All it took was writing him versus how I headcanon Crassus AND watching 'The Fence' in back-to-back days.

(A potent combination that's for sure)

Detachment vs. Repression

=

Void of emotionality vs. The effort (conscious or internalized) to bottle very present emotions

Coriolanus isn't detached as much as he's suppressing -> reinterpreting -> falling into a trained performance as "unbothered"/above it all.

"Taken by surprise, Coriolanus let out a short laugh before he recovered and tried to look shocked."

Yes, as a behavioral display, it's hard to see much of a difference between the two. BUT! ☝️Throughout the book, his thoughts and introspective moments betray the actually high baseline of physiological arousal he has.

He's in an almost constant fight-or-flight: racing thoughts, fear of humiliation, quick anger, hypervigilance about status and his constant scanning of other people's opinions.

His threshold for these environmental cues is so low, we see him always keep them in his mind, in his inner voice in the book -- sensitive to slights where there are none. That's not consistent with someone "severed" from his emotions.

(I'm fully aware he doesn't cry in the book in either of these places and that he definitely doesn't cry for someone other than himself. Emotionality =/= empathy when narcissistic characters are concerned. Also, a movie is a visual medium -- we don't get the luxury of his stream of consciousness. What we do get IS the emotional expression, instead of its suppression)

"He buried his head in his hands, confused, angry, and most of all afraid. Afraid of Dr. Gaul. Afraid of the Capitol. Afraid of everything."

Overall, his obsession with control grows out of anxiety, out of a real emotionality that he IS attached to. And the security (emotional and physical) he's preoccupied with reaching.

Obviously no emphasis is put on the emotional security because he's repressed that aspect of himself. To the point where he sees security as being attached to A PERSON, to just his father, not some internal regulation he can master. only by attaching it to someone external -> controlling his surroundings does he believe he can finally feel whole and at ease.

=> It's his upbringing that's taught him to channel all of that into immaculate posture, careful speech and calculated etiquette. Not something inherent in his pattern of feeling things in big, almost unmanageable ways.

If he hadn't been raised in poverty (that's ingrained some patience into him) or conditioned to pass all through a filter of 'What is expected of a proper Snow heir?', I kid you not... i do see him turning into a Cal-adjecent character -- instead of calculating and reframing, he would be blabbering about what he's owed (like he already does in his head, mind u), bristling at slights, being reactive... waving his gun around.

If it were him being disconnected from his emotions, we wouldn't have so many displays of the genie coming out of the bottle.

In the Arena, in the woods, at the Hob -- there's plenty of times when we see the internal (repressed) Coriolanus and the external Coriolanus (his behavioral displays) become one.

-speak up, girl I can’t hear you and trust me the old man behind you dosnt want your number

-I need you to come closer, not too close cause that happens, but don’t be an entire isle away from me or else I can’t scan your card

-trust me saying your rewards number faster will not make me type faster, slow down

-please read the deals carefully, I don’t want to run across the entire story just to find out you grabbed bottles of Coke instead of cans which are the ones on sale for buy 2 get 2

-IF I AM JUST STANDING AT MY REGISTER DONT SAY “you look bored” OR “thought I’d give you something to do” BECAUSE WHAT YOU DONT KNOW IS I JUST WAS SLAMMED WITH PEOPLE FOR 30 MINUTES AND YOU JUST HAPPENED TO CATCH ME WHEN THAT WAS DONE

-if there isn’t someone bagging for me already when I start scanning, BAG FOR YOURSELF, i can only bag so fast while also scanning everything.