#dbda character analysis

[diangelodork]

DBDA nightly analysis #15! (holy shit i can’t believe i’ve been doing this for over two weeks omg)

tonight’s topic is a bit outside of the content within dbda and is more about dbda within the sphere of media we have in the world.

something i realized not long ago and that i spoke about with my amazing psych professor (shout out my prof she’s fucking amazing but i’m not saying her name bc im scared of the internet) is the excessive emphasis that we as a society place on romantic relationships.

i would be willing to argue that love is the main theme of every single piece of media out there. this includes romantic love, yes, but also familial love and platonic love and self-love and a love of your craft and of your hobbies and a love of a concept like power. society is based around love. love is the most powerful motivator in existence.

think of the most popular media you can and i promise you that you can see where love comes into play.

it is also an objective reality that there is a disproportionate amount of media out there that is exclusively about romantic love. romantic love is important for lots of people (not everyone, mind you) and i love a good romance story, but it’s rather unfortunate that all other types of love get pushed to the side so often in favor of highlighting romantic love.

this incredible show, however, isn’t that. there is certainly lots of romance within this show and lots of triangles and circles and pentagons and other shapes in this show, but the main emphasis is friendship and that’s a breath of fresh air in the romance driven world we live in.

charles and edwin are, above all else, best friends. they are each other’s other half and they have been for decades. edwin confesses to charles nearly immediately after he discovers his romantic feelings because of how much he adores charles as a person. he is the most important person to him and he cannot bear hiding something from his other half. he confesses because he loves him as a person. as a friend. as charles. he can’t handle hiding any aspect of himself from his best friend. even when he tells niko that he told the boy he likes that he likes him, he says that he doesn’t like him back, but that they are “better friends because of it.” he cares more about charles knowing him than he needs him in that way. though it would be nice if the love of his life liked him back in the same way, him remaining his best friend is more than enough for edwin. him still loving him is enough for edwin.

charles’ love for edwin as a friend is also exactly what causes him to not immediately rule out a sense of romantic attraction to him. he could've very easily said "i love you, but not in that way," but he doesn't because he owes it to the person he loves more than anything to mull over this. even still, he does profess his love to him right there, only, it’s not romantic. he tells him that nothing would ever destroy their bond and that he's the only person he would ever risk following to literal hell. he tells him that he’s everything and that nothing could change that. he’s his best friend and that means something. it means more than simple romantic/physical attraction does. charles’ dedication and love for edwin is much more important than monty or tck’s attraction to him and him meeting a confession with “i can’t say im in love with you back, but you are the most important person to me,” is so much more impactful than if they had just begun dating right then.

when edwin discovers that monty betrayed them the entire time, his initial reaction is the most hurt "were you just pretending to be my friend?" i have ever heard in my life. he, most out of all the characters, values friendship over everything else.

we also see this when he's being tortured by esther. he's whimpering and shouting, but it's measly compared to the guttural scream he lets out when niko is struck. he cares more about her than he cares about his own pain and suffering.

niko hasn't had friends, as she says in E4 when talking to the shopkeeper. she does now and she's willing to face possible death for them at every turn, a thing that she has professed her fear of. she tells the sprites that she's scared of death, as her father has passed rather recently and she nearly did the episode before this one. literally the episode after she fully gets introduced, she decides to go and face her greatest fear to try and save them. she literally dies jumping in front of crystal and taking the blow for her despite the fact that that’s her greatest fear imaginable.

crystal never really had friends either as she was a selfish and shitty person before she lost her memories. she had people she called her friends, but it was never a healthy relationship as we see through her memories. with charles and edwin and niko, she forms a quick bond and is incredibly loyal to them. she tries to follow edwin, who she doesn't even think likes her very much, to hell and faces her abusive ex to do so.

jenny would do anything for those kids, following crystal to face aforementioned abusive (literal demon) ex and standing up for them wherever else she can despite not knowing a single thing about the supernatural.

niko is probably the first friend tragic mick has. the first person who listens to him and he provides not only intel on how to take esther down, but only genuine and concerned warning for facing such a dangerous witch as esther, as well as a charm that saves niko's life in the long run.

as @spaceraph pointed out, even the night nurse who is someone that clearly does not have many intimate social connections of her own is impacted by (non-romantic) love. she is genuinely touched by kashi’s friendship and it changes her perspective on what she ends up doing with the boys in E7. shes also incredibly emotionally affected when seeing the exchange between charles and edwin in his flashback to his death. she begins crying despite having been rather cold and calculated in all other scenes she is present in. love affects even her.

this show is filled with love and dedication to others, and it's so beautiful to see much more of an emphasis on platonic and interpersonal love vs. strictly caring about the romantic aspect of things. it's rather beautiful and wildly important. it’s held to the highest regard and that is so important to see.

