I was going to make a comment but then it ended up being too long lol. But yes, I’m SO glad someone else saw it. The entire first part of his monologue and when Jazz asked him if he’s happy, I was like, oh honey you are Depressed. D pressed. Before we had seen him passed out drunk and I didn’t think much of it but this is clearly an every week if not every day occurrence. And he’s desperately trying to fill the void with money and women but it’s not working like it’s “supposed” to.
He fully believes he’s happy because he’s living the textbook good life (especially for a man) but deep down, it does nothing for him. Especially when every day is basically the same, and that same is a bandaid to the real problem, it pushes you further into depression.
Being challenged, truly challenged, brought a newness to his life that he had never experienced before. It’s bright, exciting. It’s part of why I think he goes on heists to begin with. Like sure, he’s from a family of thieves. But I think he’s always wanted something, someone, to give him an excitement he can't get elsewhere.
caliburn was just talking about him so now i want to as well. king charming is a man who does not care about the genuine wellbeing of his children. he had kids to produce enough capable heirs to pass the kingdom onto when they’re of age. this man actively encourages the {sexualization} of his teenage daughter for the sake of what he thinks shes supposed to represent for her gender and as a child of royalty.
darling’s supposed to be around 10-12 years old here since this takes place a few years before she starts high school. even as young as she was here, she can still recognize how weird this behavior is, even if she can’t fully understand it.
her parents are fine with her being harassed because it means shes growing into exactly what they need her to be (a beautiful woman who can represent the kingdom who will be married off once she’s old enough)
once this [insistent marriage proposals from young boys] becomes an inconvenience for him, not the child being subjected to it, he decides to lock her in a tower for years under the guise of wanting to “protect her”
and i wouldn’t even go as far to say that king charming does this to protect her. literally no indication is made that king charming wants to protect her from suitors or that her safety is at stake. more that her growing up has become an inconvenience that he has to deal with. he’s acting like he don’t actively encourage this behavior and he’s the main part of the reason they ended up in this predicament in the first place. [note: the king didn’t make this happen but him and his wife sat up there and enabled that shit. im also wondering what made all those boys start fawning over darling in the first place. its not the first time we’ve seen this happen, like with apple and some of the other princesses. it seems like a mix of multiple things; royalty equals celebrity, the charmings and their inherent magical ability to make people love them, how young boys are raised in ever after, the general culture of the charming kingdom, other eahisms, whatever whatever]
not once do the king (or queen) ask if darling’s okay or how this makes her feel or if it has affected her at all. because her feelings don’t matter here. they never really have. as long as she serves her “purpose” to the kingdom, the king could really care less. see how darling says ‘i thought you were proud of me because i’m so charming’ he [king charming] only cares that she’s knows she’s beautiful. he acknowledges this but goes right back to complaining of how this affects him.
darling being locked in a tower isn’t for the sake of her safety or wellbeing, but another way for her parents to control her.
like they DON’T CAREEE ABOUT HER SAFETY AT ALLLL!!! just about their self image
Okay, let's talk about it: Honestly, the more I reread the books, the more I'm convinced the Charmings arrange their children's marriages. Obviously, the Destiny sistem makes the matching mechanics for some characters different from those in real life, but they're still arranged marriages all the same. And this is fascinating because it effectively makes the Charming children's worth dictated...by their sexual worth.
Darling is the most obvious case, but this also applies to Daring. Daring has value because he's attractive and therefore marketable as Prince Charming. Obviously, gender norms apply differently, but the key concept remains that Darling and Daring have value because they can be sexualized. And this also explains why the Charmings are so desperate to discover that Dexter needs glasses; because, unlike his brothers, he's no longer attractive on the market. Especially since Dexter's charm lies precisely in his eyes.
Incidentally, this lowkey thing ties into both parents' "redemption" in Class of Classic - King Charming was technically also a victim of being devalued due to not being a desirable match, resembling Dexter, and indeed his interest in Goldie could be a way of reclaiming appeal (conquest = masculinity).
Some thoughts on an alternate universe where Craig's powers got discovered as a toddler and he was deported. Interestingly, Craig has two possible fates depending on the timing:
Craig gets deported as a toddler (when his powers first manifested, before being severed.) His uncle locks him up inside and trains him into being a replacement for his father. Children have a lot more rights in Paradisus, even as beloveds, such as going to school. His uncle doesn't want that, so he does not register Craig and keeps him indoors so no one knows that he exists. Uncle gives up his visitation rights with York so that he wouldn't visit and notice. This likely ends with the uncle being eaten by a dragon when Craig finally snaps. Craig would be in bad shape from being locked up indoors so long, worse the longer it lasted.
