Is Hadrian an alcoholic?
Listen I'm not judging him, dude has been through some shit, but it seems like every time shit gets bad for him, he starts throwing back wine like its going out of style. When he doesn't have wine, he talks about missing it. Every room he stays in, he always mentions the empty wine glasses everywhere. And when he first started socializing with Valka, what did he always bring? Wine. To calm his nerves obviously, social lubricant. I get it. I'm an alcoholic. Sober alcoholic, but I recognize ALL the patterns of behavior here from my days of drinking. And with the amount of trauma he has endured, coupled with the lack of attention/affection from his parents that he always wished he had, its no surprise that he picked up the bottle.
The biggest thing is, for alcoholics, is we are rarely completely honest about how much we ACTUALLY drink. Hadrian mentions his benders that occured during/after significant events in his life, but never the week long benders he surely went on just out of boredom, depression or anxiety. I wouldn't be surprised if there were times that he was taking a couple pulls off the bottle before battle, or stealing wine as a teenager in his fathers castle to drink in his room when his duties were taken care of.
Just an observation, maybe I'm reading too much into it though.
Posted May 5, 2025, 2:06 AM UTC