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cest_whatI was emailing S. about this latest update, and about how much I simultaneously love reading about Tavros and Vriska but also find it really upsetting and confronting, and it kind of turned into this mini ashen manifesto.
Because the most upsetting thing about Vriska and Tavros's relationship is how often they're alone together. All of the awful things happen when they're alone. The seminal moment in which Doc Scratch deliberately keeps Aradia and Terezi distracted so that Tavros faces Vriska alone on the cliff top became the pattern of their entire relationship. The narrative or the game's masterplan or Vriska herself pushes them together in isolated settings where it's Tavros trying to contest Vriska's version of reality with nobody to back him up, nobody to tell him he's right when he disagrees with her, and nobody to stop her when she needs to be stopped.
But when Tavros can call on an intermediary, he does. And it makes things better. When Vriska is tormenting him with stairs as his server player, he contacts Kanaya, and as a result of her meddling Vriska makes him a rocket chair and things are better. When Vriska has kissed him and mind controlled him into kissing her back and everything is horrible and awkward, instead of turning around and talking to her, he tries to leave her a message on one of Karkat’s memos, and then she talks to him that way which was not what he wanted but it's still not the two of them alone: Karkat is an intermediary and a witness, and as a result of the conversation the two of them go off on adventures together and things are better.
And when you think about it, the entire dynamic is the perfect example of how troll society - perhaps more than troll nature - requires the existence of the ashen quadrant. The Troll Romance exposition positions the social function of ashen as being to prevent black infidelities, but the example given is Vriska♣Kanaya♣Tavros, and the chances of Vriska and Tavros ever achieving blackrom were always presented as slim to nonexistant - Karkat argues that neither of them is capable of true hate. So it seems likely that ashen quadrant has other social functions too.
Because based on the way that the other trolls react to Vriska's targeting and destruction of Tavros, the complete lack of any concerted attempt to shield him from her, there's simply nothing in place socially, no norms of behaviour, to protect somebody from this kind of behaviour, or from any kind of unrequited black feelings. Or to save people with unrequited black feelings from destroying someone they're actually in love with. Nothing except the ashen quadrant.
And the thing is, in both the examples above where Tavros managed to find an intermediary between them, things didn't only get better than awful, they were actually fun. Tavros and Vriska are capable of having exactly the kind of fun together that each of them appreciates, and Vriska is capable of helping Tavros without breaking him. An intermediary can transform their relationship from something that breaks them both (Tavros more than Vriska, obviously) into something that actually makes their lives better than they would be if the other one simply wasn't in it. The precedent really seems to be there to show that Tavros in an ashen trio with Vriska would be happier and healthier and more fulfilled than Tavros in a world in which Vriska just stopped tormenting him and disappeared from his life.
We've had hardly any ashen canon. I think when we get it for real, it will be with Vriska and Tavros.
And probably Kanaya.
Although honestly it would take like the tiniest skerrick of canon to get me shipping Vriska♣Aranea♣Tavros, for what it's worth.
Because the most upsetting thing about Vriska and Tavros's relationship is how often they're alone together. All of the awful things happen when they're alone. The seminal moment in which Doc Scratch deliberately keeps Aradia and Terezi distracted so that Tavros faces Vriska alone on the cliff top became the pattern of their entire relationship. The narrative or the game's masterplan or Vriska herself pushes them together in isolated settings where it's Tavros trying to contest Vriska's version of reality with nobody to back him up, nobody to tell him he's right when he disagrees with her, and nobody to stop her when she needs to be stopped.
But when Tavros can call on an intermediary, he does. And it makes things better. When Vriska is tormenting him with stairs as his server player, he contacts Kanaya, and as a result of her meddling Vriska makes him a rocket chair and things are better. When Vriska has kissed him and mind controlled him into kissing her back and everything is horrible and awkward, instead of turning around and talking to her, he tries to leave her a message on one of Karkat’s memos, and then she talks to him that way which was not what he wanted but it's still not the two of them alone: Karkat is an intermediary and a witness, and as a result of the conversation the two of them go off on adventures together and things are better.
And when you think about it, the entire dynamic is the perfect example of how troll society - perhaps more than troll nature - requires the existence of the ashen quadrant. The Troll Romance exposition positions the social function of ashen as being to prevent black infidelities, but the example given is Vriska♣Kanaya♣Tavros, and the chances of Vriska and Tavros ever achieving blackrom were always presented as slim to nonexistant - Karkat argues that neither of them is capable of true hate. So it seems likely that ashen quadrant has other social functions too.
Because based on the way that the other trolls react to Vriska's targeting and destruction of Tavros, the complete lack of any concerted attempt to shield him from her, there's simply nothing in place socially, no norms of behaviour, to protect somebody from this kind of behaviour, or from any kind of unrequited black feelings. Or to save people with unrequited black feelings from destroying someone they're actually in love with. Nothing except the ashen quadrant.
And the thing is, in both the examples above where Tavros managed to find an intermediary between them, things didn't only get better than awful, they were actually fun. Tavros and Vriska are capable of having exactly the kind of fun together that each of them appreciates, and Vriska is capable of helping Tavros without breaking him. An intermediary can transform their relationship from something that breaks them both (Tavros more than Vriska, obviously) into something that actually makes their lives better than they would be if the other one simply wasn't in it. The precedent really seems to be there to show that Tavros in an ashen trio with Vriska would be happier and healthier and more fulfilled than Tavros in a world in which Vriska just stopped tormenting him and disappeared from his life.
We've had hardly any ashen canon. I think when we get it for real, it will be with Vriska and Tavros.
And probably Kanaya.
Although honestly it would take like the tiniest skerrick of canon to get me shipping Vriska♣Aranea♣Tavros, for what it's worth.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-20 01:02 pm (UTC)Because the most upsetting thing about Vriska and Tavros's relationship is how often they're alone together.
THIS. Just from a basic human emotional perspective, Tavros's isolation resonates so strongly with how it feels to be abused, you know? So the idea that, actually, there might be a way out of that (and that way is named Kanaya!), is quite beautiful.
(no subject)
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