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Van/Luke ship essay thing.
There's no actual sex in that AU yet, but FRANKLY THAT'S IRRELEVANT. The fact that we're willing to do this at all makes us terrible. Horrible. Wrong people.
I have a friend who haaaaaaaaaaaaaaates Van/Luke and Van/Asch. It's a reasonably popular ship in the fandon, judging by the amounts of sickeningly adorable fanart I have for it. I understand her hate, though. Because it's often represented as. Well. Cute. And fluffy and full of love.
And if you played that game and left it thinking that Van and Luke have (or have ever had) a cute and fluffy love. Well. That's just sort of painful.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME AND DON'T CARE ABOUT SPOILERS, LET ME TELL YOU THE THINGS VAN DID TO LUKE
Well. actually we have to start with Asch to get HOW TERRIBLE VAN REALLY IS in proper order here:
What Van Did to Original Luke (Asch):
-Acted as his beloved mentor, inspired and taught him.
-Was a surrogate father, because Duke Fabre fails
-Encouraged him to be an awesome leader, a fact that he became mildly obsessed with
-Kidnapped him! Took him to a DIFFERENT CONTINENT.
-Put him in a cage, created a replica of him (basically torture).
-Allowed him to FIGHT HIS WAY back to his homeland.
-Only to let him see when he arrived that he'd been REPLACED by everyone he loved.
-Acted as comforting mentor again. Trained him with the intention of using him to kill everyone in the world.
-And then there's the GAME PLOT (mostly, see Luke's)
LUKE ARRIVES MIDWAY THROUGH THIS. SO NOW WE HAVE
What Van Did to Replica Luke:
-Created him
-Acted as a beloved mentor and surrogate father.
-Basically lied to him for seven straight years, encouraged his infatuation, and garnered his love to the point where Luke could legitimately be considered KIND OF OBSESSED with maintaining Van's opinion of him.
-It is seriously not out of line to call this brainwashing.
-Filled his mind with HOPES AND DREAMS of being a hero, escaping the jailcell of his life, and running away with him.
-All for the purpose of having Luke destroy an entire town, and die in the process, in place of Asch.
-Hyponotised Luke, so he would release his VASTLY POWERFUL ATTACK to destroy an entire town.
-The TRIGGER WORDS for this were "Foolish Replica Luke"
-Proceeded to call Luke a useless tool, useless because he didn't even die when he was supposed to
-And basically proceeds to NOT GIVE A SHIT about Luke for the rest of the game.
-Except for when he tries to kill him several times.
-Works very hard at and nearly DESTROYS ALL OF HUMANITY
-Yet, despite his intentions to replace all of humanity replicas. Clearly doesn't believe they are actually human (Luke included).
-Doesn't acknowledge Luke as a human, free-will filled individual until Luke CLIMBS OVER A METAPHORICAL MOUNTAIN OF CORPSES TO REACH HIM.
-And proceeds with the attempted apocalypse, eventually forcing Luke to kill Van himself.
-Also, both Luke and Asch die by the end of the game, which can ultimately be tied down as Van's fault too. (Though, arguably, if not for Van, Asch would have died EARLIER and Luke would have never existed).
SO. That's something of a LAUNDRY LIST of shitty things to do to a boy who is basically seven years old.
Luke still loves Van.
This is... key to the plot. It NEVER stops. It changes! Luke is smart. He very much does see Van for what he is. Perhaps more clearly than a lot of people might, because waaaaaaaaaaaay deep down inside, Van is a good person. He's also crazy, obsessed, and borderline sociopathic. But Luke's aware of all of this, not to mention all the HORRIBLE THINGS Van did to him, and he still loves him. He still wants his approval, his happiness, his attention.
THIS IS WHY I SAY it's not out of line to say Luke's kinda brainwashed.
But he... knows he shouldn't be, accepts it. He WOULD kill Van again if it came to that. But he doesn't think it will. He also knows Van DOESN'T care about him, and that... hurts. But he's not crying about it and he basically accepts that... he can't hate Van just because Van never loved him. Van is still strong, brilliant, wise, all around incredible, and was the most important and most influential factor in Luke's life for... pretty much his entire life.
The ironic part of their relationship, is that by game's end, Luke is more or less physically as powerful as Van is. Van's still A BOSS. But then again, he was being souped up by Lorelei at the time. You beat Van at his regular power levels midway through the game, so it's not out of line to assume Luke could take him one-on-one by now.
