#ANYWAY OT4 POLYAMORY IN SAVANNAH OR BUST

[keensers]

listen i just read your new fic so if you're still up for talking about writing characters TALK TO ME ABOUT MADI YOU WRITE HER SO BRILLIANTLY OH MY GOD

dear cynthia: thank u for this ask and thank you for your kind words (as always)!!!!!! AND, i will never ever NOT be up for talking about madi. ever. if i had the time i could talk about madi every hour of every day but i have to do things like “work” so i can “make rent.” but it’s sunday and you opened this can of worms SO!

1. madi really is as wise as her father and as strong as her mother. to borrow a couple of cliches, she has learned to bear the weight of the crown, and does so with incredible grace. the maroons clearly respect her a great deal - that isn’t something that just happens, it’s something that’s earned. SHE ONLY HAS TO WHISTLE AND HER MEN RAISE ARMS IN A SITUATION WHICH IS PRETTY FUCKING TENSE. this strength and the almost expectation that she’ll be listened to comes through in the way she talks, i think - you also get the sense that she always always always thinks through what she’s about to say before she says it. her words are measured the way anyone who has learned to be a leader has learned to measure their words; each one means something, each one is there to serve a purpose (an aside: i think we see this in mr scott & the maroon queen as well, more similarly in the latter, which would make sense). i actually focus quite a bit on getting madi’s voice right BECAUSE she has such a particular way of speaking in the show - she talks in these wonderful paragraphs (the speech she gives rogers in 4.09 is hands-down one of the most well-phrased in the show) that are premeditated and aimed very exactly at whoever she wants to convince.

2. when she trusts, it’s with her whole self. i think that’s both a) why she takes so long to trust flint and b) why she’s so cut up by what silver does in 4.10. i will also say, i think that she comes to trust flint because she sees right the fuck through him. she understands him at the moment that he says “i don’t know what i’m trying to say, i guess just that he was my friend” - we all know that’s bullshit! madi knows that’s bullshit! we know she knows it because silver TELLS HER about thomas, and then tells her that he’s the closest person to flint, now. i think there’s something that clicks there, when flint says that, because it’s clearly a turning point in their [madi’s and his] relationship. i really don’t think that turning point happens because they’re forced to trust each other by circumstance; i think it happens because flint is trying his utmost to be emotionally honest with her and she sees that and sees him. there are people she trusts because she has to trust them due to the situation (e.g. kofi, eme, ruth) but she doesn’t have to trust flint. that’s an irrational thing, borne of affection and loyalty and shared grief, but it’s SO strong that (just like for flint) it’s something close enough to love that the line gets blurry. i really think she did kind of love him, by the end. there’s no other reasonable explanation for the look on her face when she walks out onto the deck with silver in 4.09. (the ot4 fix-it i wrote hinges on the fact that) when you end up trusting someone in a situation like that, where trusting the wrong person likely means death, it’s very difficult to shake. that’s why i also think it’s going to take her a very long time (and possibly some swordfighting) to come to forgive silver. as i wrote in my silver meta, to save their lives, he killed the dream which was as much hers as it was flint’s, and all three of them know it.

3. following on that, madi is the single most idealistic character on the show with the POSSIBLE exception of thomas. this is partially because she’s one of the younger characters on the show (i doubt she’s older than 28) and partially because she was raised mostly in the more-or-less peaceful maroon camp, so she’s seen how a society like that can be built and can function. i want to clarify that being idealistic doesn’t make her a fool - as i mentioned above, madi IS really wise and has a deep understanding of both the world and the people around her. i think she puts the pieces together and sees a picture very similar to the one that flint sees, if a bit less rosy (still thinking about “we could even take boston”), just in terms of how winnable the war really is. she believes in the cause but she also believes that the war can be won. by s4, she believes in silver’s capacity to lead it AND in flint’s capacity to make it happen. i think this idealism also means she’s incredibly determined. she’s determined to do what’s Right; she has a very strong moral compass, and routinely chooses the less expedient thing for her own safety over the easy way out which she feels is morally repugnant. but she’s also determined in a simpler, accomplish-her-own-goals way, which is why i REALLY don’t see her settling into a life with silver after the finale. it’s going to take her ages to forgive him, and as i have been yelling about for the past month, that just isn’t a life she would accept for herself. like thomas being a “great man” because he just won’t shut the fuck up and stop trying to improve the world EVER, madi is the same way. i don’t see her resigned; i see her pissed off. i see her using that anger to do her utmost to change what she can, fix what she can, and remake the world so that she and silver CAN live in it together, because love doesn’t end like that. she just wouldn’t let it.