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eggiesins · 2 months ago

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See Me As I Am

Taking a stab at a Dragon Age drabble. The sad tired templar war criminal has consumed me. Feel free to check it out below the cut or on Ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59049958

As always, let me know what you think, and I hope y'all enjoy!

“Lace and taffeta?” Leliana asked, incredulous as she took a step toward Josephine. “Are we to send her to the court of Orlais wrapped up like festival candy? What if action is necessary?” She hit her palm with a fist to emphasize the statement.

Josephine nodded smoothly before replying. “The dress restricts movement, yes, but it is in line with current Orlesian fashion and gives us an advantage with the court as soon as she steps inside the Winter Palace. Not to mention, the silhouette of the red uniform would only heighten her short stature and,” Josephine paused, struggling to find the right words. The Inquisitor was already uncomfortable with the conversation, and she would prefer to not further aggravate the situation. “her...distinct curvature. If she is to pass as fully human to play the Game, a properly fitted dress with heels for height would be the best way to mask the more Dwarven features.”

Leoric had long since gone quiet while her two advisors bickered. To be honest, she wasn’t really even listening anymore. Either way, attending a masquerade ball at the Winter Palace to solve an assassination attempt wouldn’t be fun at all. There was no use letting herself get worked up about something as simple as what she would wear, but the loud arguing between Leiliana and Josephine combined with her grumbling stomach and that damned fly that kept buzzing around the council room had her growing ever more agitated. Whether anyone noticed the rapid bouncing of her leg, the way she had chewed her lip to the point of nearly bursting, they said nothing about it. The tension coiled inside her chest, a familiar anxiety and agitation, a build up of nervous energy threatening to overwhelm her any minute now.

“Okay!” Leoric finally shouted as she stood. Leliana and Josephine immediately turned to face her with wide eyes. Even Cullen, who up until this point had started nodding off in a corner, having finished detailing his security plan for the event, jerked back to attention at the sound of Leoric’s shout. She cast him an accusatory glance for his inaction.

Leoric sighed heavily before she continued in a monotone voice. “Look. However you want to dress me for this thing, I’m sure I’ll hate it either way so why not pick something that does both? Is there a way for me to dress ‘prettily’ enough while still having the mobility to defend myself if necessary? Bonus points if the dress comes with a hidden sleeve for a dagger or two.

“Actually, while we’re on the subject, let me clarify. I hate the Great Game, I hate the idea of being stuck in a room full of back-stabbing, stuffy nobles who are all wearing masks, and, oh yeah, might be assassins.” Leoric let the emphasis on the last word hang in the air before continuing. “Either way, it’s going to be miserable. Either way, how I feel about the situation won’t change a damn thing. I didn’t ask to become the Herald of Andraste, didn’t ask for the title of Inquisitor. I didn’t choose to become a symbol for the Inquisition. The person that I am, the real half-human being that I will be after this Breach is closed, none of it matters anymore.”

She watched as her advisors’ faces fell, feeling a little guilty, and more than a little mortified at how vulnerable she was making herself. She had struggled with her loss of identity since the moment she woke up in Haven, suddenly a hero and beacon of hope. It didn’t matter who she was, what she liked, or what she wanted anymore. Leoric no longer mattered, only the Inquisitor, Andraste’s Chosen. But not once had she shared those thoughts with anyone in her inner circle. Even Varric, skeptical snarky Varric, was starting to believe in her divine patronage more than her. It was nerve-wracking, revealing so much, allowing herself to be so afraid and so hollow in front of people she had only known for a few months.

The room was silent now, the fly’s buzzing long since ceased. Leoric only felt the rapid beating of her heart as she turned her gaze around the room, steadfastly refusing to make eye contact with anyone present. She knew if she looked, she would only find concern, pity, possibly even doubt. It was too much.

Leoric’s voice was low and empty when she finally broke the silence. “Who I was, who I am, and who I will be are all null and void as long as the Inquisition exists. History will not remember Leoric. It will remember the Inquisitor. Find a compromise for the dress. I don’t care.” Her tone finally admitted her defeat, her resignation to her role. Leoric turned on her heel and left.

As soon as she heard the heavy thud of the door closing behind her, Leoric picked up her pace. Moving as quickly as she could without seeming manic - wouldn’t want anyone else in Skyhold to start worrying about her -she made her way out to the courtyard. Ignoring the calls of “Inquisitor!” as she rushed, only focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, Leoric finally found herself at the stables.

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Back in the war room, the advisors sat in tense silence. This was the first time Leoric had so openly expressed any resentment toward her duties as Inquisitor.

