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soo-won · 14 days ago

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Suwon's character analysis: From being shown to showing

Suwon is really a character all about being watched and scrutinized, isn't he?

Of course he's not self aware he's a fictional character but his position as a King and in relation to Yona ironically put him in a position that gives him a similar awareness that if he did. Suwon is judged and analyzed by everyone, in and outside the story. He knows that when he shows himself (and appears in the story) he has to perform a certain way. He has a role to follow and perform until the end. The way he speaks, the way he stands, the way he moves...being King means controlling and being aware of all of it. The moments we see through this costume are moments where he's taken by surprise and becomes "out of character" for this role. Moments where he's literally called out by characters around him for it, making him fall in his expected role more and more. He has to behave a specific way, he has to wear specific attires, he is very aware he is the object of many gazes around him. When he performs his role perfectly he is judged but in ways he expects because it's others' roles as well. When he breaks out of this role, he is judged anyways for losing himself. No matter what Suwon does or says, others will judge him or love him and expect things from him. It is true in the narrative and outside of it.

The South Kai arc with chapter 221 and 224 has him desperatly try to stick to his role that is slipping through his fingers, he has to position himself in contrast and opposition to Yona, he has to be the King his father wanted until the very end, etc. Yet, Yona and Hak kept breaking these roles as well. Hak, in full armor from Kai, the enemy, arrives and gives the senjusou to Suwon, in full King attire at this moment. Hak enters the stage like a blast when the curtains were about to fall and turns all formalities and rules of distance and what is allowed or not to dust. He breaks the role he carried until now as the character that should hate Suwon forever and try to kill him, and saves him instead. The fact that Suwon is King then doesn't really matter, Hak did this as his former friend.

In chapter 243, Suwon wants to speak to Hak privately but is well aware that if he comes out and does that, he will be seen and judged, confirmed by the shadows in chapter 251. He is not allowed to be himself without any costume freely, hence the cloak and hood on. He is not allowed this one private moment, eyes are on him and not only Hak's that he very much expects as well. That's why Suwon's tone the whole chapter is so...ambiguous. At the beginning, he speaks matter of factly, maybe not as "Hak's King" but at least in a unpersonal way, like an anonymous messager. He tells him information. That's why he calls Yona "Princess Yona" too I think. It is Suwon trusting Hak and relying on him personally, yet he is not totally open yet, Suwon still has a role to play. The more it goes, the more the tone shifts subtlely, now calling Yona by her name, his hood falling when Hak hits the wall, and talking more personally. What he shares then is what he is resigned to do and accept given his position and role that he can't just give up on now, what is the most reasonable within the range of his actions from then on. What he conveys to Hak is that he will not break character and stop performing his role as King, the one thing changing being only how he passes it down to Yona.

However, there is one final thing that the manga makes perceptible for absolutely no one but Hak, that even the shadows can't hear and understand. Suwon's last word(s) to Hak is not digitally typeset like every other text inside speech bubbles, but handwritten so small it looks like muttering that we can't for sure confirm the full forms of. Since chapter 243 came out, I did try for a long time to decipher it, and many concluded it could be a "sayonara" or "arigatou", and it was also translated and typesetted in the official English translation as "Farewell".

But honestly, now I think it is something we should not and are not supposed to decipher. In my eyes, it was Suwon's attempt to have just one thing, one word that would not be scrutinized and broken down to pieces by the people that watch him with no regard to his agency. The only thing we break down is the unintelligible form of it. I'm sure that we are not wrong to think it was something along the lines of a "Farewell", but I can't help but feel like it's not right to take even that from them now. This page is also the trigger that makes Hak understands that their entire convo was in itself a performance that Suwon directed from the start and aimed at people looking at them (the shadows and the audience), and the real message that he conveys only to Hak and not the shadows is that he is giving him and Yona a chance to escape and never return, despite the fact it goes directly against what he told him clearly in their conversation. I think this is what breaks Hak's heart too then, and why Hak realizes that he indeed can't dream of walking on the same path as Suwon anymore. Because Suwon will keep performing a role that will constrain him this way and make him hurt Yona and Hak. That this is maybe the path awaiting them too. The best way is to escape from it when it's not too late. It is too late at this point for Suwon though, or so he thinks. Suwon is self-aware that he can't discard them by this point, so to me this is him trying to negociate these feelings of his (by leaving them one chance to leave) with his role and constraints as a King in this complicated, indirect way.

It's very telling afterwards how the moment from chapter 243 Hak remembers is Suwon's final word that we can't read, whereas for the shadows it is the moment he tells Hak he will make Yona the next ruler. The unreadableness of the former and the enhanced size of the text in the latter...yeah. Suwon's words removed from their full context often are enhanced like that, aren't they?

Suwon is at the same time forced and not allowed to change. He is at the intersection of clashing expectations. It is bad whether Suwon follows his role perfectly or whether he breaks out of it a little and tries something different. Suwon is cruel to Yona and Hak and should die for his actions, or Suwon is too nice and submitting to Yona and Hak (and the larger narrative). No matter what Suwon says and does, it will cause discourses after discourses from both those supporting him and those against him. It is cruel, because people around him are changing and looking him differently than before, whether it's good or bad. In chapter 242, he acts out perfectly as the determined and pragmatic King he is as always, yet now even Geuntae doesn't seem satisfied. Suwon, because of Yona's influence on the people and world around them, has also no other choice but to adapt to these changes in some ways, yet characters like the shadows that refuse any change from 10 years ago stand against it. Again, then chapter 243 to me is Suwon's way to still perform his role as expected from others by negociating with all these sides in some ways. But it's really so complicated, isn't it? And in the end, a chapter like 243 was painful and upsetting for everyone.

I read many people say that Suwon was not here enough in the castle arc and it was annoying that Keishuk was so much present instead, and I remember very well how desperate I was to see him more by then, but it makes sense too, no? After all, Suwon didn't want to be seen. By showing himself as little as possible only in the moments he knows he can perform well, he was still somewhat in control of what people saw of him. The illness made it that Suwon could just not perform more than he did. He didn't want anyone and especially not Yona and Hak to try to see him beyond the performance, yet they kept getting closer and closer, pushing Suwon to hide himself away more and more too.

Suwon knew very well that the second he came out in the open he was closely looked at, by Shin-ah of course, but Shin-ah is only the best example of this general feeling of being watched and judged I think. This is Suwon's interpretation of Shinah's gaze, and I'm sure there is part of truth in it but I think it is also heavily influenced by Suwon's own feelings. Suwon was judged and followed for isolating Yona when she learned of the illness and for imprisoning Hak, but those were things he was only /indirectly/ the cause of. Of course, Suwon didn't do anything to go against them and it was his responsibility this way, he knew and had the authority to decide different, but what I mean is it portrays very well how Suwon is aware, /feels/ the way others scrutinize him ever since he killed Il for every single negative (direct and indirect) consequences of all he does and is. He will never be free from it. People will never let go, even when Yona and Hak do. I think the wound on his shoulder or the pain of his illness he doesn't act on enough are also symbols of that. His present shoulder wound is the literal trace and scar of Shinah's gaze on him in chapter 249, and Suwon is okay with carrying it.

