#maria lore

[meirimerens]

Do you have any thoughts on the Kains' family dynamics (especially Maria & Khan + Nina & Maria but anything will do)... Do you ever think about them...

god do i. do i ever. the maria and khan dynamic to me hinges so beautifully on that post i cannot stop thinking about it. in pathologic siblings either cannot part/love each other saur saur much (clara & changeling for the "cannot part" one, both for the stamatwins) or have this growing distance between them (georgiy and simon, in their defense One is Dead [allegedly], maria and khan, vlad jr and capella...). i think maria never really wanted a sibling but Tough Luck baby girl. she liked having all of her parents' attention; she knew she was destined to greatness by blood, and having that blood be shared didn't sit well with her. khan is bound to be an heir in his own way, a "beloved son", "the family's hope" - maria wishes she could have all of this. but they navigate very different waters, the two of them. khan respects her - respects her because she can make herself be respected so easily, with such grace, whereas he still has to claw for it, even within his family (mostly by virtue of. being 15). she finds him a little cringe and like a little insect in many ways, but one ought to respect insects.

khan, within his own family is beloved in the way maria is feared - meaning he is also feared, and she is also beloved. they're both bound to heritage - whereas maria welcomes hers, and fully intends on filling the dark sky with her hair like her mother did before, khan is not particularly excited to become like his father.

living with nina was like living with a biblical angel, or a maddened night mare. she was feared, even by her own family members, and yet adored. they were never afraid she would like hit them or anything, it was closer to living with lightning, but a lightning that loves you, in its own way. i think she was tempestuous and groundswell-like with Maria, i think as a way to... incite her power to come through. earthquake-like to release the magma underneath... that didn't happen before her death (that happens closer to like day 9 bachelor route p1) but maria will be forever thankful her mom did that. it was like fencing... like Mensur maybe even. she was not like this with her son, because. well his ass is not becoming a mistress. she loved him dearly too, but might have been a little distant, engulfed in her Mistress ways, but always tried to stir up his fires for desire of power and greatness... and that manifested itself as he became a teenager.

victor's relationship with both his kids is... strained in the fact that he has neither the power, the fury, the fire or the hold that Nina had. his daughter is slipping away from him because she is molding a volcanic fire of her own, that he knew once in her mother but that he never truly understood, and his son he couldn't hold onto because he longs for freedom so much (possibly inherited from his mother). maria doesn't want his tenderness because she wants respect and knows herself to burn so much brighter than him, and khan doesn't want it either because he wants quite the same, but doesn't have the mistress inheritance, the mystery, the power that maria has inherited... so he has to forge his own.

tldr

women when they're about to become their mother: 🖤🗡️🔥🫀🫁🌩️♥️

men when they're about to become their father: 😬😟🙁☹️😰🫨😱

and whatnot

[meirimerens]

Sillier question, how do you feel about Petyr's apparent pining for Maria Kaina? How do u think Andrey feels..

unsure what you mean about "how do i feel" because that's like a piece of text i'm perfectly neutral over. if you mean what i Think about it i do have thoughts. not enough to warrant anything but for you babygirl i'll type:

his pining is not disinterested, and i think that's so cool. his affection(s) [whatever one wants to interpret them as] are predicated upon the fact that Maria is very special. upon the fact that Peter and Andrey's works, in this town, have been for the benefit of her family, and for their ascension(s) to something bigger than themselves, which the twins, also, have been working towards their whole artistic lives. his affection is dependent on Maria's greatness, greater-than-herselfness. his calling her "a star. The star. [...] Flawless. [...]" is predicated on the fact that she "begets true magic". he is in admiration of her through, and because of her power(s), and wouldn't have this otherwise. his fascination in my mind's eye is for people who are Bigger than him - either in a very literal sense (shows my "CEO of [...]" badge) or in the most metaphysical sense; hence his equal admiration, mixed with fear, of Nina. ("I don't know how he managed to [create the Polyhedron]. I think that's because he loved Nina so much.") his pining for her come from the fact that he and his brother were called to elevate her family to greatness - and she is the next one to be elevated. her family needs the twins - methinks the twins like, for once, being needed, instead of having bounties on their heads. (but i think andrey missed the thrill of it, hence why he gets so trigger-happy in P1)

he equally has great love and praise for Eva, but this is not disinterested either. that praise and affection come from the fact that that she loves the Polyhedron (or rather, is able to). methinks peter registers (or rather, in canon registers, because in my bullshit stories where he hangs out with a guy he does not speak to in canon that shifts) love/affection only through the prism of his creations, of the Polyhedron in particular. if you love his creations, you love (a part of) him. but if you dislike them, you hate him wholly (or so he thinks).

i think Andrey would rather he fixates on a Kain woman than on anything else - methinks Andrey is less shaken by Peter liking (whatever form that takes) other people, than by Peter liking other people who do not align with the twins' values. methinks he considers anyone who peter gets close to but who does not abide by/suscribe to/uphold/consider their own values and morals to be an active threat to their existence, and the Kains (or Kainas here specifically) are not those kind of people. it is less that the kains abide by the twins' values, or that the twins' abide by theirs, but rather that they have been brought together because they shared common ground. as such, Maria is, on that regard, a "safe" person for Peter to love (there is also the fact i believe that andrey knows maria and peter would never have like. an actual relationship. that, and the fact that he equally respects her). in that regard alone - for she is threatening, unpredictable, and could bring to their end in wholly different, less comprehensible ways. but ways which the twins are more willing to deal with, and to be put through. it's like pining after a storm - you know what you're getting yourself into. the lightning strike that would burn your tissues from the inside is part of the dance.