“Damn it all,” Cullen cursed, shaking his head. How did it take him this long to realize something was wrong? Even Josephine was shocked by the outburst. Was Leoric truly concealing her feelings the entire time? Or had they all fallen into the same trap as the stray pilgrims who wandered into Skyhold, so blinded by the idea of the Inquisitor, that they completely failed to even recognize the person?

“Perhaps a dress with less structure, greater mobility. Yet long enough to wear pants underneath. Orlesian silk might work, though without a bodice and petticoat it wouldn’t exactly be en vogue for the court. But it could convey the necessary decorum without being too upsetting. We might even turn it to our advantage and start a trend.”

“Leliana!” Josephine’s reprimand echoed in the silent chamber. Leliana shot the ambassador a look.

“I understand the Inquisitor’s upset, and it is unfortunate. But, she is also correct. The Inquisition doesn’t need another person to lend it humanity. If the Inquisition is to succeed, if we are to survive this and defeat Corypheus, she must fulfill her duty as Andraste’s Chosen. I care for her the same as you,” Leliana’s tone turned icy and cold. “But I will not let Divine Justinia’s death be in vain. I will not let the sacrifices of everyone here go to waste, all to spare one woman’s feelings. The Inquisitor knows this and accepts it. She does not like it, but she doesn’t need to. As long as Corypheus is defeated and the world stabilized, that is all that matters. For now, our role is to find her suitable attire to play the Game. We do not need to enjoy it, but we must do it because it must be done.”

Josephine’s expression returned to its normal composed neutrality as she heeded Leliana’s words. “We can’t forget the hidden daggers for her...”

Cullen sighed and left to find Leoric.

Leoric struggled to blink back tears of frustration as she saddled her mare. The buckles slipped from her shaky hands, and the stable boys were too terrified to step up and offer their help. Instead, they pretended not to see their Inquisitor’s tear streaked face and resumed their duties in silence.

“They don’t see me. I am not real. They see their symbol of hope and ignore the rest. They won’t remember me when all is said and done, only what I pretend to be. I’m not real. But if I’m not real, how do I still feel so much? Why does it still hurt?” a soft voice, almost a whisper, right over Leoric’s shoulder.

“Damnit Cole!” Leoric nearly jumped out of her skin as the man appeared next to her. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath before turning to face him. “Cole, please. Leave my thoughts to me. I need some time to calm down, and I really can’t trust myself to be nice right now.”

Cole placed a gentle hand on her cheek and bent down to kiss her forehead. “I know what it is to not be real, and what it is to be in between. I remember you, Leoric. The writer, daydreamer, the free soul chained down. You are not lost, and, by someone else who remembers, you are found. Healing the hurt will come, and we will remember.”

Just as Leoric reached up to take Cole’s hand, he disappeared. Her hurt turned dull, and tears streamed freely down her cheeks. It was comforting, having someone she could call a friend. Cole lived outside the hierarchy of the Inquisition, outside the culture that had isolated her. Unlike the others, she knew that he, at least, could follow her and not the Inquisitor.

She turned back to finish saddling the mare. The knot of anxiety in her chest calmed somewhat, but all the pent-up energy still demanded release.

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It didn’t take Cullen long to figure out where Leoric had gone. Cursing under his breath, he moved quickly toward the stables, hoping to catch Leoric before she disappeared somewhere alone. When he finally spotted her, he saw the saddle fall from her horse’s back, watched as she kicked the stable door with everything she had. The sunlight drifted through an open slat in the roof, and even from a distance, he could see the wet shine of tears across her cheeks. His chest clenched at the sight and his feet began to carry him toward her. Until Cole appeared, that is.

Cullen quickly pulled himself to a stop as something sickly green twisted in his stomach. She jumped and Cullen’s eye twitched, his hand clenched. Her furrowed brows and tense jaw melted into something softer, closing her eyes as Cole pressed the kiss to her forehead. The green knotted itself more tightly within him, and Cullen was frustrated. He knew he cared for Leoric. By the Maker, she was all he ever thought about these days. He could be in the middle of paperwork, or training fresh recruits and would find himself wondering about her in the field. If she was eating well, getting enough sleep, if she might be cold during those chilly mountain nights. Sometimes his mind would wander further, though he’d never admit it. How prettily she smiled after winning an argument against Dorian, the way her brows furrowed as she worked on a poem, the afternoon light soaking her hair, her hazel eyes glowing like an emerald dipped in honey. He could kiss the tension away from her, just the same as Cole. Better, even. He would kiss her with all the passion he was capable of, hold her tightly to him as he lavished her with his lips and tongue, let her ride him until she couldn’t think well enough to worry at all. He would call her name like a Chant all its own, make sure she always knew that come what may, she was seen and she was loved.

