>>58332420The complex part about Courtney manipulating Ruby by the end of RS is that he was unknowingly manipulating her too.Sapphire was generally Ruby's positive foil character, representing what he subconsciously admires, what he used to/wants to be in terms of morality. Which is why he values her and will do anything to keep her alive, projecting his selfish/self preservating habits onto her, obsessing over and loving her. The ends justify the means too, so Ruby will even nuke their relationship if needed just so Sapphire won't get hurt or die.Meanwhile Courtney was Ruby's negative foil character, representing a lot of what he didn't want to be and despised/feared in himself. Being dead inside, he hated himself subconsciously, and it's highly possible he projected some of this onto Courtney. From there, he also projected his own vaguely suicidal tendencies onto Courtney and deemed her life just as disposable as his own. At least compared to Sapphire's life. Ruby's "logic" here might've been gone this way: Courtney's just like his worst self, and he believes his worst self should die, which means Courtney should die too. From another POV he was also just sacrificing Courtney to protect Sapphire. Kind of depressing. But again I think it's mostly just another subconscious brain quirk for Ruby since he doesn't explicitly seem to hate Courtney (though he probably should)Anyway that's also one of the main reasons Ruby is seen as unhinged. While indirect, he's canonically
killed people for Sapphire's sake. After tricking them of course.
