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Who's Whose Counterpart?:

Anya Forger and Yuri Briar against Damian and Demetrius Desmond

I love Spy x Family. It's adorable and heart-wrenching and fluffy and angst filled and I love it all very much. I am eagerly following the manga, and my guys, we have been eating good the past 109 chapters. And while 109 may seem like a "jump the shark" moment for the series, I agree with the fans who say that Melinda's confession at the end of chapter 109 is most likely her rationalization of Donovan's behavior and not a fact. But I will eat my metaphorical hat and giggle while doing so if she's ever vindicated.

On Christmas Day, I was enjoying my cosmos and a minute to myself when I was struck by a realization that Demetrius Desmond may be Anya's foil instead of Damian. I continued to mull over this, and I have come to the conclusion that yes, Endo meant for Demetrius to foil Yuri Briar. But, I can't help but note the number of similarities between Demetrius and Anya, and that Damian shares some similarities to Yuri as well. Foil characters are meant to contrast and highlight certain qualities of the main character.

This post will contain spoilers under the cut. For anime-only fans, this goes well beyond the end of season 2 (~chapter 59) and goes up to the most recent chapter released, which is 109.

Damian is to Anya as Demetrius is to Yuri:

Damian Desmond debuts in chapter 8 of the series, and his behavior is a stark contrast from what we are used to seeing from Anya. Fundamentally, they both have the same goal of making their respective fathers proud of them, but the way they go about it differ, making them a good example of foil characters.

Socioeconomic background: the Desmond family is a member of Ostania's elite class, most likely with a noble lineage if their coat of arms is anything to go by, while the Forgers are an upper-middle class family

Blood relation: Damian is the biological son of his parents while Anya is adopted. His maternal grandparents were mentioned by Melinda back in chapter 91 (the veterans' bazaar) and one would assume that Donovan's parents existed at one point in order for the young Donovan to attend Eden (chapter 99, someone had to take him to the interview and pay tuition). Meanwhile, the Forgers are all orphans. Twilight's mother was killed during the bombings of Kielburg and that his father was presumably killed at the border when Luwen (Twilight's hometown) was first bombed. Yor and Yuri's parents passed during the war when the siblings were young, forcing Yor to take on the adult role of caretaker and breadwinner for Yuri. Their father has yet to be mentioned, but we did see their mother's back during Yor's cooking lesson (chapter 24). Likewise, Anya's biological father has yet to be mentioned, but if her response to Master Swan's awful interview question back in chapter 5 is anything to go off of, she may remember her biological mother. Anya was also fostered out to four different families before she came into Twilight's care. But despite not sharing any blood, we have watched the Forgers come to each other's aid and grow to care for each other (even though Twilight is currently backsliding into his "for the mission" mindset following the Mole arc, you cannot convince me that he does not care. He does. He's just being a blockhead about it). Now compare that to the Desmond family, who despite being family by blood, have the most tense, once in a blue moon family dinner in chapter 106. Chapter 106 does not play around when establishing the distance between individual family members.

Grades: to be clear, I am not going to call Anya dumb. She is clearly trying her very best and the improvements she's made are something to applaud. I'm proud of the little gremlin and I believe that she is going to continue rising in academic rank throughout the story. But as we've seen throughout the first term, the manga goes out of its way to establish Anya's hatred for studying thanks to her time in Project Apple's lab, and that she studies better under Yuri and Dr. Authen's tutelage than when Twilight tries to tutor her. Dr. Authens probably said it best, back in chapter 92, "The very essence of learning is acquiring techniques for how to break through when one hits a wall. Those eureka moments are the greatest joys in learning!" Yuri even says something similar when he tried to tutor Anya in chapter 26, "What matters is that you understand the mistake and take care not to repeat it." Both Dr. Authens and Yuri stress the importance of understanding the material to learn, rather than rote memorization. Damian, on the other hand, has a much more positive association with studying thanks to Donovan's praise, and he studies to the point of his own detriment, as seen in chapter 39. I am actually worried for the first time he fails, because I've seen the impact of associating one's grade with one's worth not only with my friends growing up, but in myself

Second sidebar: And as a former tutor, current TA, and huge nerd, I cannot agree more with Yuri and Dr. Authens. According to Bloom's Taxonomy of Education, while the memorization of facts is the very foundation of learning and is necessary as a result, it's the most basic form of learning. You use memorization (the ability to recall facts) to build off onto other skills, like understanding (the ability to explain what you've learned), application (the ability to apply what you learned to a new situation), analyze (the ability to draw connections, question, and relate different ideas), and so on. Those cognitive skills are developed as a child grows older and subsequently gains the ability to abstractly reason. For example, that's why math drills were so important for early elementary school students. The issue so many parents and teachers today in the U.S. take with recent changes to math curriculum is that it emphasizes abstract thinking over concrete thinking with grade school kids.