[fairandfatalasfair]

I think Charles grins fondly when Edwin's being a bitch because he genuinely thinks it's hilarious and adorable. But I also think he admires the shit out of Edwin's unwillingness to tone himself down or file off his sharp edges. Charles needs to be liked so much, and he spends so much time setting himself aside and tying himself in knots to be what other people need, and Edwin just doesn't. He is exactly and entirely his snippy bitchy self and everyone else can take it or leave it. I think there's something exhilarating in that for Charles - both a sense that by attaching himself to Edwin he can borrow some of that fearlessness about outside judgments, and a thrill of knowing that Edwin can ignore everyone else's opinion because Charles is always, entirely, inarguably enough for him.

And there are downsides to that dynamic. Charles works really hard to manage the vibe, and the fact that Edwin doesn't really do that back (isn't equipped to do it back, because he doesn't read people and intuit what they need from him the way Charles does) sometimes leaves him feeling like he's carrying that weight alone. (who else is gonna keep spirits up? you?)

But also there's a reason Charles is drawn to stubborn difficult people with sharp edges who don't apologise for who they are, and I don't think he'd give up Edwin's bitchiness for anything.

[shaylogic]

Charles, within a few hours of meeting Edwin: I'd love to move in with you and start a business together

Charles, within a few hours of meeting Crystal: Hi! Would you like to see my parents?

Charles, love, I'm begging you to slow down

You absolute u-hauling lesbian

[bluebugjay]

So when they're solving the Devlin murders and Charles says 'don't yell at her cause you're not the all knowing expert on everything' and then when Charles gets stuck in the loop and Edwin immediately admits 'he's right, I don't know everything' and then in the next scene Edwin says it took Charles years to learn how to use his backpack so he has no chance being able to use it, I think it proves Edwin doesn't actually think he knows everything. Sure he's stubborn and a control freak and he likes things done in a particular way but I don't think he really acts like a know-it-all.

And when you factor in that scene with Despair where he says he doesn't have his books as an answer for not knowing where he is/ who Despair is, it seems like knowing things, reading, writing things (everything) down is something he does to cope. He doesn't like lacking control or knowledge so he learn and he collects and he knows. He's the brains not the brawn, he can't defend himself or Charles physically but he can with his knowledge - we even see it with the museum ghost in episode one, when Charles is pinned to the ground by the ghost, Edwin doesn't rush to push him off or fight, he finds the spell book, casts the spell and saves Charles that way. And in the Devlin episode when he's explaining the loop and the stone tape theory, he berates Charles on not reading the books around the office but he doesn't show off that he himself has. I think it's more that to Edwin having knowledge is a shield, it's his protection and seeing Charles not have that same shield feels the same as how Charles feels trying to teach Edwin to throw a punch in the first episode. They're both just trying to protect the other in their own ways.

So I think Charles saying that, was maybe more of a reflection on how he seems himself, that Edwin is the clever one and he's just the one who acts impulsively and does 'stupid things' like he says when he possesses Esther. I think this is implied when he refers to 'your way' and 'my way', Edwin's way being the thought out way with theories and backed up by research and logic, and Charles' way being get straight to the source with no plan and use aggression. And obviously he's so much more than that, and Edwin believes this too but Charles was in such a vulnerable state it makes sense he'd let other insecurities of his slip too.

[perseidlion]

I like to think that if Edwin had lived, he would have quietly embraced his sexuality. I love how in the show that the anguish Edwin feels is more about being known on a deeper level, and that his affection is focused on his best friend rather than struggling with his sexuality. I think Edwin has known for a long time that he was gay, even if he didn't acknowledge it or put words to it.

