thinking about Tasim being a complex character again........... like we see him be corageous and brave and wish to help others at the start of our journey and he even says he wants to help people out as much as he can, and then we get to Fruma and he still Wishes for that- desperately too. He is as pissed about the crown of Fruma as he was back in Recover the Past.
But i think his loneliness gets the better of him........ He is ready to burn the place into the ground until he sees how impotent he is against the player (who even after years of getting stronger, he still cannot beat) and how someone has shown interest in him. He takes the bait, he was moldable. The player always strives for freedom, it's what we always did, we would never be her choice.
And then...... and then............... The queen tells him her story, and i think his reaction to her tale can be broken down into two aspects:
- Tasim is kind, he spends his journey through gavel helping people, he is kind and a martyr (as evidenced by refusing to let Aledar suffer with the Fruma memories and. yknow. trying to kill himself multiple times during the final arc of fruma ANYWAY). Once the queen shares her woes, the eternal suffering of her existence, he Understands her. His empathy goes so far he was willing to give the person who called him CURSED the benefit of the doubt because, really, who deserves suffering? cough saphanis cough
- Tasim is Lonely. He has been out of his own choice but it was part of his downfall anyways. Instead of finding a support system to deal with the truth, he quite literally ran from it, and by extension from his friend (the player) and the person he cared about the most in the entire world (Aledar). His isolation made him suceptible to the Queen's story because there they were: two people who carved a place for themselves into thr world even against the odds. He found Solace, Community, a Kinship with someone whom he despised. And yet, he stayed.
The problem is that he found kinship with his OWN OPRESSOR. Sure, Anathema's reasonings can be contextualized due to her suffering and the fact she wasn't even supposed to exist really. HOWEVER. It still does not excuse her of causing harm to the people.
On a bit of a tangent from the main topic but in the story of wynn we deal a lot with the question of "save a few and sacrifice the world, or save the world and sacrifice a few?", More prominently in Olux and the Iron Heart quests, but really it can be seen anywhere: Nesaak and the freezing of innocent people to save the entire region, Axelus's death to protect Doguns and Dwarves, hell- even Bob's trainment could be counted in this list due to the fact he sacrificed his freedom to become the sole protector of wynn against Bak'al. And the answer really depends on one's morals and experiences (both biases and traumas included), such as Anathema who believed the death of revolutionaries, the exploitation of the Roughworks citizens and the infiltration of secret Changeling agents across the province was a necessary action to stop the big threat she could not tear her eyes from.
Tasim, after finding the queen to be a twisted, distorted reflection of his own experiences, then decided that instead of confronting his own shortcomings and becoming alone again by getting rid of the only source of understanding he had in years, the best course of action would be to join the system and break it down from the inside. Which is. Such a dumbass move oml my boy what are you doing....... It is unclear if Tasim has had experiences of directly opposing power or not, but i'm inclined to believe he hasn't for the mere fact that he still had Hope that he could change things by Talking to them. We as the player, having gone through the entire story and fought aaaaaall the people we did, know that no change will come from complacency. Tasim still believed that a softer approach would be the best outcome, it wouldn't. Soosu and Zhiraok wanted what was best for the people, and look what it got them. Years of unconditional stress and manipulation done by the queen so they stayed in line without questioning her motivations, control by fear.
The leaves in the wind understood nothing would change without sacrifice, because for centuries people like them have been murdered and silenced for wishing for a better life, they know that the price might be high but the reward would be world changing. (another branch off but i love that Syndra and Sui have purples in their designs considering that purple is the color of revolution...... absolute peak.......)
And this is where the Player and Tasim really go into opposite directions, because by us being in direct contact with the World of Fruma and seeing with our own eyes the pain and suffering of those who only want a better life, we understand that action is a Necessity, that the current system must be broken immediately so people can have their dignities back. Tasim, however, isolates himself by siding with Anathema and going through ascension, and this leaves him to only be fed with the point of view coming from the Opressors themselves -in the case of the Queen, Two, Gikyo, and Majin more directly. Zhiraok and Soosu are more complex due to the fact they were more aligned with the people but due to the Queen's control over them they chose to be complacent in her demands to protect the greater cause: the people.- and therefore the narrative of the greater good was omly solidified in his mind, even if his instincts were to completely fight all sovereigns and free the people, much like the Leaves.
