Moirallegiance
Nov. 11th, 2011 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaLet's talk moirails.
It's really not much of a surprise this is a confusing quadrant. Even the spelling isn't nailed down. I'm going with moirallegiance as taken from allegiance, which also shows up most, but as the quoted section shows, it's not the only spelling used in the comic. So how much sense does it make?
This quadrant presides over MOIRALLEGIENCE, the other conciliatory relationship. A reasonable human translation would be the concept of a soul mate, but in a more platonic sense, and with a more specific social purpose.
Trolls are a very angry and violent race. Some are more hot-tempered and dangerous than others, to the extent that if left to their own devices, they would present a serious threat to society, or even to themselves. Such trolls will have an instinctive pale attraction to a more even-tempered troll, who may become their MOIRAIL. The moirail is obliged to pacify the other, to function as the better half. The two partners in a strong pale relationship will serve to balance and complement each other's emotional profiles, and thus allow their other relationships to be more successful.
It's often ambiguous especially among young trolls whether a bond formed between an acquaintance is true moirallegence, or the usual variety of platonic involvement. Furthermore, romantic intentions of a more flushed nature can often be mistaken for paler leanings, much to the frustration of the suitor.
Or, put more succinctly: The purpose is to pacify a partner who is dangerous. It's not all about being platonic soul bros forever.
So, what does the relationship actually look like?
We have two major moirallegiances, Nepeta<>Equius and Eridan<>Feferi.
When first introduced, Nepeta's relationship with Equius was met with fan outrage. With the benefit of hindsight, a variety of important things change their initial conversation: we learn that Equius does not have any ability to force Nepeta to obey him, that there are reasons other than bigotry or being a killjoy for what he says (troll games are actually dangerous), and we see Nepeta exercising similar influence on Equius.
It should also be pointed out that there is no actual proof their relationship is a perfectly helpful moirallegiance (bear in mind the original troll romance exposition also captioned Feferi<>Eridan as "seem to have been hatched for each other" and then "MADE FOR EACH OTHER"). What we do know is that the paleness of their relationship is extremely obvious to any observer. I'm assuming Nepeta<>Equius is also functioning well as a moirallegiance since, on a practical level, they mostly seem to avoid bad decisions (up to a certain point...).
A likely key to pale behavior, then, is concern about the other partner, a desire to change their behavior, and a willingness to take that same advice when given. Of all the pale pairs we see, only Nepeta and Equius have this dynamic. Feferi was often spending time concerned over Eridan and trying to get him to change his behavior, but to no avail. On the opposite side, Vriska showed a surprising willingness to listen to Kanaya, but Kanaya tended to shy away from ordering her around.
Feferi<3Sollux can be seen as a good counterexample for what a red instead of pale relationship looks like: neither partner makes any attempt to change things with the other one, with Feferi going so far as to describe Sollux during an angry flipout as cute, much as Kanaya seemed more intrigued by Vriska than properly invested in talking her down.
A major criticism of moirail pairs is that the relationship puts all the burden on one side of the pairing, but none of the trolls involve seem to feel that way. The only time this idea has come up in canon is the broken moirallegiance of Feferi<>Eridan. This can be explained in two possible ways: either the more aggressive half has a corresponding balancing effect, pushing the other troll when they're too passive, or trolls find talking someone out of bad ideas quite satisfying, in the same way they seek out someone to hate despite the fact a kismesis relationship starts, in human terms, at horribly toxic and goes downhill from there. There is, I think, suggestion of both factors in canon. But regardless of why, the two functioning moirail pairs we see, Nepeta<>Equius and Gamzee<>Karkat, have both sides of the pairing seeming satisfied with it.
So, what isn't a moirallegiance, based on what we see?
It's not a friendship, although both red quadrants, and arguably all four quadrants contain elements of friendship, and it's not platonic. Trolls can have more than one friend. Trolls can even, as we see with Karkat's rambling, have more than once best friend. Have pale feelings with more than one person, however, and it's treated as infidelity. If this seems weird to you, consider that plenty of people date without having sex, and would feel upset if their partner was dating another person even if no sex was happening with the other person as well.
You can, however, easily say that someone's moirail is also their best friend, just as no one finds it odd when someone says they're best friends with their spouse.
As a caveat, that means that while you can, if you really insist, say that Kanaya's girl fetish need only apply to sexual quadrants, but if you put her in a moirallegiance with a male character, you're saying she's a biromantic homosexual, not a lesbian who happens to have a close guy friend. If you just want Kanaya to have a close platonic relationship with another character, diamonds is not the quadrant you're looking for.
It is also not about feelings jams, cute as the fanon is. [S] Kanaya: Return to the core not only has Feferi and Sollux hanging out together doing the same thing as Nepeta and Equius, but Feferi cheerfully invites first Kanaya and then Karkat to join in, and none of those involved act like they've just been invited to take part in a pale threeway.
It is absolutely definitely not something that can be called bromance. Ideally, nothing would be getting called bromance, but in the meantime, using a word made up to help people insisting that there's nothing homo-ANYTHING about some close relationship between two men to refer romantic relationships is badly wrong.
It's really not much of a surprise this is a confusing quadrant. Even the spelling isn't nailed down. I'm going with moirallegiance as taken from allegiance, which also shows up most, but as the quoted section shows, it's not the only spelling used in the comic. So how much sense does it make?
This quadrant presides over MOIRALLEGIENCE, the other conciliatory relationship. A reasonable human translation would be the concept of a soul mate, but in a more platonic sense, and with a more specific social purpose.
Trolls are a very angry and violent race. Some are more hot-tempered and dangerous than others, to the extent that if left to their own devices, they would present a serious threat to society, or even to themselves. Such trolls will have an instinctive pale attraction to a more even-tempered troll, who may become their MOIRAIL. The moirail is obliged to pacify the other, to function as the better half. The two partners in a strong pale relationship will serve to balance and complement each other's emotional profiles, and thus allow their other relationships to be more successful.
