thea is actually really cynical, jaded, and selfish? i haven’t read the book in a while and it’s not accessible to me because it’s likely in the attic now, unfortunately, but i feel like this is a possibly overlooked canon thing?
i’m not saying they’re emotionless or haphazardly and habitually use people. i’m not saying they have no capacity for emotion. i’m saying, rather, they’re not familiar with emotion as a human raised by humans would experience it, as authentic as their feelings are.
my recollection is that the unicorn… is very distinctly absent of emotion, or emotion to the extreme. they claim that no unicorn was ever born who could regret; they only learn this regret through the events of the book as they grow to love prince lir. and i do believe they genuinely love lir, my au take of the character aside. time is messy; though lir consistently marvels at amalthea’s coldness, at how unreceptive they are to his love, to his heroic gallivants. — which, he tries to win them through traditionally masculine, or fairytale pursuits like slaying beasts if i remember rightly, and it does absolutely nothing for a being obviously unfamiliar with and uncaring towards traditional gender roles.
but at times their treatment of him is cold; both, i think, of scorn and a lack of understanding of courtly conduct— as well as lir’s obliviousness and naivete.
in the book, they don’t want to be a unicorn because they’re truly forgetting what they are, but i’m also going to co opt this and say that they want to forget as well. they are enamored with this unknown emotion of love, as well as with lir. they want to know joy and happiness and do not want to become a creature which shall, as they claim, no longer love him. unicorns don’t experience a dimension of emotions that humans do, so in order to maintain this dimension and their humanity, they are fully prepared and desire to forget their mission and allow the other unicorns to remain trapped in the sea. they scorn heroism. they want what they love. it’s, rather, lir who refuses to allow this to make this decision and just walk away.
amalthea is not without emotion; but they are not a hero. they are not selfless and brimming with compassion as expected.
FAIRYTALES ARE FULL OF DISAPPOINTMENTS. HAPPY ENDINGS ARE NOT SO MUCH HAPPY AS FULL OF PAIN AND LOSS AND ARE BITTERSWEET. UNICORNS ARE NOT SELFLESS, PURE CREATURES FITS WELL IN THIS CONCEIT THE BOOK REALLY SETS UP.
prguitarman
stormborns
snowghoul
vaporwave
areudirty
tangentwithtanner
amandla
