#i sure need more fundament besides 'they just work well ok? source: dude trust me' fdshfds

[katyspersonal]

Ludwig x Maria always intrigued me. Do you have any ideas on their potential relationship?

Damn... This is a really cute ship ;-; I've been noticing that fandom, likewise, pointed out something fitting about them since the old fandom times xD And it feels so good for me? Whereas Gehrman and Laurence are 'dark' people, leaning on 'ends justify the means' side; Ludwig and Maria, on the contrary, are the knightly, honourable, 'bright' people believing in good and not having the full picture of what they're getting into!

🌙 They would both certainly love horse riding. Even have competition at such! The Cainhurst Knights (especially male ones) seemed to prefer horse-riding, and..... we all know Ludwig was a horse girl xd (source: dude trust me my aunt works at Fromsoft lol)

🌻 Maria would most likely take the lead in relationship. Although Ludwig would be surprised initially, but he would soon become HER horse-girl fdhshfd. Hell, Maria would be the one to plan the dates! AND she would be the one to provide Ludwig some adorable sessions of eating lumenweed/sunflowers past his beasthood xD

🌙 Unlike SOME people, Ludwig would be able to face the struggle Maria had to face upon Adeline giving herself to the research for the Eldrich Truth. More than that; he'd be able to comfort her, having faced the agenda himself. It could have given Maria more of a hope.

🌻 They ABSOLUTELY had friendly sparring sessions. Sorry, not I make the rules xD. Basically, a lot of their meetings feature kicking one another's ass until they can just laugh and forget all of it. They are both very battle-ready types! Training one another to be good at fight was the least they could do for one another!

🌙 They had MANY topics to be salty about; how Healing Church was getting things wrong, how chivalry mattered for the hunt, how Moon was a valid guidance for the hunters, how Laurence was kinda sketchy... You know those friendships when friends have many topics to vent about, but none of them quite drown out the quality of their friendship? That would be Ludwig and Maria!

🌻 Again, Maria would be the one to gift the flower bouquets in relationship. Luwdig would often be surprised by Maria taking up the role of uhhh, provider of romantic gestures in relationship. But he'd accept soon enough, and even think he could never asked for a better partner. Maria LOVES flowers, and Ludwig, with his ass obsessed with simply efficient weapons and nothing more, would learn to love her obsession with gardening!

🌙 They would both take their turns in crying and falling in despair as strong yet very sensitive warriors. They have all the resource to support each other at their hardest, and to encourage one another that the 'Stars and Moon' know the way. They are a weird combination of both having enough of their humanity intact AND enough of devotion to the exterior powers.

🌻 They would often get into the same silly jokes! They just get each other's cringe moments SOOOO much... At times, when they are separated, they think up of the jokes they will tell one another when they meet again!

🌙 Maria is 6'7'' (201 cm) tall, and Ludwig is 7'00 (213 cm) tall!! You could tell the height difference barely has any bearing on their relationship. They are both very tall!

🌻 I believe that Maria, well.... "died" before Laurence unleashed Executioners on Cainhurst. That'd send Ludwig into complete fanaticism over the 'Moon's guidance, believing the very act of following it alone could reunite him with Maria :( Regardless of her relationship status, that was what made him seek his ONLY source of confidenment in "Moon's Presence". Friendship or love, it didn't matter... There was only one power in the whole cosmos left capable of understanding his loss.

[theteaisaddictive]

🔥 St John Rivers.

ok, so aside from me hating him so so much because he’s the fucking worst (seriously, this guy tries to manipulate jane into going to india with him by exploiting her faith, how are we all gung-ho for dragging my problematic fave rochy to hell and back but not this guy???), i feel like in most adaptations (i.e. the 2011 and 2006 adaptations, since they’re the only two i’ve seen which apply here), the filmmakers go for ‘repressed vicar trying to berate our Modern Woman Jane with Religion when she’s far too Modern and Proto-Feminist to need That’, when, like. guys. the author was a minister’s daughter and rochester’s redemption is explicitly tied to his becoming a true christian and not just going to church three times a year, it’s not exactly a faithful adaptation.

(i also have feelings about aoje!st. john, who was called . .. . simon??? sheesh i need a rewatch he wasn’t a minister at all, but a doctor. jane was still a christian, but she was also a former nurse who had retrained as a tutor, so there was a similar kind of dynamic if i remember correctly. although, simon was much less of a dick overall and was actually pretty nice, as far as i recall)

in support of this, i am going to copy+paste the relevant section from a dissertation i did in advanced higher english under the cut. now, when i say ‘dissertation’, what i really mean is 4.5k of close reading which only cites two secondary sources, because i was only 17 at the time. but i think this is relevant. and also i’m eternally frustrated about this.

fair warning – this is almost 1k long, but it’s all of my religion section about jane eyre and it all felt pretty relevant. also, the ‘lucy’ and ‘madame beck’ referred to are from ‘villette’; my dissertation was contrasting treatment of women and religion between the two.

