nightreign asks the bold question, "what if you had darkest dungeon but they were actually decent people and also the graverobber could do flips" and i really appreciate that
Inspired by DDwlweek, my friends and I have put together a small Darkest Dungeon discord server as a safe space for anyone interested in talking about wlw ships in the community, and hopefully to help meet other people interested in the same! We put out a poll, and we were excited over how many people were interested! We are hoping to boost anyone making sapphic fics or art, too :]
Link below (server is not exclusively NSFW, but is only for people over 18):
🔞 for sapphic works and general screaming about yuri | 5 members
Darkest Dungeon 2, as a game, is VERY much focused on the relationships between characters in a stressful environment, whereas DD1 was focused on how an individual copes with such horrors. As such, I imagine that these concepts influence the types of fanworks that we both create and consume. I'm curious:
What types of fanworks do you like to see relating to Darkest Dungeon?
I am an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not heavily invested in fanworks/I browse the tag for game content/other
Voting ended onJul 9, 2025
For clarification, when I say "aspects other than relationships," I mean:
Do you create/consume work inspired by character backstories?
Do you create/consume work inspired by character personality?
Do you create/consume work inspired by situations such as a team fighting a boss?
Do you create/consume work inspired by the mechanics in the game (ie: stress)?
Do you create/consume work inspired by a desire to show off symbolism?
For clarification x2, familial includes the "Found Family" trope (perhaps the most prevalent with regards to darkest dungeon.)
I know that only having one answer is difficult, but please attempt to think about what brings you the most enjoyment in what you create/consume! Whatever you find yourself searching up more, whatever you find reading the most, whatever you like drawing the most.
And please, feel free to elaborate in the tags, it is very much encouraged! I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts. With the recent DDWLWeek that was hosted, plus the prevalence of Reymas in general, it's got me thinking about the subject. My own thoughts will be below the read more.
Reblogs appreciated, but obviously no pressure :^) Thank you for your time reading and considering the question, I hope you have a fantastic day!
For me, I find myself particularly drawn to romantic relationships, though familial is a very close second. Part of what interests me in romance wrt Darkest Dungeon is the concept of finding love even in the most stressful and difficult of situations. The world may be ending, the apocalypse having already come, and we may be fighting for our lives with barely any hope in sight, but I still find room within my heart for you.
I also like to use romantic relationships as a way to examine characters. For example, Plaguerobber is fascinating to me through that romantic lens, as I feel the two of them compliment each other in a very dysfunctional way, much to my enjoyment. I like to think about how two people terrible at love fall in love with each other anyways, and how their inability to connect leads to them, ironically, deepening their connection.
But, as I said before, familial is a very close second. Though I don't seek to infantilize her, I love to explore Bonnie's relationships with the other heroes, especially her and Audrey. The idea of Audrey taking on an older sister role (as it's implied she's the youngest/at least a younger sister) intrigues me greatly, and I feel Bonnie's the perfect candidate for that "forced adoption." Of course, as you can see in my writing, I am a die hard Plaguerobber shipper, and that very much influences my answer.
Assuming this has been scheduled right: This is the final day of the poll! If you haven't already, please feel free to answer! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter!
Darkest Dungeon 2, as a game, is VERY much focused on the relationships between characters in a stressful environment, whereas DD1 was focused on how an individual copes with such horrors. As such, I imagine that these concepts influence the types of fanworks that we both create and consume. I'm curious:
What types of fanworks do you like to see relating to Darkest Dungeon?
I am an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not heavily invested in fanworks/I browse the tag for game content/other
Voting ended onJul 9, 2025
For clarification, when I say "aspects other than relationships," I mean:
Do you create/consume work inspired by character backstories?
Do you create/consume work inspired by character personality?
Do you create/consume work inspired by situations such as a team fighting a boss?
Do you create/consume work inspired by the mechanics in the game (ie: stress)?
Do you create/consume work inspired by a desire to show off symbolism?
For clarification x2, familial includes the "Found Family" trope (perhaps the most prevalent with regards to darkest dungeon.)
Edit: Clarification x3, a better way to think about the term relationship is the word “connection.” I don’t know if that will influence any answers, but I think it’s something to note!
