So why wouldn't McGillis assume that Gaelio would dump him the minute he found out that he is from poverty, exactly one of those "low creatures" that run so fast in Gaelio's vocabulary? This friendship that means the world to McGillis as well is built on a lie, and he never forgets it.
I love the way the three of them are written, because the love is real and pure. But the shape of that love is inevitably filtered through the class dynamics these characters are raised in, and love alone cannot break the chains forged in the cycle of abuse and oppression.
In a lot of ways, I think "McGillis could have just trusted them" is a sentiment that feels very like S2 Gaelio to hold... because Gaelio has enough privilege in life to believe that love is enough.
This is one of the best speeches on this dynamic I have seen. It’s perfect, and I will save it for later.
Great thread! In a sense McGillis choosing not to trust his friends is rational, but his plan still requires a leap of faith by trusting that Bael will make the rest of Gjallarhorn follow him. It's unimaginably sad he's willing to bet on that but not his loved ones, as you show.
Claiming Bael was a hail mary -- a last-ditch attempt to salvage a losing situation. McGillis only goes for Bael after he discovers that Gaelio is still alive. Gaelio can destroy McGillis at basically any time simply by revealing McGillis's actions to the rest of Gjallarhorn.
So claiming Bael is an act of desperation, not his first choice of plan. With Bael he can claim authority as Supreme Mugwump of Gjallarhorn, no longer subject to Gaelio's accusations. It even kinda works! Of the Seven Stars, only Rustal and Iok actively oppose him. The rest stand neutral instead.
(I imagine that he would have claimed Bael and the authority that comes with it eventually in any case, but only after he'd already established firm control over Gjallarhorn. It would have been a capstone, a symbolic nicety cementing what he had already achieved through diplomacy and backstabbing.)
I'm not sure I would call it a Hail Mary exactly, because yeah, he would have claimed it anyway and his belief in Bael as the ultimate representation of all that he desires is extremely genuine, but it is very true that Gaelio being alive accelerates his plans and pushes him into his delusions
faster than he would have fallen for them originally. He believes in Bael quite genuinely, but he's a more rational and patient person when he isn't already cornered. The more you push him the more he just loses himself to his wilder beliefs.
I've resisted the view that the delusional man-child is McGillis's true self, with everything else just being an act he puts on to dress it up, but I think I can get behind this view. He has good reasons for his actions, he makes rational plans, but when they fall short he retreats into fantasy...
Yeah, that is exactly how I see him. The trauma-based childishness is something underlying at his core that defines him and that informs all his actions, but that doesn't mean he isn't also a capable adult who's clearly made it in the world with a lot of cunning and genuine know-how.
...because that's what's kept him going in the past. He takes his best shot and insists that it will absolutely, definitely work, because if he can't believe that then he has nothing. It's less the true delusional self coming to the fore and more an extreme case of fake it 'til you make it.