But those were not thoughts a knight should have about his superior officer. There was still a war to be won, and she wasn’t looking, he was sure. There had been light-hearted flirtations here and there, the occasional blush dashing across her features as they spoke. But she already held the weight of the world on her shoulders. The last thing she needed was the additional burden of his heart, his issues on top. Maybe once things were over, there could be something more, but Cullen didn’t give that idea much attention. From what he understood, she intended to return to travelling with her family. She would finish her novel and live her life free of this Inquisition. Free of him.

Free of Cole, too. Cullen allowed himself to indulge in that small comfort at least.

Then, she was alone, turning back to try and saddle her horse again. Cullen approached cautiously, his mind already churning through how he could say what he should say, and none of it seemed good enough.

“Would you like a hand with that, Leoric?” Leoric’s brain froze hearing the commander call her by name. The tenderness in his voice, the worry and concern, she shouldn’t get her hopes up. She took a deep breath, refusing to turn around and let him see her like this. It was unbecoming of the Inquisitor. Her voice went hoarse as she spoke, doing her best to sound calm and collected.

“This...organization lives or dies by the Inquisitor who guides it. Should I ask for help pulling my boots on in the morning too, Commander?” Leoric winced at her tone, harsher than she meant it to be. She knew Cullen meant well, but that didn’t change the fact that, for the time being, she was his boss. He was just another among the many who expected, needed her to be a strong leader, the demigod they had all prayed for. She had acted out of line in the war room. Her emotions got the better of her and she had failed in her role. It had felt so good! But no matter how it felt to finally explode, it had done no real good for the people who needed her to be more.

Leoric gently pressed her knee into the mare’s side as she pulled the saddle belt tight. Large, gloved hands reached around her, holding the buckle steady and giving an extra yank on the belt. Wordlessly, Cullen finished cinching the saddle in place and gave it an experimental tug. Leoric sighed, trying to ignore just how warm he felt wrapped around her, the security of his solidly armored chest against her back. On a good day, the top of her head barely reached his shoulder. Today, she was tiny, wrapped in the smell of fur and leather, sharpening oil and sweat, the closest she had ever been to him. It was both comforting and infuriating. His attention only felt like pity now.

As soon as the saddle was secure, Leoric swiftly mounted the horse. She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead as she spoke.

“I’m going for a ride, Commander. I will be back. Whatever report you have can wait until then. I’d rather review it with a clear head anyway.” Cullen took hold of the horse’s bridle before she could make good on her escape. It hurt, seeing the woman who had once been so animated and full of mirth turned cold and hollow. Had he truly been so blinded by faith to not notice Leoric’s quiet death? Her slow transformation into this empty shell, the face of the Inquisition?

“I, um, well,” Cullen sighed and let go of her horse. Pretty words were not his gift. He steeled himself and spoke with sincerity. “I’d like to join you, if you’ll have me. Been quite some time since I enjoyed a ride myself.”

Leoric made the mistake of looking down at him, his hopeful expression sending a pang of guilt through her chest. She swallowed and dipped her chin in a low nod. “Try and keep up,” she murmured before urging the horse to take off. As she rode toward the main gate her heart raced and her cheeks grew warm. Leoric chastised herself.

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Leoric slowly picked her way down the steep path into the forest, guiding her mount carefully around the sharp rocks and steep drop-offs down the mountainside. Once they made it into the forest and the road flattened back out, Leoric urged the horse into a brisk gallop. The wind raced through her short hair and her thighs were beginning to burn from how tightly she clung to the saddle. It was amazing. She let her mare choose their direction as she basked in how numb the world began to feel. She could hear only the wind rushing past her, could only feel the cold mountain air chilling her lungs and the warm mount beneath her. The trees zipping by them began to blur and fade into the background.

Cullen, for his part, struggled to catch up to her. He was able to prepare a mount of his own quickly enough, but he was far heavier than Leoric and could never hope to outpace her on horseback. He caught up enough to catch sight of her riding ahead of him, almost losing his grip on the reins in the process. Even from this angle, she looked happy, free. She was beautiful. Cullen could spend the rest of the day happily riding behind her just like this.

Leoric’s smile quickly turned to panic as her mare pulled up short at a sudden log in the path, sending her flying over the horse’s head and tumbling across the ground. Her bare arms scraped across the pebbles, she sucked in a tight breath as a branch tore across the back of her thigh, drawing blood. Her shoulders bruised with the impact, and she muttered a quick word of thanks to the Maker that she remembered to secure her head and neck with her hands. As her rolling slowed to a halt, Leoric let out a low groan of pain. She’d been injured far worse during her time with the Inquisition, but now her pride was bruised as well.

“Herald of Andraste,” she wheezed to herself as she struggled to draw breath. “Dead by tumbling from her horse like an idiot.” She coughed and groaned again, curling into herself for a moment, trying to focus on feeling what parts of her had been hurt.

