it never gets easier, you just get better.

endless things i could say on this topic.. for sure daniil can get mischaracterised a lot especially in the ways that he's an asshole. like free my man he did none of that...he did do a bunch of other shit tho. ig the thing about him is that he doesn't thrive on being the "villain", he isn't an unbothered king, he has a persecution complex the size of russia and all it does is fuel that. and his persecution complex is sort of a value-neutral factor in his tennis and his mental game.. the times where he is the most mentally "strong" is when he feels persecuted, but also the times where he is the most mentally erratic is when he feels persecuted. it's a fine rope to walk... not helped by the fact he seems capable of only two options to deal with the arising frustrations - externalise it to maintain his victimhood, or repress any and all emotion entirely. years ago when he was asked why he stopped celebrating, he said sth abt how he has to do it bc 'when all the good emotions go down, the bad emotions go away too.' and you can see it in his matches - either he finds anyone or anything other than himself to blame for what's happening on court, or he is eerily silent and stoic. i could say so much more abt this but let's move awn.

re: stefaniil.... i should've prefaced all this by saying these r all just my personal opinions lol. but for me (part of) the appeal of stefaniil is that it's one of those dynamics where one person is so used to performing and lying and adopting personas that they no longer know who they are or what they want, and one person who cannot be anyone but their most excruciatingly authentic self at all times and sees right through them. the twist is, you initially think stef is the former and daniil the latter, but in actuality it's the other way round.

daniil is, for all his praises of being ~authentic~ and honest, extremely cagey as a public persona. he lies left right and center, or only reveals truths and half-truths that won't leave him exposed in any meaningful way. he is deeply afraid to admit he wants anything, or fears anything, or of conceding any genuine vulnerability at all, which is why when that facade breaks (i.e. kid stopped dreaming), it's so jarring to witness and you realise just how many ppl bought into his facades. this has also evolved over the years - if u watch a press conference from 2019 vs 2024 for example, you'll see how he's refined his tactics of using honesty as a shield. (and i also just think ao22/getting the world no. 1 spot was a big turning point in terms of how he decided to present himself to the press.)

stefanos, on the other hand, has always had all his cards laid out face up, heart on sleeve, etc etc. he's always been open about his ambitions and the things he wants to achieve, no matter how audacious they sound. he is actually honest when he loses - salty, bitchy - than the magnanimous gracious schtick that daniil forces himself into. he tries to present himself as pretentious, or introspective, or [insert a number of adjectives], but all it has done is paint him as disingenuous. he's a terrible liar. no matter how hard he has tried over the years to be someone(s) he's not, he's never been able to fool anyone - he's always been horribly, painfully himself.

and all this results in a very interesting dynamic: stefanos is so inept in his insincerity, and daniil so tactful in his honesty. daniil is incredibly self-aware but rarely self-conscious, stefanos has near zero self-awareness but is incredibly self-conscious about it all the time. this puts them in an interesting position where daniil is able to, on a superficial level, present himself as the more authentic one, and at the same time wield this superficial honesty like a weapon against stefanos - which is why he usually comes out of their mind games on top. but there are moments where stefanos refuses to play the role that daniil has set out for them (that he NEEDS to rope stef into in order for him to maintain his own beliefs abt their relationship e.g. i am obsessed with this man a normal amount and it's normal to call someone you have a 5-0 h2h with ur biggest rival and i do not need to question this or myself at all abt this) that can subvert this dynamic and create delicious dysfunctional psychosexual tensions along the themes of repression / projection / denial / etc...

and then when i see ppl trying to shoehorn all this into some sunshine/grumpy trope dynamic i'm like. ??? i'm just so confused. like these r two pieces of shit. they're cunt4cunt. as i said it's all personal preferences n whatnot but i just can't believe you would want to take this^^ kind of rich source material and flanderise it into . idk a coffee shop au or sth. ig it's not so much mischaracterisations i have grievances with than the fact that from my perspective, conflict and especially conflict about identity and ~desire~ (moreso in a career context than an interpersonal one) is at the heart of their dynamic, and i wish this could be more appreciated? but again i think there r many angles u could approach stefaniil from and there's not going to be one that works for everybody but that also means there's bound to be something that works for u probably.