ive been hesitating to ask this bc youve been on a roll with the clone^2au (which i am frothing over) but could i poke you for some childhood friend au? bc GOD i wanna see how danny reacts to reuniting w jason or how the rest of the batfam react to learning jason never told danny of his resurrection or wondering if dannys gonna put jokers dead body on a display/offering to jasons grave. i havent been normal about this since i first read it and was wondering. thank you for your writing.
RAAAAHHHH DON'T BE HESITANT I AM JUST AS FERAL OVER MY CHILDHOOD FRIENDS AU AS I AM WITH CLONE^2 I AM DELIGHTED BY THIS. Like.,,,, i literally love them,,, so much. I can't listen to The Crane Wives without thinking of them.
(which is my fault - the ao3 fic of them has literally only crane wives lyrics for each chapter title and summary (posted AND the ones not written) so of course im gonna associate with them.)
(if you wanna listen to some of their songs while thinking of cfau here are my recommendations: "Once & for All", "Here I Am", "Hollow Moon" is a Danny AND Jason song to me, this would be my go-to song for an animatic of CFAU if i had the skills for it. "Tongues and Teeth", "Curses" and "take me to war" is a heavy cfau danny song to me, and of course, "the moon will sing")
Like they're BEST friends dude, they're two sides of the same coin and when they were kids they would do this thing where their 'fingers crossed'/'double-crossed' was them hooking their index fingers in the fingers crossed gesture.
and i'm actually currently rewriting my original post into a more fic-like format, and when I'm done I'll post it on here under the cfau tag - with the original post still in tact. But its,,, gonna be so long dude,,,, the original behemoth was just over 9000 words,,, and I've written 3k words already of the new one and we haven't even reached Jason and Danny reuniting at the gala yet,,, i need to get back to that,,,
and then to answer your questions!! god im almost hesitant to answer because i dont wanna spoil the little fic i had planned for it but also like,, its not like im gonna spoil everything, right? and answering the questions isnt the same as writing the scene down so!!
i love danny and jason's reuniting, like i've thought about it SO much and I've thought about it happening after Danny kills the Joker. I know the reveal could have been before that, and it could have been equally just as dramatic but like??? Thematically, doing it after danny kills the joker is SO good. To me at least.
Because like?? Jason's been in somewhat denial about danny's plan to kill the joker for months. ever since danny told him that he wanted to at the gala. And from Jason's pov its not even technically a plan. He sees his best friend for the first time after five years and his best friend still isn't over his death. He hasn't stepped foot in Gotham since his funeral and now suddenly he's here.
And he's still so full of grief over his death that he tells a masked vigilante that he's going to kill the guy that did it, who lives in said masked vigilante's city. And danny's got that look in his eyes that Jason knows so well that means he's being serious. And yet he still doesn't know if he should believe him or not.
And then he does. Danny kills him. And Jason can't fucking believe it. And when he goes and sees Danny, Danny's hands are still covered in blood. And that reunion? God like a fucking firework show. Danny's so fucking angry, and pissed, and hurt, and so goddamn overjoyed that he's alive and here that he sends them both to the ground, and if he doesn't calm down he's gonna take out the power in a five block radius.
there's just so, so much yelling on Danny's end. And then so much crying, first from Danny and then them both. because god, you're alive. you're here. i've missed you so much. i'm never letting you out of my sights again.
and Joker's death! God I don't want to actually say too much about that, but the way I have it set up thematically makes me actually not want danny to take any part of the joker with him as an offering. and he may actually forego that particular ghost etiquette and offer something else as an offering to Jason in substitute to not bringing him the Joker's heart/head/ritualistic body part.
Because you know what the last thing a man whose been spending the last two decades of his life building himself up to be larger than life would want? A death that's unremarkable. :) and that's all i'll put on the matter for now.
and the batfam!! they technically already know that jason hasn't told danny he was resurrected, and plenty of them have mixed feelings on them. largely bruce and dick i think, considering they saw firsthand how close jason and danny were when they were kids.
