#fault is the thesis of eo

[rahleeyah]

Ok actually I made up my mind and went with payback bc the top two will move forward and fault and rotps are such strong contenders I'm sure one and or both of them will make it but payback is genuinely such a good episode that I don't want to see it fall off the list. Like it does a fantastic job of setting up all the characters, introducing us to their foibles and quirks, and it's a compelling case, and it's got all the humor and heart that made s1 so unique. The only time we ever see Serena, who haunts the entire narrative. The foundation of Elliot's internal struggle - him trying to be a Good Dad and a Good Husband but turning his back on Kathy in the parent teacher conference to have an intense phone call with Liv. Establishing Olivia's reckless streak and the push-and-pull between what is legal and what is just that the show continually tries to address (to varying degrees of success) like. Payback is the thesis statement of the show, of EO, it's the reason we're here.

[bondsmagii]

Alright, maybe I’m remembering the first book wrong, but then why are there so many people who blame Eli for seemingly “betraying” cause when I first read the book I was actually surprised because I was expecting Eli to have done something awful to Victor something that justified Victors anger towards him and yet it was at that moment when I knew Victor was an unreliable narrator because it was Victor who had killed Eli’s girlfriend it was Victor who stabbed Eli after he had called the police, and I really don’t blame Eli for doing what he did, because who wouldn’t had called the police after finding our tour best friend had killed someone?

If you just discovered that your supposed best friend had killed your girlfriend and you have noticed him acting very weird and out of character lately and later he comes and tries to physical attack you, wouldn’t anyone had called the police after a situation like that? Specially a person (Eli) who has previously suffered from physical abuse at hands of his father?

Like I’ve seen far too many people claim that it was Eli who “betrayed” Victor and like, how? How can you blame Eli for calling the police after he heard his best fiend had killed someone, I’ve heard people say that Eli was the one who “betrayed” and that he “was the one who ruined his and Victor’s” friendship as if Eli hadn’t been the one to be worried sick about Victor’s well-being and as if Victor couldn’t had been hold accountable for murdering Angie and attempting to murder Eli after he reasonably called the police.

Why are people placing the blame on Eli for that? How is he accountable for what happened and for Victor’s actions?

I understand hating/disliking Eli because of his seemingly patronizing attitude or because of his religious fanaticism and/or because he jumped to conclusions about EOS after Victor was sent to jail, but why are people claiming he “betrayed” Victor?

Even since I first read the book that was the moment I realized Victor was an unreliable narrator, I was expecting Eli to have done something awful to Victor when it was Victor the one who had done something awful to Eli because he got jealous and wanted to get his attention and Victor getting send to jail was a direct consequence for his actions.

And I’m not blaming Victor for this because Eli already has tons of religious trauma and self-hate that he ended up projecting onto all the other EOS, yet Victor actions were what pushed Eli into thinking EOS were devils in disguise, so why are people blaming Eli for supposedly “ruining” or “bettering” Victor’s friendship when that’s not what happened at all.

Even in post that seemingly try to act neutral in terms of character favoritism, people always seem to place the blame on Eli for things that were out of his control and placing the blame on him for things that weren’t his fault , like I’ve seen people said things like “Eli was an asshole for betraying Victor” or “Victor shouldn’t have had asked for Angie’s help on becoming an Eo, but Eli shouldn’t have had called the police maybe he could have had talked things out with Victor”

And I’m like, so basically you are blaming Eli for Victor’s actions? Your are placing the blame on Eli for calling the police and not on Victor because he accidentally murder someone?

I’m not trying to make this into a competition, both characters have done awful things both characters are morally grey and shitty at times, both characters have a degree of fault for what happened, yet people seem to blame a character more than the other one and even put the blame on him for things that weren’t even his fault, there is such an obvious favoritism and I’m tired of seeing this.

I think the reason there has been a split of sides between the fandom in terms of characters is because some either are able to relate towards a character more or because the unreliable narrator makes the story side more towards a certain character yet the narrative is obvious biased because it’s told from Victor’s POV and I personally side more with Eli because the fandom just seemed so unfair to his character.

I understand hating him, disliking him and/or having a knee jerk reaction to his character due to his religious fanaticism who tend to put off many of the readers (this happened to me) yet so many tend to miss the point of his character, place all of the blame on him for what happened and I just happen to found him a far more interesting character than Victor that’s why

Why is there si much favoritism towards Victor? Even by people who claim to be neutral or unbiased towards them?

what I think people mean when they say that Eli betrayed Victor is that he told the police that Victor was an EO. there's obviously separate protocols in place for an ordinary criminal vs a criminal with what's essentially superpowers, and later on we find out that there's some pretty nasty human experimentation going on in regards to EOs, so I think people feel it's a shitty move for Eli to grass Victor's abilities up, basically. what I don't understand is the fact that Victor goes to normal person prison rather than EO jail, and he manages to convince everyone he's not an EO? I have no idea, but it's either confirmed or heavily implied that Eli told the police Victor was an EO. I mean, I can't really blame him considering what he was going through at the time, but you know. once people decide they don't like a character, they'll refuse to consider any other option but the most uncharitable one.

