been rotating tanya degurechaff in my mind for like the past 2 weeks and im getting genuinely obsessed with this horrible fucked up anomaly of a character; she's very obviously not a good person, but her issues have fucking layers like an onion
a very tasty, radioactive onion, with a fascinating texture to it, and after chewing for a bit you start to debate yourself whether you should swallow or not
anyway ive come to the conclusion that there's actually 3 tanyas and she's functionally plural; 2 of which are obvious and basically text, and 1 which takes some explaining:
-the salaryman: name unimportant; an efficient cog in the wheels of capitalism, fully indoctrinated in its ideals. reddit atheist despite being too much of a workaholic to be online in any meaningful way. apparently had functionally no meaningful personal relationships at the time of his death, and the few childhood flashbacks we get seem to indicate his parents were emotionally distant and very focused on educational prestations and career progression, with little to no room for anything else.
tldr: lonely middle-management workaholic who might have been pitiful if he didn't suck so much
-tanya von degurechaff, the imperial mage: ruthlessly effective living weapon of mass destruction who seems to be constantly chomping at the bit to kill, while simultaneously being educated and smart enough to find legal loopholes and physical workarounds to optimise it all. an inhuman means to an inhuman end, a monster in the guise of a little girl. reliable subordinate. too reliable. capable of rationalising anything
she sucks too! she sucks so bad! peel back the rationalisations and almost all you're left with is a deeply egotistical mass murderer!
which is where the third tanya comes in. the least noticeable one unless you're paying attention. but she's there.
-the little girl: the previous 2 tanyas focus on the monster within the little girl, but the further you read the more obvious it becomes that there's also an *actual* little girl here, the actual 幼女, even if we never explicitly hear or see her. not overtly, never overtly. always hidden behind those afformentioned rationalisations, just as much if not moreso than the atrocities! but she's there, the emotional truth between the horrible moral framework and egotistical self-centeredness she keeps emphasising is definitely her only motivation. she doesn't care about anyone else. definitely not. she's risking her life to protect her "meatshields" for selfish and rational reasons, you must understand. she doesn't care at all. she is perfectly rational. she is perfectly rational. she is perfectly rational. she remains perfectly rational and has always been perfectly rational. she hasn't changed at all. she will not be changed. any changes were made for rational reasons only. she's rational. reason. facts and logic. reason. logic. facts.
she doesn't care about anything that isn't logical.