I think it's also good to add that, by the dialogue we get, Tasim is a very emotional person. Yes, he uses logic and is a very skilled fighter, but his heart speaks much louder than his head. In Fruma we get dialogues of him saying that maybe, if Aledar was by his side, he would have made Tasim think straight again (p.s. there is nothing straight about either of them) and see all the problems in his reasonings. Which is to say that, specially after The Talk(tm), Tasim would double down even more into his own spirals, because now he knows that his reference point for Knowing what to do was gone and there would be no way of ever knowing what his thoughts on all of this are (now that i think about it this is kinda autism coded ANYWAYS). Not only that but it reinforced his belief that Now he has to go through with the plan of changing things from the inside, because since now he believes himself to be completely alone, "maybe if i am the one to change things, avoid deaths, avoid brainwashes, i can save people and Mean something to someone- maybe i won't be alone".
Moving on from his internal motivation, i think Anathema telling him about the war was a deliberatr tactic to get into his head. By merely explaining that his existence is nothing when in comparison to the ethereal war going on between the Realms, she already implies his efforts to change the world are insignificant, and therefore useless in the grand scheme of things. And of course, telling him about her story also adds onto the weight of her importance to Fruma, how she is the one keeping the oppressed safe, and how She can give Tasim the chance to help her shape the world and protect her people from war.
Not only that but the Queem is smart as hell, she knows that her Sovereigns must stay under her thumb at all times, otherwise they could cause immense problems. Most of them are easy: Two acts out of her own whim, but the queen knows that she has the interest of Fruma in mind. Majin is an egotistical privileged asshole who grew up being fed nothing but elitist propaganda, so his loyalty would not be hard to achieve as long as he gets to have power. Gikyo is a psycopath who revels in the manipulation of others by tricking with them, as long as he has reign over that aspect, keeping him in check is very easy (especially with the Changeling Trainment Facilities being exclusive only to the Mistwoods). Zhiraok is immensely analytical- BUT!!!!! His loyalty to the Auburn Woods goes far beyond his loyalty to the Queen, and she took advantage of this by always making her "appreciation and affection" for Auburn very apparent and open, because by doing so Zhiraok wouls be less inclined to rebel if he knew she had the best interests of Auburn as a priority. And Soosu..... ooooh Soosu..... i can go on an insane rant on Soosu alone but for brevity's sake: Her control over Soosu comes in the form of an abusive mother- She lets Soosu create whatever she wants, stay cooped up in her home for as long as she wants! Her patience is gold, but her words cut sharp, Soosu is threatened to lose all that she has if she does not behave, and that is exactly what happens in the end but the point is: Soosu is unpredictable, because she still is a child, so therefore disciplining her as one was the best tactic she could take.
Circling back to Tasim now!! She saw in him the potential for power, yes- but also the potential to be Molded, to be turned into a great Sovereign who would not dare disobey her words lest his whole mission goes awry. From the moment Tasim spoke to her, he did not have a choice. He was already her puppet before he even knew it.
And that's where he failed. He failed to recognize that even if he did know he was a pawn in her game, he should not have joined her for his noble causes would be twisted into her agenda of oppression, fear, and silencing. And for the entirety of the story he tries to come to terms with his new reality, but the mere fact that we, the player, have been doing much more progress in liberating Fruma than he has while BEING A SOVEREIGN has most likely cut him Deep.
And it all goes downhill during the Talk about Aledar, where he lashes out at the player without giving them a second to breathe and explain what happened. He calls us a coward, says we don't know Aledar like he does, tries to break our hearts as much as possible to aliviate himself of the undescribable pain he has been building up without any release ever since Recover the Past. He leaves with nothing but a goodbye and an end to our friendship, as if it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
He only breaks free of that mentality after seeing Anathema herself give up on the people, give up on her illusion of peace because of the human desire for change- something she could never stomach, really. And even then, his spirit was already broken. His... whatever Aledar is to him, was dead; he cut ties with the player; his only "support system" was now about to destroy the world he wished to protect, and worst of all: he was all alone again. So, he gives up, he asks for the player to kill him and rid him of his pain, of his suffering. But he understands, after some words from the player, that this is not the way to go, that this is not who he is supposed to be. He messed up Royally, and rushed to fix his mistakes after realizing he was feeding the same cycle him and Aledar were victims of. He is now stained with the curse of Anathema's ascension, but he understands that at least he can use this power for good, just once, instead of spilling more innocent blood.
He is kind and selfless and brave, and yet he is also weak, selfish and scared. He craves freedom and deprives himself of it. He craves connection and distances himself from those he loves. He wants to change the world but joins the system to do it. He is the embodiment of humanity and it's contradictions, and it was such a perfect way to go about expanding his story that i can't even think of another way to go about it ❤️
