Why I love writing about: Dardoch
If I were to narrow down to one player I enjoy writing about the most it would probably always be Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett. Let me tell you why.
In the simplest of terms, I would say he’s “interesting”. And since were talking about writing fiction, I mean this in the way that any character from a story can be seen as interesting. It ties into how I approach writing RPF in general. I see it less as writing about a real person than building a character based on a person and then write about this character. Because I don’t know the real person. I can never be sure what this person is actually like. Instead, I can watch games, intervies, features, social media posts etc. and use them as a way to build my own character.
And with Josh, this has been the most fun of all (although Perkz comes pretty close) because the character I was able to build from all these sources is one that is multi-dimensional and offers a lot of room to play around.
What you can take from the sources I mentioned is, for example:
he is very competitive
thus, he takes League VERY seriously
he despises anything that is holding back from being the best player (e.g. careless team mate, unfair coaches)
he’s very confident to the point of being arrogant
his behaviour may end up being destructive for his team and himself (Breaking Point)
he hates being treated unfairly (seriously, just watch Breaking Point)
BUT he really cares about his friends
And that’s just to name a few points. And essentially, you can make ANYTHING from that and it’s truly amazing.
You can make him a “villain” essentially. Someone who is destructive towards himself and others and will let nothing stop him on his way to greatness. You can have e.g. Sam (Lourlo) desperately try to talk him into reason and ground him but failing and being left behind devastated.
You can make him a misguided teenager, so caught up in his pursuit of success in the one thing he cares about that he doesn’t even realize that he’s often being unreasonable and is actually hurting others. He can then slowly come to this realization either through himself or others or through being kicked out of teams and eventually mature and become a more considerate person over the course of time.
You an make him a tragic figure that really is being misjudged and mistreated (*angrily side-eyes Locodoco*) and had trouble controlling his impulsive nature and eventually collapses under the burden of his own short-comings paired with his will to succeed and the frustration of not quite reaching this success.
The possibilies are endless, really. I guess he’s best fit into somewhat of an “anti-hero” archetype. Questionable life choices and troubles with his own personality and the way the worlds sees him leading to a multi-dimensional character if you flesh it all out properly.
All this combined with some neat ships (Lourdoch, Darflame and CLG ships or whatever, the world is yours) each bringing out different aspect of his character and damn, you’re guaranteed a fun ride.
Lourlo is the kind one, bringing forth Josh’s caring side, grounding him and it’s really cute and their dynamics are amazing, seriously I love them.
Flame is the one who brings out Josh’s mature side because even though he’s older he’s kinda lost new in America and all and it can be really adorable, I really appreciate this ship for the aesthetic of it (I’m only human, don’t look at me like that) and the way it puts Josh in a position where he needs to be the one that’s more mature and can help out his new friend.
And the CLG stuff is kind of a mess. I’ve seen a Darshan/Dardoch/Stixxay threesome fic and it’s pretty aesthetic too but eh, I personally can’t really see something in the CLG ships but you do you, maybe someone can change my mind someday.
So well, in the end it’s all about the fascination I have with RPF in general and the stuff I just wrote down is just a fraction of the things that go through my mind when thinking about this character but I thought it would be fun to share some of my perspective on this because hell, I love writing about him and this type of character.
Btw if you want to read what I meant with the whole talk about maturing and stuff maybe read Chasing Windmills or When We Were Knights. Ya know, I’m just really proud of those two fics and they capture pretty well what I love about Josh as a character.
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
annaxmalina
gummygunk
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
andulkaphoto
