#stordo

Why would Kae say that? You might say: “oh, it’s just psychological warfare; he wants Mordo to think he’s utterly alone.” Ok sure, but why does Kae think Stephen’s betrayal would affect Mordo to the same extent as TAO’s? Because that’s what he’s doing, he’s equating the intensity of Mordo’s feelings and emotional attachment to TAO, his mentor and savior for who knows how many years, to Mordo’s feelings for a guy he met less than a year ago. Also, helloooo Wong is still there, very there, right next to Mordo. Does he not count? Mordo is not alone in battle, so clearly Kae means another kind of “alone”.

How does Kae know Mordo feels THAT strongly about Stephen? Well, he spent a while in the mirror dimension looking at Mordo being extremely protective of Stephen, and falling prey of panic when Stephen was in mortal peril.

Also, you might say: “oh, it’s just because Stephen has the Eye and the Eye is their only way of ever defeating Kae” … Except that Mordo DOESN’T want to use the Eye. It goes against the natural law and Kae knows that. So that’s not what he’s talking about. It’s not the Eye, it’s not about backup, it’s not about the fight, Kae, or Dormammu. It’s about what Stephen means to Mordo as a person.

So… What’s the purpose of that? What is the purpose of all of this other than show that Mordo is in love with Stephen and that Stephen’s betrayal cuts deep because it’s not mere rule breaking, it’s also the breaking of Mordo’s heart?

I refuse to believe that Chiwetel, a motherfucking amazing actor (FYI McCoughney boy, u stole that Oscar) who coyly mentioned “pestering” Scott Derrickson and Kevin Feige with questions about Mordo (e.g. would Mordo do this? would Mordo do that? Mordo’s backstory, etc.), would unintentionally play in a way that wasn’t unanimously agreed upon by everyone involved.

This is not to say that strordo was intentional (as much as it breaks my heart that it wasn’t and probably won’t be a thing). Just Mordo’s side of the deal. And it kinda pisses me off that it was clearly meant to be yet another gay guy falls for straight guy and becomes evulz because of gay angst plot with enough plausible deniability so they can claim no ill will.

TL;DR: Mordo is clearly meant to be gay and in love with a straight Stephen and that sucks.

__________________________________________

This was so incredibly well put Nonny! Like damn you really summarized a lot of the fandom’s feelings towards the ship, and particularly towards Mordo. I’ve accepted that strordo is very unlikely to be canon, and that’s alright *lip quivers*

I really don’t ship pairings with the demand that they be canon. I can hope like crazy yes, but I won’t leave a pairing just cause their canon-ness will probably never be. I ship them for wonderful dynamic and wild potential their stories can have. 

I love how much potential and power strordo has. It honestly hits so many of my personal fav tropes my heart had no say in the matter XD I love them so much. Mordo takes the cake though, the entire feast really. I have a sinking feeling that his story will end in tears ;__; Either his own or Stephen’s, or both.

I also doubt that Marvel will risk the money they rake in by having any of their characters being explicitly gay. They make way too much money in countries that have banned movies for less :/ For that reason alone I doubt we’ll get anything more than maybe heavy implications/significant glances/suggestive scenes etc. Mordo certainly comes across as in love with Stephen to me, while Stephen seems rather oblivious to it almost :/  

Other Anons have suggested the idea that Mordo falls out of love just as Stephen realizes he loves Karl too. Which just hurts but it also makes for great stories.

I just hope that in the crazy event it’s clear and point-blank stated that Karl’s gay and in love with Stephen that it won’t factor much into why Karl becomes a villain. Karl should oppose Stephen out of his own moral convictions and his need for the world to follow natural law, not because he feels jilted and didn’t get the D he wanted :/ 

I also have high hopes that Karl won’t be evil just for evil’s sake, or even see himself as evil at all. He believes he’s doing the right thing for the greater good. So in his pov Stephen’s someone he loves, but is clearly wrong, and he’ll fight him despite that love. That requires mad strength and conviction folks no matter if love is requited or not D: 

i saw dr strange for the first time tonight and honestly i feel like we don’t talk enough about karl mordo? he’s such a wonderfully complex character with and interesting story. dr strange was as much HIS villain origin story as it was stephen’s hero origin story. he’s exactly the same kind of tragic villain being set up for multiple movies that loki was

so where are my thousands of mordo redemption fics? or the strange x mordo craze? there’s only 119 fics on ao3 as of me writing this. we had more ironstrange fics than strange x mordo ones even before they interacted in infinity war.