We think of Edwin and the time he came from as pretty buttoned-up and therefore closeted. But until the modern era, it was actually one of the freer times for queer people in London. It was more about scandals with married men or high-up people having affairs than your average man going to an underground club or having a lover on the side. This was at the same time as the Weimar Republic in Germany where queer people were living openly. It was one of those periods in history where queer rights took several steps forward and then were forced backward.

I think Edwin is uptight because that's a way of asserting control over a life where he's had very little rather than a classic closet-case. He had to shrink himself so much in Hell. The demon chasing him was all about not drawing attention to himself lest he be destroyed. It was the horrific personification of the fear of being known.

We see him start to get over that by the end of season 1. He's confessed to Charles. He's started flirting back with the Cat King. He was uncomfortable with Monty's affections not because he was a boy, but because he didn't feel that way about him.

So I like to picture the Edwin Payne who lived as having a rich social life with his favourite underground clubs and subtle flirtations. And I imagine he would have fallen in love (probably more than once) and maybe settled into the life of a 'bachelor' with a long-time lover. Or perhaps he'd find a woman who the arrangement benefitted as well and married her.

Maybe he got sent to the trenches of WWI (almost certainly, given his age) and maybe he loved and lost someone there.

In any case, I prefer this headcanon over him being closeted and unsure of himself. I prefer to imagine him not as a cliche closeted man from the past, but as someone who just never got a chance to shine and really know himself.

[alltimefail]

Okay so I have more thoughts on Dead Boy Detectives but this is less about scene analysis and more about my own personal interpretation of Charles as I truly believe Charles' inability to fully "reciprocate" Edwin's feelings is less about accepting his sexuality/lack of awareness about his sexuality and more about feeling unworthy of being on the receiving end of Edwin's love (and about bad timing - them being in an afterlife or eternal suffering situation on the literal stairs of hell, but I digress lol). This would explain, pretty seamlessly, why he seems to seek out fleeting or "fun" romances and flirtations. It would also explain why, immediately following the confession, there are micro-changes, blink-and-you'll-miss-it differences in Charles' behaviors and expressions. It's clear that our boy is reflecting, and he meant it when he said he intended to "figure out what the rest means..." even if it takes him forever (and I doubt it will, but again... I digress). This is why calling his reassurances to Edwin on the staircase a "rejection" and putting Charles in a box as default-straight is a complete disservice to his character, to the writers, to the queer brilliance that rings beautifully in every facet of this show, and to Jayden Revri who is an exceptional actor with a palpable, deep love and reverence for the character he's portraying.

As a repressed PTSD bisexual™️ myself, I can't help but connect Charles' history with abuse alongside his poor perception of self, people-pleasing tendencies, and his quickness to stifle and repress his own feelings and desires to his fear of being a "bad person." It would not surprise me if Charles would fear the possibility that he is capable of taking something fragile, beautiful, raw, and vulnerable (Edwin's love) and destroy it in the way his father did.

Charles has always loved fully and without caution; I would even say he loves recklessly at times, throwing himself in front of danger, even to his own detriment. But has anyone fully loved him back in the way he loves? Charles has always loved Edwin, but did he ever allow himself to humor the idea that Edwin might just love him back?

It's evident that Charles had very little kindness in his life. Charles' friends were conditional at best and violent/abusive at their worst, his father was a monster, and his mother (who, in all fairness, was also a victim of abuse) was quiet and complicit in the abuse Charles received from his father. His entire afterlife is intrinsically connected to Edwin's - his entire existence, and Edwin's entire existence, are so closely entwined to one another that to "screw up" the delicate balance they've struck would be more than unfortunate - it would be earth-shattering, a loss like no other. Charles is impulsive, but he is not careless...quite the opposite, actually. I truly think whether or not he's attracted to men is not the issue; it wouldn't surprise me if, at the very least, Charles is aware he is attracted to people regardless of gender and just doesn't have the language to put a label to that sensation yet (he might have never been compelled to put a label on it, frankly). The issue is that Charles is unsure if he is deserving of someone not just loving him, but being in love with him... especially when it's coming from someone he thinks is the best person in the world, the most important person to him, the only person he would deny heavy and defy hell for.

Honestly Charles might even already know he has feelings toward Edwin specifically that are not strictly platonic, but taking that gamble even though he struggles with feelings such as being undeserving of Edwin; that he would be selfish to take a love he's undeserving of; that Edwin might come to realize, at some point, that he was mistaken in loving Charles and that being with Charles isn't actually enough/what he hoped it would be and he regrets his confession all together. Or, perhaps worst of all, what if Charles finds that the nagging fear he's buried deep down was correct all along... that he actually is like his father and capable of hurting Edwin and bastardizing the concept of love as a whole?

