I too suppose. I am looking forward to Arda hitting the rest of the galaxy and learning a few things. Although I suppose the Dwarves didn't do the trick.

We don't talk about sex with them much, and this sort of thing wouldn't even make sense. I expect it'll be meeting sexually compatible peoples that'll do the trick.

Yeah, I segued into figuring out what was up with Dwarves through my Allspeak glitch anecdote.

You haven't discussed them in depth but, at a guess, everyone in the royal family who solicits people who'd never disobey us, everyone broadly who arranges marriages, anyone who got married for security or house membership or food beside Cuivienen and everyone who married someone knowing that those were their partner's reasons...

There's ways to circumvent power imbalances if you try but it's possible no one's trying. I did complain about arranged marriages. Marrying for those reasons is not ideal but not necessarily immoral.

People certainly try. I doubt they try to meet galactic standards, and some probably try more than others.

Well, I suppose in this case I can hope for enough hypocrisy that they at least cut it out going forward and teach their kids something more palatable.

I doubt we'll end up adopting everything you believe. But yes.

Bit much to hope for.

And there genuinely might be species differences that are relevant to sexual ethics.

Yeah, Lúthien claims that multiple partnerships would be relevant to more people than same-sex options, might easily be true.

He raises an eyebrow. Historically, yes, I think so.

Which doesn't affect what I'd consider the ideal end state but might affect prioritization.

I expect there are fewer people desperately unhappy because they have to settle for one lover than people desperately unhappy because they can't seek partners at all. But among the Asgardians there'd also be more of the latter?

I don't have exact statistics for either population on hand but that seems likely. And people who like both to a more evenhanded extent than I and would find it irritating to have to quash half their potentiality.

We, ah, will probably still sleep around less than Asgardians even once there's no stigma. At a guess.

I'm an outlier, actually. Not the most extreme one I know, but still.

For a while I was in the delightful position of not wanting anything serious, no longer feeling guilty about not pursuing girls, and not needing to worry about getting married - and royalty, finding people was easy - and I have had a total of six partners? That's more than anyone I know of.

Yeah, Quendi average will probably be lower - although I assume you couldn't pursue anybody openly, which may affect what counts as "easy".

How much does this kind of thing vary species-to-species?

Plenty. Some species manage to be more obligate monogamous and/or heterosexual than you guys have pulled off under divine command; or only one sex has multiple partners; or having children requires at least six people and casual sex is only fun if you can get together at least ten...

He laughs. Lots of people do marry and happily stay with their partner forever, probably even the vast majority. You know Maedhros and I best of anyone here, and have a skewed sample otherwise too.

Sure, I know that.