i feel like it's really easy to write halsin off as naive or foolish, or think that his worldview is very unrealistic, but i also think its very easy to forget what this man has endured and what he has seen. all of the suffering he has ever experienced, all of the horrors he has observed, have all been because of people and their selfishness.
halsin feels so closely to nature, and abides by its laws, not because he's foolish, but because he knows that at least in nature there is logic. there is order. it is not necessarily fair or just, but it follows a logical path where life goes on. but outside of it, he sees people with the capability to help others who refuse to do so. he sees individuals who could do so much good and instead turn their backs on those in need.
he sees children starving when food is plentiful, he sees so much death in a time when life is necessary, and there is no order to any of it - in nature, there is always a reason, even if those reasons are harsh, and in among 'civilized' society, it is lawless, chaotic, and cruel. and halsin has seen a lot. he has watched individuals fail time and time again, and so instead he turns towards the path that nature provides because at least there, he can make sense of it all.
and the thing is, he is a man who fundamentally believes in the goodness of people. despite knowing that nature might 'have it right', he refuses to turn his back on people entirely.
he keeps being betrayed by this belief. he keeps being proven wrong. and he keeps fighting for it anyway? he very easily could have accepted his failures and let guilt consume him - but he fights to break the curse. he could have turned his back on cruel people, but he fights to save a city full of people who hurt and harm and take advantage of those in need, because he still believes that people are worth saving. even when they're selfish. even when they're cruel.
halsin does not cling so tightly to his druidic beliefs or the hope that people might do as 'nature intended' because he's misguided. he does it because he's hopeful that something will change, that people will be better, and he will do everything he can to be that change himself, if he has to.
