[opens Ao3]

[opens Ao3]

The worst thing ever in the world is that Hera doesn't get to experience getting fro yo with Minkowski

I think a lot of people conflate the idea of "I like this headcanons" and the idea that "this should be canon."

Do I think Mary Poppins and Bert SHOULD be in a romantic relationship? No. The movie/musical would be worse for it, the structure of the story would be thrown, and there's no reason to further define these characters who are by nature mysterious and ethereal.

Do they hold hands and dance in my brain? Duh.

These concepts are not mutually exclusive

If you can’t handle me at my Edward Fishhands you don’t deserve me at my Evelyn Tucci

—Alana Maxwell circa Episode 36: Fire and Brimstone

Jacobi save me Daniel Jacobi save me

It's so emotionally powerful to me that we don't hear any interactions between Minkowski and Eiffel in the finale between the scene when she tries to send him back on the Sol and the scene where she witnesses him losing his memories. That's more than an hour in the middle of the finale with no direct interaction between these two central characters whose dynamic is a core element of the show. For me, this makes both of those dramatic scenes even more moving, because they feel juxtaposed in a way they might not otherwise be if there was a Minkowski & Eiffel interaction inbetween them.

As the Sol prepares to launch, Minkowski tells Eiffel goodbye and she knows it could be the last time she speaks to him. She thinks she might never see him again, but at least he'll be safe. She thinks he might never forgive her for that choice, but at least he will have made it through this.

But his stubborn desperation to fight alongside the rest of the crew defies all her plans to protect him. And the next time she speaks to him - after she's been shot in the stomach during her attempts to reach him, after she's continued to look for him even as she's bleeding out - he is injured in a way she would never have expected. When she first sees him hooked up to Pryce's machine, maybe she thinks for a moment that he's unharmed, that they might all make it through this the way she hoped. Then she learns that his memories are already slipping away from him.

There's her desperate attempt to protect him at all costs, and then there's a life-altering harm that she couldn't protect him from, which she witnesses. Between these two moments, there aren't any scenes with both characters in together to bridge that gap. There's Eiffel yelling "Goddammit, Renée, DON'T DO THIS!", and then there's him telling her "It was an honor to serve under you, Sir." There's him pleading with her and then there's him forgiving her. There's Minkowski saying "Go home, Eiffel. Hug your daughter.[...] Goodbye, Doug.", and there's the desperate heartbroken way she says Eiffel's name after the memory wipe has gone through. There's two very different kinds of goodbyes.

And then, afterwards, there's two very different kinds of introductions.

How could you? Small men never dream of great things. They wallow in mediocrity, satisfied to pass their meager days in dull sport and flailing misery of a life misspent. You, sir, are a ghost of your own life, made to haunt the world even before the day of your death.

- A Bug with a Big Ass 🐛 🍑