Luke knows this! He's a very very humble guy in a lot of ways by now, so he doesn't really DO anything with the knowledge that he could beat Van if he had to, just takes some confidence from it. But since they aren't fighting, that info isn't really useful, and in JUST ABOUT EVERY OTHER WAY Van continues to be his superior, and Luke acts like it.
It's... not that Luke is submissive. He's very much firm on the things he thinks he needs to be firm about. Things like NOT KILLING PEOPLE, that he is human, that we all have our own choices in life. He just... don't feel the need to be firm on all of the other stuff, mostly because he's not critically aware of all of his weaknesses and failings. And for all Van is FULL OF FAILINGS he's pretty much awesome at everything that isn't tainted by his convoluted view on destiny.
What I'm SAYING here, is that Luke will do just about anything Van asks of him, and at least consider anything Van tells him. Which sounds all very reasonable from Luke's point of view. But uh. When you line it up against EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED the fact that Van still has that much influence over him is REALLY KIND OF UNSETTLING.
Which leads into why them in ANY SORT OF SEXUAL SITUATION is incredibly wrong. Luke's a virgin! AND EIGHT YEAR OLD ONE. Van is and always will be his hero, albeit his fallen one. It's... exactly like any mentor/student relationship you can imagine, only where the mentor CREATED AND USED AND THREW AWAY the student and where ALL OF THE LOVE was a lie and manipulation. Where the student existed to be sacrificed, and where there ISN'T a heartwarming ending about how Van actually grew to care about Luke. He did grow to RESPECT Luke, after Luke fought a fuckload of battles to stop him. But see him as the BELOVED STUDENT he acted like? Nnnoooo.
Their positions on each other are SUCH a juxtaposition, and the end result is always that Luke is APPARENTLY completely open to someone so utterly untrustworthy.
And the really terrible part, is after ALL OF THAT STUFF? The only thing about Van that really upsets Luke is that Van tried to destroy the world. Luke NEVER complains about how Van CREATED HIM TO DIE or CALLED HIM A TOOL AND THREW HIM AWAY. Not because it doesn't affect him on some level, but because he... really genuinely accepted it and moved on and never got angry or vengeful or even goddamn cried about it.
SO BASICALLY.
I LOVE THIS AU
BUT IT'S COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY *TERRIBLE* AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO THE SEX YET.
There's no actual sex in that AU yet, but FRANKLY THAT'S IRRELEVANT. The fact that we're willing to do this at all makes us terrible. Horrible. Wrong people.
I have a friend who haaaaaaaaaaaaaaates Van/Luke and Van/Asch. It's a reasonably popular ship in the fandon, judging by the amounts of sickeningly adorable fanart I have for it. I understand her hate, though. Because it's often represented as. Well. Cute. And fluffy and full of love.
And if you played that game and left it thinking that Van and Luke have (or have ever had) a cute and fluffy love. Well. That's just sort of painful.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME AND DON'T CARE ABOUT SPOILERS, LET ME TELL YOU THE THINGS VAN DID TO LUKE
Well. actually we have to start with Asch to get HOW TERRIBLE VAN REALLY IS in proper order here:
What Van Did to Original Luke (Asch):
-Acted as his beloved mentor, inspired and taught him.
-Was a surrogate father, because Duke Fabre fails
-Encouraged him to be an awesome leader, a fact that he became mildly obsessed with
-Kidnapped him! Took him to a DIFFERENT CONTINENT.
-Put him in a cage, created a replica of him (basically torture).
-Allowed him to FIGHT HIS WAY back to his homeland.
-Only to let him see when he arrived that he'd been REPLACED by everyone he loved.
-Acted as comforting mentor again. Trained him with the intention of using him to kill everyone in the world.
-And then there's the GAME PLOT (mostly, see Luke's)
LUKE ARRIVES MIDWAY THROUGH THIS. SO NOW WE HAVE
What Van Did to Replica Luke:
-Created him
-Acted as a beloved mentor and surrogate father.
-Basically lied to him for seven straight years, encouraged his infatuation, and garnered his love to the point where Luke could legitimately be considered KIND OF OBSESSED with maintaining Van's opinion of him.
-It is seriously not out of line to call this brainwashing.
-Filled his mind with HOPES AND DREAMS of being a hero, escaping the jailcell of his life, and running away with him.
-All for the purpose of having Luke destroy an entire town, and die in the process, in place of Asch.
-Hyponotised Luke, so he would release his VASTLY POWERFUL ATTACK to destroy an entire town.
