dorian being a delinquent is genuinely one of the best parts of his character to me. he challenged a teenager to a public duel when he was 9 and won. he got kicked out of so many circles that they ran out of circles to send him to. he got sent to the necropolis where he proceeded to have zero respect for necromancy despite being a natural talent. he got sent to individual tutors and all of the tutors hated him. his parents gave up and sent him to turbo-strict catholic school as a hail mary that someone could make him behave and it lasted three months before he dropped out.
and like it’s not because he wasn’t good at the material. he’s a genius. he was up his own ass about how talented at magic he was even as a kid. he caused trouble because he was better than his peers and they were jealous of him. he was bored and unfulfilled and he’s always despised authority trying to shove him into a box that he didn’t belong in. the only reason he ever became an enchanter at all was because alexius took him under his wing and actually understood him, and yes i’m thinking about alexius’s letter to his parents again.
He’s rather despondent over the life’s path you’ve charted for him—if I may speak frankly—and thus, I think a part of him sabotages all efforts to keep him on the straight and narrow, either to spite you or to punish himself.
spiting his parents makes sense; they’ve been trying to control his life since before he was born. he was literally engaged at birth. he never had a choice but to study magic and become an enchanter and, ideally, eventually become archon, but he rebelled against that at every turn. but what would he be punishing himself for? well:
I’m never what you wanted, Father, or had you forgotten?
maybe it was subconscious or maybe it was intentional, but knowing deep down that he would never be able to become what his parents saw as his only path spurred him to give them cause to be angry with him. the more he caused trouble, got expelled from circles, or ran away from his schooling, it was like driving an axe into a tree, digging the cut between who he was and who he was supposed to be deeper and deeper. he would do anything to make his father proud, but he would also go to great lengths to make him disappointed. and for what reason? to cushion the final blow when they eventually realized that he’d never be enough and the tree collapsed?
You let it keep hurting, because you think hurting is who you are.
it would always hurt. every time. even if he did exactly as he was expected to, it would hurt him in the end, because he fundamentally is not the person he was supposed to be, and that isn’t something that can be changed. so by tugging at the leash and feeling the collar burn against his neck, he’d be more prepared for it to slowly choke him, or for the sharp pain at the moment when he’d pulled and clawed at it enough that he’d be able to rip it off.
anyway he did kick that one kid’s ass and it’s really funny every time i remember it
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