Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-23.243.83.197-20140707011600/@comment-172.249.15.246-20141219102839

I believe Rachel really IS as bad as she seems. I'm not sure how anyone would define "bad" but I am pretty sure being manipulative, lying, traitorous, and laazzzy (remember she pretended to be crippled just so she could hitckhike a ride up the tower with Koon's team) would count as part of its definition. The tower gives its Regulars reason and purpose for climbing the tower, which in turn gives them reason for existence, the reason being simply the fulfillment of their dreams. Sounds very much like life to me, and not just another "evil system."

None of the tests we've seen administered to our characters so far appear to be "evil" to me. They're designed to test the characters' resourcefulness, courage, and determination mostly, not just a simple test of brute strength. Koon managed to workaround the first test (trim down the number of participants from 400 to 200) without hurting a single participant by turning them into allies or making deals and slipping a few of them into his magic bag. Ship Leesoo (may have misspelled that), a favorite of mine, passed through Lero-ro's shinsoo barrier through sheer determination alone, countering that "You are not chosen" tripe with "I CHOOOSE myself!" What is especially reprehensible about Rachel is that her ambition to become the "heroine" of her story, her desire to see those stars, isn't met with commensurate effort on her part. Remember she pretended to be crippled just to get Baam to do everything for her, then pulled the same ploy with Koon, and tried to pull the same schtick with Speedster Dan ("Be my legs") who called her out on it, and got crippled for real by Rachel for his trouble. If anyone had any doubt about Rachel's "evilness" prior to this, what she did to Dan should have erased any doubts. Add to that the fact that she didn't seem to feel any remorse for what she did to either Baam or Koon ("I didn't do anything wrong"). It's especially ironic since she seems to have the most innocous and innocent of desires (to see the stars), and yet manage to be so corrupt and so easily corrupted. So it is not even her "desire" or the tower that corrupted her; she's just bad to start with, as Headon very blatantly pointed out in their first meeting.

What makes Rachel an important agent or ally for the FUGs is she is an Irregular like Baam, which means she could counter the rules of the tower and be a perfect tool for their agenda. What is especially irritating for us readers is that she has no special qualities that would make her believable in such an earth-shattering (or tower-shattering in this case) role. Granted she is ordinary and ordinary-looking, but if only we could see her putting in effort to match her ambitions, we probably wouldn't hate her as much. But she wanted to be the heroine of the story, to have the story revolve around her, not by enhancing or acquiring skills but by manipulating others around her into feeling sorry for her. She's just plain old lazy.

Also, among all the regulars who manage to make their way into the tower -- Phantaminum, Urek (who to me is awwwsome), and now Baam -- they all opened the door themselves. It's through their own efforts. Rachel couldn't even manage to do that, having only slipped through the door because of Baam. She is in effect the most irregular among all the Irregulars. The Irregulars who forced their way into the tower weren't exactly evil per se either: sure, they bring "chaos" and change into the tower, but that isn't necessarily evil per se: they only manage to shake things up and keep things interesting, which make for better stories, and bring in much-needed awesomeness and badassery into the tower. We don't really see any of the people in the tower regard the Irregulars with fear or hatred but frequently with awe and admiration instead; only the 10 families appear to be in fear of the Irregulars because they could change or even subvert the existing power structures within the tower. Case in point, Urek with his Volhaiksong (again, may have misspelled that) rival the 10 families in power and influence.

Again, to underscore the difference between Baam and Rachel -- and why I believe Rachel is bad through and through and will just get badder and badder as the series progress -- we just need to point out the other characters' reactions to either one of them. Baam is charismatic from the get-go, managing to get a Zahard princess into his team the minute he entered the tower without even trying. He managed to do the same with our scheming-genius Koon, who makes it a point not to trust anybody. He also did the same with Forgot-his-name -- that long-time FUG agent who became his teacher and mentor. The tower Regulars seem to instinctively react to Baam's special-ness by instantly joining Team Baam.

Now with Rachel, the Regulars seem to be aware that there is also something "special" about Rachel, since she is an Irregular herself. But their reactions are completely different from their reactions toward Baam. Instead of instinctively joining Team Rachel, it's more like "Don't mess with her." Androssi felt this the moment she met her, and so decided to turn her into a teammate instead of annihilating her in the first test. That geeky Traveler on a mission to save Emile instinctively reacted to Rachel's "special" presence by referring to her as a dangerous woman. This is ironic considering she was surrounded by powerful FUG agents at the time but he barely registered their presence, zeroing on her instead the first instant. So we now understand that just like all the other Irregulars before her, Rachel does seem to have the power or ability to shake things up inside the tower, but none of the awesomeness or badassery concomitant with such a destiny. Which only makes her irksome. Which only makes her deserving of all the hate.