”-ic! Leoric!” Cullen’s worried voice called out.

“Fuck!” Leoric hissed, utterly humiliated. She didn’t think he would actually follow her. Why would anyone go so far out of sheer pity? At some point, the cost outweighed the benefit, right? The approaching hoofbeats grew louder and Leoric struggled to slowly sit up. She could still hear the hoofbeats even as Cullen’s boots hit the ground with a heavy thud, as his armor clinked and clanged against itself in his hurry toward her. He easily swung himself over the log and dropped to his knees by her side.

At once, he was checking her over, his hands running along her arms and torso before cupping her face gently and checking her eyes for any sign of concussion.

“Are you alright?” he asked in a panic. Before Leoric could respond, he pulled her in close and cradled her head into the fur mantle on his chest. “Maker’s Mercy, I saw you get thrown,” his voice began to shake. “You weren’t moving Leoric. If we los-” Cullen cleared his throat and pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “If I lost you, Leoric I don’t- I-“ “Cullen,” Leoric grumbled through a mouth full of fur. As much as she wanted to know how that thought ended, the gash on her thigh was giving her no reprieve. She gently pushed away from his chest and twisted in his lap so he could see the injury. “Fuckin’ tree got me. Sliced open by dead fucking wood.”

Cullen’s heart dropped. Blood poured steadily from the wound, it’s only blockage an array of dirt and pebbles stuck to the surrounding area. Tearing the sash from his waist, he gently lifted her leg to begin wrapping it tightly around her thigh. With every sweep of his hand between her legs, Leoric tensed and her cheeks warmed. Cullen pushed back the excited thoughts that leapt forward with each brush of his fingers across her thigh. Maker have mercy, what is wrong with me? Here he was, patching up the woman he had grown to love, the woman he feared he might have lost for good, and somehow he could not let go of the softness of her thighs despite the strength he knew was there. The pair breathed a sigh of relief as the sash was finally tied off and Cullen stood to retrieve the meager supplies he kept in his saddle.

Leoric couldn’t believe herself. First, she blows up in the war council. Then she fell off her horse in front of the infuriatingly handsome commander and had to be patched up. And now! Now, she wondered what it might be like if said commander’s hand had lingered on her thighs a bit longer or touched her in a whole host of other places. She had a bit of an idea from his pat down, when his fingertips danced along her torso and she couldn’t help but flinch at his touch. He was gentle as he tested for broken bones and bruises, and that gentle touch sent shivers down her spine. She wanted more, and it was terrifying. Cullen had already rejected her back at Haven. He saw a dwarf when he looked at her, and she knew the human blood she did carry would never be enough. She had moved on, mostly, enough to consider him as much of a friend as her subordinate could be. He trusted her as a friend and leader, and she wouldn’t betray that trust.

Cullen returned to her side, medicine kit in hand. He knelt down and passed it to her gingerly, all too aware of the shameful heat rising in his cheeks. Leoric refused to make eye contact, muttering a quick “thank you” as she opened the kit. The tools inside were rudimentary, a needle and spool of gossamer thread, a small flask of fire whiskey, bandages, and shears. She lay down on her side, propped up on an elbow, trying to find a comfortable position to stitch herself up.

“Here,” Cullen murmured, removing his cloak and mantle to prop her up on. “I, um, well, I -can help. With the stitches, I mean. Patched up more than a few soldiers in the field before, and with a mortality rate of only 80 percent.” He laughed weakly at the joke, kicking himself internally. Leoric raised an eyebrow at him and began to laugh, softly at first and then louder until there was almost an edge to it. She calmed herself down and wiped a grimy tear from her eye. She took a long swig from the flask before she sighed in resignation.

“Help yourself, Commander,” her tone was teasing. After the day she had, Leoric didn’t have it in her to give a fuck anymore. This may as well happen now. “Try not to kill me in the process.”

Cullen chucked nervously and tried to force his background thoughts into submission as he began working. The sash had done its job, thank the Maker, and the bleeding had slowed considerably. He wouldn’t have to cauterize the wound after all. He gently picked off any of the larger stones still crusted at the edges, rinsing the rest off with his water skin. Leoric’s brain began to stutter when he slowly removed his belt, chastising herself again when he told her to bite down on it. She did so just in time for Cullen to rinse the gash with whiskey and quickly set to work on the stitches. He worked with care, deft and quick hands guiding the flesh back into place with each tug of the thread, but Leoric still wished he would hurry up and be done. The pain had long since replaced any distractions of pleasure, and she was ready to go home and be done with this awful, humiliating day.

Once she was all patched up, Cullen helped her to stand, catching her when she almost collapsed from dizziness.

