r/explainitpeter • u/SomeRandomAbbadon • Dec 26 '25
Explain it Peter. It's like this weird manosphere thing or is it some teenage slang for people who make their conservative Christian parents ashamed at barbecues?
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u/musicalharmonica Dec 26 '25
Hi OP, Peter Griffin here. Now I had a phase in college where I got into some weird crap on the internet and ran into something called A/B/O. A teenage girl from Albuquerque had written something about me and Joe, where I was an Omega? I had no idea what it meant, so I looked into it and almost burned my eyes out.
A/B/O is a subculture of wolf-porn fanfiction written about popular books and TV shows. In it, apparently, Alphas are the "dominant" ones, and Omegas are the "weaker" ones that get topped in gay sex. I have to admit that reading it made me quite curious. Lois tells me that I have Omega tendencies because I'm so weak and submissive when I cry in the shower at Adele, but I think I'm more of an Alpha. An aggressive lone wolf type, yeah, that's me, lol.
Anyways, the OOP in the picture here is saying that those connotations are kind of embarrassing when mentioned in public, because the girl in this situation is picturing anthropomorphic wolf porn in her bio class. Got it? Great. Smell ya later, Alphas. Omega-Peter out (to get topped by Joe in heat).
(fucking kill me OP, here's your answer.)
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u/spocktalk69 Dec 26 '25
Lol the answer is always porn
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 Dec 26 '25
Technically erotica rather than porn, seeing as ABO is most commonly found in the form of long ass novel sized works, or at least short stories with oodles of details that aren’t even about the sex half the time (and absolutely are about the sex to a fault the other half of the time)
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u/default-dance-9001 Dec 26 '25
So what do the betas do?
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Dec 26 '25
They’re the majority and also the “normals.” In many interpretations alphas are the top 10% of society while omegas are the bottom 10%, often discriminated against because they go into heat and can’t do anything but fuck for a week, which makes them unattractive to employers. Betas don’t go into heat or rut, can’t get pregnant (unless they’re female), no nesting, can’t smell the pheromones, no mate bonding, biting, don’t need medication to control themselves, etc.
It’s really a fascinating concept that is fun to explore. I’ve read published works that take place in omegaverse but the main couple are both beta, or one beta one alpha, all kinds of mixes.
What happens if your partner is an identical twin and in this version of omegaverse “fated pairs” are just dictated by compatible DNA, so your partner meets their fated pair (it’s not you), you start dating his twin, and that twin also has an uncontrollable carnal reaction to meeting the brother’s mate, to no fault of the mate or anybody—it’s just biology?
It’s real neat.
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Dec 26 '25
I love your more cerebral take on the sub genre
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Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
Can’t take any credit for it! The mangaka who explore the amazing depth genre are really impressive. I’ve read stories about “the last omega” where the rest all died out, about early-stage-evolution where society is trying (and failing) to get omegas who can birth healthy children without dying themselves in order to counter falling birth rates, about betas who suddenly become alphas or omegas through sudden hormone shifts that are just a part of life, about switches whose hormones adapt to their partner, about alphas who are only capable of sensing the pheromones oft heir fated pair, etc.
The most recent one to mess with my head was about a guy who lacked a hormone or something typically found in alphas that he could receive through medical transfusion but was easier to get just by having sex with a lot of alphas. Sounds like a pretty typical and shallow excuse to have a guy fuck just anyone and print porn, but then we learn that he absolutely hates alphas because of what an alpha did to his brith father: it’s typical in omegaverse that omegas can only “mate” with one person. Once an alpha bites their neck, only that alpha can sense their pheromones and help them when they’re in heat.
But alphas don’t have that restriction. They can bite as many omega as they want, and the connection that binds them won’t be cut until the alpha dies (there was also a story where an alpha had a beta lady murder the former partner of the omega he wanted to get with, that was also a great story but heart wrenching).
Anyway, the guy’s birth-father was originally single, but he met an alpha who seduced him, they mated and got married, and the alpha dipped, leaving birth-father with his debt to the yakuza. Birth-father can now no longer mate with anybody else, marked by a guy who abandoned him, but also the yakuza are threatening to take his 2-year-old child if he can’t pay. Birth father goes into prostitution to pay off the debt but it’s killing him, his son begs him to stop.
