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#I mean. ANOTHER crime.

the-crow-binary · 10 months

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After this post, I am now going to focus on Isaac and Hector, and I dedicate the post to my friend @beevean <3 (And also at least partially to you, @azerothx, since I will talk about Hector and your ask have been raising dust in my messages closet for a while... alongside a few others >:<)

So. Let's talk about those boys' themes in Curse of Darkness (mangas are incuded).

First theme: Loneliness and Finding a place to belong to (to cling to).

Before they even met, Isaac and Hector already shared a similar story. The one of a child, hated and rejected by all, who just needed a place to be safe in. Like any child deserves to. Granted, Isaac had Julia... but being with someone doesn't mean you cannot feel lonely. Children need a home. And Dracula gave them one.

Isaac clung onto Dracula's "love". He felt happy in repaying him for his "kindness" and mercy by serving him body and soul. He felt accomplished in being nothing but a tool for him, to do his bidding. Hector, however, will take a different paths...

Second theme: Rivalry.

They were both Dracula's generals and Devil Forgemasters, but Hector was the stronger one. He was Dracula's favorite, his protégé. Though Isaac tried and tried, he never reached Hector's level. It festered his mind, created an inferiority complex. And yet, at the same time, he secretly admired Hector. Probably envied him as well. They were rivals in ideals as well. Hector clung onto his humanity, Isaac threw his away. Hector wanted to be his own person, Isaac felt fulfilled being what Dracula wanted him to be. Hector felt bad about killing humans... Isaac could not have cared less.

Wich leads to the third theme: Betrayal.

Hector, unable to stand the massacre any longer, ran away. Both Dracula and Isaac took it badly, but this isn't about Dracula. <3 Isaac clearly cared about Hector, in someway. In the PtR manga, before the Curse take a hold of him, Isaac is honorable to Hector. He praises him, clearly admires him, even brought two swords with him to confront Hector after his betrayal because he cares about a fair fight. In the MF manga, Isaac was ecstatic when felt and then found Hector (who he thought might have been dead, though he had a doubt). He even seems desperate, screaming "why did you betray us?!" at him when they fight. He gives him a chance to go back to the Castle... only for Hector to laugh at him and call him out for being nothing but a pawn. (and Isaac is very expressive. You can read his emotions in his face. You can see when he is worried, when he is in pains but tries to hide it behind a smile, when he's straight-up mad...)

But Hector running away is not the worst part of the betrayal, no... the worst part is Dracula's death. :)

In the PtR manga, Isaac doesn't know Dracula died before he makes it back to the Castle and finds it in ruins (an injured bat flies to him, only to die in his hand. Talk about symbolism). In the MF manga, both Hector and Isaac feel Dracula die while they fight. In both scenarios, Isaac goes mad with grief and put all the responsability on Hector, because if he hadn't ran away, if he had stayed alongside Dracula (or did as ordered and went to kill Belmont), he would still be alive. Because of Hector, Isaac lost the only person who ever made him feel home. Now he has no one.

Fourth theme: Coping (or the lack thereof)

Comes the three years happening between CV3 and CoD. Hector learns to live peacefully with his wife Rosaly, he learns how to be a human again, he learns about how strong humans can be in their own way and how not all of them are bad. He heals and copes alongside his woman and finally, everything seems to go smoothly for him... he is happy.

But not Isaac. Isaac is alone, spying on him. The Curse eating his soul little by little. He became obsessed with two things: Hector and vengeance. He wants to see him suffer, he wants to make him suffer as he suffered. And for this... He needs to let Hector have a taste of happiness. Just like he had with Dracula. :) Before taking it away brutally.

This is the fifth theme: The cycle of revenge.

Isaac wanted revenge on Hector for basically abandoning Dracula to his death. He got it by causing Rosaly's death. Now Hector wants to get revenge on Isaac. And so he abandons the life he has been building for three years, and goes after his old "friend".

The entirety of the game revolves around this theme. Hector the traitor against Isaac the monster. They both have reasons to hate the other, they are obsessed with getting back at the other. Isaac, especially, as he is alone and fully(?) taken over by the Curse. Hector is not alone, however, and still resisting the Curse, though it almost got him in the end. But then...

