Anyone who has spent even a single millisecond on Booktok is familiar with the Shadow Daddy archetype and its aesthetics. Enemies to lovers, knives to the throat, “who did this to you,” and other hyper-specific subtropes are attached to the Shadow Daddy concept. But who is the Shadow Daddy exactly? What is his deal? Where did he come from?

Like all elements of art, the Shadow Daddy archetype is worth exploration. I am not here to yuck anybody’s yum. Rather, I would like to discuss the trope in a critical light. I’ll analyze the commonalities, hypothesize on their origin, why I think they’re so popular, and even talk about some of the more interesting ones from modern literature.

A few of the Shadow Daddies popular in online spaces like Booktok include, but are not limited to: 

• Grimshaw from Lightlark by Alex Aster → A 500+ year old king from the Nightshade realm.
• Rhysand from ACOTAR by Sarah J. Maas → A 500+ year old Fae high lord of the Night Court. 
• Xaden from Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros → A 3rd year student wing leader at Basgiath War College.
• The Darkling from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo → An at least 400 year old shadow summoning commander. 
• Kingfisher from Quicksilver by Callie Hart → A 1000+ year old shadow-wielding Faerie Lord.
• Casteel from From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout → A 200+ year old shadow-wielding king.
• Edward from Twilight by Stephanie Meyer → a 100+ year old vampiric teenager.

Commonalities

The Shadow Daddy elicits two main qualities that come from the name of the trope: the “shadow” and the “daddy”. The shadow element comes from how often Shadow Daddies have shadow magic and/or an association with darkness, like the Darkling from Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone. The daddy element comes from how often these men have a power imbalance with the main character. Usually this higher rank is due to being older, but can also come from a higher status like being a ruler, in an upper class, or richer. For example, Rhysand from Sarah J. Maas’ ACOTAR series has both elements. Within the daddy element also comes a subversive attitude, snarky, brooding, and everything in between, any sort of attitude that is meant to agitate and subvert the protagonist/reader’s expectation of how a love interest should act.

Timeline:

I believe that the Shadow Daddy can trace its roots back to two tropes, the “Byronic hero,” a character who is cynical, defiant, jaded, yet sympathetic, and the “Jerk with a Heart of Gold,” a person that seems like a big jerk but also has redeeming qualities behind their tough demeanor. 

One character who is embodiment of the “Byronic hero” is Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (the novel, not the movie). Heathcliff is a very abrasive individual, cruel and conniving, but he is a victim of racism and is treated poorly by everyone, even at the hands of his love interest, Cathy, which earns him some sympathy from the audience. Despite the cruelty he exhibits towards others and is subjected to, the love between him and Cathy is very passionate. While Heathcliff lacks the magical association, he does embody the mysterious and alluring yet dangerous aspect that most Shadow Daddies have. From the Byronic Hero, the Shadow Daddy gets his subversive attitude.

Further in pop culture, we have Danny Zuko from Grease, who embodies the Jerk with a Heart of Gold archetype. He tones down the cruelty of Heathcliff and adds a facetious layer to it. He acts very romantic with his love interest Sandy, but in front of his friends, he denies his soft side for the sake of his reputation, even reducing Sandy into a sexual conquest to impress the people around him. Ultimately, he does learn to express his love for Sandy and changes his ways. His arc embodies the crux of the Shadow Daddy appeal, someone who is both tough and soft at the same time. From the Jerk with a Heart of Gold, the Shadow Daddy’s subversive attitude becomes romanticized.

Now what happens when you add magic to the jerk with a heart of gold? That’s where the Shadow Daddy-isms start to emerge. Edward from Twilight, while not as outwardly rebellious as Danny Zuko, does have a loner attitude and a grey morality in his possessiveness of Bella that can be seen as toxic. The Darkling from Shadow and Bone also has a possessive quality towards Alina though his stems from a wish to actually own/control her for his own personal gain, something that can be interpreted as an extreme logical conclusion to the possessiveness of Edward and other Shadow Daddies. 

Why shadows?

While all of the aforementioned qualities would produce an otherwise unappealing man IRL or just some of the people you’d find on hinge at 2 a.m., exploring them in fiction allows the reader to explore a potentially dangerous dynamic in a safe and controlled way. Many of the men I mentioned push their love interests out of their comfort zone and into their character arcs. Their abrasion and meanness are guaranteed to come from places of love. It doesn’t take much effort to find a guy who will ghost you and/or will insult and belittle you, but it’s comforting to indulge in a fantasy where someone does that yet still loves you anyways. 

Problems:

Although the Shadow Daddy is a popular trope, it does result in many problematic patterns within fandoms online. Racial ambiguity is common in Shadow Daddies, and plays into antiquated stereotypes for people of colour like orientalism or exoticization. Characters like Xaden and Rhysand are foreigners within their environments, with Xaden being from the rebellious province of Tyrrendor of Navarre and Rhysand coming from Illyria, a different culture within the country of Prythian. In the official art for both characters, they have tanner skin than the other characters in their stories. Xaden even has curlier hair, a physical trait that has led to some fan artists drawing him with Black or Latin features. The mysterious and alluring yet dangerous individual aligns with how POC characters are often fetishized for their race. For example, TV Tropes gives this example of the “Latin Lover” trope: “Latin men are hotter than jalapeños and usually Tall, Dark, and Handsome, and Latin women melt butter at a five kilometer radius with their Femme Fatale aura.” When POC characters are fetishized for their race, whether explicitly or implicitly, it diminishes their character in favour of their sexual/romantic appeal.

Another problem perpetuated by the Shadow Daddy archetype is heteronormativity. All of the Shadow Daddies I previously mentioned are  heterosexual cisgender males who exhibit ‘traditional’ masculine gender roles where attractiveness correlates to physical prowess and financial/social success. The majority of archetypal Shadow Daddies are skilled fighters. On its own, that aspect is not problematic but with how often writers perpetuate a tall, rugged image in their Shadow Daddies, an image of ‘man as provider and defender’ is also perpetuated as an increasingly singular expression of masculinity. A majority of love interests who are popular on Booktok, while not specifically Shadow Daddies, use the same physical prowess as a common denominator in their statures, preventing other male designs from becoming appealing. When only one form of masculinity is valued in the literary landscape, other writers are pushed to the wayside in favor of what is popular.

Conclusion

The Shadow Daddy is a fun archetype, a descendant of classic tropes and archetypes like the Byronic Hero and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He provides a way to explore subversive attitudes within love interests and other characters in general. However, his popularity has resulted in writers perpetuating some problematic themes like exoticization and heteronormativity. My critical analysis of the Shadow Daddy is not to dissuade his presence. Rather, I wish to encourage readers to do the same to their favourite archetypes. 

What could a Shadow Daddy look like?

Shadow and Daddy chart	Shadow Purist – Character must have shadow/darkness magic	Shadow Neutral – Character must have an association with shadows/darkness but can otherwise have any powers	Shadow Radical – Character can have any association or power
Daddy Purist – Character must be an older male with a “daddy” attitude	Rhysand is a shadow daddy	Batman is a shadow daddy	Joel from TLOU is a shadow daddy
Daddy Neutral – Character can be any age or gender but must have “daddy” attitude	Shadow Weaver is a shadow daddy	Bayonetta is a shadow daddy	Cardan Greenbriar is a shadow daddy
Daddy Radical – Character can be any age, gender, or attitude	Nico Di Angelo is a shadow daddy	Sci-Twi is a shadow daddy	Spadina Mcdonald’s is a shadow daddy

Contributed by Nathan Augustin