“You’ve lost a good bit of blood,” he comforted. “It’ll be safest if you ride back with me. The mare wasn’t injured; she can follow.” Leoric nodded, long past caring about appearances at this point. She let Cullen lift her into the saddle, feeling his familiar warmth against her as he climbed up behind her. His sturdy arms held her up, and she couldn’t help but sink back into him, utterly exhausted.

“Thank you, Cullen,” Leoric broke the comfortable silence as they rode back to the stronghold. “For everything today. I’ve been a complete ass, and you helped me anyway. I’m sorry too. Skyhold shouldn’t see me weak like this. How inspiring is an Inquisitor who falls from her horse and has to be carried back home?”

Cullen took the reins in one hand and held her tighter to him with the other. “You were right, though. We’ve all treated you like just a symbol of Andraste, and idea of a hero. I mean, that’s not to say...” He sighed. “You, Leoric, are very much a hero in your own right. Whether you’re blessed by Andraste or not, it is still you closing the rifts, securing alliances, and fighting against Corypheus. History may not remember Leoric, but I certainly will. I’m sorry, for not realizing sooner how we were making you feel.” His voice softened. “How I was making you feel. Leoric, you are amazing, witty and funny, smart and compassionate. You deserve to be happy, content, wherever that path may take you.”

Leoric did not reply, already lulled to sleep by the gentle rhythm of the horse and Cullen’s warm embrace.

“I may serve the Inquisitor, but it’s Leoric I care for, and that won’t change,” he murmured.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #cullen rutherford #cullen x inquisitor #cullen x cadash #dragon age fanfiction #cadash is half-dwarven #of all the characters to get brainrot about #why is it the blonde cop #im jewish #blonde cops and jews don't generally get along #dragon age veilguard #dragon age the veilguard

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missbrunettebarbie · 1 year ago

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CW’s Gotham Knights sorting

Attention: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Turner Hayes

The first thing that hit me about Turner before he was framed for Bruce’s murder is that he was genuinely happy with his life. I expected a lot of Main Character AngstTM from him, the way most protagonists are written especially on the CW, but there was none (or very little) of it. And it’s not like Turner doesn’t have sources of angst: his parents are dead and he went overnight from the son of cleaners to the adopted son of a billionaire -and all that implies- without any explanation. You can see it clearly in Gotham Academy (and in the city at large) that he isn’t very liked. Actually it looks like most people resent him for ‘getting uppity’ and rising above his station. Just look at how Brody treats him in the beginning or how the people of Gotham are ready to believe the worst of him overnight. But Turner doesn’t care. He has his best friend, Stephanie, he has Cressida and he has Bruce. He loves them and they love him; more than enough for a Snake primary. Sure, Bruce may be a bit too busy and it’s annoying, but Turner can always distract himself with a party. Classic hedonistic young Snake.

Turner’s arc is all about betrayal and how one deals with it. Turner is slowly, over the course of the series, betrayed by almost his entire inner circle: Bruce, Cressida and even his dead parents. Interestingly enough he is the person who doesn’t betray anyone even when they turned their back to him. At the end of episode two, Turner is the one who went to save Duela from the Talon despite the fact that she abandoned him to certain death. I don’t think Duela was entirely in his inner circle at this point (although I think she, Cullen and Harper were slowly getting there from the very first pilot when they handed him the lockpicking tool for his handcuffs, thus including him in their escape), but I think it was important to Turner that he will not be the kind of person to leave behind someone who might rely on his loyalty. Another moment that comes to mind is finding out that everyone at the Gotham Gala is gonna be gassed to death. His first reaction? “Stephanie is there!“

Like all healthy Snakes, Turner adopts Bruce’s morality as his own. And he’s so successful that I almost wondered if he was an Idealist for a while. But what sold him as a Snake for me was him saving Cressida versus not saving Joe Chill. Cressida had helped the Court to kill his father and frame Turner for the murder but Turner saves her because ‘this is what my dad would do’. So he blows up his cover to save the woman who helped raise him and betrayed him in the worst way possible, despite the odds being overwhelmingly against them. But when he finds out Joe Chill had been framed by Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murders and will face the death penalty….he does nothing. Despite the fact that Joe was arguably more of an innocent than Cressida, Turner doesn’t even have a throwaway line later on about wishing he could have helped him. (This plus the way he has zero remorse over killing the Talon also made me rule out Badger as a primary.) That’s because Turner is Bruce’s son in all the ways that matter, but he is not his heir in this show. He’s too much of a Snake to ever be.

