And Adds A Good Layer To Their Relationship - Blog Posts

I've talked once before about how Xeno needs Stan yet holds him back, but today I want to look at how much Stan's presence is also a detriment to Xeno and how his dependence on him leads to aggressive and (frankly) self destructive behavior.

Stanley is very put together, strategic, and calm until Xeno is taken away from him. While everyone else understood that Xeno wasn't in any real danger, and Stan out of everyone knew the connection of mentor / mentee guaranteed a safe and even healthy and stimulating environment for Xeno, he still snapped.

He immediately lost composure and fell for the stupid medusa trick, letting them pass unharmed. He made brash decisions when trying to take Xeno back, and eventually lashed out and murdered everyone with more force and violence than necessary to get him back.

Because of all this, I always see Xeno as an anchoring stone for Stan. And I like to imagine that they both see Stan as an emotional anchor for Xeno, even though, historically, he very much is not

Stan allows Xeno to tip into the dictator mindset and feeds into that wish. He would kill anyone who gets in his way and will hold Xeno on a pedestal, away from everyone who has hurt or undermined him, only further allowing the detrimental mindset of "us vs them" to grow and separate him more. Honestly, Stan doesn't notice it, but his presence in Xeno’s life is largely a bad thing. Instead of letting Xeno vent his frustrations in a healthy way, then return to humanity as a part of it, he allows the disillusion of being the only person able to lead the world to fester in his mind. Stanley is an enabler of sorts, allowing Xeno to check out from reality and from the consequences of his actions.

It isn't until Xeno is forced to live without him and strike his own balance in the KOS that his mentality changes. He softens again, finds faith and hope in humanity and creates lasting relationships with others who value science and truth just like him.

This is further proven when the people he's closest to in the Kingdom of Science go missing and he immediately starts to revert back to the mentality of "us vs them" when dealing with others. That same mentality crept up when he addressed the scientific committee and it was GEN who stopped and calmed him where Stan was content to stand back and allow his brash action to continue.

Their relationship can be seen as fairly simple and straight forward, even sweet at first glance. But the more one looks at it, the more layers of toxicity reveal themselves. There's always something new to focus on.