It's not like the story has never let us enter Suwon's mind before recently, after all the narrative doesn't strictly follow only Yona's POV, but Suwon from the beginning was still generally a character seen from the outside by others rather than followed from inside. All these iconic scenes of characters looking at him, whether it's only his back or in the eyes are very much about that. These scenes serve to show how Yona (and Hak) is the subject of the story and will always watch him and what he does, the way Suwon watched Il for 10 years. It also serves to confirm to him that they hate him and wants him to die, etc...

It is very interesting too that the majority of flashbacks we have of him (outside of the one in chapter 11 and some bits of ch1/185) are never from Suwon's POV, but from others and how they perceived Suwon and felt about him then. Hak in particular. Even the diary arc is not from his POV. It is always about the conflict between the characters' first impressions of him and other sides of him revealed to them later on. Suwon to characters and to readers alike is like a puzzle we try to resolve, picking him up piece by piece. Each POV about Suwon is important because he is seen differently by each character, they all see different parts of him and reveal new things about him in reaction.

But this is precisely where we differ from the characters individually and what makes the larger narrative not solely about Yona's subjectivity. As readers we can assemble each piece in a way characters, even Yona, cannot. Moreover, we are also shown some bits from his own POV that no one else inside the story get to see. That's why honestly...I don't see Suwon as a puzzle to piece together since a long time. Of course we don't know and maybe don't understand everything about him, but the characters' struggle to understand him is quite different from readers' position when they judge him one way or the other, in my eyes. The only way I can make sense of why the story would go out of its way to narrate things about Suwon only to us when he is a character all about being shown and seen, is that at the end of the day the larger narrative is and was never against Suwon, its scope includes him too, we are made to feel for him as well. It is only so hard with Suwon because he himself doesn't let us and has circumstances that doesn't allow him that. Akatsuki no Yona is very much about Yona's subjectivity above all, but not fully and totally either and it cares about other characters as well (whether it does it well or not is another topic), and the existence of a character like Suwon we are shown glimpses of the interiority of from the very first volumes highlights this well, I think.

Despite this, the characters' struggle didn't end. And that's where the nuance between what the larger narrative of Akatsuki no Yona tells us about him and what Suwon as a character-narrator shows and tells us is meaningful. Suwon is a fictional character that depends on a bigger narrator and author of course, but there are several layers of narration in comics art, some which embrace the mind and subjectivity of one chosen character and making them "independant", agent of what they show and tell.

When we are shown what Suwon thinks in chapter 217 or in chapter 221 for example, I don't think it was that Suwon as a character wanted to be seen, but only that he was breaking and vulnerable in a way that made these bits showable to us. The fact we see Suwon's thoughts is a representation of Suwon's emotional state. It's not something Suwon has agency over at his own level. He is not a narrator in those moments, but a character being shown.

More precisely, Suwon did try to resist the narrative in chapter 217. Inner monologues in comics and especially in shoujo manga can be represented in different ways and have different functions. In chapter 217, there is a visual contrast between the thoughts that "float" on the pages, his personal lingering feelings for hurting Yona, and the thoughts in the black boxes, that have him rationalize the situation. Generally, monologues in text boxes are said to be a more objective level of narration (I get this from the "How to draw shoujo manga" book by Shigeki Suzuki, a former editor for Dessert's magazine).

Obviously, Suwon is not objective here, but it represents his attempt to affirm his authority on what is told and narrated, his control on feelings he doesn't want to acknowledge and to get out in the open. He tries to be a narrator. The metaphor of a box that opens against his will is then perfectly fitting. There are the words typed in text boxes, and the words out of these boxes. In the very next page, the boundary between panels and text boxes is blurred thanks the magic of shoujo manga composition. The first two vertical panels could very much be text boxes on their own, and what he says in them is still him being pragmatic and rationalizing what he has to do. Yet, as we see, Hak is now in these boxes as well. It breaks the illusion of Suwon as a character-narrator here (which was already hinted at by the choice to make the bg of the text boxes so dark). He can't control his thoughts from going towards Yona and Hak, he is not showing that willingly.

What we see inside Suwon is him still performing the best he can. It's him trying to convince himself and push himself to fulfill his duties with no hesitation. It's still not all of him, there are still things that he tries desperately to hide and keep deep deep inside of discarded boxes. Inside and outside, he has to be the perfect pragmatic King his role ask, so all that is shown has to be that. He can't allow himself to be anything else, he has to shut off and erase any trace of different voices in his heart. Yona, by being a person that expresses and voices out her feelings more, brings these feelings Suwon doesn't want to show on the page, she shows them to us. Seen like that, Yona can maybe thematically be a representation of Suwon's repressed feelings.

(A bit differently but similarly, it is a similar process in chapter 221 where this time Suwon can't barely try in any effective way to narrate what he's thinking, what we see as panels and text boxes make no difference anymore, until it blows up for good when he has this flashback of Hak and Yona from chapter 11 and realizes he can't discard them. )

So, Suwon is a character that is shown to us in several ways. One, there is how he is seen from the outside, the way characters perceive what he shows to them or what is shown about him to them. This is the layer Suwon has the most control on in a way (even if not totally), as his position in the story makes him very conscious of his obligation to perform because people are watching him. He shows his full control and flexibility of his image in the ways he willingly pretends to be more naive and weaker than he really is to Geuntae, Soojin and Li Hazara for example. He plays with others' expectations and perception of him. Outside, Suwon is already full aware of how he is supposed to present himself, he already knows what is going to be shown or not for the most part. He allows himself to break out of character when he knows no one else watches him, which are the rare moments the narrative can show him when he's not performing. As the story advances however, these moments become much rarer as he is watched closely by more and more characters in his privacy.

On the other hand, there is how the higher narrative tries to show us his emotional state, his point of view and feelings. It is inherently something he as a character is very against of ever since he became King. Even then, what is shown to us at several occasions is Suwon's failure in showing us what he wants to show, instead having taken from/out of him what he doesn't want to reveal. The Crimson Illness is an interesting metaphor for it I think. It can easily be interpreted as a visible manifestation of Suwon's already existing struggles, after all. The Crimson illness makes all that is hidden visible to others. It gives it physical symptoms. Again and again, his illness and bloodline are revealed to others against his will. The illness is the crack to the performance Suwon tries to maintain as a strong King. It makes him vulnerable, forcing him to depend more on others. It breaks his role and how he wants others to see him. He wants to be seen as strong and independant and in control, but he can't control his episodes and when he is shown in a frail condition. It brings out what is inside, it makes his repressed thoughts visible to us readers as well, it's the reason why the narrative shows us his inner struggles more closely.

Suwon can only somewhat control and influence what is shown outside, which why I think he showed himself so little in the castle arc as an attempt to show himself only when he's in an "acceptable" state for it. In the end, he still pushes himself more than necessary when he has no other choice (and because he doesn't want to rely more on the people around him). However, after the South Kai arc Suwon knows important development. From then, Suwon has no choice but to face things for real : His is sick, heavily weakened and disabled by it, and is going to die soon. In parallel, he also acknowledges he can't discard Yona-Hak, and that he can and has to rely on them for Kouka's sake.

