call me beholding the way i got gays on this wret

paranoia

control freakism

sense of self-worth so low that it loops back around into being totally dismissive of everyone else

a warm-hearted kind center beneath 200 protective walls of bitterness that doesn't actually make the bitterness better in any way at all even a little bit

bisexuality

crushing feelings of responsibility

zero understanding of own bodily autonomy that bleeds out and affects how they treat others

a lil petty vindictive sadism they maybe don't wanna look at too hard or acknowledge

full self-awareness of all their most negative traits without working to fix those traits at all

internalized misogyny

a mysterious undefinable hunger that cannot / should not / must not ever be sated

His employees call him by his first name. The very first time we hear his voice it's Jon talking back and being snippy with him, and Elias barely admonishes him for his mistake in the first place. It was under Elias's supervision that Gertrude "let" the Archives fall apart, and Jon + his assistants are obviously aware of that.

He stole the body and identity of a weed-smoking failson that was too young for the position he was in and only joined the Institute a few years prior. The Institute itself is kind of a laughingstock, openly mocked by academics and dismissed as "crackpots" that will accept literally anything.

Elias comes off as borderline incompetent until episode 80. He dismisses Jon's concerns about Prentiss, "admits" that he ran away like a coward and abandoned Sasha during the attack, and then apologizes because he couldn't figure out how to work the fire suppression system fast enough.

Even in Season 3 he still comes off like a dolt sometimes. He conveniently can't find Jon after he's been kidnapped, and then this whole conversation happens:

And a bit later:

And in season four, with Basira!! He apologizes to her after she physically assaults him, and then stutters about a "miscalculation" when Basira demands to know why he sent them to the North Pole.

And then Peter sums it up nicely in 159, after revealing that Elias has "lost" most of his wagers against him:

that's right

Melanie King doodles! With an additional Georgie ~

I´m still not sure how I´d design some of the TMA characters in my head, but Melanie is always fun to imagine

There's something about a lonely human walking in the snow with decaying megastructures in the background that really sings to me.

they could have very easily made him tortured and miserable about it. And that's not to say he's not tortured and miserable-- he certainly is-- but he doesn't sit there purely hating the new abilities he's been gifted. He actively enjoys it. He figures out that when he asks questions, people are compelled to answer. And he immediately goes and asks a guy for his "deepest darkest secret" when he isn't satisfied with the information the man is giving him willingly.

He's groomed into starting the apocalypse, but the emotional conflict he deals with isn't a straightforward "I've doomed everyone forever"-- instead it's "Everyone is suffering forever, AND I'M ACTIVELY ENJOYING IT"

He's so extremely human. He recognizes on a logical level that it's bad, he doesn't want to hurt anyone-- but it feels good. And often, it's very VERY convenient. It makes whatever he's trying to do a lot easier. He could get the information he wants. He could indulge in compelling people and taking statements and feeding. During the apocalypse he could instantly kill any avatar he doesn't like.

Elias moodboard