Craig gets deported around kindergarten (after severing, the age of the second visit to his home.) His uncle still gets custody, but there is a critical different: York is old enough to remember Craig. Even if the uncle tries to cut York out, York will still want to see his cousin and he will ask questions about the weird lizard and why his cousin doesn't go to school. As a result, social services takes Craig away. The severing gets uncovered and fixed while Craig is still very young. Craig goes to live with York and his mother. It's a good family environment. York's mom is a good parent by yandere standards, a bit cold but very supportive and perhaps her coldness helps her treat both kids the same. York always wanted a little brother and will not go yandere over his sibling. Their family is wealthy, so Craig has a lot of advantages over other people growing up in a dangerous yandere nation. Craig will have a good childhood and be very respected as a potentially powerful yandere.
Perhaps a little world building for the dear yandere nation?
Let’s say for example, registering beloveds? What is the difference between ‘I want to vault them’ (like Rich to Craig) vs ‘I will help against other yanderes’ (DeAndre to Sybil) legally and attachment wise
Or trying to register someone who is a white flag?
How long can a white flag stay in Paradisus? Vacation vs work wise?
In Paradisus, any citizen can register another citizen as a beloved. There is no real difference based on type of love. Whether the yandere wants to vault beloved or not is up to the yandere. Registering someone as a beloved suddenly makes it okay to commit a lot of crimes of love against that person.
DeAndre offered to help Sybil with any of her yanderes as a big brother figure, but not as a yandere to a beloved. He had someone else as a beloved. In Paradisus, love is sacred. The law often bends around love. It's legal to kill an enemy who threatens someone you love, even if it's not a yandere obsession type of love. Even non-yandere citizens can use this. (In general, Paradisus has a more lax attitude toward murder but it's not always legal. There does have to be justification, even though "he had it coming" is considered a legal defense.) DeAndre didn't need to register Sybil as someone like family to him in order to protect her. But telling the Bureau of Love in advance that he's going to defend her can save him the trouble of a trial if he kills a yandere for stalking her.
Paradisus has a treaty with other nations forbidding kidnapping their citizens. Registering a white flag as a beloved will not make it legal to vault them. But it still happens. Legality never stopped a true yandere from kidnapping. There is an entire industry in Paradisus devoted to false documentation, including making it seem as if someone's illegal beloved is in fact a citizen of Paradisus. Yanderes may also try to provoke white flags into attacking first or removing their wristbands so they become eligible to kidnap.
A white flag would be free to stay in Paradisus for as long as they like. The National Tourism Office is desperate. They literally hand out free money to any foreigner who travels to Paradisus.
To elaborate on Forget Me Please, here is some more fun social services lore:
-Most social workers use fake names and wear masks. Their job attracts a lot of retaliation. Even to fellow social workers, they only reveal their real names after becoming close friends. Joel is unusual in that he doesn't care for, uh, spoiler reasons.
-Social services has a very unusual leadership structure. Unlike the real world, they have federal authority as the Social Services Division, which reports to the Federal Bureau of Love. It was necessary to centralize their profession because of the pressing need.
-The identity of the director of social services is anonymous: not publicly known or listed on any website. Too many yanderes want such a person dead.
-Joel sometimes delivers messages for the director to the rest of the staff. This makes some people suspect that he is the director.
-In general, social service workers operate very independently, alone or with team leaders who oversee a handful of people. There is less central authority.
-Though children have top priority, social services has domain over all the helpless in Paradisus, including those victimized by bad yanderes or collateral damage to yandere romances. Social workers are the people called in when someone fails a vault inspection. They are fully authorized to removed a beloved against their own will if they diagnose the beloved as having Stockholm Syndrome. For when the beloved refuses to leave the vault, they have people who specialize in being negotiators: talking calmly to beloveds, getting them to stand down. York believes this is Joel's role. York is wrong. (I swear, York's role in this series is to never know about any of the family secrets.) If they cannot persuade the beloved, then they will bring in someone with a sleeping gas power and try to tranquilize the beloved causing minimal harm. They don't just walk away. Social services has a reputation for never walking away from a fight no matter how insane. That's why even yanderes don't want to mess with them. A social services swat team is considered a force on the level of a small army.