There are stakes when it comes to loving Edwin - if he were to screw up what they have, the consequences would be disastrous, it very well might destroy him. He cannot be careless, he cannot be impulsive, he cannot risk destroying what he and Edwin have. I'm not sure Charles has ever not loved Edwin, but he probably never humored that his Edwin: touch-reserved, buttoned-up, logical, stubborn, beautiful, kind Edwin who brought a warm light to Charles in his darkest moment, could feel that way, too... especially about him. What is he to do with that?

[alexwilltellyouthings]

There's one thing about the scene where Charles beats up the night nurse that I think says a lot about his anger.

He was raging, yes, but he wasn't out of his mind-blind-with-rage. And you can see that in the way he decides to proceed.

He picks the musical sphere thingy and *wounds it up* before driving the night nurse to fall. He used her as bait and closed the case, when he could have just killed her without considering any of that.

What does that make of him? Dangerous, for sure, to the people that should not have messed with him. But also someone who sees the world around him even in his darkest moments and that is so, so important, even if it can go in a lot of different directions.

It also makes him a badass. A very hot badass

[idliketobeatree]

dead boy detectives characters as art objects and sculptures; extended ---

hello, i remembered i made some subjective explanations and notes on few of my choices for this post, and i thought some folks might enjoy it. soo let's get into it.

1.

monty finch

author: anders krisár

pretty self-explanatory; it's a moulded male torso with visible inprints on its skin.

anders krisár’ artistry explores the themes of loss, separation, and the condition of the psyche through the lens of a human body in duality: perfectionism meets unsettlement, skin meets marble and bronze and polyester, to create sculptures spanning geological time far beyond the living's capabilities.

monty's creation by esther was already stripped of any human agency. "he was made a boy, not a person", small, almost doll-sized, with a singular purpose: to seduce and entice the chosen dead boy into their doom. the naked skin and specifically the position of its arms are mildly erotic, but in a way that makes your skin crawl. the imprints are intimate, placed possesive; notice the thumbs digging close to especially sensitive areas like nipples and the belly button.

the latter seems to connect the "creator" to the subject, the navel here as a symbol of cruel, invasive motherhood. the fact that the torso is cut off in the middle and at the neck furthers the uncanny valley feeling of a young male body, but then again. this is a realistic portrayal. so was it ever a person? what does it have inside to make dents so profound? how deep you can press until it breaks?

--- i'm leaving out crystal and edwin (for now?), but @nicheoverhere brilliantly noticed that it was the same author for both. that was intentional! because glen martin taylor is all about taking kintsugi, which is a beautiful art form of repairing fine china and generally delicate things with veins of precious metals, but with materials like— nails. scissors. barbed wire. all ugly. the repair after a great shattering is seldom pretty after all, they really are similar in this regard. ---

2.

charles rowland

author: robert hudson

okay, strap in. this funky dreamy world belongs to robert hudson, and i picked it for charles rowland because it's all first impressions. the colours? the composition? they give you the 80s vibes, almost; like something a kid would design if you asked them what a time machine would look like. it could probably move in several ways. the pieces seem mismatched, but hold themselves together surprisingly well. or maybe you underestimate it?

it's neither big nor small. you can't tell its size at all. it's a bit overwhelming to look at, at first, and at second, and after a while, but it carries that comfortable familiarity and nostalgia for— well, nothing in particular, because the longer you look, the sadder its past seems. the bold pops of contrasting colour are fighting for your attention. they want you to like it! and yet, the major material seems to be just. rusted steel. made from tools.

and look at that botched up sphere, it wants so badly to be a perfect sphere and it knows it'll never be one. fine!! perhaps it could be a football ball instead! or maybe a head. if you close your eyes, that is. and this facing-up horseshoe? a lucky charm, made to collect good luck and keep it from falling out cause god, it needs it.

