I just know Grizel cares so much about Fitz.
She's known this boy since he was 14 (?) and she's watching him grow up.
She's hung around him for years, day and night.
She's eavesdropped on his conversations, and she was there for all of the aftermath of Alvar's betrayal.
She watched his world fall out from beneath his feet first hand. She heard the whispers that followed him everywhere he went. She watched his shoulders fall.
She probably watched him bake treats for his friends. She probably watched him cry and grieve. She probably dragged him out of his bed and showed him how to work out to get out of his head. She probably reminds him to eat, and to get some vitamin D. She probably listens to him pace his bedroom well into the night. She probably listens to him talk to Mr. Snuggles when he's really overwhelmed and just needs a friend who won't judge him.
She'd die for this little sad, short-tempered baby who has done nothing wrong ever in his entire life. And her heart aches for him. For the way he can be surrounded by people, but still be so lonely.
She probably knows him better than most people just off of observation alone.
idk man. we never talk about it. and the friendship angst/potential is immaculate.
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Dofus: The Production - reviewing the Xa and Tot interview
pictured: 7yo Joris, 10yo Joris, 60yo Joris, and 584-585yo Joris.
Funnily enough, this interview will touch onto something already mentioned in the artbook I already reviewed.
The origins of Joris as a character.
Sadly, it is machine translated, but I think we'll understand it well enough.
Here we learn that Joris was inspired by Vivi from Final Fantasy. I am sad to report I had never played Final Fantasy, and all my knowledge of him comes from hearsay at best, but Id do find there to be some very funny and twisted parallels between Vivi and Joris, beyond their troubles with lifespans (Vivi's being extremely short, Joris's the opposite...)
Like lol. Lmao even. (laughs fondly at the memory of having drawn fanart of Kerubim and Joris cannibalising one another as symbolism for Kerubim's selfish exploitation of Joris for his own emotional needs and regrets, — and Joris growing to derive pleasure from being exploited by Kerubim, and being a willing participant in the mixture of parentification and infantilization he experiences after the 600 years of living with his dad.)
Anyway,
Joris's progression as a character being "joke character -> character Xa created to be cool and awesome in a moment of inspiration, despite Tot's brief -> he bewitches them both fully" is so funny to me.
I always found it funny that Tot doesn't really see the forest (dofus aux tresors de kerubim) for the trees (child neglect and the psychological horror of Joris Jurgen's entire existence).
Not even going to comment on not knowing what the hell "epic-burlesque" is supposed to mean.
Now we move onto my favourite part of this interview: Tot's thoughts on Joris as a character.
I'm glad he said that they've worked on his life story through multiple centuries. Gives me hope that Tot has given thought to Joris's experiences during Leorictus Sheran-Sharms silly, perhaps even whacky reign.
I want to note the word choice here, — Joris isn't mysterious, but jaded. All of his caginess and "mystique" is attributable in equal part to his distrust of others, cynicism, and exhaustion with the horrible things he has seen throughout his life.
Which would very likely include being cagy even about his class, considering the whole "huppermage gencocide" thing that happened after Leorictus Sheran-Sharm.
The thing about Joris is that it is hard to appraise him from our own point of view. I had always liked how this franchise treats immortal characters, — they are beings with feelings, who make mistakes, who have issues.
But it does not make them any less incomprehensible.
In a way, he is so compelling to me, because I find his existence terrifying — Joris is someone who started out with all these ideas of kindness and justice, but can someone who is 600 years old really uphold them?
Judging from Waven, we know the answer to this question.
I think that with Joris's character, as well as Kerubim and Atcham, one of the major themes is stagnation.
While at times their immortality, and the freedom it provides, is referred to in a bit of an "optimistic nihilism" way,
Especially with the themes and motifs referenced in Aux Tresors de Kerubim, (especially with the ending directly referencing Diane Ardant's monologue,)
It's such a painful mixture of stagnation and endless freedom. There's a horror of never being able to escape, — not from having to experience the horrors of history, not from your own childhood house.
And then there's the horror of moving on from everyone you ever loved. While Kerubim and Joris share this one, I associate it more with Kerubim simply because he is so obsessed with the stories of his youth. It feels as if what was two hundred years ago is just yesterday, to him...
While with Atcham it's just speculation and my own headcanons, the sort of immortality, stagnation related horror I associate with him is dependency. He is not the same, strong person he used to be when he was alone. If he had to go back to Brakmar after all this time, he wouldn't be able to adjust. It's like all this time has declawed him.
Joris never really knew a life outside the all-consuming relationship he has with Kerubim and Atcham, but for Atcham it's different. And with every unchanging year that passes, he settles more and more into this peaceful existence, — and if he were torn away from it, just like Joris and Kerubim, he would not be able to function.
I think that the theoretical endpoint of where Kerubim, Joris, and Atcham could end up is whatever is going between Qilby and Shinonome.
Being one another's only meaning, in a world devoid of meaning, for better or for worse. Probably for worse.
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