-Children have more protections in Paradisus, and social services actually cares about finding them good homes. (Whereas the homeless shelters are more likely to shove them at the first yandere.) Prospective parents actually get screened and the children's opinions are taken into account.
-Social services wants kids adopted ASAP. Yanderes have a shortage of foster parents and people willing to run orphanages. It takes a very good person who wants to be a foster parent to have the patience for troubled kids. Yandere nation has a shortage of such saints! Yanderes are only nice to people who they consider to be theirs. A temporary foster parent would be just in it for the money and likely to not treat the kid well. If the foster parent does get attached, they'll never give the kid back, and that's how kids get vaulted. So the social services considers it very important to get kids adopted quickly.
-Although they do their best, social services is chronically understaffed.
-Social worker is a well paid position. For all the flaws of the Paradisus system, they believe in compensating the people who do the most valuable and dangerous work. And social workers need to be well paid to afford all the security around their homes.
-They're all insane. You have to be in order to do this job. No amount of pay is worth being the person who regularly takes beloveds away from yanderes in a nation full of yanderes. The social services likes to recruit from people who have suffered at the hands of yanderes in the past or people who had their beloveds die and now have nothing to lose. They are the most ideological of any group of yanderes, rare in that they put the cause above themselves.
-Of course, any group has some bad apples. The traffickers have tried hard to infiltrate the social services and there are a few traitors mixed in. Less dramatically, every job will have someone who burns out or gets distracted by falling in love.
-Minors can vault other minors. Although social services gets even more protective. A minor must be allowed to receive schooling. The arrangement where the Whittakers had Kristopher locked up in the basement would not have been legal. If caught in an illegal minor vaulting, the beloved would be taken away. The minor would go to a juvenile detention center. Punishments tend to be lighter for minors, everyone understands that teenagers can get carried away by their first love. This means both that the prison sentence would be light, and there wouldn't be as much social ramifications. In the real world, having prison on your resume really hurts you. In a yandere nation, if you have a prison sentence for kidnapping a beloved, the hiring manager just thinks "At least he won't obsess over any coworkers because he already has a target." Juvie focuses on rehabilitation, although their idea of rehabilitation is "build a legal vault next time." If an adult helped with this imprisonment, they would get in more trouble, because adults should know better.
Spoilers for Forget Me Please:
-Joel is a "joker" in the power system, because his ability allows him to defeat far stronger yanderes. He can nerf even an animal shadow if they don't see him coming. But at the same time, his inability to erase memories of love is a big weakness. Joel usually fights human traffickers, who are motivated by money not love. His powers would become weaker against a yandere protecting a beloved. He knows that, so he lets other social workers handle cases of taking a beloved away from an abusive yandere. Thus he is an interesting example of "power weaker or stronger depending on circumstances."
-Joel would be in real trouble if he ever had to fight a yandere who is obsessed with him. The strongest aspect of his power would stop working. He's aware of this, and like Craig he knows about the trope of a yandere kid falling in love with someone who saves them then coming back as a dangerous adult. That's why he erases the memories of everyone he interacts with on the job, and after a short period of time, so hopefully they don't have time to pick up an obsession. This is not foolproof, but so far it's prevented him from picking up a trail of yanderes obsessed with his coolness.
-Joel's initial vague impression of Craig as children was "a very sweet kid who adores York." When they met again as adults, he was in for a shock.
-Social services uses Joel to deal with vantablack yanderes who are not breaking any laws, but who want to make beloved eat beloved's own legs. Social services does not know what Joel does, and they do not ask him any questions. They want plausible deniability. They just point him at a target, and it gets taken care of. No one ever suspects Joel.
-Joel definitely killed the fake social worker who kidnapped Kristopher. Who was actually a Black Diamond member with a fake ID.
-If Duane had been under eighteen, then Joel would have handled the situation differently. That's what Joel meant when he told Duane "you're old enough to know better than to traffic people." It's true that eighteen is an arbitrary line, but it's old enough that Duane would have been through school classes about legal kidnappings and old enough that he had the option to take all his parents' stuff if he'd reported them to the police. Eighteen is still just a kid to me, but from the perspective of the law and social services, it's an important line. Legally, Duane is not Joel's responsibility.
