#the severity of gwyn's abuse is extreme and ongoing

[not-poignant]

I have a question about Gywn in UtB. I know what he said about how he feels now that Efnisien's out of the house, but I also remember Gwyn's nearly as unreliable a narrator as Efnisien. He went to visit and bring Ef clothes. I'm wondering if Gwyn's feeling in a similar situation to Ef from SotS after Gwyn left. Like the family dynamic is very off. Or Gwyn's version of it is anyway. It would make a nice narrative circle. And might effect future choices...? Or GC Gwyn is just a dick. Or both.

Hiya,

Gwyn is pretty terrible in this universe, I've always wanted to write a dark!Gwyn, and this is definitely a path to that.

I don't know if Gwyn is feeling like Efnisien re: Spoils. I'd say if anything, he certainly hasn't made any decisions to try and save Efnisien's life yet, so he's still firmly in the 'malicious coward' category and not like Efnisien at the end of Spoils who had found some courage/bravery to save Gwyn's life. Bringing someone clothes doesn't save anyone's life, the USB Efnisien gave to Augus and Gwyn was the thing that gave Gwyn his freedom, saved his life, and made him a millionaire in the process. The two aren't super comparable.

Imho for them to get there, Gwyn would need to have enough capacity for self-reflection to realise he needs to intervene and actively help save Efnisien's life, and then do something that directly puts his life in danger in the process.

I don't think he'd do that in this universe.

That doesn't mean he wouldn't help Efnisien, it just means that he'd do it in a way that protected himself first and foremost. This Gwyn doesn't have like... a mental disorder (like FFS Efnisien), he's a peak alpha who genuinely enjoys having power and control over others, and he's got a fair amount of control over Crielle as well. He's not really her victim the same way Efnisien was in FFS.

I do think there will be some similar narrative homages/acknowledgements, but imho, Gwyn's not there yet, and I don't really feel he's capable of the same kind of growth as like... FFS Efnisien. Partly because he literally doesn't have PTSD or a mental disorder or anything like that, he has no reason to change, and partly because Efnisien's memory isn't really that unreliable.

Gwyn incestuously (re: the mounting) abused him and was horrifically violent to him all his life. Gwyn was far more of an extreme and regular abuser towards Efnisien in UtB, than Efnisien was to Gwyn in FFS/Spoils. And we have never seen Gwyn have the kind of flashbacks towards Efnisien traumatising him in Spoils, as we've seen Efnisien have of Gwyn in UtB. In that sense, you can also just go by the concrete nature of what the audience is seeing in the story. Gwyn just doesn't flashback to what Efnisien does to him in the same way, meanwhile Efnisien's terror makes him immediately vomit, when Gary mounts him in Underline the Black.

So in that sense while there are similarities in the reversals, I don't want them to be a 1:1 comparison, because that's just...not really my favourite kind of AU to write. Like, there's already narrative circles in this story without them needing to be 'identical but just with different characters.' Y'know? I don't want to be like 'this is the same but' so much as 'this pays homage / makes nods to the original in these moments, and completely departs in these other moments' so I get to feel like I am actually writing an entirely new story.

Gwyn is a more extreme abuser with less likelihood of genuine change or redemption. That doesn't mean he won't try and keep Efnisien alive in the future, it just means his motivations will be different, and he's not going into like, an FFS arc or anything like that.

#asks and answers #falling falling stars #underline the black #gwyn ap nudd #efnisien ap wledig #when you can't trust someone's narration #you go by what you can actually see in their actions #gwyn has never reacted to efnisien in FFS #the way efnisien reacts to gwyn in UtB #the severity of gwyn's abuse is extreme and ongoing #whereas efnisien was already scaling back drastically in FFS towards gwyn #and as gwyn said - he's not afraid of efnisien #whereas efnisien has horrendous flashbacks re: gwyn #in underline the black #but yeah gwyn bringing efnisien clothes is like... #honestly less out of the goodness of his heart and more that he also wants to see #the place for himself #and have a better understanding of what's happening #and some of that is a peak alpha desire for control - power - understanding #i'm not ruling out gwyn as a helpful element in the future #but if he helps he will make sure he does so in a way that protects him first and foremost #though gwyn in this universe isn't scared of crielle either #administrator gwyn wants this in the queue