sorry i'm not done but how can you just drop this bombshell that malleus literally used to hate humans, that he'd refer to silver as "that thing" , that he thought lilia should've just dropped off the baby with some humans and move on with his life!!

and yet!! it was malleus who ordered the castle to have baby food delieverd to lilia's place for him, and it was malleus who'd sneak out whenever he could to come see silver and make sure lilia was taking care of him okay. and it was malleus who was so, so gentle teaching silver and sebek magic where lilia was so very crude

and after 17 years of malleus quietly loving him in his own modest way, it was ultimately the boy's tears - that thing's tears - that drove him to stop time and freeze the world over