-There's an alternate ending to the story where Kristopher hadn't fixated on Duane, forgot about him, and later became a social worker.
-If Craig had known about Joel's powers, he would insist he was completely justified to throw grenades at the guy on sight. Craig got a bad feeling around Joel because Joel puts on a fake persona, and he'd be vindicated to know his instincts were on target.
#1: Asshole City definitely had a bad reputation among other Greeks for bad hospitality. The yandere word for someone who eats food in another person's house without checking for poison is a synonym with "sucker."
Although I actually don't think Asshole City usually poisoned travelers they weren't in love with. Not out of any morals. Because they had a hard enough time getting traders to come. Of course the yanderes will firmly insist that being chosen is a beloved is an honor.
However Asshole City citizens would laugh at travelers expecting to stay at their houses. Yanderes don't just allow random travelers inside. That is a good way to be robbed! And Beloved's safety is priority! Beloved is the greatest treasure that anyone who saw would want!
#2: Asshole City doesn't have a flag classification like Paradisus. But they do rank yanderes by how well they can provide for beloved, and it's a prestige system. That's part of why yanderes are always showing off their love. Big displays like statues around the city get "love points."
#3: Doctors would be highly valued in Asshole City. Yanderes care a lot about Beloved's health. They would also need to be better than a lot of ancient doctors because yanderes have no tolerance for someone who accidentally makes it worse with snake oil cures. Of course yanderes will rely a lot on healing plants but those are rare.
Instead of the Hippocrates oath, it's the "I probably don't want to vault you" oath.
Seriously, doctor must be a dangerous profession as well as valued. Because when most people die the doctor can just say "They are with Hades now, that will be ten drachma." But when a beloved dies, doctor had better start running. Even if the patient was over a hundred years old.
AU ideas:
A: a poor skilled doctor or apothecary being kidnapped again and again by various yanderes in Asshole City.
B: Doctor who wants to be kidnapped by a yandere and is mad so many people keep kidnapping for nonromantic reasons.
C: Doctor who is fed up with all these kidnappings but jaded about it and does not believe it when a yandere finally vaults them. The whole time it's just "Oh, so you're treating me nicely because you have a patient for me, bring the patient out already."
D: Kidnapped doctor who is done with this bullshit but too ethical to hurt patients. So instead Doctor tells every yandere "Beloved is too frail to have sex with you for at least a year." It also works if yandere is the patient. "What a shame, I predict next time you do it, your genitals will rot away."
E: A doctor and a badass bodyguard team. They are constantly sneaking into houses to treat patients then run away before they see the results.
#4: Artists are very cherished like doctors. Like doctors, they had better not fuck it up.
Weirdly, I could see some artists picking yandere patrons, despite all the danger. Because yanderes might be insane, but at least the yanderes who are passionate about art usually don't want to censor it. Whereas the average noble patron demands you produce work that flatters him, the yandere patron just wants something original or creative. And nonpowered nobles in other cities can also be assholes! At least yanderes pay well. Other rich people are prone to stiffing artists.
On the other hand, I can totally imagine a story where the rich yanderes get together to kidnap a portrait artist because no one famous enough was willing to travel to their cities and paint their beloveds.
Art competitions must get brutal as dozens of yanderes submit art of their beloveds and they all expect to win. Judging that would be as dangerous as Paris judging a beauty contest with three goddesses. They tried switching to having the audience vote but there were too many ties as everyone voted for their beloved's picture. Kidnapping judges was of course popular. Eventually they had to ban any pictures featuring people from art contests.
Crack AUs:
A: Asshole City gets criminals who have been convicted to death or prisoners of war to judge the contest. The prisoners decide to be absolutely brutal because they figure they have nothing left to lose.)
B: Infatuated yandere hunting down the author of their favorite book, who used a penname.
C: There's a history of women creating art under male names or sometimes having men steal their work. A story about a female sculptor who puts her idiot brother's name on all her work, but willingly because she lives in Asshole City. The brother is an annoying Sven-type lemming except people think at least he has artistic talent (he does not.) But he's such an agent of chaos that he keeps getting all the obsessive yanderes killed. The sister goes through a rotation of patrons who keep dying after they chase her brother and happily collects the money.
D: Asshole City poet whose job is to rewrite yandere love letters and love poems to nonpowered beloveds. Because yanderes like to write stuff such as "I want to crawl into your rib cage and live there forever." And poet has to explain that nonpowered see that as creepy and it will not convince them to move to Asshole City.