Sixth theme: Acceptance/Breaking the cycle.

Right before giving Isaac the final blow, Hector stops himself and realise "wait... what am I doing? That is not me." and drop his weapon, fearing that the Curse is actually getting to him. Then Death appears and use Isaac to resurrect Dracula and Hector defeats him and Hector breaks the curse with his powers... he goes "I can finally rest" but Julia won't let him, of course, and they both flee the breaking down Castle.

It ends with him and Julia having a nice little chat, talking about having hope in the future, they both feel accomplished, and you know what...? Hector never got his revenge. :) Yes, Isaac died (either because of his body being used to resurrect Drac or because Hector killed Drac and so it killed him), and so did Dracula (again), but he did not kill him for revenge. He killed him because Dracula was a threat. The idea to get his revenge disappeared the moment he realised what he was doing. And yet, in the end, he still was happy.

Meaning the way to happiness was never to get revenge. On the contrary, it would have bring unhappiness. By refusing to get his, Hector did not only save himself, but the rest of the world as well. If he had let himself fall prey to the Curse, Death would have had used his body to bring back Dracula, and at this point, Trevor was not in a good enough shape to stop him. Accepting to do the right thing and move on was the good call. Now, he can try to live in peace again...

Now you can easily imagine Hector and Isaac having been close, once. Two lost boys, sharing abilities, sharing similar stories, knowing what the other went through... you can imagine they were friends or lovers, caring about the other, but, unfortunately, Dracula always got in the way (Isaac cared more about their Lord and Hector cared more about Isaac. but what he cared even more about was his own humanity. they were bound to fall appart)

What helps caring about those characters, their relationships and themes, are their personnalities. They're both different from each other, but work well together. They are both gray (they are both victims), but Hector leans more on the "righteous" side, while Isaac lean more on the "evil" side.

Now onto the funny part.

What are Isaac and Hector's themes in NFCV?

Loneliness: We barely touch on that, if not at all. We never see Isaac suffer from being alone, he seems pretty okay with it. The only hint we have that Hector might have been a lonely child is this flashback of him bringing his dog back to life, going home, only for his parents to scream in horror (and he does end up killing them by burning down the house). We can guess that if he often brought undead animals to people, he must not have made many actually living friends... but he never seemed like he wanted to anyway. In fact, as an adult, he did say he prefered his "animals" to actual people (if I remember correctly). So okay, scratch that.

Finding a place to belong to: Neither Isaac nor Hector had a problem with that. They both lived happily on their own until adulthood, when Dracula arrived and asked them for help.

So we already lost two themes that made the OG characters dependant on Dracula (wich was an interesting plot point, love that G!Dracula seemed merciful on the surface, welcoming children to his Castle, when he ultimately uses them as weapons). Okay. A shame, but let's continue

Rivalry: Those characters have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. They are colleagues who barely talk to each other. And I am not going to call Isaac patronizing Hector and calling him a child "rivalry". There's nothing there.

Betrayal: I don't want to sound harsh, but... lol. Lmao, even. Hector got manipulated by Carmilla, but it's barely if he realised he was betraying Dracula. He probably didn't know any better. And while in the manga, Hector's (actual) betrayal led to neither him nor Isaac being there to protect Dracula, and so Isaac being mad at him and not Trevor made sense (+Hector actively chose to betray them, he was not manipulated by anyone)... in NFCV, there is no such thing. Isaac was aware Hector was manipulated by Carmilla, he saw Trevor and knew who was attacking the Castle, and it's Dracula himself who threw him into a portal to protect him. He had no reason to get mad at Hector. Another theme wasted.

Coping: No such thing. Unless you want to count Isaac's "character development" that, but... doesn't feel right to me. The characters never had the time to process things and just live during the whole show (oh, my bad, there was a few time skips here and there that were used as excuses to rushed developments, haha <3)

Cycle of revenge: It was more of a quest for revenge on Isaac's part. Hector never had any reason to get revenge against him. Well, Isaac neither, but he wanted to anyway.