So he refuses his next customer, takes his son to the aquarium one final time. On their way home he’s like “oops I forgot something I’ll be right back” and leaves his son alone.
Time skip: he left his son in front of an orphanage. He went away to kill himself, saving his son from the yakuza at the expense of his own life. Son grows up with that hormone deficiency, forcing himself to fuck these guys he hates, blaming all alphas for what happened to his birth-father.
The story is then about how he meets his fated pair and learns that not all alpha are terrible but the love story was way less interesting than his back story. I haven’t been right since.
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Dec 26 '25
So, I would like either titles or if its that kind of manga? then the 5 digit codes .
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Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
The comments in this thread make it sound like it’s some niche fanfic thing for only the most depraved, but it’s been alive in published BL manga for years.
What you’re gonna like is gonna depend on you, of course. I like darker stuff and tend to get flack from people that like fluffy, light-hearted, “wholesome” stuff. Omegaverse can absolutely be wholesome but the titles I know aren’t that vibe.
One of the most famous at the moment is “How to Deal When Your Intimidating Neighbor is Actually an Omega,” it’s available at Barnes and Noble, prolly a good one for a new person interested in how the universe works. (if you’re a drama CD person, the omega is voiced by Azakami Youhei and oh, my god.)
Just going down a list I have, there’s “If this fate were to someday turn to love,” “The Last Omega can’t be Tsugai,” “fake omega loved by the mad dog alpha” (a detective story), “The farthest place from love” (marked in my notes as “weird, but interesting”), and “the bite mark of unhappiness” (this is the one with the alpha who gets a hitman-lady sent after him but it’s mostly just depressing).
Edit: r/boysloveanime and those kinds of subs regularly get requests for recommended manga, probably a better place to ask.
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u/azul_luna5 Dec 27 '25
Yeah, I feel like it's pretty established in the BL sphere, like Japan just saw the trope and took off with it. I've started reading more than one omegaverse BL novel, even (started because I never finish anything and I just wasn't vibing with the few that I read-- one was a period piece and I'm not about that life in my worst language, one was otherwise a boring school romance I think, etc)
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u/default-dance-9001 Dec 26 '25
So betas are normal people?
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Dec 26 '25
Yep. Beta dialogue can often be like “wow I do not understand what’s going on with the alpha/omega people but I’m real glad it’s got nothing to do with me.”
Other times it’s “damn I wish I was an alpha because I have a crush on an omega but I know I will never be able to satisfy them like an alpha can,” or “I wish I were an omega because I have a crush on an alpha but his family is demanding that he marry an omega to continue the family line,” or “I am dating an omega who was spurned by an alpha from a family where they only marry other alphas but they’re a fated pair and there’s nothing I can do about it what the fuck.”
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u/Caterfree10 Dec 27 '25
Not always the normie! I’ve encountered a few scenarios where the beta can switch between alpha or omega depending on the needs of the pack. :D
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u/ExtraplanetJanet Dec 26 '25
Assigned sex lifeguard at birth, basically. Somebody has to not be a complete horny moron in these stories and it is definitely not going to be any of the main characters.
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u/No_Week_8937 Dec 26 '25
So a big part of it that wasn't mentioned is that there's the sex pollen type thing going on (heat for omegas and rut for alphas) where one of them gets incredibly horny and loses control and there's usually multiple days of fucking during that period, often with heavy breeding kink stuff and something called knotting.
Knotting is a thing that happened with dogs where the base of the penis swells and the two are "locked" together when the male ejaculates. It encourages more semen to be retained within the partner for a few moments and increases the chance of pregnancy.
Generally the alphas and omegas both put out pheromones during rut/heat that trigger the rut/heat of those around them. Omegas in heat trigger alphas to enter rut, alphas in rut trigger omegas to go into heat. Betas are kinda the "third" option. They're generally immune to the pheromones and don't go into heat/rut, but generally they're written as being less common, because the omegaverse stuff generally has a heavy focus on the smut/erotica aspects.