Dick was honestly surprised at first when he found out that Jason hadn't told Danny he was alive - and on one hand he understands the reasoning for it, and on the other hand he isn't sure if it was such a good idea. Especially after he sees Danny again after he arrives back in Gotham and sees just how badly Jason's death was still affecting him. But it's not like he's going to try and convince Jason to tell him - he can make his own choices, even if Dick has questions about them.
Bruce has much the same thoughts as Dick, so there's not really much to add here other than he might bring it up once or twice to Jason like, vaguely. And then immediately drops it when Jason shuts him down. He might actually somewhat...?? prefer that Jason hasn't told Danny because that raises a lot of questions and could jeopardize their identities. However, again, Jason can make his own choices and there's not much Bruce can do about it other than disapprove from afar.
Tim who knew of Danny from stalking the Wayne family shares similars sentiments of being surprised that Jason didn't tell Danny, but again, yeah, understands the thought process to some extent. Doesn't bring it up ever.
Everyone else who hadn't seen firsthand how close Danny and Jason are don't really have much opinion on it -- Jason didn't tell his best friend he was alive, great, he also didn't tell them either so it's not like its that much of a surprise. It would've been more of a surprise to them if Jason had told Danny before he told Bruce and co. Damian may make a comment or two about Jason not telling Danny, but its not about how he can't believe he didn't tell him or anything like it.
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Analyzing one of the Darkling's most notorious lines
Even though nobody asked for it, I want to analyze one of Aleksander's most controversial lines.
And it's none other than:
"I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me."
Most people say that it's proof of his evilness and he can have no redemption and blah, blah. But we miss the big picture here. It's too easy to take a line, say it's evil and move on. I'm not that kind of person. I always look deeper (as you have already noticed) and in this line too there are so many things that can be drawn from about the way he was raised, his mentality at that point of the book and the lengths he would go to take Alina for himself.
Because, my dear people, it's more than a toxic line.
1) I'm gonna start with the most obvious one which is his possessiveness. I've already analyzed this point here so I'm not going to dwell for long.
In the beginning, Aleksander was (more than) willing to kill Mal 'cause he was the greatest obstacle between him and Alina. But as the latter gained more and more allies and friends the number of the people that Aleksander had to kill increased. He knew that she created bonds with most of them something that contrasts his own situation. Because he has none. He has soldiers. He has allies. He has his nichevo'ya. But he has no bond with anyone. Except with Alina. A girl that is too dependent, too caring with her friends so he has to do something about it. There is no way Alina will ever love him as long as those people are alive and he knows it. She will always fight him and push him away as long as there are beloved places to fight for and familiar people to turn to.
So what can he do about it? Destroy everything she cares about and apparently he has already started. He burned the orphanage, the place where she grew up, and killed the only mother figure she ever knew. If, one by one, her comforts are destroyed then Aleksander will be the only person she knows. Yes, in the beginning she will still fight him but as Aleksander has said "You will find I have more practice with eternity". And in the end he would win. Alina would give up. She would surrender to him and give herself completely to the Darkling 'cause he will be the ONLY familiar face she knows. She would forgive him and love him since what other choice could she have? There is none other left.
And for Aleksander it would be the same but for him it would be a victory. Because they have each other at last. No one would keep her away from him and he finally has a person that he can share the eternity with.
(Not me saying that I won't dwell for long and I wrote two paragraphs)
2) This one I consider the most important. This whole "I'm gonna cut you off from every person so you'll have only me" doesn't sound kind of familiar??🤔🤔
Ah, yes. Baghra of course!
For those of you who have read "Demon in the Wood" you know what I mean. But for those who haven't I will explain.
When he was a child, Aleksander kept asking his mother about his father.
Where is he?
Is he dead?
Who was he?
But he never got a good answer. He never knew anything about him.
It's possible that Baghra told him that he was a powerful Heartrender. But even that is not confirmed in text. We, the fans, guess it because the Darkling always showed favor to Heartrenders. And he might did this out of some repressed fondness for him.
But anyway back to Baghra. It's obvious that she didn't want him to think or feel anything about his father. She chose to keep everything a secret to her son in order to cut him off from any bond he could create with his father.
