Talk:Calca Bessarez/@comment-77.176.14.27-20180521020955/@comment-45.56.46.26-20180614224225

I'm guessing it depends a bit on where you draw the lines for "little girl" and "rape".

The shocking thing isn't when evil is portrayed.

It's when the author assumes that we will find that evil gratifying or enticing.

Which is the explicit and overt purpose of all porn.

That said, there is something to be said for art that encourages us to contemplate our own participatory desires in regard to the evil actions depicted. I think that Overlord does a fine job of making us question whether we should be entirely on Nazarick's side all the time. I also think it does an even better job making us wonder if there is any realistic moral virtue in opposing Nazarick. That's one of the reasons I find Gazef's death so meaningful...he doesn't just cut a deal with Ainz, but instead forces Ainz to recognize him (and, to a degree, by extension, the rest of the Re-Estize Royal Army) as a person rather than a pawn.

On the other hand, it isn't like Ainz was forced to respect Gazef so much as that he freely chose to do so despite the lack of any immediately obvious benefit for Nazarick.

But the thing about it is that people can come to their own conclusions about the significance of that solo PVP, and the larger massacre taking place, and still have reasons to read it.

The same just isn't true of porn. It has one possible significance, that of enticing your carnal desire for the depicted situation, and if you don't find that particular significance in it then it is just bad porn, not good art.

Of course, we can all argue about what is and isn't porn. If we want to argue that the fan-fic intermission detailing Calca's (and Kelart's, etc.) fate isn't porn, or that the fate of Arche in the LN is porn, or whatever, then that's possibly an interesting discussion to have.

But the assertion that all art must be judged by the same standards as porn, that of expressing the carnal desires of the audience, abolishes all discussion of art outside of porn. By that standard, all of what we usually call 'art' is merely bad porn. Anything that appeals to anything other than our gonads is simply missing the point in the first place and shouldn't exist anyway.