kip i gotta know how you feel about eraqus. idk why but i absolutely hate him. i despise this man. i want to maul him on site and i think he should lose custody of the wayfinders. get him away from them they deserve better. i am not including young eraqus in this i could him as a seperate character. old eraqus your days are numbered.

GREAT QUESTION I HAVE COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT HIM. baby eraqus is a dork and a teenager and a stupid but very endearing young man trying his best and working with ideologies that don’t match up to his emotions old eraqus has had time to marinate in all of that and has NOT taken ADVANTAGE of it hardly at all. But he is still trying his best. But his best is harmful at the worst of times and often vaguely hypocritical. But he does love his kids. except for when he has other priorities. do you understand —

Eraqus. I feel. Is afraid. He has always been quick to abandon something difficult and something that’ll change his world for something safer. He’s afraid of Ventus. Not because he doesn’t think he can take the kid (obviously, he can hit the panic button any time he wants), but because Ventus represents danger, AND he cares too much about his old friend’s wishes and this sad kid that he has now to get rid of the danger right away, AND he’s too afraid to make a decision until he has to, AND he regrets it almost immediately. Eraqus wants the best for ventus and refuses to look the fact that it’s not possible under him in the eye. He’s afraid of Terra, for having a piece of the thing that ruined his life in him and he’s doubly afraid because Xehanort expressed his own fear out loud (that Terra may not be fit for mastery because of the darkness) and made that fear override the trust he tenuously had in his, like, literally adopted son. He trusts Xehanort because he believes he’s trying to do better, but he fears being wrong, he doesn’t want to be wrong. He can’t be wrong if he represents the Light. He’s on the side of light, so the things he does and decide on behalf of the light must be correct. Right? (He doesn’t have anyone left to consult with about this. No one is there to check him. He can’t ask) The only person he’s not actively worried about is Aqua, and even that’s kind of a lie bc he’s putting a lot of pressure on her because of it. Do you see. His actions don’t match his teachings. He cares too much, and it makes him make stupid decisions that weren’t meant to hurt the wayfinders, but were absolutely meant to harm, and he doesn’t see how those connect. It makes him! Rather frustrating lmao!!! It makes him harmful! He doesn’t get it!

So like. He’s a nice dad but not a very good parent . He, I think, really loves the wayfinders and had a horrible time showing it. I think they loved him back. They cared about him so much, he raised them, pretty much, he had a sense of humor, he let aqua make a million silly treats and wanted them all to succeed. He definitely hurt them. I don’t think Ventus is very comfortable grieving him and feels awful about it. I think Terra has weird feelings about him because he always wanted to impress him and it didn’t work when it mattered and then it worked, too late, once Eraqus was in charge again. I think Aqua can only start untangling what that relationship did to her as she starts being a master herself. You know? I can’t hate him. He tried so hard. But I can absolutely come after him with a mallet for being a colossal myopic absolutist idiot who embodies religious misinterpretation and generational trauma and also just puts his own personal trauma on his kids. Because he’s the last survivor of a dead society, SURE, but also because he’s stupid. Do you see