#тася ты страдала больше чем иисус на картине крамского

[fish-in-the-aquarium]

Like Mother, Like Son

The thought that lives rent free in my brain: what if Sam and John get to have the tavern basement honeymoon but their relationship cools down a bit before the Gambit (cause Sam's falls hard and deep in love and it scares John), then in the pogrom Sam loses not only his home and people (which is already horrible) but also his faith in something... very personal, quite childish and extremely important. He fails as the main character of this fairy tale that his mother spun about his father and so his dream of "normal childhood" could be no more.

And this loss makes Sam's final decision even more desperate.

(But boys are both wise enough to talk after the siege. And then kiss and re-steal Wenceslaus 🎉🎉🎉)

Some cringe jam agenda under the spoiler:

On the one hand, we have Sam, the best boy ever. It's obvious that he is a cp2077 streetkid (he is natural at lying when he sends Henry to "anti-semites" and when he asks about the sword) but he also is a goody-two-shoes (he quotes the Torah, doesn't get Devil's racist joke, worries about his mom). He takes the best of both worlds for survival.

At the same time, Sam takes a terrible risk when he wants to know about the dad whom Sam thought he let go a long time ago (re:dialogue with Godwin). And my boy gets drunk from stress in Ratbož, which is... understandable but VERY unreasonable. And Sam's post-pogrom thoughts about his dad are pure letters from Delululand. Okay, Martin gets to Prague, what next? The only option where they could all be together is the baptism of Sara and Sam, and this is... wow. Sam, I'm sorry.

And all of Sam's revenge is sooo naive. If he thought about it with something other than his heart (at least, with the Torah) he would have stayed in Kolin* to really help "his people" and not stupidly hoped that christians would let Sam, a jew, kill a nobleman??? (separately, we can twirl a lock of hair around our finger thinking about Sam choosing Zizka's order. Such fatherless behaviour...)

And this is understandable. Sam's position has always been shaky, ambivalent. He's a jewish princess a rabbi's grandson but kids-with-fathers know that Sam is also rabbi's dirty laundry (re:dialogue between Sam and Jehuda after the attack on Ratbož). And there's a whole world out there where he has to wear the yellow hat. He feels out of place. Restless. Incomplete.

With a past like that, Sam can be one of the most loyal and intelligent dogs in the game, if someone finds the right way to scratch behind his ear. But without this Sam will be stormed trying to find everything that could make him feel grounded. He will taste all sins of his mother or heroin

On the other hand, we have John aka everyone's OC. We know a few facts about him: he personally destroyed Sigismund's support in Hungary, while dodging assassins (i.e. he's terribly competent as a wily basement rat), he likes wine (and possibly sex re:he suggests a sullen Henry to have a drink and to visit the bathmaids), and he, firstly, cooperates with jews (open-minded as hell!!), and secondly, he helps them (which, by the way, to me doesn't seem to be so unprofessional? I feel this act is sincere but in the long run it goes into John's portfolio and turns him into the top 10 best employers in Bohemia). A crazy character in canon and in my fanfic where I give him injuries so he fits Sam perfectly...

Thinks about it, it's a Tasty Concept: Sam seduced by a character like John (christian daddy issue meets a real person who loves to listen, knows how to order people around and enjoys that, it's craaaazy) vs John who seduces Sam (a cute Other (I mean a concentrated philosophical Other) with a sharp mind and a sharp dagger turns out to be paradoxically close in spirit and... the perfect complement to everything in himself).

One of the best toys in the store!!

*on the thousandth playthrough of Exodus a sneaky worm of doubt crept into my unshakable confidence that Sam could have been sent by Jehuda. But even in that paradigm, a stealth mission with Sam is just... well, bro...