#fair warning my memory of tnw is a lil fuzzy bc i was crying the whole time and hence there r no concrete quotes as of rn hjdfk

[derelicthorror]

okay welcome to the worst post of all time ! ballas edition

this is the one where i’m mostly leaning towards devils' advocate, because this kind of prompt has a hold on the essay-loving side of me and when i tell you it's got claws i Mean it. i have the post clowning on the more. uh clunky and jerky side of the storytelling for this guy and his entire master plot drafted and in the works but this one got Too Long on its own

also, this post is intended as a jumping-off platform for further takes! think of this as me saying “is the earth flat? discuss” but abt whatever the Heck was going on with ballas. varying perspectives etc., and there are some points that i didn’t consider, so with that said i’m all for some further add-ons! this thing is also Not itemized at all it’s potpourri it’s also like 1k words [general content warning here for verbal and emotional abuse/unhealthy relationships, and likely incomplete analysis thereof; also lots of spoilers from the second dream to the new war]

so, ballas. executor of the seven, one of the last surviving orokin, all-around dubious person - but it seems like from the second dream to the sacrifice to the new war, he looked at the slippery slope from “the wet-socks feeling distilled into a man” to “outright abusive in a pretty unfunny way” and he really did grab the sled there now, im not going to b out here dropping phrases off the bat like "rampant narcissistic manipulation" n stuff bc its. a very particular type of language u are employing when you start pulling out the AP psych terms and slinging them around without justifying or dissecting them and also, while DE was very deliberate in the way they wrote him, he is still a video game man. i do, however, find the way he's written to gradually show his worse traits to be really fascinating. like, from the start you know that this guy is kind of bad news and doesn't really care much about how his actions affect others mostly seeing them by the light of his own ego. re: his treatment of margulis, there's always been this almost? dismissive? tone he takes when it comes to the things she has resolved to do on her own? mostly i'm thinking abt some of the lines you hear whispered in the second dream

"Hush, my wilted love. ... tomorrow, you must renounce before the Seven."

i can almost describe the tone here as condescending? like he takes it for granted that his way is correct and that her resolve is this childish thing that he is brushing aside as silly. and then later, after he personally delivers the death sentence, he still seems to believe it's her own fault (!).

"Seven hands raised. For your apostasy, the judgment is death. Margulis… why?"

and my guy knew why; she was very clear in why she chose death. she loved her children too dearly and held her convictions too fiercely, refusing to bow to the court, but instead of acknowledgement, all you get from ballas’s end is this sting of betrayal beautifully delivered by max howarth (in two words no less!! i love this guy's acting). he conveys so well that ballas's disbelief is because she hurt him with her choice, and that's what stood out to him more than anything else. all the way through his story's end, it's like this perceived failing on her part never stops rankling at him and he never stops blaming everyone for it even long after the fact

ballas has a couple traits that start shining through clearer and clearer every time he makes his appearance. there’s his need for control, there’s his vindictiveness, and there is his ego.

he was in one of the, if not the, highest echelons of orokin society. he was one of the executors; he oversaw the creation of the warframes. his influence was such that he could easily silence a dax soldier without raising undue suspicion. ballas comes from a place of power, and even just factoring in the orokin sense of self-aggrandization and superiority, as well as ballas’s own personal character flaws, that makes for a potent mix of prideful and obsessive with the teeth to back it.

but how does his betrayal of the orokin factor in?? how does he handle the hypocrisy that comes from turning his back on his people, because he hurts really badly when the same thing is done to him?? and he doesn’t. he’s already justified himself in his own head (there’s the ego! there’s a refusal to accept blame!). the rest of the orokin made him do this. it’s only right that he turn on them, because they made him pass judgment on margulis, and margulis made him speak the judgment that the orokin forced on him, and he is the blameless one so why shouldn’t they get what they deserve? this mans does olympic level gymnastics jumping through this many mental hoops

so when a particular dax catches wind of his deceit and ballas finds out, his response is nowhere close to shifty or guilt-ridden or anything that would imply he feels Bad about turning on the orokin. he’s angry, and he’s smug, and it’s the first time we see fully just how ugly this man is. rotted through and through