Acceptance/Breaking the cycle: Okay so we did not get any "breaking the cycle" since there was no cycle to begin with... but "acceptance"? Yeah. Isaac went through character development mostly offscreen and decided to accept Dracula was dead (how did he even know) and that Hector had nothing to do with it (wich he knew from the start but good for him to finally take facts into consideration). And Hector........ Hector accepted to not be killed by Isaac. Cool. I guess.

So at this point, all of the themes revolving around Isaac and Hector in games were thrown out the window or done terribly wrong in the show. So what themes did they have? Well, sisters and bros and non-binary hoes... none that would link them directly. They basically had their own things going on, and it would sometimes get in contact with the other's things, but never mix. That's basically their whole relationship summed up.

Isaac's things were that he was Dracula's friend, that he valued his knowledge greatly to the point he was ready to lead his war and give his life to him, but then he was forced into a journey without Dracula that would make him realise he wanted to be something more, that he wanted to live for himself (you know, the development G!Hector had, but done poorly).

And Hector... Hector's whole thing was "I am a wet puppy getting kicked around by every vampire existing". He got manipulated by Dracula, then Carmilla, then Lenore... everytime the show would focus on him, it was like going from "Castlevania" to "misery porn". And his story ended with him in love with his abuser who never had any consequences for treating him like shit and got to die on her own terms. I know CoD's message was basically "revenge bad", but what about justice. What about Hector's character being respected for once. What about... yeah I'll stop right there this isn't about Lenore nor Lenector, this is about Isaactor.

And, needless to say... NFCV Isaactor is shit. They lost all flavor. Hector got his character smashed into pieces and replaced by a bad clone of him, then his character development was passed down to N!Isaac, but not completely, because N!Isaac kept killing people like it was nothing till the end, and still cared about Dracula, and he never actually betrayed Dracula he just was forced to leave him. Meanwhile Isaac's character was thrown out the window and replaced by an OC with his name. And I'm not just saying this because his design is entirely different, but also because his personnality has nothing to do with G!Isaac. All they have in common is the fact they love Dracula. And even then, G!Isaac literally worshipped Dracula. Meanwhile N!Isaac and N!Dracula are actually friends ("are you still my friend, Isaac?"), they often look like they are on the same level, not a master talking to his servant... actually, N!Isaac did not just replaced Hector. He replaced Death as well, as Dracula's confidant.

And look. If you want to make Isaac the favorite one, go ahead, poor guy keeps getting bullied, he deserves the treat. That is not the problem here.

The problem here is... that the show shat on both Isaac and Hector. And everything, from the themes that linked them both to their personnalities, have been completely erased and replaced with badly written drama.

Say what you want about G!Isaac, but this guy is fun. His gestural, his voice, his personnality... They are so fun to watch and analyze. Just the way he walks around his spear in one of the cutscenes and say "pff! still too soon but all the same..." is... GAH. I love it. (and have you guys even SEEN the STABBING SCENE? PLEASE.) Whoever brush him off as a gay joke needs to either shut up or actually read the mangas/play the games. N!Isaac is just a rock. He has no charm. Everyone thinks he's badass when he's being an asshole. Everyone thinks he's deep because he says so.... And I couldn't care less about his relationship with Dracula. And Hector? Hector was RAW in the game and mangas. He was brooding, he had... questionable self-esteem (comparing himself to a demon) but enough self-respect to get away from Dracula and respect his own moral code. He knew how to fight, he was strong. He was ACTUALLY badass and cool. But he also was tragic, in need of love, and adorable when with Rosaly... N!Hector was a joke. And it didn't have to be this way, they could have decided at any moment to make him stop taking any shit and start actually defending and fighting for himself. But no. We had to wait till the end of S4 to have him cut his finger off, wich is the closest we will ever get to a badass moment for N!Hector. (also Isaac rushing in to help him is cute, but it would've been cuter if they actually had chemistry, y'know?)