His secondary is somehow even more obvious than his primary: this is the guy who had argued that they need to stick together from day one, who said that what makes them different from Joe Chill is the fact that they have each other, who was literally introduced to us extending a hand towards Brody when the latter lost the sword fight. He is such a Courtier Badger that for the first half of the show it almost overshadowed his primary. Not to mention, he is an amazing manipulator. Look at the beginning of episode two; after failing to convince Duela to trust Stephanie by vouching for her, he pivots: “[Put the knife down] or you might kill the one person who could prove we were set up.” He realizes Duela needs a self-serving reason to stop threatening Stephanie and he gives it to her. The same hyper awareness of emotional situations shows up again in episode thirteen when he wants to convince the group to have faith in Duela. The rest of the Knights are somewhat derisive that someone with Duela’s past and parentage could ever become a self-sacrificing hero…at which point Turner reveals his own parents’ secret: they were assassins sent to kill the Batman, and if they don’t trust Duela because of who raised her, they shouldn’t trust him either. And it works like a charm as the group gives into Turner’s wishes.

Duela Doe Dent

Duela is such a complex character, I wasn’t sure of her sorting till the very last minute. I think what’s important to look at in order to figure her out is her mom. Duela idolizes Jane Doe and wants nothing more than to be like her. And Jane is the ultimate hedonistic Double Snake. So of course Duela has a Snake secondary that is always ready for a con. But at the end of the day this is just the model she wears because of her mother. One of the themes of the show is trying to live up to your parents’ expectations and what that does to you. And modeling Jane’s Snake sec I think made Duela to feel a bit invisible. In episode eight when she talks about how her mom had so many identities even she herself forgot who she really was, it’s the first time when she doesn’t talk about her with admiration, but with fear. Duela is similarly terrified of losing herself while trying to live up to the legacy of being the Joker’s daughter. Deep down under that playful Snake, there is a Lion Secondary that is as blunt as they come. Her plan B when rescuing Turner in episode nine? A bomber vest to kill everyone if needed. Her reaction to evil!Harvey? To taunt him by throwing the truth in his face. Turner is dying from radiation? Duela tells him as soon as she finds out, against everyone else’s wishes. As Turner says she ‘has no grasp on social clues’, ‘she always tells the hard truths’ and ‘she’s always…Duela’. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence it’s this last line that makes her kiss him. This is the Lion secondary being overjoyed at someone liking Duela for who she is, not who she tries to be. Her fighting style (punches and knives to throats), her way of gathering information being kidnapping and torture and her tendency of giving Turner a reality check whenever he needs it are also evidence that support a Lion secondary. Her idea of a distraction is also hilariously straight-forward: she escapes from the police by pointing out how she’s trying to pick her handcuffs. (Sidenote: Turner and Duela’s ‘not offended’ game, aside from giving us THE most romantic line in the show, it’s also very Lion-coded IMO. There is very little you can say to a Lion secondary that will offend them as long as you are honest and it’s clear your intentions aren’t malicious.)

When trying to figure out Duela’s secondary I realized that she is incredibly healthy for a girl raised in Arkham by a conwoman. Sure, she’s extremely self-serving and would climb over anyone to get what she wants, but she has no regrets about it. It’s a tough world and everyone is in it for themselves. Except Duela is in it for her and her mom. (And she thinks the same must be true for her mom.) She’s a Snake primary who can’t be with Her Person. So she’s a little burnt. She doesn’t let herself get too close to anyone because what’s the point? Everyone leaves you eventually. Jane is the only person that had been there for Duela so she is the only one allowed to be in her inner circle. But than episode two happens and Duela abandons Harper, Cullen, Carrie and Turner to save her own skin. So when the invincible assassin comes after her, Duela is all alone. Except no, because suddenly the others are there and they are saving her life. She tries to clumsily thank Cullen for it, but he points out that if it wasn’t for Turner, they would have left her for dead. This is the switch that puts him on her map and slowly but surely, her Snake latches onto him. “I don’t care about Gotham, I care about Turner.” Duela and Turner’s first conflict in episode 11 is a deeply Loyalist one: she wants him to run away with her and her mom because she only cares about these two people, but Turner’s inner circle has expanded to include the others, so he can’t just leave. And the girl who’s already kinda burnt takes it as a betrayal and leaves without him. But she does come back when she realizes her mom is safe, but Turner is in mortal peril; or tries to. I find it interesting that her reaction to seeing the others imprisoned is to say ‘Even little bird’. And that’s because Carrie is the other person she bonded with.

Duela heals completely in the last episode when two things happen: Harvey promises to be her dad and commits a great sacrifice for her…and Turner comes to save her despite still being under the impression that she was never gonna come back. Her delighted expression when seeing him says it all. I always thought the Twelfth Doctor’s speech ‘Do You Think I Care for You So Little that Betraying Me Would Make a Difference?’ is every Snake’s dream, especially a burnt Snake’s, and Turner gave her this exact speech with his actions. Duela’s last scene mirrors Turner’s attitude during the whole show.

