#like she tells laios off for taking her away and then tells her she'll take her back to the academy like falin isn't

[franeridan]

I understand why everyone who read dunmeshi instantly shipped marci and falin but tbh the fact that it's just treated as canon by the fandom cuts on a lot of interesting analysis that could be done on their relationship outside of the romantic reading, which is kind of a shame

[iridiumirixo]

I completely get what you're saying about Falin being willful, which she definitely is. But she can be both willful and infantilized (by the people around her).

I wouldn't call her a pushover, per say, but we should consider how much of her life and decisions have been influenced by those she loves, and how she never really seems to make a 'selfish' choice.

- She joins magic school because her parents want her, and doesn't rebel because she sincerely believes they had her best interests in mind.

- She joins Laios (nevermind that she was only a few months away from graduating and probably had a job lined up) because she's afraid she'll lose him:

- She sacrifices herself for her brother because she can't bear to see the ones she loves hurt.

I think, actually, that this is an extension of HOW fiercely she loves; she never considers her own desires in her decisions, only how it would affect the people she loves. Not until the very end of the story.

We know she found the academy stifling and strict, but she didn't really make any attempts to run away until she saw how haggard Laios looked, which means that this action was prompted by her care for him and not necessarily her own desires. We also know her genderbent self is more focused on research at the academy than adventuring, which is also telling:

If Marcille didn't understand why she wanted to go dungeoning, would she have enough will to defend herself and her brother? We don't know the answer, but considering the fact that she isn't able to properly defend herself when Marcille nearly drags her off the first time and requires Laios to intervene on her behalf, I'm inclined to think no:

I could also point to how Chilchuck knows her as 'the girl who can't say no':

And how she didn't outright reject Shuro's proposal (like she did at the end) but instead told him she needed time to consider:

As well as the fact that she considered accepting Shuro's proposal not because she loved him but because she was worried no one else would propose, and then debated whether that was unfair to him or not:

Of course, all of this is from the POV of other characters, so it does have a certain level of subjectivity, but this does paint a picture of how other characters see her - as a pushover. This may not be necessarily true, since we actually see Falin enough to really grasp the full extent of her character, but it is telling.

Of course, Falin is just a caring person in general, but you have to consider the fact that at the end her choice is to leave Melini and travel the world without Laios or Marcille or anyone. She's exploring her own desires for the first time, viewing herself not just as an extension of the people she loves. She even says it herself, she didn't think it was okay to be satisfied without them:

Yes it could be the dragon influencing her, but I think chalking it up to just that is a bit of a cynical take considering how much of the canon story she spent being puppeted around by various beings. I also think it makes more sense, narratively speaking, for Falin to have this character arc, considering how little autonomy she is afforded in the actual story (a la being puppeted around by various beings), rather than just already 'living life how she wants to'.

As for infantilization; yes Falin is absolutely babied, most notably by Marcille. We see this when they reunite after four years of apparently no contact, wherein she first believes that poor sweet naive Falin couldn't POSSIBLY want to leave with Laios and must have been manipulated by him, so it's her duty to take her to a safe place (back to the magic academy), where she can ‘catch all the bugs she wants':

Nevermind that Falin shows no sign of regret or distress. Nevermind that Falin is, at this point, a grown woman in her twenties.

Falin is aware of this, and resents it:

Marcille only lets her stay in the dungeon when she herself finds merit in Falin's decision. That's not exactly respecting Falin's autonomy or her decision making (which would be more like "Okay I may not believe in what you're doing but I respect that you made the choice at all" from the very start).

Someone else already made great points about the bath scene. But what especially stood out to me was how Marcille clearly states that she thinks of Falin as a child:

In of itself it's not much, but coupled with everything else, like how integral Marcille's race is to her character arc as well as canon elven bigotry and infantilization of short lived races, I don't think we can just chalk it up to Marcille being protective.

not to be annoying but i do think a lot of people mischaracterize falin. shes got the most drastic canon v fanon thing going on. which i guess makes sense bc 1. we dont see much of her and 2. lot of the fan stuff are anime-onlies that have seen even less

but i think like a good 90% of the time i see falin-centric art or posts im like hrm hrm hrm thats all wrong no nope no-siree

she's just a cool chick that takes life as it comes, doesn't hold grudges even against a mother that apparently was trying to beat the magic outta her, finds her older brother the coolest person in the world, and has autism about observing life (and death, she loves the ghosts she has a connection to) and nature and taking care of things (including taking care of her brother, which is why she's even in the dungeons; she saw her scrawny mess of a brother and decided she had to fix that).

and i think my favorite part that people don't talk about is... she would have done the same for marcille or laios if it were one of them that was eaten. you could see it in her eyes:

it's what shuro misunderstands about her. it's easy to see her feminine, cute, good girl pieces and forget the rest of her. but she loves things to an ends-of-the-earth extent; the kind of caring that makes you a little insane. and that's how I think she and laios end up on the same page with their weirdness. they have different interests, but they are the same level of committed to those interests.

it's easy to love her, because she probably loves you just as much, if not more.