No like not to be a stan but much like Michonne he has a LOT of depth that SW fans tend to gloss over or not really notice, and like, the way that his mind works as someone with a more narrow emotional range than most human beings is so so fascinating to me, especially because he still does form an attachment with someone but in a really atypical way and it's like...
Having read the prequel novel I feel like he definitely does genuinely love Galen and is very fixated on him and furthermore needs him to fulfill his emotional/social needs, but that sort of begs this almost philosophical question of, what is love? Where do we draw the line in terms of selfish fixation versus genuine love, who decides what genuine love is, and is love determined by how society defines it or whether the person having the experience defines it as love, because the only kind of love they know is whatever they're defining it as? Kind of like the age old question of 'well is first love Actually Really Love' etc etc. Especially because for a normal person, what Orson does to Galen over the time that they know each other is diametrically opposed to feelings of love for someone and isn't something that could really coexist or something a normal person could bring themselves to DO to someone they love, but like, he decidedly is not normal, and as someone with ASPD his perception of reality is such that anything he does is justified, and so of course it's fine to treat Galen like that and doesn't mean that he doesn't love him (which could potentially come up when they're talking depending on how deep you want to get with it... like this first hint of something being a little off about him bc he's like yeah I "had" to do xyz BUT I loved him at the same time, which... most people would not say...).
And then it's like, with her, I think he simultaneously obviously does not experience real empathy/compassion, but he's shown to be incredibly perceptive in the surrounding lore and has a really high social IQ, so he does have this cerebral understanding that what she's describing feeling about Rick and then how she feels about the loss of Rick parallels what he's going through right now. He doesn't necessarily relate to people in the way that those who feel empathy do, but I think that like pretty much every living thing Orson still finds familiarity reassuring - so it's reassuring to talk to someone whose emotions are very familiar to him, and he gravitates towards people whom he sees traces of himself in, which would very much be the case with Michonne.
And there's this angle of like, right now he is very profoundly alone for the first time in his entire life, whereas Michonne already went through that pre-canon in TWD and given that she's observant I'm wondering if she might clock that he's going through something similar - he only has that one connection and now that Galen's dead his emotional needs are going entirely unmet at the same time as he's grieving this massive loss, which I think may also compel him to seek out her company after this encounter if he feels like she is pleasant to be around and will give him attention and make him feel seen and acknowledged.
Like I think he and Michonne both have this 'no man is an island' element to them, like they'd love to not be reliant on anyone but in reality as a human being there are innate psychological needs and one of them is human company. I would think that maybe some of what he describes in terms of the deep emotionally intimate friendship element of this and then feeling like Galen was torn away from him by Lyra, whom he hated (love that that's canon, Krennic babygirl you are so petty and messy) and whom he felt like was bad news from day one might also be very familiar to her given what happened with Andrea?
GOD sorry this turned into an essay but the more I think about the parallels between the two of them the more I feel like this meme
no subject
Having read the prequel novel I feel like he definitely does genuinely love Galen and is very fixated on him and furthermore needs him to fulfill his emotional/social needs, but that sort of begs this almost philosophical question of, what is love? Where do we draw the line in terms of selfish fixation versus genuine love, who decides what genuine love is, and is love determined by how society defines it or whether the person having the experience defines it as love, because the only kind of love they know is whatever they're defining it as? Kind of like the age old question of 'well is first love Actually Really Love' etc etc. Especially because for a normal person, what Orson does to Galen over the time that they know each other is diametrically opposed to feelings of love for someone and isn't something that could really coexist or something a normal person could bring themselves to DO to someone they love, but like, he decidedly is not normal, and as someone with ASPD his perception of reality is such that anything he does is justified, and so of course it's fine to treat Galen like that and doesn't mean that he doesn't love him (which could potentially come up when they're talking depending on how deep you want to get with it... like this first hint of something being a little off about him bc he's like yeah I "had" to do xyz BUT I loved him at the same time, which... most people would not say...).
And then it's like, with her, I think he simultaneously obviously does not experience real empathy/compassion, but he's shown to be incredibly perceptive in the surrounding lore and has a really high social IQ, so he does have this cerebral understanding that what she's describing feeling about Rick and then how she feels about the loss of Rick parallels what he's going through right now. He doesn't necessarily relate to people in the way that those who feel empathy do, but I think that like pretty much every living thing Orson still finds familiarity reassuring - so it's reassuring to talk to someone whose emotions are very familiar to him, and he gravitates towards people whom he sees traces of himself in, which would very much be the case with Michonne.
And there's this angle of like, right now he is very profoundly alone for the first time in his entire life, whereas Michonne already went through that pre-canon in TWD and given that she's observant I'm wondering if she might clock that he's going through something similar - he only has that one connection and now that Galen's dead his emotional needs are going entirely unmet at the same time as he's grieving this massive loss, which I think may also compel him to seek out her company after this encounter if he feels like she is pleasant to be around and will give him attention and make him feel seen and acknowledged.
Like I think he and Michonne both have this 'no man is an island' element to them, like they'd love to not be reliant on anyone but in reality as a human being there are innate psychological needs and one of them is human company. I would think that maybe some of what he describes in terms of the deep emotionally intimate friendship element of this and then feeling like Galen was torn away from him by Lyra, whom he hated (love that that's canon, Krennic babygirl you are so petty and messy) and whom he felt like was bad news from day one might also be very familiar to her given what happened with Andrea?
GOD sorry this turned into an essay but the more I think about the parallels between the two of them the more I feel like this meme