okay, a list of notes after the finale. im using a translator, fixing things, dropping it and running away
1) so first, the story is clearly split into two parts: interesting and not so much. the not-so-interesting part includes the storylines of atrau and mejo and now also kilao. i feel sympathy and in a way respect for atrau. mejo either annoys me or confuses me, but i have no interest in these guys, unfortunately
2) that's fucked up. the autarch lobotomized lais. really sad and funny. at first i thought lais is now like a spy. and i was happy for him, like, they appreciated his talent, gave him responsibility, but it was surprising that lais could handle that role given how emotional he is, and also it seemed like too much trust from kayelette. then it hit me. it's really sad because lais was denied basic cognitive autonomy since childhood, so it feels sooo fucked up. but it's funny
3) mejo. i just don't care about the draco in leather pants type. i honestly don't get why people like him so much, but they do, a lot of them, so there must be something there. it's just, here's how i see it. first, he can be surprisingly hardworking, but he's so insecure and tries to make up for it in a really messed-up way, so he ends up putting his energy in the wrong place. second, his views on the world are pretty conservative, so, well. whatever. also, it drives me crazy that people unironically see his relationship with mercella as some kind of "normal" romance, ignoring the context that it was a child marriage, that's actual psychological horror, but that's a whole other big topic
4) i don't care about kilao. i know that all the weird messed-up stuff in his personality is the result of a shady but effective way of coping with an extremely rough background. but the whole repeated thing with the questionable mother figure is almost kinda cute
NOW ABOUT WHAT I ACTUALLY FIND INTERESTING
1) kayelette is honestly one of the most interesting characters. he's funny, charming, smart and completely fucking insane, which again makes him captivating. when he did that politics lesson, i was thrilled. i'd already been thinking before that in a way it's immoral and irresponsible to get rid of him (and i really would like to btw) without a plan, without a decent alternative, but maybe i'll write about the lack of decent alternatives a bit later
he as usual never stops surprising me. in season two he has some suspicious activity so i was waiting for a catch, but listen, it's one thing to scheme behind mercella's back and something completely different to do it right under her nose? with someone like mejo? i feel like kayelette has dark triad traits, decian has light triad, but in many ways they're very similar. before this i thought power would weigh on decian, that he'd feel more comfortable as a diplomat, because he genuinely believes in the power of diplomacy and also that role would give him personal space, but maybe i was wrong? like it's not that he's interested in power for power's sake, but more "if you want something done right, do it yourself." anyway, interesting transformation. i have a not fully formed thought that people often mistakenly see him as a victim (whether with a negative or positive slant doesn't matter) there's something about him that makes people perceive him as weak, which doesn't match reality or his actual actions
it's scary to imagine what happens to him in the timeline where ursula dies. i wrote before that it's wrong to see them as family because that's oversimplifying and ignoring the violence, but honestly now i look at it more warmly. there's something melancholic about it. he loves her more than anything in the world and she's also grown attached to him (reminder that her emotional range is unusual). people don't choose their parents, don't choose their inherited temperament, so it's almost impossible to cut a family bond, but decian and ursula aren't related by blood, they're very different, they could cut contact at any time with minimal emotional loss, but they don't. they just genuinely like each other. they choose each other
izzy806
baratheonpilled
gracieabrams
amandla
