#nnt brainwashed meliodas au

[sullina]

Brainwashed Meliodas au. I found this fanfiction where goddess Elizabeth fell in love with Meliodas but Meliodas doesn't love her so in desperation she brainwashed him. 3000 years later, the spell is getting worn out. Thoughts?

i don't think i know that fanfiction, but this is an interesting premise.

First off, why was the she desperate? Was she desperate to be loved at all or desperate for him specifically to love her? I'm gonna assume the latter to this question, because if she just wanted to be loved, Mael was also right there, although she only saw him as a younger brother figure.

Elizabeth was also the daughter of the supreme deity. You'd think that with that kind of authority she'd have plenty of admirers, although the fact that she was apparently not officially part of the goddess military might've made her seem either as useless (if she was offered to be part of it) or as implicit betrayal (if she refused to join or left), both of which may have turned away any goddess who could've have feelings for her but wasn't close to her, regardless of how much Elizabeth ended up actually doing.

So question remains why Meliodas specifically. Since he needed to be brainwashed, he obviously didn't love her of his own accord. Did he like her platonically but Elizabeth wanted more? Or if he didn't like her at all (they were sorta arch enemies back then), perhaps she just wanted someone to see her as an equal and individual with her own goals instead of just the SDs daughter (who failed to fulfil her role as a puppet for her mother) and only Meliodas, who was more or less in the same situation as her was able to see her like that, regardless of whether or not he liked her or not.

If that's the case, Meliodas was the only one she ever felt seen by, even if he tried to kill her.

On the other hand, Elizabeth may not have wanted for Meliodas to love her because she was desperate to be seen, but was desperate to end the war between the 5 races. Meliodas was one of the demons strongest fighters. If he left the demons, they would be at quite the disadvantage. And of course the most effective prisons are the ones where the prisoner doesn't KNOW he's imprisoned, hence the brainwashing.

Meliodas believes his feelings are his own and so the story goes as it goes.

3000 years later, the spell gets worn out. How does it happen? Just wear and tear? Did his own emotions finally break through the spell? I imagine brainwashing is like... okay, so you have your own emotions, imagine those like a picture with different colors and like red is anger, blue is sadness, pink is love, black is hate, etc. And the brainwashing basically puts an additional layer over this picture with certain parts filtered. In Mels case, black is now pink, so Elizabeth, whom he hated before, is now someone he loves. But the brainwashing can't drown it out completely. So sure, the brainwashing works for a while, but his real emotions are still there, still alive, under that filter-layer, always thumping against that filter and eventually wearing it down until it breaks.

Or maybe something happened that broke his brainwashing? Like idk, some enemy? Or when he was fighting the vampires and Gelda, did seeing Gelda and remembering the times from 3000 years ago (before he was brainwashed into loving Elizabeth) trigger something?

But regardless of how it happened, once the spell is broken, Meliodas won't just remember that he doesn't love Elizabeth, he'll also remember how much he didn't love her, meaning if he hated her before, he'll hate her about 300x more intensely now. Even if he retains the memories he made with her. Because those memories were all lies. She lied to him, made him betray his own clan, his only family, his friends (if he had any).

I also just remembered, Meliodas had the commandment of love. He couldn't hate anyone or else be rendered unable to fight. We see in the manga that he also didn't love anyone or had just about any feelings at all. Even if he showed them, inside he probably felt empty.

Which brings up another question. Was Elizabeth desperate to be loved by him or did she want him to love as well? Maybe not love her, but anyone, and since she liked him already, she could fulfil her own wishes while "doing him a favor" (or however she would justify her using brainwashing).

And another thing, does Elizabeth feel guilty about using brainwashing? I think we can all agree that it's an objectively bad thing to do, even if it achieves positive things. You're not just overstepping boundaries here, you're essentially blowing them up with dynamite in order to get someone to do something they would never want to do.

So my question is really if Elizabeth believes that the ends justify the means.

Because if the answer is yes and she doesn't feel guilty about it, then she doesn't respect Meliodas and other people on a fundamental level, essentially only seeing them as puppets that she can do with as she wants. This also means she doesn't truly love him, not him as a full person of his own, but rather the idea of him. Because the real him doesn't love her, but she doesn't care enough to respect his feelings and brainwashes him. This also means that, in this au, Elizabeth would be a very selfish person.

