#reaper talks

[grimmonsreaper]

Ok... I usually don't do this kind of post... But, OH MY GOD.

I am going to get my hair cut sometime this week. And I mean like, a MASC haircut. And I have been absolutely riveting and so... ecstatic about it that I've been barely able to hold it in...I've barely been able to even SLEEP I've been so excited... I'm equally as nervous but my excitement has kinda been overpowering it. Everytime I think of myself with the hair cut I'm getting, I get butterflies in my stomach and can't help but to almost laugh... One thing is though, my family doesn't realize the haircut I'm getting is a guys haircut. I found one I liked (which took like 3 weeks of shaking hands and anxiousness of too many overwhelming decisions and choices to choose from and backtracking when I did find one and scrolling for hours upon hours... heh. And that was before i got confirmation that I would even be TOOK To get the haircut) and blocked out the person's face in the photo so nobody will realize it's a guy... Yeah, And for some reason that worked? (Though I had my hair short short before, but it was still just a women's haircut, and not even a good one at that... And that was like idk, 3 years ago.) And I'm 99.9 percent sure as far as I know, everyone in my close family that I actually interact with, (and other relatives too more than likely but I only mostly care about where my close family stands) are... Uhm well, are phobics of pretty much ANYTHING to do with being Queer... especially trans it seems. At least to my general knowledge, and of plenty of conversations I've heard in the past, and remarks I've heard when there is a gay and or lesbian couple in a commercial once in a blue moon. Or in a movie we watch on movie night. So that, definitely sucks... (Except my younger sister though, considering we talk about that kind of stuff. But I haven't even told her the reasoning behind my specific haircut.) But basically, I just get really happy emotions and even overwhelmed and nervous thinking and knowing I will soon look somewhat to how I imagine myself soon. So, yeah... sorry about this Long Post, 😅 I just wanted to vent a little bit on here to let out some of my excitement that I can't express the true feelings behind to anyone irl. Have a good day/night. Thanks 💖

[thesweetreaper]

I seriously have to thank 3,365 for sticking with me blog till now. I’ll hopefully get back to posting art on here again, but other things, plus some hints of depression hit me like a dumptruck driver DUI.

[redrisingreaper]

What do you think of Nero and Darrow's relationship? To me it kind of feels like a hate-respect kind of tension.

In my opinion, Nero-Darrow is a subtle subversion of mentor-enemy/avenger-protegé trope. Most often these relationships showcase the student being torn over their complex feelings towards the mentor they hate. Proximity equals getting to know the other results into the "oh shit i like dislike-like them" revelation.

Here's where Pierce diverts from this in a really fluid way:

There's no proximity. For the most part, Nero and Darrow have minimal contact with each other. Darrow is kicking ass at the Academy, and Nero is... somewhere being his tyrannical self. To Darrow, he goes from a distant kill objective to a distant disapproving, manipulating rich asshole.

Darrow never ever deviates from his path, his view or his opinion of Nero. Dude killed his wife, and is the poster boy for Mars' fascist society. In Darrow's mind, Nero is Evil, who oppressed his people and executed him and destroyed his friendship with Cassius. Nero never shows him any redeeming qualities. He treats him as a tool, to be discarded after the first chink or mishap. And Darrow has lived his whole life as a Red being treated like that, he's not about to live his Gold one the same way.

Leto. See, Nero didn't take Darrow under his wing as much as he grabbed his trophy from the Institute and skeddadled out of Bellona fire range. Nero already had Leto as replacement for his son, he didn't need another one. But Nero covets power, and Darrow showed just that in Red Rising: power.

Which brings me to my biggest point: Leto is the son Nero wants, but Darrow is the son Nero needs.

See, Nero is waging a cold war against Bellona and the Sovereign, and to win it he needs a weapon. Darrow is that weapon, and Nero knows it, but he also is wary of that weapon being turned against him. He resents the fact that he couldn't just have Leto and be certain of victory. Leto is loyal. Leto is safe. Leto is a knight, he's malleable only insofar as his limited view of the world permits to.

Darrow unpredictable and that makes him dangerous (which... he is. We see that when reading from his modest pov. Imagine how he must've looked in the first trilogy from other perspectives *shudder*). His extrapolations are out of the world, they're literally history-making.

Had Nero been less prideful and more smart, he'd have played into Darrow's emotions, his weak point, and turned all of that ruthless focus on his enemies. But noooo, he had to be a dickwad during the whole books.

The mentor-enemy/avenger-protegé trope is subverted here because the one doing the panicking is Nero (the mentor in the loosest sense of the word) and the one who's unfazed is Darrow. Nero is wary of Darrow because he knows he needs him but he doesn't trust him, and Darrow couldn't care less about the wannabe tyrant.

Summarized, Nero-Darrow is:

Nero: 🤡 🏆👤

Darrow: 🤢🚫🗡

[djjsjsnananbxnanajs]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I wrote a fic. I’m not sure how stuff like this works so I’m just gonna drop this here.