#also the guy avior's talking to is vega 👀

[ryoko-san]

It's fun to draw swap! Avior's tibbies lol

Vindemiatior's just– staring 👁️👁️

[androgynouspenguinexpert]

hello hello! i love your character analysis(?) posts, and i would love to hear your thoughts on Avior 👀 /nf

alright im on the train home from uni so its rantin' time - this'll probably be a long one, so strap in theydies and gentlethems!

avior! avior. his first arc was incredibly interesting to me, as i'm a big fan of moral quandries. the idea of keeping a massive secret from a loved one for their safety is super compelling, doubly so if that secrecy is justified (looking at you, blake).

this guy is smart, which is refreshing. avior might be highly emotional (pin this for later), but he's a strategist by nature. unlike a lot of other characters (looking at you again, blake), avior is able (to a certain point) to put his own feelings and goals aside for the sake of others. however - as we'll get to later, avior also has a tendency to decide what people want for them, rather than asking. admittedly, he's usually right, but his execution almost always ends up making someone upset with him.

avior has a lot of flaws, but that's what makes him so interesting! i'd argue avior's biggest character flaw is his immaturity, with selfishness as a close second. he can be shockingly inconsiderate at times, especially if he believes he's doing it for the greater good. avior often hides behind his intellect as an excuse to be detached from things he deems unimportant. obviously he dials it up on purpose to keep starlight at arm's length, but his real feelings towards some of their less good ideas do start to show through from time to time.

on the other side of that coin, avior is very reactionary when it comes to things he does care about. he's a passionate person who regularly has to handle very strong emotions, and it shows. watching avior torture himself by keeping someone he loves at a distance by being a dick is - well, not fun, but it's very strong and entertaining character work.

i think these two things come to a head in the imperium. avior's desire to keep everything running smoothy clashes with his (for lack of a better term) humanity. we can see this in the way he is distrustful (and rightfully so) of the vampire hoardes showing up on the academy's doorstep, yet he goes ballistic at vega for suggesting that they're disposable soldiers who can be killed for resisting orders. i think it's pretty clear in both the prime and imperium timelines that avior is a pacifist, but is often forced into violence either directly or by proxy. imperium!avior has a lot of people relying on him, and he really wasn't built for that pressure.

as an aside, i think it's interesting to see how each character reacts to extreme stress. it was perfectly put in that one heritage tumblr post - your characters are geodes. to see what they're really made of, you need to break them. avior is very reactionary, so you might expect him to snap, but he crumbles. avior's prime universe breakdown is super interesting (which i know is a wild statement, but i'm making it through a purely analytical lens, so hear me out). he's 36 at time of writing, but that is staggeringly young compared to daemons who have been around since before the beginning of time. he doesn't know who he is yet. avior might resist it when questioned, but he wants - needs - guidance, and he knows that. i think avior struggles with impostor syndrome, especially in the imperium. he's nervous to move away from the security blanket that is the older daemons, and getting booted into a pocket dimension by blake has forced his hand.

let's talk about the finale, and start of arc 2! avior and starlight are dumped out on the street by ancient deathless gods. cool. the inversion starts. less cool. avior's first instinct is to investigate and report back to the chorus - his curiosity is back after being beaten out of him by spending 2 years completely isolated. he's horrified by the carnage, which is completely expected, but i also think speaks to how sheltered he is. obviously, everyone in the general area is caught off guard by what is essentially shades shooting fish in a barrel, but avior's revulsion is unique. he hasn't spent enough time in elegy to learn real damage control, let alone for a large number of people. david is a good contrast here - of course he wants to help individuals, but he recognises that his first priority should be the safety of as many people as possible. granted, it's his job, but even sam starts to coordinate muster points once he's caught onto the situation (and, admittedly, made sure vincent hasn't torn through a wall looking for lovely).

avior then presents his (*) memories of e'laetum and min'ara to the chorus, as well as calling them for backup at the inversion point, but they're unconvinced. we'll be here all day if i got into chorus politics here - but i think their hesitancy is, among other reasons, caused by avior's presentation of the information. he's panicking. insistant. desperate to get the chorus involved as quickly as possible to stop people from suffering. this is another of avior's flaws - he's a lot more human than he thinks.

you could chalk that up to his age and inexperience, but avior displays a level of empathy (ironically) and care for humans that a lot of other daemons do not. that's definitely not a bad thing, but avior seems to be completely unaware of this fact and thus leaves it unmeasured. i think avior might have had a chance of at least swaying the chorus if he had presented his evidence with logic and detachment. here's a screen recording of meeting e'laetum and min'ara and the information they gave, be it true or not. you can all feel mass casualties in the spellsong. shades are involved, and a lot of them, so the sovereigns are definitely up to something. avior is far too smart to not put the pieces together that this display of raw power by the sovereigns is a sign that their strength is returning. but, unfortunately, the chorus (specifically circinus) only see avior's emotions clouding his judgement, and dismiss him.

i'm worried that an extended period of being completely alone has stunted avior's emotional development, especially considering he never spent much time interacting with elegy in the first place. even someone like gavin (who chose to stay in elegy after years of mistreatment) responded to the inversion fairly rationally, considering he spent the entire time being agonisingly ripped apart at the seams. yes, they're different people, but gavin's exposure to people from fairly early in his life is definitely a contributing factor.

avior has a lot of potential directions for his character to go in, but i think the most likely one is his emotional regulation. he's too focused on the immediate future, which is a microscopic amount of time for a daemon that lives for an indefinite amount of time. he's childish. again, not a bad thing - but avior's inexperience and lack of emotional development have a strong effect on his behaviour. i hope he learns to recognise that before it bites him in the ass.