If she DOES feel guilty, but never undid the spell, then was desperate enough to cross boundaries she never would otherwise (leaving you wondering what else she might've tried before brainwashing someone who wanted her dead), or was UNABLE to break the spell. In the latter case of which, it might not have been her herself, but her asking someone else to put the brainwashing on Meliodas in the first place.

And additional question, is this brainwashing thing a spell that Elizabeth just knew or is it something she had to look up? If that's the case, then perhaps breaking brainwashing is a different spell than applying it and Elizabeth didn't look up the breaking spell when she looked up the brainwashing and didn't get the opportunity to look up the breaking spell when her guilt overwhelmed her. So before she died and was cursed, and when she was reborn and got her memories back, the information was lost in the war or to time, thus leaving the spell to run its course for the next 3000 years until it wore off naturally.

Now back to Meliodas. Since the brainwashing wears off 3000 years later, he'll be in Liones by then, serving Baltra and either already in charge of the Sins or still gathering them. Or it's after the exile and the brainwashing breaks as Meliodas is on the run with the Boar Hat.

But regardless of where he is, his first instinct would be to seek Elizabeth out and either just kill her outright, or get an answer out of her first. He knows she'll just be reborn, but that only gives him to the satisfaction of killing her over and over and over again. And this time, he doesn't have to hold back on his hatred for her, because he no longer carries the commandment of love.

[derieri]

thugmuffinthegreat replied:

Haha, what? XD

This post refers to @lazingabout‘s A++ Demon King AU. Basically, it’s NnT but Meliodas became Demon King at the end of the ancient great war instead of sealing the Demon Clan. In the AU, Merlin was raised in the Demon Clan by Meliodas. Daddy Demon King intended to brainwash her to be a ready-made human weapon, but she ended up loyal to Meliodas only and followed him in betraying the Demon Clan. She is Mel’s confidante and right-hand woman once he’s ascended the throne. And if you mess with them, they will jack. you. up.

There’s more DK AU on @lazingabout‘s blog and in my own tag for it -- the Merlin and Meliodas stuff is just a teeny tiny sliver of its massive scope haha~

[sullina]

Au where Meliodas never betrayed the Demon race and wasn't in love with Elizabeth (the two hate each other). Basically, Elizabeth put a brainwash spell on him when the two were fighting to the death to obey her and do whatever she ordered. It was her mother's idea, using meliodas to destroy his own clan and turning against him. The Ten commandments and Demon King think he betrayed the clan. As decades went on, the spell weakened because Melidoas was fighting it, but Elizabeth sometimes reactivated the spell

Does the curse still happen? Idk not sure. Maybe the Demon King and Supreme Deity curse Meliodas with immortality while Elizabeth has none? Not sure

Oooh, now that's interesting.

Whether or not the curses still happen depends on whether or not Elizabeth and Meliodas still fought against their parents, or in this case, only Elizabeth while using Meliodas.

So the curse would probably still happen as in canon, but Meliodas and Elizabeths relationship would probably be very different, depending on how exactly the brainwashing spell works. Does she implant false emotions or memories into him to trick him into believing he's in love with her? Or is it more like a "mindless slave" kind of deal with Meliodas recognizing Elizabeth as her master or something?

Either way, what would probably happen after the spells weakening is that if Elizabeth can't refresh it in time, Meliodas would have just about every reason to kill her and prevent her from doing so. In this AU, Meliodas never wanted to betray the demon clan or end the war, or at least that's what I'm getting, but Elizabeth made him do it, and against his will no less. And she used goddess tricks against him, which in his eyes would make her no different than any of the other goddesses, who act all high and mighty and arrogant towards the demon clan for, what essentially boils down to, no reason. So if she can't find him in time to refresh the spell before it's broken, I think Meliodas would legitimately start killing her over and over, before her memories awaken, as soon as he finds her every reincarnation, not just as revenge, but also to make sure she won't trick him again. If the curse works the same as in canon, at least.

Elizabeth likely knows this, so if she ever happens to find Meliodas with her memories awakened, after the spell has withered away over time, she would also have every reason to reinstate the spell, or kill him. Regardless, it would be an endless cycle and they would be stuck together for eternity, unless they eventually find a way to break their curse and can die/kill each other for good.

All in all, very interesting idea, but I'll need a little more information to develop it further^^