I'm So Happy I'm Not The Only Person Who Appreciates How Absolutely Fucked Up Gunter's Relationship With

I'm so happy I'm not the only person who appreciates how absolutely fucked up Gunter's relationship with Corrin can lean depending on how much you want to delve into the implications that are VERY MUCH PRESENT in the canon text (he grooms them! From childhood! Maybe not in a sexual manner, but it's literally a grown man coaxing a child to trust him so they'll be loyal to and obey him and not their family! I have been openly declaring this since 2016 and I LOVE it!!)

And he slots so well into the yandere archetype because of it. I mean, come on: he raised this girl from childhood and whatever feelings he had have only gotten more intense as the years went on. The fact that he has that ball on him in their supports means he brought it with him on what they thought was a day trip to the border. Why are you carrying this woman's old, forgotten toys on your person everywhere you go if not because you are obsessed to the point of mental illness, sir?! And you know Gunter is the one who instilled that same level of obsession in Jakob, like "you put her above all else, you protect her above all else"- you will never convince me otherwise because it's not true.

Which, of course, leads to my personal favorite "implication" (if you will) of their relationship, which is that Gunter sees Corrin as a way of reclaiming what was stolen from him: a family. Garon took his wife and child, so now he's going to take Garon's child to make his wife and have a new child with her. Just to make the vengeance even sweeter, using his new family to strike down the killer of his old family (if you don't kill Garon with Gunter!Kana in Conquest, what are you even doing?). Years, possibly decades of stewing in the grief of his loss has made this man absolutely feral about having another child- which is why he keeps adopting every kid who's tossed into the Northern Fortress, but they never quite scratch the right itch. And you can definitely have genuine love and affection mixed in there, but also just imagine Anankos ramping that desire to start a new family up to 11... and then taking matters into his own claws if that doesn't happen~

(Oh wait, I did imagine that, and wrote it into a whole-ass fic like 6 years ago)

honestly i think yet another reason why gunter/corrin absolutely devoured my brain cells is there's a stunning range of "trope hardness" that you could play around with (how vanilla vs dead dove you want the relationship to go basically).

personally i find a lot of "canon" RPG romances are ... far too tame (both story & kink & preference-wise, cue being a die-hard crackshipper for decades before being shocked that nintendo would actually canonize somebody as crunchy as him lol).

but if you want ...

* ~vanilla~ gunter/corrin where it's a cute knight/leige may december courtship (basically the surface-level EN CQ route) focused on the romance versus the sexual angle, there's ample room for that.

* then there's a slightly darker romance where you can start having corrin being aware of the silas gaslighting, the truth of his backstory, kinda threading in Fates' inherent darker implications within the relationship, it's all right there for you to pick and choose from given both JP/EN scripts (and the things we learn in JP-specific peripherals).

* you can also play with the darker dubcon/noncon Revelation-specific possession plus relationship let alone the delicious incest/daddykink² angle with anankos.

* to be slightly crass and further pushing the intentionality, an outright ddlg kink dynamic is totally possible if not outright implied by a few lines in the supports if you like to play in this space lol.

* and then of course, full throttle dead dove northern-fortress 'bad touch'/predatory gunter (some of my favorite fics are this angle ngl)

..... which isn't even going into all of the above flavors in Conquest vs Revelation (two very tonally different games). and then eeeeverything in between if you're like me and like to mix and match depending on mood :3c

but the absolute best part is that his supremely crunchy backstory isn't diluted by the range; gunter's still a remarkably cohesive and compelling character no matter which version you opt for - or hell, if you have a different ship you prefer or even if you don't romance him in general.

we stan the skeeziest knight <3

helpful sites for writers

i have a little collection of websites i tend to use for coming up with ideas, naming people or places, keeping clear visuals or logistics, writing basics about places i've never been to, and so on. i tend to do a lot of research, but sometimes you just need quick references, right? so i thought i'd share some of them!

Behind the Name; good for name meanings but also just random name ideas, regardless of meanings.

Fantasy Name Generator; this link goes to the town name generator, which i use most, but there are lots of silly/fun/good inspo generators on there!

Age Calculator; for remembering how old characters are in Y month in Z year. i use this constantly.

Height Comparison; i love this for the height visuals; does character A come up to character B's shoulder? are they a head taller? what does that look like, height-wise? the chart feature is great!

Child Development Guide; what can a (neurotypical, average) 5-year-old do at that age? this is a super handy quickguide for that, with the obviously huge caveat that children develop at different paces and this is not comprehensive or accurate for every child ever. i like it as a starting point, though!

Weather Spark; good for average temperatures and weather checking!

Green's Dictionary of Slang; good for looking up "would x say this?" or "what does this phrase mean in this context?" i love the timeline because it shows when the phrase was historically in use. this is english only, though; i dig a little harder for resources like this in other languages.

Words instead of sighed and frowned?

Sighed - let out a deep audible breath or made a similar sound (such as weariness or relief)

Exhaled - breathed out

Heaved - uttered with obvious effort or with a deep breath

Huffed - emitted puffs (as of breath); usually with indignation or scorn

Insufflated - blew on, into, or in (something)

Puffed - blew in short gusts; exhaled forcibly

Snorted - forced air violently through the nose with a rough harsh sound (to express scorn, anger, indignation, or surprise)

Snuffled - breathed through an obstructed nose with a sniffing sound

Suspired - drew a long deep breath; sighed

Frowned - contracted the brow in displeasure or concentration

Glared - stared angrily or fiercely

Glouted - (archaic) frowned, scowled

Glowered - looked or stared with sullen annoyance or anger

Grimaced - distorted one's face in an expression usually of pain, disgust, or disapproval

Loured - looked sullen; frowned

Moue - a twisting of the facial features in disgust or disapproval

Pouted - showed displeasure by thrusting out the lips or wearing a sullen expression

Scoffed - expressed scorn, derision, or contempt

Scowled - contracted the brow in an expression of displeasure

Sulked - silently went about in a bad mood

Hope this helps. If it inspires your writing in any way, please tag me, or send me a link. I would love to read your work!

More: Word Lists

"Are you talking about your nemesis or your lover?"

i just want to bathe in his blood

writing longfics has completely erroded my mind, because I'm here thinking "2k words isn't enough for a chapter, I'm just needlessly dragging this fic out, surely I should combine two chapters to make it worth reading", meanwhile sane motherfuckers are out here writing 200 words and calling it a complete story.

I think it's just because the fics I like update so rarely (if at all) that getting a long chapter feels worth the wait... but I'm the kind of person who (usually) prewrites a fic and updates weekly, if not daily. 2,000 words should be enough... right?