Oh man are we talking Grima things? Especially age things? Boy do I have Words for some characters. Forneus has clearly never handled a literal infant, because they have some pretty violent thoughts (I'm much older than a baby sibling) just because they just. Have no concept of violence! They tug on earrings just because shiny dangly thing is there among other things!
And Alm and Celica attacking him when he'd have to be a child broke my heart. I LOVE Grima's story as a tragedy and how it contrasts to Robin BECAUSE of these things and it's why the "Grima as just a mindless force of nature" readings make me a little uncomfortable given we have so much evidence he ISN'T. Large enough to maybe INFLUENCE the forces of nature by Just Existing, maybe, but I feel that adds to the delicious tragedy of Grima.
We are in fact talking about Grima things!! And let me tell you, that bit about sensing "dark and violent thoughts" from an entity that was, at best, a few months old? That's what had me convinced that Forneus was projecting. Because it's a baby. It barely has a consciousness. Grima's entire world at that point in life consisted of eating, sleeping, looking at things their baby brain couldn't possibly comprehend in any reasonable way, and their parent -- aka Forneus. Babies aren't intentionally violent. They're babies. They're new to the world. They have zero context for anything. So attributing any kind of maliciousness to something that had only just been born is laughable.
The thing that really gets me about Alm and Celica in particular is that...Grima's not violent. When Alm and Celica arrive at the bottom of the labyrinth, Grima is not aggressive. The Creation just floats there, and battle only commences when someone makes direct contact. Grima suffered so much at the hands of humanity -- first their father figure trying to kill them, then the sudden attack by Alm and Celica's group, then a millennium of use and abuse by those who claimed to worship them (if you take M!Grima's Level 40 dialogue from Heroes into account) before Naga and the First Exalt killed them...and then they were raised from the fucking dead at the whims of still more humans who claimed to worship them.
Grima's story really is a deeply tragic one. It's part of what compels me so much about their story, and the various ways it ties into Robin's: Grima was never able to make meaningful connections with others, being reviled as a monster or worshiped as a Divine in equal, alienating measure; but Robin led the life that Grima likely dreamed of but could never achieve.