Chapter 243 is the very first time (Minsu aside I imagine, but we are not shown that) that Suwon himself tells someone directly about his bloodline and his illness. As said before, chapter 243 is an entire performance, but it's one where he got to choose the person he wanted to say these things to. However there is still a gap between what Suwon wants to show to Hak and what he doesn't want to show to others. The chapter is still framed not from Suwon's POV at all. Suwon has no privacy, even in a scene initially presented to be only between the two of them. The idea that at this point Suwon is allowed any privacy is unreliable framing influenced by Hak's flawed POV. Hak by then is not yet really aware of the existence and purpose of Suwon's personal bodyguards in detail. Suwon can convey messages undirectly, but because he still has to show himself a certain way to characters like the shadows he's not allowed to show things explicitely. He can only be seen through others' eyes, forced to rely neither on the images nor the text typed and shared by the narrator(s), but instead on the subtext and unintelligible scribblings. Suwon is still bound by the vow the Shadows made to themselves 10 years ago, but freed at the end by the vow bounding Hak to him. To Hak alone he can share his truth : that he can't and won't respond to his expectations, nor that he is only what he shows as King to others. No one else might understand, but he trusts Hak can get the message.

Then Suwon is attacked by Shinah, and at first we were not shown at all what Suwon was thinking and feeling. The second he wakes up in chapter 256, he leaves that behind him and thinks as a King again. However something important changed, obviously he still has people around him he has to act a certain way for, but the shadows are no more. The people left around him are more flexible and actually rejoice that Suwon decides to retreat. They don't know it was partly motivated by lingering feelings for Yona and Hak, but they're still more flexible and allows Suwon more privacy and agency.

So it brings us again to chapter chapter 261/262, which are to me the very first occurence of Suwon being allowed to be a character-narrator where he gets to truly show and tells his own story. Showing instead of being shown. Showing the experience and feelings of being seen. Chapter 262 doesn't only highlight the importance of gaze in Suwon's character, but is meaningful by making Suwon himself show it to Hak, and to us readers by proxy. This is what makes Suwon and Hak's interactions in this chapter so so important. Suwon, as already established, is still resolved to perform his duties as King until the very end. That's why he still doesn't show himself bare in front of the people of Kuuto, Mundok or Lili. He still has to be a strong King that inspires confidence and reassurance to them. He can't show that he is actually chronically ill and severely wounded. What citizens expect from the King is to be strong enough to withstand, resist, and win against all the disasters they face.

But when it's only Hak and Suwon alone next, Hak is of course annoyed. There is no one on the rooftop of the collapsing palace to watch and judge them. Suwon doesn't have to keep his armor, his King costume, and keep performing in front of him, acting like his wound doesn't hurt him this much and that he's perfectly collected. The shadows are no more, they're isolated from the city. Hak as we can see with chapter 200 or 224 is annoyed by all these roles and formalities and always go against them. This is what makes Hak free. Hak goes wherever he wants to be, will play any role needed to get there and let go of them when they get on his way. Hak says he sucks at letting go, but in a way he is much better at letting go of these things than Suwon is, even when he doesn't have to keep them.

Something interesting in this scene, as already pointed out by others, is the intent behind making Hak order Suwon to undress. Despite his tone, he still doesn't undress Suwon forcibly to then show him to all of us against his will, but encourages Suwon to act upon it himself. He is frustrated by Suwon's own passivity in regard to himself. Suwon has to ask for Hak's help, but it is still triggered by Suwon's own will. Hak forces Suwon to ask for the support he needs in order to have agency. Showing himself is difficult for Suwon, both literally because of his wound and emotionally because he is not used to it, so Hak helps him for it. Of course, the act of removing his armor and letting go of his father's sword is also when Suwon at long last can stop just performing as the King character he is supposed to be. Finally, through his trust in Hak, he can truly and openly show something different to us readers too.

Then Suwon talks about himself. Not just facts and objective information like he did in chapter 243, but how he feels and what /he/ sees. Finally, Suwon tells and shows.

This spread is one of my favorite of all times I think, because it just encapsulates everything I'm trying to explain with this post. Suwon is undeniably a character-narrator in this scene because of how he shows willingly and literally to someone else what he saw and felt, making this moment surreal. After all, it should be impossible for Hak to see that. The text in this spread is typeset like is any inner monologue and is not in speech bubbles. Hak, by the rules of narratology in comics is not supposed to hear any of it. They are thoughts inside of Suwon. However the last panel showing the bottom part of Hak's face seems to imply that Hak very much sees and hears it all. Hak here is in our exact position as reader, able to see, read, feel what Suwon is sharing inside of him. It's not something brought to the outside taken from him for it to be broken down, scrutinized and judged by others. Instead, Suwon makes us come to him inside. It is something incredibly private and intimate Suwon shows in full spread to Hak and us alone. It is precious. Suwon's narration transcends narrative layers to reach Hak's senses and ours at the same time. It represents how Shinah in dragon form is watching him, but by doing so he is very much the one to show himself and Shin-ah. It is not a first person narration where we would see things through his eyes, but a third person one, above. As a character-narrator, Suwon is obviously not at the top of the narrative hierarchy and Kusanagi is the one making all these narrative and laying out choices, but here, she lets Suwon carry the role of teller and shower. In chapter 249, she decided against showing that to us directly like she showed how he felt in chapter 221. She willingly gave Suwon the time and space to do it himself when he was ready to, to the person of his choice alone.

As Hak says at the end of chapter 262, Suwon can choose another path instead of repeating the same complicated one. As we've seen, his role as King indeed puts him in an overcomplicated and messy position where he has to jungle between clashing expectations and duties and his own feelings, making everyone and him first hurt in the end. From then on, Suwon can try another path for real.

In that same chapter before he removes his armor, Suwon also tells Mundok that he can't possibly influence the Heavens. So here, I have a final interpretation about this:

Aren't the Heavens the representation for a higher narrative layer? They're the ones making the "final" judgment and punishing characters or not, they're the ones making (one layer of) the narrative of the story through the prophecy. They can't be touched and reached for, they're in another world above the characters. Suwon is well aware that he is only a character with a defined role in the narrative, so to him, there is only so much he can do and it's pointless to fight against it. In chapter 268, Suwon says again that there's nothing he can do since they're not people. The Gods are the ones seeing and showing everything.

It is perfectly illustrated in chapter 268 with Yona. Yona didn't want to make it about Hak at all, she doesn't want to involve him in any of this, and doesn't openly mention and express her feelings for him inside the chalice because it is not her focus and priority then. Yet the Gods show everything against Yona's will and to her despair. They bring out and show her and us a majority of moments Yona shared with Hak, many that were supposed to be only with the two of them. But like the Shadows with Suwon, the Gods were always watching. Yona was able to make her own decision and was resolved to leave the chalice with the dragons before they brought this up in chapter 267. It is something shown about her and against her, they take from her any agency she had, she is trapped. Similarly to Suwon in chapter 221, she is forced to face feelings she underestimated the paralyzing power of.