"I've had lifetimes to plan my defection. You spied on me, intercepted my communications, but I saw your move long before you took it. And so... we come to the consequences."

consequences. like justifiable comeuppance? this isn’t the talk of a man who believes he’s wrong and it’s awful bc he’s like that!! the whole time!! he didn’t have to do any of it to umbra; he could have just killed him on the spot. but he drags it out instead, and he doesn’t let it stop at umbra himself, or even just at isaah. ballas makes it clear that in retaliation, he’s going to wipe out everyone umbra cares about.

"This one, a brother. These three, his children. And on and on, all of these gone to the Jade Light."

altogether so far there’s this unwavering belief that he can do no wrong, that nothing in the world is ballas’s fault, and underneath it there’s this malice that just undercuts the whole thiiiing this man is so ugly im. theres no other word for him hes just Ugly great job DE

the thing abt ballas when it comes to margulis the archimedian is that, from his perspective, he seems to have? , really loved her? now, full stop, the problem is that his idea of love is warped beyond all reason. it isn’t the right kind, and it isn’t the healthy kind, and to say that he could do with a reality check or five is an understatement. ballas’s perspective on margulis can be boiled down to I love her, and she is mine to be loved by me, and I know what is best for her. you don’t see him valuing her decisions or taking into account the things that she wants.

re: the flaws of ballas’s relationship to margulis, lundy bancroft puts it pretty succinctly: “Genuine love means respecting the humanity of the other person… This kind of love is incompatible with abuse and coercion.” and he failed on all counts, -11/10

margulis as a character has direction. she has wants. she wants to protect her children. she wants to solve the problem of transference. she wants to salvage the survivors of this wreckage before the orokin destroy them all. she is a brilliant scientific mind and a keen force for compassion and by all accounts, on encountering the zariman problem, she makes the children the focal point of her life, even at the cost of her health.

what ballas sees is margulis turning her back on him to make way for the little void demons. and it’s subtle, the why behind his dislike of the tenno. he’s been calling them devils from that hell the entire time, distrustful of them and reluctant to make use of them.

then the new war happens and it’s. so loud and in your face it’s jealousy this man is jealous of a child because he felt it divided margulis’s affection for him and that possessiveness is integral to what makes him such a shriveled up little pest okay.

and the way he just takes his anger at margulis and places it onto the lotus too? the compartmentalizing is almost impressive. the dissonance. i can’t wrap my head around how this character must think, like??? margulis left me for the demon children. margulis rejected me and chose death instead. she is wicked and spiteful and she is the perfect lover and i miss her every day. the lotus is the new and better margulis. she refuses to be the better margulis??? she is wicked and spiteful unlike my perfect lover margulis like ????? the circles??? the loops??? i dont???

thinking abt why he was like that to the lotus at the end as well, in a lot of ways, ballas finally snapping when he feels an imminent loss of control is like? yeah i can see it. his plan of complete dominion did not succeed completely, and where it did he’s immensely unsatisfied with the shallow compliance of the veiled. but where it didn’t succeed, that’s his focal point, and once he’s getting into his head that he doesn’t have what he wants and it’s all because of this scrawny devil child and the Lotus, who rejected his affection - what else is there to do besides rage?

on that note i still cringe thinking about every single thing he says to her it was textbook. the name-calling. the derision. the refusal to accept blame. i was hiding behind my blanket the whole time

re: the whole eat the sun to power a bus ride to tau thing, ballas did??? speak of tau pretty highly i suppose??? speaking of how the sentients were to bear them “a new, promised land.” maybe?? hes like well who else deserves to see the cool new system than ME and ONLY me. if i can’t have my lover and if i can’t have total control of Everything, Ever then i guess it’s time to Jump Ship and start My Own Club of One. Me.

sigh. the sun-eating thing was. i mean at least there’s a flair for the dramatic that never really goes away

there was a lot of yelling and a lot of doomsday grandstanding and at the end of the day im just glad to be rid of sandal-socks steven