It's often ambiguous especially among young trolls whether a bond formed between an acquaintance is true moirallegence, or the usual variety of platonic involvement. Furthermore, romantic intentions of a more flushed nature can often be mistaken for paler leanings, much to the frustration of the suitor.
Or, put more succinctly: The purpose is to pacify a partner who is dangerous. It's not all about being platonic soul bros forever.
So, what does the relationship actually look like?
We have two major moirallegiances, Nepeta<>Equius and Eridan<>Feferi.
When first introduced, Nepeta's relationship with Equius was met with fan outrage. With the benefit of hindsight, a variety of important things change their initial conversation: we learn that Equius does not have any ability to force Nepeta to obey him, that there are reasons other than bigotry or being a killjoy for what he says (troll games are actually dangerous), and we see Nepeta exercising similar influence on Equius.
It should also be pointed out that there is no actual proof their relationship is a perfectly helpful moirallegiance (bear in mind the original troll romance exposition also captioned Feferi<>Eridan as "seem to have been hatched for each other" and then "MADE FOR EACH OTHER"). What we do know is that the paleness of their relationship is extremely obvious to any observer. I'm assuming Nepeta<>Equius is also functioning well as a moirallegiance since, on a practical level, they mostly seem to avoid bad decisions (up to a certain point...).
A likely key to pale behavior, then, is concern about the other partner, a desire to change their behavior, and a willingness to take that same advice when given. Of all the pale pairs we see, only Nepeta and Equius have this dynamic. Feferi was often spending time concerned over Eridan and trying to get him to change his behavior, but to no avail. On the opposite side, Vriska showed a surprising willingness to listen to Kanaya, but Kanaya tended to shy away from ordering her around.
Feferi<3Sollux can be seen as a good counterexample for what a red instead of pale relationship looks like: neither partner makes any attempt to change things with the other one, with Feferi going so far as to describe Sollux during an angry flipout as cute, much as Kanaya seemed more intrigued by Vriska than properly invested in talking her down.
A major criticism of moirail pairs is that the relationship puts all the burden on one side of the pairing, but none of the trolls involve seem to feel that way. The only time this idea has come up in canon is the broken moirallegiance of Feferi<>Eridan. This can be explained in two possible ways: either the more aggressive half has a corresponding balancing effect, pushing the other troll when they're too passive, or trolls find talking someone out of bad ideas quite satisfying, in the same way they seek out someone to hate despite the fact a kismesis relationship starts, in human terms, at horribly toxic and goes downhill from there. There is, I think, suggestion of both factors in canon. But regardless of why, the two functioning moirail pairs we see, Nepeta<>Equius and Gamzee<>Karkat, have both sides of the pairing seeming satisfied with it.
So, what isn't a moirallegiance, based on what we see?
It's not a friendship, although both red quadrants, and arguably all four quadrants contain elements of friendship, and it's not platonic. Trolls can have more than one friend. Trolls can even, as we see with Karkat's rambling, have more than once best friend. Have pale feelings with more than one person, however, and it's treated as infidelity. If this seems weird to you, consider that plenty of people date without having sex, and would feel upset if their partner was dating another person even if no sex was happening with the other person as well.
You can, however, easily say that someone's moirail is also their best friend, just as no one finds it odd when someone says they're best friends with their spouse.
As a caveat, that means that while you can, if you really insist, say that Kanaya's girl fetish need only apply to sexual quadrants, but if you put her in a moirallegiance with a male character, you're saying she's a biromantic homosexual, not a lesbian who happens to have a close guy friend. If you just want Kanaya to have a close platonic relationship with another character, diamonds is not the quadrant you're looking for.
It is also not about feelings jams, cute as the fanon is. [S] Kanaya: Return to the core not only has Feferi and Sollux hanging out together doing the same thing as Nepeta and Equius, but Feferi cheerfully invites first Kanaya and then Karkat to join in, and none of those involved act like they've just been invited to take part in a pale threeway.
It is absolutely definitely not something that can be called bromance. Ideally, nothing would be getting called bromance, but in the meantime, using a word made up to help people insisting that there's nothing homo-ANYTHING about some close relationship between two men to refer romantic relationships is badly wrong.
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-13 12:23 am (UTC)Since such lesser feuds are quite common among trolls, there is a significant need for auspisticing parties. Without them, too many ashen feuds would become caliginous, and begin to conflict with other exclusive kismesis relationships, leading to a great deal of social complexity and sore feelings (even more so than black romance usually involves). Without auspisticism, the result would be widespread black infidelity.
The relationships each quadrant describes tend to be malleable, if not volatile, especially on the concupiscent half where more torrid emotions reside. It doesn't take much to flip a switch and transmute blackrom feelings to redrom, and vice versa.
In many cases, one party will have red feelings while the other has black. But it will often be the case that one party's feelings will swap to match the other's, since there is no quadrant which naturally accommodates such a disparity. But thereafter, it's not uncommon for the two to toggle between red and black in unison now and then. These scenarios naturally result in both red and black infidelities.
If they're not exclusive, then it's impossible to have infidelity.
And then later on at the end:
But if there was one theme to be hammered through his thick skull, it would be the trolls' cultural preoccupation with romantic destiny. Yes, the romantic landscape is rife with false starts and miscues and infidelities, red and black. But every troll believes strongly that each quadrant holds one and only one true pairing for them, and it is just a matter of time before the grid is filled with auspicious matchups through the mysterious channels of TROLL SERENDIPITY.
So they seem to take exclusivity as very important. Of course, just like not all humans value monogamy, it's possible not all trolls concern themselves with it either.