Isaac and Hector in CoD were two faces of the same coins. Two people who went through the same things, but ended up taking widely different paths... But in NFCV, they had nothing in common. Nothing more than strangers working for the same guy. And one of them was an asshole to and behind the other's back for no reason. (also, Dracula recruiting them as adults does not have the same impact as him welcoming them as children... but at this point it's clear that N!Dracula was meant to be alone in his Castle before Lisa. Unlike G!Dracula who is "said to be generous towards those who turns their back on god" and have devils and demons and even humans roaming all around)

If I had to tell what CoD's core was, as I did for the whole Castlevania franchise... Well, it was Isaac and Hector. Their characters, and their relationship.

Once again, NFCV wasted good potential.

#also neither Isaac nor Hector ever met the main trio and that is a CRIME #I mean. ANOTHER crime.#(I am glad there was no stabbing scene. N!Isaac is so not sexy and fabulous and slaying. I do not want him kissing Trevor. cringe.)#(also I lied. CoD's core is the raw gay sex and homosexual tension)#castlevania #netflixvania #hector castlevania #isaac laforeze

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holyvirgilscriptures · 7 months

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When a person belonging to a minority group says or does something bad, you are, of course, free to criticize them. But it still does not give you the right to be a bigot. Noah Schnapp sharing stupid, careless, and uninformed geopolitical opinions deserves to be called out, but it does not mean that you suddenly get to tell him that he should have been gassed by Hitler or killed by anti-Jewish hate groups or terrorists — both things I've read on Twitter and on Tumblr. It does not justify you calling him homophobic or antisemitic slurs.

"But he deserves it!" you argue. First of all, why do you think so? What makes it okay for any person to be given the green signal to get called slurs, or have people advocate for them to get hatecrimed? And more importantly, you are only signaling to your Jewish friends that you are actually capable of antisemitism. Same thing goes with your queer friends, or any friends belonging to a minority group. When you justify one form of bigotry, even to just one person — you justify all forms of bigotry.

So if you find yourself doing any of these, ask yourself why it's so easy to slip into bigoted rhetoric instead of simply focusing your criticism on what a person did/said.

#here's another example: a couple years back many chinese idols made statements supporting the ccp #despite the fact that the ccp was comitting genocide on its muslim population #it was awful and i have stopped supporting any of these idols #but that doesn't mean i could call these idols sinophobic slurs #and when anti-chinese hate crimes because of covid were spiking it didn't mean i could say that these chinese idols deserved to get beat up #because that is a horrible fucking thing to say #noah schnapp #antisemitism #this is probably the last thing i talk about noah bc again people care too much about him #i'm aware i hold a shockingly unpopular opinion lol #a person from x minority doing something disagreeable is not and will never be grounds for you to act bigoted

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numetal-freak · 4 months

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“No, I’m not getting sucked into the vortex of your insanity again.”

-Wilson, who would love nothing more than to get sucked into the vortex of House’s insanity again

#he’d appreciate the sucking in another way too #if you know what I mean #house md #hilson #james wilson #gregory house #canon #hate crimes md

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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 month

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man, but like.... why is there a contingent of jiang cheng stans who are incapable of stanning their special guy (totally justifiably! i support you!!) without shitting on jin guangyao in the process? why are these fans capable of doing deep narrative dives to understand and contextualize jiang cheng's justifiable actions re: wei wuxian and the wen remnants pre-timeskip, who write thoughtful screeds in defence of his feelings of anger and betrayal vis-a-vis the golden core reveal, but lose that capability entirely the second jin guangyao shows up?

is it because jin guangyao is mean to jiang cheng while trying to not get murdered as his whole life collapses around him? jiang cheng is a big boy, jin guangyao's carefully calculated spiel to provoke him during the guanyin temple confrontation doesn't even make the list of top ten most traumatic things to happen to him, he'll be fine.

feral jc stans should be friends with feral jgy stans because nobody else likes us 🥲

#salty peak sect 🧂#he did crimes??? good for him 😌#knife mouth and tofu heart #editing to AND ANOTHER THING about this because i'm never done when i think i'm done #i think jgy stans have a tendency to do this to xue yang too actually! i know i've done it in the past #like i'm not nuts about xy and jc the way i am about jgy obviously #but that DOES mean that the people who ARE nuts about him have undoubtedly done a lot more thinking and reading and rereading about him #than i have #and i appreciate how their hard work has helped me develop a better understanding of xy's character #tl;dr jc and jgy and xy stans should all hold hands

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grabyourpillow · 1 year

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One thing I like about Tatort Saarbrücken is that, except for Das Herz der Schlange when Adam gets rightfully innocented, solving the case usually brings no joy at all.

