an obstinate despair

Percy + validating and supporting his friends

Keyleth's worries about being worthy? He reassures her and reminds her she's capable in a moment of crisis. Vex's insecurity about being rejected by her home/father and not fitting in with nobles? He defends her to her invalidating father by conferring a noble title on her from Whitestone, essentially welcoming her into his home even as she's been rejected from hers.

He understands that Vax's grief over dying and the reality of the situation is undeniable so he doesn't try to smooth it over with words, but he offers Vax comfort by silently going to hug him.

And when he sees Tary struggling to stay calm, he uses Tary's love of narrative to ease his nerves in a tense situation.

Bonus for Cassandra who shares his reserved disposition, traumatic history, survivor's guilt. They are each other's only remaining family, and he knows how strong she had to be to face the Briarwoods everyday. He knows they have the will and the love to survive, the love they have for each other and for Whitestone. And he offers her that reassurance.

Still not over the drama of the de Rolo siblings both being bespelled by different entities to fight each other, compelled by their respective demons to hurt the other.

Of course s1 very pointedly demonstrated that Percy's relentless quest for vengeance, though initially a mechanism for survival and purpose in the aftermath of the Briarwoods, was ultimately self-destructive. A dead end that would only result in the subsumpton of his own identity, while claiming the rest of the people he loved as collateral damage.

But what about Cassandra? I doubt that her resentment over being left behind was only a fabrication of the Briarwoods' control, but perhaps it was amplified. It wouldn't be unreasonable for Cassandra to have conflicted feelings about Percy, her only remaining family, and the brother who abandoned her to death (albeit he was a child too and had no real chance of saving her).

I wonder if, similarly to Percy, in her darker moments, she found it easier to give in to that hurt when forced by the Briarwoods to act against her will. After the Briarwoods are defeated in s1, it seems she makes no further mention of it.

I suppose the siblings make it a point to find closure and move on as the people at the source of all their pain have seemingly been eliminated.

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⚠️ Spoilers for s4e6

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