However, I'd argue that Yona still managed to bring the Gods closer to us, at least from the invisible higher layer they were on the narrator hierarchy of the story to a layer inside the narrative. Again, she brought them on the page, she made them real, she made them characters and more "human". They're still entities with the power to show, but also visible characters that can be changed and talked with: they literally can be moved and influenced. Yona and Zeno showed them to us, in the sense of making them visible and revealing them to us readers. Maybe the way they treat Yona is their reaction against it, unconsciously. After all, bringing them on the pages of the story forced them to face their contradictions, it is threatening them. Unfortunately, by chapter 268 it still didn't strip them of their powers and ability to control the other characters' narrative.

But I think Suwon perfectly understood all of this. Suwon now has the power to show his perspective. Even if the Gods aren't people, he is free to choose the way he frames how he is seen and watched with his own subjectivity. He is now a subjective character, not only an objective (in the sense of being object) one. That's why his plan depends on getting the Gods' full attention on him. This page is so similar from Shinah looking at him in chapter 262 for a reason. Suwon now gets more control and freedom in what he can show and tell. Suwon literally brought the Gods down to us and showed them. It's not like Yona climbing up to them. Suwon has the power to influence the Heavens and the narrative, because Suwon is not only his static character role, but a character that can change and who we can openly feel for. He won't submit to the Dragon Gods' narrative like he was resigned to before. He is the narrative too. Like Yona or Hak or any other character we ever followed is. Akatsuki no Yona is a story about characters and their feelings, and Suwon can now fully embrace his power in it.

So I find the resonance between Suwon's developing agency in the narrative and the way readers engage with him really interesting. I guess Kusanagi didn't expect Suwon to be controversial the way he is to this day when she started the story and created him, but I like how she discusses it in the story and tied it so beautifully with his character arc. I said about chapter 243 that we shouldn't try to decipher Suwon's message, but actually I don't think that's true. I don't think Kusanagi is that pessimist about her readers. Sure, we see as much as the Shadows or as the Dragon Gods do but we're not them either. The characters share so much with us too, like seen in chapter 262. I think the story simply wants to encourage us to question how we engage with the characters and what we expect from them by representing caricatures of extreme fandom opinions (that can be pretty prevalent and very vocal unfortunately). Suwon himself was always a character we were encouraged to decipher, I think. Otherwise it would mean not trying to understand him at all because he played the role of an antagonist (or whatever he can be called) anyways, which is incredibly sad. I think we were always encouraged to resist against that and try to understand him despite his own resistance. Suwon needed to learn that it's okay to be vulnerable and show us, and that it won't make him less loved and cared for.

Suwon will probably always be a character that is scrutinized and judged in and outside the story, it keeps being so despite all recent developments. But today I am convinced that nor Suwon on his level as a character, nor the narrative will keep making him a character that is forever only seen by others anymore. Now we will see what Suwon sees and feels what he feels, he will show us. He will influence the Heavens and shake the narrative itself I'm sure, he will bring them all down to us.

I love you Suwon <3

#akayona #yotd #yona of the dawn #akatsuki no yona #suwon #soowon #lumen rants #i love you suwon #writing everything but my thesis im crying #i wonder if it could be said that while suwon brings others down #Yona moves the entire narrative higher and higher #like while Suwon brings specific characters to his level and strips them of their higher authority #Yona given her position as protagonist we follow the closest #brings the entire frame of what we see together with her. she goes to others #whereas Suwon brings others to him...or something #Yona doesn't really remove anyone's authority but she climbs up to their level #And within that I feel like Hak is kinda a free spirit that moves from one to the other lol...#I will keep observing and test this theory with the future chapters...we shall see...#it can be that deep #if you're interested in the topic of the narratology of comic art i recommend the book of the same name by kai mikkonen #the free pdf is easily findable #akayona thoughts #yona #princess yona #hak #honestly? the 30 pictures tumblr limit annoys me sm.#there is so much more i wanted to include here to illustrate. I hope it's not too hard to read.#yes suhak is that major and meaningful in the narrative and their love is groundbreaking too

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onthearrow · 1 year ago

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I'm not heartbroken I'm fine

#totk #zelink #okay but coming back to the ring of silent princesses was the perfect touch #nintendo your zelink is showing #like could it be more obvious #legend of zelda #link looks so heartbroken in this screengrab of mine i cant #be CAREFUL i might write a FIC

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romeoslaughter · 12 days ago

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always make fandom ocs

#trigun #trigun 98 #sorry i used new promo to slightly reference his kimono but i think hes sooo much more cutes in 98. my princess #thats how i met him anyway and i havent watched stampede. not until they confirm milly design nuh uh #shoved vash in this post so i could write off another thing from my to do list #anyways look at my buckyyyyy #buckwheat andrew thompson #yup his name is buckwheat. uuyuuup #trigun oc #oc #my art #vash #vash the stampede #do U guys still do that thing where you hc his last name as saverem snifff i think it's nice #the smeemo Anyways i did reference that one cover of legato. i miss my legater he's weird

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shoot-i-messed-up · 5 months ago

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…ngl the Ilana & Rick dynamic was more interesting before they fucked

#creature commandos #rick flag sr #simu’s two cents #dc #listen. listen. ik u can chalk that pairing up to old men getting their power fantasy of the pretty young woman liking them #but LISTEN. the entire relationship was ilana initiating it. and maybe u could argue that’s part of the fantasy #but that reads as more…emasculating imo #rick flag sr said no like 5 times the first time she tried to make a move on him and ultimately backed off #then the second time ilana made a move on him he said no again before she kissed him. and then ultimately he was shown to be into it.#BUT LISTEN TO ME #i think theyre going to do smth interesting with ilana #she was described as a ‘disney princess femme fatale’#i think she’s manipulating rick flag sr to do smth. to what end? who knows #anyway i do like rick flag sr a lot from what i’ve seen of him so far tho so i might be biased #ugh he’s just weirdly honest and endearing idk. i like his mannerisms.#anyway i stand by my statement that it was more interesting when he was saying no while the princess kept making moves #u could’ve had some interesting subversion/parallel to the bride and victor and that weird grooming thing #except with more of a power dynamic rather than an incestuous grooming one?#when ilana said she’s to be the queen and she gets what she wants? hmmmmm #depending on how the rest of the series goes i might write a little drabble exploring what could’ve happened if rick flag sr kept saying no #yk. depending on how much thematic mileage that gets me.

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delucadarlingwriting · 1 month ago

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16 - barbie and felix pls!

😭I love Barbie and Felix. I do imagine their trajectory relationship-wise is...not strictly in line with how the romance goes canonically. I love canon, don't get me wrong, but I love to play with it even more.

Anyway, I'm throwing this in the AU I have with @crownleys where her MC Kira is the detective and Rebecca's kid, Barbie's been working for the Agency for a while and is in her mid-to-late 30s, which causes her a bit of friction with romancing Felix. They're in pretty different places in life and it's a struggle to get on the same page.

