to be very honest with you guys the character that I find the saddest in lament has got to be cirian. this might be because I love tragedy defined by personal action and self-inflicted doom but I digress.. even with how awful and horrible she is in the present day I still can't help but pity her at least a little because her punishment feels thoroughly unequal to her crime regardless of how it's put. in terms of said punishment, through which you have to factor baiza in, half of her crime was... just like.... being born?? her time of peace pre humanity was spent in near solitude.. and then baiza was there to punish her for the most important and defining time of luc's life. I'd consider them somewhat equal at the time, minus luc's lack of aggression... if you think about it, luc was also somewhat of a punishment for baiza, a living reminder of her failure, which for a woman whose whole existence revolves around her purpose, would understandably drive her up the wall. baiza definitely had agency in what she did and still does, no one can deny that, but you do have to consider how she was created.... and with how it contrasts luc's creation (who was made with a "selfish purpose", in comparison with baiza, who was given a "noble one") it becomes clear where she got her way of thinking from. I also think that luc was always doomed to either snap, die or both... with how interwoven her and baiza are in basically every aspect of their lives, and with how they teeter the line between borderline insanity and basic functioning, one of them was always bound to go insane. baiza successfully killing luc/cirian would leave her empty and purposeless, even if she kept protecting san edin and her job at the archives, because she'd be left with no equal. she'd be left as the sole "superior" to humans, and I feel like that would dig further into her sense of otherness.... the stagnation, even if she's built for it, would slowly kill her, and I wonder if she'd try to start another cycle of violence to give herself something to do or just let herself die once and for all. as for luc, there was just no way for her not to snap. I doubt baiza would've allowed her to kill herself, out of her own pride.... and after being pushed into this role as a villain and something inherently evil she had very few choices, both leading to very similar things. if she fought baiza on it (which, knowing luc, she definitely wouldn't) and tried to prove herself, that would be putting herself against the "good side"; the "hero"; and that would shove her back into the villain role. if she stood by passively, baiza would still proceed to harm her, try to kill her, especially with the villagers onto luc as well... there was never any winning for her, and as a sidenote, I like the way this reflects onto the sinners (that's for another post, though). current day cirian is in absolutely no way justifiable, she's just killing for the sake of it, but I feel like that plays into the tragedy since she became exactly what baiza was hoping she'd become. please let her die ❤️