Now onto Yuri and Demetrius. For better or worse, we know Yuri's character and motivation. As a child, he saw Yor's numerous sacrifices to give him a happy life, which includes but is not limited to, her showing up covered in someone else's blood. He wants to repay her for her kindness and strength by making sure her adult world is safe, hence his joining the SSS. Was he not a literal fascist lapdog, it would be considered sweet. He has a sister worship complex a mile wide, and it's thankfully toned down into Yuri acting like an overgrown Mama's boy who's upset that he has to share Yor with his 'stepdad and stepsister,' so to speak. We know a lot about him, and now compare that to Demetrius, who we know next to nothing about. Demetrius Desmond's image is teased back in chapter 27, when Twilight deals with Daybreak's shenanigans. We only see Demetrius's back, and we learn from Twilight that Demetrius, "barely got a single question wrong."

Side bar: I know the anime and the wiki placed the student ID numbers as "68133071" being Demetrius's ID number and Damian's as "61133229", but I'm extremely confident that these are meant to be flipped, with the ID starting with "61" being Demetrius's ID number and Damian's being "68". Spy x Family's year is ambiguous, but it is meant to be the late 1960s into the early 1970s. In my opinion, it's highly unlikely that the years count down rather than up. "68" and "61" are most likely the year at which a student starts at Eden, which is one of the two major reasons why I predicted that Demetrius was seven years older than Damian, and in the eighth grade, making him 13 years old. The other reason was that the Briar siblings have a seven year age gap, with Yuri being 20 and Yor being 27. End, nitpicky sidebar.

Back to the point at hand, Demetrius is first heard from back in chapter 37, when Damian calls him from the Cecile Hall dormitory phone. He's straightforward to the point of blunt with his younger brother and curt, but he still accepts Damian's request that he ask their father to meet him in the courtyard of Library 2 after the Imperial Scholars' mixer. Though, Demetrius does warn Damian not to get his hopes up before he ends the call. Demetrius makes his first physical appearance in chapter 93, where we learn that this Tim Burton-esque (and I mean that affectionately) middle schooler earned six Stella stars during his finals. But what makes him Yuri's established foil character?

Family: Demetrius comes from a storied, elite family and seems to be a city boy (assuming the Desmond estate is within Berlint city limits) while Yuri comes from a more rural background (Yor's flashback in chapter 53 makes where they lived in East Nielsberg look more like a small town than a bustling city like Berlint) with the relatively unknown Briar family.

Appearances: with both Yuri and Demetrius, they appear the least of their respective families. But Yuri has been shown much more frequently than Demetrius, even having his own central chapters showing his work as an SSS officer. Demetrius appears in 2 chapters (93 and 106) to Donovan's 4 (37, 38, 99, and 106), and while his debut in 93, establishes some bare bone facts about him, his role in 106 is relatively small, with him turning down Damian's request for homework help and then him just eating during the family dinner. Demetrius barely reacts to the tension at the table and instead focuses on clearing his plate so that he can be excused. Yuri's chapters focus on his work with the SSS and his relationship with Yor. He only interacts with Anya when Yor asks him to, and then with Loid, Yuri tries to outdo him. Yuri's connection to the Forger family is really just Yor. Similar to Yuri, Demetrius's connection to the Desmond family seems rather weak, with Damian being his link to the family. Demetrius has yet to speak with Melinda or mention her, and vice versa. But Melinda has yet to say Demetrius's name, not even in the most recent chapter, 109. The closest we have to Melinda acknowledging Demetrius's existence is her saying, "My sons," to Millie back in chapter 92. Presumably, Donovan and Demetrius have interacted during the Imperial Scholars' mixer because Donovan went to meet with Damian in the courtyard, but we aren't shown their interaction. The only words we have seen Demetrius speak to Donovan are, "Thank you, Father," in response to being excused from the dinner table. Demetrius does not even speak to any of the estate staff like Damian does. Which, damn... that's pretty upsetting that the only person Demetrius will talk to is his six year old brother and even then, he doesn't volunteer much information about himself. He's all alone, like Yuri.