Harper: Duela, do you even care about the people?

Duela: No. But Turner did. And I cared about him.

She has adopted her loved ones’ morality and is willing to act on it. She’s a healthy Snake now despite all the tragedies that have happened to her.

(I am unsure about this, but I do wonder if Duela might have had a Bird primary model filled with nihilistic beliefs that she gets rid off by the end of the series. It would explain some of her more Idealist-like scenes, like when she is upset Joe Chill -the patron saint of small thieves- was actually set up. Or when she has to be comforted by Turner after saving the lives of kidnapping victims: “Just because you did a good thing doesn’t make you a good person.” The fact that this phrase makes her smile happily was hilarious.)

Harper Row

Harper is another Lion secondary that can’t be anything else but what she is. She’s blunt and forceful and makes her opinion known. She may be a genius but she is no Bird as she has none of the Bird sec traits. Sure she does research when needed, but she doesn’t show any particular inclination towards it outside life and death situations. As proven in the last episode, when she’s in a fight she goes for the biggest weapon. The way she stands up to Stephanie’s mom by throwing the truth in her face is also a very Lion move.

Harper is another Loyalist and for a while I believed she was a Snake with only Cullen as her person. After all, everything she does was and is for him. But she’s actually pretty miserable. Which is why I think she’s actually a Burnt Badger. @wisteria-lodge has this to say about Burnt Badgers: “[the Burnt Badger ]has decided that communities are unsafe, unpractical, and the only way to be safe is to be alone - or to try and be content with a much smaller community than the one they want. For this reason, Burnt badgers tend to look like miserable Snakes.” We sadly don’t get a lot of interiority for Harper (another reason to hate the cancellation), but I think her behavior towards Stephanie and especially Stephanie-Turner when contrasted to Duela’s is telling. Harper and Duela both have a crush on a person that has a very deep relationship with someone else, to the point that one can mistake the relationship as romantic. Which Harper does and starts resenting Stephanie and pushing her away in order to protect herself. She’s too scared to let herself get attached, typical Burnt Badger behavior. Meanwhile Snake Duela is just happy there is someone else prioritizing Turner like she does.

After their names are cleared, Harper says she might enroll in Gotham Academy with Stephanie, which to me shows that she’s looking to build a community.

Cullen Row

Cullen is the only one, alongside Stephanie, that is willing to deviate from their quest of proving their innocence in order to catch an art thief. While Harper refuses to risk her life in order to ‘recover trinkets for the rich’ and Turner says it’s not a priority, Lion primary Cullen has embraced his role as a hero of the city and thinks it would be unethical to not try and catch the thief and recover the stolen art. He’s also the one that wants to clear his name in the pilot because ‘I am the one who chose the damned thing’. If Turner wants to prove his innocence because he doesn’t want to be remembered as his own father’s killer and Duela and Harper don’t want to risk their lives in order to clear their names, Idealist Cullen is the only one who wants to do it because it’s the Right Thing to do.

I oscillated between Snake and Bird for his secondary, but I went with the former because deception is his go-to method. Need to trade the electrum for Turner but don’t want to give it to the Court? Just create a fake one. (And that scene is such a contrast with Lion sec Duela whose solution is to try and cut the powerful space rock with a run-of-the-mill knife LOL) Need evidence from the police station? Pretend to be a cop. In the pilot, when they knock out the cops chasing them, Cullen is the one that uses their station to keep the other cops from finding them.

Stephanie Brown

Stephanie is a Lion primary who is pretty much being gaslighted by her parents. She knows your mom being so drunk and drugged she can’t even stand at your school function is wrong, just as wrong as your dad using his money and status to supply her addiction just to keep up the picture of the perfect family. Stephanie does everything her parents tell her to, including ‘dating a guy with the right last name’. Except that’s not entirely true. Stephanie rebels in her own quiet way from the pilot when she helps Turner and keeps helping him and his friends after they become fugitives. You can see her Lion primary both loves the rebellion and the fact that she gets to be a hero, to truly do something good. As I pointed out before, aside from Cullen, Stephanie is the only one who believes it’s their duty as heroes to recover stolen art.

When she lets her father go to prison instead of giving Lincoln her friends’ location, Arthur Brown frames it as a Loyalist conflict: me versus them. But Idealist Stephanie doesn’t see it that way. What she sees is that her father is going to pay for his crimes, while her friends are innocent.

Her secondary was a bit harder, because I think it had been a bit burned by playing the perfect daughter, but I settled on Lion secondary. She and Harper communicate with each other in an easy and blunt way, like Lions do. She also has the Lion tendency of picking a strategy and just sticking with it, no matter how ill advised it might be. In her case it is using her hacker skills despite almost being arrested in the second episode. She’s also incredibly honest (when Brody asks about what she thinks about his dad, Stephanie just repeats that she thinks his mom is nice), uncomfortable with deception and goes after what she wants once her Lion primary has picked a path (see how she kissed Harper both in episode 11 and 13).

