// Ok I have to write out my unadulterated loathing for Daniel here. Absolutely nothing spurred this except wandering shower thoughts. I’m not targeting anybody or anybody’s opinion, this is just the ravings of a woman who occasionally remembers how much she despises a character and needs to get it out. Do NOT take this as a personal attack on ships or your favorite character, I’m just. I’m angy and I have opinions that no one should take to heart or feel like they have to feel the same way. This is NOT a critique on his character or anything, consider this a rant that’s an optional read!
God. DAMN I hate Daniel. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an interesting villain who you can do a lot of fun things with. I like that his evil villainy has a healthy balance of idiocy, and I respect when he’s written well. I like to SEE him written well. But lordy, if I ever made a self-insert blog, no Daniel is safe from my ire.
Look man. Look. He’s charming. He’s clever. He’s a handsome fella. He uses all of this in his gain because above everything, he’s insidious. He sneaks in past your defenses and just when you think he might be an alright guy, he bites ya.
Idk if I’ve ever talked about it here, or really anywhere, but when I first made this blog, I put a wide birth between me and Daniel blogs. I know, when making a David blog, how can you NOT interact with at least one Daniel in the rpc? This was kind of what made me hesitate to make a blog to begin with, because I absolutely DID NOT want to interact with a Daniel, but I toughed it out because I love David more than I hate Daniel I guess. But this was my train of thought when it came to interacting with Daniels at the beginning:
1. I didn’t want to potentially humor the thought that I would possibly ship with them. The ship has been on my “does not ship” list from the beginning, but I didn’t wanna risk the chance of them ignoring it. I just can’t get into it. I can’t see Daniel as anything other than--I’ll say it again because it works--insidious. And with David being so vulnerable and easy to trust, I can see from friggin MARS how toxic that relationship that would be. And I know, some folks are chill with that in fiction, and I can sometimes get on-board with an enemies-to-lovers trope, and sometimes people use aus to make it less abusive, but I just. I can’t with them, yo. Maybe it’s because I’m writing David, and I feel protective over this silly man who's kind of a comfort character to me. Even redemption aus feel kinda skeevy to me because, from a surface level without deeper context, it reads to me like he was made a good guy for healthier shipping purposes (which I know isn’t always the case, but when it is, I don’t buy into it, and that’s ok because it clearly wasn’t made for me).
2. Second reason why I avoided interacting with Daniel blogs: I want to trust the mod before I gave their Daniel a chance. Don’t ship our boys? Ok I’ll have a look, and if I like you and how you’re writing the guy, I’ll follow because I respect you and your portrayal, but ain’t nothing’s gonna keep me from wanting to choke him out every time I see that smug look. If I feel comfortable with a mod, and I feel like they care about my comfort more than a silly roleplay, then I’m more drawn to giving them and their Daniel a chance because I know they won’t try to push anything on me I don’t agree with.
And I know you might be thinking “Okay, yes, we know he’s a horrible person, but why does he infuriate you so much Laamb? He’s a fictional character who shouldn’t be taken seriously and doesn’t deserve your burning rage. Plus, you’ve interacted with trickster characters before and you seemed fine with it”
BECAUSE!!! BECAUSE!!!!!!!!!!
Idk man. I guess because when I’m writing someone like David who’s a character close to my heart, to toy with him, his trust, his emotions, it feels like to a certain degree I’m being toyed with as well. So, like a dog that smells danger, I bare my teeth before it gets too close. I don’t LIKE that I do that, because there’s a lot of potential between David and Daniel that would genuinely be fun to play, and usually I can separate myself from my muse, but something about playing into a manipulative character’s fingers gives me, like, this visceral feeling of rage that if left in an empty room with him it’d set the whole dang place ablaze.
If you’re a Daniel fan, or a Danvid fan, I’m not saying this to offend or spread hate. In fact, more power to ya for tolerating him! But for me?