[idk just getting some thoughts out of my head about Olrox's character, Mizr0x, and writing decisions re: his late lover in S2/potential S3]
So like. When I was watching S1 of Nocturne for the first time, I was into m!zrox because:
I just adored Olrox's character from the jump and was happy whenever he was on my screen.
I was excited to see a couple that was not only canonically queer but with whom the writing wasn't afraid to explicitly say in capital letters, "YES THEY FUCKED" (Morana and Striga in the og series are great and all but they were played very subtle).
While I'm not someone who generally eats up "toxic yaoi", I could see the potential for a messy vampire x warrior monk couple and was curious to see how it would play out.
But then. You know. That Scene happened at the end of S1 and it was like [insert needle scratch sound effect].
Because language like "soulless" and "animal" have long been used to justify the genocide of indigenous people. It's loaded stuff for a Catholic to say to a Mexica man, given that the Catholic church effectively signed off on the atrocities committed in the Americas by declaring it was fine to kill these people if they refused to convert to catholicism.
It put a bad taste in my mouth, but given the care the writing takes with Annette's story, given the anti-colonial themes of the show, I gave the writing the benefit of the doubt: surely in S2, we'll get a scene where the two of them hash things out, Mizr@k apologizes, and the two of them move forward/start over with a mutual respect for each other. ...Right?
So... needless to say, when S2 dropped I was sorely disappointed to see Mizr@k doubling and tripling down on the "you're a demon" stuff. And even more disappointed to see Olrox just like... taking it.
There's also a larger conversation to be had about the optics of an indigenous man being a "seducer", about him being plucked out of his own cultural context and cast as "the serpent of Eden" or whatever (admittedly more of a fandom thing than a textual thing), but I digress.
I don't begrudge people for enjoying messy, toxic ships. Rolling around in the angst of two people who are utterly dysfunctional together and using that as an avenue to explore heavier topics can be fun, can be interesting, can be cathartic, etc etc. Go nuts.
But if there's a dynamic I don't enjoy in a ship, it's one where one Character A is putting in 99% of the emotional labor while Character B is just kind of there, if not actively hindering that work. Which in my experience is what a lot of fanworks/headcanons of the ship seem to depict and romanticize: Olrox effectively rehabilitating Mizr@k, being endlessly forgiving and patient while at worst continuing to be called a "creature without honor", or at best, Mizr@k is just too busy brooding and stewing in his own feelings of guilt and self-loathing to function as an equal partner to him.
And like, I've been on this webbed site long enough to recognize that this sort of dynamic is one fans of color have called out before across various fandoms. The implications of BIPOC having to endure mistreatment, micro aggressions, etc from their love interest in order to help prop them up and help them grow as a person—while often receiving none of that kind of emotional support in return.
In short: it's clear what Mizr@k actually gets out of being with Olrox. What Olrox gets out of being with Mizr@k is... less clear. The party line seems to be "well, he reminds him of his late lover" because they both "fought for what they believed in"—but that seems to be where it starts and ends. It feels hollow.
It's not that I don't see the thematic elements that very much do work here: a man who's beginning to feel abandoned by God being unconditionally loved by a man who basically is one. A man who has been harmed so irrevocably by colonization over the course of centuries still having the compassion and empathy to pull aside a man who ultimately wants to do the right thing and going, "man, what the fuck are you doing?" A man who has grown jaded and disillusioned over centuries that these forces cannot be stopped being inspired by a man who refuses to give up even when the odds are insurmountable.
But all of those dynamics could also have been present in Olrox's relationship with his late lover. A Mohican man who "fought with the colonists" all but spells out that the man Olrox loved was a Stockbridge Mohican. Stockbridge, Massachusetts being a praying town founded for the purpose of converting indigenous people in the area to Christianity and assimilating them to the colonists' way of life.
One of my biggest hopes for S2 was that we'd get some flashbacks to Olrox's time with his late lover, that we would actually get to "meet" this man, that the show would give him a name and a face and a voice. Not just because I want to know more about Olrox's past, but because it would expand upon the themes of colonialism, offering a sort of contrast to Annette's story of relative success (ie, becoming a revolutionary hero and inspiration) with one of tragedy (if not dying for the cause, then surviving a traumatic event only to live to see your culture and the cultures of people like you be erased or at least branded as savage/monstrous/soulless).
Because it would add context that highlights just how messy Olrox and Mizr@k's relationship is because the audience could clearer see the echoes of Olrox's past in it, and the cyclical nature of what's happening. Add context without which people just see "toxic yaoi" instead of all the ways the colonization and religious trauma affect people down to their interpersonal relationships.
Because if "mizr@k reminds Olrox of his late lover" really is the writer's intent, it would actually give that angle some teeth. Late Lover could have also been struggling with identity and shame as a queer indigenous man who's been raised into white protestantism. We would have the parallels of a man wanting to do the right thing only to be betrayed/disillusioned/treated as dispensable in the end.
Because it would simply help tell the story of people whose stories simply do not get told enough—in a world where there are still countless people who think, "Well, they did human sacrifices, so is it really so bad that the Spanish conquered them?" and "Well, the spread of disease couldn't be helped, could it?" or even, "Eh, they just lost the 'war' against their invaders, happens all the time in history, so what? 🤷"
The show has all the foundations to tell a really important and moving story with regard to Olrox, his past, and his potential future, and so far it's just gone unutilized. I get we needed him to be a morally ambiguous figure through S1, I can accept that in S2 there was a lot of plot happening, that they told Drolta's story—and I'm glad we got so much of Annette's story and that her character was given an arc that feels complete and celebrates her heritage. But my god, if if if we get an S3, please please please give Olrox the same treatment I beg 🫠
