#but thinking about canon specifically - if an opportunity had arisen during the show - e.g. if the end of 1.04 had gone anywhere

[tunemyart]

When I'm thinking about Agatha and Rio, I'm so often thinking about what it means for Rio to be who she is. We don't know when they first met, but it was certainly before Agatha was giving birth in a forest in 1750. Which means: Agatha was young.

And yes, all the things this would mean about Agatha's ego and overconfidence, teenage-or-just-beyond-it Agatha feeling invincible in the way you do when you're young and stupid but combined with the mega dangerous Agatha-specific qualities of being literally the smartest person in any room, extremely powerful, and accidentally a serial killer. And then suddenly on top of that, she's quite literally fucking Death. Regularly. Because they're in love. Or more to the point, because Death is in love with her. Like, God. If that isn't invincibility, what is?

But it's not her invincibility that Rio's in love with. Rio is the natural order of all things. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think Rio was ever particularly fearful or overwhelmed about the eventuality of Agatha's death. In 1.08, the way she looks at Agatha while she reminds her so gently, "You will eventually die, Agatha." There's pity there, because Agatha is so furious and terrified and wild in this particular moment about the idea of her death. But Rio's accepted it - and why wouldn't she have? Literally what could be more normal to her?

And extending that backward: why wouldn't she worship every change in Agatha's body due to aging, each new wrinkle that appeared on her skin, honor the changes and the order? In no small way, that's her. That's Rio in Agatha. How could anything be more intimate?

But layering this onto the sexual forms of intimacy between them - how increasingly difficult would it be for Agatha, being Agatha, to bare herself to Rio like this? Especially with the gaps in their relationship where they don't see each other for years/decades/etc? And I mean, Rio already knows. It's not like Agatha can hide her aging from her. But it's one thing to be self-conscious of your body as you get older, especially when your lover is on a similar journey with you. It's another when a) your lover has never changed, will never change, and b) your aging body is only one outward sign of c) something that your feelings about go far beyond self-consciousness and straight into terror and fury... in no small part precisely because of who your lover happens to be.