AAAAA OH MY GOODNESS THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF A COMPLICATED LOVE!!! daisuke convinced he’ll mess up having a family, he’s meant to be alone, he can’t stop running. and comfrey never taking a minute to slow down even when she should. he doesn’t know how to confront these things he’s afraid of and comfrey just keeps GOING, just stubbornly barreling through her husband’s fear of commitment because they both don’t want to face their issues until it boils over and they HAVE to aaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
i adore the repetition of “so much bigger than him” because it really hammers home the idea that daisuke thinks he can only be the outlaw, the criminal gunslinger, that he can’t be more than that because he’s never known anything else and that’s why he’ll mess up having a family at all. he blames himself for having very reasonable concerns regarding comfrey leading the team into another mission, even though the rest of the crew, even van, share his same opinion, because it means he and his wife are fighting again. is that bad of him? is he failing at being a husband? comfrey gets stabbed and he wasn’t there to help, and he trusts that she’ll be okay because she’s comfrey macleod but he loves her and he wasn’t THERE for her when she needed it. she’s mad at him. does she hate him? does her family hate him?
and then the “so much bigger than him” starts to feel like there’s just too many things that comfrey is asking of him, too many things he can’t live up to, too many things that she cares about more than him.
the idea of tying down an “indoor dog” is such a powerful visual, like that really got me in the show and it’s even MORE powerfully used here. daisuke doesn’t know if he’s messing this up this relationship thing or not so he’s trying to follow comfrey’s lead, defending her even when she’s wrong and sleeping at the door waiting for her to come home, but none of that is the REAL issue. it seems like neither of them can address the deeper problems of their relationship, so even though it’s done out of a deep devotion, daisuke continuously following her actually seems to be causing a building resentment on HIS end that finally blows up and results in the end of their relationship. even though it’s his own choice to do these things, even though he’s primarily blaming himself, it nonetheless feels like she’s not reciprocating and no one can take that for long. because everything he’s trying out of love and loyalty to her isn’t working, and now SHE wants HIM to “settle down”? when she’s off chasing zood??? it IS unfair of her, but even then you can tell comfrey clearly loves him a lot because she’s so ready to reassure pappy that of course he’s good with family, he’s incredible and caring she can’t understand why he thinks he’d be a problem.
daisuke is scared of commitment, of having something he cares enough to lose and of messing it up, of taking those steps forward. and it feels like comfrey ONLY moves forward, commits to everything 100% and never backs down, and for a while they flew off into the sunset together but slowly they start to go in opposite directions and neither of them can stop.
oh my goodness i’m rambling now but i just. GOD this fic tugs at my heartstrings. pappy you will always be famous to me ily and comfrey you need to get onto the Complicated Women Podcast STAT.
thank you for this fic it’s so excellent i love this forever
Comment on both of these things can be true
WafflesFalafle on Chapter 1 Fri 10 Oct 2025 06:52AM UTC
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jorjudje on Chapter 1 Fri 10 Oct 2025 09:30PM UTC
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