***

Felix/Barbie: 16 nose kisses

Wayhaven, post-book 3, a sunny beach several hours away from town

It’s been a few years since the last time Barbie was able to lay out on warm, sandy beach. She settles in on her stomach on her fluffy beach towel, using her arms as a cushion for her head. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore, gulls calling out, and children playing creates a lovely melody just for her enjoyment.

“I don’t supposed you’d need help putting sunscreen on?” Felix asks. Barbie lifts her head and her sunglasses to look up at him. The youngest of Unit Bravo’s team stands tall and proud, wearing a very loud pair of neon colored board shorts. No shirt.

Swallowing hard, Barbie says, “What are you doing here?”

“Wow, what a warm welcome,” he pouts, crossing his arms. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

Barbie bites down on her lower lip to hold back a smile. “Of course I am, Felix. Just surprised. I thought everyone would be busy what with Kira’s training at the agency and everyone else doing…patrols and paperwork and such.”

“Ugh, yeah.” Felix flops down on the sand beside her, scooting close until he’s under the shade of her umbrella. He flashes a toothy grin. “That’s why I volunteered to come keep an eye on you.”

Barbie nearly rolls her eyes, but considering she’s still wearing a few bruises from that awful auction, she refrains.

“So I’m an excuse to get out of work, and you’re upset I wasn’t happier to see you?” Barbie arches an eyebrow, feeling a pang of genuine disappointment.

“Aw, Babs, it’s not like that,” Felix says. He wiggles so he’s laying out beside her, unbothered by the sand covering his skin. “You know how I feel about you.”

Yes, she knows exactly how he feels. He’s made it abundantly clear many times. The real trouble is her own feelings. She looks down and toys with a loose thread on her towel. He’d been open about having a sweet little crush on her from the moment they met while working on the Murphy case. What he’d said before they went to the auction though. That really threw her for a loop and she hasn’t quite stopped looping about it.

“Your hearts beating really fast,” Felix says. She swats his arm.

“Don’t tease me.” She wets her lips, Felix’s eyes laser focus on the motion of her tongue. No doubt her heard how that made her heart skip a beat. “Felix, I…”

He reaches out to squeeze her hand and says, “No, don’t. Don’t say anything.”

She blinks. “You…don’t want me to?”

“Nah, not until you’re ready,” he says with a soft smile. “You know, if you ever are.”

“I think I will be,” she says. “But, Felix, you don’t have to wait around for me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He brings her hand up and kisses her knuckles, amber eyes sparkling brilliantly. The warmth of his soft lips on her skin makes her ever whirring mind come to an abrupt stop. God, she wishes she was ready now.

Felix would be so easy to fall in love with. She already does love him, on some level, but it’s not the same as what Felix has expressed. What he wants. He wants to be her boyfriend, to jump head first into commitment but…

But despite being a vampire with several decades on her, he’s so painfully young. And he won’t ever catch up to her. She’s already been married and divorced once. If she has another relationship, she wants kids from it. She’s ready to settle in, whether with someone else or alone. Would Felix ever be content with that, having his wings clipped before he’s really gotten to soar?

“I just want you to be happy, and I want me to be happy.” Mustering up a smile, she says, “If we can both be happy together, then that’s when I’ll be ready.”

Felix takes this in with careful consideration, for longer than Barbie expected he might. For Felix, this all seems to come so easily. He doesn’t understand why it’s complicated, why Barbie makes it complicated.

His thumb soothes over the back of her hand, and he says, “Sorry, Babs. I just still don’t see why you think we wouldn’t be happy. I mean, I know you’re eager to see about sexual compatibility but…That’s not the only reason, is it?”

Barbie blanches. Sex has been a very fraught topic, and Barbie had certainly drawn her line in the sand about it. It’s an important aspect of relationships for her, for life. After nearly a decade of bad sex with her ex husband, she’d sworn to never put up with it again.

“If you’re asking whether I’d be willing to date if we have sex first, then no,” Barbie says. Wincing, she adds, “And…I’m sorry I said that in the beginning.”

Felix gives her a weak smile. “It’s alright.”

She hadn’t known about Felix’s own hang ups when she’d first insisted on sleeping together before any kind of commitment, how he’d been left feeling used and abandoned by previous lovers.

They lay there for a while, hand in hand, listening to the ambience of the beach. A warm breeze runs through, washing over them with the scent of salt, seaweed, and…something sweet. Felix glances at her.

“Recognize that?” he asks. Barbie nods.

“Waffle cones,” she says.

“What’s that?”

Barbie sits up, eager to explain. “It’s a thin, sweet batter that’s pressed then molded into a cone. You usually put ice cream in them.”

“Oh! Yeah, I’ve seen those.” Felix sits up and dusts his chest free of sand, a motion Barbie tries really, really hard to not stare at. He catches her doing it anyway and gives her a smirk. “You want some?”

“Huh?” she asks, jerking her gaze back to his face. After what she just said about not only being interested in sex, she really can’t keep ogling the man. At least he doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he angles his body as he leans back is any indication.

“Ice cream?” he says with a teasing lilt to his voice.

Barbie considers it. “Have you ever had it?”

“Once, and it was way too sweet,” he says, wrinkling his nose. Then he shrugs. “But you like it, right?”

“I love ice cream.” Barbie reaches into her bag and tugs out her wallet. “I’ll get you one as well, if you want to try again.”

“Nah. Let me get it though,” he says. Barbie arches an eyebrow.

“Do you have a wallet?” she asks.

“I do,” he says, but as he pats his pockets, his expression goes sheepish. “Uh, back at the warehouse.”

She giggles and slips a few bills from her wallet and hands it to him. “Mint chocolate chip."

He gives her a wink and a salute (with the wrong hand), then darts off in the direction of the sweet smell. Barbie chuckles, noting that there are a few children all heading in the same direction with money clenched in their fists. No doubt on the same mission.

She settles back in and takes a moment to let her mind settle as well. Oh Felix. If they’d met when she was younger…But Felix wasn’t in this world back then. Maybe the timing would never be right for them, no matter what. That’s just not fair. Barbie would be okay with knowing love isn’t in the cards for her, but having Felix so determined that he wants to wait for her, putting so much into his feelings isn’t right.

No. She won’t let him waste his time, waiting around only to be left broken hearted. Even if it means maybe she won’t get exactly what she wants. Compromise has never been easy for Barbie, but Felix is worth it. He seems to think they can both be happy, at least. Maybe she can trust him enough for that.

As she’s still in the midst of trying to make things work in her head, Felix comes back. She moves so they can both sit on the towel, grimacing when he tries to hand her the ice cream cone. Long, green rivers of ice cream are dripping down the entire thing.

“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t know they would melt so fast.”

“I’ve got it,” Barbie replies, taking his wrist delicately and leaning in to suck at the melted liquid at the top of the cone. Felix’s eyes are wide when she sits back and takes the cone. At least, she tries to take it. He pulls it out of reach when she does.

