#I’m still only on 27.3 so if Theo does anything in the last bit. sorry I missed it

[riverkingmarley]

So… what was the point of Theo?

They set him up as early as arc 11, but he doesn’t really do anything?

He doesn’t stop Jack. He’s kinda sad about it. His family is composed entirely of Nazis. He’s kinda sad about it. His family is grey boy bubbled. He’s kinda sad about it. He puts a rift between himself and Taylor. He’s kinda sad about it. He named himself Golem. He’s kinda sad (and weirdly mean?) about it (seriously how do you, the child of Nazis, name yourself after a Jewish thing and then talk about how you regret it because the Golem is too mindless??? That’s so messed up what is wrong with you).

Maybe it’s just me but while all of these ideas are mentioned, none of them really feel relevant or like they’re explored. What really nailed this in for me was how Theo comments on Hookwolf. He has a little internal monologue about how he didn’t like Hookwolf cause he was a jerk, but he doesn’t talk to him about it. He doesn’t even yell at him or something. Did Hookwolf ever get his memories back? He could have taunted him with his failure to accomplish his dream or with the fact Hookwolf doesn’t know who he is. But nothing ever comes of it. What was the point of bringing it up?

I feel like the story pays some lip service to all these themes and ideas but never really explores them. Is there some key to it that I was missing? It mentions that he tries to cover his emotions up to put on a front. That could explain why he doesn’t really touch too heavily on topics, but that never comes to a head either. Also, there’s already a character I like more that covers those ideas: Grue.

Here’s my fun little counter pitch though: We just replace him with Sophia.

Jack nominates Sophia instead of Oni Lee before she is shipped out of the bay and instead of being sent to prison she works out the same deal with him about killing him in two years to save herself.

She still puts up this front about not caring about anyone so she acts like she doesn’t care about her family being on the line. She might try to run away at first but she gets caught by the prt who force/convince her somehow to stay and train/fight.

Maybe something happens with the nine that scares her enough to stay and train. Maybe Bonesaw puts a tracker on her and Amy’s not around anymore to remove it. Then, when Taylor becomes weaver, she’s still scared enough to put up with her the same way Taylor is willing to put up with her because of the end of the world.

Emma’s emotional state went differently because she never separated from Sophia in the same way. After Weaver shows up, she sees Sophia and Taylor working together on the news. Maybe she feels more alone then ever. Maybe this is the push that’s needed to finally get her help.

Sophia grows and develops over the time skip. She works hard and she even reconnects with her family.

This is why it hits ten times harder when they get grey boy bubbled and Taylor kills her younger sibling. She thinks of all the time she lost when she was younger and hated/was apathetic to her family. How her family is suffering forever because of her rash decisions when she was younger.

When she fails to take down Jack it’s a major blow in how she failed both in stopping him and getting revenge. When grey boy gets taken down without her she feels more powerless than ever. She breaks down and shows emotion, maybe for the first real time in the whole book (echoing Taylor’s breakdown with the end of the world).

Maybe she even kills Hookwolf, and it doesn’t make her feel better. While it’s still good that the nazi is gone and she’s protected people from him but she realizes that having power over others doesn’t really make her feel better and she finally realizes that she needs to heal and connect with people she cares about. This made all the more tragic by how her family is gone and it’s too late.

Maybe she says something about this to Taylor at the end and it influences how she fights scion. Taylor takes one last lesson from an enemy except this time it’s a gift instead of a scar.

We see Sophia in the epilogue. Maybe Sofia’s power allows her to affect grey boys bubble a little, lessening her family’s pain somehow. Letting her move past barriers between her and others instead of dodging and running from things.