Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24431758-20140313050841/@comment-130.16.98.182-20151214144255

I feel like some people are going way too easy on Rachel based on how she sometimes looks a bit regretful when she's hurting him. There are a number of factors which lead me to believe that she is a lot colder and more calculating that many would like to acknowledge.

How they entered the tower: Rachel was not really even supposed to enter the tower. She was never chosen as a regular because shel lacks talent. She discovered Baam and beleived that there was something special about him, and she sought to use him to gain entrance into the tower. We see in the flashbacks that she constantly discouraged him from leaving his hole. Why? I think she wanted to use him for herself instead of losing him to the world, so she taught him to be afraid of leaving his hole by saying he would not be accepted, but there is nothing about him which seems other-than-normal on the surface. He would have been accepted just fine.

One day she says she is leaving and approached the tower door after having antagonized Baam into chasing her. I think she knew exactly what would happen. She knew that he could open the door. When he approaches the door chasing her, it opens and she enters. The floor administrator even says something like "oops...wrong one".

She entered as an irregular based not on her own power, but by using Baam to do so. She told him she was "chosen", but that was a lie. If she was chosen, then she would have entered as a regular. She failed to enter as a regular, so she chose to trick Baam into getting her in as an irregular.

I think Rachel is more petty than anything else. She is tormented by her own lack of greatness, and hates Baam for his being special. She is overshadowed by the person whom she used and saw as her property, and it only further irritates her own lack of self-esteem. She hates herself, but instead projects that onto Baam, whom she constantly mistreats.

I do nto buy the theory of "be mean to Baam so he gets strong!". She wants to not be near him because when he is around then she is nothing but a ride-along. She feels that she can only be recognized in an environment where he is not there.

Baam is the Prince of Jahad. The black Marsh responds to him instantly. He is kept a secret outside the tower by someone who had free access in-and-out. Otherwise there would be no reason to keep him in such proximity of the tower. He is likely "acknowledged-yet-controlled", meaning he is not like Anak who is alive based on having escaped. He is kept outside the tower so that he cannot be used by Jahad's enemies, but he is probably a fullblood-prince (meaning Jahad + Princess).

Rachel hates Baam, but will likely change her views once she sees how successful he actually becomes, and will move to re-establish direct control once she becomes jealous.

If only Baam's real friends could get hold of her when he wasn't around....I'd personally like to see princess Yuri kill her behind the scenes as part of a seduce-Baam plot. I grow weary of his "OMG I love you!" whining. It makes him seem impotent.