Reading a post and comments that quite accurately analyze the deeply unsettling way every interaction between Beldaruit and Deanreldy is framed and plays out with specific regard to the medical abuse and targeted ableism of it all and concludes with "this is why I can't like Dean or ship them" meanwhile... the medical abuse and targeted ableism of it all is what's so sickeningly compelling - !!!
It's so beautifully done and creepy and plausibly deniable on Dean's part. He's so good at seeming well-meaning! And his stated goal is a good and even noble one, and there's a nice thematic irony in Beldaruit - a disabled man who sure seems to be experiencing chronic fatigue and/or pain - being so dedicated to upholding the 'no magic cast on the human body' rule, and we've already been primed to be on Dean's ideological side here in the series... but cornering the bedbound man you have kinda trapped in your castle while he's half undressed bc you're examining the bedsores he's gotten being bedbound in your castle to push that ideology is, as the post + comments I mentioned above also pointed out, a pretty thematic irony of its own, because showing that you're willing to misuse the power you have over a patient like that suggests maybe you wouldn't use the power to magically alter the human body responsibly
(and I don't think it's a reach at all to see an implication that Dean set Beldaruit up here a bit anyway so he could deliberately target him as the most physically vulnerable of the sages when stripped of his magic, which is even worse imo than just being opportunistic)
.........and I've already seen enough framing of it as like a rivals ship or hatefucking and am also Aware Of Society's Attitudes Towards The Disabled enough to know I don't want to see 99% of fandom takes on it lmao
