24/11/2017 19:00:35 ¶ ●

## To denounce the evils of truth and love

So I’m a bit suspicious about troll romance. About its neatness, and how well it seems to fit with the society in which it exists. About the way it’s propagated through endless media bombardment (at least if your name is Karkat Vantas). And I’m especially suspicious with the idea of “troll serendipity”, the notion that every single troll can and inevitably will find an appropriate partner in every single quadrant.

Now, first off, the troll relationship of matespritship seems, if not entirely innocent, then relatively reasonable? It is, of course, noteworthy that trolls seem to refer to the driving emotion behind it as ‘pity’, which is a bit of an oddity, doubly so when you note that none of the actually functional troll matespritships seem to really feature anything we’d refer to as such, near as I can tell. The troll notion of serendipity plages it, of course, which, I’m sure lots of people can attest to the negative effects of living in a society that considers it self-evident that everyone will at some point in their lives find true love and settle down. That out of the way, let us address the most obvious fly in the ointment, the caliginous quadrant.

Hoo boy, the caliginous quadrant. Heh. “Cal”-iginous. How’s that for a coincidence? Now, how precisely kismesissitude is meant to function is a topic for some debate, and with limited canon info to go on, there’s plentiful speculation abound, the most popular as far as I’ve seen being that it’s supposed to be a sort of rivalry, both parties using their hate as a spur to drive themselves to new heights. Sort of a Goku and Vegeta thing, I suppose. Now I’m not sure how much of that is true, and how much is false. What I am sure of is that a relationship based in mutual revulsion seems like an excellent way to cover up harassment. Look at the sort of things people say when accused of harassment, sexual or otherwise. The presence of caliginy makes “I was actively trying to piss you off” a valid excuse. Caliginous relationships may or may not be intended to ultimately benefit both parties, but from the outside, a hell of a lot of them are liable to be virtually indistinguishable from abuse.

And if you’ve been paying attention to recent news, you might have an inkling of how that might be useful for a brutal empire filled with deeply rooted class divisions.

Next post, well, I think you can guess next post.

EDIT: Next post: http://arrghus.tumblr.com/post/167872531054/evils-of-love-2