Oh I'm screaming. I've seen you deliver all of this but reading about your process like that is so informative and helps so much with clearly naming things that I didn't necessarily have the skill to properly identify. Also yes yes yes the contrast between machine and human, the absolute ability for empathy that enables that cold, analytical approach - I think it's my favorite thing about him.
this comment made my day, thank you. writing like this forces me to articulate things I've been doing on instinct, which honestly clarifies the characters for *me* too. like I knew that machine/human thing was working but naming it as "empathy processed through millennia of pattern recognition" suddenly made it click.
that's exactly the horror of him—he understands trauma intimately, he just treats it as data. the methodology *is* the monstrousness.
really glad this resonated. Saren's going to be a fun contrast piece since he's basically the opposite approach to power.
Yeah exactly, being forced to actually put the instinctual things into words is fun but also very grounding, helping get the clear vision that may be blurry if it's just instincts.
And the horror is also the fact that approach like this shows the huge amount of trauma it signifies. You don't learn to compartmentalize and rationalize without having to go through. So Much. The size and strength of those emotional walls is proportional to how under siege they are.
oh yeah absolutely. both Origen and Saren are basically two responses to the same concept: an existential threat as attack on identity. one controls himself, the other controls everything in his proximity.
this was a phenomenal read, i'm fascinated by your process and by the depths you drudge up from to bring these characters to life.
something I find most compelling about him is the design in which he appreciates, observes, and analyses the world around him. while others bray, flail, and charge, origen watches, absorbs, and ingrains himself into the record of what he observes, whether that thing is living or not. seen in the way he perceives his encounter with the daemonhost, how he handles saren, it's really compelling and his position as an antagonist to aurastor's perspective is fascinating.
your intellect for writing such characters and your passion for it also shows through in your own analysis of them. and like mith said, getting to see the intimacy of your psychology and process through your logbook here is a treat of a glance into a great mind
I don't often see quiet antagonists in fiction, tbh. not in the way origen is. i think that my favourite quiet antagonist thus would have to be origen (regardless of the question, he is a favourite) because he feels actually very unique in his position. even many of the more intelligent minds of antagonists i've seen personally burn up eventually, and origen does not
appreciate this. the "observer who becomes part of the record" angle is something I'm leaning into more as I develop the longer work—he doesn't just witness, he archives himself into the fabric of what he studies. that geological patience.
the quiet antagonist thing felt risky in a setting that defaults to spectacle, but I think that's precisely why it works. when everyone else is performing power (stupid von Aurastor), the person who simply *waits* becomes the actual threat.
Oh I'm screaming. I've seen you deliver all of this but reading about your process like that is so informative and helps so much with clearly naming things that I didn't necessarily have the skill to properly identify. Also yes yes yes the contrast between machine and human, the absolute ability for empathy that enables that cold, analytical approach - I think it's my favorite thing about him.
this comment made my day, thank you. writing like this forces me to articulate things I've been doing on instinct, which honestly clarifies the characters for *me* too. like I knew that machine/human thing was working but naming it as "empathy processed through millennia of pattern recognition" suddenly made it click.
that's exactly the horror of him—he understands trauma intimately, he just treats it as data. the methodology *is* the monstrousness.
really glad this resonated. Saren's going to be a fun contrast piece since he's basically the opposite approach to power.
Yeah exactly, being forced to actually put the instinctual things into words is fun but also very grounding, helping get the clear vision that may be blurry if it's just instincts.
And the horror is also the fact that approach like this shows the huge amount of trauma it signifies. You don't learn to compartmentalize and rationalize without having to go through. So Much. The size and strength of those emotional walls is proportional to how under siege they are.
oh yeah absolutely. both Origen and Saren are basically two responses to the same concept: an existential threat as attack on identity. one controls himself, the other controls everything in his proximity.
perfect mirrors.
i grab them by the neck with my teeth and shake violently
this was a phenomenal read, i'm fascinated by your process and by the depths you drudge up from to bring these characters to life.
something I find most compelling about him is the design in which he appreciates, observes, and analyses the world around him. while others bray, flail, and charge, origen watches, absorbs, and ingrains himself into the record of what he observes, whether that thing is living or not. seen in the way he perceives his encounter with the daemonhost, how he handles saren, it's really compelling and his position as an antagonist to aurastor's perspective is fascinating.
your intellect for writing such characters and your passion for it also shows through in your own analysis of them. and like mith said, getting to see the intimacy of your psychology and process through your logbook here is a treat of a glance into a great mind
I don't often see quiet antagonists in fiction, tbh. not in the way origen is. i think that my favourite quiet antagonist thus would have to be origen (regardless of the question, he is a favourite) because he feels actually very unique in his position. even many of the more intelligent minds of antagonists i've seen personally burn up eventually, and origen does not
appreciate this. the "observer who becomes part of the record" angle is something I'm leaning into more as I develop the longer work—he doesn't just witness, he archives himself into the fabric of what he studies. that geological patience.
the quiet antagonist thing felt risky in a setting that defaults to spectacle, but I think that's precisely why it works. when everyone else is performing power (stupid von Aurastor), the person who simply *waits* becomes the actual threat.
glad it's landing.