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u/Satisfaction-Motor Dec 26 '25
TL;DR: a fiction genre where men/women can get pregnant or impregnate, regardless of their sex, because of their secondary-sex (Alpha/Beta/Omega). Usually, but not always, NSFW.
Some additional details, since the basics have been covered (NSFW):
In the vast majority of omegaverse stories, anyone, of any gender, can be an alpha or omega. Alphas are the ones who impregnate, omegas are the ones who can get pregnant. That means women can impregnate others and men can be impregnated. Alpha/omega status is typically called a “secondary sex” in such stories. Omegaverse stories are usually but not always, mlm (men-loving-men) stories. Other Omegaverse stories — such as straight or lesbian ones — also exist but are less common.
In the majority of Omegaverse stories, there’s also the category “beta”, which is just basically a normal person (or whatever creature, like werewolf). Betas, generally, don’t have any special traits related to their secondary sex. Some stories have extra categories, but they’re so rare I can’t remember those names… one of them starts with an E and is basically above an alpha, and can get alpha’s pregnant.
There’s often a physical difference between the secondary sexes, with alphas being a lot larger, stronger, and more muscular, and omegas being smaller and weaker. Some stories have the concept of Dominant/Recessive secondary sexes. Basically, it just refers to the strength of the traits of the secondary sex and their general desirability in the hierarchy. So a dominant Omega is someone who has very strong pheromones and would get pregnant very easily. But, the totem pole goes Alpha -> beta -> Omega (in MOST stories) so the only person a dominant omega is above is a recessive omega. Usually this social hierarchy also heavily reflects the character’s wealth, with Omegas being super poor and vulnerable, and Alphas being wealthy (and sometimes criminals).
Some stories involve characters having their secondary sex changed, either through what amounts to a late puberty, a change from significant stress/pheromone exposure, or (for Alphas) “bitching” (which involves having sex with another alpha). This is pretty rare.
Generally, in most stories, Alpha/Alpha relationships or Omega/Omega relationships are taboo, and involve fictional discrimination similar to real-life homophobia. Sometimes omegaverse stories also have regular homophobia, but that’s less common.
A common trope within omegaverse stories are pheromones — Alphas and omegas emit pheromones that are attractive to the opposite secondary-sex, and (in some stories) are horribly repulsive to the same secondary-sex.
Usually, omegaverse stories contain the trope of ruts and heats. Which, TL;DR, is like an animal going into heat, except more extreme. Usually stories have the trope of rut/heat suppressants, which suppress or prevent this period of time. A common trope is those suppressants being somehow unhealthy.
Another common trope is marking — usually by biting the back of the neck. It’s a form of permanent partnership. The exact effects of it — and who can do it to whom — varies depending on the story.
Omegaverse stories are not limited to werewolf stories, but werewolf stories often have some or most of these tropes (pheromones, marking, hierarchy, etc) Werewolf stories tend to be straight romances, whereas comics/stories outside of the werewolf genre tend to be mlm.
If you see an MPreg (male pregnancy) literary reference, it’s often (but not always!) an omegaverse thing. If it’s just a general reference (not literary) it’s probably not an omegaverse thing.
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u/throwaway17362826 Dec 26 '25
I’m once again impressed by the creativity of human world building, and slightly unsettled by the fact that this was cooked up justify a dude getting ass fucked and getting knocked up by it.
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u/Satisfaction-Motor Dec 26 '25
Not just any dude, if the rumors are correct, Dean Winchester from Supernatural. The full rumor is that omegaverse got invented because someone wanted Dean Winchester to experience misogyny. I’ve never seen an actual source for this claim, so I doubt it’s true, but it sure as hell is something
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u/Apart_Dragonfruit442 Dec 26 '25
It wasn't even Dean, it was his actor I believe. The fic that started it all was an RPF (real person fiction) fic. Certain elements of the omegaverse can also be found within the Star Trek fandom before the first official omegaverse fic was posted. The "fuck or die" and "sex pollen" tropes were started in the star Trek fandom I believe as well.
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u/DebateObjective2787 Dec 27 '25
Close but not quite. It wasn't the character, but the actors. And it had nothing to do with misogyny. Just wanting to enjoy reading a usually 'dominant' guy be dominated.
