Sage

Randomly went missing on a hunting trip with Maglor and Maedhros, and M&M were just like “okay, guess he’s gone now” and went home

Found the Men and stalked them for a little bit because why not

Waited until they all fell asleep before walking into the middle of their camp and singing at them

Was so pretty and good at singing that the Men just accepted his presence in their camp and didn’t question it for a second

Showed back up in his Kingdom after a questionable period of time with some hairy thing that gets more wrinkles every year and just picked his life back up but now with a Man hanging around

And the pictures that inspired this:

Maedhros

But did you??? Did you get what YOU wanted, Alex Forbes? Because it sure as hell doesn't look like you did.

I've noticed we do have a tendency to just sort of take it for granted that Alex is pleased with the outcome. His demeanor seems so smug and self-congratulatory in that interrogation room. But what if that's just his need to make it seem like he's fully in control and this was all part of his plan and he engineered the whole thing to turn out this way? His need to paint himself in the best possible light, incapable of admitting even to himself that he made a mistake or failed in any way.

Because I always come back to THIS scene. It would have served his narrative BETTER ("he wasn't my friend") to be upset but detached. Instead he is sitting here distraught, absolutely wrecked, clutching Nigel's body on his lap, staring into his lifeless face. There are witnesses. This isn't a lie or exaggeration in his story--people saw him do this. And yeah, he could have been putting on a show for some incredibly subtle chess game of emotional manipulation or something, but there's a limit to how capable I think a 17 year old would be. He might be smart, deceitful, manipulative, and ruthless, but he's not omnipotent or omniscient, and even full grown adults are usually not capable of perfect control of the narrative. He was a teenager, subject to his own emotions and flaws, and the best lie is one that is based on the truth. This is why I don't think the entire story was a lie but rather a careful application of truth, lying by omission, embellishment, and framing events to convey a very particular version of the truth.

Even if I explore the interpretation of Nigel's death being his intent all along, I watch this scene and can't help but think that sometimes we get what we thought we wanted and discover that we never wanted that at all.

Also frustrated and betrayed because Nigel just ... Left him there after all he brought him into, i think Alex's intention definitely wasn't getting rid of him and continuing in a chain as is shown at the end. It was a last resort, and when he approached the guy on the train and just stared in his eyes at the end, he was clearly thinking about Nigel, trying to find pieces of him in someone else if he couldn't have the real thing. He couldn't just go back to his life as it was before, after all they went through with Nigel, so he had to find someone else.

To me it seems like things absolutely didn't go as Alex planned, however he had. I'm sure he would imagine Nigel by his side in any outcome. (Simple reasons: one, they were literally in love and two, it was Nigel's appearance in his life that made Alex interested in the whole Maraclea business at all; and at no point did it include things like "there must only be one templar descendant", he wouldn't need to have Nigel dead for prophecy reasons. From Alex's view at least.)

Obviously, both with the police and with the train guy, some interactions and mannerisms have to be simply strategic, but as op said, no one can fully control their emotions like that all the time. But in the scene where the workers find them, of course we can't tell how much time had passed but even if he had like half an hour after Nigel's death, he couldn't make his reaction THAT convincing (though since there was a moving train right there next to them, it was probably a matter of minutes and that makes it impossible that he faked any of it). He was genuinely devastated there.

Like Minds merch:

rough WIP for art class ..