#That Aspros dies a tragic death sometime before being confirmed to be Pope.

[arcgeminga]

If Aspros became the Pope and he was not corrupted , tell us more of what kind of pope he would be. Would he ask Sisyphus to help him?

♚— This will require some thought... and therefore a lot of rambling (since I'm a Virgo, and my thought process is literately working things out while I talk about them.)

But let me be very clear and cut about this: this is entirely AU. My take might not even be what other people's takes might be. However, I will try to follow canon as closely as possible. But again, completely taking out Youma's corruption changes the game a very drastic measure.

I don't think the Pope is above asking Saints for help. Hell, in the Netflix Saint Seiya series and in Next Dimension, they use the Silver Cup/Chalice cloth thing to predict the future/get told prophesies and all. If Aspros became the Patriarch, he would not be against asking for aid when he needs it. But he knows that the head honcho of Sanctuary must be at least a step ahead of whatever calamity is coming.

Therefore, I think Aspros would have stationed Sisyphus as a surveillance guard of sorts. Similar to how Dohko was for Shion. Non-corrupt Aspros wouldn't have burned down the bridges of his relationships, so he would have maintained his friendship with Sisyphus and Hasgard, as well as made new connections.

Aspros was still like three steps ahead even after Shion took over iirc. I can't understand Spanish well, but I believe that, after Youma escaped the beads in the second half of Shion's Gaiden, Shion used some method that Aspros had been planning in the background. I don't remember what it was exactly and I can't read Spanish well, but with that, I can safely say that Aspros would be similar to Sage in his preparations but has everything considered and developed.

I don't think he'd be loyal strictly to Athena, but I think he'd be loyal to his cause. His cause is to minimize the suffering and to make Sanctuary a better place for outcasts like his brother. If that means siding with Athena, then so be it--but it also means that he makes his own judgments and conclusions on his own, not in the name of Athena. So, in that respect, I feel like he'll be transparent about his ambitions (unless he knows that his subjects will disapprove of his actions).

We don’t know how an uncorrupted Gemini Pope would be. Kurumada seems to like the idea of the Gemini Saints having a twisted evil in them even though their inherit nature is pure. But, even with all of that said, we cannot say that we never had a Gemini Pope.

So, taking Saga as reference, I feel like Aspros also would do his best to help saints and Athena even if he’s not strictly loyal to her. He will know Pope secrets, yes, but he will be more careful about how he handles that knowledge. Do I think he would tell a devote Saint like Seiya and the bronzies about the secret of Athena’s blood? No. He only told Defteros about it because in Canon TLC because he was sort of bragging about it. And Shion in Classic was already kinda dead, so there was no one alive that knew the secret of Athena’s cloth (I don’t think even Saga knew). Aspros though? He’d probably keep that completely to himself unless he knew that he was going to die very soon. If he knew that he was going to die, he’d probably confide the secret to Manigoldo (because he was Sage’s student--and if you want to follow my OTP bias, they would have been together during this as well... but that’s SEVERLY AU), Sisyphus, and Defteros.

Speaking of Sage, since we’re going down the route of Aspros not being corrupted, that would most likely mean that Sage is retired at this point since he didn’t get assassinated or killed (HOPEFULLY??? PLEASE ANON DON’T KILL SAGE THINK OF MANIGOLDO-). This will be the first time that we’ve ad a retired pope rather than a killed one. Okay so... bare with me... 

I feel like Sage would have retired somewhere very remote, but still accessible. And even if it was very far away, Aspros can still contact him through (phone line) their Cosmos. I feel like Sage and Aspros would have been on good terms, so Aspros would occasionally check in on Sage (Especially if we’re going with my OTP bias) or ask him for his opinions on certain matters. He’ll take Sage’s words with heavy consideration and a tremendous amount of respect. I feel like he’ll even make time to visit the Old Twins every now and again just to check up. Although we all know that Manigoldo is practically Sage’s adopted son, in my headcanons, Sage was Aspros’ father-figure as well, so he’ll be visiting Sage out of that respect  as well.

I don’t want to ramble too much, but the last thing I will talk about is Aspros’ stance on Sanctuary’s prejudices and what happens to Defteros. I’ve already kinda already spoke about it in another ask, but I wanted to save this for last since it deals with uncomfortable topics such as racism and sexism.

if you’re uncomfortable with that, then please stop here.

♚— Now, let’s get to the serious topics.

 As Pope, Aspros would have worked really hard to erase what he didn’t believe was justifiable. This may include completely uprooting the system of his time period--which would probably go against a lot of people’s mindset. The 18th Century wasn’t a good place for people of color or women. If I recall correctly, the whole slavery ordeal was just coming to an end (at least in America), but a lot of people would have still been trying to frame POC as something less than human so that they can keep treating them badly. As a result, even to this day, humans are stick with a mindset that POC (and women) are inferior to the white man.

Aspros is very progressive for his time. It’s probably because his brother is a POC even though they are both Greek, but even in Aspros’ gaiden, he wanted to get rid of that barrier that separated people because of their race, color of skin, gender, and whatnot. Say what you want about him, but Aspros’ original ideal is equality. That’s the reason why he aimed to be Pope--and that was for the sake of his little brother.

As pope, Aspros definitely would have made a few enemies within and outside of Sanctuary. People don’t like change, and Aspros’ goal was too far ahead of his time. Most men didn’t (and still don’t) like women showing them up, so they would get bitchy if Aspros abolished the rule that female saints must wear a mask (he’ll make it optional i suppose). And most of the lighter skinned people would have seen those of darker complexations as inferior, which would make their pwetty widdle pwides hurt if Aspros allowed opportunity to those kinds of outcasts.

Will I say that he would have been assassinated? No, but I’m also not ruling out attempts since Abe Lincoln was assassinated because he outlawed slavery here in America. But Aspros would have ha hard time implementing those changes because he would have a lot of rubberish obstacles in his way by those people who didn’t want to change. It also probably meant that he kept a circle of people he could trust, including the Gold Saints he fought along side with.

I’m also thinking, however, that he would have had an absolute 0 tolerance policy when it came to discrimination. If he catches or hears of someone in his close circle doing shit that he doesn’t like, he’d cut them off.

He’d also make Defteros the Gold Gemini Saint, as I mentioned in the other ask. Not only would he not need it anymore as Pope, but I feel like they can share the Gemini Cloth. Depending on the circumstances, if Defteros feels that his brother is going to be in danger, he can just transfer the cloth to him for extra protection, and vise versa although I feel like that kin of thing won’t happen too much. They’re  both gold saints, so they don’t really need the cloth in order to use their full power, as Aspros implied in his Gaiden. So, by making Defteros the Gold Gemini Saint, he gives his brother recognition and acknowledge that his brother is his equal, not an inferior replica.

I’m not saying Aspros would be a benevolent Pope. He definitely would have been a hardass to those outside his trusted circle. However, even when acting like a jerk to the eyes of many, he’ll try his hardest to make Sanctuary a true sanctuary in regards to opening up it’s narrow worldview in regards to all minorities.