#ametria

I keep hearing people compare Eretria’s pass at Amberle to what she did with Wil and I need to set the record straight.

Let’s review.  When Eretria and Wil first met, she was functioning in full rover capacity, going after an easy mark.  She drugged him and took the elf stones, and used her sexuality to do it.  When she shows up again at the Elven Palace and sleeps with Wil, she is there to retrieve the elf stones again, under duress I might add, so that she can be free of Cephelo from what is essentially indentured servitude.

So to recap, both times Eretria was making any sexual advance towards Wil, she did it because she had to, or because he had something she needed.

Now let’s review her interactions with Amberle.  She chooses to stick around for this quest seemingly because she’s present in a vision at Safehold, (and tied up) but despite how cold Amberle is towards her, she chooses to stick around even when she is untied and no longer actually needs to. Cephelo was gone for the time being and no one was controlling her. Even when Cephalo did show up, she chooses again to defy Cephalo and come back to save Amberle, knocking out the entire camp of rovers. Amberle promises her money, but they never speak of it again, and it’s almost just an exchange for the sake of not discussing why Eretria really came back for her when she already had everything she wanted, which was her freedom in exchange for Amberle.

Anyway, we fast forward to the hot tub scene, where they are for the moment, just relaxing.  There’s no one forcing either girl in any direction, and they’re just there, finally alone, having a seemingly normal conversation.  When Eretria makes her pass at Amberle, no one is influencing her.  Cephelo is no longer pulling her strings and there’s nothing that she needs from Amberle.  That’s what makes this different than what happened with Wil.  Her pass at Amberle wasn’t generated out of some ulterior motive or necessity, it came from a genuine place.  You can see when Amberle deflects that Eretria is truly hurt by being compared to rapey Cephelo, because she’s obviously got feelings for her.

If you’re not 100% sold, let’s talk about them being strung up by crazy elf dude. He whacks Amberle in the head to drag her away and immediately the camera pans to Eretria’s obviously distressed face.  Of all the reaction shots, they pan to her. While Amberle is getting prepared to be tortured, Eretria wiggles her way out of her bindings and immediately rushes to save Amberle. Unfortunately, Wil got there first, and was already mid smooch when she busted through the door (with an absolutely frantic worried look on her face, I might add).  When Amberle turns around and breaks the kiss, both she an Eretria look absolutely horrified, and Wil looks like he does not give a fuck at all, he has this completely blank look.  Seriously, go back and watch it.  He does not even skip a beat when he runs over to the little girl to ask for a way out.

Lastly, when Cephelo tricks Eretria into zip lining across to safety before Wil and Amberle arrive, Amberle is the one to call out to Eretria for help.  Wil isn’t anywhere in the frame (until he’s needed to blast the reaper with his handy elf stones really).  Cephelo says quite vindictively to Eretria that they’ll never choose her, but she looks straight at Amberle, says “so be it” and slides on back across, because Amberle needs her and that’s all that matters to her in that moment.

The whole point of this rant is, look at the motives.  Look at where the attention lies.  Wil isn’t in the middle of any love triangle, nor does he appear to want to be. It’s Amberle at the center between Wil and Eretria.  And seriously, if anyone tries to say that Eretria was just being a rover and trying to seduce Amberle because “that’s what she does” can fight me. Eretria is a precious bisexual child who has real feelings for Amberle.  Why else would she be on this suicidal quest?

PRINCESS ROVER WILL RISE.

Ecumenopolis, 1967, C. Doxiadis @ Ametria, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece

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