I'll Never Understand People Who Believe Stefan And Elijah Are The Ones Who Are Codependent In Their

I'll never understand people who believe Stefan and Elijah are the ones who are codependent in their relationships with their brothers.

Damon was constantly popping up in Stefan's life because he didn't know how to stay away from his brother, and he was always on the verge of tears whenever he had to leave him again (because he was, of course, a bad influence on Stefan, Lexi repeatedly told him that and Damon left him for a few years before eventually always going back to him), Elijah left Klaus alone for only twenty years, I believe, and Klaus literally lost his mind, drowning in his own paranoia - not to bring up how he always prioritized his brother over his own daughter. And let's not even talk about how he acted in season three of The Originals only because Elijah was rightfully mad at him.

The writers ruined their characters so much to make their more popular but downright more evil and irredeemable characters be more loved, hence why "the better man" is apparently Damon or why Klaus somehow is the better brother to his siblings and less evil than Elijah.

Anyone who critiques klamille as rushed, random, ooc or undeveloped whilst shipping any other Klaus Mikaelson ship just gets an eye roll from me lmao. Just ship your ship and dont speak on klamille because it is literally the most developed romantic ship Klaus had. The writers actually took their time developing the dynamic. Not to rush to humanize him even if it was out of nowhere, not to lay the groundwork for a spinoff, but to show an actual soulmate connection over time. The fact that stans of those ships with lesser quality &writing even have the nerve to speak on klamille…their antis are so bold and wrong.

I love them 💙💙💙

Pre-Serum Steve: *coughs*

Bucky Barnes: oh my god oh my goD you'll get through this MAKE A HOLE PEOPLE THIS MAN NEEDS AIR are you okay we're gonna make it throug this

Post-Serum Steve: *coughs*

Bucky Barnes: shut up

was it casual when brynjolf went searching everywhere for the player character after he was presumably told that they were dead

A thing I wish DAO went into more: the way Alistair is in some ways incredibly selfish. Like, the way he refuses to take charge of the group is treated as kind of endearing in the text, but the game doesn't really get into what a massive burden he just... drops on the junior Warden present with no warning or discussion. Think about it: the Warden is heavily implied to be very young (possibly younger than Alistair, definitely around the same age), most of them have no real experience in leadership, several of them have no experience in the world outside their small corner, all of them have only been Wardens for a few days. And Alistair dumps leadership of the group on them and refuses to take any of that weight. Does your Warden like leadership? Are they any good at it? Is it exhausting and difficult for them? Alistair doesn't care! He doesn't want to lead, and that means you have to lead, and whether or not you want to lead has no bearing on that. It's not a discussion, there's no suggestion of sharing the responsibility of leadership as the Wardens of the group; Alistair metaphorically throws the responsibility at you and runs.

But if you go for low approval with Alistair it's basically all about calling him childish and immature, even though I think a much more compelling low approval dynamic is the Warden despising Alistair for putting so much on them with no hesitation, but being stuck with him (because they know as well as he does that they need all hands on deck Warden-wise) and stuck with that burden of leadership (because a Warden kind of has to be in charge of the group and even if one didn't no one else in the group would be very good as a leader in this situation, and Alistair has made it very clear that he won't take it). Even at high approval it would be very compelling to have this sense of resentment at how Alistair just assumed they'd take on the burden of leadership and refuses to take any of it for himself. But that aspect gets completely ignored in the story, you don't really get the chance to raise the matter aside from asking why you're in charge despite him being the senior Warden present a couple of times.

It also adds something really spicy to the fallout of sparing Loghain, though, because... Alistair forced the Warden to take on leadership. He made them be the one to make these hard choices. It's never been a discussion, it's never been the Warden's choice whether or not they take on responsibility for these tough decisions, Alistair always just expects them to do it. And now they've made a call he doesn't like, and he abandons the group on the eve of battle because of his wounded feelings? I'd argue that's as much a betrayal as sparing Loghain if not more so, and certainly more of a betrayal of Duncan's memory; Duncan understood that a good Warden must be driven by necessity, not emotion or even morality, and I feel like in the Warden's place he likely would've made the same call. They need Wardens around to kill the Archdemon, as many as they can get, and even one more could make the difference between victory and defeat. The Warden and Alistair may not know the details, but with the most senior Warden present saying they should make Loghain a Warden instead of killing him a logical assumption would be he has a very good reason for saying so and maybe they should listen to him! I would've loved it if during the argument with Alistair after sparing Loghain you could really get into that "You forced the responsibility of making these decisions on me when I never wanted or asked for it, you don't get to throw a tantrum now that I've made one you don't like" aspect of it, but you... don't. And that's a shame, because it takes a lot of depth away from his dynamic with the Warden.