#look i love the story of cupid and psyche with a PASSION okay the original context is questionable but THE STORY IN ITSELF. im on the floor

[bidisaster-peanut-romano]

about the parallels between bryce and chad / cupid and psyche.

as a disclaimer: though some of this is headcanon, i will try, for this one analysis, to remain as close to canon as possible, reconstructing the dynamics from what we have in canon because!! somehow they are actually canon!!

so, the story is a bit known, but just so we can have it here: venus was mad because everyone was saying this girl, psyche, was as beautiful as her, so she ordered her son, cupid, to have her fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. however he misses and falls for her instead. he hides her in his castles and they can stay together as long as she doesn't see his face. except that one night she betrays the promise and looks at his face with a candle. he has to leave her, and venus says that she will only have him back if she goes through three trials. she manages to complete the task, and she and cupid can stay together forever.

on the other hand, chad and bryce. now, we know for sure that they have something going on during chapter three (see the dialogue between justin and tad about the two of them wrestling at night and all. like when you read it it's quite easy to understand why it was cut from the final game), but, then chad is with lola during chapter three. the dynamic we could guess is that chad has, for some reason, left bryce behind (my reasoning is internalized homophobia but that is nothing certain).

there's a betrayal of trust there, you see, though it was the manifestation of some deeper issue that troubled the relationship to begin with. and i think you can already see the parallel there!!

and it caused them to drift away. it hurt like only broken trust can. and then, of course, even once they have acknowledged their mistake and the underlying issue, they cannot just go back to each other like it was nothing. chad probably won't have to descend in hell, but he certainly shall prove to bryce that he can be trusted again, that he truly loves bryce enough to be patient and to gain back what he's broken.

the fable of cupid and psyche is about how you sometimes cannot just throw yourself into something- in the context of the original work it was about religion, but in the isolated story it's about a relationship; being madly in love really isn't enough, and when there's something missing at the beginning only hurt can come at the end. but once there's a work, once the trust is not just blindly given but is built and learned- that is what can really make a valuable and lasting relationship. do you see what i mean

tad and peanut / romeo and juliet | derby and bif / achilles and patroclus