As someone who has been writing a fic on it, I gotta say that it is so much deeper than simply putting Dark Cacao's and Dark Choco's relationship on a label. Like saying DCA is abusive or that DCH is a victim. Such feels superficial to me, all things considered.
Now, first things first, THEY ARE ALL FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. Meaning that THEY DO NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT.
This is to say that sometimes it is GOOD that a story has questionable characters being portrayed as the heroes, because we can see that even the mightiest of heroes can make mistakes BECAUSE THEY ARE HUMAN (well, in this case cookies, but that is ambiguous in the aspect of them portraying human-like emotions which we can connect to day-to-day life experiences).
This is something I LOVE in the CRK universe.
Also, lots of what I'm going to say next comes from headcanons and my own understanding of the canonical events, which, we gotta be honest, CRK does not portray a LOT of necessary information, leaving LOADS of things to the interpretation of whoever is seeing the story (and this is something they do with almost all characters, to be honest).
Not everything is black and white, people (cookies) DO make mistakes and try to salvage them, some of them try to be redeemed, while others do not CARE for redemption and are just selfish little monsters (and even the Cookies themselves see to not always fully agree on these thigs, which is CRAZY good writting -- ie White Lily thinks DE is a monster she created, one which cannot be redeemed [and going as far as to think she herself should not be forgiven], while PV is out there trying to find a way to have DE redeemed if possible, like, Yeah PV is totally gonna help destroy DE for the betterment of everyone's lives considering what she is doing... But that saint of a Cookie would offer her a hand in help if DE were to say she wants to be redeemed, THUS, even the Cookies might not agree on everything.) (**Again, this comes from MY OWN understanding of the story and the characters, and I am NOT DEVSIS, meaning I can be TOTALLY wrong lol)
Finally, I'm applying the rule Dead Dove to this post. If you cannot agree with what I am saying, and if, to you, what DCA did was unforgivable, I can understand it (but we will never be able to agree on it--and this comes from a very personal place, where we pass the threshold of what is forgivable and what isn't, which is VERY subjective to people, and goes as deep as their own internalized cultures and own views of the world at large).
To some people, the character may as well have been portrayed as the Devil himself because of personal experiences which lead to them being unable to forgive such a form of abuse (which is fair and valid all things considered), some people might say that what he did is an forgivable offense if DCA tries to change, others might say it is unforgivable and all ties must be cut, which is also understandable, BUT, this goes into the lines of personal preference (and I, PERSONALLY, think that the form of abuse DCA did was forgivable as a PERSONAL preference for stories with happy ending and moral teachings as well as my own views and headcanons of the situation)
NOW, I won't be an ableist and say what DCA did was right as, even he himself regrets his past actions BUT regret does not mean he has changed or that whatever he did is forgivable. YES, there are many forms of abuse, and in the grand scheme of things, putting too much pressure on your kid IS ABUSE, no matter how you look at it, BUT, I think the CRK did that as some form of showing the immense pressure a lot of kids go through even nowadays with the need to starting college, or getting a partner, or buying a house and starting a family, or getting a good paying job, etc. Even here in the Western world, this pressure is already too much for loads of kids, but in Asia that shit is dialed up to fucking 1000 (especially when it comes to getting a college degree/good work).
BUT ALSO, we do gotta give DCA that 1: the last thing he knows is that they all (the Ancietns) ALMOST died to DE (literally the first cutscene of the game), AND 2: he has not have much contact, if at all, with his former friends (with everyone being separated after the explosion and PV [literally the only one capable of going aginats DE at the time] dissaperance).
In THIS SCENARIO, DCA came to create the Dark City as a fortress to protect NOT ONLY the Cookies from his kingdom, BUT ALSO to go against the monsters of the Licorice Sea (already a type of calamity on its own, which could devastate the continent), BUT ALSO, preparing for the return of DE because he was not fully convinced they had won that war.
THIS, is the world in which he was raising his kid.
A cruel one, filled with DCA sees as monsters which will try to rip them all to crumbs if they do not band together and work as a very knit-tight unity of strong and capable warriors.
NOT ONLY THAT, but we as readers are not aware exactly how much time passes, nor how old the Ancients are. We are told they are OLD, but like, are they IMMORTAL old or do they simply have EXTREMELY LONG lifespams?
If it is the latter, not only was DCA preparing DCH to fight against such dark forces, BUT ALSO, preparing him to take the MANTLE of the next Ancient Hero in his place, AND EVEN IF THEY ARE IMMORTAL, I don't know for certain if DCA would have been able to see his own son passing away by age, and the man might've been preparing to give up his own life (and Soul jam) to his kid just so he would not see his child growing old and crumbling (like what happened to Holyberry).
