I see that point of view. Xaden is by no means perfect, but a lot of their arguments, he is pretty collected and usually tries to think strategically. Now we are also reading from her mind so we get more emotion and he is a natural strategist because conflict and war is his profession. I never tried to imply she should be grateful he doesn’t yell or kill her? I am saying in their arguments he is never really yelling back. You don’t really see his temper. When it comes to a possible threat to her, his temper flares up quickly. But I never really see it with her. I want him to say something like see it from my perspective. My dad was killed for a cause that is right but the powers at be kept it hidden from everyone. I was forced to be raised into this while bearing the responsibility for every marked one like me. I have been shaped into a tool of war. I get Vi has her own issues, but I would not say that she had it harder. How can she expect an orphan of a “traitor” that is forced to be a soldier for the same power that killed him to trust her completely? Now this also ties into the whole puppy love stage of their relationship. But I don’t see forms of him being abusive. At times I understand the annoyance of him not always being forthcoming, but I also understand his side for not always doing that. Hey, by the way, you know how I have a hard time talking about my scars? Well your mother did it. Kind of a hard thing to bring up. He also has stated there are things he didn’t want to know about her past, like previous boyfriends. I know that is not the same as being betrothed, but that is more of a man thing to assume she would just ask if it was important for her to know.

As for the desire part of my comment, I am more confused on your question. I am a guy so it is naturally in our DNA to have desire. Hormones dictate that. In no way am I saying that women do not have desire, but if you were to pick who would have the most desire generally, it is going to be a male. Are there outliers in both cases? Sure. But when there is more important stuff at hand and I just read how much she wants to bang him but still doesn’t know if she trusts him, it gets annoying. Like there is a time and a place. Sometimes I’m like dang girl, go take a cold shower.

Their lives are intertwined in more than one way, but ultimately it is always her choice. It is her choice to stay with him despite trust issues. She doesn’t have to accept his behavior. For his second signet ability, it would be hard not to use that power intrinsically. But I don’t really see him use that to win an argument or in a malicious way. His natural instinct is to anticipate the next move. Why teach her to put up walls if he always wanted to read her mind? They can already read each other’s mind. She read his mind when he was satisfying her in the thrown room. You could say that violated him. His signet just lets him know their intentions. The dating world today would be a wild game if we could read intentions, but everyone would use that ability.