“I can keep holding it,” he says. When Barbie gives him a look, he waggles his eyebrows. “What, it’s a good look on you.”

“Didn’t I say no teasing?” Barbie huffs. Felix bats his eyelashes innocently.

“Well, it’ll also keep your hands from getting sticky or dirty,” he points out. Barbie makes a considering noise.

“That’s true,” she says, tapping her chin. “Very well. You can hold it.”

“Thanks so much, Babs,” Felix coos. Barbie rolls her eyes.

“I suppose you’d like a thank you as well,” she says. Felix brightens. She crooks a finger and, hesitantly, he leans forward. With careful movements, she presses a gentle kiss to the bridge of his nose. Felix sits back, a bit dumbfounded.

“I was definitely expecting something different,” he admits.

“Disappointed?” Barbie asks before grabbing his hand to get another taste of her ice cream. Felix laughs.

“Nah Babs. Never with you,” he replies.

Despite it all, Barbie feels just the same.

#darling writing #twc #wayhaven #barbara 'barbie' robertson #twc felix #it all gets resolved eventually #because Barbie gets turned into a fairy or (in my most self indulgent AUs) a humanoid unicorn #because yes I DO love when MY babygirl is the most specialist girl in the whoooole world #gods FAVORITE little princess #she gets to be a unicorn when no one thought they even existed #anyway-#ask meme #THANK YOU !#I will be filling more #it might just take some time #because for whatever reason I'm not being as concise as I could be with these

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proudsnackeezowner · 3 months ago

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Anytime I sit down to write this stupid fic I end up researching flowers for like a solid hour instead of writing. What do they look like in this color? Where do they grow, vine, shrub, tree? What season do they bloom? What do they represent, symbolically speaking? Do florists typically carry this flower? How much do they go for? I do this for every single flower I include in my fic, only for NONE of this information to be important or included in the final result. How the FUCK are florist aus so popular my laptop is overheating with the amount of tabs open

#i could just be regular and think “these are pretty! lets include those in the bouquet!” because NO ONE CARES AND NO ONE IS LOOKING THESE UP #but no my brain goes #does this look like a good pairing for the other flowers in the bouquet?#are these appropriate for a barnhouse wedding or are they giving more princess vibes?#and could this even be an option for a floral shop to carry?#i need to STOP i wasted so much time instead of writing just looking at flowers #between ballads and bouquets #shouts to the void

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flowering-darkness · 1 month ago

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Lorenza has SIX DIFFERENT SELFSHIPS how have I managed this

#heart of the void #selfshipping #self-inserts #*flops*#the answer to how I have managed this is ''talking to selwyn too much'' given that half of those six are with their OCs /lh #(or well. callosity *is* camellia but specifically as a sin eater. like how you could argue colombina is lorenza after becoming a voidsent)#(but because that ship is specific to one verse and there's a change in name - it does feel like a separate selfship. so I class it as one)#this is also perhaps a likely consequence of me playing pretty much nothing but final fantasy for the past *checks the calendar* two years #yeah it's been two years straight how have I managed this #self‑insert: void‑kissed princess (lorenza)#dare I tag them all? oh why not #selfship: in a land forever strange (zero/lorenza)#selfship: wayward inflorescence (clio/lorenza)#selfship: a path beyond ruin (cylva/lorenza)#selfship: frost‑darkened feathers (camellia/lorenza)#selfship: antilight (callosity/lorenza)#selfship: l'oscurità dell'ignoto (cantarella/lorenza)#of shards and crystal (final fantasy)#six romantic selfships of which *two* are canon characters. what am I *like* >w<#strictly speaking the more accurate wording here is ''I use lorenza for six different selfships how have I managed this''#but I think the post itself flows more amusingly if I write it this way >w<

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honeyhoku · 3 months ago

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and let me tell you this 👆 Natalie Scatorccio is the most undermined character in the entire show, not even just by the characters themselves, but by the writers 👆

#im up late spam posting idgaf #natalie ur my princess nobody gets u #i could write a whole essay on how her being an addict does NOT justify the complete disintegration of her adult character #yes addiction and trauma can destroy you #but its MORE than stumbling and weeping and chasing after an old flame #teen nat and adult nat were two diff ppl and NOT in a narratively compelling way #and now shes dead and well never get an actual pay off #natalie scatorccio #yellowjackets

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cosmos-dot-semicolon · 2 months ago

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I am very curious about how your wrong playstyle/different interpretation of Slay the Princess

TLDR: I played a significant chunk of the StP's individual routes before I discovered how to get its actual 'ending', because I was unaware you were supposed to save your progress between playthroughs! This has made me think a lot about how some of the game's parts don't quite fit together very neatly.

For context, I first experienced Slay the Princess via the demo (highly recommend: better for the dev than you pirating stuff, enjoying it, and then never paying them). This never goes beyond the start of the second chapter, and hence you have to return to the menu whenever you 'finish' any route. And because they're short snippets of the full story, you don't need to save or load.

So I was under the impression this was how you were supposed to play the main game too. When I finished a route, I just quit to go to sleep. Sometimes I would play two routes consecutively, but I never saved. Whenever I encountered the character between worlds talking about how she would reassemble after you played enough routes, or the mirror sometimes changing, I would just go like 'huh. That's neat. It's taking a while for that to progress. Wonder what big surprise they have for us there?'

It took me nearly 3 weeks and partially spoiling the game for myself for me to realise that there was not in fact a master plan the devs had, and that I was just completely oblivious to genre conventions. The question you could ask among the lines of 'why can't I go back and replay the same route' tipped me off that I was doing something wrong. Because I had done that several times.

This has informed how I view the whole game, because when I finally got to the 'full' endings, I wasn't that impressed. Part of it was that I was expecting something cooler for all my time spent in the game, which I understand isn't completely fair on the creators. But what is more fair is how it's made me notice that the 'overarching' narrative threads of StP are the weakest parts of the game. At least next to the actual 'in-between' stories.

StP's overarching story has a philosophical question of whether you should stop things from changing to save the world, but its individual plotlines are far more personal than that. In the cabin in the woods, you can get your psyche and will shattered by a creature out of a horror movie, join consciousnesses with your partner only to be torn apart by your previous memories of your conflicts, and be paralysed and dying slowly alongside someone you backstabbed and despise. But because the sheer combinatorial complexity of everything you can do in this game, you never really delve into the connections between those choices, and what it might say about your thoughts on the larger question at hand.

My most recent experience with this was a playthrough containing Happily Ever After, which still let me pick the ending where you reset everything to how it was in the past. It would've been interesting to see how the game responded to someone who decided to free the princess after torturing her with the same domestic life over and over and over again, but ultimately decided reset the game and make her forget everything just to replay it. How would that change if she had done the same to me as the Moment of Clarity? But because the only run the ending has comments on is your first, all I got for that was a comment that the Princess tried to kill me the first time I met her that game.

Honestly, that ending was still pretty impactful, just because it managed to make me think about whether I should've tried to back out there given my past run. But I don't think that was intentional at all, and most other playthroughs I've done don't have an ending nearly that thematically coherent. You can pretty much choose any ending you want regardless of how you've played.