---

3.

niko sasaki

author: justin cloud

---

niko sasaki, now how do i describe her? let's start by saying— she's cleary a her. this one is a she. and there's something to be said about blooming, and femininity, and delicacy, because pink is a hopeful girly colour and a surprise and a delight.

what are you doing in a gallery, little flower, shouldn't you be at home? in a field? look how pretty you are! mind you, of course there's something wrong with her as well, but you're not sure if that is because someone messed it up, or because of a different entity alltogether. was it always half-electric? its elegance seems purposeful— the iridescent metal fits all too well with the white-pink petals— but also uncanny. and oh suddenly you can't stop looking at the stigma from which a pollen should release aaany time now.

when i look at her, at her black artificial stem and the small leaves imitating the real ones, i wonder if she doesn't want to lure me into a trap. is it her fault?

the beautiful petals seem like the only thing left real of the flower. whichever way she turns, it will probably mean— death. and flowers are ephemeral. what is a flower mounted to a wall, fortified with steel, connected with cables and enfused with electrical energy, then?

i think she's a self-preserving survivor. ---

4.

the night nurse

author: elizabeth turk

---

now. the night nurse.

of course it's the only piece in the collection where the background needed to be dark. no one here is older than her. there is no inoffensive, fading-into-background white for this absolute pillar of truth. or maybe something like a totem, quite protective in nature. and it's terrifying, 'cause you're immediately hit with the feeling that you're looking at something out of this realm, something you're not supposed to witness. the perspective is all wrong. is it downwards or upwards? why does it seem unstable when the pieces are so perfectly centered and seemingly well-balanced? child, you should calm down, it's not like you will destroy it with a stronger puff of air. will you?

this sculpture is called "tipping point — echoes of extinction", and it's actually a mix of technology and sculpture and sound, with elegant visualizations of the lost voices of birds and sea mammals. the author said it "was conceived in reverence to the astounding lives the species which envelop humans have lived and the mysterious ways they have contributed to our well-being. the shadows of their memory, whether a shape or a sound, have inspired this project." so the piece deals with death. moreover, it deals with murder. it records the harsh reality and makes sure the ones that suffered horribly at the hands of humans are, in a way, celebrated. but also— categorised. like epitaphs. the birdsong, once a living sign, is only visually represented by the lines of varying lenghts in 3D, and you can do nothing about it anymore, right, you can't bring back the dead, you can't help the innocent dying in any way other than— stacking them on top of each other and moving on.

---

so that's for now, i might someday write more if anyone's curious. :")

[wra-1-th]

I absolutely adore writing esther + monty's relationship. it's such a fucked up bond that you literally never run out of things to explore.

where did she find him? how are familiars created? had she had any before him? id assume there's magic involved that bonds a witch and their familiar that prevents them from losing one another and allows them to communicate. does monty have traces of esther's magic? is he able to harness it? how long to familiars live? if they're connected to their witches, how long can they live after the witch dies?

had esther taken "donations" from monty before? was he used to sitting on the counter as she took blood or feathers for her potions? when did she start? did she want to get him used to the role of a familiar quite young or did she wait until he was older? was it ever used as punishment? there is so much there.

did he know? did he sit down on the counter prepared to have a feather or two plucked, perhaps a slight pain but nothing he hadn't felt before, of course, and then she tore him apart and there was so much pain that it felt like it was coming from everywhere at once? did he ever see the remnants of his old body?

was he scared, when he looked up at her? when he smiled, because she was smiling at him? he was in this new body that felt so many different things, but he couldn't feel the pain where the needle had dragged twine through his flesh. she didn't see him as anything more than an experiment. when would he realize this?

did she take him clothes shopping? did they break in somewhere? was anything paid for? did she help him, give him suggestions on what to pick out? or did everything come from the back of her closet, from the styles she had long outgrown? did she choose the crow jewelry as a way to remind him of what he really was, or did he find it and want to remind himself? was there any comfort in it?

was she ever proud of him? did she ever think he was doing a good job in fooling the agency? or did she always want him to work quicker, work harder, always putting her plan above everything else?

did she make him queer? is that even something she could have controlled? or did she just tell him to flirt with the boys and it worked out that he was queer? would it have been better if he wasn't? if he hadn't fallen for edwin and hadn't gotten attached?

does he even know what homophobia is? (with the way esther looked two seconds from a hate crime whenever he brought edwin up, id think he has an idea.) but does he know what it means? does he know any terms regarding the queer community? does he even know how he identifies?