And this is what made DCA get so harsh with DCH. It came from a place of love, BUT ALSO a place of fear. Not only fearing to lose his own son, but fearing he wouldn't be ready (DCA did not feel ready, and he FAILED in trying to defeat DE--he NEEDED someone stronger than himself, and he tried to raise someone stronger).
Maybe the baking of DCH came with the initial idea of creating a stronger version of himself, WHICH IS SO UTTERLY WRONG, BUT during the process, he came to love that little doughball. AND it might've been the catalyst of such a harsh raising, doubling down on his efforts to create someone stronger (initially someone who could surpass him and defeat any foes, but then, changing to raising a strong Cookie simply because he did not want to LOSE his son to such a harsh reality). DCA would rather be a monster and raise his son to be a strong individual than to be a weak father and allow his son to be soft when the world would not allow it. (This is speaking from DCA's own vision of the world [and my own understanding of how he views the world], which is VERY negative all things considered, BUT, you also can't blame the man for his own trauma on the matter--bro has some serious PTSD from DE's war).
YES, we SHOULD NOT trauma dump on the kids, that is so fucking wrong, BUT I cannot allow myself to fully blame DCA on that. He was trying his damn hardest to give everything to DCH, and maybe even, possibly, his own life if it would keep his son alive. What DCA did not expect was for DCH to betray him.
And that was such a harsh betrayal to the Ancient.
In DCA's eyes, he was doing everything in his power to make sure his son would not crumble easily, to make sure he would survive and he would be great--maybe even surprassing hismelf and taking the mantle of Ancient Hero and King one day. And yet, my man never spoke such to his child. DCA is not a man of words, but one of action (as he says himself in canon). He thought that, through his harsh actions, his son knew about his love (and he was SO WRONG on that).
What truly happened was that DCH came to see DCA as a wall, one which he did not even try to talk to because he feared disappointing his dad so badly he COULD NOT even try and discuss that what DCA was doing was wrong.
AND BECAUSE DCH never spoke to him about it, DCA came to believe that what he was doing was right (given the harsh winters and lives of Cacaonians, I also do headcanon they have a harsher raising culture than most Cookies, making sure their children are fit to fight even at young ages, and DCA ended on the extreme end of it with his son)
Then, the betrayal came like an ice-cold bucket of water. With DCH finding the Strawberry Cursed Sword, getting the validation he wished for from its sweet little lies, and being coerced into trying to steal the Soul Jam from his father.
Now, I don't fully believe DCH was 100% mind-controlled.
More like, he was slowly but surely talked into making such decisions. Maybe slowly at first, maybe initially he was like ('yeah, my father does love me, it's just, his love is kind of strange sometimes', and the whispers of the sword changed that understandig to 'look, if he truly loved you, he would not make you train so hard, he would tell you so, he would have done this and that differently'). Because maybe [another headcanon incoming] it could be common in cacaonian society to not show so blatantly love and affection with words but with actions, and with DCA almost always needing to tend to some or another problem in the kingdom as a King and as a Commander, he also did not have the time to properly show his love.
The sword was a catalyst for it all. Like a bad friend convincing you your parent do not love you because they did not allow you to go to a band's concert (crazy comparison here, I'm aware, but I'm trying to modernize it lol). Maybe your parents DO LOVE you, but they do not have the money to let you go, or they fear that if you go alone, you might get hurt, or they don't trust the friend who wants you to go. In any way, it is to say that, simply because your parents do not allow you something sometimes, does not alwyas mean they do not love you. Parents do make mistakes, they are not saints and all, but they also have their own reasons for what they do, and they might not always tell their reasons bc they do not want to hurt you more (by implying they do not trust you, or they do not trust your friend, or that they are failing [because parents DO feel they have failed if they cannot give you something] for not having enough money to pay for such).
Yeah, it's not exactly the same, considering a Cookie can crumble by just walking through the woods alone. CRK is not a kind world for Cookies, LET ALONE ANYTHING ELSE (sugar gnomes got really fucked there lol), and the danger aspect is dialed up to 11 for anyone involved.
BUT DCH did make his choice when he listened to his 'friend' and chose to unite with DE's forces. He met some crazy cookies in there, and I am sure he at least overheard DE wants Cookies to experiment on them, and he was like: Yeah sure, as long as I get my own revenge, I don't fucking care. MEANING he DID turn into a villain on his own right for a while.
Like, yeah, he was coerced into doing it by how he was raised as well as the sword, BUT, I honestly think he feels so guilty over it BECAUSE he was not fully controlled like a mindless puppet. He made his own bed (as the saying goes), and now he has to lie in it.
DCH also explicitly says he wants to see Cookies crumble, and for DE's forces to crush everything DCA loves. WHICH IS ACTUALLY INSANE WORDING IF YOU KNOW OF THEIR PAST. Dude learned about his father's trauma from the war and just opened up a YouTube video of people screaming and shooting at one another to trigger it, like WTF.
