Not sure if this has been asked. But I remember you saying that FFS Arden could easily thrash FFS Gwyn pretty easily. In an UTB like-universe would you see Arden as a Peak Alpha as well so they could still have that same dynamic, or something else?
(I think my brain is in a thousand directions with those two right now. Loving the anticipation of their conflict in Constellations and still stuck with my Fae canon vision of Gwyn as this ultimate-warrior-of-unmatched-awesomeness-but-with-FEELINGS.)
I actually don't see Arden as a peak alpha at all, tbh. I see him as a beta who is also a dominant, and I don't really see a ton about him or his lifestyle changing!
I think part of that is that I don't think I could preserve his easygoing, friendly and compassionate personality in quite the same way if he was a peak alpha, or even an alpha, and that to me is such a vital, chosen part of who he is.
But I don't think the dynamics parallel anyway! Like, FFS Gwyn doesn't want to mount his cousin, and FFS Gary doesn't want to fuck Efnisien, so like... I don't really see UtB Gwyn and UtB Arden as having any kind of similar relationship either.
In fact I don't actually think Arden is in this universe at all. Like, I can kind of imagine a version of him existing in it, but I'm not writing the story as though he exists in it! To me Arden is just not in the Underline universe, in the same way that Eran as a viable partner isn't really in the Smoke in Autumn stories and Gwyn isn't present in Strange Sights.
Sometimes to make certain pairings work I have to 'you don't exist' to another character, lmao.
But yeah in Underline the Black I'm really not looking to preserve most of the dynamics that exist re: Efnisien and the people around him! I think part of that is that I'm several years on from thinking about Gwyn as much as I used to? So outside of The Nascent Diplomat and Constellations, Gwyn is not in my thoughts quite in the way he used to be (that's the break that I needed all along, tbh, so I didn't end up developing a strained connection to him as a character).
I think it's really amazing that other people enjoy and love thinking about him! Like, that's both humbling, and also like, I'm just glad on Gwyn's behalf in a weird way that his energy is still being really loved and looked after. But I've been trying hard to make room for new characters and new dynamics for a few years now, which means that I am really not seeking to replicate a lot of dynamics anymore, because I've written like 2.5 million words of those dynamics, and need a bit of a break!
(I love Arden, I just really didn't want to put him in a dystopia, which was like a weird personal choice of like 'no Arden deserves to not be here, especially if he's not going to get someone he loves out of it' dsalfkjasd)









