order, and requires Shemihaza's intervention.
Shemihaza took pity on Amaimon, and may have also seen the practical reason for keeping him around (going back to the 'two sides of a coin' theory) and so rather than destroy him, Shemihaza sacrificed her body and crystallised herself, binding Amaimon to her in servitude.
It appears that in doing so, Shemihaza sealed parts of Amaimon - his power, or even his persona - in crystals around her frozen form. She allowed him to continue to have a 'self' - or consciousness - by becoming her servant.
Whether it was the act of sealing parts of Amaimon away, or the terms of his service, that quelled Amaimon's anger, it's clear that these measures did not really fix the issue.
Amaimon still carries intense rage within him, evident in his fits of violence and intense anger that break through his usual impassive exterior. He particularly reacts to any whiff of a suggestion that he is weak, which supports the theory that the crystallised parts of Amaimon are parts of his power. With this into consideration, Amaimon has even more reason to be angry now.
Shemihaza's Legacy
If this is the case, then it makes the problem worse in the long term. Amaimon still feels intense rage, but no longer has adequate means to express it like he did in the past. Rather than get to the root of why he feels so angry, Shemihaza has left her successors with a being that grows progressively more hateful and angry with each passing generation, despite lacking the ability to create the same destruction Shemihaza faced.
The flashback of Shemihaza and Amaimon, showing Amaimon kneeling before her, suggests that Shemihaza did not have to exert brute force in order to stop his rampage. As I mentioned earlier, in looking down on Shiemi's power he implicitly expresses respect or at least a past respect for Shemihaza's.
Kneeling before Shemihaza, who has greater power and status than his own, and with whom he may have shared a close relationship (speculation on my part), Amaimon is given a choice: serve Shemihaza and seal parts of his power/self away, through her sacrifice, or lose his sense of self.
Amaimon's options were eternal servitude and what he would probably view as castration, or death. Amaimon chose the former. As Mephisto states, once demons experience life with a body and five senses, the alternative to that, a conceptual being with no thought, senses or freedom, is the closes thing to death they can imagine and completely intolerable.
Shemihaza may have found a solution to the immediate problem of the ruination of the land, but failed to address the ongoing issue of Amaimon's anger, so her successors have continually had to 'subjugate' him into obedience, following her example. Shemihaza may not have needed to brawl with Amaimon, she likely had enough power to subdue him without fighting, but her successors command far less power than she did, especially at the stage Shiemi is at when facing Amaimon.
Pity /= Empathy
Shiemi's grandmother states that Shemihaza's pity for Amaimon's anger motivated her to give him a choice. But pity does not equal empathy, and the 'better' choice Amaimon took, as I said, does not really solve the problem with Amaimon long-term.
She felt pity enough to give him a choice at all, but a bit of empathy for why Amaimon is angry and a desire to help him could have resulted in a far better long-term solution to the problems he was causing.
When Lucifer was suffering and begging the Grigori Shemihaza to continue research into an elixir for him, he furiously pointed out her lack of compassion. Her response was that she had 'abandoned human compassion' when she took on the position.
This shows that while those connected with Shemihaza can feel pity for those around them, they are compelled or even taught to abandon feelings of empathy or compassion for others, following in Shemihaza's footsteps, for the 'greater good'.
There are positives to this way of working, and the Grigori can likely attribute their long service to this, but it also has drawbacks - shown plainly in Amaimon.
If Shemihaza had felt, or allowed herself to feel, compassion and empathise with Amaimon's plight, she may have given him a different choice that would benefit Amaimon himself also and make him a willing ally to her successors instead of a half-tamed beast who still suffers the same anger that they must forcibly take down.
Shiemi's Choice
While her grandmother stated that she must defeat Amaimon in combat in order to enlist his services, this is the will of Shemihaza and will only pass on the same issues to another generation.
If anything is to change, and if Shiemi wants to truly help 'everyone', she will need to go about her fight with Amaimon differently than her forebears.
