disgruntledwyvern

[disgruntledwyvern]

daemon au where sarcean’s daemon is described in myth as this great beast of darkness

meanwhile Will with his little black kitty

[disgruntledwyvern]

I think everyone should occasionally go back and reread the prologue of dark rise because it is such an interesting look into James’s mentality at the beginning of all this and picking it apart with more understanding is fascinating. also you can see the exact moment Marcus finally gives up on him I think

[disgruntledwyvern]

James and cyprians relationship truly does fascinate me. They hate eachother for such valid reasons, James was directly involved in cyprian’s brothers death and the death’s of the rest of the stewards. And cyprian is a representation of the people that drove James out for something he couldn’t control and tried to kill him. They’re also both just. Complete dicks.

And then in dark heir we get that scene by the river. Where James is clearly trying to reach out to cyprian and grappling with his own conflicting feelings about the stewards. Where he directly says that he didn’t enjoy seeing cyprian kneel to the Devil like he’d made Marcus kneel. The entire exchange really hammers in that these are two teenagers raised in what amounts to a hardcore cult, but who had very different experiences of leaving that environment. James’s treatment and the way it shattered everything he’d known all his life and left him to figure it out, and the way he clearly built the stewards back up in his head after the fact, vs cyprian never questioning it or having any reason to stop believing in the steward ideals or the things he was taught. Both of them have the mentality of extremely isolated children in their own ways, kids think in black and white and now with the stewards gone they’re both being forced to confront that things are gray. But cyprian clearly isn’t ready for that yet, and he certainly can’t accept that from James yet because James is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people cyprian cared about including the torture and murder of his brother. So the exchange ends up being a conversation of their conflicting viewpoints where they can’t yet really make any real progress.

It’s tragic because they’re the only two people left alive with the experience of being raised with the stewards from birth, of never really having a choice about it, but they both have different experiences that are so at odds that they can’t actually find solace in that shared situation.