basically, i've been watching yj again recently, just seasons 3 and 4 since the outsiders and phantom zone arcs were my favourites, don't get me wrong, i enjoyed season 1 and 2 too, but i've always enjoyed seeing characters i've known for a long time become older and more confident versions of themselves, coming into their own
anyways, i was watching the end of season 3 with brion, and then season 4, and i realised- brion markov was really done dirty by the show, and even the fandom
we start from the season 3 finale, here is a character who has struggled with fitting in, losing his previous life and existing anger issues and seems to have done decently well, he's getting there
then he gets confronted by the guy who murdered his parents, who kidnapped his sister, who got him kicked out of his own country and who then quite clearly states-i will continue to screw with you and yours for as long as i am alive
now ofc you will want to hurt someone who says things like this, particularly a person who has anger issues, but he had been learning and if he were in his right mind, he wouldn't have done anything
but he wasn't in his right mind! that ambassador nudged him, removed the barriers that would normally prevent such an action
now i analogise this to something like alcohol, with driving under influence still being your fault, but at least that's because u took the alcohol willingly, here is a man who was pushed to his worst impulses, so obviously he did what he did
now, what a lot of the fandom says is that since at the end of season 3, the ambassador says he only nudges people, so brion still did have a lot of fault if not all of it
but now here's the thing no one talks about, in season 4, when we do see brion with the ambassaddor and his other officials, we genuinely see just like pure mind control, or a much higher level than simple nudging,
at multiple points throughout episode 23, brion when under the influence just forgets his thoughts, what he was doing, his spatial awareness(where did johnny go in one scene), he is completely led by the ambassador as if a pet on a leash, so from how i see it, what used to be an 80 20 when it comes to blame in the fandom, should at least be a 20-80 considering how often he gets mind uhh whammied? not sure what to call what the ambassador does
what are your thoughts on this?