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Character Study: Ryland Steelcatcher (Part 1: Rytlock)

Inspired by @commanderyes's "The Commander and Ryland."

Ryland has many roles in the Icebrood Saga. He is the thematic opposite to Braham. He is the antagonist to Rytlock and Crecia. He is also a thematic parallel, opposite, and failed version of the Commander.

First, let's talk about the Ryland vs Rytlock angle. As sire and cub, they are similar in some ways, different in others.

Their greatest similarity is Bangar. They were both Bangar's prized students. He - and the Legions - taught them the traditional ideal of the charr; chasing power. Being important. Seizing glory from the battlefield. And all three of them had similar ways of doing this: powerful weapons, magic, artifacts.

Ryland wanted to be Jormag's champion, because then he could lead the army. Bangar sought Jormag's power, because with it he could essentially be a dragon himself, and fight dragons. Rytlock fits the pattern, too; he prized Sohothin above anything else, because it made him important.

That is the charr ideal. Rytlock found Sohothin, and his fame and power grew. His warband, which he gained because of their shared weaknesses against bullies, became distant. Rytlock kept going, even to the point of disregarding orders, because he could. Because he won anyway and he was drunk on the power.

Bangar wasn't happy with him. The battlefield was no place to have opinions about his orders. He told Rytlock to work with the other Legions as punishment.

That's why he was part of an Iron detail in the southern reaches of Ascalon, when he met Logan. They hated each other. They fought over Sohothin, which Rytlock believed made him important and powerful. But they warmed up. They fought together. They joined Destiny's Edge.

Destiny's Edge. Dragon's Watch. For over a decade, they've been my warbands - my family.

In Requiem: Rytlock, we see that Rylock has been learning, for years, what family is. He saw the Commander and Caithe mourning Aurene, and he saw that they were mourning the child they raised.

She was dead, and all Rytlock's power, all the sacrifices he'd made for Sohothin, everything with Balthazar - he thought Sohothin was worth it because it was powerful. It made him important. But Aurene is dead and Sohothin had changed nothing. Meant nothing.

The world was ending, and Rytlock wondered, with a sort of aching pain in his chest, if they'll think of him, their sire - their father - when the sky is collapsing and the dragon comes for them.

Later, in the Eye of the North, Bangar accuses Rytlock not being "charr enough" anymore, solely because of this care for his cubs. Because he's spent too much time with the other races. Because he's become weak.

But Rytlock has learned that his strength lies, not in Sohothin, but in his warbands, his family. And he cares about Ryland because Ryland is his son.

Ryland couldn't care less. Ryland detests his sire and his dam. He wants to prove himself. He wants to be powerful. He wants to claw for glory and take it for himself.

So did Rytlock, once upon a time. Rytlock sees that. Rytlock wants to help him - to show him what real strength is.

As Rytlock took Sohothin, so Ryland took Eir's bow from Braham. Braham thought they could be friends because their parents were; but Ryland doesn't care. He's a 'true charr.' He's Bangar's favorite; "the embodiment of traditional charr ideals" - family doesn't matter to him. Only strength and power and glory.

And then, as Bangar and Ryland and their followers head into the Shiverpeaks, Bangar praises Ryland's flamesaw, calling a "charr-made Sohothin" that is "better than the real thing" - power, again.

That line first appears as both charr thinking how much above Rytlock they are. It comes across as simply despising him. But Bangar is blind to the parallels, blind to all the things that could have pointed ahead to Ryland's betrayal.

That line also is a direct narrative statement of how far Rytlock has come, how much more advanced he is because he's left such power-hungry ways behind and instead come to an understanding of family. This one line is a direct, obvious, clear parallel of pride and power, and of Ryland as a younger version of Rytlock. A past version of Rytlock. This is a theme; Bangar is repeatedly said to be stuck in the past, in old tradition, and unable to move forward. Similarly, Ryland doesn't realize what Rytlock has realized, and forever remains in the young, immature, power-hungry past that Rytlock grew beyond.

Puffed up by the Imperator's praise, Ryland starts wondering how high he can go. "Bangar's always dangling another opportunity. But if I play my cards right..." He became drunk on the power, like Rytlock did after he claimed Sohothin and started disregarding orders.

And when Bangar ordered him to kill Almorra, Ryland had an opinion about his order. Bangar tells him he's more like his sire than he'd thought. But Bangar didn't see Ryland's betrayal coming, and I think he would have if he'd seen the whole pattern.

Ryland says he's just following orders. That fooled a lot of people, including myself. His warband ask him why he's involved in this "one charr" business, and he says he's following orders. Rytlock asks him, after the fight with Drakkar, and Ryland asks rhetorically if he's going to follow his orders or not.

But Ryland is just taking a different route to power than Rytlock did. Ryland has been told time and time again how much better than his sire he is. He won't be defiant to his superiors, because he knows Bangar has the power, and Rytlock went from being the best soldier in the Blood Legion to an outcast consorting with the other races. Ryland's smarter than to take the same path. So: following orders, except just once, when he revealed his true colors with Almorra, and Bangar missed it.

In Drizzlewood, he has power. He's a Tribune now, and Bangar has given him command of the battlefield. But Ryland doesn't want to win; Ryland wants to be important, powerful, recognized. He wants to do this as legit as possible; he doesn't want there to be a faction of charr who say he did the wrong thing following Bangar. He'll either force them to agree, or he'll crush them. He wants the Legions to be unified; but only if he's the star of it.

That's his fatal flaw. Rytlock learned that eventually, the death count piles too high. Rytlock and Ryland were both taught - by Bangar - about "acceptable losses." They both believed it, but Ryland took it too far.

