#sorry for the relvin-posting today but I'm beset by relvin thots and tbf I'm just making good on my url change. so

[revvethasmythh]

Actually thinking very hard about what, exactly, is compelling about Relvin. imo, there is an inherent mundanity to him as a character--that's really the core of what he is, Just Some Dude, caught in the crosshairs of something much bigger than him that he can't understand let alone fight. A guy who tries, but it struck so deeply by decades of grief that even the trying can be hard. A man who loves his daughter but doesn't know how to help her and maybe can't stand how much she looks like her mother. Very mundane. Very human. Very relatable, both the good parts of him and the ugly ones. I know that I personally find a lot of interest and texture in what the mundane looks like, especially in contrast to the wild escapades of adventurers or powered people. It's why, perhaps, Relvin is a character that feels more relatable and approachable and miles more understandable than someone like Liliana, who's motives are opaque, who's goals are unclear, and who's intentions are currently unknown/incoherent. We can sit here and ask ourselves "what does she want?" until kingdom come, but even Imogen doesn't know and she is also sick of the not knowing. Liliana wants to free Imogen--but who knows how. She wants Imogen to run, but doesn't tell her why. She left Imogen to find answers, but we have no idea if she really accomplished that goal despite repeated conversations with her (all of which essentially repeat the same info shared in the previous convo).

At least we know what Relvin wants. Wanted. To build a family. For the two halves to become a better whole. That's approachable, that's human, that's tragic in the face of everything that's happened, and, yes, that's mundane. But god is there texture to that mundanity where there isn't all that much even in the comparatively extraordinary life of Liliana.