did he feel like he could fly again while on the swingset?

why didn't he die when esther did? id think familiars are connected to their witches, to their magic or their lives. were the things esther had done to him so vile that their bond had begun to fray? was he able to find a life for himself that prevented him from dying alongside her?

how does he feel about magic, after everything? would he want to learn? esther had plenty of books, and he taught himself to read. surely he could learn something from them, but would he really want to be involved in that? and what kind of magic would that teach him? does he have esther's magic? would he even want to harness that? would he want to figure out a way to switch between human and crow on his own terms? who would he go to to learn? edwin knows magic, of course, but how awkward would that be? the cat king is a shapeshifter, but a cat and a crow collaborating is a preposterous idea.

would monty want to learn about crows? can he communicate with them, or was he only ever able to speak with esther? crow parents teach their children, but monty's family weren't crows.

I just have so many thoughts about monty and im trying to translate most of them into fic but it's been slow so far. things to think about, I guess. monty deserves so much love and happiness but I will have to angst him first!

[gayboydetectivez]

I think everyone's autistic edwin headcannons are 100% valid but id also like to speculate on what the writer said about Edwin's touch aversion and self isolating tendencies that I feel are being interpreted as autism but may not be.

The writer said that he did not intend for edwin to be autistic and would not write a cannon autistic character without casting an autistic actor so while autistic edwin will always have my heart, it's not something that we can expect to become cannon.

The writer also said that much of the way edwin behaves is caused by his trauma both from experiencing hell but also from a very emotionally neglectful childhood. Many symptoms of PTSD can mimic autism and I feel the further we get into season 1, we really see him start to cope with those symptoms in a constructive way and begin to overcome them in a way that is more narratively significant if he has PTSD.

He has a strict dedication to routine and note-taking which could be autism or it's from the fact he grew up in a catholic boarding school where he was literally beat if he didn't follow strict rules, he went to hell where he was forced to live by rules of survival, and then only escaped hell through intricately mapping his way out.

He has touch aversion and doesn't like strangers which is common in autism, but also in those who experienced physical violence regularly.

His difficulty managing strong emotions could be autism but it also makes sense for someone who wasn't allowed to express himself at all for fear of being bullied, arrested, and then later in hell, hunted down and torn apart by a monster.

There are also symptoms he displays that are 100% PTSD like his intense startle response, his jokes about his hell trauma, his refusal to speak on his own emotions, and his defensive/catty responses when confronted directly he later has to apologize for because he spoke from instinct.

By the end of season one we see edwin starting to open up more both emotionally and physically with those around him (hugs with niko, the cat king kiss, hugging charles more and allowing himself to linger as well as being more forward with compliments and his feelings like in the post hell roof scene). He also is slowly becoming more okay with change as we reach the end of the 8th episode (accepting the night nurse and jenny into the agency without more than a comment on logistics).

I hope season 2 goes more into him breaking down his walls and learning to cope with his trauma even more.

[nocturnalnewsiestrash]

I was thinking more about this lovely post from the lovely @shaylogic, specifically the why of Charles' shirt changing to black immediately after Crystal talks to him about them staying friends.

And I think it has less to do with the fact that it's her telling him they should remain friends since she can't handle a relationship right now with all her trauma from David. I think this part, the "from her trauma from David", is really really important. Because from Crystal's perspective, she's essentially saying she cannot deal with romantic involvement so soon after David while he's still massively messing with her head and is in no way trying to say that it's because Charles is too similar to David, it's just that all her romantic memories are completely entirely filled with memories of David and when she's put back in the headspace of romantic feelings it brings up all the trauma of him and she needs more time to work through her trauma before she can revisit romantic feelings again.

