#feeling very eloquent and wordy today lmao

[strqyr]

salem's father kept her locked in a tower out of fear that he would lose her too after having lost his wife—"i am protecting you from anything or anyone that might hurt you. you are the most precious thing in the world to me. i could not bear to lose you."—, but eventually she came to realize that her father did not love her like a parent loves a child, but rather he thought of her as just one of his treasures that he had started to hoard over the years.

and when his worst nightmares became reality, and many warriors came and attempted to rescue salem, failing and perishing, he barely batted an eye, his sole focus defending the castle and thus keeping his daughter safe.

(that is, as far as the fairy tale goes. who knows how it really happened.)

then, upon her father's death and salem finding freedom not in the outside world but in being with ozma, she unfairly loses him, not in a battle like one might imagine, but to an illness.

is it any wonder salem might find it difficult to empathize with others, let alone care about them beyond how useful they are for achieving her goals, when her father was basically the only example she had to follow from her childhood? when the first person she loved and cared about died in a way she didn't find fair?

it's a tragedy, yo.