#to answer your question objectivelly no

[dunmeshistash]

Is there any info about the main party's love lives/sexuality? More to the point, is Laios asexual? The way he wasn't initially affected by the succubus when they were super effective against eyery one else, and hasn't shown any sexual/romantic interest in anyone (except possibly orcs) makes me think he is.

Well, he did kinda fall for the charms of one of their past teammates seduction.

But this might just be because he's a pushover, he did similar stuff for the gold stripping teammates.

The other argument I can see it's here where he says he'd marry Shuro if he was Falin. But this also could just be Laios simping for his bestie

The succubus probably didn't work right away cause Laios had a more complex fantasy to be fulfilled, but you can argue she picked Marcille's appearance instead of one of the guys for a reason. Also Senshi aparently also saw his mother or someone from his past too even tho he's an adult

And Marcille's showed up as a character from her favorite novel

I think the succubus becomes whatever is more likely to convince the person to let them feed and Marcille is the one he's the closest with from the group

That is all to say! I think there's a good argument for ace Laios, there's not much romance in Dungeon Meshi but Laios seems especially uninterested in the subject. The orc thing might have been just aesthetic since he likes demi-humans and the times he seems embarrassed near Marcille (like when he touches her ear and today when he apologized for touching senshi's thigh thinking it was Marcille) is probably more cause of awareness that's not socially acceptable.

For the others I think Chilchuck could bi cause he thinks senshi is hot, Marcille is probably a closeted lesbian, Senshi has to a job (feeding the kids) so he cant think about that right now and I think Izutsumi is Izutsumi

And just to be clear with this I just meant to point out what could possibly deny an ace Laios interpretation and how else you could see those scenes to argue for ace Laios. Headcanons are fun tho so I'd just say run with it even if there's no proof! Dungeon Meshi not giving us much canon about relationships is a treat for the imagination.

[minggukieology]

Hello hello,

I am new around here. I really enjoy Kookmin’s bond, and I am also a researcher in the narrative space. I found you on Twitter and I was so impressed with your transparent, eloquent commentary on this whole thing. Thank you for running this blog. My question might be odd, but I am really curious to see how much of this ship/fan wars translate within the Korean social media space? The last few days have been nothing less than hell on the bird app, the anon requests on some of the blogs here are just people thinking they are so slick, but are just purely undermining Kookmin’s bond. I assume Naver is like one stop destination for SNS in Korea. I also see that the members have quit Twitter officially (I have no doubt they lurk though). Are ship wars this intense in the online spaces in Korea? Is it between the same ones we see on the I-Army side? I know shipping is a common theme in the pop space there and people might have healthier approach to it? This is also me being wishful that the members don’t see the pure vitriol that’s being expressed. Thank you in advance.

Hi, there! Thanks a lot for your nice message 😊

To put it shortly: no, such shipwars don't typically happen within k-army online spaces (at least not in the same way we know them) because there is never any need for debate around any meanings of words and no wiggle room for alternative explanations and seeing hidden signs in shadows. However, that doesn't mean that I have not come across any Korean accounts on Twitter that like to twist narratives and *especially* in case when their desired narratives feed into what their non-Korean speaking followers want to hear (they do like to take advantage of that language + cultural gap). As with every assessment though, Koreans are not a monolith, the same goes for k-armys or any netizens. There are some general tendencies but there will always be exceptions. Also it is important to note, even though the fandom largely organizes on the Twitter platform, I find it it less prominent among Korean ARMYs as to the amount of time they spend on there and the conversations that are held there.

From my perspective (my subjective opinion, therefore isn't unbiased and might not be representative of the whole community) ships or to be more accurate 'duos' / 'insert name line' are first and foremost among the majority about the members' chemistry, cute moments, looks, vocals and performances together; not about any potential romantic involvement of the two (that is not to say there are absolutely no Korean shippers of course). It is important to remember that the general premise has been that the idol sells their Korean fans the idea of a boyfriend/girlfriend, therefore the whole fantasy revolves around him/her and the fans having a connection, hence why for example idol dating life is still a big no no in the public etc.

To add, sadly since Korean fans can't get away with twisting the meanings of what the boys said (unless they want to appear ridiculous and stupid) the 'wars' therefore turn more vicious than that. There are some prominent 악개 akgae groups within the BTS fandom too which use all kinds of tactics to tarnish the reputation of the other members by spreading rumors through Korean forums, discussion boards, trending tags and by even reaching out to Korean reporters to run stories based on false evidence. So I would say, these things do happen, just in a different way because Korean online space can be truly unhinged.

