I'm about to go off, so look away now if you don't want to hear my useless ramblings.
So I've seen SO many people talking about how much they hate Asra, and on the one hand (even though I don't understand how anyone could hate him), I really don't care. He's a fictional character, and although I disagree with the people who dislike him, it's not that important in the end. However, I think that a lot of people make snap judgements about his character without taking into account that he has very realistically-written emotional baggage, and although he's fictional, a lot of people in real life deal with some of the things that he does. This has been a long time coming, so without further ado, I present to you my way-too-long Asra rant.
First of all, the thing I see people mentioning the most is Asra's and Julian's super-messed-up relationship. And I agree that Asra was partially to blame - but people neglect to look at Julian's side of the relationship. People characterize him as a victim - he just wanted Asra to love him - but keep in mind that Asra told him repeatedly that he wasn't interested, and Julian kept it up, even going so far as to break into Asra's home multiple times in an attempt to get his attention. They were both emotionally-wrecked by the plague, leading them to make decisions that Asra clearly regretted and Julian did not. Neither of them apologized, both blamed the other, and they decided that they hated each other. Of course Asra was wrong not to talk it through with Julian, but what can you expect from him in the middle of everything he was going through? He was not okay, and people seem to be upset at him for not being self-reflective and mentally healthy during a period when it was nearly impossible for him to be either of those things. That's not exactly an excuse, but it is a reason to feel sympathy for him rather than dismissing him as cold and cruel (and seeing Julian as a victim without thinking about how creepy some of the things he did were).
Second, people complain that he only cares about MC and Muriel and doesn't care about anybody else. And honestly, to me that complaint really doesn't make a lot of sense, because OF COURSE he only cares about MC and Muriel! He was abandoned at a super young age and left to raise himself, and during his formative childhood and adolescent years, MC and Muriel were the only people who showed him love and kindness. The world was cruel to him, so he became unhealthily attached to the two people who weren't. He still has strong morals and a kind personality, but the only people he'd sacrifice himself to protect are MC and Muriel, because they're the only people who would do the same for him.
Also, some people claim that he had no right to resurrect MC and did it for completely selfish reasons. This might be true - he seems to have a lot of regrets regarding that whole event - but a very human reaction to the loss of something precious is a drive to do anything to get it back. People hold him to extremely high standards of self-reflection, and don't take into account how truly broken he was inside (even before he lost MC). It's unfair to expect him to be emotionally healthy considering that he hasn't trained to be that way - being an orphan on the streets, he most likely did not see a therapist. When he lost MC, he wasn't able to work through grief in a healthy way, because as I mentioned before, MC is one of the two people he's completely devoted to. So, instead of using healthy coping strategies, he focused instead on getting MC back, which he knew was the only thing that would stop his pain. Maybe he was wrong to do what he did, but he reacted in an incredibly human way, albeit an unhealthy one, and we can't hold that against him.
My last point here is that Asra is the very definition of cagey. He does not fly his feelings on a flagpole like Julian does. He does it to protect people - usually himself or MC - but just because he seems outwardly to be in control doesn't mean he is. And that's what bothers me about people who dismiss him as a character. It can be dangerous to assume the worst about someone just because they're not emotionally-expressive or deal with something in an unhealthy way, and it's honestly just kind of shitty to base your entire opinion of someone (fictional or not) on a period of their life when they were really struggling and clearly not their best self. That being said, Asra is flawed. If he weren't, he'd be a terrible character. But I love him, and even if you don't, I want everyone to realize that he's written to be completely human and nothing else, and that's why he's not perfect.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Also, feel free to sound off in the comments - I wanna know people's opinions on this.
(Edit: it sounds kinda like I'm hating on Julian - I swear I'm not! I love the problematic doctor. I just don't like how his stans talk about Asra!)
