honestly I think the fandom makes assumptions with darkmilk that aren’t necessarily true

(and I’m now mostly saying this because I have been in other fandoms where I have encountered literally the same type of pairing as darkmilk and more people there are literally accepting so at this now I’m slowly dying inside for all the mental spirals I’ve gone through over the past two years)

I think darkmilk suffers from milk having 0 relevancy whatsoever so they haven’t bothered to actually write him as a full fledged character and just has the one quirk of “oh he really wants to find dark choco and he is very much a big fan.” So I think that’s why people end up making assumptions about milk cookie, especially about that one character trait, that isn’t very accurate

(ex. milk cookie would stalk dark choco cookie <- kind of bonkers when his original goal in CROB was to find dark choco cookie but after meeting Mala Sauce and finding out what’s happening, he’s the one to propose to help Mala Sauce while Purple Yam only wants to focus on finding Dark Choco. Meaning Milk was very willing to sidetrack to help someone )

This also applies to Darkmilk as well. One of the biggest assumptions is that Milk would not be able to let the past be the past, and Dark Choco would be really uncomfortable with Milk due to this (and that of his association to the past).

I’m not really here to debunk the first half because truth be told, I don’t know what Darkmilk’s dynamic would be like. I don’t know how Milk would react. None of us do. And it’s kind of the #1 thing I hate the most because people tend to just… assume darkmilk has to turn out completely awful no matter what even when nothing has happened at all. And it’s frustrating to me because 1) I feel like my thoughts and my voice and my story gets completely shut down (and it’s even worse because I honestly don’t think I agree with most people in this fandom about them anyways sooo…)

1.5) that assumption has been used for the past two years for people to hate on the pairing and honestly after I’ve kind of drifted away from cookie run and found other pairings like darkmilk? I’m just tired.

However, I am going to debunk “Dark Choco would be really uncomfortable with Milk” because the game actually kind of says otherwise through the Young Prince Ch 14 portrait (probably the best thing and only thing I’ll get because at this rate I’ll be dead before I get anything else)

Here’s the entire conversation between Dark Choco and Milk Cookie for reference as you read but here’s a recap to segueway into my point: Milk and Dark Choco are in front of the portrait. Milk starts talking about how the portrait inspired Milk to be the type of person and at the end of it, he calls Dark Choco a hero. In response, Dark Choco tells Milk he’s not a hero but also proceeds to thank him.

I’ve already written an analysis on this cutscene already and why Dark Choco responds the way he does but there’s something I realized and was reminded of when I found a different follow up analysis (that I’ll link a bit later) which is that actually this conversation between Dark Choco and Milk goes much better than what I or probably anyone else expected.

My initial expectation was that oh Dark Choco would have probably just said nothing or he would actually express clear discomfort from being around Milk. That’s what I was reminded of.

However, I realized while I was rereading that the last time Dark Choco has technically seen Milk was through a flashback during that Dark Mode scene. He was forced to rewatch his past memories and relive him slashing his father through Pomegranate’s magic. And because of that, he had a mental breakdown (more specifically it triggered his PTSD).

The most realistic expectation and conclusion based on what the game has provided us up to the release of Ch. 14 would be Dark Choco shouldn’t have even been standing in that room not just because Milk is there but because the Young Prince Portrait is hanged up on the wall and he’s standing in that very room. And don’t try to tell me “Oh what if Milk dragged him-“ Dark Choco wouldn’t be a pushover over his own trauma just because some guy he saved whatever amount of years ago really wanted to see it. He doesn’t hesitate to say how it is (and you can see that by how he immediately corrects milk when Milk calls him a hero.)

But if he wouldn’t want to or wouldn’t be comfortable in that very room, why is he there now with Milk? My answer to this which is more of a theory is that this portrait conversation takes place at an unknown time in the future where Dark Choco had already started to heal and most likely was able to make peace with however amounts of his past.

A point in time where Dark Choco willingly makes the choice to stand in front of the portrait and acknowledge that it still exists. The portrait still exists. The past can’t be erased but they have healed and can now acknowledge it without breaking down. I think the same thing goes for being in the same room as Milk. Remembering how he saved Milk was part of the flashbacks in Dark Mode. So realistically if he wasn’t ready, Dark Choco would just be avoiding him and probably wouldn’t have visited this room in the first place.

But yet there he is in the same room as Milk. Looking at the same portrait of himself with Milk and talking about it with him. The energy in the room is awkward and tbh that’s probably expected but if Dark Choco had truly been uncomfortable with Milk he would have left the room already and he certainly wouldn’t have thanked him for what Milk said.

I don’t actually know how to end this post. I’ll just throw in that Milk could be like 5x worse with his admiration but he’s not and he’s also *mild* when put next to the other two non cookie run pairings that’s been in my head recently and yet both of those pairings literally get development with them acknowledging aspects of their relationship and what they want out of it while *also still exhibiting the same intense admiration*. And they’ve been more accepted by their fandoms than darkmilk so like… I’ll just stare at my ceiling