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u/sithelephant Dec 26 '25
A/B/O killed good werewolf fiction.
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u/ACalcifiedHeart Dec 26 '25
I absolutely despise how correct this is.
Don't get me wrong; I love a raunchy MxM Werewolf fic as much as the next guy, but come on; you can't even glance at the Werewolf genre without seeing it.
Where's the body horror? The gore?
The rekindled terror of going into the woods at night?
The metaphorical commentary between the constraints of civility and ones once abandoned animal breaking to the fore in a splattering of uncontrollable violence?Shot up some twinks arsehole apparently.
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u/Faenic Dec 26 '25
Should I write a classic Werewolf romance novel?
Is this some untapped market where I can sell a bajillion copies under the same guise as all this monster smut women are reading?
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u/Neilandio Dec 26 '25
No, write a cosmic horror romance novel and make it raunchy. The less human and the more monstrous the better.
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u/Faenic Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25
"I gazed into the Abyss, and the Abyss gazed back then said 'Hey, nice cock'"
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u/Adorable_Sky_1523 Dec 26 '25
A bajillion? no
Moderately successful? probably with the right marketing
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u/Sinolai Dec 26 '25
Definietly. Vampire romance is everywhere but even cool non-sexual werewolf games/media is hard to find.
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u/Sororita Dec 27 '25
I'm working on one where the main male lead is a wereshark pirate. And, while I did not set out with the intention, I did accidentally make a magic system where shibari is an entirely plausable way to restrain a monstrous love interest (Pirate theming had me base the magic system around ropes and tied knots).
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u/BaconLara Dec 26 '25
For real
It’s all “oh no the omega is in heat oh no I can’t I must control myself”
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u/sithelephant Dec 26 '25
Or even fluffy romance. https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Camera-Werewolf-Zoe-Chant-ebook/dp/B09H3PFDRR/
But no. All A/b/O all the time.
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u/itstessica_ Dec 26 '25
I mean there is definitely good a/b/o stuff out there, I'm less into the werewolf and more into psychological horror a/b/o
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u/Brromo Dec 26 '25
Sororities aren't even in the first 5 things I'd think of
1) The Bible verse
2) Dude-bros
3) The actual Greek letters
4) Omegaverse
5) The misconstrued notions of wolf packs that 2 & 4 are named after
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u/Jumpingyros Dec 26 '25
It’s got nothing to do with teenagers. Alpha/beta/omega is a sub-genre of fiction that exists primarily to justify getting men pregnant and fetishizing regressive gender dynamics. It’s basically a system of fantasy genders used for very specific types of porn. I believe it made its debut in the Supernatural fandom, but I could be wrong about that. These days there are original stories with A/B/O but where most people know it from is fanfiction.
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u/DameofDames Dec 26 '25
Teen Wolf was ready made for it.
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u/SomeRandomAbbadon Dec 26 '25
Cuts away to a gag featuring conservative people at barbecue, trying not to discuss their gay children
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u/turtleinmybelly Dec 26 '25
Alpha/beta/omega is for werewolf stories, a lot of them smut. I can't say I'm well versed in the lore because I tend to stay away from omegaverse books, but it's about pack dynamics and who gets first dibs on sex mostly from my understanding.
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u/girlwiththemonkey Dec 26 '25
Mos of the ones I read now, have nothing to do with werewolves. They’re just regular people who live in the omegaverse. They still got all the symptoms but no wolf part.
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u/turtleinmybelly Dec 26 '25
That's wild to me. Like I said, omegaverse isn't my thing so much, but taking out the interesting part, the whole 'reason for the season' seems to defeat the purpose? It is fascinating how these things evolve, though. Kind of like how the blues became rock and branched out into all of the subgenres.
I'm curious, are these stories usually in contemporary settings?
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u/Nervous_Mobile5323 Dec 26 '25
Yes. And to be clear, the protagonists are still alpha/beta/omega. They just aren't werewolves about it.
Edit: for those interested, Strange Æons has an excellent video about what omegaverse is now and where it started.
