Reading

okay as sort-of a mini-post here are the things I like about phaidei, who are the second ever Big_HYV_yaoi to get me:

both extremely beautiful to me.
themed so much around: diasporic nostalgia vs exile vs myth of return vs migration [...] like i genuinely think the most criminally underrated part of their ideological mishmashes is that phainon simply does not understand why mydei would ever give up on his homeland and make his people assimilate, when he so badly wishes to return/restore aedes elysiae and go back there... like guy who cannot move on vs guy who will always leave things behind him [...]
THAT PHAINON LITERALLY IS DESTINED FOR GREATER THINGS. MYDEI IS THE FOOTNOTE AND PHAINON IS THE PERFECT VESSEL/THE DELIVERER/THE NAMELESS NAMED HERO... one thing about me is that i love outsized narrative importance imbalance. which is not to say that mydei is not important to the story but he is essentially the solider and phainon is the promised chosen one. until he's not. and now i just really hope amphoreus does not fumble but the bag is looking sooooo sweet right now.
hunk4hunk greek tragedy yaoi where they are DOOMED. phaidei is lowkey only good because of the DOOM. the fact that this is only transient that they're running on limited time that there is no forever and barely a promise of tomorrow the fact that it ENDS. well... it's good to me. that's the flavour. they're literally a normal couple who gets along well except for the fact that it cannot and will never last. rip.
i like that mydei is a cool stoic guy who is honest and reserved. and phainon is the exact opposite of that where he has 10000 million different facades and flashy smiles and cool gestures and is a funhouse mirror of himself and what he thinks he should be and wants to be and actually is to try and stop and distract from reaching the core where there is a shattered sense of self ... it's good.
they'll act like it's not true. but i do enjoy prince who grew up with only responsibility and none of the luxury and only for the latter half of his life vs nobody orphan from nowhere who is taken in by a rich benefactor and then raised and shaped for Such A High Status. everyone's like oh it's rich prince noble man x poor peasant boy. but it's not. it's literally not. the game goes out of it's way to spell out how it's not. down to mydei having most fucked up childhood imaginable [and probably still a decent amount of fucked up given, Sparta] while phainon lived idyllically in his village as a farmer's child until he didn't. like. sorry nothing in this world i hate more than the spoiled brat mydei fanon take... HE WOULD FUCKING NEVER.
i also hate when people end up being pro-military/police by having mydei/eurypon be military or ex-military or whatever in canon aus, like we can do better. like we can definitely be more creative and woke about this. actually there are so many things that phaidei ao3 does that make mydei into a kaveh-esque figure and this is why i hate haikaveh ship order. like... be normal. read. and i will admit that some of these people are literally kavethammers so i can't blame haikavehers for this one totally. BUT THEY ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. as is anyone who is a regular victim of HYV_big_yaoi. not me tho i have taste.
also if anything mydei is the alhaitham to phainon's kaveh. stoic serious guy who is never going to say the right thing vs. guy with 3492083483 psychological problems that will not hear the words you said in the way you said them. anyway so as u can tell im a fan of the fragile psychologically troubled high specs visual seme x normal stoic handsome guy uke...
mydei's fertility symbolism. like yeah i'll get that guy pregnant. and yes my worldbearer with 4 arms will be the one doing it. i guess i kind of like that phainon is both odysseus and telemachus while aglaea is penelope and mydei is a different unrelated to the story guy altogether in that he's ares/achilles/orestes... yeahhh... Yeah... i like that.

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