I’ve seen you analyse characters such as Gamzee and his ridiculousness, Vriska and her...Vriska-ness, but have you done Eridan? Do you think he was a good character? I believe he deserved some form of redemption. He had killed lusii to help out his girlfriends’ destructive killing machine of a lusus. But yet described as terrible because he apparently didn’t care for his moirailligence. He is not solely a desperate jerk who throws fits. He’s just as important as everyone else to me.

Alright, let me start by saying that I like Eridan as a character, but I do despise the Amporas with all of my heart as people in general. So sorry if I tear him a new one right open, but this is my take on Eridan.

First of all, your ask ignores a big facet of Eridan’s Character and this is that he, literally, believes the Landwellers should be exterminated and has commissioned various Doomsday Devices that didn’t, thankfully, work, in order to commit Genocide on everyone living on the Land. Eridan did kill Lusii for Gl’bgolyb, but that was Scratch’s fault, not Feferi. Feferi, on the other hand, had to try and tone down his murderous tendencies. She defines this as draining enough that, once in the Session, she straight up breaks their Moirailship up because she doesn’t want to be paired with him, pale-ways. And very explicitly turns down his Red advances as well.

On top of that, the job to kill Lusii to feed Gl’bgolyb is what grants the title of the Orphaner- Like Dualscar. Chances are if Eridan wasn’t doing it, someone else would’ve taken his place, simply because Gl’bgolyb cannot be allowed to release the Vast Glub. So to begin with, their initial relationship, even if Eridan minded killing Lusii, would already be heavier for Feferi, and this is assuming Eridan even dislikes killing Lusii- I don’t quite remember if he ever stated he did, but with his Genocidal Tendencies, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t.

Fast-forward to the Session and his feud with Sollux is so strong that it appears depicted in [S] Make Her Pay. Aside from the Terezi-Vriska-Aradia mess, this is the only Troll vs Troll fight we see in that flash, and Sollux implies they’ve fought a lot before, and he’s always won (Until Eridan gets the wand). This frames him as one of the most contentious and aggressive of the Trolls, and in his Land, his first instinct was to just murder the Angels, which leaves him stuck trying to destroy Aspect Manifestations that are extremely hard to kill, and left abandoned there by the rest of his team mates.

Fast forward to the Meteor, and the behavior he displays with Jade and Rose is pushy, demanding, and just assholeish in general. As far as I recall, there’s very few positive things said about Eridan, specially by the girls.

Finally, Kanaya: Return to the Core. The first thing he does when Kanaya states she’s going to bring the Matriorb to the Core of the Meteor, is state that every single Hope-related thing has to be run by him- Once again, stating his pushiness and superiority when it’s matters he wants to be informed about. And just like that, as the Prince he is, he single-handedly decides that the situation is absolutely Hopeless, so he’s going to give up, betraying everyone and going to work for Bec Noir, but he wants to give Feferi one last chance to join him- Not as a romantic advance, but because of, again, his air of superiority. He thinks she’s the only one worthy of tagging along with him and Bec Noir. Superiority, looking down upon his so-called friends, and once Feferi refuses to join him, Sollux attacks him because, at this point Eridan has claimed allegiance with the Unstoppable Demon and is going to doom all of them. So he KO’s Sollux, he kills Feferi, and then he turns to Kanaya- And he doesn’t have enough with killing Kanaya.

He eyes the Matriorb, and before tearing a hole through Kanaya’s abdomen, he blows the Matriorb.

He doesn’t accidentally hit it, he doesn’t destroy it for any other reason. In this moment he’s stating his ‘superiority’ over everyone else, and the ‘hopelessness’ of the situation.

He destroys the Matriorb because he can’t just leave with one KO and two Dead, he has to be THAT extra of an asshole and tear the Matriorb apart.

And SURE, yes, if things had looked brighter, if there was more Hope to their situation, it’s most likely he would’ve just been a dick, but not a murderous dick- But that one move about breaking the Matriorb apart, and the ‘everyone is going down’ attitude? He’s a blatant Genocidal Maniac, and I despise the kind of person he represents. But, he does a god damn good job at representing it.