December Discourse 3

[toujours_nigel]

avani008 asked for something about Satyavati, which I just said in Khilji's Padmavati tone, which would be wrongbad in any case but...

Okay, you know how there was this post making the rounds that if your kid wants to be a princess, use this as a tool to talk about community and responsibility and adventure? Well, when I was a wee Rhea, some three or four years old, I used to be Satyavati, Queen Regent of Hastinapur, with ever so many duties, and my grandfather would play Bhishma.

On an extremely related note I have seen Bhishma/Satyavati once and never have I ever backed out of a fic that fast. (not even the carebears BDSM one)

So, Satyavati. I don't think she's ever close to people with whom there is a burden of care. Maybe her father the Fisherking, but nobody since, and even there there's a stunning amount of calculation at work on both ends. I don't think she is as in love with Shantanu as he is with her, but then that's the tragedy of Shantanu's life; but also I don't think she can afford to love her sons or her daughters-in-law. Satyavati's place in most stories would go to a man, because she has this strategist's mindset that is constantly working away in the background. I love it; i love her Slytherin everything.

I want to think she adores Vidura, whose future she doesn't have to promote or judge, and in whom she recognises her own very careful mind. I also think she and Bhishma are close, but that is never an easy relationship at all.