Book smarts: Both Yuri and Demetrius are extremely smart. Yuri having skipped all of high school and presumably some of middle school to be a college student at the age of fourteen (chapter 89), and Demetrius earning the highest score in three subject finals and then the second-highest in another three subject finals to earn six Stella Stars in one final exam period. We don't know exactly how many Stellas Demetrius has earned in total, but it's presumably very high. I did the math, and if Demetrius started out by earning one Stella star per exam period like Damian currently has done, he would have collected eight Stella stars by the time second grade ended. It could have been even sooner than that if say, Demetrius earned two academic Stellas in one exam period or if he had earned a Stella for heroism like Damian and Anya have done, or a Stella for athletic or artistic pursuits like Twilight had mentioned. Demetrius could have been as young as seven or eight when he earned his Imperial Scholar cloak, which makes WISE's expectation for Anya to quickly become an Imperial Scholar actually realistic. If Anya earned one Stella an exam period, she still would become an Imperial Scholar by the time she finished second grade.

Awkward age relative to the cast: Assuming that grade 13 is universal in Ostania and not unique to Eden and that they were both college freshmen when they first met, Chloe would have been 19 to Yuri's 14, making her 25 at the youngest. She is closer in age to Yor than she is to Yuri. Yor's coworker Millie seems to be the proverbial baby of the bunch of the Berlint city hall girls, and seems to be in her early twenties. But besides Yuri and Millie, there is not another prominent young adult character in their early twenties. Demetrius is the only prominent teenaged character in Spy x Family, which makes him unusual. Every major character we have met so far have been adults or literal first-graders.

Admittedly, these are more similarities between Yuri and Demetrius than actual foil character characteristics that we have seen with Anya and Damian. We don't really know Demetrius's goal like we do with the other three, but as time goes on and more chapters are released, this may change. For now, this gets me right into my question:

What if Anya is to Demetrius as Yuri is to Damian?:

I'll do Yuri and Damian first, since their connection to each other can be explained relatively quicker than Anya and Demetrius's connections.

As I've pointed out earlier, Damian's goal is the same as Anya: to make his father proud of him. It what makes him a great foil to her and why I love their dynamic. But Damian's relationship to his family is remarkably similar to how Yuri views the Forger family. Both have a family member whose praise and affection they want to earn; both have a family member whose relationship with them is dismissive and indifferent at worst but can venture into positive; and finally, both have a rival family member that they need to outdo to earn their target of affection's love.

For Yuri, it's Yor's love that he's trying to earn and keep. Yuri's fear of losing his place as the most important person in Yor's life leads him to act extremely childish and it fuels his one-sided rivalry with Loid Forger/Twilight. Upon introduction to Anya, Yuri views her as Loi-Loi's daughter but he's more dismissive than outwardly cruel towards her. The first light novel has him take Anya out to Step Works Kids to figure out what kind of career she'll want when she grows up. He doesn't really want to babysit her, and only took her out because she threatened to tell Yor he was mean to her, but by the end of their short story together, the two are getting along and bickering like a pair of siblings, to the point where Yor found it cute. If the novels aren't canon to you, there's proof that Yuri does care about Anya's safety during the bus hijacking arc. I know some have taken his sour-grapes attitude (chapter 71) when the First Lieutenant shot down his request to help as a sign of psychopathy, but I read it more as Yuri acting like a kid who's going, "You don't like my idea? Fine. See if I care, because I totally don't. Not one bit. Nadda." Yuri's a big ham, and he's being one at the moment. All it took was a Scooby snack of Yor being upset for him to drop the act and nearly charge onto the scene. The SSS had to sic him onto the other bus where classes 5 and 6 were being held hostage so Yuri wouldn't interfere with the situation of his niece's bus and get recognized (chapter 72-73).