Both in Das Fleißige Lieschen and Die Kälte der Erde, the culprits were only driven to do what they did because of an abusive system that failed them.

Lida's brother got publicly beaten to death in a fucking working camp for a crime he didn't commit, and then she had to watch for years as the company claimed to never have employed exploited workers.

Alina's ex could despite her wishes, stop the adoption process of Alina's daughter, and stalk and harass her with no consequence. No wonder she took matters in her own hands, driven by desperation and her wishes for her daughter's future.

The tennis player woman in episode one reported Eric Hofer who literally threatened to break her arms, and nothing happened.

Adam tried to report his abusive father as a child and, you guessed it, nothing happened.

This is a cop show who repeatedly demonstrates the failure of the law to protect those who actually needed protection.

#even in der herr des waldes #what solving the case did not bring the young innocent girl back #nor did it manage to catch the psycho before he comitted another crime #also Lida's brother I mean #and if he had committed it #well #stealing food when you're on one bread a day while working 13 hours is at the very least understandable #tatort saarbrücken #i have to say idk how the other Tatorts are lol #spatort #das fleißige lieschen #die kälte der Erde #tatort saarbrücken spoilers

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acklesgotsnackles · 10 months

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i wanna rant about physical boundaries and intimacy between wilson and house.

this show is all about boundaries, and how house breaks them on a regular basis—whether thats running an unapproved treatment or shoving a thermometer up someones ass. hes not afraid of crossing the line.

and when it comes to wilson, hes the exact same way. he'll break into his office and throw everything wilson keeps on his desk into the trash just so he has space to sit, because for some reason he didnt feel like sitting in any of the chairs that day. and when wilson walks in and sees this, he just. lets him? im sure he pulled most of it out after house left but the fact that he just lets him do that? hes so relaxed about it. so comfortable.

and house is obviously not an open person. hes a depressed loner with a serious drug addiction who lives in an apartment alone. he doesnt appreciate people coming in and messing with his things. and when wilson first started staying with him, he was very much upset—his things were being touched, his schedule was being messed with, etc., but over time he grows to like wilson, to enjoy his company, so much so that he actively sabotages him when he tries to move out.

and theyre clearly comfortable when it comes to their physical boundaries as well. its so often that we see house standing over wilsons shoulder, or wilson grabbing house by the arm to pull him aside and lecture him about another dumb life-risking thing he did without a thought in either of their minds.

its so intimate. house can just take up wilsons space freely, and wilson can do the same. they can stand to be hovering over each other without being overly conscious about the space between them.

just saying that these little goobers constantly push into each others space and they both let it happen like its no big deal, even when it quietly changes the directions of their lives.

#im sorry i went on another long rant but i cant help it #they mean so much to me #house #house md #james wilson #dr james wilson #wilson #gregory house #dr wilson #dr house #hilson #is this considered hate crimes md? because it feels like it #hate crimes md #kill me theyre all i can think about right now

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desultory-novice · 3 months

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[Trimming for length...!]

...Mechalor Anon, how dare you take my attempts to give them a vaguely implied happy ending and convince me (challenge level: super easy) to turn this into something Truly Horrific... ANYWAY!

Snowflake!Noir and Adeleine, aka...**** ****...

Adeleine, as always, takes up art. She's more unsure of herself, so she's been experimenting with different crafts, trying to find the one that fits...whoever she is now. Noir waits tables at Kawasaki's while learning how to cook from him. He's stuck with his collar but the encroachment seemingly stopped with 02's defeat so...that's good.

[This timeline MUST have a Happy Ending. See? They're even smiling!]

