#cr fandom please start to consider power dynamics in your analysis of the gods that it like the most important thing to consider!!

[astralleywright]

the thing about humanizing the Gods, showing all their virtues and faults and loves and failures, is that it renders the amount of power they hold over the average mortal-over mortals as a whole-horrifying. even in their own approximation of mortality, they obliterate the city that posed by far the biggest threat to their existence in a single night. in the hospital Father Milo plays with the doctor's body like a toy, casually puppeting her and breaking her wrists while discussing family matters with Ayden. Ayden casts a spell to free her from his grasp, and then disregards her gratefulness to continue arguing with Father Milo.

it's relatable, of course, to protect your family no matter what. but: "it's a war to us. to them, it's a squabble." the Gods are not responsible only to themselves. are mortals not their family? not their children? with families of their own they're desperate to protect? Aeor is a passive threat, an unfulfilled promise, but the betrayers are very much not. they are actively attempting to annihilate all mortals. they're very clear about this. they've already killed most of them, and even in the truce their goal is to kill more. and the primes fought against this, until the mortals retaliated. the mortals are their children, yes, never allowed to grow up, to reach, to even protect themselves from their parents. at best, the primes are too emotionally compromised to wield the power they have. at worst, that power also makes them a threat to the people of Exandria.

this is all, of course, the reasoning for the divine gate. but this does not reshape the relationship between Gods and mortals positively, instead witholding the incredible blessings they have from the people that could truly benefit from them. it's as much a punishment for mortals as it is for the Gods. this doesn't mean we need to let Predathos eat them up or hand it to Ludinus (who represents this same cruel stratifcation as seen among mortals), but isn't there any other way that their gift can be distributed instead of hoarded? diffuse it among the people of Exandria, let everyone access a Healing Word or two. surely they can figure something like that out. they are Gods, after all.