This could also turn into a funny Cyrano de Bergerac story. Either poet falls in love with one of the beloveds. Or one of the beloveds turns out to be a yandere and falls in love with poet, the real person who wrote the letters.
dumbing of age: long autobiographical coming-of-age story in strip format about a christian fundie going to college and changing her outlook on life. posts daily. ongoing but will never complete, it's meant to run forever. careful, there's decades of archives, it WILL eat your life.
tj & amal: two strangers go on a weeklong roadtrip for different but equally tense reasons that slowly come to light as they fall in love. probably my favorite of the list because the emotion is so raw and casual at the same time. deeply human story and the art is wonderful. completed. written by @bigbigtruck who's got other ongoing comics you'll find on that same website
kill six billion demons: what if all shonen and superhero comics and also buddhism had a child about thwarting destiny and being gay? ongoing, posts irregularly but we're at the climactic battle so it's close ish to completion. the art was great when it started and has only become crazier since. there's also short stories/excerpts from the sweeping cosmogony which i love even more than the comic itself.
unsounded: epic fantasy comic about an undead man and an impossible little girl trying to navigate a broken world. the worldbuilding goes crazy. very brutal story & deeply interesting. stopped reading a while ago to let a buffer build up, i think it's concluded recently so i need to pick it back up.
tiger tiger: a young lady commandeers her brother's ship to go on a science adventure and accidentally meets the eldritch being that will end the world. about to conclude, amazing art, amazing characters, i've also stopped reading it while it wraps up, can't wait to pick it back up.
i have a longer list but these are my top five.
i mean there's also oglaf of course, everyone should know oglaf
Yanderes had more popularity and a better reputation in very early human history, when survival was paramount. At times yanderes were even worshipped like gods with beloveds offered as sacrifices. They started to have more trouble as humanity developed pesky concepts like laws. In addition, humans working together became less reliant on yandere powers.
Paradisus was the first majority yandere nation. In the old days, a yandere majority country will be unstable because no yandere is ever satisfied to be a peasant. And a medieval society can't function without peasants. There were plenty of instances of yanderes seizing power in the past. But most yanderes are just selfish. Even if a yandere got the crown for themself, it's not as if they care about what happens after they die. So they didn't try to set up a stable situation for future yanderes. Yanderes in the past could better hold onto a city state than an entire nation! They'd have such an insane reputation that even empires don't want to attack them. Though they might burn down their own damn city.
A few more thoughts on yandere city states:
-There was more than one over history
-Some happened covertly (yanderes rose to the top like shit floats on water) and some were openly founded under yandere principles (Paradisus would later copy some of their laws)
-Probably supported by a slave class of nonpowered, as awful though it sounds. Yanderes won’t do their own laundry. Manifesting powers was immediate grounds to be freed from slavery. Any city state without that law ended up burned down fast by a pissed off yandere slave.
-Heavily reliant on duels as a means to settle conflict between yanderes. Even more than Paradisus. Internal conflict needs to be nipped in the bud fast.
-Probably did not welcome in yandere immigrants like Paradisus. The problem is that a city state has less space and less resources. So the city state is more jealously guarding what they have and they don't welcome in lots of outsiders. Also, times were just more xenophobic in the past. They might have a competition where strong foreign yanderes can compete to become citizens.
-Yandere city states would probably have gender equality or close to it because women with powers can perform as well in the meritocracy. (Actually, it's interesting to think about how magic affected gender roles in general. It probably helped give nonpowered women a boost but I still suspect there wouldn't be total equality, not with yanderes often reviled.)
-On a similar note: For past women, marrying a yandere is clearly better because either you can be the property of some random asshole or someone who worships the ground you walk on. Basically, if you are stuck being owned either way it might as well at least be someone who won’t abandon you. Men might have been more likely to get upset about a yandere's love, because they weren't raised with the expectation of being property. With the exception of slaves, obviously.
-Our modern concept of race didn't really exist in the past, it was more about dividing people based on nationality and religion. These divisions might still remain in the city state because of my earlier point about them not necessarily welcoming in outsiders. But they are still very merit based. In other words, if you're a badass then people will forget you were born in a different nation.
-There must have been some yandere city states as neighbors! Interesting to think about, isn't it? Those city states squabbled a lot instead of being allies. The concept of all yanderes working together didn't really appear until Paradisus.