I know that only having one answer is difficult, but please attempt to think about what brings you the most enjoyment in what you create/consume! Whatever you find yourself searching up more, whatever you find reading the most, whatever you like drawing the most.
And please, feel free to elaborate in the tags, it is very much encouraged! I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts. With the recent DDWLWeek that was hosted, plus the prevalence of Reymas in general, it's got me thinking about the subject. My own thoughts will be below the read more.
Reblogs appreciated, but obviously no pressure :^) Thank you for your time reading and considering the question, I hope you have a fantastic day!
For me, I find myself particularly drawn to romantic relationships, though familial is a very close second. Part of what interests me in romance wrt Darkest Dungeon is the concept of finding love even in the most stressful and difficult of situations. The world may be ending, the apocalypse having already come, and we may be fighting for our lives with barely any hope in sight, but I still find room within my heart for you.
I also like to use romantic relationships as a way to examine characters. For example, Plaguerobber is fascinating to me through that romantic lens, as I feel the two of them compliment each other in a very dysfunctional way, much to my enjoyment. I like to think about how two people terrible at love fall in love with each other anyways, and how their inability to connect leads to them, ironically, deepening their connection.
But, as I said before, familial is a very close second. Though I don't seek to infantilize her, I love to explore Bonnie's relationships with the other heroes, especially her and Audrey. The idea of Audrey taking on an older sister role (as it's implied she's the youngest/at least a younger sister) intrigues me greatly, and I feel Bonnie's the perfect candidate for that "forced adoption." Of course, as you can see in my writing, I am a die hard Plaguerobber shipper, and that very much influences my answer.
Oh no! I’m too relationship-anarchy-oriented for this! lol. I elected to vote artist/platonic but it’s very complicated!
I don’t believe there is a meaningful distinction between romantic/platonic/familial feelings of affection --- only social behaviors affiliated with those concepts and social structures creating boundaries between them! That’s not to say the words don’t have distinct meanings, just that the ways that those meanings are distinct don’t reflect inherent thought patterns/emotions, but rather learned ones.
In my opinion when i look back at my works for the fandom I can actually see myself constrained by the ways in which I hadnt yet discovered and committed to a relationship-anarchy mindset. Mainly this manifests/ed in the ways the relationships depicted in my works have evolved and the ways the focus on relationships has changed without waning. The progression that really exemplifies this for me is Opossum -> Mutualism -> Obligation; all very lonely works I think, or preoccupied with loneliness (and therefore w relationships --- absence being a shadow of presence and all.)
Regardless, I’m very much concerned with relationships vs anything else. Even when I’m writing/drawing combat scenarios, it’s with a focus on the people and what they're thinking about, and because DD is so focused on teamwork, they’re often thinking about their teammates.
It helps that I work in a very strangely enmeshed environment IRL and so even if the stakes are way different I have that experience of like... feeling like I know my coworkers way too well and yet am somehow separated from them. Anyway.
For me personally I think, as much as DD1 is less relationship-oriented than DD2, I very quickly fell into imagining those relationships in DD1 anyway because having those disparate party members sometimes helping each other directly (ex. healing), sometimes indirectly (mark), sometimes hurting each other (afflictions)... it was impossible for me not to like. integrate an understanding of relationships into my imaginings. Like, all of my fanworks through Retropulsion (really through Obligation if you squint) are based on the proceedings of an actual save file
If anything I felt a bit vindicated to see relationships added as a DD2 mechanic; it felt in line with how I had already been playing to a degree. It’s not about holding hands and facing the void together in triumph... it’s more about being trapped with people you don’t understand and having to get through something insurmountable. (Ha ha… no wonder I got into DD as a paranoid, autistic highschooler.)
Anyway anyway. I decided to go with platonic because it’s the hardest to differentiate from the other two IMO, and it kind of encompasses a really big gray area which is my favorite play space these days :) I like that all the heroes (whether theyre my OCs or canon) are weirdos and their relationships are weird because of it.
