#{shippy things}

The Unstoppable Force & the Immovable Object

This dynamic pits two strong-willed characters against each other. One is a driven, passionate risk-taker, while the other is grounded, methodical, and cautious. Their love story is a constant push and pull.

How it plays out: Their arguments aren't petty; they're clashing philosophies on how to live life. The "Unstoppable Force" might want to quit their job to travel the world, while the "Immovable Object" is focused on saving for a house.

The core tension: Can they find a way to meet in the middle without one of them completely losing who they are? Do they balance each other out or burn each other down?

Example dialogue:

"We have to take this chance. It's everything we've been working for!"

"No. We have to be smart. 'Everything we've been working for' means we can't risk everything on a single roll of the dice."

The Healer & the Guarded

This is a dynamic built on a foundation of emotional vulnerability and trust. One character is open-hearted, empathetic, and naturally nurturing, while the other is deeply wounded or guarded, having built walls to protect themselves from past pain or emotional wounds.

How it plays out: The Healer's job isn't to "fix" the Guarded, but to offer a safe space for them to open up. The Guarded character's journey is one of slowly, painstakingly, learning to trust and let their walls down.

The core tension: Can the Healer maintain their patience without burning out? Can the Guarded character take the risk of being vulnerable for love, or will they push the Healer away?

Example dialogue:

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. But I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

"You don't understand... you can't. Just leave it alone."

The Shared Soul

This is a dynamic built on a deep, immediate understanding. These characters often feel like two halves of a whole, finishing each other's sentences and sharing a similar worldview. They are a team from the start, a united front against the world.

How it plays out: Their story isn't about overcoming their differences, but about facing external challenges together. Their conversations are filled with inside jokes and knowing looks. They are each other's greatest comfort.

The core tension: How do they maintain their individual identities within the relationship? What happens when their shared worldview is challenged from the outside?

Example dialogue:

"I was just thinking the same thing! Okay, so we'll tell him..."

"You know what's funny? I don't think I was ever really me until you showed up."

These are just a few templates, of course. The most compelling characters often have a blend of these dynamics. Think about what seeds you want to plant in your story.

"Every time I say your name".

They love eachother but one of them dies. They love one another once upon a time, but never found the courage until one (or both) of their mutual feelings have faded. One pines from afar while the other hates them with an unyielding passion. One is attracted to them, the other physically can't reciprocate. Things that have no happy ending. Things that can't be reconciled.

However! She will also not allow harm to come to him if he is by himself, either. If they are in the same space together while he is not working and harm is promised or actively threatened, she will stand at his side. He is not being the corporate industrialist, he is being Thaddius in those moments and she will not let her precious time with him be taken up by some cowardly little upstart trying to make a name for themselves.

On my ninth rewatch, trying to pick out angles and tidbits I may be missing here and there to fill out Thaddius' character for my interpretation. And I find myself absolutely in love all over again with just how expressive and emotive he is!

Most villains in a show aimed at a younger demograph leave their villains with only one or two emotions at all times. I'm enjoying that in almost every scene he's in (especially in later seasons when his desperation is really showing), Thaddius goes through at least three of the seven stages of exaggerated grief before the scene changes.

His expressiveness really hits home the whole 'human' aspect of his villainy for me. Brings to mind something bestie wrote, about how 'the best villains are human'. That beautiful range of emotion shows he is not just a machine or a narrative device -conflict for the sake of conflict- but that this is a human being with thoughts and feelings and ambitions of his own that is willfully causing all of this destruction.

And those are the worst kinds of villains, in the best way.

But it also gives me a third face of his character to toy with. One that maybe four people in the Thrum continuity see in his lifetime. So time for character studying.

Because Thaddius Blakk is capable of emotion, he is capable of dialing back and having some semblance of a relatively normal human life. He does have hobbies outside the 'corporate takeover' goal he's working on, he has likes and dislikes, even ways to destress and relax. A window that gets increasingly narrower as the show itself progresses and he starts losing his footing more and more often, a stress that is constantly piling on top of him that breaks him apart like any normal human being albeit more dramatically.

This is also the rare point in his time that he seeks the even rarer comforts of other humans. It's a constant poke in mine and Killy's shared canon that it's hard for others to believe Thaddius has a life outside of work. Eli at some point in the later Thrum arcs reminisces that he can't imagine someone willingly falling in love with, much less marrying, this man. He fails to picture Thaddius as someone who even can love, much less having it reciprocated.

Thaddius is at least capable of feeling fondness and affection. It's very rare out of him, the man is a workaholic to extremes and he pours himself so far into his work it's almost toxic. He is more likely to flex his power over people than actively seek private personal connections, romantic or otherwise.

which is why it has to break his face in a few times for him to rattle the emotions into place

When he does feel affection, it is deep and loyal and possessive. He has his claws in you now, he is not letting you go. It is not sweetness and flowers with him unless he can buy them physically, but he will also not go out of his way to harm those he actually does care about. Not on purpose, at any rate; he conducts his relationships like a brawler in a china shop, it's almost awkward and breaks a few vases in the process, even if he means well. It's a learning process. A frustrating learning process.