coucou ! ^w^
for the Send me a character ask :
- Butler, of course
(and if you feel up to it : Tim !)
@laeliana thanks to you, too, for asking me about him <3 and for all your other asks! I'm looking forward to answering them ^^
Loved him from the first page. I was obsessed with his potentially dark history, with his training, and with his loyalty. I would throw my OC into a hundred situations that ended up in them chasing or fighting each other, and then have them team up against some extremely generic foe. All I wanted was to see that man in action, and also to have him shot or stabbed a bit.
Still obsessed, but a bit different. I still want him shot and stabbed, and I still find new ways to plant my OC into canon and have them fight with each other or chase each other down. But now, I'm also super fascinated by the deeper sides of his character: what does it do to somebody if he spends his whole life only serving and protecting? When does the loyalty to Artemis waver? And also the more caring sides: reacting to an ally who's been wounded or is going through a massive panic attack? Reacting to a former enemy who's been wounded or going through a massive panic attack? I want to know all about how Butler reacts to everything.
Probably the troll fight in book 1, but that might just be because I forgot so much about the later books. He's super badass, but he's also not immortal. Plus, the little bit about him actually wanting to kill the troll, but then stopping because Holly asks him to. It shows a lot about how he works as a character.
One other thing that buried itself in my mind is the scene after Artemis vanished to Hybras. I love how shocked he is, but then shakes off the stupor and even has the mind to pretend to be Minerva's dad in the elevator (if I remember that correctly lol).
Too many ;) something that's been going around my head is a fic about his time pre-Artemis. We get a few crumbs in the books about the wild shit that has happened, and I'd love to expand on it. Also, his first kill. Be the training as good as it may, I'm convinced it had him throwing up and shivering, while The Major grunted something dismissive from the bathroom door.
Butler is an actual character, and as much as he's supposed to be a tool, he's not. He's a brother, a father figure, and a friend, and everybody who only summons him when a door needs to be kicked into oblivion should rather just remove the door from their story and leave that man alone.
Is it valid to say its @weeinterpreter 's Sofia Massetti?
If for whatever reason not (because she's canon, I scream as they drag me away), it's Holly. I think there's a lot potential in a platonic sleepover, where one of our soldiers is suddenly plagued by nightmares.
Not necessarily my favorite, but one I thought about lately:
I headcanon Butler as bisexual, and I think that there still are people from his past he ... sees from time to time. While he would love to have a romantic relationship with rose petals and trillions of hearts drawn on slightly perfumed paper, it's nothing he can really obtain easily with his job. A quick visit from an old friend to the dojo though? Yeah, that'll do.
Also, he's still very cute, despite it not being an official relationship, nor necessarily exclusive. He will not walk out on his partner in the middle of the night. He ALWAYS plans those stints in a way that allows his partner to stay for breakfast, if they want to. (And no, he won't start anything with people he's working for, nor will he start snogging with Minerva, or Holly. I think he has clear boundaries and knows exactly who is a friend and who could be a friend with benefits).
Ah, it's the dad killed by the narrative. Probably not in this wording, because I was too young, but I did understand that parents would stand in the way of the story.
Still the dad killed by the narrative, but also a bad father who raised an heir, not a son. He could have been more interesting and important for the story if not for his decision to atone for his sins and stop being a criminal. Other than that, I don't have much thoughts about him in canon, but I also don't remember much about everything post book 3, so I can't really say if I'm doing him justice here
Being held hostage by the Russian mafia, and immediately pissing them off. It's something that shows how much he raised his son to be like him. It's also the reason this family gets bodyguards assigned at birth lol.
Maybe the sinking of the Fowl Star, or him grieving the Major, because I think there's something to be found there. Also, what if he "came back wrong" from the Arctic? What if he didn't take what happened to the Fowl Star as an encouragement to leave his criminal past behind, but as the opposite? Because clearly, a legal endeavour hasn't brought him any good. See below :)
Not sure if this is considered unpopular or not, but: Tim's character would have been more interesting if he went back to his criminal life after the Arctic.
It does make sense after being held captive for two years, losing a limb and his bodyguard, to rethink things. But he doesn't remember any of it, with the fairies making his last memory the moment he waved his family goodbye, so for one, the true horrors of this time are lost. And if I were him, having lost all of that AND my memory of it (as horrible as they might be), I'd be damn angry alright. He will never remember what the Major's last words for him were ...
This is all part of my "AF could have been a lot darker than it is", but I think it would've suited him to fall back into old habits, and go after the people who stole two years of his life and his faithful bodyguard. Even without memory, he KNOWS that this ship didn't sink on its own. He'd find a way to seek the people who are responsible for it, and make them pay dearly. Maybe also find out about the fairies via Artemis, and have something like a reverse "Artemis Experiments Weird": Tim rampaging around in the fairy world because they stole his memories, and Artemis trying to stop him.
But even without going to such lengths, having him come back a bit more, well, criminal would have made for a more interesting character arc (from criminal to honest to criminal) and would have made him a lot more important and interesting to the narrative later on. I understand this didn't fit the books focus, though, but I'd love to see it. (This is the point where I realise that I simply don't enjoy criminal characters who leave their criminal life behind lol)
Artemis. I think there's a ton of things they should talk their way through. And, young Artemis slowly realising what his dad is doing to earn their lifestyle? Discovering the proverbial (literal?) skeletons in his drawer? Peak angst.
Not sure why this popped into my head: I think Tim loves Angeline dearly. I also think that he might have cheated on her once, maybe on some posh gala after one glass too much champagne, and out of all the things he did, this is what he regrets the most.
I never thought this much about Tim so thank you! And thank you for asking about my favorite, haha ;)