I believe she did this for two reasons:
A) Because she's not one for sentiment, as the Darkling himself had once said. She's not the type of person to say to her children "Oh my sweeties! Your father was tall and handsome with dark hair. He was a really good man". Not in a million years I imagine her to behave or say something like that.
B) Because she wants him for herself. When she was a child her mother didn't care at all for her. She only showed love towards her otkazat'sya sister. And the same went for her father. She saw a powerful Grisha bring an otkazat'sya back to life and he got killed for it. So, two members of her family died leaving her behind.
And when she gave birth to a powerful son, she wants him to stay with her forever. To love her and be his only companion. She didn't treat him with open love. She didn't kiss him goodnight and there is evidence that she verbally and emotionally abused him. If he ever did something that she didn't like, that didn't go along with her opinions and plans, she opposed him and scolded him. But she did it because she knew that he would always forgive her. He would always come back to her because there is no one else like them. Powerful, immortal, filled with so many and similar experiences.
They say that sometimes victims replicate the same pattern when they grow up.
And with the Darkling it's true.
Now he does the same to Alina. And whatever else he also did to her is a result of Baghra's upbringing that he repeats. He wants her to depend on him, to turn to him for love and company. To forget everyone else. Because no one will understand her like he does. And when he kills people she cares about, when he destroys places that mean something to her, he does it because he knows that she'll forgive him. Because she'll realize that he's the only one that will stay with her forever. Everyone else is dust and bones but not them.
Furthermore, eternity will make her tired of fighting him and hating him. "You'll tire of everything" as the Darkling said. Just like he did.
So yes, in this infamous line we can see that Baghra's manipulation and abuse towards him affected him and rubbed off him.
Here he speaks like her.
3) I think we all agree that the Darkling's dream to provide a safe home and life to the Grisha and put an end to the constant wars that Ravka suffers from is noble and reasonable. He's actually the only person that DOES something about this.
But by book three the Darkling's mentality has gotten worse, in large part because of Alina's constant rejections. She keeps slipping away from his hands, she keeps fighting him and she always keeps her power away from him. A power that he desperately needs and awaited for hundreds of years. All of these have made him almost mad from fury and despair and even though his strategic skills haven't been diminished, he now seems more concerned about having Alina than giving the Grisha a haven. He's no longer mentally stable to do it especially after he saw his mother commit suicide. Right now, he's willing to go to extreme, brutal lengths to have her and fuck the world and the casualties that are needed for this.
In conclusion, that line of his goes deeper than "oH mY GoD hE'S sO EviL! ThE ToXiCiTY!".
Yes, he's toxic and that line was toxic as well but what can you expect from a person that was raised by an abusive parent, never had a home, never had friends, didn't know how to form healthy bonds with others, saw so many loved ones die a mortal death and couldn't stop the wars that plagued his country?
Toxicity was the only path eternity would allow him to take apparently.
And if you want to know my opinion. I don't see the Darkling as the villain, but as an anti-villain (an anti-villain is a character that has a noble goal but the means he uses to achieve it is controversial and catastrophic, like Magneto).
A man that had a viable plan to stop the Grisha persecution but when you are immortal and see atrocities again and again for hundreds of years your heart becomes colder and harder. I don't think he took pleasure from killing people (like Voldemort, for example). For him they were just casualties of a war that, according to him, needed to be sacrificed. And he saw them this way because they were dust and bones for him. There was once a time (when he was much younger and more innocent) when he saw people as people. With their own lives and emotions. But the constant loss of people he cared about made him stop trying. Stop trying to make bonds and feel emotions (and this aspect of him was confirmed by the author itself in an interview).
Just like he said in the same scene:
“I have lived a long life, rich in grief. My tears are long since spent. If I still felt as you do, if I ached as you do, I could not have borne this eternity.”
He used to cry but not anymore.
He used to feel grief, sorrow and emotional pain but he forced himself to withdraw from any sentimentality.
He had closed his heart a looong time ago.
(UNTIL ALINE CAME AND PIERCED THAT ARMOR HEHE)
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