#especially prior to the arena/d12 before coryo got on his whole “we're brothers” schtick

[korkiekenobiconfirmed]

Hate hate HATE when people try and criticize Sejanus' character for liking Coriolanus. "I can't believe he trusted Coriolanus so much" okay well I can. Coriolanus spent ten years pretending to be Sejanus' friend. He called them brothers. He saved his life in the arena and Sejanus never knew about how he was threatened academically to do it, in his eyes that was an act of goodwill.

Coriolanus is such a skilled charmer and manipulator that even reading the book from HIS POINT OF VIEW, knowing exactly who he is and what he becomes, seeing every nasty, horrible thought that crosses his mind...we still hoped that the love story would have a happy ending. We have SUBSTANTIALLY more knowledge about the inner workings of Coriolanus' mind than Sejanus ever did, and we still thought Coriolanus might be truly capable of doing good once in a while... so what chance did Sejanus have?

tldr: He wasn't some hapless idiot for trusting Coriolanus. He was lured in by the biggest liar liar pants on fire in the entirety of Panem and it's a little hypocritical to blame him for that when we did the same exact thing.