coffeedrinker

I wonder if the usage of a clownfish to represent the MC's penis was intentional. I feel like it must be, because they call his masculinity into question and talk about becoming a man.

"The girls don't treat him like a man." "But this is practice in order to become a true man."

Clownfish are a species that exhibits sequential hermaphroditism - basically where some males will mature into females if a female isn't present.

Looking at that in a less exact way and more-so "male clownfish becomes female clownfish" way, the story follows the same beats you see in many stories that involve the male character being feminized, "bitched" (not in the omegaverse way here, but that is still applicable), or sluttified. He gets his nipples played with, the top compares his chest to a "flat chested character" in a game he likes (implying a flat chested woman), then there's prostate play and anal sex (rape) and squirting. Despite him declaring that he's "like a man" for fighting and liking sports, the story ends with him shaving off his pubic hair, using a vibrator, and putting band-aids on his nipples.

To me, and I'm over analyzing this for a story I don't even really like, I wonder if the clownfish is supposed to portray a midway point where the MC will either "become" a "man" or won't, and while he's under the impression that he "became" a man, the ending implies that, no, he didn't?

I've put too much thought into this now.

I’m going to lose a year off my life every time I see someone say that Ash is the greenest of flags. I am begging you to reread the end of the main story.
How are we forgetting that Ash showed that he was in control of his actions and thoughts during his rut (in the conversations after his rut). He said he had no regrets knotting Lyle and that he meant everything that he said that Lyle found degrading and hurtful. He was aware enough to understand what he was saying and thinking and doing.

This means we know he was aware enough to know that Lyle was crying, begging him to stop, screaming no, that he was in pain. He was aware enough to know that he fucked Lyle unconscious several times.