#anyway there's a saying; “róka fogta csuka” which basically refers to a fox catching a pike; and the pike biting back; “catching” the fox

[invinciblerodent]

i swear, every time I play Iona for even the shortest time (just did the hag quest, it was done very quick), I get new feelings that I then don't fully know what to do with

(she probably relates to Mayrina in more ways than just the whole "being insufferably pretty (see above)" and "partner is undead and there's not much to do about that" angles)

And right now i'm thinking mainly from the "lost little girl married village boy far too young" angle, but there's also the "husband became someone you don't quite recognize" and the "shackled by duty to a relationship that is -whether literally or figuratively- no more than dead weight" aspects that have me wanting to eat aquarium gravel

I like to think that Iona; loveless as her marriage was; really WANTED to love Herric. For like the first decade or two; she wanted to love him so much, because, by all means, it SHOULD have worked well. They should have been a success story.

They were similar ages (though her slightly older), they were members of the same community, and, young as he was, he was also handsome enough- not to mention that, hidden as her real self was, everyone was saying that they were a good match. He loved her with the textbook puppy love of young men, and she -she supposed- liked the attention, and the safety marrying "Birchlight's boy" gave her, cementing her position in the community even despite her and her father coming in as outsiders, and as fey folk.

But that wasn't enough.

It soon became apparent that what they each loved wasn't the other, but the idea of the other: he loved the thought of having a docile, unremarkable, but unaging, pretty, and sexually available elven maiden wife (who'd give him many pretty half-elven children), and she liked being married to a kind dolt of a man whose "normalcy" could cast a wide enough shadow to conceal her as well.

Neither was anywhere near the truth.

I think this is why I love playing with honesty and dishonesty between her and Astarion so much, because while they both have ample experience leading people by their noses, when it comes to each other, they're both mostly aware of the deception from the first moment on. They know that what they're seeking from the other isn't love, they play at courtship, play this fox-and-pike game while masquerading as cat and mouse, and they both know it's fake very well, until it suddenly isn't, and they're both kind of left stumbling in the dark, trying to find each other.

This is why I love the headcanon I have that, following his act 3 romance scene, her own little scene (so her big character development moment) is them using the tadpole to meld their minds.

Until then, she never allowed anyone into her mind willingly and avoided using the tadpole whenever possible, but... it's such a gesture of trust, for her, to not just allow, but invite him in like that!!!! and not even with any ulterior motive, but just because she can't think of another way to show him that the her that's deepest in her mind, the most private, most well-guarded part of her, is one who loves him.

Just.

I love their fucked up love so much, man