Oh, I don't know-- I wouldn't describe Illyan as ambitious. Almost the opposite; he's very self-effacing, in many ways. Which is no bar to him being cunning or pragmatic, but when divorced from personal gain those strike me as more Ravenclaw properties. As ImpSec chief, he's mostly reactive; he's trying to preserve order, not pursue a new status quo. Though that reasoning gets a bit muddled when I think about all the Slytherins in Harry Potter who never did anything more revolutionary than marry another pureblood and do a bit of government work, so I admit, the case has its flaws.
I might actually put Aral in Slytherin, on the other hand. I think he does think of himself as a Gryffindor or Hufflepuffish type, doing the job in front of him because he has to, not because he derives any relish of it, and deriving most of his power as a leader from personal charisma. So do the people close to him. But, idk, his rapid rise through the military ranks and his interest in Komarr, his excitement beforehand about turning it into a textbook bloodless conquest… It's hard, because we never get his POV, and from an external viewpoint judging his sincerity and the amount of deliberation he puts into how people see him is a tricky proposition. Though it would probably be swinging too far in the other direction to assume a secret motive behind most of his statements to, e.g., Cordelia.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-11-04 11:23 pm (UTC)I might actually put Aral in Slytherin, on the other hand. I think he does think of himself as a Gryffindor or Hufflepuffish type, doing the job in front of him because he has to, not because he derives any relish of it, and deriving most of his power as a leader from personal charisma. So do the people close to him. But, idk, his rapid rise through the military ranks and his interest in Komarr, his excitement beforehand about turning it into a textbook bloodless conquest… It's hard, because we never get his POV, and from an external viewpoint judging his sincerity and the amount of deliberation he puts into how people see him is a tricky proposition. Though it would probably be swinging too far in the other direction to assume a secret motive behind most of his statements to, e.g., Cordelia.