They have a home at Castle Dedede when they're not out...enjo... sorry ENJOYING!! Dream Land; the soft cuddle bear penguin king unable to NOT care about these two in every reality, apparently ^^

Overall, they're not fine. All that shock and trauma in rapid succession, followed by being in communion with a dark power, letting it gently infuse their souls for decades to help escape their awful waking life, only to be very psychically available as it was destroyed and then waking up in a perfectly ALIEN situation that only pushes the two of them closer together is totally not fine though!

Today was another good day...

[Warning: horror, body horror, original attempt at biblically accurate Kirby last boss, semi-realistic eyes, no salvation, character death]

:Adeleine smiles wide, hopping onto the large bed where Noir sits:

Adeleine: "Ready?"

Noir: "Only if you're ready to lose two bucks."

Adeleine: "No way! Today was a good day! It's going to work!"

:Adeleine gears up to pry at Noir's collar, trying to break or otherwise remove it from him. It still refuses to budge:

Adeleine: "...Nghhhhhhh!"

:Noir wryly shakes his head:

Noir: "Ready to call it quits?"

Adeleine: "...Noir, are you sure you didn't accidentally glue this thing to you and you've been too embarrassed to tell me the truth?"

Noir: "Says the girl who sewed the shirt she was wearing TO my apron when I asked you to fix the ties on it for me. I didn't know you hated being apart from me that much, Adeleine!"

Adeleine: "No~ir!!"

Noir: "Anyway, no, I didn't and that's two bucks you owe me."

Adeleine: "...I don't have any money. They don't even use it here. Why do you keep betting me? What would you buy, anyway?"

:Noir replies with mock seriousness:

Noir: "...Chiropractic work for all the neck damage you've given me trying this thing every single day."

:She pouts before finally letting a little laugh slip through:

"...Adeleine, listen, it's okay. You don't need to worry about me..."

Adeleine: "It's not okay though! Dark Matter's supposed to be all gone now. Everyone said so. So...why aren't you better, Noir...?"

:A faltering smile to match her growing sadness:

:Keep lying to your sister, boy. You're an expert by now:

Noir: "...I am better. We're both better. Right...?"

"I mean, isn't this place a lot better than home? You're out there painting and sculpting and sewing and building and who knows what else and I'm...making less guests sick at Kawasaki's every day!"

:He laughs a hollow laugh. She doesn't laugh with this time:

"...Just cause this stupid thing is still stuck to me doesn't actually MEAN anything. It's just a boring hunk of metal. Nothing more."

:It doesn't still whisper to him. A thousand lost souls crying out to be one again:

:She crawls into his lap:

Adeleine: "Still...I'm...scared, Noir. I'm scared for us. Nothing feels right anymore... What if, the next time I go to sleep...I wake up someplace new again? What if...it's someplace without you...?"

:He hugs her tight, their shivering bodies fitting together perfectly:

:Why do you shiver, children? It is not cold here. It is too warm:

Noir: "C'mon, snowflake girl. That's not gonna happen anymore. We've stuck together so far and we're going to keep sticking. Right?"

"...And anyway, today was a good day. You said it yourself."

Adeleine: "Yeah..."

Noir: "We just have to keep having good days. Don't let the little things get to us. We've still got each other. ...We can do this..."

:Back to sleep. In sleep, we are safe. Only in sleep. Though... ...They ask us to wake up here They worry when we do not wake up:

:Outside the door to their room:

Meta: "...Your majesty."

Dedede: "Whaa?! It's not what it looks like!!"

Meta: "I have no idea what you're implying."

Dedede: "So, uh, what brings ya here, Meta Knight?"

Meta: "The same reason as you, I would suspect. To check on the status of our guests from Shiver Star. How are they?"

:Dedede points inside, where the two siblings sleep cradled in each other's arms, akin to how they were found. Though, it's a little uncanny to see them continue to sleep that way:

Dedede: "See for yourself. Sleepin' peacefully. At least, I hope so..."

:A bit of worry makes its way onto his face:

"...Adeleine's right, Meta. We beat Dark Matter. Twice. Hell, maybe more! Sure, we've had a host of problems since then but Noir's..."