(oh and besides all of that st. john’s also a freaking moron who can’t even spell ‘hindustani’ correctly like jesus dude you’re not only learning the language but teaching somebody else as well, get your head out your fucking arse)

[…]

This religious conflictis similar to the one that Jane in JaneEyre faces. However, Jane’s struggle is more personal than Lucy’s as shestruggles against different creeds of the same Protestant belief, and has toface the opposing ideals of Mr. Brocklehurst, St. John Rivers and Mr.Rochester. Her own sense of morality with regard to the Bible is instilled intoher by Helen Burns, who introduces her to Christianity and urges her “to endurepatiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself.”[1] However,Jane is often pressured by the men around her to change her creed to one thatthey find more suitable. This illustrates the role women had in society as themajor men in Jane’s life all seem to think they know what is best for Janebetter than she does. This is similar to the experiences of many women of thetime, as they were often seen as incapable of making important decisions withouta man to help them. In Jane’s first exchange with Mr. Brocklehurst, when sheremarks that she personally does not find Psalms interesting, Brocklehursttells her

“This proves that you have a wicked heart; andyou must pray to God to change it: to give you a new and clean one: to takeaway your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”[2]

Jane also disagrees with St. John Rivers on thecorrect way to fulfil Christian duties, for he believes

“that the more acrid and unreclaimed the soilwhere the Christian labourer’s task of tillage is appointed him […] thehigher the honour.”[3]

St. John’s metaphor of an empty field connotesboth simple farming life, the kind he grew up alongside and which he detestsfor its boredom, and adventures on unnamed shores which explorers often claimfor themselves, the kind of stirring, interesting life St. John dreams of andis so disgusted by. His vision of correct Christian duty is to work steadilyand hard at what he has a talent for because it is his duty, not necessarilybecause he enjoys it. In the same vein, he continually urges Jane to follow hisexample. If he had his way, Jane would never have a moment’s idle rest, so thatshe always turns:

“to profit the talents which God has committedto [her] keeping, and of which He will surely one day demand a strict account.”[4]

Jane’s battles against St. John and Brocklehurstecho Lucy’s struggles with alienation from Madame Beck’s pensionnat. Both Jane and Lucy struggle with opposing views onChristianity and religion to the people around them at critical stages in theirlife, although Lucy is often more vocal about her qualms with Catholicism.

Jane also struggles withMr. Rochester’s irreligious values, especially with regard to the potential shehad to become his mistress. Rochester is without doubt unchristian in hisactions, whether it is his several affairs with foreign mistresses or hisattempts to make Jane wild with jealousy by cruelly pretending to be in lovewith Blanche. He also has a fundamental difference in his belief of Christiandoctrine, as he believes his attempted bigamy “will expiate at God’s tribunal [.. .] my Maker sanctions what I do.”[5]Jane begins to let her religion fall by the wayside in the days of theirengagement, as she “could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whomI had made an idol.”[6] Thismakes her struggle with her Christianity all the more difficult when the timecomes. Jane’s conflict is between her values and her desires, and she is awareof God’s judgement of her desire to be with Rochester almost immediately. Janesays her hopes of a happily married life are utterly destroyed

“– struck with a subtle doom, such as, in onenight, fell on all the first-born in the land of Egypt,”[7]

However when she does decide to “keep the lawgiven by God; sanctioned by man,”[8]Jane’s main struggle is over. This suggests that Brontë herself believes thatfollowing the Bible is always the right thing to do, and this is reflected bothin Jane Eyre through Jane’s strugglewith Rochester, and in Villettethrough Lucy’s struggle against Catholicism. Her difficulties with her romanticinterest differ from Lucy’s, as Jane and Rochester only really disagree aboutreligion at the climax of the novel, whereas Lucy and M. Paul have arguments continuallythroughout Villette, with theirdisagreements coming to breaking point in the last few chapters. However, theirresolutions are similar, as the men in their lives eventually learn to accepttheir faiths.

Jane advises Rochesterto “trust in God and yourself. Believe in heaven. Hope to meet again there,”[9]and when they are reunited at the end of the novel, Rochester has begun “toexperience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker.”[10]His acceptance of Christianity marks the end of Jane’s struggle with him, andthis is signified by her emotion at hearing Rochester call to her at theRivers’ house, as

“the wondrous shock of feeling had come like theearthquake which shook the foundations of Paul and Silas’s prison.”[11]

Thissecond Biblical reference symbolises that Jane and Rochester’s union,previously cursed by God for Rochester’s bigamy, is blessed both because theyare free to marry each other, and because their previous inequalities have beenerased by Jane’s inheritance. While some women had a social status thatequalled or exceeded Jane’s at the end of the novel, their lack of politicaland social empowerment meant that society’s expectations of them were verylimiting; for example, women were not allowed to vote and so had no input increating the laws which directly affected them. However, an ending where thefemale character has her agency preserved throughout, and achieves independencefrom a man in the 1800s was practically revolutionary.

[1] Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Amazon, p 39

[2] Jane Eyre, p 23

[3] Jane Eyre, p 259

[4]Jane Eyre, p286

[5]Jane Eyre, p186

[6] Jane Eyre, p 200

[7] Jane Eyre, p 216

[8] Jane Eyre, p 232

[9] Jane Eyre, p 231

[10] Jane Eyre, p 328

[11] Jane Eyre, p 308