Look, we all know that Trizza Tethis is going to die painfully the second she leaves the planet. Even without Doc Scratch and Paradox Space itself interfering to ensure that Meenah wins, even despite Jake’s backstory meaning we as readers know the outcome, there’s no timeline, even doomed, where Trizza wins. Meenah is millennia old, she’s killed dozens if not hundreds of potential heiresses before, she knows all the tricks, even assuming she doesn’t just use Captor Death Lasers or Serket Mind Control to end the fight before it starts.
But does Trizza know that?
There’s really only two options, and they have interesting connotations for Trizza’s characterization.
1. She genuinely thinks she can win. She’s full of herself, she assumes the rumors about what the Condesce can do are exaggerated, and if she’s lucky she’ll have a few seconds to contemplate how wrong she was before Meenah crushes her like an insect.
2. She knows exactly how slim her chances are. I find this one a bit more interesting, because it implies that she’s doing a sort of “feast, for tomorrow we may die” thing. She knows her life expectancy is shorter than some burgundies, and she’s living it up as Queen of Alternia while she can. It doesn’t justify her actions, but it makes her a more tragic figure in the classical model. She enforces the system, even as she knows it will be the death of her, because she doesn’t know anything else. She’s a villain, but she’s a victim, too.
Do you think Trizza knows she’s doomed?
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