#and isaac might have acted as a big bro to the scaredy hector until he came out of his shell

[beevean]

I always appreciate a good rant about Isaac :)

The part about the Curse exonerating him reminds me way too much of how someone on TvTropes kept insisting, and was never corrected, that Isaac was downright possessed by Dracula during CoD. Not only it is, like, factually wrong, because Hector got also hit in the face with the Curse and it's clear that there was no Dracula in his brain, but also I hate it precisely because it would reduce Isaac to a mere meat puppet. no guys, when he kissed trevor he was perfectly lucid

I know no one read the mangas in that joint. But Isaac severing corpses' hands as trophies in PtR and killing his own underlings to be free to kill Hector behind Isaac's back in the MF manga were all him. Hell, serving Dracula in the first place was all him, even if we go with the MF manga's idea that Hector and Isaac knocked on Drac's door as children when it became clear to them that there was no other place where they could exist.

Isaac is presented, overall, in an "irredeemably evil but with good reasons to be so" way. He is 100% a bastard in most of his scenes in all three works he was in. Kinder gestures, like him comforting Julia before entering the castle (MF manga), empathizing with Dracula's hurt over being betrayed (PtR), offering Hector a chance to live (both mangas) and running away before he could harm Julia (game), are so subtle and definitely not enough to redeem him, compared to all the cruel killings and sadistic tendencies he shows. However, it is made clear that he comes from a deep place of hurting, both for the world who rejected him and for how Hector callously destroyed his life when he did nothing to deserve it. Hector in the finale spells out that Isaac is, at most, to be pitied for his sorry fate. Then, it's up to you to decide how much you want to forgive him. Do you go "cool motive, still murder?", or do you take into account the many ways in which Isaac was dealt a horrible hand in life until you feel that he was downright fated to die (as implied by his own name)? Or something in between?

But yes, I think that, when it comes to the subject of "the Curse made him insane", perhaps Albus did it better? Albus eventually succumbed to Dominus and had to be put down like a rabid dog which makes his fate tragic, especially when you learn why he did all that he did, but most of his actions in the game, including kidnapping villagers and taking their blood, were all his lucid doing.

Nothing to add to the part about reading between the lines. I think the reason CoD has become a disease for me is that it, somehow, managed to land in that perfect spot between giving me enough material to eat for years on end, and leaving enough blind spots for me to fill to my own imagination. Even its narrative flaws only make me go "okay but how could I interpret them better or rewrite them...". And while I completely understand the narrative choice of killing Isaac off, even of leaving him buried under Dracula's castle, the fact that I felt genuinely bad to see his dead body in the ending before even reading the mangas speaks of how compelling I felt he was, and I understand the desire to come up with a "Isaac survives and heals" AU.

anyway we all love Isaac the tragic disaster in this joint and it makes me happy :)

All the time I wonder why I want so badly for there to be something redemptive in Isaac, some sort of way for him to get a happy ending, something that would make him even deserving of that in the first place.

It goes beyond just appreciating a camp villain who’s evil and doesn’t care (though I also have fun with that). I just want him to be okay and I don’t know why.

Okay the following is just going to be a biblical yap session so I’m putting a cut here

There’s Julia of course, I mean who doesn’t love an evil guy with a soft spot for family. But in all (3) of their canon interactions he’s at best dismissive and at worst abusive towards her. Sure there’s implied stuff, like how he forgave her for running from the castle but wouldn’t do the same for Hector; how he stopped the fight in Cordova town and recalled Abel the second she showed up; the fact that she’s lived in the shadow of the castle for years and has been left alone. But that’s all conjecture, and in the text the only one who seems to care at all about the other is Julia.

There’s also his self-destructive nature. Isaac isn’t kind to himself, he self harms and he hangs naked and vulnerable around the wreckage of his old home. He insists on fighting Hector only when Hector is as powerful as possible, he goes head to head with Trevor and barely scrapes a drop of blood out of him, before deciding later to get as close as possible to him to steal his dagger instead of just killing him from a safe distance. He just clearly doesn’t care that much about his life, and my instinct is to feel bad for him. But, then what? He hurts himself as well as hurting the people around him? Do I feel sorry for him just because he was reckless when going for the kill shot on another extremely beloved character? And again, most of this is just me placing my readings on his actions. If anything, the manga portrays Isaac’s self harm as him just being insane. He’s sitting in the ruined castle, naked, and spying on Hector while he cuts himself, it’s not exactly a sympathetic portrayal of mental illness.

The only thing left I can think of, and kind of the most obvious answer, is that the game exonerates him of his actions pretty blatantly. He’s cursed, there’s a curse that gives you raging vindictive asshole disease and Isaac’s been hanging around ground zero for three years straight. How convenient! Now, it’s mainly Julia championing this point, so you can argue that she’s just biased, but the game seems to treat it like she’s right and even Hector remarks on it at the end, so I’m going to treat it as canon. Isaac got the Evil Curse that makes you Evil and became Evil. So I got what I wanted! Isaac is just a morally neutral guy who became evil against his own will from outside sources, and all he needs is the cure to the Evil disease and he can be redeemed! A perfect sympathetic villain.

But the problem is I really really fucking hate that.

I hate even the implication from the game that the curse is responsible for Isaac’s wrongdoings. I’m fine with Julia coming to that conclusion but it shouldn’t be canon. Taking away any character’s agency in their actions is bad storytelling and if that’s the sole reason Isaac becomes sympathetic I don’t want it, I’d rather he be straight up irredeemably evil of his own accord.

So my main two reasons for wanting to Save Isaac are purely me projecting, and the one that could possibly make sense in the story is one that I reject completely. So why do I still love him and why is he just a poor little baby who needs a hug.

Well, straight up text isn’t the only way to read a story. If that was the case then there wouldn’t be a legion of dorks like me dedicating every waking thought to the stories and the characters of these games. Reading between the lines is how you form a better understanding of the characters. Sure, aside from a few lines saying that it’s not his fault he got Magic Evil Disease the game doesn’t hold your hand and say this boy is good and you should root for him, but you don’t need that. you just need to obsess over things and analyze every single twitch of the mocap actors body until Isaac fits your desired characterization, then you can do all KINDS of stuff with him, like make him a good brother, or force him to work at Walmart (stay tuned).

Also, I identify with Isaac in a lot of ways. He is an other, deemed to be so by society. he can’t help the way that he is and rather than repress it, he goes off to find a place where he can embrace it and better understand it. He presents himself in an extreme way, rejects normalcy and molds himself to look how he wants to, regardless of how anybody will perceive him. And yet despite all of his he struggles with identity, struggles to find a place in the world after the thing he depended on so much is taken from him. He’s also super hot and sexy and cool, just a total knockout, but not like he’s trying to impress anyone or anything, he’s just like that.

So many relatable traits, he is at once someone I aspire towards and someone who reflects the parts of me I wish I could change. I want him to succeed, to get out of his toxic grief cycle and flourish. partly because I want myself to succeed, and overcome the just as important and harrowing obstacles of my own life.

I love Isaac, as a character, as an antagonist, as a little doll that I can dress up and put into different scenarios. And you know what maybe that’s all I really need. I love him and want him to be happy, because I love him and that’s what I want for him. Okay post cancelled I figured it out, only took me 10 paragraphs oh my god.

Sorry this was literal eons long, this is literally just me working through my thoughts in real time