#honesty. good intentions. she seemingly has an interest in nature shared by mark/gemma/ricken. she's very social

[aidenwaites]

"Why did she marry ricken" ricken comes off as someone who is air-headed and sort of pretentious, but in a way that is so bumbling and ultimately well-meaning that he's seemingly harmless. People laugh at him when he walks out of the room but he's still good-natured over it, doesn't hold a grudge about it. He's also still honest that it hurts him. Devon clearly finds something about him charming, and while she's also rolling her eyes at some of his idiosyncrasies, she's tolerant of them, and it is like.. an effort. It might be silly that he believes a child needs all three of their beds in their bedroom as they grow up or they'll be deeply traumatized, but he went through the effort of putting together their child's bedroom, and overall wants the best.

It doesn't detract from the fact that he is still thoughtless and short-sighted, and selfish. That he didn't learn from or realize or acknowledge how his little charity scheme was condescending. That he's getting so easily drawn into Lumon- a place he knows is actively harming Mark and possibly Gemma- and is willing to suddenly backtrack from his principles to sell out. That's the core of their little argument, I think-- Devon mightve found some of his writing silly, but she supported him all the way until he decided to let someone else take control of it. Maybe even compounded by the fact that a lot of the You You Are seems to involve mentions of Devon and Mark and Gemma, and the bond between them, and the legacy Gemma left behind. Butchering his book is butchering what he wrote about them, too.