[Bullet points I kind of remember from the tags I lost when I saved my draft not knowing I'd passed tag limit D: ]
Mutualism is (IMO) my weakest work but I can't see myself ever revising it; it so clearly reflects what I was feeling and wanting when I wrote it and the desperation and instability is so pertinent to the canon/setting.
Instead, It feels both kinder to myself and more compelling as analysis/metatext/fanwork to build on the weird foothold it's put in my fan-worldbuilding. Which is what I'm doing. Slowlyyy
Horror (and DD/2 in specific) has always felt welcoming to me & my writing because of the characteristics of the genre/canon: failure is expected, instability is fundamental, personalities veer wildly as extreme circumstances dictate, character dynamics develop along strange axes.
Because of the ways relationships are integrated within/portrayed by the genre/canon, they allow for a similar "wide gray area" - how "romantic" is traumabonding? In what ways is friendliness distinct from loyalty? What do you owe to someone who saved you? What do you owe to someone who's saved you a dozen times, and who you've saved a dozen times in turn? If you wake up and can't bring yourself to get out of bed, who will bring you a meal and who will shove you onto the floor and kick you until you stand up? Of those two people, who do you like more? Who do you trust more? Who would you kiss? Fuck? Kill? Leave behind? Who would you write letters to in 20 years? Who would you never contact again but think about every night? Who holds you while you do?
Oh my gosh, thank you for this VERY thoughtful reply!!!
Looking back on this question I posed, I definitely feel that I posed this question from a very amatonormative viewpoint, and that's absolutely on me! I would have liked to use the word connection rather than relationship--it might just be me, but the connotations of the two different words matters a lot. You make a fantastic point about how societal separations of relationships between romantic, platonic, and familial are in fact a creation of society; the words have meanings, but the meanings are learned.
I feel, honestly, of a similar mind. While I wouldn't describe myself as outright relationship-anarchic, I am very, "live and let live." We're humans, it's cruel to ascribe such specific definitions of existence to one another. Who cares what label you use, so long as you are safe, healthy, and happy.
I myself find myself very much drawn to the connection of human existence, above all else. I feel that in my posting about typically-romantic ships (ie: plaguerobber), I've definitely found myself drawn less to the concept of romance (in the sense of two people kissing and in love) and more to the concept of connection (two people defining their relationship as intimate and with one another [and intimate in this case not meaning sexual, but merely a more intense closeness, whatever that word may mean]).
Looking back on my history as a fanfic writer--and writer in general, honestly, I find a relatively similar trend in my work. When I was younger, in highschool (sweats), I was very much focused on, "hehe, these two characters I like are KISSING and HOLDING HANDS," but as I grew older I wanted to explore... why. Of course, why is such a difficult question to answer. I want to just point to all your bullet points--they are so very thoughtful. Your final two points really stand out to me: Horror as a genre, and the grey area that develops because of it.
One of my favorite horror movies delves into this. Saint Maud explores a homoerotic relationship between a traumatized nurse working in palliative care and the terminally-ill patient she is made to care for. Their relationship progresses, as does the titular Maud's obsession with both her patient and God, until it reaches a genuinely horrific climax. I think it delves into that point relatively well: "How 'romantic' is traumabonding?" A relationship need not be clearly defined to be poignant, it simply has to be, well, poignant!
Again, I must stress your commentary is fantastic, and was an absolute treat to read. I love seeing people's thoughts on the matter. I honestly think the question itself is flawed, for the very same reasons you pointed out it was difficult! It's fun to pose that question, then, and see the way people read it, interpret it, and answer it. It's hard to boil down our complicated feelings into just one single button press!
All in all, thank you for your reply! Your thoughts are wonderful and, well, thought-provoking. Going forward, after this poll is finished and I post a write-up of what I've read from people's thoughts, I'd love to make a note about how the horror of the setting is inseparable from the development of relationships with one another. Your commentary was a wonderful read 87
(and also as an aside: relatively similar reasoning as to why I latched onto Darkest Dungeon in the first place, haha. Undiagnosed autism + major depression = extreme attachment to media about Bad Things Happening that hasn't faded ~6-7 years later)
I don’t have many headcanons I like to talk about (trust that I do HAVW them, though, and can be persuaded to talk about them), but one I DO have, that I believe whole heartedly, is that Audrey and paracelsus knew each other pre canon, and reuniting during either of the games is VERY awkward because of it
In my heart, Audrey funded paracelsus’ schooling (which is what encouraged Paracelsus to be a fucked up freak, because there was no risk of her funding being revoked), and Paracelsus provided Audrey with the poison she needed to kill her husband. They both disappeared at around the same time, and imagine their response when Audrey arrives at the Hamlet with Paracelsus already there.
