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Reblogged from asktastytahno
asktastytahno:
a-social-construct:
violetnyte:
(In Which GlassStrawberries and I declare our love and defense of Praxis)
Here’s a cleaned up version of a chat GS and I just had regarding Praxis’ Abel fantasy in Chapter 3, I’m not usually this articulate with my feels, so, we decided to share:
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I stand by
To each their own, and I respect all opinions, and thanks for writing this up yall! I’ve gotta say that I agree with SC and add my own two cents (which might just be repeated SC’s two cents.. whoops). I’m sorry if I sound very aggressive, I just have a lot of feelings, and I don’t mean to insult anyone by this rant!
From what I’ve seen people seem to take Praxis’ fantasy as a far larger indication of the kind of person he is than all the other scenes he’s in, which I don’t think is a very good idea, because I think the other scenes he’s been in really lend to the interpretation of that fantasy later. As SC mentioned, Praxis used a terribly racist slur against Cain which really shouldn’t be overlooked, in my opinion! He easily could’ve expressed his feelings over Cain’s relationship with Abel without that or, indeed, without fighting at all, although I will admit that Cain sort of started the whole thing.
And as long as we’re on that scene in general can we talk about how problematic and neanderthal and gross it is for two men to be fighting over the ‘girl’? As though Abel’s free will and clear choices don’t matter whatsoever when it comes to being with either of them? As weird and perhaps unexpected as it is I think Cain is clearly the one who’s insisting that Abel is a grown man and can make his own choices (“he was begging for it”) in his own crude way. Praxis is the one who is completely ignoring Abel’s independence, intelligence and general capability to make the right decisions for himself in his everyday life.
It is not Praxis’ decision to decide what is right for Abel, and I don’t find it at all cute that he does. In fact, I find it pretty problematic and a potentially abusive way of looking at things should he ever actually end up dating Abel. The kind of control he appears to want to assert over the navigator is far more subtle than the kind Cain wants, which to me makes it far more dangerous in certain ways. It’s nice to want to protect your partner, but not if you’re really just protecting your property, which I feel Praxis is— and, let’s be honest, it really isn’t his property at all, because Abel barely knows him, Abel tried to know him and Praxis rejected him, there is no way Abel would suddenly turn around and realize he wants the other fighter because he literally has next to no idea who Praxis really is, and vice-versa. Also, people aren’t property. I’m not saying Cain is any better, I’m really not. Cain is a totally horrible jerk but at least he owns up to it, at least he doesn’t pretend like he’s a nice guy and refuse to acknowledge the fucked-upness of his actions.
You know who Praxis could’ve fought with about Abel’s relationship with Cain? Abel! He could’ve spoken to Abel, could’ve explained what he knows about Cain, could’ve listened to Abel’s point of view and trusted the navigator to synthesize the fighter’s previous knowledge of Cain and his own newer knowledge and come up with a proper course of action all on his own.
Personally I haven’t come to any particular conclusion about Praxis’ sex fantasy. I think you could definitely read it as just more of Praxis taking away Abel’s agency and treating him kind of like you would (mistreat) a pet; expect them to be happy all the time, to want to cuddle with you, to be completely loyal to you and no one else, to only listen to you and your commands, etc etc. I think you could also grant him a lot of leeway considering it is a fantasy and people have fantasies about things they don’t necessarily want in real life all the time, and that’s totally fine. I think you could be justified in removing this leeway seeing as everything that happens in a good webcomic is always planned, is meant to advance the plot or the reader’s knowledge of the characters in someway, and HM very specifically chose to represent Praxis’ fantasy in this manner when she could’ve done it in any way at all. I think the webcomic structure actually argues not in favor of Praxis but against him. If HM wanted to show us that Praxis actually was a good guy, and not a “Good Guy”, I trust in her skill and talent enough to believe her more than capable of doing so.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of the white knight protector. I think it’s very sweet and cute and romantic (see Alphonse from FMA- a true angel)! But I don’t love the idea of the protector who doesn’t listen to the person he’s protecting, who offers protection when it isn’t asked for and isn’t wanted, who thinks their idea and method of protection is always right and doesn’t take into consideration the thoughts and feelings and actions of the people around them.
Well, I uh, I agree pretty completely with Vi and GS, I really like Praxis, he’s not a perfect character by far but he’s such a good guy compared to just about every other fighter we’ve seen, but we still don’t know a lot about him.
But guys, I think the important thing here is that we don’t get too violent over this, I mean, it’s just speculation and opinion, and everyone is entitled to their headcanon’s ;) Praxis haters and lovers alive. <333
