“[T]he fact that he wasn’t even a blip on Cassian’s radar is crushing to him because Syril lives in this fantasy world where he has delusions of grandeur. He’s so desperate to be remembered and to make a difference. [emphasis mine] He had his first moment of real danger and excitement on Ferrix in trying to capture Cassian, and it all went wrong. He’s now coming face to face with him again, and he stops to think, “You don’t even remember me?” So he’s shocked, and it’s a cut too deep by that point. He’s been betrayed by Dedra and the Empire, and now his one true obsession doesn’t even think he’s worth remembering. He’s heartbroken.”
“[H]e has no one, really. He has no one who believes in him, he has no one who remembers him and he has no one he can trust.”
“If he had survived at the end [of episode eight], I still don’t think he would’ve joined the Rebel side. I don’t think he would’ve joined a side at all. I think he would’ve been so traumatized by those last ten minutes that he would just wander off somewhere to live alone.”
Oh hell yeah, a meaningless death is absolutely fitting for him, don’t get me wrong. I just wish we could’ve seen him realizing how he fucked up everything. Idk, just a few more moments of utter confusion, and then have a stray blaster bolt hit him instead of it being an execution.