#the villain is a beacon of hope. representing change and the search for knowledge and understanding.

[ailius-suffers-through-art]

this is old as fuck but im transcribing the full page notes i wrote about harry and vincent from when i first read the book. FUCK the hyper fixation is so back guys. help me. notes in blue are from me right now, the rest is from like 3 years ago.

VINCENT ANALYSIS

Shown to be impulsive and act on emotion. Apparently (what claire north said in an interview i believe) if harry didnt kill him in the ending vincent would have coddled and been sweet to harry?? and he'd DROP The Quantum Mirror PROJECT??? HELLO???? Harry just needed to convince him completely and everything would have been fine?? i got the feeling that he held a lot of remorse over what he did to Harry. Vincent acts a lot on emotion (ie soccing harry in the face after finding out he's a Kalachkra bursting into Harry's office to debate his papers, starting the quantum mirror, continuing the mirror, dropping the project for Harry, and more). We view the Story through the eyes of Harry so this is his perspective on him.

HARRY ANALYSIS

Cold and calculating. This bitch is manipulative, holy. Brought up the fact that he'd be fine with becoming vincent's lover unprovoked?? said outright he liked vincent?? Homosexual Vibes. Harry is very introspective and while he is impulsive at first (ie. telling his gf, suiciding the first time, taking the advice of a random prostitute, etc...) he fully falls into the mindset of 4D chess. Harry definitely has the better moral compass of the two, but he's far more manipulative. If he hadn't been able to get Vincent's backstory and ended up dying, he would probably continue acting around vincent. he's the kind of person that doesn't care about the journey as long as he gets his end result. I wonder how would have reacted to vincent falling in love with him. would he Continue his plan? would he let himself indulge in momentary pleasures and elope with vincent? (probably not)

lastly some notes about their contrast

The duality of these two is amazing holy shit. Vincent is technically the villain but he has more heroic traits while Harry is the hero but he's a lot scarier and is more villainous.

Vincent tortures, Harry kills. They're both terrible people but Vincent is hopeful where Harry is resigned and tired.