-Neighbors offering up beloveds of beauty and talent as sacrifices to the yandere city states. Not even necessarily forced, I bet the neighbors wanted protection and magic, and they didn't mind sacrificing a few people to get it. Not all would be unwilling. Yanderes were also more charming in the past because of lower standards. The majority of the humanity was born into a position of servitude to someone, at least a yandere looks after you.
-Yandere city-states might have relied a lot on trade, because they can sell their magical salves. Imagine nonpowered sending all their most elderly traders in hopes that no one will fall in love with them!
-In some ways, it was easier to run away from a yandere in the past. Tracking wasn't as high tech. (You can bet that Paradisus has a big industry microchipping beloveds.) Vaults weren't as secure. Countries didn't have guarded borders or need passports to enter. It would absolutely suck to move to another continent, and be harder to adjust in the past than the modern era, especially without languages being as widespread. But if a beloved can run to another continent, the yandere is screwed trying to find them. In the modern era, we have cameras everywhere. A yandere could post a million dollar reward online and maybe someone in another continent will find beloved and tattle. But a thousand years ago? If you can make it to another continent, you are 99% free. (The 1% is for insane yandere persistence.)
-Another factor would be that even a yandere king doesn't have much influence on another country. So what if he has an army, how is he going to move the army that far? If he doesn't have a good reason at some point his own army will revolt. Whereas in the modern era, military aircraft can reach everywhere.
-This brings me to my next point: the yandere city states probably had a real problem with powerful people abandoning their duties to chase after a beloved. In fact, at least one city state died out because there was a mass beloved prison break and so many yanderes left in pursuit that the city could no longer function.
-On the flip side, that means yanderes were even more cautious about ever letting beloved out of the vault.
-Another big issue: mortality rates were so much higher in the past, so many more yanderes must be been prematurely bereft of beloveds. I bet that was a real problem in yandere city states: angry self-destructive yanderes with nothing to lose. They could rip a city state to pieces. I picture at least one city state having a strong tradition of "you burn yourself alive on your beloved's pier or you're not a real yandere" and it's because widowed yanderes are just too dangerous to keep around. Replacement beloveds were also a popular trend for when someone was too useful to kill.
-Paradisus has exhibits on the early history of yanderes. Old-fashioned vaults. Past courtship rites, such as the sacrificed beloveds. Famous legends of Helen of Troy beloveds who started wars.
-I bet historians must have fun arguing about if certain historical figures were yanderes or if the stories just made up magical powers for them. Because you know how legendary people are often written in stories as having supernatural strength or abilities? It would be really difficult to tell what was fiction and what was someone being a yandere. The debate is fierce about if King Arthur was a yandere or if the stories of him having healing powers were fake. On the one hand, his father Uther was clearly a yandere for his mother because of starting a war to marry her. On the other hand, what kind of yandere puts up with being cheated on by his wife? Unless his beloved was someone else? Merlin, of course, must have been a platonic yandere for Arthur. Although the shippers debate the platonic part.
-Was the Cretan minotaur a very early example of a shadow power or a prediction? Did he demand seven boys and seven girls as potential beloveds?
-These debates would also happen with some verified historical figures, who often have crazy legends about them. For example, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for being a yandere, but was it a frame job or did she actually have powers?
Hello! I don't know if you've already answered these questions, but I didn't find them on your blog, so I thought I'd ask!
First of all, can yanderes have extinct plants/animals? I'd imagine, if that is the case, that many a paleontologist yandere could get obsessed lol
Also, can yanderes have imaginary plants/animals??? Depending on how much those affect your persobality, a yandere dragon sounds absolutely terrifying (although I guess it depends what kind of dragon.... Eastern dragon yandere being the most obsessive kind of storm chasers.... Unicorn yanderes who people think are quiet and innocent, but actually the earlier myths have unicorns as violent beasts .... Can yandere have shape shifting shadows? And if yes, can that yandere themselves shapeshift?
Anyways, your stories are very cool, and I love your world building
Speaking of, have you made an actual list of what exactly characterizes each flag color?
If so, please point me to it, I couldn't find it 😭
Last thing, that I just thought about:
Have you heard about Gachiakuta? There's a character in there that would fit so well in your yandere universe, it's not even funny (if you care about spoilers though, I'd advise avoiding the fandom, unless you catch up with the manga, it's spoiler city in there)
Besides, the very concept of loving an object so much you basically give it a soul/powers seems like it would be popular in Paradisius
Have a nice day!
