#I think the way c2 deals with that kind of narrative just really struck a chord for me personally

[dent-de-leon]

Keep thinking about...how Molly would've reacted if the Somnovem's Eyes ever awakened for him, if he had the chance to unlock that much power and just embrace it.

And I really do believe he would've never given in to the temptation. Thinking of...how he fought with Lucien and tried to talk him out of succumbing to the Somnovem's influence until the very end, how he desperately tried to understand--bargained, pleaded, defied him until the last moment. Thinking of the city falling apart all around them, Lucien himself tearing to pieces--Molly's horrified cry of, "Who dreams like this?" Thinking of how Mollymauk had every right to despise Lucien for what he did to him, and yet...Molly still cares enough to reach out a hand to him, to offer him the second chance that no one else would.

I think it's a combination of a lot different moving parts that made Mollymauk Tealeaf someone who would never take the Somnovem's bargain. Lucien was abandoned by all his family, abused and thrown away. But even though he awoke so alone and Empty, Molly was still embraced by a loving family, still found so much joy and love in a world he knew was, "harsh and cruel."

When his partner dies, he doesn't give in to despair; he mourns her, always carries her with him. But he also lets himself come to peace with her passing; always holds her close, yet still keeps moving forward and finding happiness--like she always wanted for him.

Whereas Lucien pushed away the Moonweaver's gentle touch at every turn, Molly wholeheartedly embraced her warmth. She reaches out to him again and again, between every painful death, ferrying him from one life to the next and giving him a softer place to land. Reminding him when he opens his eyes again "for the first time in the longest time," that it was love that made him.

And of course, Molly never wanted this. When he accidentally unlocked one of Lucien's powers for the first time, Taliesin describes him having "a mild nervous breakdown." He's terrified of the person Lucien's become, knows in his heart that he was cruel and vicious, the kind of person Molly wanted nothing to do with. He's desperate to keep from falling down the same path, so he runs from everything Lucien ever embraced.

"Whoever it was came to that end, and I want nothing to do with that. Whatever it was, it doesn't feel good when I--when something creeps through, I don't like it. I don't want anything to do with it. I was happy! I liked the circus! The circus was great!" Molly covers up the Eyes. He tells Cree to forget the book. He tries to hide his blood hunter abilities from the circus, and conceals the truth about them to the Nein at every turn.

I think a lot of it is also how Mollymauk always had the Nein to ground him. How, even when it seemed he was completely lost to Lucien's control, they never stopped reaching for him. Never stopped believing in him.

Thinking of how Caleb Widogast started off the campaign declaring, "I want to bend reality to my will," yet by the end, he burns away the one bridge back to his past--destroys it so no one else can ever have that kind of power and abuse it. Caleb, who tried so hard to save Molly from becoming that. "I think towards Molly, I say, 'Mollymauk, I am begging you. Hunger for control is insatiable, it will never be enough. Let it go.'" Who begs of him, "Snap out of it Tealeaf. We need you." Who is there to cradle him in the aftermath and promises him, "Empty no longer, Mr. Tealeaf." How the Mighty Nein all risk everything to try and save this one shattered soul. How they make him feel whole.

Thinking of how differently C2 and C3 deal with similar themes, how what could destroy one character might save another. How easily Molly could've fallen into the same trap as Lucien if the Nein weren't with him, if he wasn't so loved and cherished in a world where he still knew such terrible pain and loneliness--