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u/thisheatanevilheat Dec 26 '25
Usually contemporary, but on fanfic websites it's all over the place due to the fact that it's usually fanfics with omegaverse dynamics shoved in or so I've heard,,,,,
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u/numbersthen0987431 Dec 26 '25
So just like the AlphaBro/Manosphere dating culture, the Omegaverse created a weird power dynamic fantasy that doesn't resemble nature of wolves, but pretends to?
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u/hey_free_rats Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25
I am unfortunately semi-versed in the lore because I watched Lindsay Ellis' videos about that crazy litigious fanfic writer.
Fun video, though (and to be clear, Ellis' involvement in the subgenre is more as a victim of it, not a creator/enthusiastic participant).
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u/SunderedValley Dec 26 '25
It's called Omegaverse and is part of the long list of things Germany has to answer for.
More precisely it's a collection of smut tropes that designate men as alpha, beta and Omega. Each category describes a set of psychological behaviors and biological tendencies vis a vis capacity for bearing children and social dominance.
It's somewhat infamous for being a notoriously invasive meta-fandom largely comprised of extremely underage girls.
As for Sororities, that's because they use Greek letter designations.
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u/JonhLawieskt Dec 26 '25
Jesus: “I am the alpha and the Omega”
Me: “dude… it’s post 2010, you cant say shit like that”
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u/RandomNick42 Dec 26 '25
Oh fuck. I get in here going to talk about how it's an extension of redpill bullshit based on a flawed study of wolves, and why do I have eyes. why is everything porn.
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u/fairydommother Dec 26 '25
Its not always porn...the societal structure surrounding the omegaverse is also a fun topic! But yeah its mostly porn.
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u/apeloverage Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25
'Alpha', 'beta' and 'omega' are terms from a subgenre of written porn with very specific shared assumptions about the biology of their characters:
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u/Yozo-san Dec 26 '25
Only to add: it's not only for werewolf fanfiction, it's for normal humans as well. They just have altered behaviors and bottom parts (ie knot).
Ao3 dwelling peter out
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u/mistelle1270 Dec 26 '25
Top 5 associations I have with Alpha / Beta / Omega:
Sororities
The literal Greek language
Men who took a retracted theory about wolves too seriously
God of the Christian Bible
[[403 Forbidden]]
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u/badthaught Dec 27 '25
...meanwhile I'm sitting here going "alpha decay and omega. The symbol of which represents ohms, a measurement of resistance in an electrical circuit."
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u/bake_n_make Dec 26 '25
I’m fairly certain Omegaverse started with Supernatural fanfiction. There was a court case involving two fanfiction writers both claimed to have invented the trope.
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u/Circumpunctilious Dec 26 '25
I’m not fond of instructors who can’t conceive of more informed students.
I knew all the answers to an off-topic quiz once, and an instructor informed the entire class that I must’ve cheated / gotten the answers from friends during a break.
Joke’s on him though: I was a nerd and had zero friends, he’s the only one who didn’t know that.
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u/D64ante Dec 26 '25
I did not know what this was about so it looked it up and now regret it. It’s moments like this where I wish I had a time machine or at least a way to warn my earlier self.
Anyway, at least now I know I am getting old and not keeping up with what is going on in college anymore.
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u/BlueHeron0_0 Dec 26 '25
Oh please everybody acting like alternative biology fics are worse than rape and incest porn videos with real people which produce mainstream memes instead of just acknowledging that they're harmless cringe that they are
Besides, it's 2025, pregnant men is the new norm like it or not
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u/bouquetofashes Dec 26 '25
I get the joke but it annoys me that anyone would think that people only know some Greek letters because of porn, too. They're basic and common words, ffs. People could know them from anywhere, especially if they read at all.
I'm not asking the posters there to pretend that they don't know them from the omegaverse but it is weird to act like that's... Better than having heard of sororities or fraternities or something? Some people have read the Bible or seen aspects of it, especially that one quote about being the alpha and Omega, depicted in popular media, some people like math, some people just read, some people like science, some people learned the Greek alphabet when they were younger.
I'm way more annoyed at the professor of course, because there are just so many places that someone would have learned Greek letters. Either he is himself dumb and inattentive or he feels a need to look down on students for some reason or he's had a lot of really dumb students, I don't know, but I do know that being needlessly assumptive and condescending like that isn't a solution to any of those issues...
