so saaad that we don’t see Victoria for ever bc I want to talk to her I want to see her I want to force people to think about her atlas complex which basically puppets her from the inside out and forces her into situations that benefit neither others nor her for how much she is ignoring the core of her being to instead pedestal her ingrained sense of responsibility for burdens that were never hers or never should’ve been dumped on her in the first place & how the way she views herself has turned her from “Victoria” into an avatar of mediation and sensibility that she feels obligated to perpetuate because sh
some incomplete thoughts on This Guy who turned out really small when i put his image here for some reason
This isn’t like anything special or a rebuff on people’s opinions I’ve just been thinking about him because he’s one of my favorite characters.
I saw a lot of thoughts on Elias a while back that were all somewhat in the same vein & I think something that these thoughts (what little I saw of them. I rarely check the tag, I’ve just been thinking on some forum opinions I saw) doesn’t take into account that Elias was blind.
Like, that’s a high-intensity disability, ESPECIALLY since it’s presented as him being Completely Blind, not just legally, which is very rare.
And he was like this for, what, I’m estimating around thirty, thirty-five years (Assuming Taka is ~23-26, that Solaris is roughly twice that, and that Elias is, quote, “some ten years” older than Solaris, and assuming that Solaris’ parents died when Elias was 20, 25?). So he’s blind until let’s say his thirties, when Phoenix confronts him about his lack of faith, and then suddenly he just isn’t anymore. And this wasn’t. Consensual.
Like, this wasn’t a conscious choice or an operation he went through. It just happened. And Elias says, quoting his diary, “…I was born blind. Growing up as a boy with no sight […] is no easy task, but of course, I learned to take care of myself. For some time, that was the only thing I could be proud of.” Even when he refers to himself as “…me, a defective blind child,” and laments his disability, it’s still part of him.
Removing that part of him out of nowhere, no warning, no consent? Probably not good for a person. I’m going to say that actually, that likely fucked up his entire previous sense of self. Completely. It basically canonically ruined his life. How old is he in postgame? 65, 70? With my estimates here, 58 at worst? Definitely old enough that he’s been seeing for half or more than half his life. Longer than he’d been blind.
This and the circumstances of this I’d say basically ruined his ability to exist outside of the cult. Completely destroyed his identity. Clearly, it somewhat indoctrinated him through Phoenix’s traumatic event, and then drove him to fanaticism when he gained sight, making him unable to properly raise Luna or take care of his own interests.
And postgame he still doesn’t realize that. it’s pretty fucked up? Getting his sight basically proved to him that not worshipping is punishable, and that worshipping is rewardable.
He was actively discriminated against by his family for being blind, but he was actively trying to be his own person. And when Phoenix’s parents died & he got his sight, it proved to him that he was wrong for doing that. Ex: “The Lord will punish those who lack faith.” “The Lord will reward those with true faith.”
(For the sake of the other side of the argument, let’s ignore this inference you can logically make here, later into Elias’ life when he becomes faithful to Arceus: Elias, who could “understand [Phoenix’s] feelings”, who was one of two “lordless, lawless men” can easily come to the conclusion that Arceus saw his future unfaithfulness and pre-emptively punished him by making him be born blind.)
And yeah he does genuinely bad things. Of course he does, are you kidding. But like. This is such an incredibly fucked up scenario. Basically his entire life past his ~20s, or ~30s (depending on if the dread set in post-Alcantara death or post-sight), is built around this expected punishment and gratefulness for this reward he never asked for.
(Again, even ignoring the easy inference that he might’ve been afraid of losing his new sight.)
Imagine Elias with only a few years of sight being able to watch his daughter make the same mistakes as he and Phoenix did. He literally, canonly believes that she’s inviting the kind of punishment that Phoenix received. “I do not wish them to receive any such punishment as my friend did.” Which was Phoenix’s parents being murdered, so I’m unsure if he’s fearing for his & Phoenix’s life too???
And I don’t think Elias was a good dad. Hell no & obviously not, are you crazy. But I’m saying that I believe with 90% certainty that he was a bad dad because he cared about her. He’s just incredibly compromised. The main issue I think is that he cared infinitely more about her safety than her happiness (still really bad).
all I’m saying is that while Elias did bad shit, was a bad parent, and let team meteor do. all of that. I don’t think it was out of any resentment, anger or etc (even if he doesn’t like the people of Reborn, but that’s not the point of the argument). He was a horrible parent because he was also in a horrible mental state. No I’m not excusing any of his crimes, bc I really like his moral failings, but I do think the context is necessary.
But anyway if I was Elias I would’ve jumped Celestinine day two. This is so miserable. Whole life destroyed. Stronger man than me & I worry about him. He should really get therapy for all of this. I do like when he fuels my god complex though.
since Aevium’s crises are canonly happening after Reborn’s do you think people in Aevium were ever like “damn glad I don’t live over THERE where all THAT is happening” & then immediately after reborn’s situation resolved itself those people get the god’s hand of karma in having tons of shit that is 100 times worse
trying to finish up chapter 6 (finally. Sorryyy) and in the past 3 days I’ve seen four journeyfics for reborn, which is 4 more than I even knew existed. did something happen
It is kinda odd how Variya had a gun but no one in Reborn did. Do you think guns were a previous timeline only thing or did Reborn’s situation resolve itself before guns were created?
The first chapter of eulogy has been set up on ffn if you’d prefer to read it there, same title but under “Wesltry”. It includes slightly different author’s notes than ao3. Otherwise, they’re exactly the same.
In other news, what a miserable experience. I had more fun writing html for every single line. It’s probably got many more quality issues than ao3 does, just because the formatting is hell.
