#whimsy post

Thinking about Absolution Trio again… they make me insane, and I feel like nothing I say ever actually does a good job encapsulating what about them draws me in as much as it does. It’s FASCINATING to me the liminal role Abolish plays in Owen and Legundo’s lives throughout the series. In some strange way, both of them saw Abolish as good. As better. As someone above the fray, deserving of what they believed to be a kind fate; Owen continuously offering to turn him long after he gave up on having a coven and Legundo offering his life in exchange for his mortality. Which is nothing to say of Owen and Legundo’s desperation to redeem themselves in each other, ultimately failing with each other but succeeding through Abolish and the choices he offered them.

When you think about them as individuals, it feels like it shouldn’t work. Owen tried to make another Louis out of Legundo, failing to realize that a flawed human being could never live up to the impossible standard he made out of Louis’s ghost. Legundo saw a tragedy in Owen, and made their entire relationship into the battleground for a debate on his own morality and his desire for penance. Abolish continually prioritized his mission and never made an effort to connect with the others the way they tried with each other, including Legundo and Owen. It really, really doesn’t feel like it shouldn’t work.

And yet it does!

Legundo and Owen are like two unstoppable forces constantly pushing and pulling at each other, tearing themselves apart in their efforts to prove themselves right and never actually looking. But Abolish doesn’t pass judgment — he observes and accepts all that he sees as they are, and it creates an environment where both Owen and Legundo have a place to exist even in vicinity of the other. Abolish takes what made Cure Duo so willfully volatile and stabilizes it without much thought. I could go on and on, and I feel like none of it would do as much to characterize this weird dynamic as watching it play out in front of you does.

It drives me insane — Abolish’s very presence does so much to temper Legundo and Owen, stabilizing them where they don’t even realize they’ve begun teetering off a ledge. Like, Legundo trusted Abolish implicitly to protect the town, to do the right thing, to be good; it gave him a sense of security to know that Abolish there, acting as the voice of reason when he wasn’t in the state to be. He spent so, so much time trying to manage everyone… but with Abolish? It felt, a lot of the time, like Abolish was the one he left to manage HIM. And Owen!!! He is so, so angry at the world and everyone in it, but he always slows down for Abolish. When the coven was initially revealed and Owen ran off to slaughter the cattle, he took the time to stop and tell Abolish that no, he didn’t want to kill anyone. He did the same when Abolish didn’t understand his anger during EP6, explaining that no one could leave until everyone was turned or cured. He offered again and again to turn Abolish long after he’d rejected him the first few times, and even after he’d given up on the hope of a coven. He tells Abolish about Louis in his entirety, which only Legundo had been afforded in the past. He accepts Abolish’s offer for a cure and actually LISTENS to him when he talks about nuance in morality. Monsters and men.

Owen, if you can’t tell, is especially guilty of favoring Abolish above the other settlers, and the number of times he does it is almost comical in comparison to his general demeanor. Like, did you know that Owen laughed when he heard about Abolish’s raid on the castle? Or that there was a time when he told Abolish he trusted him to keep the town in line? Or that he asked Abolish if he’d ever considered a turning while they were on their way to CURING him? Point blank, I think Abolish is the healthiest relationship Owen had with any of the other characters.

I think a lot of this can really be attributed to Abolish’s general demeanor.

I haven’t watched nearly enough of Bannerfall on my own and I’m only half certain of the major plot points so take everything I say with a heaping pile of salt, but it’s really striking to me how BF!Nom feels almost like a paragon…? Not in the sense that he was right or “good” (for a given definition) but that he possesses so many of the traits that typically define the trope. He’s charismatic, he’s bright, he’s determined — he’s so certain that he’s doing the right thing, and nearly everyone around him is pulled in whether it be as an ally or an enemy. It’s incredible!

It’s also… strange.

I’m circling a point I’m really not sure how to phrase. It’s like he cares too much??? Or, rather, that his care tends to manifest in protection, which can and has made him incredibly dangerous when combined with his singleminded determination to do what he (alone) believes to be the “right thing.” He wants so badly to spare the people he loves from the pain he believes they’ll find, so he’ll lie and laugh and try to steer them away without consideration for their feelings or even his own. He strips them and, oddly, even himself of their autonomy.

And, honestly, that makes sense given everything I know about him! The very foundation of his existence was built on the idea that he was a protector, to Katie and then to 4C, the kingdom, and so on. He’s had exceedingly little room for himself ever since he was a child, and it’s made him into an adult who can’t seem to fathom his own worth outside of his relationships and what he can personally contribute. He thus tends to think of himself as an acceptable sacrifice in any given situation, and it honestly feels like that’s what’s doomed him at the end of this story.

Nom’s fatal flaw is his utter lack of self worth.

He neglects to realize that the people he cares about care about him in turn, so he pushes them all away to their detriment and his own. Digging himself a deeper grave without ever realizing that he’s dragging all of them down with him. It hurts them to see him act as though nothing he does will have a lasting impact on them, or that his existence was so minor that they’ll just move past him. Which is not even to mention the moments that he actively chooses to attack or berate them, deciding for them what they need. Removing himself from the picture without ever asking. And it really just keeps escalating from there! He’d refused to cry even at the end of his life, focusing all of his attention entirely on his loved ones and their closure. Laughing and smiling and only breaking for pained little pauses where he can’t seem to help it.