#cw: domestic abuse discussion

[curious-sootball]

Bonus to my rant about Grank and the Legends in general:(CW: mentions and discussion of domestic abuse and alcoholism)

This freaking scene. It kind of flown over my head when I was younger, but during my recent re-read (which I paralleled with skimming the GoG wiki) it occured to me: Theo is a domestic abuse survivor. (His father was a solider in H'rath's army and wanted his kids to follow in his footsteps; spoilers, it did not work out at all), and he tried joining the Glauxian brothers and got rejected there right before he stumbled into Grank's hideout (I have a strong suspicion that Kathryn came up with Theo's family backstory a tad later, while she was writing the 10th and 11th books; otherwise this bit feels very, very weird). And he was greeted with an absolutely unwarranted dickery from Grank and doesn't even get an apology later (yes, Grank is still a dick towards him way later, when Theo is skilled enough to forge battle claws), and his response is this. F u c k i n g yikes, this kid deserved better. (To be fair, he calls Grank out on being racist and a hypocrite – old douche tried to lie that no one taught him how to handle fire. Fengo would like to have a word with you about that, Grank).

I cannot stress this enough, but Theo also builds his points like a legal defense – very clear, very little room for ambiguity, he literally means what he says. "Can we get on with the rules?". And he thanks Grank once he puts everything out clearly. Let's be honest, Grank did not deserve this guy as an apprentice.

This poor kid uses logic as defence. (This may or may not be a result of an inconsistent writing).

I admit, i thought that Theo was kinda sassy when I first read the book, and he positively is, but: Grank absolutely deserved to be dragged during that scene.(plus, looking back, I was going through a lot of stuff I wasn't aware of when I was a kid).

The fact that Theo was forced to leave his younger brother back in an abusive household is its own kind of messed up.

I actually felt bad for his mother when I got her full backstory on my first reading through; this stuff is disturbingly grounded for an arc that features an "always chaotic evil" species and an owl version of king Arthur/messiah figure as a prominent character.

Tldr: young Theo is a precious brave kid who deserves the world and 👏 Grank 👏 is 👏 a 👏 dick👏.