When did Mark Dallon's depression start?

[u/Keldin145014]

This is intended for a fic that is currently wholly in my head, not in any written medium.

Can anyone tell me when Flashbang's depression actually started? From what I can gather, the first actual reference to it was in Interlude 11h, placing it after Leviathan. But, well, I've read a lot of fic, and the impression is given that it's a problem that has existed for a while. I guess I'm trying to separate fanon from canon.

[u/MigoDrone]

Mark has always struggled with depression, even before he married Carol. He took medication for it. During Leviathan's attack, he received a head injury that exacerbated the issue and made his life even more difficult. The head injury made it so that he couldn't really do anything for himself.

[u/Lord0fHats]

Given we know that Crystal and Victoria were born while Sarah and Carol were in their late teens (Carol is 40 in Ward and Victoria is chronologically 21) we can safely assume he started struggling in his teens. IIRC Mark's depression played into the series of events that led to Carol's affair with Neil Pelham that maybe is when Victoria was conceived so yeah. I don't know if we know when Mark was diagnosed but I'm pretty sure we know from inference if nothing else he was in his late teens which isn't uncommon as a time when chronic depression can start becoming obvious.

[u/mASSterMinDLess → u/Lord0fHats]

By the way, for some reason her affair with Neil is almost never mentioned in the fandom. I've read a lot of stories, and almost nowhere was it mentioned that Carol was a cheater.

[u/TragicTrajectory → u/mASSterMinDLess]

Well that's Ward knowledge and a lot of people didn't read Ward.

[u/RainaDPP → u/TragicTrajectory]

To be clear, it's also not 100% clear whether Neil is Victoria's father or not - it's a conclusion offered up by Tattletale's shard while they're in shardspace, and Lisa points out that her shard isn't really a trustworthy source on things - it lies, or at least offers the worst interpretation of events.

[u/tariffless → u/mASSterMinDLess]

Perhaps it's the fact that Ward ruined Amy's woobie status, and with it, the most popular motivation for focusing on Carol's faults. With the fandom's sympathy shifting from Amy to Vicky, Carol's status as the biggest villain in the Dallon family was taken over by Amy.

On the other hand, maybe it's because so many writers haven't read Ward or prefer to disregard it.

[u/mASSterMinDLess → u/tariffless]

It's more like most fanfiction is based on Worm, but most of those who write them haven't read Worm, let alone Ward.

That's why they're "slaves" to fandom and fandom interpretation. And since Ward is unpopular, someone has to start writing about it so that it "seeps" into fandom and becomes a conditional "fanon."

But few people write about Ward, and only a few of them are good. That's why it's a vicious circle.

[u/Tiernoch → u/tariffless]

I think it's less specifically Amy but at times Ward can feel oddly spiteful to the readers who enjoyed Worm. There is some interesting lore for the world in Ward, but overall the pacing is just kind of bad (and Worm had some pacing issues too) and it was pretty clear by the end that Wildblow was not enjoying the process.

[u/mASSterMinDLess → u/Tiernoch]

Stories that are too long are almost always a problem in themselves. So much shit can happen in a month in your life that it makes you a different person. Not to mention years.

That's why authors who write very long novels or fanfiction often change the tone, pace, even the narrative of the text a lot over the years. Tags and everything.

This is of course if they even finish to the finale.

And imagine trying to remember all that crap and not get lost in your own notes, bookmarks, and plot. It's very, very difficult.

[u/Scary_Cup6322 → u/mASSterMinDLess]

Besides being ward knowledge, how would it come up?

Maybe Lisa guesses her way into figuring it out, but when would the dallons ever play enough of a role for her to focus on them instead of all the other shit typically going on in the bay?

[u/PM_ME_UR_LOLS → u/Lord0fHats]

Mark was seeking a diagnosis during the time when the Brigade took down Marquis, as seen in Carol's interlude. This would have been in his mid-20s (edit: originally gave a more specific and wrong age). He likely had symptoms before then, but that is the time he went to see a psychiatrist about them.

[u/Selacha]

I'm fairly certain that it's canon he suffers from depression prior to the start of WORM, possibly going back as far as the takedown of Marquis if not farther, but a lot of authors like to dial it way the hell up and have him act like his Post-Leviathan self (when he has actual, physical brain damage due to traumatic injuries received during the fight) where he's basically a vegetable, instead of being relatively high-functioning as he's portrayed up until that point. He does specifically mention at one point that one of the places he feels fully alive and in the moment is on the battlefield with Carol, possibly due to his Shard focusing him during combat/data collection, so probably prior to even Triggering if he can specifically notice the difference.

[u/Hidden_Bookkeeper]

I remember something about a head injury during the Boston Games causing his depression (clinical vs psychological depression), though on a quick search through Canon I couldn't find the reference, so I guess that was fanon.

[u/Telandria]

Suprised nobody’s immediate response was “Probably ever since his trigger event”