#No shade to the Ripred enjoyers. He's great but we already have pages and pages of Ripred appreciation. Give Ares some time in the front

[quohotos]

Favorite underland chronicles character?

Shoot, that's a tough question.

The short answer is Ares. He's the best boy.

The long answer is that Hamnet does so much for the series. His introduction really marks this point of no return where both Gregor and the series as a whole has matured. He dispels all of the notions that have been built up by this point and reality checks everything that's happening. He confronts all the violence and war for the horrible crime that it is, he confronts the evil of the regalians that Vikus is sickened by but ultimately enables. He also is the only god damn person down here who treats Gregor like the child he is. He's the only one that acknowledges that Gregor shouldn't be here doing this, that he's just a little guy.

The fact that war finds him anyways, that he dies fighting is just so tragic. He's not vindicated by the narrative, war is terrible but even he couldn't escape it. Sometimes war just happens to you, and you never get a choice in it. War takes good people from us, and we so rarely get a say in that.

Ares is also a person who never got a say in it all, and it's so tragic they never got to meet. Ares was picked my a real piece of shit to be his bond simply because he was bigger and stronger than his peers. He never really felt at home in Luxa's friend group, he was really just being used, but he adapted and made the best of a bad situation. He wasn't really in a position to turn Henry down, and by being his bond he was lifted into proximity to royalty and wealth. All he had to do was grin and bare it, and learn to have some fun along the way.

But Henry was bad. He treated him like a subservient animal. Ares was *Henry's* bat. Something about that just resonates deeply with me on a personal level. It's so compelling. Being trapped in this scenario where someone close to you is a peice of shit but you can't do anything about it because you owe everything to this person. I mean, the fact that Henry didn't even tell Ares about their plans shows how little he thought their bond was mutual.

So Ares does the right thing, he saves Gregor instead... But it haunts him. Henry betrayed him first, but he still gets tired for treason because at the end of the day there's a hierarchy and a human matters more than a flyer. He's at peace with that, he doesn't want to live... And then Gregor saves him. God, all the confusing feelings that must have invoked.

Gregor really wasn't the best bond to him. He was gone so often, Ares was just alone and struggling and even though Gregor wouldn't always be there for Ares you bet your ass Ares would be there for Gregor.

I have a really soft spot for characters that just take a beating from the world and keep on going, keep on choosing to be better for everyone else's sake. Seeing him and Gregor come together and be a team makes me feel things, man. I know Mareth gets to have the official role of "I wish you could have been my older brother" but damn, Ares should have gotten that. He was Gregor's big bat brother and he learned to love that kid.

Except for curse of the warm bloods, Ares was there for all of it. He went on every quest with the warrior, and he had to confront all the same horrors. I think back to the whole sequence in the labyrinth, how he also struggled with what to do when they found the bane, how he also felt somber retracing their old steps to find Ripred.

I always feel drawn to the second fiddle characters in media (don't even get me started on Norm Spellman from Avatar). So Ares is my favorite, hands down... Him being an adorable yet deadly bat is also a factor let's be honest.

Hamnet is the most *interesting* character, but Ares is my favorite.