Background stuff
WHO
Going to start this, okay. Dietrich and evil. It says that he's the most evil character in Trinity Blood and he really is the main antagonist. Even when it isn't him, he's usually around poking things or playing with them. His father killed him because he thought he was evil.
Now, I'm not exactly a big believer on the evil at birth thing. Child abusers were likely to have been abused as children... and really, even if your kid is the devil I feel like if you're going to kill them you've got some issues yourself. That being said, I'm sure there was a lot wrong with Dietrich as a kid. But I also, for some reason, can see Dietrich's dad as being the guy who hears his baby crying and flips his switch.
It's important for children to have a secure base. If they don't then they never get attached to people. So, yes, I am playing that Dietrich is a product of his childhood, in a way. I assume that if he had grown up in a different family he would be less sadistic. He'd probably still get a kick out of other people's pain, but I don't think he'd be as ... mm, amoral. Plus, for some reason my mind cannot really connect his... neediness of Cain with being PURE EVILZ. Neediness might not be the right word, really. And the only bits of the novel I have on that is when Caterina manipulates him and the 'Cain really finds us useless and will leave me behind' thing a bit... odd. I'm wording things terribly tonight, really.
I am horribly biased on this, and I know it. Part of it is that I am shifting TB world into how I view the world and it doesn't work that way. OH WELL.
I am also under the belief that Dietrich cannot be redeemed. He is a product of his childhood, but now he is 21. Pruning has been going on for a while, and there are probably many emotional/social pathways he never used in his brain that are, rather, gone. The cut off line for redemption has gone away and will not be back. Dietrich will never not see people as playthings, which isn't to say that he can't show a full range of emotion to them.
Then there's the Raising Dietrich issue. So, he was six when he killed his family, tormented villagers, joined the RCO AT SEVEN. Right. SEVEN. Fairly high rank by 10, wasn't it? He is now 21. This is 14 years of RCO and no parents. This is a -bad- thing, really, when it comes to development. I'm actually surprised he managed to maintain his intelligence. And, yanno, didn't DIE.
Also, I mean... how evil can a six year old be, really? Brain dysfunction on my part, lol. I bet he was probably asocial and didn't like hugs and probably sort of a creepy withdrawn kid in a weird way. Probably too smart and maybe he made you feel paranoid, but like ... yeah, anyway.
Here's some more. We never get to see Dietrich as a kid. No flashbacks are given to us. I assume he really hated being a kid. His childhood was not full of bunnies and love and even if he was born evil I'm sure he disliked it. Judging from his reactions as an adult, though, I think that he was probably on the eviler side of birth but then how he was treated tipped it. Y-yes this is a bit of a jump and I keep running over this same subject but I can't really get away from it without saying it.
Wheeeeeeee going to say that Dietrich felt powerless as a kid sometimes. Or at least was far too aware of the power adults > kids and his own physical and cognitive status. Probably too smart for his own good and was constantly processing that he was being treated as inferior, treated as less blah blah.
WHICH MEANS if he ever deages at camp when he reages he's going to go like do something cruel. Because that would just be a slap in the face. LOOK AT HOW COMPETANT YOU ARE oh lolz, a kid again. Dietrich is often trying to escape that, I think. He wants to get the better of things. Show that he's past being a powerless little kid and bully up on other people. The fact that Cain and Isaak so quickly put the reverse on him in the manga was fairly bcjkrbcrjkebcjkebkje inducing. Not only that but it showed that he was dispensible, which is even worse for him.
In the novel he and Isaak have a conversation about when a person is really dependent on another person what's the worse that could happen? Dietrich right away replies "for them to die." WHICH as Isaak points out, is wrong. It's if they change. Dietrich DOES sort of depend on Cain. He likes to pretend that he follows Cain out of some sort of choice, but ... yeah no. Cain is a weird psuedo replacement for parents. Something that Dietrich can logically deal with better. er. Deal with in an implicit sense not in a controlled sense.
I want to say that Dietrich picked up a lot of Isaak and/or Cain's sort of two facedness. Or attempted to in a lot of ways. The sort of smile and grin and unruffled way they both seem to be. Both are pretty quirky as well in their own weird ways.
Now one of the weirdest parts of his childhood was probably growing up around not humans too. Comparitively he was still pretty weak, which must have been another sore spot for him. He made himself more valuable. Dietrich created his own technology of the wires and is good with the lost technology. He is smart and probably thinks of himself as indispensible to Cain. Lol.