#ds!ram

[sufferu]

Honestly? I've never been able to see Ram's "love" for Roswaal as anything but Stockholm Syndrome. Penny for your thoughts?

I don’t think Stockholm Syndrome is quite right, but I think saying it’s unhealthy is reasonable. Especially in Arc 4, when she smiles as he crushes her heart (??? GIRL).

I will say, the One Thing that kind of saved it from a lot of its potential creep factor for me is the fact that Roswaal was completely blindsighted by the idea that Ram did not fucking despise him. If he had been the one to fall for her first, or — god forbid — WANTED her to fall in love with him, then that would have been something else. But as it is, the idea that he basically went and employed a monster among monsters to do his bidding with the intent of allowing the monster to kill him one day as its reward only for that monster to turn around and say “Actually I’m kinda into you.” is really, REALLY funny. Man thought he was making a deal with the devil or capturing the Minotaur for his labyrinth, and then his prized beast turned around and decided to do THAT.

To be honest I’m more or less just trying to write Ram as I believe she would perceive herself and her relationship with Roswaal without inputting my own opinion into the mix. I expect my own opinions to solidify once I actually read Arc 4, but I’m probably gonna want to keep them out of the story anyway, you know?

[sufferu]

Anyway apparently the next Dogshow chapter is going to swerve into [Canon-Typical Depictions of Possible Incest] and I have no fucking clue how to feel about that. But like. I can’t just IGNORE something like—

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Rereading my favorite parts of dogshow is giving me a new appreciation for it! We’ve mentioned Subaru getting adopted by everyone in no refunds, but I also propose a ‘big Sibling’ war between Mimi, Reinhard, and Ram (if she’s up to it)

…I’m not going to say anything.

But. You’re probably gonna have a BLAST with where Mimi is headed.

[sufferu]

Here’s a passage from the next chapter out of context:

____

It was strange, perhaps, to have never seen herself in a mirror before. Stranger still, to only be familiar with her current body as it felt in her blue nightgown — or, perhaps, as it appeared in a maid dress. Rem hadn’t considered it before, but now she couldn’t stop thinking about what she looked like underneath…

With her ____ twin sister right there for comparison, identical in nearly every way, it was somewhat easier for Rem to start conceptualizing herself as a physical being with traits that could be named. Both of them were — slender, and perhaps they looked a little bit more youthful than they were. They had somewhat delicate builds, but they were also sturdy and fit. Did the two of them perhaps exercise regularly, or was it more a mark of their heritage? Either way…

But there were differences there, too. The hair was obvious, but their eyes, too, were different. Rem had never really thought about it before, but even putting aside the color… Rem’s eyes were a little bit gentler than Ram’s, somehow. She was a far more vicious person, but her eyes didn’t seem to reflect that reality very well at all.

—And also. Was it just her, or were Rem’s breasts…?

Ram blinked. “Rem?” she asked.

Rem froze as she realized that her twin sister had turned to catch her in the act of squeezing at her own chest, trying to get a feel for their approximate size beneath her nightgown. “Uh,” she said.

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So quick question what of all of subarus deaths which one hit them the hardest?

It really differs from person to person, but here’s a couple:

Rachins: The one where he stabbed Subaru to death. It was largely an accident, and there are other, worse deaths that come after that, but he just can’t get the image of his own self murdering someone in cold blood out of his head.

Eridna and Beatrice: The first Arc 2 loop. Beatrice wasn’t his contracted partner yet, but she is now, and — she apparently once abandoned him to die, despite the fact that it would have taken her five seconds to just remove that fucking curse. Beatrice is devastated, Eridna is furious.

Rem and Ram: I don’t think there’s any possible answer that isn’t the loop where Rem tortured him for hours before Ram killed him in order to keep him quiet.

Wilhelm: The second Petelgeuse death. Not because of the grotesqueness of the Archbishop’s actions — he’s seen worse, probably — but because of the very painful and haunting realization of the similarities between his own righteous anger and the anguish-inducing display of rage that Subaru presented in response to Rem’s death.

Mimi, Crusch, Felt, and Reinhard: The third Petelgeuse death. Nobody was there. Mimi, Crusch, and Reinhard are all anguished about their failures to be there for him when he was outright begging for help, but Felt is just completely pissed with the lot of them (sans Reinhard, who was legit just not there due to a spell of bad luck).

Ferris: Both of Subaru’s suicides offend him on a very personal level, but the one he does in an attempt to save Rem (and by extension, Crusch and the rest of that lot) from Gluttony has so many other complicated feelings tied up in it that he just — it’s a lot.

Julius: If you think Julius is getting a little too overprotective now, imagine how that man is going to react to watching Subaru attempt to PET THE GREAT RABBIT.

Anastasia and Emilia: The Kiss of Death served as the final nail in the coffin for Anastasia’s opinion of the Emilia Camp as a fucking clown show — especially after she learned what Emilia thought kisses did. Emilia knew the context from the start and now she’s traumatized by her understanding of what she tried to do.

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Had the Viewings in Dogshow or BTZ were to somehow also include things from beyond Subaru's POV, ie, Emilia, Fortuna, and Geuse's ...encounter with Pandora, or things similar to that sort, are there any scenes you'd consider to be of any particular interest to any of them?

There are a couple of things that I’m — a little sad, about needing to cut out:

Rem’s final stand against Regulus and Lye. Especially her declaring Subaru her hero who will one day destroy them right to their faces.

Julius’ talk with Marcos and Ferris after his duel with Subaru. It was a really good scene!

A scene in the [Rem’s Latte Art] Side Story where Rem practices making latte art on her own time, and then Ram unintentionally shows her up. They talk a bit about Subaru and what they’ve been learning from him in their own time, and it helps explore their sisterly bond a bit more, too.

A couple other side story scenes involving Emilia, Rem, and Ram, too, that help flesh out their dynamics and also how Subaru has helped them form stronger bonds with each other just by being around.

Rem’s full backstory with Ram, especially since this Rem doesn’t remember any of it.

The Geuse reveal with Emilia, though I’m probably gonna find a way to include it anyway.

Subaru’s two-page monologue about how there’s another reason why he’s on his knees before Vincent Vollachia, and how his soul MUST submit to this powerful, beautiful man. It’s in Arc 7 so I can’t really include it here but god DAMN am I sad about that—!

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I think the funniest part of these recent chapters is how Ferris is somehow worse off than both Rem and Ram. That poor bastard has already completely lost his mind

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So I was just like, dividing up the rest of Arc 2 into the planned React fic chapters and—

As it is, it looks like there are gonna be 13 chapters for Arc 2, total.

…Isn’t that just PERFECT for the arc centered around the two oni?! :D