So I've already shared parts of this on a discord server, but I have to scream about Ketheric Thorm on here as well. Obviously spoilers about the character under the cut! It's a long one.
The entirety of act 2 is about him, right? Jaheira, Shadowheart and numerous other NPCs shit on him for his fickle faith. First Selune, then Shar, then, as we meet him, Myrkul. You hear about his changes of faith on a whim, you hear that he's the person responsible for the shadow curse, he is painted as a villain, plain and simple.
You can figure it out pretty early on that Isobel was resurrected and that she is his daughter; the detail as well that he wants Isobel alive is so on the nose, it gives him away completely but there are still a few questions that remain unanswered, mainly about his faith.
And then you get to the mausoleum and the picture assembles; this entire tragedy, the death of hundreds if not thousands and the complete ruination of a landscape was all, ALL because you had this absolutely wrenched, heartbroken father who had lost everything and nobody answered his grief. He was left woefully alone, the Goddess whose daughter his daughter was involved with did nothing to save Isobel.
Imagine outliving your wife and your daughter. Imagine dedicating your life to fight the Lady of Loss, your Lady of Silver's enemy, and then be left so completely alone and in silence with your grief, with your loss. It's so, so poetic how and why he turned from Selune, and it's so understandable as well; he broke. His spirit completely broke. He couldn't deal with that void of having lost the only two important people in his life, seemingly undeservedly so. He was going mad with this and a lot of his ire was likely targeted at Aylin who, in his eye, represented Selune; she's literally her daughter, after all, and it was implied that even before the deaths of his family, he sort of saw Aylin courting Isobel as Selune taking his daughter from him, despite his service. This relationship was clearly not seen by him as a boon of "giving his daughter to the Moon-maiden".
His ways in the past clearly didn't spare him from tragedy and having to cope with it (which he clearly didn't, he snapped under the weight of his grief). He was clearly angry and unable to do anything, furious and helpless, which is a dangerous combination. A good part of his first change of heart must have been fuelled by a sense of revenge.
But then Shar didn't provide any balm to his aching heart either. If you read his letters in Grymforge and in act 2, he is so focused on enacting the will of Shar because he believes that healing lies in oblivion. Everything would be easier if he could just forget, if the damn world could just forget, if nothing was remembered because without Melodia and Isobel, nothing was worth remembering.
Then came Myrkul. Literally the only god who was not only able, but WILLING to give back his daughter to him. Imagine spending your all, EVERYTHING you have to serve two gods who would not give a single shit about the greatest suffering in your life. You were basically nothing, your loyalty didn't matter for shit, everything that was taken from you amounted to no recognition whatsoever: you should simply cope and seethe. Your grief will not simply go unanswered (which is not inherently antagonising) but ignored.
And then comes this supposedly evil entity who can alleviate your pain just like that, snap of a finger and it's a done deal.
I am so serious when I say that I believe Ketheric's main incentive was to extend Aylin's immortality to Isobel as well. You can read in her diary that she feels a taint after having came back, and there are things not even Selune can cleanse, but at this point, Ketheric doesn't care about Selune, vengeance is secondary if not tertiary, he's done that war during his Shar years and what did it give him? Literally nothing.
He doesn't even care about the fact that Isobel is still her cleric. He cares about the single most important fact: Isobel is back. Life is worth living again, there is something for him, and it was not Selune or Shar who gave it to him but Myrkul, and for this singular gift, he would raze the world for the Lord of Bones. Like people can clown on him for being disloyal but the man has the loyalty of a dog bonded to its owner.
He is powerful and is willing to go to insane lengths for crumbs. What is raising a single life for a god? Nothing. It has happened and it will happen again. But Ketheric will go to the ends of the earth to serve the single god who actually listened to him. The one god who didn't ignore him.
He knows that what he does is not the morally upright thing! He is so insanely self-aware that allying with Orin and Gortash and doing this entire plot with them only to then betray them is morally reprehensible at the best of times, he knows that people hate him, etc-etc. He was a Selunite at one point and he's not stupid. He just doesn't care; it could be literal Asmodeus and he wouldn't care as long as he got what he wanted, no matter the price.
He is probably the only one from the three of the chosen who has complete clarity over his situation, he almost sways (if you pass the check during his confrontation), he is not an inherently evil man blinded by power.
But he is inherently loyal to those deserving, and as of the story's standing, completely broken by his grief. In his eyes, at this point, the only one deserving loyalty is the one who actually listened to him. Isobel lives. It doesn't matter that she hates him, that his entire life has fallen apart, that literally nothing else that is good has come of it, because Isobel lives.
