Hi! I just discovered your blog, and it´s amazing, thanks for the great time I have reading your stuff. :) One quick question: Why is Balon so bloody stupid? Plot convenience, or is there more to it?

Hey, thanks!

I think it’s a combination of a deep commitment to a poisonous ideology that sees intelligence as weakness and exalts brutality, and being very unaware of how his emotions are driving him. At the end of the day, Balon’s not rationally calculating the right move, he’s trying to purge himself of the feelings of failure and weakness from his last rebellion.