antis clearly never read The Hunchback…
Because if they had, they’d know that one of the most enduring tropes in literature — and I say this with my whole chest — is the guardian who becomes the lover once the ward comes of age and the narrative shifts from protection to partnership. Paul Féval was not out here inventing the genre, but Le Bossu (1858) walked so your faves could spiral into forbidden yearning with the man who once shielded them from the world.
Aurore and Lagardère are textbook of this trope. She’s rescued as a baby after her parents are violently killed, raised as something sacred that carries hope for the world (France in this case), taught to defend herself, and then the moment she blossoms into a woman of agency and strength — boom. Emotional whiplash. She realizes she’s not a child anymore and neither is her heart.
And yes, it's a fantasy. It’s supposed to be a fantasy.
No one’s arguing this should be your dating blueprint — but in fiction? It works because it's deeply emotional architecture. The trust is prebuilt. The intimacy has history. It’s not about power or power imbalance for that matter, it’s about safety.
The reader isn't here for grooming — they’re here for the moment someone says, “No one else could ever love you the way I do, because I know every wound you carry, and I’ve carried them with you.”
It's about transformation. Protection becoming passion. Loyalty becoming longing. The line between “I would die for you” and “I love you” becoming so razor-thin you cut your teeth on it.
And let’s not even pretend:
Obikin is the Hunchback’s number one fan.
Obi-Wan, the tragic, principled guardian who held his friend as he lay dying (that literally happens in the Hunchback), unwilling to acknowledge how long he’s been building his life around Anakin.
devoted, emotionally stunted, desperate to be seen as a man by the one person who’s only ever called him Padawan.
They are Lagardère and Aurore with ... well, with a couppla more war crimes behind the belt ... but that's NOT the point!!
So the next time someone gets moralistic about “guardian-turned-lover” dynamics in fiction, just hand them The Hunchback and say, “Congratulations. You’re shipping 19th-century literature now. Welcome to Obikin.”
