#pragma

Commenter: Very 'Troy' because I get the sense that Damen found real respect for Auguste and that the guy deserved it. Those two would have been a magnificent pairing, in a parallel fic universe. Pacat: Yeah! God, I am happy you picked up on this. I completely fell for the Damen/Auguste dynamic while I was plotting, for exactly the reasons you describe.

For some reason (*cough* neurodivergence *cough*) I like to get introspective about why I like the things I like. My love for jaydick came kinda naturally – a red/blue aesthetic between 2 dorks with canonically strong and complex feelings towards each other? Been there, done that, sign me up. But, like...why? Why was I obsessed with this ship? Why is the pairing itself so compelling, whether you ship them or not? I thought: "I don't know, it's the way they're coded as opposites but aren't really, and the way Jason admires Dick but also resents him a little, and the way that Dick's entire identity shifts when Jason comes along, I guess."

And digging a little deeper, I could finally put it into words: it's because Jason was made for Dick. In much the same way that Dick (and consequently Robin) was made to be Bruce's ward / Batman's partner, Jason was created to be someone Dick could conceivably pass his mantle to, someone he could see something of himself in and trust to take on the responsibility he'd been safeguarding for years so that he could finally go do something else (i.e. become Nightwing). Metatextually (i.e. between text and audience), this makes sense, especially given the logic that Jason needed to be similar enough to Dick for audiences to like him while being his own person so he wasn't just a shameless ripoff. (This logic evolved over time, hence retcons, but still.) But contextually (within a text, between characters), what must that look like?

If I had to put it in a single word, it seems like both fans and writers have settled on pragma. (EDIT: I like the Wikipedia article better.) According to Greek philosophy-based types of love, pragma is the type of love based on personal qualities, a sense of duty/obligation, and long term commitment. There is compromise and mutual understanding here. It's the type of love most associated with married couples who have been together for a while.

What's awesome about this is it can coexist alongside other types of love, like philia (platonic), eros (lust-driven), or ludos (flirtatious). These secondary types are where I see the disconnect between shippers and antis, but pragma is still the foundation, not necessarily in a romantic way, but certainly in the commitment.

A few examples under the cut.

Pragma - Enduring love

Personification of the greek types of love

Boy and his puppy???? Ichigo and Pragma????

Breaks through the silence to push this WIP forward!!

I asked my Ko-fi supporters to choose a song to make an OC MV to, and they chose Circus-P's 'Beast'! Thus, here's something focusing on Barisol and his sibling, Azendus!

(Tw for blood and S/H kinda? Seb has wounds all over him so yeahhhh, i also posted it but i think my tumblr if broken. I’ll colour and fix it up later but yeahhh))))

Yooooo!!! This is so cool! Ah the expressions are spot on.