They refuse to talk about their past whatsoever because of this
Darkest Dungeon 2, as a game, is VERY much focused on the relationships between characters in a stressful environment, whereas DD1 was focused on how an individual copes with such horrors. As such, I imagine that these concepts influence the types of fanworks that we both create and consume. I'm curious:
What types of fanworks do you like to see relating to Darkest Dungeon?
I am an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not heavily invested in fanworks/I browse the tag for game content/other
Voting ended onJul 9, 2025
For clarification, when I say "aspects other than relationships," I mean:
Do you create/consume work inspired by character backstories?
Do you create/consume work inspired by character personality?
Do you create/consume work inspired by situations such as a team fighting a boss?
Do you create/consume work inspired by the mechanics in the game (ie: stress)?
Do you create/consume work inspired by a desire to show off symbolism?
For clarification x2, familial includes the "Found Family" trope (perhaps the most prevalent with regards to darkest dungeon.)
Edit: Clarification x3, a better way to think about the term relationship is the word “connection.” I don’t know if that will influence any answers, but I think it’s something to note!
I know that only having one answer is difficult, but please attempt to think about what brings you the most enjoyment in what you create/consume! Whatever you find yourself searching up more, whatever you find reading the most, whatever you like drawing the most.
And please, feel free to elaborate in the tags, it is very much encouraged! I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts. With the recent DDWLWeek that was hosted, plus the prevalence of Reymas in general, it's got me thinking about the subject. My own thoughts will be below the read more.
Reblogs appreciated, but obviously no pressure :^) Thank you for your time reading and considering the question, I hope you have a fantastic day!
For me, I find myself particularly drawn to romantic relationships, though familial is a very close second. Part of what interests me in romance wrt Darkest Dungeon is the concept of finding love even in the most stressful and difficult of situations. The world may be ending, the apocalypse having already come, and we may be fighting for our lives with barely any hope in sight, but I still find room within my heart for you.
I also like to use romantic relationships as a way to examine characters. For example, Plaguerobber is fascinating to me through that romantic lens, as I feel the two of them compliment each other in a very dysfunctional way, much to my enjoyment. I like to think about how two people terrible at love fall in love with each other anyways, and how their inability to connect leads to them, ironically, deepening their connection.
But, as I said before, familial is a very close second. Though I don't seek to infantilize her, I love to explore Bonnie's relationships with the other heroes, especially her and Audrey. The idea of Audrey taking on an older sister role (as it's implied she's the youngest/at least a younger sister) intrigues me greatly, and I feel Bonnie's the perfect candidate for that "forced adoption." Of course, as you can see in my writing, I am a die hard Plaguerobber shipper, and that very much influences my answer.
srry i went to shitpostin abt dd on twt & it's still hard for me to stay connected on more than one social media platform (im writing this for the third time, by the way, bcse im used to deleting things lol)
i try to leave some pics here as the main archive, where you can find smthing without unnecessary txt
i love gay people and i love being slightly pandered to with the lost crusader quest. added my own reunion scene in my brain immediately and am finally getting around to sketching stuff about it
I don’t have many headcanons I like to talk about (trust that I do HAVW them, though, and can be persuaded to talk about them), but one I DO have, that I believe whole heartedly, is that Audrey and paracelsus knew each other pre canon, and reuniting during either of the games is VERY awkward because of it
In my heart, Audrey funded paracelsus’ schooling (which is what encouraged Paracelsus to be a fucked up freak, because there was no risk of her funding being revoked), and Paracelsus provided Audrey with the poison she needed to kill her husband. They both disappeared at around the same time, and imagine their response when Audrey arrives at the Hamlet with Paracelsus already there.
They refuse to talk about their past whatsoever because of this
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