Victor Kain - Tumblr Posts
хеййй я сделала штуку...... милльон раз опоздав на моросентябрь... но давайте допустим что это на тему ушедшие. я перерисовывала её так что лучше так чем никак
heyyy I did something! i think..... on fest.... yeah, late, but I did it!!
"Guest from the past"
Really love being on time with Pathologic Fest prompts.
My beloved ship, in my opinion very underrated. Enjoy a happy malewife Victor.
looking at you frightens me
Finally had a spot of time to indulge my brainrot and write a proper character analysis on Victor ‼️ I made a few scattered posts but could NOT sit down and write something proper until tonight <33
My main concern in said scattered posts were all those little morsels scattered about the game text concerning Victor’s supposed desire to leave the town, which opposes an argument by Andrey (and to an extent Yulia) about how he is a capable leader, as he takes the most after Simon. I will start with that conversation with Andrey, where he says that “Victor is a natural born ruler; he could be doing it all by himself. It’s Victor, not Georgiy, who is Simon’s true heir.” And having feverishly compiled all of Victor’s dialogues/letters/mentions of him in a document I can say that his pragmatism and politicking is the most prevalent feature of his personality. A majority of his interactions and actions per se across all three routes are primarily motivated by town politics, which is likely in part merely a matter of game plot, but connected with Andrey and Yulia’s lines, I think it shows this is a broader focus of his personality at large. HOWEVER. And this is what was a thorn in my side. Yulia notes in her portrait quote that, “Alas, Victor is utterly loathsome of anything that has to do with fame, authority, or public adoration,” and Andrey likewise says, “[Victor] wants to leave this place to further his education and get a degree,” which he claims his treachery because “Victor was a good disciple to Simon. He’ll manage to renew his achievement. Georgiy won’t,” again enforcing Victor as Simon’s next-in-line in terms of (in my opinion) his strategy and politics, less so the more. You know. Madness Simon was up to. It’s further interesting to situate this in a line from Peter, where he says “How did he manage to bring [Nina] to heel—and why did he allow her absolute freedom of choice? Basically, Victor is hiding something. I think he's waiting for Georgiy to make an unpopular move to finally show his real face. Just kidding.” Which, I personally don’t think Victor is lying in wait (I don’t consider that consistent with his behavior) BUT it's still noteworthy to me in that it seemingly affirms the latter idea and introduces how Nina plays into this. I mean, it is brought up a few times that Victor never enforced any authority over Nina on ye olde husband-wife grounds, which yes I know we joke and we jest about his subservient malewife behavior but on a more serious note it interests me to look at in the context of his supposed reluctance towards his position as functionally the Kains' ambassador. In that Yulia portrait quote, too, she says, “He has every right to claim the throne, but he will hand it over to his daughter. Just like he did before, when his terrifying wife was still with us.” Yulia’s quote is echoed by Andrey who, if Daniil asks why Victor hasn’t left yet, will say, “His love for Maria is holding him back—he sees Nina’s ghost in her, after all.” And I will return to Nina posthaste but first, I think those lines affirm again that Victor would prefer not to deal with all the politics he conducts, and yet he has an inherent pragmatism and strategic intelligence which lend him a skill for manoeuvring local politics.
Now okay. Again love to heartily jest about Victor being the only comparably normal individual in his evil bastard psychic family but I think this is important. The game files make it fairly explicit that Victor is the pragmatic one (even if he's still a bit of a dreamer) which to me introduces why he embodies this role despite supposedly hating it. The original character concepts for him says, “Victor is quite pragmatic, unlike Georgiy. He is in charge of the affairs of the Household, so he pays a lot of attention to politics and increasing the power of the Kain family.” First of all, the pragmatism: Victor displays pretty strategic thinking in general—he seems to work in connections and patterns (which is a tasty parallel to Nina in my opinion). An example of this is when he talks to Artemy about Aglaya; just the way he lays out his thoughts show a very pattern and strategy-oriented intelligence. He also likely works within empiricism, as he says to Daniil, “What I deem to be the truth is what I have been able to consistently observe. And if what I observe is so uncanny that it could be considered a result of a mental or spiritual illness, I turn to others to vindicate me.” Returning to that character concept quote and how it frames Victor as the practical one because Georgiy is out of his gourd—I think this gets closer to the actual (in my opinion) heart of Victor’s identity and motivations. That is, loyalty constructed on a sense of duty rooted in Kain family traditions and self-sacrifice rooted in his utopianism.
