#my silliest clown. the thorn in my side. the loveliest nerd. the most wifeguy of all <33

[sleepy-aletheas]

Alhaitham and the eternal misconception of his relationship to knowledge (and life)

This truly is gonna be the hill I'll die on, huh. Long post incoming I guess.

Listening to Alhaitham's voice lines, it's fascinating how he manages being perceived as callous and seeing everyone else beneath himself for not being smart enough or being overly emotional to his standards, when that's not even his view of others or what he values.

Sure, he's blunt, he doesn't enjoy engaging with others, he wants to solve problems in the most efficient way so that he can go and live his life in peace, even if it comes off as him being lazy.

Of course, this type of approach on life makes many people uncomfortable. Be it for being raised to toe unsaid lines for the sake of politeness; feeling it as a personal dig at themselves for being someone that tries to go out of their way to help others; or just working oneself to the bone to achieve their goals and then seeing someone do everything with minimal effort just to "laze around".

From an outside perspective, the misunderstanding of such a character makes sense. When others exchange pleasantries and ask if they should help, and always smile and have a more friendlier approach, anyone not doing that seems rude, cold, sometimes even hostile.

And Alhaitham uses this misconception to his own benefit, to be left alone and avoid unnecessary social interactions. But that's besides the point.

It's hard to get past his walls of privacy, but we can know more about Alhaitham from the crumbs left around. Sure, there is more in the quests (be it the main archon quest, his own, Cyno's second story, Kaveh's hangout) or events (Parade of Providence, or the latest An Odd Textual Mystery), but even if we only get little tidbits we're allowed to find out through the voice lines, it's still enough to disprove this mischaracterization.

It's easy to take his dismissal of others and having his nose eternally buried in books as a superiority complex, where he holds his vast knowledge above the heads of others, and views them as lesser. But it's a combination of a few things that make this misconception (and by an unfortunate result, mischaracterization) possible.

A big part is The Project he had with Kaveh and some other students during their Akademiya days, where he didn't go out of his way to help or do the workload of others, and instead let them drop out of the project to do their own thing. It was one of the reasons they fought so much - the perception that Alhaitham didn't want to help anyone, because they were lesser in intellect than him, so they weren't even worth helping. It didn't help, that he made a distinction between him, Kaveh, and the others - he and Kaveh were geniuses, and the others couldn't naturally keep up. Nothing more, nothing less. Is it a harsh thing to point out? Yes. It makes people feel self-conscious, dumb, undervalued, and Akademiya students would absolutely feel it hit their pride.

But if we take a step back, and look at what he says, it's clear he didn't think lesser of them as individuals, because it didn't make sense to him that they would drag themselves through this exhausting process they didn't have the will to follow through, the stamina to keep up and not make it a harder ordeal than necessary, or even having any enjoyment out of it. The only positive thing this project could give the other students was a good collaboration that helped with their grades and graduation, but the toll it would take on them could burn them out for years if not turn them off from seeking knowledge altogether, because they exhausted themselves, when there were other (and better) ways they could reach satisfaction and not hurt themselves. In his selfish little way of wanting to work in peace and not shoulder the responsibilities and faults of others, he might have been the thing that saved some academic enjoyment for them before it was too late.

And this line of thinking goes into the present as the Akademiya's scribe. Is he harsh with the applications? Sure, he doesn't let anything subpar slip through the cracks if he can help it, because that's his job. If the scholars don't even try to make a decent request with no spelling errors or other faults, why would he bother with it? They can do better, even for something as little as this (of course, we get to know from NPCs how stressful the whole academic process is, how much it can burden someone, and how it can feel unfair that their hard work can be rejected just like that; but Alhaitam pretty much just refuses the poorly written applications, so it's all about rewriting the request, not the work itself).

Which just winds back into the belief that he sees himself on a pedestal above everyone else. And it's funny, because he does think a lot of the scholars are dumb, but not because they're lacking or not deserving education, but because a lot of them see themselves as superior to others (mostly to those who don't go to the Akademiya or who are artists), and the ones that are lazy and rely purely on book smarts they most likely won't even understand if it had to be applied irl. He's pretty much laughing at the ones that talk big game and then fall on their faces, not at the ones that try their hardest, or are average, or who don't care for academics and live their lives out of that sphere at all.

If anything, he values when people know their strengths and weaknesses, and don't try to make their lives harder by being someone they're not (we can see it in his voice lines about Dehya and Nilou, where he holds respect for them and their ways of living). And in his voice like "Something to Share", he himself doesn't think knowledge is a 'be all, end all' of humanity, and that there are other ways to be fulfilled in life (the voice line is: "Truth serves no master. Humankind is not a vehicle for knowledge, nor is knowledge the aim of humankind." and I guess that's why Nahida doesn't think he's wise, because she views knowledge/wisdom and the relationship of humanity to it differently than he does).

And that just brings us back to the beginning, where people see him as rude and self-centered...which yeah, he is the later. But that's not an inherently bad thing. He doesn't see the point of being needlessly friendly or lie to be perceived that way, so he doesn't do that. He doesn't seek the company of others, because it's not his core need, so he doesn't do that. He doesn't like to use rhetoric, because the truth is important to him, so he doesn't do that. He just wants to live a peaceful life with the least amount of conflict, and in his voice line 'Alhaitham's Troubles' he explains: "Based on my observations, many people inflict trouble upon themselves. Life already has enough hardships — no need to add to them." so of course he will try to avoid unnecessary strife when he can, and so he doesn't do that.

He is steadfast in his beliefs, and respects others who do the same, because in his voice line 'More about Alhaitham III: "Every person should have something that they believe in and hold on to from beginning to end. Otherwise, it's easy to succumb to the vicissitudes of life and find yourself being led astray.", so him asking Kaveh "How has realizing your ideals gone for you?" wasn't a dig, it was him trying to see if his best friend changed because of his hardships. And when he saw he didn't, it must have been such a relief to know that his mirror in the world was still there, altruistic and passionate, even with more emotional bruises than before.

Alhaitham is so many things, but someone who inherently doesn't understand emotions (his and other people's) or disregards everything that isn't pure knowledge or utilitarian way of living, are not some of them.