Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-39332473-20190808194309/@comment-36874080-20190814181849

The Scoutman wrote: You know that asexual people aren't inherently sterile and impotent right? It is just a sexual orientation, the fact that people with different sexualities exist in TLS would indicate that sexual preference is not linked to the ratio of their lust and purity energies, otherwise each race would only have a single orientation.

Asexuality is a sexual orientation like "bald" is a hair color. It's a lack of sexual attraction, a lack of desire for sexual activity. Or, in the usual TLS vocabulary, a lack of lust. Even Grubbak being gay, you know, whatever, the object of his lust is irrelevant compared to the presence of lust itself.

The Scoutman wrote: If you believe that sexual preference is entirely decided by biological nature then you could argue that sexual orientation could be an emergent trait from the complex interactions of the energies, but for that you'd have to assume that the social aspects of nurture don't play any role in a person's sexual preference.

If metaphysical-lust and metaphysical-purity had nothing to do with everyday lust and purity, then why would Alonon name them such, and why would he make such a big deal of how it's a joke for him based on his own asexuality? It's much more probable that they're one and the same, and hence they're ruled by physics rather than societal rules. (Then again society would be an emergent property of this duality anyway, since everything is, so the conclusion would be the same.)

Plus, he's been surrounded by pressure to be sexually active for most of his life; I'm pretty sure he was born this way.

The Scoutman wrote: What I don't understand is why Alonon didn't go through with the Unpeople process? Vhala mentions that she doesn't regret it since it gave her peace that she never had before, presumably from suppressing sexual instincts she didn't enjoy.

Why would he? He doesn't have sexual instincts to begin with, such a process would be pointless for him. (And he's a king, so it could be seen as a statement, or make people uneasy with him.) Also, Vhala didn't say that she disliked her sexual instincts, just that she enjoys being an unwoman better.