#i remembered asbel's whole arc of empathy here but i didnt realize he pitched the entire premise of 2hcb1 as part of his musings 😂

[windor-truffle]

soooo I'm in the final dungeon of the main arc now 😅😅😅 sorry for not posting for so much of the story, hopefully I can come back and explain my many thoughts about it later, albeit very out-of-order. But I've always loved the endgame, so here's my very biased thoughts on a few of the skits at least:

ajskdsjf great question. I'm just gonna let Asbel pitch my long fic for me from now on 😅

On that point though, this is just further proof of that recurring character trait in which Asbel doubts his own virtues (probably because he "doesn't know [his] own feelings very well"). The backstory skit prior to this really drives this home:

Even I, an angst-loving fanfic author writing this exact premise, didn't have him go that far, though like Asbel I can't say with complete certainty that no possible universe could exist where this happens— extreme degrees of isolation, manipulation, and insanity could maybe get him to that point. But from my own fanfic take on his character, which I try to draw from canon evidence as much as possible, Asbel doesn't reach the "i wanna destroy the world" level simply because he's NOT like Richard, or Lambda for that matter— he's actually quite opposite from them as their foil.

Asbel's never been shown to harbor resentment or want revenge— not at Hubert for usurping him, not at the unknown Fendelian soldier who struck down his father. There's no skits in which he joins Richard in despising Cedric, even though the man murdered the king and tried to kill Asbel's dear friend too. Even Asbel's KO quote in battle isn't resentful, lamenting that "[he]failed everyone" instead of cursing his enemies for striking him down. I genuinely cannot think of a moment in canon in which Asbel seems to hate someone, but maybe my confirmation bias is blinding me to a good example (funnily enough, the closest moment I can think of rn is a skit in L&L in which Hubert tells him that Raymond's been stalking Cheria, and Asbel responds with a forced compliment laced w barely suppressed rage bc he doesn't want to insult Hubert's family 😅 but that's still more indicative of protective jealousy than resentment).

Asbel does get angry and defensive sometimes, but any hate he has is nearly always directed inward— for example, he doesn't swear vengeance against all monsters after one kills Sophie, he instead vows to make himself stronger so he'll never fail to protect someone again. He's driven by a sense of justice and protecting others rather than getting even or inflicting pain, he empathizes readily with his enemies even when they've hurt him or his loved ones, and he refuses to accept a reality in which others must suffer (and if anyone should have to suffer, he'd always rather it be himself; that's what it means to protect someone).

In short, I think that if Lambda had been with Asbel and forced Asbel to choose between saving himself or saving the world, Asbel would always choose the world. Even if he had lived through additional horrors bc some bastard author wrote him into a miserable role-swap AU 😅