I also think there's an element of like, obviously the story is told primarily through Victor's point of view, so he's going to be telling it in a biased fashion. I think people don't pick up on this as much as they should and take him at face value, and they don't think critically about his reasoning for his dislike of Eli. Victor was actually a terrible friend who constantly tried to sabotage Eli and was always putting him down. when Eli came up with his thesis, Victor was annoyed that it was better than his and did everything he could to ridicule the prospect and make Eli second-guess it. when Eli persisted, and started getting good results and a solid theory, Victor immediately changed tactics and tried to become the centre of Eli's thesis -- if he couldn't stop Eli from getting all the glory, he was damn well going to shoulder his way in there and force Eli to share it. he did this by volunteering himself to try out the thesis, and then he obviously failed the first time. meanwhile Eli tried it and succeeded, and I think Victor sees that as a betrayal. he didn't want it to succeed, but if it did, he wanted it to be him. how dare Eli try it himself and have the audacity to become an EO first? the way Victor tells this story is obviously sympathetic to himself, and casts Eli as the spoiled kid who gets everything -- the grades, the friends, the results, the girl. through this narrative, we don't get to see the other side of things in a clear light: that Victor is nasty, spiteful, jealous, and is taking advantage of a young man from an abusive, cultish background who has never had a real friend before.

because people obviously like Victor more, they believe him at his word and before the plot even moves outside of the early college days, they're convinced Eli is a brat. the fact that Eli then gets what Victor wants before him, and then grasses him up to the police... yeah, it does look like a betrayal, but at that point Victor had murdered Eli's girlfriend in pursuit of his own selfish goals, you know? when Angie was laying there freshly dead, Victor wasn't concerned about her at all -- he called Eli to gloat. when Eli called the police, as you would if someone had just phoned you up and said "hey dude, I just killed a woman in cold blood", Victor escapes and returns to literally torture Eli, because... I don't even know. because he's mad that Eli called the police? because he's pissed at Eli for being Eli? I have no idea, but you don't just flip a one-eighty and start torturing your best friend unless you have a lot of beef with them you haven't been acknowledging, lmao. I cannot blame Eli for then assuming that EOs come back evil.

Eli isn't blameless, don't get me wrong. he went off the rails hardcore and he is responsible for his actions to a certain extent. but the truth of the matter is if Victor had been a better friend, Eli wouldn't have done any of that shit. if this is a cause-effect scenario, Victor is the cause and Eli the effect. Eli went bad, but Victor was an utter bastard from the beginning.

[moonswove-moved]

                                  ❝    sydney  clarke  died   on  a  cool  march  day .                             it  was  just  before  lunch,  and  it  was  all  serena’s  fault  ❞

                 SYDNEY CLARKE   ;   basic character info

BASIC

name:  sydney clarke appears in:  v.e schwabs ‘villains’ duology .  vicious  &  vengeful   age:  12 in  bk1.  18 in bk2.    due to her power, she ages slowly and appears younger than her age.  species:  EO  ( extra-ordinary) / human superpower:  resurrection. can bring anything back to life with her touch.  though the state in which they will be revived varies greatly depending on the resurrection.  power manifested age twelve, after a near death experience in which she drowned in a lake, but was resuscitated by paramedics.  gender:  cis  + female ethnicity:  white nationality/residency:  verse-dependent.  birthday + star sign:  tba .  pisces language:  english. learning a little latin moral alignment :  chaotic neutral

APPEARENCE

hair / eyes :  icy blue eyes, unusually pale skin, short blonde hair.  small in stature, even for her age.  height :  4′5 scars and markings :  unusually pale skin, a remnant from her return from death. 

TROPES & ARCHETYPES

beware the nice ones /  although she is physically non-imposing, and although she can be sweet, sydney is ruthless, who will engage in morally grey acts in order to complete her own goals.  she also holds the ultimate power of live v death, making her a dangerous person to cross.  cain and abel /  she is on the run from her sister, who she was once close with but now wants to kill her, due to her unnatural powers family of choice /  little allegiance to her blood relatives, and instead favours found family and people who offer her a home, even if these are not people considered generally acceptable in wider society not growing up sucks /  although she is eighteen, her physical appearance makes her appear much younger. she is often frustrated with being perpetually treated like  a child. 

                       SYDNEY CLARKE   ;   full bio

Sydney Clarke grew up in Merit  (a fictional city likened to New York).   Her parents were mostly absent, but she looked up to her sister, Serena, seven years older then her, and identical in looks.  When Sydney is twelve, falls into a frozen lake, and drowns. Her sister Serena, who was with her, is able to drag her out the lake before she also dies. The two later wake up in hospital, resuscitated by paramedics who arrived at the scene just in time. 

Sydney quickly learns something has changed.  At first it’s just a plant, springing back to life at her touch of her hands. Next it’s a corpse, one hand laid upon the man before he’s sitting up, alive and well. Her near death experience has unexplainably landed her with the very power that saved her, a touch of the hand bringing the dead back to life. 

ten years earlier; two brilliant college students are writing a thesis about EO’s, or Extra-Ordinaries. More of an urban myth than anything, they are people rumoured to have unusual powers.  But when Eli Cardale, writing his thesis, comes across a connection between obtaining powers, and near death experiences, he and his roommate Victor Vale’s research quickly becomes experimental.  

present day; Serena becomes distant from Sydney, moving to college and then in with her new boyfriend, Eli Cardale. But when Serena reconnects, inviting her to meet her new boyfriend, Sydney accepts. What she expected to be a regular dinner turns deadly when Eli and Serena try to kill her. Despite both being EO’s themselves, the two believe powers are an abomination, and that their possessors must be wiped out. 

Sydney flees, eventually running into an old friend, now enemy of Eli’s, Victor Vale. Victor takes Sydney under his wing, as does the ex-con, Mitch, Victor shared a cell with in jail. The three form an unconventional family, Sydney and Victor sharing a desire for revenge against Serena and Eli.