#i wrote this because i see too many posts mischaracterizing ripred and gregors relationship

[haveihitanerve]

Ripred looks at Lizzie and sees his long dead daughter, a little codebreaker. He sees someone who is brave and smart, willing to go into a place she is terrified of for her family. He sees someone who has been kind when so few have. He sees someone who he must protect, must shelter from the cruelties, the loss, and the pain that his world provides. 

Ripred looks at Boots and tells himself he sees an annoying little brat. But in truth he remembers how she had toddled up to him when they had first met with no fear, and had smiled. He remembers how she had stroked his ears and patted his head in the jungle, and he remembers the horrible fear he had when he spotted her surrounded by those beautiful, deadly frogs. Ripred looks at Boots and sees a pure soul, a pure life, who loves without discrimination, someone he must protect, one he cannot allow to be tainted by the Underland. 

Ripred looks at Gregor, and sees himself. He sees a lost soul, wandering. Belonging for a time, but never truly a part. Separated by duty and responsibility, and the ever present Rager sensation. Ripred sees Gregor and feels rage. He sees someone he knows he cannot protect, but damn it he’ll try. And if he cannot save him from the horrors of the underland, he can at least prepare him. So he is honest, and he is hard. But he cares. He sees Gregor as someone he cannot protect, cannot shelter from the Underland, but perhaps he does not even need to.