Rafal And The Curse Of Obedience

Rafal and the Curse of Obedience

Note: This sort of canon-divergent AU concept is loosely based off of this poll I reblogged with a little commentary in its tags and the storyline of Ella Enchanted, which I've done some plot-twisting to. I've only watched the film adaptation though; I haven't read the novel.

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If Rafal were cursed with obedience in canon, such a plot line could have so much narrative potential, and potentially add a new dimension to Fall.

First, consider the odd incongruity and implications of possibly the most defiant, stubborn, unswayable being alive in the Woods being subject to this particular curse, that is the antithesis of his very way of being. He can no longer do whatever he wants, regardless of the consequences, of how he'd harm others, when those very same victims of his could potentially become his master. The curse would probably cause him great anguish, be something for him to initially ruminate and agonize over, for days on end.

In the beginning, of course, Rhian, as long as he consciously remains Good, would likely be extremely careful to never address Rafal with a direct command, which would be rather considerate of him, all things considered. He might even be sensitive enough to Rafal's plight to realize that using the curse, even in jest, against Rafal, would be an all too vulnerable point, given how compromising a position it could be for his brother, if Rhian were to use it, as leverage to win a petty argument or as blackmail to get his way, especially, seeing as the idea of the curse being public, or even the simple thought of it being revealed to anyone at all always does strike a nerve in Rafal. Thus, I believe Rhian, while his integrity is still intact, would have enough restraint to just... not use the curse.

To Rhian, it's cruel and beneath his higher moral standards to bend someone else's will to your own means after all, even if Rafal does it to everyone else all the time...

Also, given this premise, the only beings who would know about Rafal's curse would be Rhian and the Storian itself. Plus, Rafal, in his position of high authority, would do his utmost to never let word of the curse get out because it could ruin him and he could be exploited, especially considering that he is a sorcerer capable of great feats. Who wouldn't want someone like that at their beck and call?

A few times, Rhian almost let word of the curse slip to Vulcan, but he ultimately managed to keep his promise to never tell anyone about his brother's curse, preserving Rafal's fatal-as-ever pride. And this, this best-kept secret of all the Woods, backfires for Rafal later on. Because, no one would know enough to save him from himself and the curse.

During his day-to-day life, Rafal would be more paranoid than ever about keeping his curse securely under wraps, and he'd go to great lengths to keep his secret, lest it be used against him. As per usual, he would exercise his authority regularly with an iron fist, and preoccupy others with orders he's dealt out to them, so no one would bat an eye, or even think to apply any of the same orders to him.

Besides, he strikes such fear into the hearts of all that no one would ever dare give him a direct order at all, assuming they would like to live. In addition, he never truly stops being the contrarian he is, at least, not in heart and soul.

Then, with Evil Fall Rhian, the traitor, the game changes entirely.

Rhian technically keeps his word and never lets news of the curse slip from his lips, but he does use it to his advantage now, like the snake he is. He'd likely command Rafal to "willingly" and publicly cede to him, renounce his newfound "Goodness," in exchange for the same old Evil image everyone already believes in, and abdicate the coveted position of the One, leaving it ripe for the taking, for Rhian to lawfully and "rightfully" claim. Worse of all, Rafal would be forced to lose on Rhian's terms, not even on his own, foregoing some of his precious dignity to that end.

Lastly, if Rhian didn't go so far as to murder Rafal himself in the end—well, I'd suspect Rhian would call for Rafal's arrest, and reintroduce Rafal's former Monrovia prison sentence. It is a convenient way to shove Rafal aside, out of his way, and it would get him out of the limelight entirely, with the passage of time. Perhaps, Rafal would be forgotten, slunk off in the shadows, where Evil belongs, according to the "proper" tyranny of Good, which regards the whole of Evil as lowly. And no one would blame Rhian for turning his psycho brother into the authorities, if Rafal already had an outlying bid on his head, by both the law itself and the many vengeful enemies he'd made during his long lifespan. He was an actual convict for a time in the eyes of the law. I mean, what else could be done with him, the man complicit in his own "weak" loss?

Rafal would have to comply with the orders to not resist arrest since his curse would compel him to obey, and he would "quietly," without protest, without much of a row at all, surrender, probably all the while resenting Rhian and his curse and the entire Woods, for the pitiful state he's in, locked up to rot for the rest of his life—all thanks to the rot in Rhian.

Do you think the School is exempt from having to pay taxes?

Yes, I do think the School is exempt from taxes, and there is no canonical evidence I can remember which suggests it is subject to taxes.

Given that funding was never an issue (or flat-out irrelevant to the plot) to Rhian with his renovations, as he never seemed to have any trouble getting the work done that he wanted, that could mean the School isn't subject to taxes, or that taxes were a minor enough non-issue amid everything else that went wrong that they wouldn't have warranted a mention in the narration.

Also, the School is a private institution, which could mean the Kingdom Council has less power to intervene with its ongoings, at least towards the beginning?

Aside from that, throughout the main series and the prequels, the School is capable of magically terraforming all on its own, usually on the basis of who is its master(s). Indeed, it's as if the setting were a character in its own right.

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If you had wanted to hear from the brothers themselves:

Rafal: Why care about the answer? I’m the only authority that matters. [expression and inflection darkening] If the Kingdom Council has a quarrel with that fact, by all means, I’m willing to negotiate.

Rhian: Rafal! Must you always embarrass me in front of polite company?!

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Yes, they are breaking the fourth wall.