I don't think he regrets a single thing. His consciousness might tear at him at the end, but I believe he would do everything over again, exactly as he did, because in the end, his daughter was brought back. Because what would a grieving, broken parent give to bring back their child? Everything. Absolutely everything. And it's such a simply given answer, no second thoughts, no doubts.
Nobody can tell me that this man is fickle. Nobody. This man was willing to burn the world to the ground, create a Boudica destruction layer all by himself for the one single thing he wanted. For any God that would listen.
I don't know, I just have a lot of thoughts about his character.
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Little Bits I got from the hangout (Spoilers for Kaeya’s Hangout)
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Things in parentheses are my own thoughts rather than canon stuff.
- Kaeya is a very kind person at his core. Both to those he loves and total strangers.
- So many people love Kaeya. From the staff at the Winery to the KoF to the citizenry of Mond to mild acquaintances to total strangers, Kaeya is truly loved by those around him.
- The KoF are all co-parenting Klee together, though they disagree a bit on exactly HOW to parent her.
- Kaeya is a great schemer but he TERRIBLE at coming up with fake names (Albert Rich...really?)
- Kaeya was a very shy child while Diluc was rambunctious. Diluc would get them into trouble and Kaeya would go along with whatever Diluc wanted. (I hope that we get a bit more of their dynamic when they were younger explored and that we see more of what Diluc did to be a good brother to Kaeya)
- The entire winery loves Kaeya. Not just Adelinde, not just Adelinde and Elzer. Everyone. They watched him grow up into the man he is today and they consider him a member of the family.
- Adelinde has covered for Diluc and Kaeya’s antics in the past. (probably why she’s so adept at covering for Diluc’s darknight hero stuff.)
- Tunner knew that something bothered young Kaeya, that there was some sort of deep-rooted issue that it’s implied Kaeya never talked to them about. (If Tunner knew, it is very likely that others at the Winery knew that this kid had TRAUMA. My guess is that at some point somebody brought it up to Crepus, who had noticed something similar, and he then asked Kaeya about it. Whether Kaeya confessed at that point...IDK)
- Klee is the cutest thing to ever exist and she loves Kaeya so much (that is not opinion, it is fact).
- Kaeya sometimes forgets which lie he has told to a person before and uses it twice. Diluc WILL call him out on this, before inevitably capitulating to whatever Kaeya asks. (Standard older sibling behavior, you put up a fuss but ultimately you will do literally anything to make them happy. It’s why I think Diluc is the older of the two, even if Kaeya also has many older sibling traits).
- Kaeya got sick fairly often as a child, but has grown up to be healthier. Adelinde took good care of him whenever that happened. (Chronically ill Kaeya truthers rise up! Also, he was probably sickly because of a few factors: not having the immune system for Mond’s diseases, probably living in the Abyss, probably having malnutrition, he was abandoned in the MIDDLE OF A STORM, and because winters in Mond are harsh).
- Adelinde knows exactly how Kaeya likes his food.
- Adelinde cares a lot about how maids are supposed to behave, but only on the surface level. If Kaeya can word something correctly, she’ll happily capitulate.
- Kaeya knows a lot about the winery business. (Supports my personal headcanon that Kaeya was supposed to take over the Winery’s business after Crepus’s death, but then the fight happened).
- Kaeya loves to act and would consider doing it full-time. He is also apparently very good at it (wow shocker. Boy who was raised as a child-spy and is constantly lying is good at acting.)
- While onstage, Kaeya is allergic to subtlety. (I love this. 10/10, throw off the shackles of destiny and toss a prop into the audience).
- Kaeya doesn’t like to bask in the glory of the good things he does, sneaking out just as songwriting preparations are getting good (Kaeya is also fairly shy at his core, but the persona he’s formed won’t allow for that).
- Kaeya is known to be thoughtful and is a good gift-giver.
- Venti wholeheartedly accepts Kaeya as a child of Mondstadt, considers him a friend, and wants to see him throw off the shackles fate placed upon him. (I actually liked Venti a lot this hangout. We get to see him be silly but also wise, understand how he feels about the whole ‘worshipping Barbatos’ thing, and watch him encourage the creativity of others. Plus, imo this hangout basically confirms that Venti 100% knows about Kaeya’s predicament and more than anything wants to see that Kaeya is happy and cared for in Mondstadt).
- (Kaeya at least suspects that Venti is Barbatos. The way the english VA acted things was a little too pointed to seem like genuine lack of knowledge about Venti’s identity.)
