#unclear whether it's dehydration or lack of sleep or clenched jaw

[birlwrites]

hello!! so, i’m currently rereading stga because it’s by far one of my favourite regulus-centric fics, and something in chapter twelve has really caught my eye.

That would be one solution, but then Regulus would have to figure out how to stop being a Dark Lord and that seems like much more trouble than just defeating Voldemort and being done with the whole thing.

If he could siphon off Voldemort’s supporters to another cause, though…

No, too much work. Regulus may be a Black in the main line, but he’s a younger son and a blood-traitor. He’d have a difficult time getting traction. Also, he wouldn’t know what to do with followers.

Is this where the inspiration for ttdl/tyrant comes from? Or did that come much later?

either way, would you mind rambling a bit to us about the main differences between stga!regulus and ttdl!regulus? I mean, obviously, there is the whole ‘one is a gryffindor who never lost sirius and the other is a slytherin who hasn’t had him in a long time and took his title of Heir’ thing; but beyond circumstances, what are the main differences and similarities in characterisation and personality?

— 💌

THAT IS INDEED WHERE THE INSPIRATION COMES FROM YES

i started working on tyrant fairly early in the process of writing stga, which is why tyrant!regulus, especially in the early chapters, has a lot of similarities to stga!regulus. over time, i kind of narrowed down what i was going for, which is how ttdl!regulus came to be

in a word, the best way for me to describe the difference between stga!regulus and ttdl!regulus is temperature.

stga regulus is, as the fic itself suggests, much more fiery than ttdl regulus - in the sense that he'll commit shitloads of arson and snap at dumbledore, yes, but also in the sense that he is a bolder character. he'll walk into dangerous situations with like 25% of a plan because he decides he needs to do something and figures he'll make up the rest along the way, and he's far more openly confrontational. this is partly gryffindor influence and partly the comparative *lack* of sacred 28 influence, compared to ttdl!regulus

(part of that is because when i wrote stga, i hadn't totally planned out my idea of how the sacred 28 works - in ttdl, they're basically the aristocracy of magical britain, and in stga it's much more nebulous. stga regulus isn't dealing with the same society balls and such that ttdl regulus is, and as a result, they've learned different ways of moving through the world and getting what they want)

and stga regulus is less subtle than ttdl regulus - like, the very last scene of stga is stga!regulus doing in 2 minutes what ttdl!regulus intends to do over the course of a few years. minus the dark lord part

ttdl!regulus has less of the 'fuck this shit' instinct than stga!regulus does, which means that he tends to react to things more hesitantly. when he does have to take immediate/hasty action, it's usually more on the incremental side of things than stga!regulus's strategy of 'i will put the fiendfyre in my body and this will solve my problems by giving me new, more interesting problems,' for example

and ttdl!regulus also prefers to pull strings, rather than getting involved himself. he's in a perpetual loop of 'i need more information' that stga!regulus isn't in, and tends to wait until his hand is forced before doing something decisive (which isn't to say he waits until the last minute, but rather until he thinks he can't reasonably put it off anymore - and given ttdl!regulus's tendency to think WELL in advance and also come up with super complicated plans that require a lot of time to pull off, this can in fact strongly resemble being proactive)

on a more nuts-and-bolts level, stga!regulus is more informal, and stga as a fic is more casual in tone than ttdl (which reflects the POV characters). this is because stga!regulus and ttdl!regulus have adapted to very different milieus, but also those differences are present from the beginning. stga!regulus in the first hogwarts chapters has some. Pretentious word choices lol

i also don't think stga!regulus would ever go the 'dark lord' route, for the reasons he mentions in the part you excerpted. he wouldn't know what to do with followers. stga!regulus doesn't have particularly grandiose visions for his future and his ambitions generally include making benjy's life worse, not getting accidentally poisoned by his and sirius's extreme culinary prowess, and Surviving This Goddamn Fucking War. he just wants to sit by the fireplace and drink tea and read dark arts books

and ttdl!regulus is down to sit by the fireplace and drink tea and read dark arts books, but he also has something to prove that starts gnawing at him much earlier than it does for stga!regulus (who also resolves it much faster lol)

and that's another difference - pride. they both have it, but stga!regulus is chiller about it. he has his circle of friends and people who are important to him, and beyond them, he doesn't really give a shit. ttdl!regulus feels a real need to be recognized and is less willing to be imperfect where others can see

hm that's all that's coming to mind at the moment but i'm sure there are smaller differences - another big one is the degree to which each of them represses their emotions and how they go about doing it. ttdl!regulus doesn't need occlumency afjslghskdfh but that means he's also less aware of when he's not permitting himself to feel things