I’m so obsessed with the Death and the Maiden trope
Related fandoms: Fallout (Cooper | The Ghoul & Lucy), PotO (Erik & Christine)
CW | Power dynamics, gendered language, old ass men, general awfulness
Death - the older man, the sorcerer, the life taker
The Maiden - the innocent, the naive, the life giver
No one comes away from Death unscathed. Especially not the Maiden.
This story is as much about the shadow self, what’s repressed or feared in the Maiden, as it is about what happens when Death wants to dance with her.
It’s hard for the Maiden to maintain herself while also accepting the darkness. It's debatable, but it can’t be done with the way society currently exists. Death is the inevitable. Who we will all tangle with one day, who will transform us whether we want it or not.
His transformative power is often used to hurt.
COOPER!
Death hurts others and, through his actions, hurts himself.
ERIK!
Death does not discriminate, but to take the Maiden is the ultimate win. To bring the life-giving force down to his level and make her face the ugliness that is him. She learns him, his allure, and relents to it.
If an old ass man has ever ruined you, you know exactly what I mean.
Often times, the Maiden's first encounter with Death ranges from rape to dubious consent. It's this ugliness that is hard to ignore. And yet, stories wherein the Maiden not only choses Death first, but expressly seeks him out, receive the same hesitant reaction.
The message is the same: the Maiden should remain unchanged. Should never have to encounter Death in the first place.
Christine's encounter with Erik is how she learns how strong she is. How she braves the face of death where she once cowered is admirable. Lucy's encounter with Cooper shows that her core is unshakably kind. That even in grim circumstances, she will not be reduced to Death like he has.
The Maiden comes out of these stories intensely scathed. She is not the same after her encounter with Death. No longer naive, she is ruthless. Fearless. Strong.
She’s who I wanna be, god dammit!
When she makes peace with Death, when she chooses to make peace with Death, she makes peace with her mortality. The Maiden also makes peace with the animal parts of herself which society deems lesser in women. Mainly lust.
Death once wished to destroy her, to turn her life giving force into something evil, but it is still up to the Maiden what she chooses to do with her new gifts - the gift of coming home to yourself, number one. In embracing these, she engages in alchemy.
Why hath the witch been so scorned?
Power. The Maiden becomes witch once she has tangled with Death. The pain through vulnerability uncovers truths she has already known in herself. Death is not fearsome to her anymore, but a close friend she goes to for guidance. Who, after her transformation, now fears her as much as she feared him in the beginning.
And Death, in tangling with his maiden, regains an appreciation for life.
Hello? The way Cooper goes from manhandling Lucy to gently asking her to accompany him on the biggest quest of his life?
Death learns to be discerning, to take those whose time has come and spare more unfortunate "Maidens" from his terror. Death and the Maiden become one when the Maiden undergoes her transformation.
Death is not inherently evil, but he is scary. It would be easier for us to believe that he’s out to get us. It’s up to the Maiden, when she encounters him, whether she remains fearful, hides from her potential, or whether she embraces him and transforms into something greater than she was.
Society might wish for her to stay a fearful Maiden so she presents no threat to the way of things as Death does. And if Death is embraced, through the transformation of the Maiden, they birth a world worth living in.