In Damian's case, the family member whose affection he wants the most is his father, Donovan. Even when Damian's being comforted by his mother in the wake of the hijacking, he still thinks about his father and asks his mother not to tell Donovan that Damian cried (chapter 75). This triggers a switch in Melinda's line of thinking from relief over her son being okay to that love and hate thinking that startles Anya. In chapter 76, we see that she does go through with her internal promise to cook a meal for Damian, but that she doesn't stick around to eat with him. Melinda's reluctance to be with Damian is further seen in chapter 108, and it's implied that the distance between mother and son isn't self-imposed like how Yuri tries to treat Anya, but something Donovan ordered. Maybe rivalry is too strong of a word for how Damian interacts with Demetrius, but Damian's desire to become an Imperial Scholar stems from his belief that Donovan favors Demetrius, and that if Damian can be as good as his older brother, he'll have earned Donovan's love. When Demetrius points out in chapter 93 that he isn't in regular contact with their father like Damian had believed, Damian thinks, "I thought that he [Donovan] just didn't like spending time with me. But maybe he really is just too busy nowadays." Even so, we see in chapter 104 that Damian is still determined to maintain his role as highest scorer in history exams. Presumably, he made the logical leap that WISE and Twilight had done: Donovan really only goes out to Imperial Scholar mixers, so the way to keep contact with him is to become an Imperial Scholar and meet Donovan at these mixers. It's still 'earn his love' flavored ambition, but it's tempered by the revelation that Donovan really is just busy.

Now, onto the juicy bits: is Demetrius Anya's foil?

In my opinion, yes, Demetrius is Anya's foil because like Anya, he is a vehicle used by the adults by in his life to accomplish their goals. But whereas Anya has retained her individuality and autonomy, Demetrius has not.

Anya's mind-reading capabilities are a literary MacGuffin that we, the audience, are aware of, but no one else is. Damian may have suspected Anya's abilities and she did tell Damian about them back in chapter 96, but he didn't believe her. Twilight and Yor have no idea that Anya knows why they agreed to make this family. Twilight needed a six year old child who was smart enough to pass Eden's entrance exam, and he needed a wife to complete their image as a model family so that Eden's administration would pass Anya and not suspect anything of him. Yor needed a husband to avoid being reported by the SSS, so that she could continue to be a Garden assassin. Anya read their minds and is the one who made the first move to get Twilight to adopt her and then Yor to ask Loid Forger to act as her boyfriend for one night. But in Twilight's eyes, he adopted a somewhat strange child and is using her and an 'innocent' if unusually strong city hall worker for the mission. In Yor's eyes, she is using a widower and his child for her own cover, though she is quick to form a strong bond with Anya and fall for Loid Forger's earnest praise. When the truth comes out, Twilight is definitely going to be shocked by Yor's connection to an organization that's supposed to be an urban legend, and Yor is going to be livid that she helped a possible enemy and that said enemy used a child to advance his own mission. Anya revealing her own hand is what will probably save Twilight from Yor's golden needles.

We know from chapter 1 that, "[Donovan Desmond's] only public appearances are at events held at the elite private school his son attends. These events serve as informal get-togethers for the upper-crust of industrial and political leaders." These Imperial Scholar mixers are the only time someone outside of Donovan's immediate circle can gain access to him, and this basis forms the entirety of Plan A for Operation Strix. We know from Damian's remarks that even if Plan B was a success, it doesn't mean that Donovan would be at the Desmond family estate the same time as a playdate with Anya. Plan A would be more successful since it's almost guaranteed that Donovan would be there. It's why Damian seized the chance to ask his brother to ask their father to meet him afterwards. As Loid Forger, Twilight needs to infiltrate these mixers and gain contact. This is repeated to the audience in chapter 37 when Twilight is scouting Eden's school grounds. Given Donovan's secretive nature and paranoia, it's almost surprising that this man would come out into the public eye at all. But given the extremely high security detail around these mixers, you can see why these parties are as public as Donovan will get. He may not be in control of the situation he is in, but the likelihood of someone trying to harm him there is extremely small. It makes me wonder if actually pushed Demetrius to become an Imperial Scholar, like Twilight currently is doing with Anya, so that Donovan could have a semi-public place to socialize and make contact with valuable sources of information. In chapters 8 and 108, Twilight's head was practically spinning when he realized how many potential intelligences sources Eden Academy attracts, from military sources like Major Wesley Watkins (Bill's dad) to political sources (the parliamentary secretaries) to industrial sources like Byron Blackbell (Becky's dad). Donovan probably knows this better than anyone, since not only he was a student at Eden Academy but he is also a prominent figure among Ostania's elites.