Now from Charles perspective, he hears her saying that she can't handle a romantic relationship with him right now because of David being so in her head still. And Charles, ever the Reading People's Emotions boy that he is (built from his own trauma mind you) can tell that there's more to why she's saying it now. Like she quite literally just woke up screaming from a nightmare as she puts it and immediately says she's "fine" with an earnest nod to. With this context Charles is reading into why this conversation is immediately following this nightmare, which he has no details about so of course he's analyzing it and why she's saying this after it. Not to mention the fact that she pulled his specific move of brushing of concerns about your well-being. And we have to remember that this is following all the events of the Devlin house shaking his trauma to the forefront of his mind, everyone's look in their eyes following his attacking of the Night Nurse, and all the shaking of all his uncertainty about him being a Good Person and being Needed by the people he loves into the ruminating focus. So with all of this fresh in his mind, with him and David being referred to in the same sentence both with the same romantic context, even though it's entirely NOT what Crystal was saying, Charles still hears this, already in overanalyzing mode out of his worry for her and his own worries that are bouncing around in his mind so easily attach themselves to her worries and twist them until they look alike as overthinking anxiety often does. And to HIS brain he's now worried that he's like David. That now he has some "proof" that he might be a bad person in Crystal connecting him to David, at least enough proof for his own trauma induced "what if" anxiety to think that maybe these fears he's always had and repressed that are now being brought into reality somewhat actually ARE true. No matter what Crystal could have said in this scene he heard David and him in the same context and it became his own worry spiral even with his ever-present smile masking it.

So essentially in Crystal's attempt to explain without revealing her own trauma too much because she can't bear to do that yet she set off Charles own trauma response from dealing with his father of reading into every minute emotion and action to figure out how to understand so he can help her (and himself from the past) and this instinctive trauma response brings out his overthinking which then brings out his worries that he was already recently overthinking and they then got all mashed together in an overthinking sandwich and grew his what if I'm not a good person worries enough to take him down an entire shirt shade. His emotional well-being has been knocked down a whole nother peg from his new worries over any similarity to David. So that's why this conversation was the catalyst for the burgundy to black transition.

[diangelodork]

DBDA NIGHTLY ANALYSIS #14!!!

tonight’s topic: edwin and how charles is the most of everything in his eyes.

the thing that made me want to write about this topic is how in E5, edwin calls charles EXCEEDINGLY charismatic before telling him that he’s not subtle enough to deal with a ghost of suicide.

it’s interesting how he emphasizes the word “exceedingly,” to me and i very quickly realized that it reminds me of the way charles tells edwin that his smile is “prettyyyy convincing.”

now, charles is more in about every sense of the word than edwin is. in edwin’s eyes, he has more energy, more social skills, more of a tether to staying alive, more compassion, more dedication and empathy, more kindness, more loyalty, more physical fighting ability, and much more strength.

i also made the connection of how strongly and surely edwin calls him “the best person i know.” charles is everything to edwin. he’s the most everything. the only thing that edwin surpasses him in is bookish knowledge and im certain that edwin thinks that’s exclusively due to the fact that he’s had more time to read up on different things.

he thinks charles is brilliant (which he is). he for sure thinks that charles could be just as good at languages and literature and magic as he is if he changed his focus, but he doesn’t want him to because he doesn’t have to. because he can do that for him.

we don’t talk enough about how charles is incredibly perceptive and his reasoning skills are fucking great.

someone said once that they both see each other as the other’s sidekick and i think that’s so wildly true. edwin sees charles as the fighter and himself as the brains that stands behind him. edwin thinks that charles is the most incredible person ever and i find that so sweet about their relationship, because charles feels the same about edwin. charles sees himself as the watson to edwin’s sherlock. edwin is the mastermind protagonist and charles is his arm candy bodyguard.

it’s so important to me how highly they see each other. they love each other so much and it means the world to me. i think it’s part of why they work so well. they are unequivocally partners, but they don’t see that. they see the most incredible person to ever exist and their lucky ass being able to stand alongside them.

[fairandfatalasfair]

A thing I enjoy about Edwin is that he's an arrogant little shit, but he's especially an arrogant little shit to people who could break him in half.

Empathy and kind words aren't his strongest suit, but with people who seem vulnerable or who need his help he makes an effort. People who are throwing their weight around with him, on the other hand, seem to get him at his most supercilious. He responds to the Cat King trapping him in Port Townsend by telling him his punishment is "unacceptable" and loftily instructing him to "kindly remove it" like he's a misbehaving child playing with magic handcuffs. The Night Nurse tells the Principal that he and Charles are due for an extreme reality adjustment, and he snippily points out that he doesn't think she's in charge here.

I don't know if that tendency to bite back at people who try to talk down to him predates his death (in which case I can't imagine it did him any favours at school) or whether it's something he picked up after spending 70 years in hell on a technicality. Certainly knowing that you were unjustly sent to hell and the proper authorities are okay with it because the right paperwork was filled out would be enough to burn out any latent respect for authority in most people.

