@Sherlock221B How are you sooo fast at responding!
I think he is quick at dropping the mask in front of us because of who we are.
Bear with me: If I remember correctly (and I do, and will not go look in that ginormous thread), Rohie said it would be impossible to lie to Aeson about our true nature, our true intentions. Since that moment, I kind of theorized that due to the whole soul mate deal, we cannot really lie to one another.
That’s why I believe he is so quick about dropping the mask with us. Or it might simply be that he is hopeful that we are as interested in surviving as he is. Take you pick, both reasons are good.
They refuse to kill us yet. Because we haven’t proved to be a liability. Yet. They might really try it if they realize we intend to betray them. Better kill us now, and face the possibility of being defeated by Cronus, than let us life and know they will never ever win. A small chance is better than no chance at all.
Also they will use everything we care about to control us. Hey friends and lovers, how do you feel about becoming Tools of the Gods?
I agree, people do like him. And he would probably be in all fairness more liked than the MC. But if he’s no longer as powerful, I doubt people in general will like him as much; people can be remarkably self-serving. His friends would still like him, but I’m not sure opinion of him would remain the exact same.
And I’m not denying he’s planning, or even that he’s got a compulsion to be liked. The basis of my point is that if people’s view of you changes after 17 years, you’re likely to be opposed to that on some level, if not through genuine want than a base desire for things to remain the same because subconsciously change is bad.
On a related note, am I just the thread cynic? Everybody who says “people are good and happy” can count on me to say “not so fast, motherfucker”? I’m cool with that, but I just want to know.
I can imagine MC giving Aeson a really crummy gift.
“I gave you the power of the universe and this is what you get me?”
On the topic of MC joining Cronus: I’m not sure if that would put Aeson in any position to become the gods’ champion. Wouldn’t they be much more likely to kill him, or at least threaten to do so, to prevent Lavei from winning the war for Cronus? They might belive they need the Essence to win the war, but wouldn’t nobody having it be very much preferable to the enemy having it? If the Bearer goes rogue, Aeson is their kill switch.
On that thought though, I got an interesting idea. The prophecy says Cronus will have the Essence by his side. If we accept that as true, why would Lavei (ignoring certain god-hating MCs) be at Cronus side? What if Cronus somehow gets his hands on Aeson, and use his death as a threat to make the Bearer join him? I’m sorry if this has been discussed to death before, but I haven’t read through all 5000 posts.
Yeah, we can’t lie to him. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t lie to us. He does bank a lot on us surviving, but that doesn’t mean he has to trust us.
See, this is where we have differing interpretations; are we assured of being defeated by Cronus without the Essence or is there only a small chance? Because if there’s only a small chance then I agree, it’s much more likely that they’ll try something, but I was of the opinion that they COULDN’T win without the Bearer at all.
And I mentioned this to Sammysam, but am I just the thread cynic? Everybody who says “people are good and happy” can count on me to say “not so fast, motherfucker”? I’m cool with that, but I just want to know.
He still is a demigod? And one that did prove himself in a pretty high number of quests. That’s more as can be said about MC even after the trials, even with all of the Essence. After all other demigods became heroes without the Essence too. Herakles is like a celebrity on Olympus if I remember right?
How would any of his achivements disappear just because the MC is suddenly here?
But…it’s not really how people see him that changes but that he got (unpopulare and distrusted) competition? And it aren’t really the people that matter? Because those are Saint, Calypso, Adonis and in some way Hades and Persephone. Why should they change their view on Aeson, after all they most likely never ever bought into the hero persona?? Why should he care about anyone else as the people he learned to trust?
What does that have to do with anything we just talked about? It’s not about people being good, but people being distrustful of the Bearer or do you mean something else? Or did being distrustful and manipulative become somewhere along the way good and nice?
I think the problem for the gods is more along the line that if they don’t try to control the Essence they would have ended on Cronus side, because they anyway would have been reborn around te time of the war. So they want to play save and get the Essence on their side. If you take the Essence completely out of the picture I would guess the field to be more even.
Jumping on this topic midway so I may not have the whole picture. I’m under the impression that this is about how Aeson might feel once he gives up his part of the Essence and how the public might see him, yes?
It’s already been pointed out that Aeson is a pretty smart guy. He’s made plans, he’s careful on who he trusts, etc etc. I believe a guy like that would be smart enough to prepare for the future. Correct me if I’m wrong but unlike the other pairs of past B&Bs, Aeson has known who and what he is for a long time, maybe all his life. He’s known that on his 18th birthday, he loses his power and on his 19th, he would die unless he wins the trials or an untrained nobody somehow wins it all (added caveat: neither of them can lose in the final duel). If this guy has the mental fortitude to face death head on for years, I believe he can face the change in public image. If he’s prepared for his own death, he’s also prepared for the chance that the public will see him differently.
However, I don’t believe the public will suddenly scorn him, or think less of him. If anything, the chances of everyone seeing him as a martyr after their 18th birthday is pretty high, dependent on the Bearer’s actions, of course. I think he’s going to be seen as the hero who, ultimately, gave up the crowning glory to another. Although, that’s if he’s come to terms about his part and gracefully gives up the Essence.
