#Raven said she wanted to choose her own career and he devised a complicated plot to gaslight her into thinking everyone would die if she did

[whateverafterhigh]

Thinking about Dexter and how his parents thought there might have been a chance of him being the Beast, and wondering what about him growing up must have made them think that it was him (opposed to Daring or any of his many cousins).

Like, I know his “I’ll help anybody who needs it” approach was presented in a “I’m not like other girls” kind of way to Raven, and his agreement that it is unfair that there are people like Raven who never get a happily-ever-after is also framed for Raven’s benefit, and that both these things are there to establish him as a potential love interest. But what if that was expanded on to give him more depth, instead of just being to flag him to the readers as the male love interest?

What if Dexter was already taking this kind of approach to how he goes about solving problems as a hero at home?

For example, what if Dexter’s first reaction to seeing a mob of goblins or orcs walking up the main entrance of Charming Castle was to go out an talk to them? (Which is potentially stupid if they’re armed, and he was almost certainly yelled at for doing it) And while he’s out there he starts thinking, “hey, maybe these people have a point their conditions aren’t fair” but he’s still got to do something about the mob to at least de-escalate the situation somewhat, and so he just... helps them unionise or form a guild? And now the group are protesting legally so you’ll have to negotiate with them instead of attacking them, dad.

This will almost certainly cause friction between him and his parents because a) he’s just walking up to a potentially dangerous group of people who are armed and angry without back-up or a weapon and that’s going to get him killed one day, they’re allowed to be worried for his safety and sanity they’re his parents, and b) that’s not how you’re supposed to heroically solve this kind of thing why can’t you be normal.

Headmaster Grimm will hate it even more because he’s probably not paying the goblin and fairy cleaning staff. He knows full well that one of the differences between Kingdom Management and Kingdom Mismanagement is whether or not you should support your employees unionising, or pay your employees a living wage. Something, something... Grimm doesn’t want people to be too good because it’ll start making him look bad.

But given Rosabella is said to be supporting a new Beast-related charity or cause every week, maybe Dexter’s destiny will be the Beast?

#ever after high #eah #dexter charming #This is also a way more interesting conflict for Dexter and his parents that whatever it was in the books or comic #you can understand where they're coming from regarding the argument for his safety but also root for him because he's right #and he's got an internal conflict about his insecurities about being a good hero and measuring up to his dad's expectations and gaining #confidence in his own ability to judge what is the right thing opposed to what he's told is the right thing and also himself as a hero #AND maybe there's some character growth for the elder charmings because your adult characters should also have character arcs #there's no way Headmaster Grimm is pro-union #Raven said she wanted to choose her own career and he devised a complicated plot to gaslight her into thinking everyone would die if she did