SO I JUST GOT THIS IN MY SUBMIT BOX. dormilonaluna wrote some meta about Narvaroth from my RTvengers series, which is both flattering and extremely interesting to me as the person writing Narvaroth. All of it is fucking cool, and I admittedly said out loud "oh is THAT what you think" as I read it and then laughed sort of manically.
But dude, dormilonaluna, thank you, this is cool. You have a lot of stuff "right" (as much as a reader's interpretation of a text can even be correct/incorrect) though there is one major detail you have guessed incorrectly, and I am now dying to see how you react to the..... third to last chapter of BWOA. 8D
Anyway.
Narvaroth is probably my favorite to discuss. Not because he’s a good person, within the universe of the story, but because he is a good character in the context of the story. Narvaroth is the most damaged, the most isolated, the most betrayed. His actions are not excusable, but they are understandable.
Narvaroth and Mogar might have been arrogant and a bit idiotic, but they were a team for an undefined period of time that presumably lasted a few hundred years. Their abilites complimented the other’s, and perhaps were developed in response to each other. If Mogar was passion, Narvaroth was logic. If Mogar was the physical, Narvaroth was the mental. If Mogar was rage, Narvaroth was cunning. If Mogar was blunt force, Narvaroth was pinpoint precision. This balance made them a devastatingly effective team, enough so that the two of them alone, young by their species’ standards, were set to guard the gateway into their realm, against friends and foes alike.
This speaks volumes to the strength of their bond and their deadliness as warriors. A gatekeeper is typically wise, mature, and easily able to distinguish enemy from ally, and to defend the gate if things go wrong. They were literally the first line of defense, and to trust a job of that magnitude to what amounted to a pair of teenagers speaks screams of how unified and powerful they were.
While Narvaroth was not royal in the way Mogar was, from the fact that they were clutchmates and friends who settled into their genders and identities together, it was probably assumed Narvaroth was pretty powerful socially in what might be the equivalent of noble rank. Even if Mogar wasn’t directly in line to be the king, being a prince is an exceptionally high rank, and being the best friend and/or consort of a prince is a fairly high up position, especially if the consort has the ability to direct the prince of rage towards targets.
To have that power stripped due to hubris would be a painful fall; to then lose your only remaining friend (and potentially his first lover?) in the same stroke would be enough to drive anyone insane. Narvaroth’s reaction then is not at all surprising.
Returning to the balance between Mogar and Narvaroth, we realize that Mogar’s adaptation fits his personality: the physical is designed to change and adapt, but the mind is much harder to alter.
Remember, Narvaroth’s goal was to draw Mogar back into the fold. Terrifying and subjugating the mortals on Earth was only a side-benefit, but regaining Mogar was his nearest and dearest wish, and after his reaction to Gavin during the third installment, it’s clear that this is still his goal.
While Mogar adapted and made friends with coworkers in order to fit into the world around him, Narvaroth made no such reconcilatory move. When Mogar became Michael in order to fit in and attempt some sort of happiness, Narvaroth only became Ray out of a survival instinct and a pathological need for an advantage. While Michael found companionship in the Ramsey-Frees and established himself within the Austin community (and even within BYTE and the other heroes, to an extent), Narvaroth held himself above and away from Earth society at large.
Interestingly, it was Narvaroth and not Mogar who refused to conform; societal archetypes would place the prince of a foreign realm as the one who would hold himself away from a new culture. Instead, it is the prince who assimilates and Narvaroth who refuses.
Isolation is not a good environment for self-righteous anger and dealing with rejection, and yet that is the environment that Narvaroth stews in, allowing these emotions to simmer and redouble over time.
Narvaroth’s relationship to Gavin is perhaps the most interesting relationship Narvaroth has in RTvengers canon.
Gavin Free is, perhaps, the only human Narvaroth has ever admired. While Narvaroth scorns the idea of Michael and has made no meaningful connection with either his coworkers at BYTE or other human beings (including but not limited to the Ramsey-Free family or Jack Pattillo), he wanted to bring Gavin to Oestret Rothe and give him immortality so that he might work in the forges to the benefit of their society. He trusted Gavin to build him armor and enhancers, something he never sought out from anyone else.
It is only when Narvaroth discovers the Bifrost chunk and Michael’s attachment to Gavin that it changes. He uses Gavin as an advantage against Michael, and yet does not kill Gavin, which has been his modus operandi up until this point. Rather, he throws the pendant out the window and uses Gavin’s gauntlet to destroy the street when he could have easily thrown Gavin out the window and crushed Michael that way. This would have been the logical course of action for Narvaroth to take: he would eliminate what kept Mogar from him, and there would be potential for Michael to push Mogar back down, and yet Narvaroth does not kill Gavin.
Why?
Because Gavin Free is too interesting to kill.
Later, when Ryan Haywood brings Gavin and “Ray Narvaez” into the same room, Narvaroth goes after Gavin but does not seriously harm him. As a godling, he presumably still has his powers and strength equivalent to that of Michael, and yet the most damage he does is slight bruising to Gavin’s throat. Narvaroth, still powerful, just “reformed” does not actively harm Gavin.
For someone “unworthy”, that’s a lot of courtesy from someone who has literally killed trainloads of people for shits and giggles. Say what he might, but the only human Narvaroth truly respects is Gavin Free. He might not like him, but he respects him. For Mogar’s sake? Probably not. Narvaroth displays the characteristics of a jealous jilted lover; he sees Gavin as an obstacle, not an aid to Mogar’s cause, and besides: he wanted Michael to believe Gavin dead. As a friend or ally? He’s already burned that bridge. As a lover? Certainly not.
So why keep Gavin alive? Why allow him to live?
My personal belief (and it may certainly well be wrong) is that Gavin is the only human Narvaroth has connected with. Sorola and Haywood were essentially pawns, as were the humans he affected, toyed with, and killed. He isolated himself until he needed BYTE, and within BYTE, he only spent a significant amount of time with Gavin Ramsey-Free.
I think Narvaroth hates Gavin so much because Gavin has proved the good side of humanity, and Narvaroth doesn’t like the idea that humans could be equally intelligent or as powerful as his own people. But in the end, it is Gavin that forced Narvaroth to act, and Gavin who forced him to recognize the world.
His reaction to Iron Man and to Michael is a different story, but Narvaroth and Gavin? That’s pretty important, I think.
