eee wrote:Consider Ian's level of medical knowledge. He's apparently got more than anyone else in his village because he was looking for a way to help his sister and studied what he could; but even so, does that means he knew mental illness WAS an illness? His mother's behavior may well have enraged him because he didn't understand it. His sister, yes, he knew she had a defective heart that was limiting her and killing her, because he could recognize the symptoms. But did he - DOES he - know his mother had a defective brain that was doing the same?
This bit of dialogue between Ian and Evelyn says he has at least given the matter some thought. For that matter,
we don't know what was going on in Madeline Samael's head, either during the flashback or when she killed herself and her daughter.
It's tempting to say that any suicide or suicidal behavior is implicitly a form, or at least a manifestation, of mental illness. I'm not sure that is accurate, and I say that as one who has seen altogether too bloody many suicide attempts, many of them successful, among friends and relatives. (In my mother's family, it is a statistically significant cause of death.) In most cases, probably a large majority, that association is likely correct. But just watch someone who is writhing through the terminal phases of cancer some time and try to convince yourself you wouldn't just end it all in the same situation, if you could. What does that have to do with Madeline Samael's situation? We don't know, because we have seen so little of her on stage that we can't really say what was going on inside her head. But that's the point:
we don't know what forces Ian has been subjected to, either.
eee wrote:Imp-Chan wrote:Though, honestly, I've distrusted and disliked Ian from this moment on:
http://www.errantstory.com/2003-09-24/150 He's never even met an elf, but he has no hesitation at all about labeling them all as monsters and spreading that view to others. Once again, he has the opportunity to behave with grace towards his fellow living beings, to give them the benefit of the doubt, and it doesn't even occur to him. He chooses hate without ever stopping to consider the alternative.'
Almost every story Ian's been told or studied at that point would CONFIRM his point of view: Elves exist only to kill half-elves. The Errant war, where Elves killed any Elf or human who got in their way as they killed half-elves; the history of his village, formed from the few survivors of the latest Elvish genocidal attack on the original town; the few half elves who've made their way to the village since, telling of the Elves continuing to hunt down errants... Heck, Ian has never SPOKEN to an Elf who, if he didn't stop them first, hasn't tried to kill him. Sarine would have been an exception, and might have changed things dramatically if he hadn't blown her through the wall at the inn on sight. Ian doesn't consider an alternative because there's never really been anything to suggest to him there is one.
Correct. Note further that Santuariel didn't finally become a viable sanctuary until they got away from the elves altogether and developed a hatred for them, according to the
Chronicles of Heretic Knowledge. The fact that the half elves taught their children to hate and fear the elves not only explains Ian's behavior; it also
worked (so far). I find the comparison to infectious disease useful and have used it before. I want to eradicate the malaria parasite from the face of the earth, because it kills lots of people, tried to kill my father, and exists with no other goal than to propagate itself by killing. You durn well better believe I "fear" the thing ("hate" is probably not an appropriate term to use with a single-celled organism), and that fear is rooted in experience, not prejudice. Elves are Santuariel's malaria, as far as Ian, and any other half elf alive up there, is concerned.
eee wrote:
OK, but what about now? Ian has been merged with an alien life form of great power, uncertain compatibility, and apparently some residual personality. The kid's brain is probably as messed up as his mother's was. And we - myself included - rail at him, call him emo, and are rooting for Meji to come and smack him down... which is probably necessarily, at this point, and the only way to stop him. But if Ian's the mentally ill one, now, where's the compassion and understanding for HIS condition?
Well said.