J1 was like. theoretically I respect Steve immensely and we are good friends. in practice they could usually go 10-15 tags before Jedao was wildly aggravated but trying to be chill about it because Steve makes 'oh I always make people angry because I'm too principled' his toxic martyr trait
its not that J2 is more patient because J1 sat in a torture box for 400 years to do what he needed to do. but J2 is more used to getting a lot of resistance and confusion from people than J1 was - he went from being a wildly charming rising star to a wildly intimidating legend who could always get an angle
also I get the feeling that...for all that they poked each other a lot in the sharp spots, Jedao is so very careful about being fair when he's angry, and Arthur is so transparently Cares Too Much, that neither of them have like...fully burnt bridges? like I don't think Jedao has done anyting to put himself into Unforgiven territory with Arthur
there's embers flying around but their bridges are sturdier than that. bc Arthur can at least recognise now that jedao is trying to at least be reasonable despite how massively upset he is, he's setting boundaries and Arthur has to respect that if nothing else
delightfully, the fact that Arthur is willing to go at it with jedao with teeth nearly fully bared and the risk of losing massive face is actually a remarkable level of trust
at one point Arthur said soemthing like "despite what you think of me, I still care about you" and Jedao was stonewalling about another thing at the time but on the side it was very much
yeah arthur has like fully internalised the "we're just coworkers" part so he fully believes jedao doesn't care about him, but he knows jedao cares so he's still willing to make the effort
I do think it's because Most People will assume getting to know the eldritch horror is the Harder One and that clearly Arthur is X to have made John such a little goober
arthur also makes an effort to present himself as a Reasonable Polite Englishman, which has the wonderful side effect of making people think he's a pushover
i was going to say that i think it's funny what the presentation of 'Reasonable Polite Englishman' meant to Nathaniel, and i do. but i also think it's funny that for similar reasons Fitz reads at as a reason to be wary of him
hilarious to me that Arthur took Jedao's "we're not friends" comment so personally while currently giving a lecture to John that's like "if you're a grumpy bitch all the time, no one will bother you, this is key"
(but John is clearly the favorite)toxicmartyr trait