Demetrius is the child WISE wanted Twilight to pick. If Damian's words in chapter 93 are true, then Demetrius has been studying since he was very young. Damian imagines a quiet, thoughtful young Demetrius who is dutifully making notes as Donovan watches him study, implying that Demetrius has always been a dedicated student and that he doesn't show any signs of reluctance towards studying like Anya and some of their Eden classmates do. If I had to estimate an age for Demetrius in Damian's imagine spot, his older brother may have been no younger than five years old but no older than eight. That image of him studying makes me think of Yuri's flashbacks of his younger self studying and waiting up for Yor, where he looks to be in early elementary school-aged to Yor's mid-teens.

Now, this could be a pre-Eden studying session, as young Demetrius's shirt lacks the Eden emblem on his chest and has sharper points to his shirt collar than the Peter Pan rounded collars the Eden first graders wear, making Demetrius five to six years old (a kindergartner). But, this could be six-to-eight-year-old Demetrius, which would put him in first, second, or possibly even third grade, studying at home, making him a commuter student at first and then Demetrius later becoming a boarding student, instead of always being a boarding student like Damian is. Initially, I believed that some incident happened either shortly before or after Damian's birth that led to Donovan gaining those head scars and further splintering the Desmond family, but now I can't help but wonder if Donovan supervised Demetrius's study sessions until the boy became an Imperial Scholar, at which point, Donovan had him sent off to live in the dorms because his objective is now complete. He can attend the mixers thanks to Demetrius's status, ergo, he no longer has to supervise or interact with a person he doesn't really understand (to reference his chapter 38 quote). Damian never got the same attention because by the time he was old enough to start studying, Demetrius had already established himself as an Imperial Scholar.

This is just an idea based off an imagine spot, but it would be eerily similar to what Twilight initially planned to do with Anya (have her study and only focus on earning Stella Stars through academics, athletics, the arts, or volunteering until she became an Imperial Scholar). Yor played an important role in reminding Twilight that Anya is still a kid and her own wants may differ from his, softening his harsher methods (chapter 10): "Loid, stop! You can't just force this sort of thing on her... Do you think becoming an honor student is what she wants?" Hell, Yor even inadvertently assuaged Anya's fears of Nightfall taking her place and making her life a scholarly hell by beating Nightfall in tennis and making Anya feel loved and cared for, as Twilight would later assure her. Even if you don't believe that Donovan didn't plan to use Demetrius's Imperial Scholar title to socialize with other elites, it is an established problem at Eden Academy. As early as chapter 8, Damian first rejects Anya because her father isn't impressive and other students seem to laugh in agreement. Henderson mentioned during the first-grade dance that the Eden students are often pressured by their parents to do some sort of political maneuvering, and that the ban on guardians chaperoning stems from that.

Okay, so that's a strike towards uncanny valley with Donovan-Demetrius to Twilight-Anya. But what about Melinda? And Damian?

Like I pointed out earlier, Melinda has yet to speak to Demetrius or even say his name onscreen. The closest thing I can get to her talking about him is when she says, "[M]y sons," plural during her talk with Millie in chapter 92. Now, she may be hesitant to talk to Demetrius because he looks so much like Donovan and shares his stoic, hard to read nature, but that has yet to be stated outright in canon. It kind of reminds me of how hesitant Yor was to act with Anya in the very beginning. Except, instead of fearing Loid's reaction to her acting motherly towards Anya, Yor feared she would disrespect Anya's biological mother, Loid's first wife, by doing so. It took some serious encouragement from Twilight after the tennis arc for Yor to start to become more assured in her role as Anya's mother. Before the end of the tennis arc, Yor was hesitant to scold Anya or even correct Twilight. Soon after she asked Twilight about Anya's wants, Yor apologized for what she believed was "overstepping" her bounds. But where Yor spoke her opinion, however hesitantly or forward it may have been, Twilight took her seriously and listened, Melinda fears her husband and she and Donovan don't talk. Like Yor, Melinda wants to be an active mother to her sons, but it seems that Donovan is unlikely to listen to her, even if she did stand up to him. It's rather disheartening to watch.

I seriously need to know what is up with Donovan, and how exactly he and Melinda married. It had to have been an arranged marriage, but did she always fear his responses to her or was that something she learned overtime?