Carrie Kelly

Carrie is Bruce Wayne’s student when it comes to vigilantism and his true heir in the show. She is another Lion primary, and a Paragon one at that, just like her mom and her mentor. Like Turner’s and Duela’s, her story is about rising to your parents’ expectations, but in Carrie’s case, she surpasses them! Dr. Kelly is Gotham’s best surgeon who has double shifts at the hospital because this is the right thing to do and her drive has rubbed onto her daughter. So of course Carrie picks up on her mom’s, and later, Bruce’s, desire to save people and protect the city. As such when the opportunity arises she becomes Robin, Batman’s partner. Dr. Kelly is shocked her daughter would become a vigilante, but as Carrie points out she had been raised to do the right thing. This is also why she saves Turner and co in the pilot: she knows they are innocent and as such needs to rescue them. She’s still a young Lion who has quite the idealistic view and we see in the episode ‘More money, more problem’ -where she manages to put a mob boss behind bars only for him to be released by corrupt officials- that Gotham’s harsh reality could easily burn her. Thankfully I think the creation of the Gotham Knights would help prevent this.

As for her secondary, first things first: this girl is not a Lion. She steals the journal pages in episode two and keeps the secret about Batman killing Turner’s parents for the next eight episodes without much effort. She doesn’t have any Bird or Snake traits, which leaves Badger secondary, something that fits her quite well. I would say she is a Bookkeeper Badger, the other side of the coin to Turner’s Courtier Badger. Wisteria says about them: “A Bookkeeper Badger shows up and does the work. They are dependable, they are thorough, they don’t like cutting corners (Badgers consider cutting corners on something that they actually care about immoral.)” This perfectly describes Carrie.

Brody March

Brody doesn’t get that much interiority, so it’s hard to settle on a primary to him. I am oscillating between a heroic Badger or Lion as he turns on his parents when he realizes they are doing terrible things. I am gonna go with Badger primary, mostly for how much it seems like a community is important to him. When he joins the Knights in episode 12 he immediately considers himself one of them: “We would be fine.” There is also the way he seems to have quite the social life at Gotham Academy. This is mostly implied, but from the very first episode, while Turner is positioned as the outsider who will never get over the stigma of being ‘from the slums of Gotham’ and as such never truly belong in the upper class, Brody is the ‘guy with the perfect family name’ as Stephanie puts it. Everything he does is to live up to this family name, but unlike Stephanie, he genuinely wants to do so, it isn’t just pressure from his parents. You can see the first peak of the more heroic Badger when he does volunteer work at the hospital with Carrie and is bothered by the people left to suffer and wants to help them.

Brody and Turner’s pre-show relationship is fascinating and I’m sad it never gets fully explored. It’s clear they were somewhat close to each other, probably mostly because of Stephanie, but they are also clearly rivals in a lot of aspects: when it comes to swordfighting, to Stephanie’s affection and just to social status in general. Being the Bruce Wayne’s son, Turner is somewhat socially above Brody and pretty much all of the other students and you can see it irks them as they certainly feel he doesn’t deserve it. Brody believes Turner is capable of murdering his own father for money for…nine episodes, I think! And unlike most of Gotham, Brody clearly had enough of a rapport with him to have some doubts, but he doesn’t. I think these are the dark tendencies of a Badger to give into prejudice.

As Turner’s foil, Brody is another Badger secondary, but like Carrie -with whom he forms an organic friendship- I think he’s more of a Bookkeeper. While Turner may have been introduced to us in the pilot offering his hand to Brody, Brody is introduced when he accepts said hand, showing his fair play. His reaction when he is in uncomfortable situations (the gala, when he discovers the hidden camera with the recorded evidence) is to ask a friend (aka Stephanie) for help.

TL;DR

Turner Hayes - Snake who picked up Bruce’s morality/Courtier Badger

Duela Doe Dent - somewhat burnt Snake (with maybe a nihilistic Bird model)/Lion with a healthy Snake model

Harper Row - burned Badger/Lion

Cullen - Lion/Snake

Stephanie Brown - Lion/burned Lion

Carrie Kelly - Paragon Lion/Bookkeeper Badger

Brody March - Badger/Bookkeeper Badger

#sortinghatchats #gotham knights #gothaam knights cw #turner hayes #duela doe #duela dent #harper row #cullen row #stephanie brown #carrie kelly #brody march #this took me FOUR hours to make!#this show has given me brainrot #meta #my thoughts

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