She will need to rely on her strength, certainly, to not get killed by him, and also to prove herself worthy in the strength department, but she cannot hope to really make a difference and show her growth without showing her characteristic empathy and kindness to him as well.
Shiemi has grown stronger this past year, but her greatest strength has always been her ability to forgive and show kindness to others, especially those who are suffering, even when they hurt her.
Amaimon has hurt her, physically and mentally, but kind Shiemi will still be able to see the wounded soul behind the anger. Amaimon owes her an apology, not the other way around, but as a demon who has never known compassion he must be shown it first before he can reciprocate.
This challenge compels Shiemi to prove her worthiness to command Amaimon, to show her superiority, to order him by fear of pain or worse - as Shemihaza, Mephisto and likely every other demon he has interacted with has done.
This is not Shiemi, or who she should become. The Shiemi we know would never seek to be superior to another being, but on equal level. She would not wish to make anyone her slave, but her friend, even a demon.
When Shiemi states "You should be scared of me", she dangerously echoes the words and actions of her forebears. She cannot truly win by making Amaimon fear her wrath as she fears his, or as Amaimon feared Shemihaza's.
Shiemi needs to hold on to that compassionate side of herself, or else lose her humanity. And keep Amaimon an emotionally frustrated bomb waiting to explode for another generation.
Shoutout to @Jammmmmmmu for this amazing fanart of Daiharu (Steven and May)
This art inspired me to create a specific playlist inspired by the fanfic Tempering of Steel by DirtyFeet on both Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own
Headcanon: Usually Riley gives 0 response to Dawn’s advances but sometimes he just does things that throw her completely off-guard.
Dawn gets so confused and goes to May for advice and it ends up being a girl’s talk about steel-type trainers and how they’re attractive but complete and utter weirdos.
hey i just realised i never posted the character designs i made for the naruto roleswap au i was thinking abt like, last year? earlier this year? so here they are lmao
Going through my naruto phase 15 years too late is truly embarrassing.
I’ve been working on this little comic for a while and it’s been a real joy! I’ll probably post the rest of this comic tomorrow cuz it has absolutely flopped on every other social media.
While we are discussing Nyaruto, the descriptions of the cats on the Nyaruto website make me insane (complimentary). Whoever wrote these, I am nodding and shaking your hand.
I've noticed something about the Traffic SMPs: Each season is modeled after the previous winner's path to victory.
Third Life is the "base" form. Every season follows the same general rules that Third Life followed- (roughly) three lives, only red lives can kill unprovoked, the last one standing wins. Green-yellow-red as the life system's colors. The mechanics of Third Life exist in every following season, and it is only the seasonal gimmick that changes.
And the winner of Third Life was Grian. Grian, who spent the game trying to make up for a life he never meant to take. Trying to pay Scar back for what he did. 'Giving up' his own lives, in a sense. Grian, who regularly worried and fretted about how many lives his partner was on, and who would have had far less anxiety had his partner been able to have more lives. Grian, who broke the only-reds-may-kill rule from the very beginning.
Last Life, then, echoes these truths. Players are able to directly gift each other lives. They could hold onto as many lives as they were able to gather, with no upper limit, and could spawn in with double as many as they had in Third Life. There was a special role designed to push greens and yellows to kill before they were red. Grian implemented these actions into his time in Third Life, and so the universe gave him a world defined by them.
And then Scott won Last Life. Scott, who was defined in Last Life by his undying loyalty. By his connection with Pearl and, later, with Cleo; and by his refusal to betray them until it was absolutely necessary. Scott, who denied the bloodlust of being the boogieman because of a refusal to betray those he cared about.
Then Double Life implements soulmates, people who you cannot betray. Soulmates, who are bound by the fabric of the universe to each other, who are expected to trust each other implicitly and stand alongside each other until death does them part. They are defined by their loyalty to each other, and by their inability to kill each other. Just as Scott acted in Last Life.
So, then, the question becomes this:
When the victor of a Traffic SMP is defined by loneliness, by an air of doom that follows her, by being isolated from all who meet her, what mark does that leave on the world that follows?
tangentwithtanner
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