nathsketch:
I still need some months ahahah I keep joking around but I'm not really able to watch this right now. It's just a damn make-believe thing, but I somehow cannot deal with it....help.
I'm very into storytelling and how stories are told and its been a very long time since a character effected me as much as this one. I delayed finishing the season and am slowly reading through the book, because I get too emotional. I've been trying to figure out what it is. I mean, yes, he's tragic. But, I don't respond this way to all tragic characters. I don't care about the romance, other than seeing how the tension and choices develop for the characters. But he really gets me. I think its that sense that he's been broken by a world of abuse and ostracization. He's doing all he can to hold onto some dignity and "fight back" by being committed to the doomed mission of Gong Gong. But, I don't think its just out of a sense of obligation. I think he needs to fight his oppressors and he can't do it alone. He needs to be with others, even if the general is the only who actually acknowledges him. He simply can't trust being in the world and so, he's having his last hurrah. The shaky potential of a life with XY just isn't enough, because he'd still be reviled by the world.
Its an act of despair. I live with a lot of despair. (Too much to go into.) I know that struggle to find my way to resilience and keep giving life a go. Currently, I'm going through a health episode that was triggered by insurance company buggery. It has caused me a lot of suffering and a set back of all the gains I had made to become more functional in my disabled body. So, I think, for me, its hard to read that character, because I don't want to go all the way there with him. I want him to heal enough to find a reason to keep living. Right now, I can't be dragged down into despair that deep. When I feel for him, I'm feeling for a part of myself. I can't let myself go that far. So, I keep taking breaks.
He IS the most compelling character of the story. His struggle to find meaning and a place and a desire to connect in a world which has caused him so much suffering is very relatable and complex. I'm more drawn to his story and how the author portrays him than any of the other characters. In fact, I hardly care about them. Probably because they come from that world which broke him. They are privileged in that world. They may have suffered, but, ultimately, they are still part of The People and they can readily find a place or choose not to. He has no choice. Why would he want to live thousands of years in that world? Why do any of us want to live in this inhumane world we live in? And we only have to go through it for a few decades.