Aaron as Ivan Karamazov (from The Brothers Karamazov) – Ivan is sharp, intelligent, and analytical, as well as consumed by inner conflict. Ivan cares deeply about humanity but makes sense of this in the only way he knows (academically, and by turning it into a philosophical dogma that good/bad or right/wrong are fake entirely because there’s no loving god or immortal soul. Very chill and easy-going guy). There’s something in there I think about Aaron (and Andrew, to an extent) navigating an impossible dynamic through his ‘deals’ with Andrew that seem arbitrary but give them both a framework to function with each other. Anyway, by Ivan’s own logic though, this then allows all kinds of evil shit, so he keeps everybody at arm’s length, including the woman he loves, and the idea of loving her makes him hate himself because he just kind of hates the idea of pursuing his own happiness. Now obviously this isn’t a direct parallel to Aaron, but the idea that he is intrinsically wrong in what he does, the way he loves, and responding to this with isolation at the cost of his own happiness? Aaron Minyard. Ivan can only eventually reject his own skepticism by collapsing into his own philosophical hell to the point that he becomes feverish and unconscious TELL me that isn’t Aaron trying to come to terms with his relationship with Andrew, everything with his mother, with Neil and how Neil loves to just rock his worldview with a throwaway comment. Worth noting also that when Ivan is in this state he’s left with Katerina and the ending is ambiguous over whether he stays like this and becomes insane or if he comes back to himself through her love. Something something Aaron learning how to get through the day, how to make friends, how to live as normally as he can, with Katelyn there every step of the way to keep him from losing himself. Ivan Karamazov is the king of internalised turmoil from intellectualising everything to hell and back, but fundamentally that he’s unable to love the world or the people around him in a way that makes intellectual sense to him – this Aaron.
