Why Aechmea thinks that humans are supposed to be insane/crazy/cruel or just messed up in general?
i think this reveals a lot about him as a person.
he has already shown to have a hard time empathizing with people, a hard time feeling and showing emotions and a hard time maintaining a positive attitude toward life and/or himself.
while the latter is justifiable given his circumstances, the other two are concerning.
if aechmea is to be trusted, the moon people are the last remnants of humanity: they’re souls that no one has prayed for and this is because (and this is aechmea’s explanation) they are the scum of humanity and don’t deserve prayers.
aechmea said on multiple occasions that he has done awful things for his people and to further his goals. and he is not sorry in the slightest. contrary to barbata or cicada, he never apologizes to phos or the other gems for what he did to them. he never shows remorse.
now, we know he was the one to drive phos to insanity, so why would he apologize to the person he just saw as a pawn this whole time? if he had any regrets, he wouldn’t have done this to begin with. still
i’m not sure if aechmea is a narcissist, a sociopath or just a shitty person in general but even from the way he interacts with cairn, it seems to me that he only sees people as objects to further his goals. everyone is a pawn, he cannot empathize with anyone, he doesn’t feel remorse for his actions, he believes the end justifies the means and that life is about eating or being eaten.
the fact aechmea believes that vengeance is the most human of emotions is very telling.
you can make a case that he is such a shitty person because he experienced his words first hand. maybe he was betrayed and sought vengeance for that betrayal. maybe he is still seeking vengeance and this could be why he sees himself in phos.
still, there is one other thing i find interesting about this chapter: cairn’s role.
there is no denying that, at the beginning, cairn was just aechmea’s new shiny toy. but now there is true affection between the two of them. it’s still creepy and toxic, but it’s affection nonetheless. and i believe this is the one thing aechmea didn’t plan.
cairn is a wild card. i’ve said it before and i’ll keep saying it. aechmea didn’t plan to ‘fall in love’ or to find someone who’d listen to him and dote on him, someone to pamper and parade around, someone to care for and to confide in. and yet he did. and cairn is the only person around which we’ve seen aechmea lose his temper and show emotion
cairn doesn’t seem all too interested in aechmea’s plan and this is exactly why aechmea is revealing all this stuff to him. because he’s not afraid that cairn will betray him.
cairn is being exposed to even more lore than sensei and phos. they know a great deal of things that aechmea deemed so crucial that he never revealed them to anyone until, like a typical villain caught monologuing, he starts bragging about his brilliant accomplishments.
this has been a trend for a while now. cairn has incidentally become aechmea’s confident, even when aechmea has probably never looked for one. and i believe aechmea is enjoying this new thing: he has an audience. someone that can appreciate just how smart he is. life is suddenly interesting again
i’m not sure if cairn will ever end up betraying aechmea, but this new position of theirs certainly puts them in a place of power. they have agency over aechmea and access to his secrets, which is more than anyone else, even barbata, can say for themselves. at least insofar as we know
cairngorm still doesn’t care for phos or for the earth gems but, i believe, this is where aechmea’s failure might come from in the future: from whatever cairn decides to do.