I don't believe the members have ever witnessed any of the craziness on the international side as it for the most part thankfully only happens on the international side (objectivelly imagine if Koreans were having real arguments over, for example, the meaning of 동생 'dongsaeng' 😂😂😂 it sounds absolutely ridiculous). And in the instances they did, when e.g. someone tried to push a 'ship' narrative on any of them directly, we got the infamous 'get out of your imagination' response.

Hope I answered your message clearly and covered all your points. Once again, thanks a lot for reaching out!

[dyrwoodan]

i just can't believe there's not been a single open-world fantasy rpg since skyrim came out :/

not that i can call myself a Gamer and say that i've played every game that came out since 2011 and that i can actually judge this objectivelly But,, i'm gonna do it anyway. i just know there is none like skyrim and nothing will ever top skyrim because we're in 2019 new games coming out all the time and while i love me some dragonized ages as well..... they just ain't IT man........

i recently watched a video, recommended to me by yt to my own surprise, where this guy very nicely summarizes what makes skyrim so good. it's more than 30 minutes of talking but here it is in case you want to watch it too and i'm gonna talk incoherently about this as well lmao the point that stood out to me and i finally heard someone put it into words was when he mentioned the simplicity. for me, skyrim was the first (after like,, wow) "real" game i played. having never really played games, watching my brother play them but in the end deciding they look too complex. too much stuff on the screen, always some numbers and complex menus and unnecessary bullshit. skyrim was so simple and so easy to grasp and get into. when you play you only see the mini map, the cross in the middle and then very simple visual representation of your health/magicka/stamina when they are depleted. you open the menu and everything is so.... clear. no extra numbers, no extra stats. shit like that overwhelms me so much like i won't touch a game just because it displays too much and i don't understand anything and to be fucking honest most of it is unnecessary anyway. it's why it took me so long to play tw3 for example. i watched some videos and i thought what tf is all that. there is just... so much text and numbers and stuff everywhere. you open skyrim's menu and it's just the map, inventory, level up stuff, magic stuff. it couldn't be more obvious. and everything after that is simple and clear as well. the inventory list, the list of your spells... so easy to grasp!! and i just took apart one point like an example but also what i love because idk if it's mentioned in the video,, the actual open-world. a goddamn world..... that feels open.......... right after you exit helgen you can basically go wherever tf you want. you can go anywhere at any point in the game. sure, level restrictions maybe, higher-level enemies, but... you can. it encourages exploration too. nothing would intrigue me more than being on my way somewhere and seeing an undiscovered map marker. might've not been even along the way but i would still stray off the path just to have it discovered, forgetting what quest i was already doing of course. i hate when there's a seemingly "open-world" game and then it just... isn't. if you prohibit me from reaching places... you ain’t open man. the only restriction in skyrim is the border, which makes sense obviously since you are playing skyrim why would you go outside of skyrim. but other than that you can go anywhere. skyrim just feels like my game the moment i enter it. like it actually belongs to me, a player, and i can do whatever i want in it. and actually the lack of strict and complex storyline makes it so great for roleplaying. for making up your own stuff. your character can be whoever. they don’t even have to be the dragonborn, just a thief or an assassin or a farmer. like.... it’s up to you. there is so much freedom in that game to do whatever you want that no one other game gives you. you always have to do things, do quests in order to progress and idk unlock new stuff but in skyrim you can just chill untill you are bored from chilling so much. skyrim's story is so simple, the main quest isn't even that long but it still manages to portray a gripping story that makes you want to replay it over and over again. why? why am i replaying it over and over again if it’s so “bland”? i don’t know!! it’s just simple and good!! sometimes questions don’t have a deeper answer ya know. and i'm always going back to "it's simple" but again. it is. and it's what makes it good too. sometimes things.... that are complex.... are worse.

and i'm Tired now. i had more points to make but basically it would all come down to "it's just simple and so good and i love it sm". like i keep going on about skyrim lmao i know you all know i love it i don't have to keep saying it but,, i wanted to actually Make Some Points as to why i love it so much. of course, it doesn't really matter if the points in the video and those made by me are  like,, ~valid~ or whatever because i just love it for whatever reasons and idc about coherent “proof”. it's just a good game, thatse it