Firstly duty. I think Victor’s contrast to Georgiy shows that he deals with the politics despite hating it because he is the only one who can—particularly because as the game goes on he gives more power to Maria as she becomes closer to becoming a Mistress, which is explicitly likened to him giving Nina power (as both Yulia and Andrey’s dialogues show) which says to me that Victor is only acting as head of the house until Maria can, and that he is acting on a sense of duty and necessity for his family. The Kain family is written to have strict traditions and, I would say, a pretty clear sense of hierarchy, since Victor tells Daniil “Georgiy is beside himself… However, I don’t have the power to defy his orders. He is the eldest in the family.” That is, I think, corroborated when Andrey said “She used to obey simon and Georgiy as well […] to pay tribute to their family’s strict traditions.” So given that, I think again much of Victor’s actions are motivated by a sense of duty, but it’s only one aspect of a loyalty which is also informed by self-sacrifice. And a quick separate note: perhaps one reason Victor is a more viable successor to Simon is that unlike Victor, Georgiy seems incredibly covetous of Simon (maybe that absent jealousy per se is influenced by Victor's loyalty and seemingly inherent disinterest for personal power?). Anyway. My point is that I think his adherence to being the pragmatic one in the family despite a dislike of it is fully motivated by that sense of loyalty/duty from the Kain family, and he is doing it because no one else will do the necessary work of accruing power for the Kains, because that power accrual is ultimately necessary for the utopians to win out over the other families.
As for self-sacrifice, this extends to Utopians and Kains more generally. A town man describes the Kains to Daniil: “They’re cruel; without a moment's hesitation they would sacrifice anything in the world to achieve their brilliant goals. To their credit, their sacrificial list always starts with themselves. lt has always been that way.” Self-sacrifice is fairly prominent in the Kain family, and clearly important to Victor; as I think I’ve said before, the only time he seems genuinely angry in the game is when he tells Clara, “You can’t even begin to imagine the immense power of voluntary self-sacrifice. Don't you know there've been examples in history where someone living would give their life so that someone deceased could spend a little more time with their loved ones?” Clearly self-sacrifice is virtue to him, and I think that can be joined to his sense of loyalty with Nina. But before I finally return to the leading lady I want to levy a little more evidence that trust is likely important to him, as his portrait quote for Eva reads, “Eva possesses some virtues that my daughter, unfortunately, does not. She is gentle. She is trustworthy. She wouldn’t ever stoop to betrayal.” Thus he frames trustworthiness and loyalty as virtues, which I think again demonstrates that importance of loyalty to him, and also shows a hint of the compassion to his character. But first: his relationship with Nina, though that was not very posthaste.
I don’t intend to talk about broader themes but I do think Victor’s unyielding love for Nina has a particular Platonic (as in Plato) flavor, vis-à-vis Diotima’s Ladder and the philosopher in love with the form of Beauty:the utopian in love with the ideal of utopia. Pegging jokes aside, Aglaya says “And Victor—are you talking about Victor Kain? Nina's husband? He has a keen mind. But he still loves his wife way too much... she never deserved a husband like that, and I mean it.” I know it’s only one line, but I often think about that “he still loves his wife way too much” in connection to that frame of him in love with utopia, which… I personally dislike rendering their relationship just Victor being in love with her as an idea, I find it cynical, but I certainly think that can be read into the text, and is well-applicable after her death. Though, I also think Victor’s love for Nina may reinforce the broader idea of Utopians being motivated by love. I think it fits with Victor’s adherence to loyalty/duty/self-sacrifice, which would likely necessarily be influenced by love, familial or romantic. Which, if I may diverge a little, seemingly relates to the fact that Victor is fairly compassionate. I don’t consider him a perfect upstanding fellow, but I find it interesting that mortality (fickle though the definition is) seems valuable to him, evidenced in that Eva quote and how the game files mention that, “He dotes on his daughter Maria, but considers his son Caspar to be too malicious and doesn’t feel much tenderness towards him” which admittedly is hilarious to me in a ???!!!??!? way because what insane father behavior to be like “hmmm my child dictator son has rancid vibes” but A) I think that serves more complex themes I am not going to get into and B) sticks out to me given his reasoning is that Caspar is “too malicious.” But then, like. Nina and Maria are malicious as all hell (affectionate) so what then ??? Well. I think it answers to that inherent dichotomy of the utopians, in particular that Town Man quote I mentioned earlier, where cruelty is necessary to establish utopia, and rationalized because it is rooted in love.
But as my final point, returning to compassion more general, I think that compassion is informed by an attitude of forgiveness and atonement. To Clara, he says, “My brother is very angry and prejudiced against you. And as for me, I will now think twice before believing any of the things you are accused of. She who you are being mistaken for would indeed never have given us the body.” When Clara asks whether the conversation were a test, he says, “No. It's not like this. Take some money. This is all I can do to reward you for now. Aside from trusting you, of course.” I.e. he is willing to trust her due to new information about her, rather than maintain resentment (and unlike the other Kains). He repeats this behavior towards Artemy, though perhaps not exclusively, writing that “It is our utmost desire now, to atone for the unjustified suspicions we had of you […] we will be the first to rise against anyone who dares to call you the Ripper.” Both of these instances, to me, are him acting on a trait he expresses to Daniil when talking about Aglaya, that “But you know, I’ve always believed that people can and do change for the better. Every time an enemy of mine returned after a prolonged absence, I welcomed them with open arms.” All this to say he seems to be quite willing to forgive people. And in general, he does seem to value human life (as only a Kain can lmao) so yes. I am done. Had to get that out of my system I was going insane.
