#there is so much to unpack about mereel's remark about ordo being the favorite son

[cienie-isengardu]

    Etain sipped. The shig was citrus-flavored and kinder to her stomach than caf. "It's just such a shame that all that other data was... lost."

    It felt too cruel to say blown to pieces by your crazy brother.

    "Yeah," Mereel said, and squatted down next to her seat. He put his finger to his lips for silence and opened one of his belt pouches. Then he drew out a container, the kind that datachips were stored in, took her hand, and laid it on the little box. "Indeed."

    "Mereel..."

    "Don't you always do a backup, Etain? Tut tut..."

    "Don't joke about this, Mereel." She was starting to get annoyed with him. Skirata had been mortified by it. "Is that what I think it is?"

    "We might have behavioral problems, but we're not stupid. It is. All intact. Ordo meant what he said, but he didn't use the real set of chips."

    Etain's ecstatic relief was instantly slapped down by recalling Skirata's face. "How could you do this to Kal? What if he'd had a seizure or something? He was devastated."

    Mereel replaced the datachips and stood up. "I know, I know. Ordo and I argued over it, but it was the only way I could get Kal'buir to act like it was real. He's usually a great little actor, our buir, but he isn't always good at grief. Ko Sai would probably have spotted it."

    "Poor man."

    "I'll comm Ordo and let him know he can tell Kal'buir."

    "Kal's going to be furious. He blames himself."

    "Oh, Ord'ika can get away with murder. He's the number one son." Mereel went back to the datapad, and smiled again. "And it broke Ko Sai, didn't it?" [True Colors]

➦ Mereel is such a fine schemer but this passage makes me wonder, if his knack for manipulation and ruthlessness toward even his own family (Skirata) is actually connected to Skirata’s favoritism of Ordo (and maybe Kal’s general way to interact with people). Kal said to Etain in the same book “You can't have favorites. But [Ordo]'s probably the one I overprotect most, yes” so he may not see his attitude as having the favorite son but as a way to protect the one Null he perceived to need his attention/support the most - what may be relate to how Ordo is the more introverted Null than Mereel or other brothers.

But Mereel definitely see it in different light, as he literaly made a statement that “Ord'ika can get away with murder. He's the number one son”. In the context of his dialogue with Etain, Mereel’s words don't seem to be along the mindset Kal will understand and forgive us and sounds more like, Ordo will tell him the truth because Kal would never blame him for anything. Which to be honest, is awfully worrying to me, especially since True Colors also mentioned in Skirata’s POV that Ordo and Mereel “indulged in a little rivalry” that explained “Mereel's love of risk taking”. All because “he had to edge out of Ordo's shadow somehow”.

Of course, this does not necessarily mean Skirata went out of his way to treat Ordo better than his brothers but for sure there is quite a discrepancy between what Kal said to Etain and what Nulls feel. Ordo felt bad about being the first - and for some time, the only one - Null formally adopted by Skirata due to the implication of being the favorite son (“At least one cause for guilt had been lifted from Ordo's shoulders. He was no longer the only Null formally adopted by Skirata. It was a legal detail, nothing more, but Ordo didn't want to be singled out as the favorite. He already felt he had a far easier time than his brothers.” [O66]), Mereel’s opinion was already mentioned in above quote, then there was the “number one son” joke between all Nulls and the whole dynamic of six brothers brought by Imperial Commando: 501st:

Jaing laid his datapad on the table. "Oh good," he said. "I thought we were going to have a spat about Number One Son losing his place in the pecking order. Okay, what floor plans do we need?"

It had always been a joke, but Ordo wasn't sure it was so funny now. He'd been the informal alpha male of the brothers since infancy, and Skirata treated him as such. Mereel had always fallen into the sidekick role. In a family of six sons, it was inevitable that there'd be alliances and harmless rivalries. Now Ordo was starting to worry that they really did see him differently. The last thing he wanted was advantages that his brothers didn't have.

It is understandable that with six genius-like Nulls and 100 or 104 clone commandos to train at the same time, Kal could mess up here and there in the regard of Nulls’ upbringing. At the same time, it is worrying how differently he and his six sons look at the matter of favoritizing Ordo. For Skirata it wasn’t favoritism per se, just his protectiveness as Ordo worried him the most while for Mereel, Ordo could get away with anything regardless how furious Skirata would be - while at the same time implying(?), he doesn’t think this forgiveness also applies to him?

➦ Etain’s thought “It felt too cruel to say blown to pieces by your crazy brother.” is so... rude?. Like yeah, Ordo wasn’t at his best and news about Fi did not help much to improve his emotional state, but being angry and acting under strong emotion (for what it looked back then) is hardly the same as calling him crazy - a word that usually is associated with someone mentally deranged, especially as manifested in a wild or aggressive way. Dunno maybe my memory is just bad, but I don’t remember Etain thinking about Ordo or Nulls in general by outrightly calling them crazy before? Even during the previous scene, her POV described Ordo as “he walked a fine line between self-control and chaos far more often than anyone seemed to realize, and news of Fi's condition hadn't helped.” What hints Etain was aware of Ordo’s mental problems but she did not classified - insulted? - him as a crazy man. And yes, she was so devastated when Ordo supposedly destroyed the chip and that meant Darman’s chances for normal life dropped dramatically so this attitude could stream from that. But at the same time, the book series like to label people as psycho (Vau, Sev) and crazy (Arla Fett) and dunno, Etain’s remark, even if the one she kept to herself, feels more like an insult than a real worry about Ordo’s mental health.