-The TRIGGER WORDS for this were "Foolish Replica Luke"
-Proceeded to call Luke a useless tool, useless because he didn't even die when he was supposed to
-And basically proceeds to NOT GIVE A SHIT about Luke for the rest of the game.
-Except for when he tries to kill him several times.
-Works very hard at and nearly DESTROYS ALL OF HUMANITY
-Yet, despite his intentions to replace all of humanity replicas. Clearly doesn't believe they are actually human (Luke included).
-Doesn't acknowledge Luke as a human, free-will filled individual until Luke CLIMBS OVER A METAPHORICAL MOUNTAIN OF CORPSES TO REACH HIM.
-And proceeds with the attempted apocalypse, eventually forcing Luke to kill Van himself.
-Also, both Luke and Asch die by the end of the game, which can ultimately be tied down as Van's fault too. (Though, arguably, if not for Van, Asch would have died EARLIER and Luke would have never existed).
SO. That's something of a LAUNDRY LIST of shitty things to do to a boy who is basically seven years old.
Luke still loves Van.
This is... key to the plot. It NEVER stops. It changes! Luke is smart. He very much does see Van for what he is. Perhaps more clearly than a lot of people might, because waaaaaaaaaaaay deep down inside, Van is a good person. He's also crazy, obsessed, and borderline sociopathic. But Luke's aware of all of this, not to mention all the HORRIBLE THINGS Van did to him, and he still loves him. He still wants his approval, his happiness, his attention.
THIS IS WHY I SAY it's not out of line to say Luke's kinda brainwashed.
But he... knows he shouldn't be, accepts it. He WOULD kill Van again if it came to that. But he doesn't think it will. He also knows Van DOESN'T care about him, and that... hurts. But he's not crying about it and he basically accepts that... he can't hate Van just because Van never loved him. Van is still strong, brilliant, wise, all around incredible, and was the most important and most influential factor in Luke's life for... pretty much his entire life.
The ironic part of their relationship, is that by game's end, Luke is more or less physically as powerful as Van is. Van's still A BOSS. But then again, he was being souped up by Lorelei at the time. You beat Van at his regular power levels midway through the game, so it's not out of line to assume Luke could take him one-on-one by now.
Luke knows this! He's a very very humble guy in a lot of ways by now, so he doesn't really DO anything with the knowledge that he could beat Van if he had to, just takes some confidence from it. But since they aren't fighting, that info isn't really useful, and in JUST ABOUT EVERY OTHER WAY Van continues to be his superior, and Luke acts like it.
It's... not that Luke is submissive. He's very much firm on the things he thinks he needs to be firm about. Things like NOT KILLING PEOPLE, that he is human, that we all have our own choices in life. He just... don't feel the need to be firm on all of the other stuff, mostly because he's not critically aware of all of his weaknesses and failings. And for all Van is FULL OF FAILINGS he's pretty much awesome at everything that isn't tainted by his convoluted view on destiny.
What I'm SAYING here, is that Luke will do just about anything Van asks of him, and at least consider anything Van tells him. Which sounds all very reasonable from Luke's point of view. But uh. When you line it up against EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED the fact that Van still has that much influence over him is REALLY KIND OF UNSETTLING.
Which leads into why them in ANY SORT OF SEXUAL SITUATION is incredibly wrong. Luke's a virgin! AND EIGHT YEAR OLD ONE. Van is and always will be his hero, albeit his fallen one. It's... exactly like any mentor/student relationship you can imagine, only where the mentor CREATED AND USED AND THREW AWAY the student and where ALL OF THE LOVE was a lie and manipulation. Where the student existed to be sacrificed, and where there ISN'T a heartwarming ending about how Van actually grew to care about Luke. He did grow to RESPECT Luke, after Luke fought a fuckload of battles to stop him. But see him as the BELOVED STUDENT he acted like? Nnnoooo.
Their positions on each other are SUCH a juxtaposition, and the end result is always that Luke is APPARENTLY completely open to someone so utterly untrustworthy.
And the really terrible part, is after ALL OF THAT STUFF? The only thing about Van that really upsets Luke is that Van tried to destroy the world. Luke NEVER complains about how Van CREATED HIM TO DIE or CALLED HIM A TOOL AND THREW HIM AWAY. Not because it doesn't affect him on some level, but because he... really genuinely accepted it and moved on and never got angry or vengeful or even goddamn cried about it.
SO BASICALLY.
I LOVE THIS AU
BUT IT'S COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY *TERRIBLE* AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO THE SEX YET.