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6/14/2025, 2:47:58 PM
>>149005105
I think its a little open to interpretation because he's at least a tiny bit self-aware with all the "I'm going to tell you a story and you're going to hate me for it", but at the end of the day he still body-snatched a girl who he was madly in love with who only saw him as a friend at best (I think the term that people here sometimes use is "oneitis"?). It becomes clearer in the sequels but its not just us, the audience, who thinks he's deeply, deeply weird the other characters do too. Given what Mega City One thinks is normal that's pretty damning.
I suppose it comes down to how much of a selfish, self-pitying jerk you think he is, and how much you think he’s a deeply unwell man who makes a series of terrible, irreversible decisions out of fear and grief. If you favour the latter perspective, he's as much of a victim of the dystopia as any of the other Cits in the comic. In contrast to the other characters, he wins the lottery of outcomes and becomes rich and successful. He gets a perfectly legal job that he's not only good at but in a small way at least helps others cope with their lives, something that most cits can only dream of - remember the class on how to cope with unemployment? He avoids war and all its scars and his major misfortunes are mostly undone by the end (of the first book, at least). On the other hand, he is deeply unhappy and lives in overwhelming fear of authority his entire life, personified by the faceless Judges. They're worse bullies than the teenagers that break his first guitar, and every time they appear something terrible happens. Beeny says at the mid-point that he's a case study in how you can follow all their rules and still live a good life, but he's not only a unique case it doesn't even help him much in the end. America is the only person in his life who resists them from the start but Beeny always breaks. The system crushes him.
I think its a little open to interpretation because he's at least a tiny bit self-aware with all the "I'm going to tell you a story and you're going to hate me for it", but at the end of the day he still body-snatched a girl who he was madly in love with who only saw him as a friend at best (I think the term that people here sometimes use is "oneitis"?). It becomes clearer in the sequels but its not just us, the audience, who thinks he's deeply, deeply weird the other characters do too. Given what Mega City One thinks is normal that's pretty damning.
I suppose it comes down to how much of a selfish, self-pitying jerk you think he is, and how much you think he’s a deeply unwell man who makes a series of terrible, irreversible decisions out of fear and grief. If you favour the latter perspective, he's as much of a victim of the dystopia as any of the other Cits in the comic. In contrast to the other characters, he wins the lottery of outcomes and becomes rich and successful. He gets a perfectly legal job that he's not only good at but in a small way at least helps others cope with their lives, something that most cits can only dream of - remember the class on how to cope with unemployment? He avoids war and all its scars and his major misfortunes are mostly undone by the end (of the first book, at least). On the other hand, he is deeply unhappy and lives in overwhelming fear of authority his entire life, personified by the faceless Judges. They're worse bullies than the teenagers that break his first guitar, and every time they appear something terrible happens. Beeny says at the mid-point that he's a case study in how you can follow all their rules and still live a good life, but he's not only a unique case it doesn't even help him much in the end. America is the only person in his life who resists them from the start but Beeny always breaks. The system crushes him.
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