#you could probably do a interesting long-form analysis on how twig handles senses of identity between different characters

[ewingstan]

There's something I appreciate about how Sy doesn’t get referred to as having a “real self” outside of how he acts under Wyvern. When he's low on Wyvern he doesn't think of it as being closer to his true personality. Conversely when he's full up on Wyvern he doesn't see his low-formula state as not his true self, he just sees it as himself without the sharpness he values. Even though Wyvern is obviously integral to his identity, its not treated as a measure of how "Sy" he is at any given moment. Its kind of refreshing given how that stuff is usually treated.

There's a persistent idea people often default to when discussing mental states: the idea of a true, integral personality that can be revealed or buried. You'll hear people say patients aren't themselves when depressed, that treatment brings them back to who they "really" are. A lot of our decisions on patient autonomy for those with mental or neurological disorders involve dismissing what people are saying in the moment for what their true self would want: "you only gave a DNR order because you were depressed," "you would want help getting better if you were in your right mind," etc. On the other side, Parkinson's patients will sometimes not take medication they have access to in order to avoid not feeling like themselves. Identity, mental health and psychiatric medications have a complicated relationship that so often gets boiled down to "this is making people lose who they are!" in genre fiction, so its pretty neat to see a more nuanced perspective on it.