But I love his refusal to play nice with people who think they're in charge. Charles may look more like a teenage rebel and Edwin like a teacher's pet, but appearances can be deceiving. Edwin's got a mutinous streak a mile wide. They're better matched than they seem.

[shaylogic]

Cat King: I know my kingdom better than you. I'm proud of my duties towards my citizens. I hold responsibilities that are very impressive.

Edwin: You've forgotten yourself in your own lack of self-awareness and self-worth -- exactly proving my point.

[honeii-puff]

Edwin and Charles Parallels: Anger

When it comes to Anger, Edwin and Charles are two sides of the same coin.

We see Charles' anger more than we see Edwins, and it's firey. It's violent. It's loud and obvious. You know it's there. He is the protector, and how he experiences anger reflects that. He gets defensive. His anger is hot anger.

The only time we see Edwin get angry is in the woods when the Cat King tells him that Monty is Esther's crow familiar. You don't notice his anger. Not until he speaks to Monty. His anger is calculated and controlled, only exposed by the malice in the words "You're a bloody crow." He also lashes out at The Cat King after Monty is gone when he asks for a thank you. "This is what you are." you can't visibly see his anger, but you can hear it. His anger is cold anger.

The way they experience anger can be traced back to their own respective traumas: Charles with his father, and Edwin in hell.

From what we've seen with Charles' father, we know that they both share the same hot anger. It's violent and ugly and unpredictable. He hasn't seen any other reaction of anger before, so he could be bouncing off of what he already knows. When he gets angry, he gets very verbally defensive as well, which could be a protection mechanism.

When Edwin was in hell, he had to be quiet. unnoticeable. That's the main reason why his emotions are so repressed. He had to forget how to feel in order to survive The Dollhouse. This is why he's so in control of his anger. It was his own protection mechanism, but instead of needing it to lash out, he needed it to hide so he could survive.

Different sides, same coin

[perseidlion]

I completely understand why people give The Cat King a grandiose background in fic or in headcanons. I personally prefer to write him as kind of pathetic.

Why? Well, it's just more interesting to me because Cat not being some all-powerful being who is apart and above the boys makes things more equal. It's especially good fuel as a Catwin writer. It also avoids the trope of the worldly and morally gray immortal seducing a naive hero.

I also think it has basis in canon. Cat implies that he's 'hundreds of years older' than Edwin, which means he's probably not an ancient being. He's also not fully immortal. He has nine lives but presumably at the end of those, he'll die.

Then there's the fact that his 'kingdom' is Port Townsend, a tiny tourist town on the Pacific Northwest. Not exactly the king of a very large hill. I mean, his throne is a stack of palettes and his castle is an old cannery.

Then there's his actual power level. Esther is a very powerful witch, but she bests him without the use of magic. Cat has no defense against a woman with a cane. His magic doesn't seem to be especially powerful, either. His power is flashy and mysterious, but we never really see him defend himself or attack with it. The most impressive thing he does is make the bracelet, which is probably not unique magic.

The other thing that takes his power away is that he's down so bad for Edwin from the second they meet. All his machinations are to get Edwin to pay attention to him. He even acknowledges how pathetic that makes him, even if he says that's down to him being 'a romantic.'

This to me is all much more interesting than if he's a more typical Sandman-esque powerful and mysterious elemental being. It puts him on more equal footing with Edwin, who is accomplished and capable in his own right. No one knows who The Cat King is, but the second the ghosts of Port Townsend hear the Dead Boy Detectives are in town, there's a line around the block. That implies the boys are very well-known with a stellar reputation.

That's also why I don't like the idea that The Cat King is a Child of Desire. I get the connection between them, certainly, and why people like that idea. But making him a Child of the Endless gives him too much importance. Plus, as we saw from The Sandman, that would mean the other Endless couldn't mess with him, which I think would be a missed opportunity.

Maybe they will go that way in Season 2! It would certainly be a treat to see Lukas and Mason play off each other. And I'm sure I'd enjoy it.

But for now I'm enjoying writing Cat as a fifth-rate animal spirit from a tiny town who talks a big game and falls hard for an Edwardian ghost.

I wrote my version of The Cat King's background in my fic Cat and Ghost in case my analysis tickles your fancy.