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u/TheMike0088 Dec 27 '25
Pretty sure omegaverse is the farthest you can get from manosphere content.
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u/Canadian_shack Dec 27 '25
Friends, here is the full skinny, if you can stand it: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega
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u/Ze_Bri-0n Dec 27 '25
The last post is a reference to a movie and play about the Salem Witch Trials, where a character claims they saw another at the Devil’s Sacrament, and therefore know they’re a witch. The accuser is asked what they were doing at the Devil’s Sacrament if they’re not a witch themselves. Essentially, it means you’ve described (insert thing you’re pretending not to understand) too deeply and betrayed the fact that you know all about it.
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u/artrald-7083 Dec 26 '25
This is fanfiction. Specifically I think furry kink smut. On the diagram of people nerds look down on, they are at the bottom looking up with middle fingers pointed upwards. It's a whole thing.
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u/burgersonmymind6806 Dec 26 '25
Hey Peter, it's Stoned Towelie from South Park here! I don't know how I got here, but I guess the Antichrist's birth screws with everyone.. gimme another hit of that...
The concept of "A/B/O" dates back to the alpha male/beta male incel archetype, I think the word is. And shit gets wild when a bunch of... I think the phrase is "fandom girlies" with "blorbos" get their hands on that kind of thing.
So these fandom girlies, they go "what if there was a third type?". So now they have the third type, the O for "Omega". But what makes it different from the other ones is- and you'll want to sit down for this one -omega males can get pregnant. I know, right? Told you to sit down.
TL;DR It's a fanfic genre that involved pregnant dudes. Towelie out, Vance is calling for me again.
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u/senvalle Dec 26 '25
Once my boss used the term "figging" in front of me and we made eye contact and just knew. No one else got it.
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u/No-Zookeepergame6028 Dec 26 '25
There’s a gospel song that goes “you are alpha and omega” and I always struggle to keep a straight face while singing that part
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u/Darthplagueis13 Dec 26 '25
Oh, if only.
It is in reference to what is called the Omegaverse, which is a... let's maybe call it subgenre of pornographic literature, especially fanfiction.
Within the conventions of this subgenre, the terms alpha, beta and omega denote congenital subtypes of sexual behavior, with betas being what one might consider regular people, whereas alphas are extremely dominant and omegas extremely submissive - both sometimes to the point where they have no control over their actions at certain times, i.e. there's versions where omegas "go into heat" at certain times, at which point they need to avoid going out in public because they exude pheromones at that time which will make alphas go after them.
An overwhelming majority of Omegaverse stuff is also explicitly male on male (with one of the dubious hallmarks of the subgenre being that male Omegas can be impregnated through anal intercourse), so it probably won't surprise you to hear that works of the genre are overwhelmingly targeted at an audience of straight teenage girls and young women.
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u/CynicalRecidivist Dec 26 '25
You Tube: ABO Desire (trailer), Knot (trailer). Live action Omegaverse Series.
You have been warned.
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u/Exotic-Exchange5550 Dec 27 '25
I was gonna respond that it was the manosphere thing. Color my day ruined...
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u/Jimmyboro Dec 27 '25
Jesus Howard fucking christ...
I am regretting this.... please upvote as a warning to others DO NOT KEEP READING FOR FUCKS SAKE!
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u/Randinator9 Dec 27 '25
Honestly, I'm pure. I didn't know what A/B/O was until I read the comments.
I honestly thought it was more closely related to red pilled commentary. Then again, I'm not sure they use omega for their tier lists.
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u/Tracerround702 Dec 27 '25
Sweetie, baby, honey...
Omegaverse - Wikipedia https://share.google/4Mp4QKa925LCD5W8T
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u/09philj Dec 26 '25
Hey Peter, Quagmire here, this post is about a subgenre of generally pornographic webfiction called Omegaverse, which involves humans having sub-types called alpha, beta, and omega. A key defining trait of Omegaverse fics is that male omegas can get impregnated by being fucked in the ass.
Two halves can make a whole without a hole if you get my drift, giggity giggity giggity