First Hot Take of the Blog
So cw for grooming and probably a massive hot take but let’s just talk about Pearlpelt and Twirltongue for a second
We don’t know the exact age of the Bane when he died, but considering his mannerisms and general unstable behavior, I have to assume that he was the gnawer equivalent of a teenager. He still basically sucked and bit his thumb when he got stressed, got super upset really easily and threw tantrums like a toddler, and was EXTREMELY easily swayed by the opinions and comments of others around him. All of this to say: the Bane may have also been a genocidal dictator, but he was also a kid. A giant, powerful, and unfortunately extremely important kid.
Now for the hot take: Pearlpelt was also a victim of the whims of the adults around him, the exact same way Gregor was. The biggest difference was that while Gregor had a vast support system that, while flawed, would and could remain with him, Pearlpelt did not. And Twirltongue in particular was a much bigger villain than Pearlpelt ever was.
All of the Bane’s actions post-Ripred were fueled by her manipulation and her own beliefs. Snare’s influence had been planted, for sure, but it was greatly exacerbated by Twirltongue. Pearlpelt was shaping up to be an okay kid (for the most part) underneath Ripred until she came along and started talking to him. Who knows what kind of stuff she told him besides the fact that he was going to be a king and that he was the strongest and smartest and best.
Pearlpelt was a teenager being turned into a tool for the people around him to kill every non-rat and take over their lands. It’s the dictionary definition of grooming. And, as Marks of Secret proved, the one who was putting all those ideas into his mind was Twirltongue. Ripred’s Merry Men weren’t the ones behind it; one of them even unofficially adopted Pearlpelt as his son. They didn’t want him to become some bloodthirsty demon out to kill the rest of the Underland. But once Twirltongue got her claws into him, that’s when he really started to change for the worse.
Being that attached to Twirltongue to where he allowed her to ride on his back everywhere he went, it seemed, where he challenges his mentor when he insults her, where it causes him to completely break after he kills her in a blind rage: not only was that attachment unhealthy but it was not natural. I wholeheartedly believe that Twirltongue had somewhat become a mother figure to Pearlpelt (a belief fueled by the idea that Goldshard and Twirltongue are foils of one another), and that her influence alone turned that baby into the monster he died as.
I’m on mobile and can’t quite write the eleven million thoughts I’m having about this topic, but I’ll go into Twirltongue and her bullshit another time.
TL;DR: Pearlpelt was also a victim of the adults around him, turning him from a traumatized child into a monster.