I personally wouldn’t put Rafal above tax evasion, assuming he’d find a smart way to do it and never get caught. After all, he initially only wants “the best” for his School and Nevers, and for his alumni to emerge as the victors of the tales, from the eternal war of his Woods. If taxes wouldn't bode well for future Evil victories, well, he'd simply have to do away with them, wouldn't he?

And, he wouldn’t want needless fuss over his breaking the law, not that he cares about staying within the rule of law as a fugitive in Monrovia's eyes, so he'd probably stay within the bounds of the law rationally, within reason, unless he were certain he could get around them.

That, I’d figure, would be Rafal’s attitude towards the Woods' law and order in general, when the laws aren’t his own. If you want to hear about his unfortunately sour attitude toward my readers, you can read this similar ask dialogue post, in which he addresses all of you directly, once again, breaking the fourth wall.

I don’t think I said anything in your recent post about the obedience curse but I LOVE that concept. It would make a very funny short fic anyways…

list 5 things that make you happy, then send this to the askbox of the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers! <3

Thanks! It wasn't my concept, but I enjoyed playing with it. It could be funny—however, one of my WIP outlines, which contains a similar-not-identical concept around obedience and a chain-of-command, is actually more angsty than light in tone.

I already answered that ask from someone else originally, but thank you for the thought. I guess you can have some things that made me happy today: 1) prosciutto, 2) another "Rafal" (probably a Common Grackle) that I photographed:

I am really curious to see your take on Aric and Japeth's relationship. I mean, the beloved author and creator of the series have addressed this issue with 'in their own sick wicked way they had loved' so yeah it's cannon cool. But I feel like the further implications of this? We saw evil 'unable to love'/ 'only ever have true love'. From what I remember Japeth mentioned Aric more than once, how they would write letters to each other how Aric 'begged' for Japeth to come to him but Japeth never did so and then bro spent the last of his life trying to bring Aric back to life. There are so many implications, the dynamics, the context, everything, but I love how you theorise and explore all sorts of ideas so I can't help but wonder how you view all of this :D.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!

Sorry to disappoint, but I should probably start off with the fact that I don't ship Japeth and Aric. While I like Japeth, partly in thanks to @discjude winning me over, and further recognizing the tragedy surrounding him, his relationship to Aric never canonically does him any favors. And, with Aric, I think I'm apathetic enough towards him that I don't actively hate him; I just don't care about him. In truth, if not for Aladdin's pitiful existence actively hammering on my nerves, Aric would probably be my least favorite character.

The first thing I want to address is that Evil being "unable to love" or "only Evers have True Love" is actually false, despite the many times the series puts forth this claim. Yes, we are explicitly told this "fact" in book 1, but the book's point was to subvert/deconstruct the myth.

First, by the end, with her self-sacrifice, Sophie proved Evil's capacity to love, meaning: Evil being unable to love is just a commonly-held belief in the Woods, not the absolute, be-all, end-all truth.

(And the belief could've been perpetuated by "Rafal's"/Rafal's way of running his institution that literally shapes the Wood's perceptions and the future. Alongside this claim about love, consider the existence of the Doom Room, created to punish a singular mutinous class of first-years, based on a now-revised philosophy about Nevers' learning from harsh treatment and (probably) disproportionate retribution that an excessively stubborn dead man already too entrenched in his old ways never had the chance to change because he died—and this is all aside from the fact proven by the display at the very first Circus of Talents, that Rafal's students did indeed learn better when he finally listened to them and mentored them as an equal in their position (as Fala). In addition, the statement: "Nevers learn from deprivation" similarly reveals how the Woods really do generalize about Nevers—until Sophie, the "exception" and iconoclast, comes along.)

Second, Sophie's non-romantic True Love at some point was said to be Agatha, and I think this established fact is consistently maintained throughout the series, even if other elements overshadow it, so not only Evers can have True Love.

My take on Japeth and Aric is that Japeth's love for Aric, however twisted or sincere it was, drove him to become the Snake, follow along with Rhian's Camelot ambitions and initial staging-terrorism-and-hostage-scenarios plot, and commit all his other, duplicitous, villainous acts throughout TCY, later by his own will, which is a motive I find fascinating (and contradictory about the nature of the Woods' Good and Evil souls, whenever Japeth is set next to the rather grey Rhian).

So, while Japeth's devotion to Aric could be viewed as romantic, it's just not appealing to me, personally, due to the relationship's ambiguous one-sidedness in particular. And, I think I once may've read something about Japeth as a Never fighting for True Love (or his perception of "True Love") and Rhian as an Ever fighting for power (the Nevers' ideal fairy-tale ending) being ironic or inverted in some way. That's also some world-building fodder to consider, or even just another point that could overturn the Rules as we know them, yet again. I'm not surprised by that subversion honestly. Japeth is very much like his parents. Nearly every SGE villain Soman has ever written has been motivated by the pursuit of love, or by the overwhelming force of their own (often obsessive) infatuations (with the exception of somewhat flatter, less-developed, secondary villains, like Aric, Vulcan, Marialena, and Peter Pan).

Also, thanks for the compliment!

Psychological "analysis" of Rafal, imposing a few different concepts onto him. It's not a full-length analysis this time, but I remembered that I did this as a minor assignment for a psych. class a long time ago, so I decided to post it, even if it's now a little outdated and predicated on some assumptions I once held. Some bits had to be forced to fit the structure of the assignment, so don't expect it to be 100% accurate. (And, I did this before the publication of Fall.) Thoughts?

How much do I have to pay you to draw Rafal as this image

HELLO I AM BACK

you pay me by finally making me do this trend after like two months of thinking about it

also my process is so wonky here LMAO just ignore all the layer switches and stuff

(modern rhian coming soon)