willow

I like to think of Shadow Knigts as a metaphor for obsession and how trauma can fundamentally change you and your relationships, and this is exampled by all of the Shadow Knight we know (with few exceptions, but I can explain why).

As well all know, the biggest part of being a Shadow Knight is the strong desire to kill the person closest to you, with the majority case being your lord. It is what the required step to change from fledgling to fully developed Shadow knight is. No avoiding it, and that's because relationships have power.

There is no relationship where someone does not have some sort of power over the other, and that is not a bad thing objectively. It is just a fact. From siblings to parents to friends to lovers, all relationships have some sort of power dynamic. I am not talking stronger or weaker, but more like a charge or energy. You trade and share your power like a circuit to a bulb, some relations brighten it, others burn it out.

The trading of power is natural, but Shadow knights are unnatural beings created by a man scourned by every relationship he had, especially with a woman who held so much power over him, so much sway. We have all seen the trope of "I have had my heart shattered so I must make sure no one EVER LOVES AGAIN!", well, to me this is exactly that. The knights are forced to kill the person closest to them, the person who holds the greatest power over them, metaphorically but especially literally when it comes to lords. You cannot have a relationship in fear of harming the other.

The process of being turned into a Shadow Knight is also very similar to how abusers trap their victims, this time to a very literal extreme. They isolate them, make them dead to the world, feed them vile thoughts about the people they care about, and when they do leave, there is a literal calling, forcing them to come back. They can't be around their old relationships because they now fear they are too violent, too dangerous, too broken. They try to act normal, try to be who they once were, but they can't. Cause that is not how trauma works.

The two shadow knights who exemplify this the most are Laurance and Sasha, who are the ones we are the most familiar with. We watch for essentially 150+ episodes of Laurance and Aphmau building a relationship as friends and having that relationship deteriorate as Laurances trauma gets worse and worse, before overtaking him entirely when he has to respond to the calling. I am not going to go into [black] deserved better in either relationship as it doesn't matter what they deserved, this is how the situation played out. Friendship to genuine care to hyperfixation to possession to obsession to hatred, that is how their relationship played out because Laurance was never able to heal. The relationship became toxic because of it, NOT ON PURPOSE, mind you, neither were abusive or intentionally tried to be. Sometimes that just happens and you need to know when to walk away, which is what Laurance did.

Sasha is another character who faced this conundrum with Kenmur, but the only difference was that she had time. 15 years with the knowledge that Kenmur was most likely dead (Irene dimension), and she, to some extent, already mourned. That is not to say she did not freak out when she saw him again, but she wasn't murderous. She was incredibly depressed. Just like Laurance, her love moved on and was even getting married, but her reaction wasn't murderous rage. It was to try and bury her feelings. She had time to be away, time to heal, and while she can never move on (as shown is season 3 when she cries when Kenmur dies despite being in Tu'la) she can allow both of them to heal at least.

Gene is another character who is obsessive with his relationships after becoming a Shadow Knight, but a big difference with him is that he already had abusive tendencies. He tried to erase his ex's memories so they could continue dating, so after his transformation, his TRAUMA these traits became worse and exaggerated, something that does happen after trauma. It does not excuse nor make sense of his actions but when Gene came back, he came back for revenge but he felt no desire to kill Dante, the person you would assume would be closest to him, because Dante had already betrayed him, so he had no one. There was no one with power over him because Gene was in abusive relationships where he did have all the power, where he was the one burning their bulbs in a sense.

Vylad is another character who has no one he was truly close to either. He was the bastardd child of a lord, he came into this life as an accident, as a mistake. Objectively he should have the desire to kill Garroth or him mom (which 50/50 for Garroth, those arrows man) but here's a big thing for Vylads healing, Hyria. She took care of him and made sure he was okay before sending him off. He was given the tools to heal by someone who doesn't give him permanent reminders of his trauma. He also had time on his hands to heal, where his family was trapped in another dimension or being invaded by Tu'la. He had both time and resources, which is why he is the only one who is truly fine.

I am not going to go into Zenix cause he is... Odd as hell and I don't recall his shadow knight status. He is very complicated character with not enough answers to go with.

Vincent is a full-fledged shadow knight after killing his brother, but the thing is, after purging that relationship he still struggles. He said he had moments of no control but he doesn't anymore, he is in control and that is after time, a very long time. Purging the relationship didn't solve his trauma, it just gave him nothing to obsess with.

Now, there is one last Shadow Knight I am going to go into, and that is Amethyst, the old lady who was in like, 2 episodes. She was a happy old lady who was with her loving husband, and that is all she was because time allowed her to be so. Nothing more. She is a shadow knight who was able to overcome her trauma and live a happy life, but that was with time, and with her husband, whom she grew old with.

hrrmghhhh............ happy halloween......... they have been nerdy prude-ified................