And then the Commander shows up, the Legions start winning, and Ryland's warband are killed. All of them but Cinder. But a warband of two is still a warband. Ryland needed her, so he tried to bank on Crecia's trust, on the 'family' thing she and Rytlock seemed to like.

Smodur killed her flat-out. Everyone there saw a Ryland who was angry about the loss of a warbandmate. A friend. A charr's family. But Ryland also saw the loss of his warband. He was gladium now. He knows how gladium are treated. He's the perfect ideal charr. He knows there is no excuse for gladium. And if he thought there might have been some leeway with Bangar, well... he'd seen Bangar sneer insults at Almorra. Ryland is gladium. If there was any chance of being a leader, it must be through some other medium.

He didn't turn aside, didn't step back. Rytlock understood the limit of "acceptable losses" and cooled down. He stopped caring about Sohothin. Ryland kept going. Ryland went more hard-core in the same direction. Ryland wanted to be Jormag's champion.

And Jormag wanted Ryland and not Bangar because Ryland didn't want to use Jormag. Ryland had led the Drizzlewood war while Bangar searched for more leverage. Ryland, at least before he became a gladium, is the famous one, the one everyone looks to - handsome, battle-capable, a good leader, defiant and not willing to back down. Powerful... traditional.

Ryland wanted that. He had reveled in it. Gloried in it. Now, with him a gladium and all that stripped away... he feels weak. Impotent. To Jormag, Ryland's insecurity made him the perfect Champion. Looking for power for power's sake, not one who would use them. Jormag's power was the perfect lure to Ryland. If he wanted to maintain his status, his only path is to become Jormag's champion. That would place him forever as Jormag's front-line champion, leading the armies. With the adoration of the armies.

Audio files were leaked or datamined that had Frost Legion ambient dialogue, emotes, and other things that seemed to show the Frost Legion were less corrupted and more people-like. But these files were never used, and I have a theory: Anet let those files get out, whether leaked or datamined, as a way to communicate what Ryland thought he was winning. What Ryland thought he would get. But that vision was as insubstantial as files that never got used, and files that never get used are just ones and zeroes. A goal that was never realized.

Because dragon minions are corrupted. Even half-corrupted Svanir have their minds stolen and communicate via monosyllables and grunts (as we saw while pretending to be one in S3). The fully-corrupted ones might have intelligence, but they do not have soul.

Ryland's eyes had no soul, either. Everything was just dead, the whole army, just puppets to deceive us.

Ryland may have been more intelligent, and he certainly was aware of himself, and those are things he had because he was Jormag's capital-C Champion, like the Commander was to Aurene. One thing is certain: he never lost his drive for power.

In the Brisban DRM, he talks with Caithe about power and how to use it. He despises the Crystal Bloom and Aurene for not acting. He and Jormag are moving. When the Commander tries to enter the discussion, Ryland attempts to pull rank in a fashion that, at least to a charr, would look like someone reminding everyone else "hey, by the way, you know how important I am, right?" Rank is rank. Why should two people of the same rank envy each other? Why should one person be irritated another attained the same rank? Charr are too structured for such a thing. But the Commander took it warily, perhaps in fear, because he DID have power. The Commander was spending a few weeks there waiting every moment for Jormag to betray the "alliance."

What's really on display in that moment, however, is the way Ryland assumes the Commander cares. He equates himself to the Commander. There's two Champions now, he says. "that's gotta chafe." Ryland is projecting here, because the Commander doesn't care.

The Commander wants to fight dragons and protect Tyria in whichever way is the most effective; the Commander even resigned from being the Commander years ago, and never looked back. Ryland is not someone who possesses a similar rank and who is perhaps a rival, but rather an enemy who is now more dangerous.

The Commander turned out to be right; the next time we see Ryland is at Lake Doric, surrounded by the Frozen. He goes off to try to subdue Owl.

Owl Spirit represents home and the hearth - family in a different way from Wolf Spirit. She fights terrifically, and she's made many sacrifices to protect people from Jormag and to prevent Jormag from getting power. She represents family, something Ryland can't understand. So the conflict in this DRM is very symbolic.

By the end of the Saga, even after being completely stripped of his power, with Jormag dead, Ryland refuses to learn and grow. He remains stuck in Rytlock's past; a lust for power, a disregard of family. He hates Rytlock and Crecia.

What he needed in that moment was someone to recognize his greatness. He pointed to Braham, who had been similarly stripped of power, lying in the dirt, contrasting him to Ryland, who was up and fighting. He tried to convince his parents that he was important, that he was no one's puppet, that he was strong and powerful.

And Crecia spat that she was ashamed she bore him. Ashamed she gave him birth. "I should have bled you out and spared the world."

Ryland couldn't stand it. He'd refused every opportunity to change. He'd rejected the chances that Rytlock had taken to see the harm he was doing, even when it hit his people. Even when it hit his own warband.

Rytlock understood. He'd learned his lessons, but he'd undoubtedly seen himself in his son and been horrified. No wonder he fought so fiercely to help him. He knew redemption was possible.

"Nothing left to prove." There can be many interpretations of this line. You showed your true colors, you've proven who you are. You're dead, there's nothing left you can prove. Or even "you tried your hardest, that can be admired if nothing else."

Or maybe Rytlock was thinking about himself and how hard he had tried to prove his worth. He had had to suffer the realization that Sohothin was meaningless, that he had nothing to prove because he, too, was nothing without it. But he'd turned to his warbands, his family. Dragon's Watch and Destiny's Edge. Logan. The last picture of Requiem was of him walking away with Logan, leaving Sohothin behind him. Rytlock had nothing left to prove; he just had his warband family.

The missing words of that line are "He had nothing left to prove." Ryland was desperate, he'd used up all his resources and had nothing to fall back upon. No goodness, no humility.

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