headcanon notes
basically what my wife and i talked about tonight when on a walk:
- ladd, if he dated claire (or became friends) would want to fight him just to hopefully eventually beat him. not because of a "i need to beat you!!!" but because of "i need to prove you aren't the best". claire's way of thinking is dangerous - he thinks he is the best. and one day, he isn't going to be the best. then maybe he'll die. then ladd will be sad. so ladd needs claire to realise, someone out there can beat him, to make him a little more careful (claire IS careful, but he could be more careful) and ladd likes his friends to stay alive. if you think about it, it's essentially the same reasoning with "i kill people who think they are totally safe, because they're not", except he doesn't kill his friends.
- ladd isn't into spouse abuse or simply beating people up (except claire - because it's not "to beat him up", it's "to knock his arrogance level down") because he isn't into FIGHTING or INJURING, he is into killing, plain and simple. beating up lua isn't interesting. killing her is. beating up claire isn't interesting, but possibly saving his life through showing he actually can be beaten up is. ladd treats his friends well.
- claire on the other hand, likes causing pain.... to people he deems worthy of it. and has a screwed up sense of "what did you do, how strongly must you be punished". claire enjoys giving punishment. with nicholas for example, eve didn't end up injured or killed, yet claire was (at least theoretically) willing to kill him over giving over the information about her. with czes, claire was getting a bit excited over being able to torture him and show off his skills. it wasn't simply a "i'm going to punish you for wanting to kill people" (and again, czes didn't even kill anyone, he just wanted to - and claire decided that was worth trying to torture him over). but it's not a simple "i like killing", because it's not the killing he enjoys, it's the showing off skill and the "i righted a little wrong in the world".
claire said it himself, he is putting his best effort into training every single day. but why? why train so hard? and why physically train and not mentally?
(this isn't something i firmly believe or anything)
i think something happened to claire, probably as a kid, that first caused that kind of thinking. say for example, parent 1 dies because of some bad guy (probably an accident), and claire thought "if only i was stronger, i could have protected them". also he has a lot of responsibility and at least part of the women's gender role, seeing as he is an only kid and has only one parent (leading into his equal rights activism etc). probably they are pretty poor after having only one parent, so he needs to work hard just to survive. parent 2 dies of illness i think it was. claire moves in with the gandors and learns the mafia's "revenge is everything" and "it's okay to kill/torture people" mentality. claire goes to the circus and learns "you are only worth what your body is worth, you are simply a tool and your body needs to preform perfectly" (ex. circus performing for a living). on top of that, claire has no fears for whatever reason, probably because of his parents dying he thinks "i too could die at any point, so i'll live life with no regrets and no hesitation" hence asking a girl out after two seconds etc.
- ladd, if he dated claire (or became friends) would want to fight him just to hopefully eventually beat him. not because of a "i need to beat you!!!" but because of "i need to prove you aren't the best". claire's way of thinking is dangerous - he thinks he is the best. and one day, he isn't going to be the best. then maybe he'll die. then ladd will be sad. so ladd needs claire to realise, someone out there can beat him, to make him a little more careful (claire IS careful, but he could be more careful) and ladd likes his friends to stay alive. if you think about it, it's essentially the same reasoning with "i kill people who think they are totally safe, because they're not", except he doesn't kill his friends.
- ladd isn't into spouse abuse or simply beating people up (except claire - because it's not "to beat him up", it's "to knock his arrogance level down") because he isn't into FIGHTING or INJURING, he is into killing, plain and simple. beating up lua isn't interesting. killing her is. beating up claire isn't interesting, but possibly saving his life through showing he actually can be beaten up is. ladd treats his friends well.
- claire on the other hand, likes causing pain.... to people he deems worthy of it. and has a screwed up sense of "what did you do, how strongly must you be punished". claire enjoys giving punishment. with nicholas for example, eve didn't end up injured or killed, yet claire was (at least theoretically) willing to kill him over giving over the information about her. with czes, claire was getting a bit excited over being able to torture him and show off his skills. it wasn't simply a "i'm going to punish you for wanting to kill people" (and again, czes didn't even kill anyone, he just wanted to - and claire decided that was worth trying to torture him over). but it's not a simple "i like killing", because it's not the killing he enjoys, it's the showing off skill and the "i righted a little wrong in the world".
claire said it himself, he is putting his best effort into training every single day. but why? why train so hard? and why physically train and not mentally?
(this isn't something i firmly believe or anything)
i think something happened to claire, probably as a kid, that first caused that kind of thinking. say for example, parent 1 dies because of some bad guy (probably an accident), and claire thought "if only i was stronger, i could have protected them". also he has a lot of responsibility and at least part of the women's gender role, seeing as he is an only kid and has only one parent (leading into his equal rights activism etc). probably they are pretty poor after having only one parent, so he needs to work hard just to survive. parent 2 dies of illness i think it was. claire moves in with the gandors and learns the mafia's "revenge is everything" and "it's okay to kill/torture people" mentality. claire goes to the circus and learns "you are only worth what your body is worth, you are simply a tool and your body needs to preform perfectly" (ex. circus performing for a living). on top of that, claire has no fears for whatever reason, probably because of his parents dying he thinks "i too could die at any point, so i'll live life with no regrets and no hesitation" hence asking a girl out after two seconds etc.