#tarvek sturmvoraus
I’m rereading bits of this damn comic again for a completely different reason but I had to stop and shout a moment about this panel because
- YouSLIMY SON OF A WEASEL, A REAL WEASEL NOT A GOOD WASP-EATING ONE, SMIRKING FLIRTILY AND SAYING YOU’D LIKE TO HEAR HER PLAY PIANO AFTER DINNER AS IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW FULL WELL THAT AFTER DINNER SHE IS GOING TO BE STRAPPED INTO A TORTURE CHAIR AND HAVE HER MIND REPLACED OR, AT BEST, MELTED OUT IN YOUR FATHER’S INSANE DESPERATION TO BRING BACK THE WOMAN HE OBSESSES OVER/MONSTER WHO DESTROYED MOST OF EUROPA. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE DON’T TRUST YOU, TARVEK. THIS IS IT. THAT. GOD. DAMN. LITTLE.SMIRK.
- oh you poor child, you hate this and you know it and you have to hide it every second because otherwise your family will tear you to shreds; your family of conniving, backstabbing, ambitious snakes where the only way to survive is to lie better than any of them, lie and hide until all the hope and romance in your soul is snuffed out like a candle under a sheet of ice and you flirt with a girl and walk her to dinner when you know that in less than an hour she’s going to be dead and there’s nothing you can really do, nothing but act charming and under that act calculating (and be calculating, every minute of every day, for the rest of your life…) it’s not your fault, it’s theirs; it’s all theirs.
- but was the smirkREALLY FUCKING NECESSARY??
- *INCOHERENT, ENRAGED SCREAMING*
ngl it’s pretty annoying to me when the response to any female character existing in proximity to a mlm ship (canon or not) is either “boo she sucks I don’t want her to be a love interest and get in the way” or “don’t worry she’s their mean lesbian bestie” like have you tried being normal about women for once
tired: the smart, sassy, motherly, ultracompetent girl cleverly arranges for the two boys to get together
wired: the two boys get together by desperately trying to fix at least one of the many, many things that are wrong with this hilarious disaster of a woman (they fail)
#girl genius#I mean I think they’re ALSO going to get together with the girl in that because she’s the main character#and I don’t know that they’re really trying to fix her so much as to make her worse#but yeah there’s definitely an enemies-to-lovers subplot between her two male love interests in that comic#that has nothing to do with her except that their rivalry over her is what forced them together#(they were enemies from before they met her not because of her)
she’s really mostly a “funny to bump into you at this conference” to their relationship than anything else. like 99% of how they feel about each other is based on their PRE-EXISTING RELATIONSHIP. they were friends and they bought thought the other betrayed them and they care and they have a rivalry and Agatha is really mostly just like. a setting. like sometimes they bond over her and sometimes they compete over her and sometimes she brings out the best in them and sometimes she brings out the worst in them. she also cares but mostly is busy with her own stuff. she also sees their vastly overcomplicated relationship and couldn’t give less of a shit so long as they’re not killing each other / sabotaging her.
it’s a FANTASTIC dynamic
(like, it’s incorrect to say that “their rivalry over her” is what “forced them together”! them both having someting to do with her is what caused them to run into each other! they found their way towards being together from there based purely on being each other in each other’s vicinity! Agatha was a convenient stoplight for them to be stuck at! their rivalry is not even particularly over her! they care about her and each other too much to really do romantic rivalry with any degree of investment)