Apr 10, 2025
To:Steward McOy
Thanks for the comment. Perhaps it's not at all clear, for which I apologise; I might need to go back and reiterate this. But Anna does not really 'force' Asami to do this. It's a Godfather offer, for sure, but the way I envision her plan is more of a, "You need to fit in. A lot of students go to clubs for that. I think you'd be good at track. I'll pull some strings and see if I can get you in."
By and large, that's messed up, and that's the point. You need to fit in is classic elitist bull crap. You'd be good at track - well imagine if you said a black teen would be good at basketball. And in the prior chapter Anna had been so vehemently 'catphobic' that it was almost comical. Hell, people even gathered to watch the show unfold.
And in my mind, glossing over the debate and dissection of this is a signal that, well – this is fine. Everyone thinks catgirls are weird, and it's fine to slag them off. Even the people who, for better or for worse, claim or genuinely think they're allies. Even the catgirls themselves.
I wanted to show an exaggerated view of the world where the Overton window had slid far enough that radical hatred is quietly accepted, and internalised. But similarly, I don't want this to be the ongoing status quo. I want this to be first established, then slowly combatted. The end of this arc will finish the former point. The next one will begin the latter.
That being said, I can appreciate this kind of storytelling is unideal; it comes across as brusque and oddly-paced. I can also appreciate the direction being unclear is also bad, though honestly I don't believe this type of story needs a clear direction. The book I'm taking inspiration from is a published LN with 7 volumes in print and none of them have any big plot or huge thing to look for. It is, in a way, a snapshot of a world, a monograph. And I like to think that it works – not unlike the way I want to think that I can pull off something similar. Vanity of the author, and all.
Anyway, I will end this rant here. Thank you again for the comment, Stew. Hope you're well.
