SHIP / Zagreus - Tumblr Posts
want me to kill them for you?? (flirting)
U : UNREQUITED. › for thanatos!
Valentine Alphabet! // Always Accepting! (even if its not valentines day anymore)
U : UNREQUITED. has your muse had their heart broken?
Thanatos has. ━ and Zagreus, and his never-ending escapes, are not the first to do so and they will likely not be the last. ━━━ Though, perhaps Zagreus is only the most romantic of them, in the way its in the writing but you don't necessarily need to read it. Death is a romantic concept, and because all Gods ━ and all lovers ━ require a heart, he has suffered the consequences of that ruling. so while Thanatos is a concept given hands, a personification rather than a God for Gods die and cannot birth death when they too are marked by it, humanity was unkind enough to love him, loathe him, send him back.
There are many different ways in which Thanatos has had his heart broken, but the most direct in the theme of romance or relationships in general is Zagreus, the prince of the Underworld. Thanatos and Zagreus, in-game, are subjectively implied to have some kind of romantic feelings for each-other or at the very least were very close. Thanatos works for Hades, bringing death as one expects of the personification of Death, which is why it becomes a problem when Zagreus decides he wants to leave the Underworld, regardless of consequences. ━ Nothing and no one leaves the Underworld, and it is Thanatos' job to ensure this.
The lawbook fact no one leaves, however, is violently overshadowed by the fact Zagreus seemingly carelessly ━ spurred on by a letter found from his father's desk of his real mother and an argument where Hades fired Zagreus from his work after many slip-ups and Hades rarely having a glimpse of patience for the boy ━ throws his life in the Underworld away alongside everyone who loved and cared about him to endlessly pursue a goal which for all intents and purposes is intended to be impossible, and still, he tries. again and again and again as those he loved turns against him to push him down as he tries to claw tooth and nail out.
And Thanatos is one of them. And he loves him. And Zagreus won't stay. Zagreus doesn't want to stay, which is simply to say ; Zagreus doesn't want him. Thanatos knows it's not that simple and he knows he cannot simply ask someone to remain eternally unhappy to simply be with someone, if he does not want to remain here ━ an abusive father endlessly biting at him, where things never change and never get better but never get worse, where he is loved but it is stagnant and unbearable and full of lies ━ Thanatos cannot make him. He does not want to make him. But he is gone and going, left and leaving, and Thanatos understands the agony of absence, even for one who so often inflicts it. He is pained, this is torture, a heart that can't stop breaking because Zagreus can't leave so it just goes on like this
... But Thanatos loves him.
Thanatos loves him more than it hurts, more than he wants to be bitter, more than he wants to be angry, so he helps him. He offers his aid in the subtle ways he can, rewards in turn for competition, providing a companion in combat if only once, and he risks his job to help Zagreus. Because he loves him so much that he wants him to be happy. Because he loves him so much that he wants him to be happy, even if he is happy without him.
He looks in the face of absence and answers with ❛ I know. It's okay. You can go. I love you. You can go. ❜ Thanatos is poisonous in-game, not as simple as venom, it is toxic and salt in wounds and citrus lining nerves like electricity. he is bitter to the point of making you wince, sharp to the point of cutting you, you, not Zagreus. He makes you guilty, but it isn't because he doesn't want you to go. Of course, he doesn't. He doesn't want Zagreus to leave. but he loves him, so he helps him, goes against the rules for him, goes against everything for him, just to give him a chance in what should be ━ what might be ━ impossible, because he wants Zagreus to be happy more than he wants Zagreus to stay and more than he wants Zagreus to love him. He makes you guilty because his bitterness is because he loves you and you're leaving and its for the best. Because you love him and you're leaving and its for the best. Because Zagreus will, eventually, reach the surface. To you, the player, the game exists to be possible, so one day, eventually, you are going to fight up after getting beaten down enough times and persist & persist & persist and you will make it. And you don't know what happens next. You don't know, so there's nothing after. Zagreus will, one day, reach the surface. And you don't get to say goodbye Except in the long process of Zagreus packing his bags and pulling himself out And the long silence that comes after.