More D&D Cartoon rambling.
The Traitor is such a *terrible* episode but it reveals so, so much about the group dynamic, I *can’t*
Hank’s convinced he has to betray his deepest self, and I can’t help but think that this contributes to his second breakdown in Requiem. Because if you take the premise of the episode seriously, he’s still acting for the greater good in his own mind. A good he *has* to believe in for the world to make sense.
And how the others react to his “betrayal” says so much about each one of them: Presto talks about how Hank was the one who believed in them, implicitly: in him, in his magic, even when he knew as well as anyone that the hat could be as dangerous to them as anything else in the Realm. And I like to think that started before they even got to the Realm. Hank was Presto’s rock when he couldn’t believe in himself, and he says, and I quote, “I’ll never trust anyone again.”
And there’s Diana, pleading with Hank to say something, anything–not even to defend his actions but just, talk, trust them to understand. They’ve been through so much, what can be so terrible that he doesn’t think they’ll understand? The look on her face says she knows exactly what it would take, and she doesn’t want to even imagine it. But without Hank defending himself what is she supposed think? Especially with Sheila damn near *convinced* Hank MURDERED HER BROTHER. Like, I’m still not over that. I never will be. Sheila jumps so fast to that specific conclusion it’s frightening. Does she honestly think that on some level, one of them is capable of doing serious harm to one of the others?
(I mean, to be fair to her, Hank does go into a literal homicidal rage several episodes later, and again in Requiem, but is she really that concerned that Hank would turn on Bobby specifically? The literal nine year old?)
And then Eric, who, while the others ply Hank to talk just leaves it at calling him a traitor and going off to sulk. It’s the second time the word traitor comes up with Eric, the first being Quest of the Skeleton Warrior, so we know the word carries a lot of weight for him. So much weight that once he says it, he can’t being himself to say *anything else.*
And yet, for all of that:
When Hank jumps in the hot air balloon to show them what’s going on, they still trust him more than they don’t, and once they have the full picture, all is forgiven. And when Eric apologizes…god. I really can’t with these kids.
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