Originally posted to Tumblr on 27th June 2021 as a reblog of observations by @violetren.
Other Violet is described as charismatic and well liked/sociable when the Rumour crew first look her up when they start getting hooked into the conspiracy. Then when we meet her she's brusque, impersonal, and she's got a metaphorical finger on the hang up button the whole time...
You know what I actually really want to add onto this with some analysis of the conversation with Other Violet in Episode 9, because there’s so much we can infer about her character from it and some of it seems to really stand in contrast to Our Violet’s assessment of her character, but also not? FOR EXAMPLE:
“You have five minutes before I sever the link. Explain.”
@violetren mentioned that Other Violet has “a metaphorical finger on the hang up button the whole time” during this conversation, but that’s mainly true during the beginning of the call. And yes, she’s absolutely brusque here, but given her status as a revolutionary spy and ringleader who is definitely on the run/in hiding permanently, it’s not that unreasonable for her to be very very careful who she spends time talking to. What I like is that we then get:
“So, you’re the reason Connors knew Dwarnian coding languages. Changed my mind, you have six minutes.”
“You know someone I knew and hold in relatively high esteem, and so I’m going to grant you an iota more of my time/trust.” (Sidenote: thinking about the relationship that Alvy and Other Violet might have had is fascinating and honestly so is thinking about the entire grouping of Emily Craddock, Alvy Connors, Boss/Other Violet and Thasia, and their interactions prior to the series).
I think that OV having her metaphorical finger on the hang up button (and also her brusqueness) fluctuates according to the level of caution she believes she should be operating with, based on how much she thinks she can trust these effective strangers on the other end of a voice call. For example, when she learns that Arkady used to be a guard on Telemachus, we get this:
“Interesting operation you’ve got there, Captain.” A retreat into cool sarcasm with a slight edge to it, and after Violet says “I trust her”, we get, “Heartwarming, who are you again?” In other words: don’t think your vouching for this person carries any weight to me when I barely know you. But we saw earlier that Alvy’s connection with the crew (or Brian’s status as a trusted friend of Alvy’s) did carry a decent amount of weight, given that OV had even less information and context about these people then than she does now.
But before that moment, Other Violet was being quite forthcoming - she shared information with the crew about how to slow down the nanoswarm, and she was prepared to offer them practical help by routing them to the location of some free swarm. I also think it’s noteworthy that when Arkady requests that Other Violet offer some information to prove her identity, OV complies without question, even when it takes three ‘tries’ to get to the ‘right’ piece of information. She understands the importance of taking these kinds of measures. Even when this leads to a slightly personal story that is probably more than she would normally be comfortable volunteering about her interaction with someone she didn’t really know well at college.
Also, let’s talk about the ‘bucket of chum’ story for a second and consider what it says about Other Violet’s character - disclaimer, I don’t really know much about RAs except what I’ve gleaned through fanfic, but they’re basically older student mentors with a responsibility to look out for younger students, right? So, first of all, OV is audibly uncomfortable while relaying this anecdote, and takes a “deep breath” before embarking on it - as I said, maybe because it’s a tad personal, but also I think because it’s more personal for our Violet, and our Violet is not really about to get a say in whether this story gets told. So she’s sensitive to that.
Secondly, RA!Other Violet - and the fact that she was an RA also says something about the kind of person she was, or wanted to portray herself as: reliable, responsible, and willing to help others - comes across this younger student with the same name as her crying openly in the study lounge. We don’t actually know whether there was any preamble to the “bucket of chum” advice - OV makes it sound like she went in cold with that comment (without so much as an “are you okay?”), but it may be that in the retelling of this, she just cut to the most relevant detail. Either way, the main part of her approach to this situation was to give some fairly cold, hard advice - no matter what you might be feeling, don’t show it. It has interesting implications given her status as a spy (and also, the context of living and studying in a police state can’t be ignored - there’s always going to be a base level of “you can’t afford to slip up outwardly”), but I also think it could say something about how she relates to people.
Violet describes Other Violet as sociable and well-liked, and this could just be her rose-tinted view of Other Violet as a better version of her in every way, rather than a nuanced person with flaws. We can infer that Violet herself was probably socially awkward/unsure, given her anxiety - I mean, we know from the first episode that she chose a particular class because there was a cute girl in it, which suggests she did that to get close to the girl rather than finding other ways to spend time with her or directly asking her out. Anyway, my headcanon of Other Violet based on what we know about her from the podcast is that she’s a bit stiff and awkward before she gets to know people, and then she warms up to them (and the people that Violet observed her around were probably quite good friends. Either that, or she was making a point of being seen to be social to deflect suspicion - the outgoing socialite is less likely to be seen as ‘hiding something’ than the introverted shut-in, right? And well, building a revolution depends on making connections and gaining people’s trust). But as violetren originally pointed out, Other Violet cares. She was very quick to help the Rumor crew with their nanoswarm situation even though it was evident that she didn’t really trust them at that point, and in the interaction with Violet in the study lounge, she wanted to give Violet a piece of advice that would ensure her long-term wellbeing. (I mean, you can debate whether telling someone to repress their emotions is actually beneficial to their wellbeing, but Other Violet clearly thinks this is good advice).
It’s possible that she saw Violet in this moment as a younger version of herself - I mean, they were clearly studying the same course, given that their grades were mix-uppable, and even had the same name - it would be hard not to, right? So, maybe she gave Violet a piece of advice she wished that someone had given her as a freshman.
One final bit that I often come back to when thinking about Other Violet: the joke. I mean, there are lots of other asides I could dwell on that say things about her as a person (like her obvious protectiveness of Thasia, even though they can’t have known each other for that long), but this has contributed to my headcanon of Other Violet as being kind of stiff and awkward around others:
“Except for you, Violet, you might need to update your resume. ... See, this is why I don’t make jokes.”
This is genuinely very funny (and it’s a shame no-one laughed at it, but I guess it was kind of wrong for the mood), but OV’s comment about “this is why I don’t make jokes” suggests that this has happened quite a few times before. She tries to make jokes, the response is a bit awkward, she makes a mental note not to crack any more. Other Violet is clearly not this natural schmoozer or super charismatic social butterfly - she might have been “well-liked”, but she had to work at it. But she has a sense of humour! All of these things lend her character great depth and humanise her a lot in the space of this one conversation.
I could do more analysis of what we then get of her in Season 2 and how this evolves her characterisation, but I’m already at close to 1,400 words with this, so instead I’ll just say - I agree that Other Violet is probably trying not to let herself get too close to the crew, and it’s remarkable how much you can tell she cares anyway, even if on the surface she seems to come across as indifferent or unfriendly (and that goes for Season 2 as well). Based on her conversation with the crew, you can see that Violet’s impressions of her were probably quite idealised, but it’s also not hard to reconcile that with the reality either: Other Violet is awkward, she cracks jokes, and she obviously gravitates towards people and bonds with them (even when that leads to loss and pain), but trust and caution are also at the forefront of her mind constantly for very good reasons.
#I'll just put down a few thoughts about Other Violet #I said #1500 words later... #all the cool kids write character analysis at 2am instead of catching up on sleep #thank you violetren for the great initial post!!