|
|
Post by devilinthedetails on Oct 21, 2020 11:10:54 GMT 10
Title: Sword and Strength
Rating: PG-13 for references to death.
Word Count: 27
Summary: A dying Jasson lays a final burden on Gareth.
Notes: Part VI of my Jasson the Conqueror series.
Sword and Strength
Before he died, the Old King laid a last burden on Gareth: “My son is weak as a woman, so you must be his sword and strength.”
|
|
|
|
Post by mistrali on Oct 21, 2020 11:30:11 GMT 10
Oh dear. Poor Roald, and poor Duke Gareth.
|
|
|
|
Post by Seek on Oct 22, 2020 3:19:41 GMT 10
I really like this. It captures the fundamental conflict/difference in attitudes between Roald and Jasson, and I somehow find the casual misogyny from Jasson to be really appropriate. Poor Gareth, and poor Roald indeed!
|
|
|
|
Post by devilinthedetails on Oct 22, 2020 5:04:43 GMT 10
mistrali, thank you so much for commenting! I definitely feel really sorry for Roald, who in my headcanon was always getting accused of being too weak by his father who didn't like that Roald was more inclined to be a peacemaker and take a diplomatic approach to everything.And with Gareth I always picture him as representing to Jasson what Jasson wanted in a son (somebody who could be a great warrior and swordsman) and so poor Gareth always just ends up trying to do his duty and assume all these burdens that his various kings dump on him. Seek, thanks so much for commenting! I'm so happy to hear that you like this piece so much. I was really hoping to convey that fundamental, irreconcilable difference in attitudes between Roald and Jasson in a single sentence Jasson says to Gareth and the words from Jasson did end up hurting my heart for just how blunt and harsh they were. I'm glad that the sort of casual misogyny from Jasson rang true for you because to me Jasson comes across as one of those men who would be obsessed with constantly proving his strength and masculinity and would see any man not consumed with doing the same and fitting his narrow definition of what makes a "strong man" as weak. (Somewhat tangentially, my headcanon is that somewhat ironically given his stance on the weakness of women, Jasson's wife Daneline has a lot of that Jesslaw courage and untamable spirit that we see in Owen some generations down the line so Jasson's wife in my mind isn't weak; it's just Jasson being his small-minded self about confining people to restrictive gender roles.) And, yes, I feel so bad for both Gareth and Roald. In my head, Jasson is someone who doesn't hesitate to say really horrible things, and I think it shows with these words to Gareth here, which are just terrible no matter how we slice them.
|
|
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!