Jokes aside, DCH did unite with the only Cookie DCA fears the most, and just rubbed it on his dad's face and told him he brought her forces to ravage the kingdom. So yeah, DCH is not a saint either, and you can't blame everything on DCA's way of raising his son.
Yes, he was harsh, yes, it was abusive, but does it justify DCH uniting with evil forces to kill everyone in the kingdom? FUCKING NO! Keep the collateral of your family fight to yourselves, please, do not create genocide because of it!
DCH had a harsh reality growing up; his father had MUCH TOO HEAVY expectations from him as well, but we are NOT told if DCH even tried to talk to his dad about it, or if both just kept to themselves. We are not told if DCH had anyone he could rely on, or if the other Cookies would pick on him for being the 'King's kid'. We know DCH had friends (Caramel Arrow Cookie), and he was well seen by others (saving the Milk Cookie Village, if I'm not mistaken, and winning against Purple Yan Cookie in a tournament), which all point that, yeah, he did have a support net of sorts (he was a good warrior respected by others and having good friends).
And yet, he still decided the best action was to try and steal the Soul Jam and give it to DE, so he could have what? More power? Get revenge on his father? Crumble the Cookies of his kingdom? Keep the Strawberry Sword (which was what was giving him power to be respected to begin with?).
Anyways, this entire rant is to say that labeling DCA as an abusive dad is so superficial for his own reasons, and labeling DCH as a victim is also not entirely true.
CRK is not a world about blacks and whites but of grays (and a whole lot of rainbows if you get what I mean lol). Earthbread is a harsh world, and being born a Cookie is a harsher reality for those who understand why Cookies are baked.
They also are not MODERNIZED, like, yeahh Golden Cheese does have internet and shit, BUT she is the most advanced country out there, and she has not spread such a connection with the others, meaning you ALSO do have to take into account that DCA was doing things the way he was raised to do them, and there was not many who he could discuss it with (his friends dissapearing, and only having others who were raised the same).
It is hard to change your own worldviews when you don't have anything else to use for comparison.
In the end, DCA did things the way he knew how to do them--and while wrong, he felt like he was doing what was best for his son. And when that failed, and he was betrayed, that shit hurt him more than any blade could.
BUT, most important of all, DCA saw that his son had regrets over what he had done during their last confrontation, and even AFTER such betrayal, and AFTER bringing DE's forces to try and ravage his kingdom, he OFFERED his son a request to be FORGIVEN.
DCH was SURE DCA would kill him for what he had done. Instead, DCA asked to be forgiven, said he taught his son how to use a sword but NOT WHY, and that he REGRETTED not showing his son more LOVE.
DCA recognized that what he did was wrong and that his own harshness over his son's upbringing was what led the young Cookie to such extreme decisions (even when DCH could not listen to the sword, it was HIS DECISION to listen and HIS DECISION to unite with DE's forces). DCA COULD have decided that what DCH did was unforgivable, that such betrayal could not stand.
YET, he chose to ASK FOR FORGIVENESS.
And this is what broke DCH. He thought what he did was unforgivable, but his father was willing to forgive him. What he did was so much worse than the abuse he suffered, by literally killing Cookies left and right, allowing DE to take them for experimentation, hell, he himself might've killed a handful of DCA's men (HIS OLD FRIENDS AS A WARRIOR). BUT EVEN AFTER ALL THAT, DCA BLAMED HIMSELF FOR WHAT DCH DID.
Such is why I fell in love with their story.
Both are UTTERLY WRONG. Both have sinned and made mistakes, and YET, Dark Cacao was willing to say 'I'm sorry', and Dark Choco could've done the same; he could have asked for forgiveness and could have accepted his father's words.
It fucking broke Dark Choco, and he decided to flee, and help from the shadows as a nameless Cookie, as someone who does not deserve to be remembered, but someone who wants to help all the same.
DCH came to the conclusion that his name would never be written down as a warrior, and that he died that day, when his father asked for forgiveness, and he decided to leave.
And while heartbreaking, it is a very beautiful conclusion to the act (if not leaving it open for a possible better reunion in the future, between both of them--once they are truly ready to face the other, not as warriors or enemies, but as father and son).
Gawd Dammit, how I have come to love both these Cookies!
Anyways, rant is over, and once more, loads of it come from my own personal understanding of their story and a few headcanons to fill in a bit of the blanks.
Also, I know not everybody can agree with me, but this is how I have come to interpret their story arc, and I cannot lie, I do love my own interpretation of it, and such a story is yet another reason WHY I have obsessed so badly over these Cookie characters.
BUT, not agreeing with me is also fine, everyone has their own standards, and if they think what DCA did is unforgivable and he is an abusive, shitty father, then yeah, that's fair. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions! But I do hope that, even if you cannot agree with me, you can see DCA's actions a bit more differently after this entire rant on it lol
