BoM/TWS Message Forum

That’s a really interesting observation about the tendency to twist family bonds. I’ve made little secret of my distaste for the Brown branch, but I hadn’t thought to connect it with the Hollywood branch in that way. You could be on to something there.

I also agree in part that a lot of what she does is at least partially motivated by the trauma of her dad’s murder and Lawhorn taking that place. But I personally don’t think that means that her evil actions don’t make her evil, or that she’s not rotten. She very clearly and remorselessly wants to pursue power, and not only gives little care about who she hurts to do so, she has very explicitly said she wants to make a mess of things in the process. In addition to the fact that she wants to replace at least 8 other people with magical clones to be members of a demon worshipping cult. Cool motive, still evil.

I don’t necessarily think she’s irredeemably evil, but that’s only because even though she has grand ambitions, she hasn’t actually been able to act on them yet. Her soul hasn’t been tainted by those acts yet. But once she starts going down that route, I doubt there will be a turning back point, and I would put the bet on her going down that route ten times out of ten without strong outside influence.

It would take Will growing significantly bigger balls to even attempt to redirect her from that path imo, but I actually do believe if he really tried, he could. The problem is that he’s probably not going to do that given that even before he bonded with Sydney in this route, he was playing mean spirited tricks on Caleb, so I don’t see him having the inclination to do so. I don’t see any of these routes in that section ending happily ever after without something big happening. Which is kinda why I don’t tend to like Sydney centric routes often myself. Great character, interesting read, but I tend to prefer a more positive vibe.

I can’t help but wonder what Sydney is gonna get up to in the future once she can move out from under Lawhorn’s thumb.

I also can’t help but wonder what would happen if and when one of the other groups in other branches ever end up using a mask on her. I would be very interested to see what would happen if somebody like Phillip Fairfax ended up under her mask at some point. Or maybe even more interesting, if somebody like Braden did.

(Also forgive the rambleyness, I can barely keep my eyes open rn lol. Just wanted to get this out before bed.)