#Darius has known hunter for how many years? And the ‘child soldier’ thing didn’t raise any red flags?

[phoeeling]

everyone seems to be firmly on the dadrius train but imo I just don’t think Darius is exactly… qualified… to adopt. I mean, we didn’t all collectively forget that he spent Hunter’s Entire Life projecting on Hunter, right?

Darius seemed to resent Hunter for… not disobeying Belos? Presumably because he views it as an insult to his Mentor’s memory. That’s all in good fun, but Hunter is a child, and one who will face physical retribution for just saying the wrong thing in front of Belos. And I don’t know if Darius has even realized this at our current moment in canon.

It’s tragic, but the show (and Hunter’s audio recording from the stream) tells us that Hunter was, at best, ignored by Darius. At worst? publicly humiliated with his self-taught sewing insulted and his personal belongings stolen. Darius, like Lilith, projected onto Hunter. (And imo, Darius, like Lilith, should probably work that out in therapy.)

The only coven head that seemed to ever be nice to Hunter was Raine, and they had the shortest run as coven head before they were found out as a traitor. They had little time to form any kind of connection with Hunter, and it was enough that them ignoring him or acting coldly was considering ‘weird’ to him.

point being: yeah, Darius has gotten better and, more or less, started making up for things. but just about a week ago he was still projecting onto a child, so maybe don’t give him full custody just yet. he’d make a great replacement uncle, but I’m not sure he’s ready for parenthood— even if it was with a normal, not-super-traumatized child.

also: how confusing must it have been for Hunter when Darius did that 180 on him? First Darius steals his cloak and insults his sewing and saying he doesn’t deserve to wear the patch, then he’s giving him a scroll, saying he should have friends, keeping flapjack a secret and encouraging him to rebel? and fixing his sewing?? and saying his predecessors would be proud? because he rebelled?? that must’ve been the most confusing thing ever for him.