Look i…I’ve has these thoughts brewing for a bit and I’m not sure how to articulate them but like. I’m really interested by the fact that despite Cad being aroace, and Taliesin never failing to play him as such, I 100% believed he’d fallen in love with Fjord for like. 30 episodes or so? And like, that’s on me! And I love the way Cad loves, it’s the best thing about him, and I want to do it justice. And so, some re-evaluating:
Caduceus definitely has a special regard for Fjord, or maybe just a different regard from that which he extends to the rest of the M9. He started as a ‘project,’ yes, but it’s more than that now, and there’s something so humbling about that regard existing without romance. I wonder what Cad saw in him, at first? This man who put on new faces like cloaks, coughed himself awake on seawater, went to bed with a pirate captain in order to bring her down. A man who tries so hard and frankly, fails so often, trying desperately to be the person he thinks he should be, whatever that is. I wonder if he reminds Cad of folks from Shady Creek he buried, people who could have been better but didn’t make it. I wonder what parts of him remind Cad of himself.
So Caduceus said here, let me help. And didn’t laugh (much) when Fjord asked him if the gods were like “a menu,” and healed him without question the night he cast away his sword, and defers to him in battle on the seas. Cad has stepped back, but still makes sure that when Fjord does something good, he sees. He’s holding the training wheels in his hands and watching Fjord wobble as he goes, and he’s worried and proud in equal measure.
And Fjord has, of course, changed Caduceus and helped him grow in ways neither of them could have anticipated. Do you think ep 28 Cad would have turned himself into Avantika to question a dead man? Would have found the courage to step into that magical mist, toward danger instead of away, his back to a wall? I love his genuine interest when Fjord tells him yes, nature is a liar. I love that hint of Fjord’s wanderlust when he tells his family “no, I’m not quite done forging my own path” (”figuring out who I am.”)
Anyway all this to say the absence of Cad’s crush has only made me more obsessed with the dynamic between these two, and I cannot WAIT to see where this story takes them. (Sabian? Vandren?? MOLAESMYR????) It’s gonna be so good.
Seeing meta like this warms my heart, because I’m so used to “Character A did something nice for Character B, there’s no way it’s not romantic” used to prop up ships so frequently. Seeing “finding out this character is aroace didn’t ruin my day, it just turned a ship into something equally as interesting that is wonderful in a different way” is something I’ve longed to see for so, so long.