They wouldn’t. But people gravitate towards power. People who have been in the spotlight rarely take kindly to being shoved out of it, however willingly or unwillingly. Even if he doesn’t care about the spotlight he is a celebrity, but he could have all the quests under his belt in the universe and only a fanatic would think him superior to somebody with ultimate power.
That’s…not responding to the statement. At all. Here I’m talking about what Aeson feels in regards to change, not how people see him.
This entire debate is you having faith that Aeson will work it out and I’m saying that he’ll have trouble with it. It’s mostly me being cynical. Not really much relevance, but there is some. It just got be thinking about how I don’t really think I’ve ever made an idealistic post at all; most of them are just expected people to do the worst things.
I think how he feels and public opinion is a factor, but the core of my statement is that it’s much easier to theorise about something and to prepare for it than for it to actually happen. He has made plans and he is careful on who he trusts, but again you can prepare your entire life for something and still feel the effect like a ton of bricks once it happens.
I’m not suggesting that he’s prepared for his own death, but he’s terrified of anybody thinking differently from him. It’s possible that he could erect a giant middle finger within the Olympian square once he’s done with it all. I don’t think he will, but it’s possible. I’m saying feeling the effects of change, especially such a change as this that’s impossible for anybody else to relate to, means that you can often react negatively, even if the change is the best thing for you. It’s not certain, but it’s possible. I’m arguing the possibility, I’m not saying he’s bent on receiving praise and adoration from people and that he’ll hate the MC for it.
I’m sorry again if I’m missing some context here (I haven’t been following the thread as closely lately), but I didn’t know Aeson will necessarily become weaker once the transfer occurs. This is from the in-game History tab:
Both sources would hold the power of the Essence, but only one of them could be used as a wielder of the Essence.
and I read that as something along the lines of “The Bestower is like a trust fund or a vault; they simply hold the Essence but cannot access it. Meanwhile, the Bearer can’t use it until the transfer.”
Take Paris for example. He nailed Achilles’s heel with his arrow whether the MC holds his hand or not the night before (I imagine this was the transfer), which means that, even if he’s lost his part of the Essence, he’s always had the skill to shoot an arrow accurately, at a pretty small target, from yards away (or he’s hella lucky). To me that means that Aeson has earned all his accolades and reputation not because he’s the Bestower, but because of his own skill, desire, and training as a demigod.
With that said, I think Aeson will still be pretty dang kick*ss after the transfer occurs.
You specifically talk about his reaction to change in how people see him so my answer was to point out that it indeed matters who those people are. If it’s just about how he deals with change then we have to think about how prepared he is to the change (much) and if he has any safety net and again he has a rather trustworthy social safety net.
…It’s not. It’s about the question how likely it is and also what kind of trouble he will have with his specific characterization in mind. That is not about being cynical. It’s about character interpretation based on the information we got presented in story and outside the story through word of god aka the author.
I…didn’t actually mean to write about people’s opinion of him in that part. Okay, I concede to the point.
To me, that’s being cynical. If there’s the belief that people will be concerned with themselves and public opinions of them when there’s also the option to believe that they will have a strong enough character to survive it, to believe the first would be taking the cynical road to me. But as you said I suppose it’s a matter of interpretation.
I personally just think that his real problems (the ones the focus will be on) will most likely be elsewhere and not with this specific topic. That’s all, it seems more likely considering what we know about him at least for me. The focus on the loss of public appreciation/status just doesn’t line up for me. It doesn’t really fit into the mosaic that is his character. At least not as such a big piece of the whole picture.
You’re right I suppose; a lot of the stuff discussed on here is not what’s going to be focused on within the story; it reminds me of the immortality and sociopathy discussion about a thousand posts back. That won’t be focused on either, but it’s fun to theorise.
It will be interesting to see how Aeson reacts to more aggressively anti god mc’s like mine. While I have no interest in serving Cronos after what he did to me, I’ve made no secret about my dislike of the other gods. Will he fear that I’m just going to force the gods hands into killing us both? After all he’s done and planned I could see him resenting a bearer like that more than some of the other ones.
I go off for two days and thread goes full on goodie goodie interpretations. I see Aeson as a cynic political persona that hides a deep hatred against gods whom controls and uses them. I hardly see him like a caring friend I see him as psychopathy person with no empathy. All that supposed friendly stuff with the gang seems odd and fake too me. He also seem to be a huge narcissist full of himself. He remembered me The American psycho protagonist or the Orange clock machine protagonist.
You’re all too trusting gummy bears hugging lovers lol. I just can’t help to see it all more cynical and political warfare. We are talking about Bloody Greek and Roman Olympus!! Not dysney…
I read all that makes cakes with daddy’s and how caring daddy’s and how friendly is saint gang and Aeson loving gods.
I just can see a Mass murder god who didn’t care enoughabout us to move his ass from the Olympus to searching for us. Zeus could stop banging someone for five minutes and searching with their powers in five minutes could find us and quit our block.
