omg 👀👀 i was looking thru ang content on tumblr and i saw an old post of yours about the dandelion+countess stael=ang theory and !!! I actually had wondered earlier if you were at all interested/supported this theory bc I read about it awhile back and actually love it so much? :,) It's a favorite hc of mine and I may have tried to subtly incorporate it into my ang design...i just think its too Incheresting an idea not to explore tbhhhh
oh wow! i remember this theory :)...!
post explaining the theory in case anyone is confused
or tl;dr of the theory: essentially, it's that dandelion is 38 years old, dandelion knew countess de stael 19 years ago, dandelion has a penchant for lovin' and leavin' 'em, angouleme is 19 years old and is the daughter of an unknown noblewoman and some scoundrel that seduced her. and they're both blonde.
this is from june of 2019, which should provide some context.
(okay, so... sorry for long and kind of serious response to a lighthearted ask <3 i do not want to spare the details!)
firstly, i was never too fond of it as a serious headcanon in the first place, i proposed it as more of a crack theory. i wanted more reason for dandelion and angouleme to get more attention, and i thought, no harm done in a silly "what if", right? well...
secondly, only a few months after i came up with this theory... netflix's witcher premiered, and... it immediately became insufferable to have headcanons and theories about dandelion because of the shift in fan culture. i did not want to associate with the fans who were making farfetched theories about jaskier-dandelion.
due to the behavior of the netflix community, which in my experience completely disregarded canon facts and characterization, AUs and "what if"s overall stopped being fun to engage with. in reaction to the netflix fandom culture, i felt a need to stop making "weird-fun-silly" headcanons, theories, etc. that would contradict or cut against the grain of canon, and instead focus on headcanons, theories, etc. that would either support or be supported by canon. it's somewhat regretful, but i think it taught me an important lesson about why i'm here, and it deepened my appreciation of the storytelling and literary qualities of the witcher.
thirdly, since more time has passed since then, i've also engaged with new headcanons... @toussaintred and i came up with a lot of headcanons about the countess de stael and dandelion's interactions with her in august 2021. instead of being a romantic peer-to-peer relationship, she was a mature woman who he developed a crush on and was inspired to change his life and identity because of her.
i ended up writing a post about those headcanons re: dandelion and the countess de stael as they exist now, if you are interested :')
but most importantly the reason i didn't go through with this headcanon is because i want dandelion and angouleme to exist in the same space without their relationship being fraught with tragedy and disdain; i think, were he her father, she wouldn't be able to even look at him. and the guilt may destroy him, too.
it's also, for me... i have this interpretation of the hanza in that they have all made such mistakes or been the victims of mistreatment in their lives, but despite these strong emotions, they cannot go back into the past and confront the people who hurt them, or apologize to the people they hurt. all they can do now is live in the present and try to do better in the future. for each member of the hanza, there is no closure.
i see this with cahir, who harmed ciri and cannot undo that, but has now joined the company and denounced nilfgaard. i see it with regis, who destroyed his own life and pushed everyone away, but is now seeking humanity. i see it with milva, who has spilt and lost blood of her own, and learning vulnerability. and angouleme... angouleme cannot know her parents, they abandoned her and will always have abandoned her. they receive no second chances, she'll never know them, and has to deal with that emptiness which persists with her. even when in the company, which comforts her... despite her beginning to heal and try to take care of herself, she'll never find closure about her mother or father, because they're irrevocably gone.
i also think dandelion and angouleme can have a really positive relationship without a biological connection between them. i mean, i think the thought could occur to dandelion: "she is younger than, i suppose, however old little eye is now. plague, she could even be the daughter i never had- ptu, will never have..." but i don't see dandelion ever having a father-daughter relationship with her. it's more like his relationship with ciri, where it takes a village to raise a child, and he's a close friend of the family...
but i do think dandelion would impart some knowledge onto her, especially that around politics and how to navigate the social interactions of a court, which she wants to do but is unfamiliar with. it's somewhat ironic, because he himself completely disregards these kinds of manners and formalities. but he does know them, so he can tell her... dandelion and angouleme have opposite relationships with nobility and i think the most interesting thing about them in beauclair would be that dandelion is using his noble identity to secure a life he wants, but a life that contradicts his broader identity and desires in life, because his vision is clouded by the dreams of toussaint...
