Four! I love Four, but this comment will probably be at least a little shorter (I HOPE, JESUS, I'M SO SORRY) just because there's a bit less to say about his emotional dynamics. I love love love Four and his swords, though obviously that's a bit difficult to capture in text, and I can only imagine how their meaning changes to him over the course of the show—at first I'm sure they were an anchor, a comfort, because here was this thing he knew, he knew and remembered and could do even when he knew absolutely nothing else about himself. And then he learns who he is and Five tells him about the memory she had of the sword lesson and his father, and it must have begun to feel different: still an anchor, still a thing he does so well and enjoys doing so well, but now it's shadowed by how he learned it and why, by the implications of him wanting to be kind and his father insisting that he not be. AND THEN AKITA, and everything gets so. much. more. complicated. When he killed Akita, was he remembering the memory Five told him about, following his father's advice at last because he doesn't think he can afford to be childishly generous anymore? I realize it looks really bad to the rest of the crew, but it actually also makes sense to me that Four would in some ways consider Akita's life his—Akita mentions that Four saved it once, IIRC, even if Four doesn't actually remember the confrontation with his father over that battle with Pyr, and so in a certain sense Akita's been living on borrowed time since. (Plus Four doesn't actually remember his relationship with Akita, of course. Would he still have killed Akita if he did?) And I am just—I am SO INTERESTED in how Four feels about himself and his throne. It's not exactly a surprise to me that he's so all in when it comes to getting his throne back—after all, he doesn't actually remember his half-brother or their relationship, all he really has to work with is that a) he knows who really killed the emperor and that he was set up, and b) his half-brother said he would come and then sent Akita instead, because Four doesn't know that was actually the empress dowager. So it wouldn't surprise me if he thinks his half-brother was part of it all, and that SUCKS, and he must think his half-brother is an HONORLESS WEEVIL, and obviously an honorless weevil should NOT just get to be emperor. Except, of course, Four doesn't know SHIT about Zairon, so in a practical sense how exactly is he expecting to rule it??? I'M NOT SURE HE'S THOUGHT THIS THROUGH. But I am totally willing to consider the idea that he has—that he realizes that even if he does get his throne back, that'll just mean he's plopped himself into the middle of a whole lot of court intrigue with nobody to help him figure it out, and that's why he's committed to the crew of the Raza: because then he'll have somebody on his side. (I would LOVE futurefic where he does get his throne back, with all kinds of help from the crew, and he promptly surrounds himself with them. Two and Three as imperial bodyguards! Five as the emperor's technical advisor! One on one side to say, "No, oh my god, you can't do that, that's mean and wrong!" and Six on the other side to say, "That doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea, if [some noble house or another] really is moving against you.")
For the sake of brevity (LOL HELP), let's skip Two and Three here, since I've already talked about him and them. So: One and Four! PRETEND BOYFRIENDS. Four's equanimity in that scene was so great, how calm and authoritative he was about it next to One's spluttering—and there's something to be said about the way he's the first one to see One's actual face, that he believes One's explanation and doesn't get angry (or at least doesn't stay angry long) and doesn't lop One's head off. (I wonder whether One ever went back and told Four what he'd found out about himself and why he was on the ship; I doubt Four would have judged him for taking on a mission of revenge, and One might have appreciated that a lot.) But yeah, I would 100% love a lighter fic that took "pretend boyfriends" and ran with it, with One overthinking everything the way he does and Four patiently putting up with it. :D For Five and Four, I would absolutely adore anything else about her remembering his memories and telling him about them—has remembering so many things that belong to him made her feel like she understands him more or knows him better in some ways than the rest of the crew? Any sort of missing scene where she talked to him more about them or described them for him in more detail, or remembered another one and told him about it, would be fantastic. Are his memories part of the reason Five wants to learn to kick ass (because she remembers the movements as though she made them herself, because she remembers what it feels like to wield a sword)? And is the connection she's forged with Four because of it the reason he agrees to do it? (Will she be a better student for having Four's memories in her head? Or will she struggle with it, remembering how to move but in the wrong body for it, trying to move like young Four except her actual body is shorter/slighter/longer-limbed?) For Four and Six—it's hard for me to imagine them chatting up a storm, but working out at the same time in companionable silence, absolutely. I'd imagine Four likes Six at least as much as he likes anyone: he's not loud like One and Three, not the leader and therefore deserving of more distance like Two, not a child like Five. Given how Four feels about honor, if Six really did betray them I imagine he wouldn't take it well ...