According to two Lady Patriots' members in chapter 66, "The Desmonds follow what you might call a hands-off philosophy. With both boys being so exceptional, they hardly need much attention." Ladies, if there wasn't a nanny or even a butler to look after them, social services would call that child neglect, but that's a story for another day. The important takeaway here is that these upper-crust ladies think of childrearing as a chore they want to avoid, which contrasts sharply with Yor's active role as a caretaker in first Yuri's and then later Anya's life. Melinda does not seem to agree with this parenting philosophy, as we've seen from her thoughts in chapter 108, that Melinda wishes she played an active role in Damian's life. But, Melinda's hands are tied, and the blame for that lies with Donovan's orders.

So if Demetrius's relationship with Donovan is what Twilight's relationship with Anya would have become if Twilight didn't grow attached and listen to Yor, and Demetrius's nonexistent relationship with Melinda is what Anya and Yor's relationship could have become if Yor didn't speak up and/or she didn't listen to Twilight's encouragement, how does his and Damian's relationship relate to Anya and Yuri's?

Well, Yuri doesn't really have a use for Anya. Interacting positively with her will net him some praise from Yor, but Anya just seems to confuse Yuri and he doesn't really know what to do with her. Anya finds reading his thoughts to be annoying. As seen in chapter 106, Damian craves any sort of familiar interaction, so he will try to talk to his older brother. But the last two times that the brothers have talked (chapters 37 and 93), it was because Damian wanted something in relation to Donovan. Damian is six, and he does not mean to, but Demetrius is a vehicle in which Damian could hear some praise from his father. Neither brother really understands the other, like Anya and Yuri do, and Damian mentioning Donovan is enough of a slight for Demetrius to grow curt and end the conversation. Demetrius is visibly annoyed as he stormed off.

Also, just to kick you while you're down. We haven't seen Demetrius interact with Max, meanwhile, Anya and Bond are nigh inseparable. How's dem apples?

Edit: HRAGH! I forgot the differences in personality between Anya and Demetrius.

We do not know much about Demetrius besides the fact that he is extremely smart, extremely quiet, and extremely stoic. Anya is no slouch (going from 213th to 168th out of 228 students is nothing to sneeze at), but we see her struggle and work hard to get those grades. With Demetrius, one can reasonably assume that all he does is study, but we have yet to actually see how hard he studies and if he has any hobbies or favorite things himself. It seems that he effortlessly gets those Stellas through exam grades to Anya, who thinks she can read his mind and get a shortcut to genius level achievements. Unlike Anya who speaks her mind rather freely and without inhibition, Demetrius only speaks when spoken to. We have yet to see him initiate conversation. He waits for Donovan to excuse him from the dinner table, and only then does he speak (chapter 106). Anya is also very expressive (I love her little faces) while Demetrius only narrowed his eyes when Damian brought up, but otherwise did not change his rather neutral expression (chapter 93).

Demetrius is also extremely alone. Compare that to Anya, who at least, always had Becky by her side since she entered Eden. I’d even argue that she, Becky, Damian, Ewen, and Emile form a little friendship group of their own, since they rarely interact with any other classmates besides each other. We see some of Demetrius’s peers clap for his awards but their expressions range from surprise to slight fear to jealous. When he leaves the middle school Stella ceremony, he is alone. When he storms away from Damian, he is still alone. At home, he holes himself up in his room, only coming out to eat dinner, but he hardly speaks. Not to his father, not to his mother, and not to his younger brother or even the family staff. In chapters 91-92, Anya decide to adopt an elderly couple to be her grandparents. And that is relatively recent. This little girl has no fear. Name a situation where she didn’t either talk to a bad guy or speak up and create a situation to give Twilight or Yor an opening. I’ll wait. She is always out with at least one adult who she considers family (usually Twilight or Yor, but also Franky, Yuri, and the Authens). Her always being with someone who cares makes Demetrius’s lack of that more painfully obvious. Sure, thirteen is the age where kids become teens and start pulling away from their parents, but you don’t throw them to the wolves at that age. They still need an adult for guidance or even comfort. Other kids have started to admire Anya after the bus hijacking, while Demetrius’s classmates are wary of him. Demetrius doesn’t have familial or peer support. He’s just alone with shiny pieces of metal to briefly announce to the school that he achieved something.

TL;DR: Demetrius status as an isolated Imperial Scholar is not only Damian's worst possible future, but it also could have been Anya's fate, had Twilight and Yor been more, "It's for the mission/cover." Now, isn't that just upsetting.

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