Yes, yanderes can have extinct plant and animal powers, though that is rare. Some plants and animals have been undiscovered species too, and no one can tell the difference. The result is that in-universe, scientists argue about if it's actually possible to have an extinct animal/plant or if these are just creatures hiding somewhere on earth. (As the author, yes they can be extinct! But the further back in time, the less likely.)
Imaginary plants/animals? Nope, I'm afraid not. Although Craig can take on a dragonlike form because he has a bearded dragon. The names of plants and animals have power, as I will discuss more in later stories. However no one can be born with a dragon shadow as in the mythological creature.
Yanderes can merge with their shadows and plants, but I don't think that's what you mean by shapeshifting. The name of a creature might give the yandere extra power, for example someone with a Mimic Octopus shadow could shapeshift.
No Country for Green Flags has a rough explanation of Paradisus flag colors. The actual manual for diagnosing people is three hundred pages long. It can also be arbitrary at the digression of the psychologist, which makes it very hard to give you ironclad rules about flag classification. Violence must be committed out of love to count, and who knows what is going on inside another person's head? People also lie to get the wrong classification all the time.
I've never read Gachiakuta. But if Paradisusians could empower objects with their love, they would have won the world war.
What happens to you if you are born with no powers in yandere nation?
Sybil from No Country for Green Flags is a great example of this. She lives an ordinary life, she attends college, and she has a job, but people around her sometimes patronize her. Yanderes may be more likely to target her due to perceiving her as weak. (In Sybil's case she is half-Canadian but it wouldn't have changed much if she'd been born to two Paradisusian parents.)
In Paradisus, citizens with no powers have the same rights as everyone else. But they are a minority subject to discrimination. Sybil at least had supportive parents, some families might disown a child without powers or try to arrange a marriage via kidnapping.
Finally, it's difficult to immigrate to another country because most places don't want someone with yandere blood who might be likely to have powered children.
Did he fall in love before or after his beloved got the (horrible horribly terrible) job?
Did the black flag choose them specifically because of that if he fell in love beforehand?
If he did fall in love before it happened would the black flag had still hired her or would they have done something else?
Does Tien ever get postcards, letters or emails as she was a large reason behind Elijah being able to quit/take a vacation, kill the black flag, and get his beloved. Or does she just exist in the part of his mind that’s like- Yeah guess she cool.
If Elijah was a black flag would he still have the same assignments?
If Tien didn’t come along what would have been Elijah’s plan?
And some crack questions:
Assuming his beloved wants a child and can’t have one, considering how injured they were and how risky it’d be, would Elijah grab Tien as a temporary child whenever she comes to visit?
(Probably not but I just think it’d be hilarious for her to have to deal with two attic wives whenever she comes to visit. Also she might be the one person that Elijah might allow in the presence of his beloved)
Mini Elephant Shadow. Just as strong as the original but tiny.
Elijah only getting dark flag assignments after because of how good Tien makes his record look.
Elijah fell for Sharon during his job, he has a "saving people" thing. Meanwhile the senator has a "tormenting people" thing and was drawn to Elijah's distress, even if he didn't know about the crush. The senator wouldn't have wanted them anywhere near each other if he'd known, also would have murdered Sharon.
Tien got an invitation to attend Elijah's wedding virtually (since she is banned from Paradisus) and an invite to connect on social media. He is fond of her, but wary of the weird optics of an adult man being pen pals with a teenage girl. And they only knew each other a short period of time, it's not a strong bond.
If Elijah had been a black flag, the secret service would have been wary to hire him. They prefer employees in the yellow to red range. (They have an unfair stereotype of greens being weak.) Many people won't accept an unattached black flag as a bodyguard because of the bodyguard romance trope. He basically only would have been able to work with the Black Flag Party.
If Tien hadn't existed, Elijah would have done the same thing except he would have needed to wait longer to gather money and obtain an opportunity to murder the senator.
This is a darker answer than you wanted for a crack question: if Elijah decided to adopt Tien, he wouldn't play around with a temporary kidnapping, as temporary is both illegal and un-yandere in Paradisus. He would arrange for her parents to die so he could rescue her, again fulfilling his desire to appear as a savior. He's more dangerous than he first appears, as she realized at the end of the story.