The whole sequence with each individual Princess coming back to meet you during the finale is also emblematic of this -- you just kinda shoot through one after another of their questions with a single word reply. They're secondary to the spectacle of the Construct breaking and the Shifting Mound arising.

And even if you like the Shifting Mound and the Narrator and the Voices, they're also still weakened by this. They're not allowed to have too much unique dialogue because any route they're on might be the first time you experience them, so they can get really repetitive even if you like them. The Shifting Mound has a lot to say, but she's very distant from what you've experienced in the world, and you never really get a look into how your full ascended partner has learnt about the world outside of the comments of the individual princesses. They literally mind-wipe the Narrator between each run (though I will give marks for the fact you can comment on him regretting his actions in Happily Ever After, whereupon he coldly disregards it!)

I don't know if I'd suggest they actually try change the game because of this. I ultimately still loved it. And it's gotten me to think this much.

Plus, it'd be a hell of a lot of programming and words to account for all the possibilities; there are people who enjoy the large-scale philosophising; and most of the game's moving parts are good individually. We need to have art projects in the world that aim big, but maybe don't hit every target (assuming they don't accidentally say something horrible in the process). It stirs up the imagination, and I think I empathise with people who try to see every part of their dream project through.

I suppose that I just think Slay the Princess would've had a bigger impact on me had they narrowed their focus down a little more, specifically onto the personal experiences you have with the Princess. It is a love story, after all.

#oblivious aro #slay the princess #slay the princess spoilers #stp meta #stp analysis #inbox #dots dots dots #ask game #writing this has improved my night dramatically. i've missed words and thoughts and stories.#'haha this is so fun I wish i could speak more' *looks at inbox* 'fantastic! my mutual has provided.'

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rafyki · 11 months ago

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Btw I'm blaming @neo-kid-funk for whatever comes out of my next percico smut fics, because talking to her is making my mind go absolutely wild and also her art is giving me way too many ideas :)

#percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #percico #nico di angelo #my mind is in the gutteragely and its all her fault #(jk ily neo you're the best inspiration i could ask for 💕)#i never wanted to write smut more tbh #between pillow princess yet power bottom nico #and service top who loves to be praised percy #im making myself go crazy #oh i love this so much #i hope i can finish it soon bc i cant wait to share it #part of me wants to post a lil snippet but im not sure #my posts

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caterpillarinacave · 1 month ago

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i saw in the tags of your henry and mortmain posts that you’d like people to ask you about them :) — and tbh i’d love to hear more about the parallels between them that you mention in the post :D

Before I begin, I’m so sorry I took so so long to answer! I have been pretty busy and could definitely do a longer breakdown of all this but it’s already been a month and it’s going to drive me insane if I leave thing unanswered any longer.

I’ll need to do a full re-read of the trilogy to really answer the questions but here are some thoughts that are very interesting to me. Please excuse any incoherent-ness, (and grammar issues, and repetition issues, and poor citation, and spelling, and rambling, etc, etc) i have spent so long staring at the document i wrote this on trying to get my brain to work I may have totally lost the plot. Just trust me guys I’ve got a PhD in Henry Fairchild.

Lets start off with the most obvious parallel, that being their work. On a strictly physical level the work they do is very similar- they both approach magic through science and vice versa in a notably unique fashion. Stylistically and functionally the things each of them create has a decently sized overla and Henry has no problem understanding Mortmain’s creations. Mortmain favors clockwork for his creations and while Henry doesn’t specifically focus on such things he is very familiar with them, and interested to boot.

Mortmain is quite brilliant, in multiple ways. Most people could not manage the type of thing he pulls off consistently; Henry *probably* could. It’s worth noting Henry is severely limited by Shadowunter laws; in the third book we see the only reason he hasn’t invented a portal entirely by himself is because he can only work with a specific set of runes (Clockwork Princess, pg. 282). Even working in the tight restraints of Shadowhunter resources, and only being around 21 in the books, he’s extremely competent.

Furthermore, Henry does not approach things with the period typical Shadowhunter judgement; as a matter of fact he essentially does not function within society as a Shadowhunter. To unpack that lets look at where Mortmain and Henry stand in relation to broader society.

The London Shadowhunters in this time period can be described, for lack of a better word, as pissy. Judgmental, bored, aggressive, whiny, chronically dissatisfied, dramatic, dismissive, sometimes downright cruel, etc, etc. Pissy. They’re really pissy.

Henry, objectively speaking, does not fit into all this, and is punished for it (see pgs 281-283 CP3). The general public treats him horribly. Recall in Clockwork Angel Charlotte tells Tessa that Henry was the one who told Mortmain what a Pyxis was (which is, again, a different rant), that he wants her to tell the Clave and that she won’t because “they already treat him so badly”. And they do- nearly every single interaction involving him and broader Shadowhunter society involves some sort of insult, mockery, slight, etc. Almost nobody but Charlotte ever objects to this behavior and her objections have zero effect. “Making fun of Henry” is pretty much an unopposed standard.

There’s no fair reason for this. Henry is, by all accounts, an extremely pleasant person. He’s repeatedly described as “kind”- Tessa has him pinned as a trustworthy person almost immediately (“it’s only Henry, after all”). He’s rarely upset, laid back, well intentioned, and generally polite. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.

Imo he probably would have been treated better if he did respond in kind- or even if he had just fully withdrawn from Shadowhunter society. His persistent refusal to hold a grudge, a generally positive trait, shoots him in the foot. This is only compounded by his general disinterest in things like physical fighting, politics, and social structure. He hasn’t done anything wrong- quite the opposite- but he’s being punished by his peers for the crime of being earnestly odd (coughhasblatantlyautisticcough).

Mortmain, being a human child raised by warlocks, obviously does not fit into any particular standard. He doesn't have any particular loyalty to a party. Rather, he mostly defines his identity with his hatred for Shadowhunters, and connects with other groups transactionally with this in mind.

He has been wronged by the Shadowhunters, when his parents were killed and then in the aftermath. The Clave denying his request for reparations and, by extent, denying any wrongdoing in their actions, is a smack in the face from a powerful society.

With this in mind they would be both well within their rights to resent the Shadowhunters and they respond to that in fully opposite ways.

Henry doesn’t resent them- at all. Despite how horribly he is treated, which, one can note, does not stop after the battle of Cadair Idris, he chooses to let it go and actively work to make life better for those same people. (Clockwork Prince; “You know it isn't just tinkering for me. You know I want to create something that will make the world better, that will make things better for the Nephilim.”), He views that cruelty as a part of life as a Shadowhunter but not the defining part of that society. It’s just a thing that happens- it sucks, it hurts, but he’s not going to blame or punish the whole group because of it.

Mortmain’s is entirely the opposite. He hates them and views all the Shadowhunters as irredeemably wrong, fully deserving of a violent fate. All of them. He’s obsessed with destroying all these people despite most of the individuals who hurt him directly being gone. He blames them all, intends to carry out a mass punishment and doesn’t care about anything else.