Meta: "Do you believe that, my liege? That we have defeated it?"

Dedede: "What do you mean by that?"

Meta: "...When you look at those siblings, what do you see?"

:Dedede looks back inside the room:

Dedede: "I see two kids. Quiet. Respectful. Scared of trouble but they don't cause any. They mostly stick to each other but I seem 'em out there slowly trying to make friends with the others..."

Meta: "...You are a good man, my liege."

:Dedede balks and puffs up his chest:

Dedede: "That's 'Great' and get it right!"

Meta: "......Then I take it back."

Dedede: "Hey!"

:Meta fixes him with a fierce, burning gaze:

Meta: "Look at them again, sire. Not with your eyes."

Dedede: "......"

:Dedede can see it, their matter is locked in a twisted spiral, Soul and Dark feeding each other, tightly intertwined, and growing still:

Meta: "Do you see it?"

Dedede: "...No. I don't see nuthin'."

:Dedede turns away:

"And before you ask me to look again, I don't WANT to see it. They're just two kids, Meta! Just two small kids! They haven't hurt nobody!"

Meta: "...In the beginning, it was just the boy. He was sick with Dark Matter. I didn't know how he was still alive. He could have easily been a threat to the kingdom and not just because of that sword."

:Meta shuts his eyes, regretting his lapse:

"I...had hoped the presence of his sister could alleviate that some. But Dark Matter is not so easily tamed. It has grown fast, feeding off the two of them. It is already more than twice what a normal member of their species should be able to handle without being consumed."

Dedede: "...Right. That doesn't sound good. How do we stop it?"

:He sees Meta Knight's expression and rephrases:

"...How do we save 'em, Meta?"

Meta: "I believe, my liege..."

:His lowered eyes go to Galaxia's handle:

"...the answer will depend on your definition of 'save'..."

...

Meta Knight's words hung heavy on him.

King Dedede shut his eyes and decided to continue along as if it was nothing. Just...keep making the place as comfortable for the two as he could. Maybe the knight was wrong? Maybe it wasn't too late?

It wasn't long after that. The trigger was something forgettably small, as simple as a thoughtless suggestion or an accident; one of them gets hurt, bleeds a little, maybe. It only needs to be one of them, so inextricably are they linked that the resonance of the other's echoed pain races across Popstar like a sonic boom. Dark clouds swirl in, covering the whole planet, blocking out the star's brilliant light.

King Dedede rushes out. He doesn't want to know-without-question what is the cause this time. He wants it to be something unknown. A new invader; not his familiar tormentor, the foe he knows so well.

But he knows exactly what it is because he is already mouthing the words to a waiting Meta Knight. "The kids! Where are they...?!"

"Look up..."

It is a cruel joke to him. Always, Dark Matter had a way of getting inside him. But every time, it had been his body. Never had it succeeded at invading his heart.

He wishes this one would take his body.

...Take me instead...

But the two violet eyes are not looking at him. They arc laterally with rapid movements, back and forth, back and forth, stretching to the edge of their vision, looking for their other half they know to be there, felt through the comforting grip of tightly twined fingers and hinted at in the reflection of wings like the points of a snowflake...

...

......

-ZERO THREE-

" " yI at kH Ou er Bt ls lN 'o ti Ir " " | " " Dt ol nu ta LF ey aM vl el MA es Ai ls oi nh eT " " | " "It Ji um sm ta WD ad no tG Tp oU Ds rU ee ak ma FW ou ro FY od ri eD vy eh rW" " | " "Hr ee lH pe Hv ia mS" "

"...Give them back..."

"GIVE THEM BACK!!"

" " ...eK di en dg eD De gd ne id Ke... " "

...He will not get them back...

ZERO THREE's dialogue reads:

"It Hurts Noir / It'll Be Okay" | "Don't Leave Me Alone / This Is All My Fault" | "I Just Want To Dream For Forever / Why Did You Wake Us Up Godammit" | "Help Him / Save Her"

...The last one you can probably guess...

Mechalor Anon's full post below. Sorry I took the worst possible ending choice you offered and SOMEHOW MADE IT WORSE!