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⸻ THE PARASITE

As per popular opinion, I don't think Finsen has particularly good control over the parasite given he has some reason to tie his arm to his torso. That being said, it does help him with certain activities, so my guess is that it can instinctively respond to certain cues (movement? pheromones, like an ant?) but this reflex can hinder you at the same time. A disobedient limb would then make sense to restrain, but I don't think he was able to get the stragglers.

^ My hc is that the parasite is some sort of magic biofilm? Like it's described as being made of bacteria and fungi, it has a slimy sort of structure, it behaves more like an aggregate/colony than an individual. Coincidentally dental plaque is also a type of biofilm although that's not what the parasite is, bacterial mush is just such a large category that it includes both of these things.

I'm assuming that Finsen can't really feel through the parasite itself because it's still a foreign body, but he can vaguely feel tension/movement if it's attached somewhere with nerves — in the same way you can't really feel your hair, but you can feel when someone pulls your hair because of where it's attached to your scalp. His parasitized arm may have a bit more sensation because there's more surface area under there. 

Food for thought: The weibo design notes has a line about a "deep wound in his back" (背后深深的伤口), but I haven't found any other official elaboration on his slenderman tentacle things. There also seems to be a clamp around them if you look at his model. It's not clear how the slime on his back works, or the possibility of parasite-human nerve interactions there, but I have a lot less confidence in my understanding of this, so I'll leave what we know here 🤧. Interpret at your discretion.

⸻ FINSEN AND CHILDREN

Finsen's relationship with the patients in the paediatric ward is complicated. I think it's ultimately still a professional relationship in the sense that Finsen is their dentist, not a friend or family member. I make this distinction because it's important to note that they likely don't know each other that personally, but he chooses to save their lives regardless, and this is shown as a sort of final selfless act after a lifetime of selfishness.

Finsen himself doesn't seem particularly social in general, and there wasn't a focus on any relationships with peers in the story. This is an aspect that is hard to articulate right, but given what we know, it feels like Finsen is anxious about judgement from others (given his past etc), however it's easier to digest the "innocent kindness" of the children. I'm not trying to imply that he's somehow taking advantage of this situation, but I think his specific receptiveness here speaks to a sort of social/emotional immaturity in connecting the easiest with a demographic who we culturally perceive as less capable of criticism. Now don't get me wrong, this is not the meat of the dynamic - but I also believe that not everything in Finsen's relationships comes from a 100% healthy place because he's not a 100% healthy person, and this is potentially what ends up distorted later on as a hunter.

That being said, Finsen does genuinely care about the children, although it's not super explicitly explained how. In my interpretation, it's partially that in being responsible for the children's healthcare he also becomes more cognisant of the isolation and alienation he experienced in his own childhood — he may feel that he doesn't want them to suffer, in particular because he believes it's unfair given his history of suffering due to circumstances out of his control. There's also the angle that this seems to be fulfilling to him by receiving and reciprocating care, and he valued being appreciated by these people.

⸻ POST-DEATH

I want to suggest that there's a running theme of losing yourself (as an indirect consequence of your actions) in his stories. Finsen was fixated on his identity and existence, ie. the trailer phrasing: "desperate to find "myself"". He eventually becomes absorbed in proving himself through his experiments, while the work with the paediatric patients develops into an alternative way of existence/identity/self. The boundaries he already crossed come back to bite him, destroying the previous development of the self — you also see an version of this in his release essence, although it's less clear who he was before the forced lobotomy.

I think the hunter version of Finsen we see is a sort of flattened and reconstructed version of original Finsen, in the sense that he may retain some of his original beliefs and values, but the reasons he came to these conclusions are lost or distorted along the way. For example, we know he is still protective of children, but he seems to have lost the nuance of their dynamic, and instead he's erroneously locked onto this idealized concept of childhood innocence and goodness in the form of "baby teeth", rather than the mutually caring relationship he had in life.

TRIVIA:

I think Finsen is a very bland cook, a lot of boiled and/or undersalted food. He probably thinks the maillard reaction is burning. VERY SCARY

He gets dead people style stiffness and has to do stretches and stuff. The problem is that a warm bath is better for relaxing your muscles but heat makes the parasite way more active, maybe nothing is easy.

Outside of more serious settings, Finsen uses pet names pretty liberally.

Finsen has a sweet tooth. You may even say he has many HAHAHA. But when he was a kid he wasn't allowed a lot of sweets or anything because his dad was strict about that.

ok thats all ty for reading