And prompts for Four are just—I HAVE SO MANY IMPERIAL SPACE QUESTIONS. ALL THE WORLDBUILDING. What was the rest of his childhood like, when he wasn't being smacked around by his father in the guise of teaching him a lesson? How many wives has his father had, and how many children—did he have any sisters, or was it just him and his half-brother? He must have had friends or at least companions, the sons of noble houses sent to suck up to him. Were any of them actual friends (or did he think some of them were and then discover he was wrong? :( )? What other messed-up shit has his stepmother tried to pull? How did it get to the point where killing the emperor and exiling his other son for it was the best move? (Let's face it, that's not exactly a subtle maneuver—was there something else happening in the background that accelerated her timetable to the point where MURDER was the only way to get shit done fast enough? Did she have reason to fear she was about to be set aside or removed, or her son disinherited for some reason? Or was there something else looming—maybe to do with the war with Pyr?—and she really wanted her son in place as emperor before that something else could happen? DEETS PLS.) What is the war with Pyr even about, and did Four think it was stupid or not? How many space battles has he participated in, and what happened in any of them? And then we saw part of Four escaping the palace before he could be arrested, but what about the rest? What did he do in between leaving the palace and joining up with the crew of the Raza, and how did he do it without being recognized—or did he get recognized and almost caught once or twice, and the rep he got from slaughtering everybody who was after him is part of the reason the crew of the Raza took him on? Or did they not know who he was at all? SO MANY WAYS THIS COULD GO. *shakes canon, hoping answers will fall out* It seems like Four is just kind of predisposed to like Five, given that he almost kind of smiles at her pre-stasis when he decides to let her stay on the ship—or is he smirking because he knows his decision will piss Marcus Boone or Jace Corso (original flavor) off? He calls her "little warrior", too—does he ever teach her anything pre-stasis about fighting (could the fact that they hung out some back then be part of the reason his memories come to her first?)? And post-stasis, aaaaaaanything he's thinking about what it's like to hold his swords, how they feel in his hands, finding his signet ring, the reaction of that man on the station to the insignia, when he learns what he supposedly did to his father (does he think for a while that it might be true? Or does he have a gut reaction like One that makes him feel like he couldn't have, he just wouldn't have?), how he feels about the rest of the crew over time and slicing up security guards to save their asses, what he thinks of One's true face, whether he has any guesses as to why One came on board (did he suspect One might be working for his stepmother, at first?). ANYTHING.
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For the sake of brevity (LOL HELP), let's skip Two and Three here, since I've already talked about him and them. So: One and Four! PRETEND BOYFRIENDS. Four's equanimity in that scene was so great, how calm and authoritative he was about it next to One's spluttering—and there's something to be said about the way he's the first one to see One's actual face, that he believes One's explanation and doesn't get angry (or at least doesn't stay angry long) and doesn't lop One's head off. (I wonder whether One ever went back and told Four what he'd found out about himself and why he was on the ship; I doubt Four would have judged him for taking on a mission of revenge, and One might have appreciated that a lot.) But yeah, I would 100% love a lighter fic that took "pretend boyfriends" and ran with it, with One overthinking everything the way he does and Four patiently putting up with it. :D For Five and Four, I would absolutely adore anything else about her remembering his memories and telling him about them—has remembering so many things that belong to him made her feel like she understands him more or knows him better in some ways than the rest of the crew? Any sort of missing scene where she talked to him more about them or described them for him in more detail, or remembered another one and told him about it, would be fantastic. Are his memories part of the reason Five wants to learn to kick ass (because she remembers the movements as though she made them herself, because she remembers what it feels like to wield a sword)? And is the connection she's forged with Four because of it the reason he agrees to do it? (Will she be a better student for having Four's memories in her head? Or will she struggle with it, remembering how to move but in the wrong body for it, trying to move like young Four except her actual body is shorter/slighter/longer-limbed?) For Four and Six—it's hard for me to imagine them chatting up a storm, but working out at the same time in companionable silence, absolutely. I'd imagine Four likes Six at least as much as he likes anyone: he's not loud like One and Three, not the leader and therefore deserving of more distance like Two, not a child like Five. Given how Four feels about honor, if Six really did betray them I imagine he wouldn't take it well ...
And prompts for Four are just—I HAVE SO MANY IMPERIAL SPACE QUESTIONS. ALL THE WORLDBUILDING. What was the rest of his childhood like, when he wasn't being smacked around by his father in the guise of teaching him a lesson? How many wives has his father had, and how many children—did he have any sisters, or was it just him and his half-brother? He must have had friends or at least companions, the sons of noble houses sent to suck up to him. Were any of them actual friends (or did he think some of them were and then discover he was wrong? :( )? What other messed-up shit has his stepmother tried to pull? How did it get to the point where killing the emperor and exiling his other son for it was the best move? (Let's face it, that's not exactly a subtle maneuver—was there something else happening in the background that accelerated her timetable to the point where MURDER was the only way to get shit done fast enough? Did she have reason to fear she was about to be set aside or removed, or her son disinherited for some reason? Or was there something else looming—maybe to do with the war with Pyr?—and she really wanted her son in place as emperor before that something else could happen? DEETS PLS.) What is the war with Pyr even about, and did Four think it was stupid or not? How many space battles has he participated in, and what happened in any of them? And then we saw part of Four escaping the palace before he could be arrested, but what about the rest? What did he do in between leaving the palace and joining up with the crew of the Raza, and how did he do it without being recognized—or did he get recognized and almost caught once or twice, and the rep he got from slaughtering everybody who was after him is part of the reason the crew of the Raza took him on? Or did they not know who he was at all? SO MANY WAYS THIS COULD GO. *shakes canon, hoping answers will fall out* It seems like Four is just kind of predisposed to like Five, given that he almost kind of smiles at her pre-stasis when he decides to let her stay on the ship—or is he smirking because he knows his decision will piss Marcus Boone or Jace Corso (original flavor) off? He calls her "little warrior", too—does he ever teach her anything pre-stasis about fighting (could the fact that they hung out some back then be part of the reason his memories come to her first?)? And post-stasis, aaaaaaanything he's thinking about what it's like to hold his swords, how they feel in his hands, finding his signet ring, the reaction of that man on the station to the insignia, when he learns what he supposedly did to his father (does he think for a while that it might be true? Or does he have a gut reaction like One that makes him feel like he couldn't have, he just wouldn't have?), how he feels about the rest of the crew over time and slicing up security guards to save their asses, what he thinks of One's true face, whether he has any guesses as to why One came on board (did he suspect One might be working for his stepmother, at first?). ANYTHING.