He is deeply resentful, yeah, but he also wants more for himself. He doesn’t just want revenge, he wants a disgusting amount of power, a total victory over anything he choses, power mainly for the sake of having power.

Now we can circle back to that earlier point- Henry could be like Mortmain.

Recall in Clockwork Angel when they first bring back the automaton for Henry to examine in his lab he’s not just interested in the machine- he’s excited about it.He recognizes it to be a brilliant work of science and design, something incredibly impressive and compelling. This is not the sort of thing anyone sees everyday and it’s certainly not the sort of thing a Shadowhunter would interact with. This is exactly the sort of thing he loves, the sort of thing nobody else ever brings up, and it’s exciting to see.

As the books continue nobody else is ever caught up on the functional skills of the machinery itself. People talk about Mortmain, about what is happening, what to do, etc, etc, but the fact that the automatons are a feat of engineering is just not on anybody's radar. It’s not the sort of thing any Shadowhunter gives shit about, save Henry.

So Henry has the same intellectual capacity as Mortmain, the same scientific and magical capacity, and a not dissimilar approach to thinking.

He could pretty much disappear and do whatever he wanted forever. He could ditch the Nephilim. He could walk off without telling anybody and never bother with the Clave’s again. He could go off and study all the things Shadowhunter’s are banned from. He could create whatever he wanted completely unencumbered by the restrictions of the Nephilim (see pg.283 of CP3). Chances are nobody would pick up on it. One of the major flaws of that group of Shadowhunters is that they’re very self focused. If someone they aren’t particularly fond of, who doesn’t fit into their narrow view of someone that deserves respect, stops showing up and interacting with them they are not gonna make any real effort to figure out where they’ve gone. If Henry wasn’t around to “annoy” them none of them wouldn't go looking for him and they don’t have enough respect for innovation to wonder what he’s up to.

Remember, nobody cares about what he does (Clockwork Princess: Henry blushed a scarlet color. It was clear that no one had ever complimented his inventing before, except perhaps Charlotte. Pg. 282 )

He could have a whole new world of resources without having to deal with a society that thoroughly rejects him. He could do the one thing everyone thinks he loves the most. Hell, from an outsider point of view, the only thing he loves. He’ll happily spend days straight working, forgetting to eat, sleep, or anything else.

It’s theoretically not difficult to imagine a universe where he skips out of Shadowhunter society completely and has been wandering around the same circles as Mortmain for forever.

(He doesn’t ofc because that would be betrayal. It would require breaking the law, throwing away all social and civic responsibility, abandoning the whole kit and kaboodle, blah blah, certainly not related to other very elaborate thoughts I have about this character.)

The point here is that they are so similar save that fact. Their scientific approach to the world, which absolutely defines that way Henry exists and, at least at some point in his life, probably defined Mortmain, are so similar. If you laid the basic facts all out to someone with no context other previous knowledge on the characters (here is what they do, here is what they’re best at, here is what they bring physically to the table etc and exclude personality, morality, relationships, etc) and asked them to point out a character most like Mortmain they’d probably point to Henry.

Hell, I’d point to Henry. I’d say yeah, that’s a set up for someone to go full mad scientist and wander off to do whatever he wants. I’d say that's the character most likely to agree to use human bodies to power machinery.

Recall back to Clockwork Angel (and like, two paragraphs ago) about the automatons that are so fascinating to Henry. The beginning scene is the most exciting he ever is about this incredible tech:

“[The automaton] is not precisely a living creature at all… A mechanical creature, made to move and appear as a human being moves and appears. Leonardo da Vinci designed one. You can find it in his drawings- a mechanical creature that could sit up, walk, and turn its head. He was the first to suggest that human beings are only complex machines, that our insides are like cogs and pistons and cams made of muscle and flesh. So why could they not be replaced with copper and iron? Why couldn’t you build a person? But this. Jaquet Droz and Maillardet could never have dreamed of this. A true biomechanical automaton, self moving, self directing, wrapped in human flesh.” His eyes shone. “It’s beautiful.”

“Henry.” Charlotte’s voice was tight. “That flesh you’re admiring. It came from somewhere.”

Henry passed the back of his hand across his forehead, the light dying out of his eyes. “Yes- those bodies in the cellar.” (pg. 160-161, Clockwork Angel. )

That characteristic earnest excitement that he displays towards nearly everything new dies on the spot. “Miranda” and the other automatons are not less interesting because they’re made with human body parts- if anything that should make it more interesting. But the scientific brilliance is negated by the cruelty associated with it. It’s impressive, it’s “beautiful” and it’s not worth it. Innovation that opposes life, as opposed to promoting it, doesn’t count (see tags).

So their work, especially in this context, is interchangeable- it’s their intentions that make the whole difference.

Tessa says it best in Clockwork Princess; Henry brings things to life. Mortmain destroys. Where one of them has devoted his life to protecting people, regardless of how he’s been treated, the other one has devoted himself to slaughtering people, because of how he was treated. Where one invents with the specific intention of protecting life

In other words, two very very similar people differentiated by a fundamental love for humanity and a fundamental disregard of it.

TLDR: I need to reread the books to make this post but their style of work, approach to science and magic, and interests parallel. Also I have no idea if I’m coherent anymore please ranting in the tags for thoughts on everything here.

TLDR the TLDR: They’re both inventing shit in a series hinged around these things that have been invented

#no i did not reread this #i simply did not have it in me #trusting beloved mutal who said i make sense #anyways. *gestures vaguely* inventors #I would argue that mortmain defines himself by his hatred of shadowhunters AND his inventing but thats a different conversation (re: "mortm #mortmain has been alive for so long he hasn't been the smooth precise overlord forever he hasn't had all this power forever #and before he started spinning the web of tid he WAS innovative he did work he was creative BEFORE that thats part of how he got there sO-#*i am dragged off stage by security*#The excessive citations of pages 280-283 of clockwork princess are on account of me having those pages photographed #idk bro he’s enamored with inventing because its a way to bring life into the world to add something to create to give etc #Mortmain is enamored because it lets him turn away from the world to take something to destroy #There's a life and death parallel in there #*gripping you by the shoulders* henry invents with the specific intention of protecting life that is the point of it all it's all about tha #Thats the see tags bit. Couldnt figure out how to write that coherently. You know what i mean.#Innovation is innovative because it makes life better for people mortmains stuff is making life worse thus it is not in the same category t #Henry could be like mortmain because he can logistically think in that way and he could never be like mortmain because he morally could not #Very important to me that we note henry is NEVER like “yeah its horrible but it IS brilliant lets respect that”#he points out how brilliant it is UNTIL Charlotte points out the direct violence that led to no liSTEN- *dragged offstage by security again #you know that meme of the guy being carried off stage by all his friend yelling #thats what I'm like right now #just trust me guys the fact that i cannot articulate is not my problem #anyways. I'm normal about this man.#tid #rambling #the infernal devices #seriously I'm so sorry it took so long it's been haunting me for a month #tsc #henry branwell #henry fairchild #now gonna dip until this gets enough notes i feel okay with it not being on the top of my blog. also tumblr says no more tags allowed here:

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