yo! i’m really confused about vaius’s character, to be really honest.
i saw in the bio that he’s supposed to be, like, a sociopath pretending to be a normal dude? which is really cool, it sounds like an awesome trope! but every time i talk to him, he just drops what he’s doing to throw hands, which really just reads more like a kid with severe anger issues.
more to the point, in the scene we just had. a quick summary of events.
- sylvain idiotically bursts in.
- vaius insults him.
- vaius covers for him.
up to here, it seems pretty standard for an angry kid with family issues (doesn’t really track for a closeted sociopath, so I’m going to go with the former characterization). but then,
- sylvain asks if vaius has a sister
- vaius spills his entire backstory, involving some of his most deep-seated issues and what seems to be coded as a ‘family secret’ sort of deal? not sure on the last point, but the bio does kind of read like the family would like vaius to be seen as the legitimate heir.
it’s been established by this point that vaius is somewhat contemptuous (or, at best, vaguely pitying) of sylvain. i don’t quite understand the reasoning for him to open up here- honestly, he’s kind of just giving personal ammunition to a guy who’s been either an idiot or an asshole, depending on how generous your read of my sylvain is.
- sylvain asks a pretty pithy, surface-level question in response to the story.
- vaius admits to something that is, in game, treated pretty thoroughly like treason, and expects sylvain to do the same.
here’s where I get a bit lost. vaius pretty clearly doesn’t want to go back home re: his bio, and he doesn’t seem to be actively suicidal? Rhea punishes those random guys for treason with death in the game, I can’t see students not at least getting expelled for committing blasphemy. sylvain hasn’t really done anything to make vaius trust him at this point- he could just as well have gone to rhea and sold him out. just feels like an odd decision, risk-wise.
i guess that leads me into my next point- vaius is oddly risky with his ‘secrets’ and ‘pain points’, if you will? the backstory reads like someone who would learn to be very secretive, who might lash out or shut down when pressed. sylvain knowing he has a sister who cares for him enough to send him a stuffed bear, and that he cares enough in return to keep it on his bed is a pain point- he could hurt him with that knowledge. it’s strangely trusting for vaius to respond without hostility- which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! but it doesn’t track with the anger issues or what you seemed to set the character up to be.
in conclusion, i think there’s some really interesting things to work with here, but they get kind of muddled and inconsistent. if you’d like to talk it out, i’m probably not the Ideal choice for it but i’d be happy to try and help!
