by NSeq » Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:53 pm
I'll start with Traziun.
He is first seen apparently sleeping in what he calls "the backcountry of The Way". We know that he escaped from Delhara a few years ago and intends to kill his father, Kalmar. There are some things that are not completely clear here though. Is he just out here to lay low while he formulates a plan or does he specifically indent on acquiring a Shadow Sword? Could he even have found out about the sword in Lide and he is here because he already is on his way to Lide?
He then encounters the Shadow Sword wielding Rhue and joins him after challenging him to a plunge. By the end of the series, Traziun is not only aware that Rhue has a Shadow Sword, but of how to destroy it. How early on does he know about Rhue's sword? Is this why he wants to "test" Rhue and then travel with him or does it start out just as innocuous as it first seems? He certainly could have taken Rhue's sword easily enough if he wanted to. Also note how insistent Traziun is about going through the cave rather than where Rhue was originally headed. Is there any more significance to this then the reason he gives about caves sometimes having treasure?
Shortly after entering the cave, he encounters Gaius. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the way he just wants to leave Gaius to die seems really out of character for how he behaves for the rest of the series. He knows about the second Blood Lyn to break his blood oath and escape from Delhara, but wasn't there when it happened. Traziun seems surprised when he hears Gaius's name, but could it be that he already knew who he was and is surprised that he hasn't changed his name?
I don't see much to comment on through the group meeting and traveling with Lyrra and her companions other than his thoughts on hearing rumors that "the end of The Way draws near".
After Rhue and Traziun separate from this group, they discover three corpses and then encounter Gaius again. Gaius claims that the bridge collapsed when he tried to cross it, but Traziun seems suspicious about this. They then arrive at Lide and Gaius leaves again.
One thing of note in Lide is that Traziun asks Rhue when he found his sword out of nowhere and says that he finds it hard to believe that "it all falls in together" in regard to what happened with the girl he is looking for.
He tells Rhue that he has some "things to do" before going to the bunkhouse after Rhue's pluge with Paris. We then see the end of a conversation he has with Kloe. He says that he doesn't want to "complicate matters" for her and wishes her good luck. He is surprised to see Rhue up after that conversation and then says to avoid being seen by Kloe after agreeing to investigate the sightings that turn out to be Scatha with Rhue. There probably isn't much of significance to this conversation as he later says he doesn't even remember Kloe as the girl he pulled out of a river, but I just thought I would note it anyway.
After Night Reaper is knocked into the pits, Traziun separates from Rhue and is seen vowing to find the sword and saying that he will soon have his revenge against Kalmar.
It is widely believed that the person Scatha encounters in the pits is Traziun and this makes sense because he definitely does have Night Reaper later on. He meets Rhue again once Rhue gets back to the surface and they head to the Matalan Battlegrounds together, where Traziun says he hopes to meet Strata. Again, if he has Night Reaper at this point then there is no reaction from Rhue or his sword for some reason. I take it that he isn't using it at this point and wonder if he has it concealed in some way that would prevent it from being sensed. I also agree with Jeramyu that it isn't clear what his plan is at the Matalan Battlegrounds and if he indented to enter the inner sanctum and kill Kalmar the way he ends up doing later.
Kalmar appears during the execution ceremony for Kloe and the Blood Lyn are ordered to apprehend Traziun. As Rhue observes, "No one even cared that he was around until that creepy shadow thing appeared", which seems quite strange given Traziun's situation with the Blood Lyn. While fleeing through the forest to Estrana, he talks about having no reason to fight the Blood Lyn other than self defense and that the only thing running away hurts is pride. He doesn't seem to have any qualms about slaughtering loads of them later on and also doesn't seem to see large numbers of Blood Lyn to be a threat that he is worried about. Is there some reason he can't or doesn't want to use Night Reaper to get his revenge at Matalan and just cut through anyone that gets in his way?
I really don't have a whole lot to comment on for his scenes in the later half of the series, just some speculation. He eventually kills and absorbs Kalmar and is able to see the killing of his mother as Kalmar witnessed it. This was almost certainly him seeing The Mimic, which Traziun recognized as Rhue, killing her. He then says there is only one thing left to do now that he knows the killer's identity. We know what he actually ends up doing, but this strongly suggests that he will try to kill Rhue. I wonder if this was just intentional misdirection or if something else was originally planned. There are notes saying that Episode 6 was going to end when Rhue enters the top of the tower, so many things would have obviously played out differently. It makes me wonder if there was originally planned to be a fight between Rhue and Traziun.