Okay, so, first of all, I'm incredibly, incredibly flattered that my work inspired this. I can already see an Emily Reyes/Tachyarchy (even the name got used in a modified sense, which I find highly flattering) sort of vibe. There's this sense of fascism, but also of a fascism that's profoundly modernist, one that idealizes speed, violence, and erotic destruction: hence the name "Takyarch", which seems like a reference to the "tachyon", a hypothetical particle known for traveling faster than light.
So, speed. Notably, we see that this fascism, unlike the erotic destruction in "Mechanized Welfare", doesn't seem to be ideologically devoted to capitalism, at least not as overtly as that, which makes me think this might be an attempt at a corporatist or a "Third Position" economic system.
The use of "Volga" for the highly fortified world is also pretty clearly a reference to the river Volga, which IIRC the city of Volgograd and Volgograd Oblast in Russia are named after. Famously, Volgograd is the current (post-de-Stalinization) name for Stalingrad, which was one of the bloodiest and most consequential battles in the entire Second World War: and perhaps more relevantly, the most famous battle of the Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front) in the West.
So, already, we have this sense here that in this far-future space empire, Russian history (especially the history of Khruschevite-to-Putinist Russia) is very important; we have a focus on speed and the eroticism of war in a fascist, aesthetictized context; and most notably we have a strong focus on affection and human softness.
That's very important.
In a traditional fascist regime, womanhood, tenderness, and softness are all vastly devalued and confined to the home. As the book "Feminine Fascism" explains, the idea of woman as dictatrix of the home is something that draws women to fascism, but nonetheless this is an inherently unequal and inferior domain.
However, the fascism of the Takyarch here seems to be much more eager to use stereotypically feminine traits like tenderness, beauty, softness, and compassion as a means of controlling their weapons. In fact, as we see in chapter one, the Takyarch's reign is extremely good at using these things in a way that feels natural and highly beneficial for the subjugated.
This is no clumsy seduction, no brutal swing. The Handlers of the Takyarch, or at least this Handler, is a lover. She's a mother, a muse, a teacher, a doting goddess whose power is intertwined implicitly in her femininity.
This further makes me think that the Takyarch's reign is a syncretic one, one that takes elements of far-right fascism and fuses them with some more heterodox ideas on gender, modernity, and rule.
It's also an extremely cutting takedown of the idea of the "girlboss", the regular-mom-slash-entrepreneur who brings a female touch to business and in doing so makes that business more ethical and more effective in extracting profit.
The truth is, of course, that the modern "girlboss" idea is pretty much a lie: it's a role that powerful women are forced to play in order to legitimize their power. That said, the Takyarch's reign, marked by femininity as a means of controlling women, also reminds me of the ways that adulterated and bastardized feminism can go from liberation to merely nationalism for a specific gender or sex.
I feel like we might have a "girlboss state" here.
If I had to theorize, I'd guess that the Takyarch's system is one that stands in contrast with both traditional reaction and liberating leftism, and it may have fought representatives of both in its history. It seems like an attempt to create a rational, modern fascism, the kind of thing you might see a particularly perverse pseudo-feminist do with what Mosley wrote in the work "Fascism: 100 Questions Asked and Answered".
This is genuinely fascinating stuff, I will be subscribing to it, and I absolutely look forward to more. I'm so happy my writing can inspire others.
AAAAAA Thank you so much Delta!!!! Your work is fucking stellar and your vote of confidence means so much <3333
And you hit the politics of the Federation right on the head, it's a weird nightmare blend of perverted girlboss feminism and futurist race-car-fucker third position fascism. It's completely evil, but does a better job at making itself seem rational and necessary than the frothy-mouthed ultra-bigoted MAGA shit people associate with fascism today. The same beast wearing a different skin-suit.
The use of sex, femininity, and motherhood as means of control and domination is def a core theme, closely intertwined with the behavioral psychology between Hound One and her Handler. They've got a very strong relationship but it's one kept in place by the violence and power of the system writ large as much as it is Handler's individual abuse and manipulation, so we'll see where it all goes as the system starts to collapse around them.
And if the name of the planet Volga wasn't a dead giveaway, Stalingrad is definitely a big historical inspiration, a fascist army failing to come to terms with the fact that it bit off way more than it can chew. Obviously it's not gonna be one for one and I'll be sprinkling other historical allusions and allegories as we go, but "Mechsploitation Stalingrad" was def an initial tentpole around which the rest of the story sprang up.
Again, thank you so much for your feedback, it's been lovely chatting with you on bsky and discord!
Comment on The Death of a Handler
RiverDelta on Chapter 1 Tue 23 Sep 2025 01:33AM UTC
Comment Actions
WakeUpToJustice on Chapter 1 Tue 23 Sep 2025 11:58PM UTC
Comment Actions