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Assignment Risk
9 months ago
General
So, after a few friends recommended it to me, I started reading Assignment Risk by Alephkeller.
I'm ten or so chapters in, and though I do find the story interesting and well-written, I've come to hate the Daxy.
I started out thinking they were interesting, but as more and more information was revealed about them (specifically what happened during the final few months of the war between humanity and the Daxy), I've come to hate them, at least most of them. What is written below will contain spoilers, so beware.
So, in the final months of the war, the Daxy soldiers under the command of Colonel Axla began to rape the men they captured during battles, and these men are described as crying out for God's mercy as it happened to them. It's then implied that these men were FORCED to marry (or rather, were claimed or assigned) to their rapists and presumably became OK with the arrangement after prolonged exposure to the Daxy propaganda and pheromones or after undergoing reeducation (I am still not sure exactly what this entails, as I stated - I've not yet finished the first story), and that's not even mentioning that the men who had wives were gas lit (if we are to assume the viewpoint held by Administrator Pax is the norm) into believing that their previous relationships were abusive and wrong and that human men are better off with Daxy partners while the women are left to die out on Mars.
So far, the prison on Mars has only been mentioned, not shown, but the way it's been discussed presents it as unpleasant, or at the very least, a gilded cage.
And let's not even talk about the pheromone injector thing - it has only been mentioned once, but the fact that it makes men have suicidal tendencies if they're separated from their new mate after being injected and that it more or less permanently alters their personality/brain and is only seen as being TABOO rather than outright detestable says a lot about how Daxy view things.
Honestly, so far the only character I've connected with is Finn - he literally attempted to kill himself after being assigned to a Daxy mate and continues to point out the shady nature of Daxy society/their hypocritical shit, but Miles and Rax keep blowing him off/treating him as if he's stupid for not just going with the flow, with Rax going as far as to taunt him by stating that he must secretly WANT to be raped by a Daxy because the 'loudest males want it the most' or something to that effect.
Also, while homosexuality was mentioned once as a joke in an earlier chapter, I am curious to see if that topic rears its head again and how the Daxy deal with it. At this point, I'd not be surprised if they simply state that gay men are 'confused' and then proceed to have them undertake reeducation or expose them to pheromones to be 'fixed' before assigning them to a Daxy partner.
Maybe my view of the Daxy will change as the story progresses. I am enjoying it and want to see how it ends, but I'm struggling to understand why people LIKE the Daxy rather than REVILE them. Of course, not ALL Daxy are responsible for what happened in the war, or the relocation/possible genocide of human women, but MOST of them seem OK with it as if it was just something that HAD to be done and that there was no other option.
Am I just a grumpy contrarian bitch taking the (very well-written) fetish story too seriously? - Maybe...
But yeah, again—I am enjoying the fic; I just don't see Daxy in the same light as seemingly everyone else, lmao.
I'm ten or so chapters in, and though I do find the story interesting and well-written, I've come to hate the Daxy.
I started out thinking they were interesting, but as more and more information was revealed about them (specifically what happened during the final few months of the war between humanity and the Daxy), I've come to hate them, at least most of them. What is written below will contain spoilers, so beware.
So, in the final months of the war, the Daxy soldiers under the command of Colonel Axla began to rape the men they captured during battles, and these men are described as crying out for God's mercy as it happened to them. It's then implied that these men were FORCED to marry (or rather, were claimed or assigned) to their rapists and presumably became OK with the arrangement after prolonged exposure to the Daxy propaganda and pheromones or after undergoing reeducation (I am still not sure exactly what this entails, as I stated - I've not yet finished the first story), and that's not even mentioning that the men who had wives were gas lit (if we are to assume the viewpoint held by Administrator Pax is the norm) into believing that their previous relationships were abusive and wrong and that human men are better off with Daxy partners while the women are left to die out on Mars.
So far, the prison on Mars has only been mentioned, not shown, but the way it's been discussed presents it as unpleasant, or at the very least, a gilded cage.
And let's not even talk about the pheromone injector thing - it has only been mentioned once, but the fact that it makes men have suicidal tendencies if they're separated from their new mate after being injected and that it more or less permanently alters their personality/brain and is only seen as being TABOO rather than outright detestable says a lot about how Daxy view things.
Honestly, so far the only character I've connected with is Finn - he literally attempted to kill himself after being assigned to a Daxy mate and continues to point out the shady nature of Daxy society/their hypocritical shit, but Miles and Rax keep blowing him off/treating him as if he's stupid for not just going with the flow, with Rax going as far as to taunt him by stating that he must secretly WANT to be raped by a Daxy because the 'loudest males want it the most' or something to that effect.
Also, while homosexuality was mentioned once as a joke in an earlier chapter, I am curious to see if that topic rears its head again and how the Daxy deal with it. At this point, I'd not be surprised if they simply state that gay men are 'confused' and then proceed to have them undertake reeducation or expose them to pheromones to be 'fixed' before assigning them to a Daxy partner.
Maybe my view of the Daxy will change as the story progresses. I am enjoying it and want to see how it ends, but I'm struggling to understand why people LIKE the Daxy rather than REVILE them. Of course, not ALL Daxy are responsible for what happened in the war, or the relocation/possible genocide of human women, but MOST of them seem OK with it as if it was just something that HAD to be done and that there was no other option.
Am I just a grumpy contrarian bitch taking the (very well-written) fetish story too seriously? - Maybe...
But yeah, again—I am enjoying the fic; I just don't see Daxy in the same light as seemingly everyone else, lmao.
Firstly, there's the matter of people want the species of Daxy but not the society of the Daxy. They want the musky fluffy bird wife, but don't really care for the goverment of it. I'd say it's similar to liking America the group of people, but not liking the US goverment. I can want to still be in an American space, but still think the 101 warcrimes it's committed and it's ongoing injustices are horrible, the Gov. should apologize more, and it should just cut it out. Similar thing to the Daxy- the goverment did do warcrimes, but the species is still interesting enough to warrant further engagement. If I remember correctly (this might be spoilers so read at your own risk) those actions are done by the villians and aren't glamorized, meanwhile the heros are breaking out and then evade those villians. So the narrative is firmly against the most overtly horrible stuff about it... even if the writer dips his toes into overt rape-fantasy.
secondly, it's time to discuss the patriarchy! Yay! Everyone's favorite topic! So, under the patriarchy, a man's identity is defined by 3 things- his job/work, his stoicism/independence, and his family. And men are taught that those are the only three things that reallllly matter in life. Get a good job and work hard so you can be completely independent and then catch a good wife so she can raise 2.5 kids for you. Don't tick those boxes you're a worthless bum who's an active drain on everyone around you- failure to do that is you failing as a person. Happily ever after is achieving that- sooo what if you were guaranteed to have that happily ever after? In fact, what if it was so guaranteed that, even if you DIDN'T want it, it would happen anyways? What matters most in your life- the core of your very identity- being just the way you want it without ever having to put in the work? That's an angle of the Daxy that's very, very appealing to men. So of course they're going to commit suicide, of course the male not wanting to do it is belittled, of course gayness is joked about- the male identity collapses when it's not allowed to check those three boxes, and the other two just undermine the fantasy of the Daxy.
None of this is to say you're wrong about your assessment of the Daxy- they are fucking horrible (I couldn't finish Assignment Risk myself because I got so pissed off at them), but it does make sense why they're so beloved too. I just wish that I could gut the patriarchy myself and let it's putrid guts spill out as it slowly withers away before me