судьба нас ждет
prepare all that your flesh
cling onto the Lord
ascend to the stars
so you can be where you belong
× Marshall Applewhite — SKYND (unreleased)
Thinking about Yulia and Victor. I mixed P1 and P2 here, not everything in P1 is still true in P2 but anyway :
- they share the same theme "Useless science", which could have been Daniil's theme too. They both have huge library, again certainly like Daniil would have if he lived here. All of them studied at the Capital : they are scholars, intellectuals... but it's useless against the Plague.
- Yulia and Victor visit the hospital and are, with Lara, the only npc to do that (not counting Rubin and Clara because they're healers and they are supposed to be here). They are also both in the town hall when Block arrives, with Daniil. They might be intellectuals but they are also pragmatics - it's especially interesting for Yulia because she's neither a leader nor a healer but she still wants to help.
- Yulia has an high opinion of Victor, and while I don't think Victor ever talked about her, she was invited by the Kains to the town iirc, so he must appreciate her, at least professionally.
- He's an Utopian and he's devoted to sacrifice his own life for the greater good. She's an Humble and she's ready to... sacrifice her life for the greater good (in P1 at least). She's the founder of the Humbles, but she used to work with the Kains : her fatalism directly opposes their utopism, but in the end, Utopians and Humbles sacrifice themselves anyway. She compares herself to Simon while talking to Clara which... says a lot.
(Could do a whole post about the Utopians and the irony for Daniil, who wants to fight death, to have as a bound people who are fully ready to die for a greater cause (Eva, the Kains) or self-destructives (the Stamatins) )
- More on that, Yulia wants Victor to lead the town, but he doesn't seem to want to, and he apparently would rather have a more passive role (like he had when Nina was alive). This behavior is very.... humble, maybe?
- This one is more... dubious but they are both, imo, aware of the true nature of the town, to some extent : a game. Yulia is a fatalist, she "predicts" events, which could be explained by her realizing her choices don't matter in this game. Clara says in Marble Nest that she's the only person to "truly understands" what's going on... As for Victor, it might be far-fetched but in P2, he created the clocks you use to save and he discusses time and how it works in the game, nearly breaking the fourth wall. He also says stuff like "in reality, this town looks completely different" or "it's like something is pulling my strings" and hm. Waiting for the Bachelor route to say more.
- He made the clocks you use to save... She made the roads, therefore the map, you use to guide yourself in the city, to see your objectives etc.
То неловкое чувство, когда гет тебе в Море нравится только узаконенный. То неловкое чувство, когда тебе вообще феодалы нравятся, хаха.
- Эй, хочешь немного черной магии? Вот и познакомились. Истинный наследник Симона знает, чем соблазнить женщину. Не даром в анкете его тотемное животное тигрище.
He is judging meee so bad.
A request from a certain rat prophet ( i have no clue what your tumblr @ is bestie, if u see this, tell me.)
imagine. youre the youngest kid in a rich family, the son at that. pretty much the best thing to be, right? well no actually. your mom dies either after your birth or before it or sometime around that time. you decide to spend your days in the big tower they built for her with some other kids. you become their leader due to your status as the child of that family. you dont talk to your dad and he doesnt attempt to talk to you either. you dont really leave the tower but the other kids sometimes do. one day, you overhear two of them whispering. you can tell its about your dad. you step inbetween, arms crossed with a menacing look. "what are you two talking about" you ask, as serious as you can make your voice sound at twelve years old. one doghead looks at the other, who shrugs in panic. the first doghead raises his head to (probably) look at you. "sorry- its just that-" "your dad. its about your dad", the second one interrupts. your nose scrunches involuntarily. you hate your dad. "he... he looks. gendernonconforming as fuck". your eyes bulge. a scream older than everyones years in the polyhedron combined escapes your throat. "YOURE INSANE"
- Соберись, Виктор. Ты же знаешь, Симон не подведет. Когда Нина погибла, даже Каины, издревле имевшие теплые отношения со смертью, были в отчаянии. Они не были готовы к этому. Все случилось так быстро. Больше этой ошибки они не допустят.
✧ Alpha Crucis & Beta Crucis
illustrations I made for pathoask!! again, no-text version, I'm too lazy to translate
"who are you?"
@fancifulplaguerat got me thinking about nina and victor and now i genuinely cannot stop... (doodles below the cut)
nina, victor, and their beloved pet scientist voted "most hated polycule" by the powers that be
sad local utopian and his dead wife idk (unfinished)
HELLO pathologic community. i have ARRIVED