- Barbara cares about family the most, to the point that she will suggest that over even the worship of Barbatos himself (this is unsurprising, but also very sad considering how rarely she and Jean get to interact as sisters).
- Diona will sing hymns about fish-related foods and Venti 100% supports singing about that over Barbatos (also unsurprising).
- Diluc CAN AND WILL kill anyone who harasses his staff (somebody please draw fanart of Diluc fucking bumrushing poor Captain Wu to defend the maids, the image is simultaneously sweet and HILARIOUS).
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No bc why did Johnny just suffer non-stop for his entire fucking life - he was abused from a young age by his shitty dad, he saw his brother die and blamed himself for it, became disabled because of an extremely minor offense during a time period where being disabled was especially hard, was abandoned in an abusive hospital and disowned by his dad who should KILL HIMSELF, made a single (1) friend only to watch him die, had the chance to bring his friend back dangled in his face, the whole fucking ordeal with alt. Diego, fell in love and had 2 kids BUT THEN IMMEDIATELY his wife started to die, stole the corpse to heal her (going against his agreement with the only 2 people from the race he had left) but then his fucking son started to die instead, finally he died by getting his head crushed by a fucking boulder at the age of only 29????!!?!??!?!?!??!!
Like he just suffered constantly and never really won and never had the life he deserved but despite EVERYTHING he showed such remarkable resilience and KINDNESS throughout his life, he SAVED Lucy and his family and loved animals and hoped for things to get better despite it all and fought so hard and came so far and even missed and grieved for his ENEMIES because of how much the race meant to him and it was all destroyed at the end despite everything he did and his legacy continued on but they'll never know what we know and its been 100 years and he's been dead for so fucking long and has faded into an old folktale and all the characters from SBR are GONE and the world has moved on and time has passed and the inheritance of curses, burden and trauma through the bloodline and I miss Johnny so much and he unknowingly set in motion the curse of his descendants all to save his wife and then his son who he cherished despite being abused by his own father and how different would everything had been if he just received the love he deserved from his family and oh my god he's just like Jonathan and Jolyne and he acted out of pure love even if it went against everything he'd previously fought for because he is so incredibly human and even though he's gone and his descendants will never know him, his sacrifice and love and resilience persists through them and we know that but they can't and -
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So I'm rewatching House MD for. Some reason. Idk I just accept this is where my brain wanted to go I guess.
Anyway I'm in the ep where Vogler first shows up and I remember recently seeing that "Hate when the fandom makes awful stuff up that a morally grey character did. Like free my man he didn't do that. He did do a bunch of other stuff tho" post recently (I swear I'm going somewhere)
So Cuddy and House have that convo about Medical Ethics. And Cuddy is completely right House violates those all the time. However, House's specific criticism was "we're pressuring patients into choices that are bad for them, good for us. We're gonna compromise patient care". Now you can argue about whether what House is doing is "good patient care" (y'know, being a dick to them, ignoring what they want, that stuff), but it is aimed at saving their lives and not at making money, so, that's absolutely not "Taking House's game and going Pro". That is, in fact, doing almost the opposite ("Making patients agree to treatments that will not help them" vs "Forcing treatment on patients that will make them better").
All of which is to say, I'm not active in the fandom, but I'd still wanna tag House in the above mentioned post but with "his boss and coworkers" instead of "the fandom" asdgasjkdh
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How do you think Andrew would be pushed to admit the repenting thing
Because I feel like he would and could but it's a verrry stars align moment yk
Because 1. he needs to be in a repenting spiral 2. Juuust delirious enough to the point where what he's saying is definitely not a lie but he's still saying it 3. He has to have an impulsive streak? Like his brain just blurts it out towards them
I'm thinking towards the end of the fever arc where he's recovering but because of the sickness he can't go repent and he's getting very annoyed and stressed and scared about it
And he just blurts EVERYTHING out because his brain won't stop talking until he snaps back into reality and goes Oh God Oh Fuck Forgive Me
i think the fever thing is the most probable?
especially because he hasnt done his praying for days and he’s getting incredibly anxious because of the punishment he expects from divinity
i think he could also forget they’re in the room and he’s still slightly delirious so he’s kind of just rambling to himself as he gets increasingly louder and ough
then that becomes a whole new ordeal because because its like. holy shit he’s doing this why??? adn also the fuckin. holiness rant he goes on shortly after about how luca was so divine and shit which is like oh my god he has ISSUES*
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