Look, I love Jon as much as the next person but I think some of you have gone so far along the ‘Jon is a sad little man who did nothing wrong’ route that you’ve genuinely forgotten all the times he held power in a situation or like. Made a decision that hurt people

I’m in a mood tonight and feel like picking apart my pathfinder characters to look at what themes they explored

Roland: redemption, what would it look like if a bad person riddled with guilt chose to try to be better and atone and was already on their journey to being a better man before starting the campaign, how a person’s childhood and past shapes them, and whether it’s possible to truly pull oneself entirely out of a blood soaked history.

Sai: Mommy issues and self loathing, coming of age, unlearning or embracing the morals of your parents, coping with not living up to the expectations of your parental figure, dealing with social anxiety

Kiyo: Explores how someone long lived feels living amongst people with 1/7 as long a lifespan, specifically their relationship with old age and death as both a doctor and an elf. Grief, survivor’s guilt, revenge, and exploring a regular person dragged into adventure. Later their story organically grew into what it means to be a hero and what you’re willing to do for the greater good vs your own personal morals, especially when you have a duty to others.

Lucien: Meant to be a one-shot character initially, so actual thought going into him came after the fact. He’s grown into an exploration of depression, self-depreciation, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and being incapable of fitting the role expected of you by society.

Haruki: Made to be a fallen hero archetype from the start. Explores being turned on by the religion and the god he worshipped, being embraced by those he’d been taught were evil, and how it’s choices that make one a monster not appearances. (He excuses his actions as being because he was transformed, and that if people are going to see him as a demon he may as well embrace it and act like one. His choices are his own, not the result of what he became, he just excuses it to himself as part of what he is now...wow I did this before I ever watched a single episode of TMA, oops guess Haruki is just angry teenage Jon lol)

Kaius: Created with the idea in mind that I wanted a character who had a good reason to lie about every aspect of his life. Kaius was originally meant to be a habitual liar hiding his past to protect his wife and daughter from any enemies he’d make adventuring. There would have been a running gag that he was an extremely convincing liar but couldn’t keep his lies straight because he’d been lying so often, so he’d slip in small inconsistent details when he got too ambitious with his stories. However his real story came out in the first act of the campaign when the party met his ex-wife and the artifact they heisted turned out to be able to cure his daughter’s fatal illness. So he took the artifact and cured her, and then stuck with the party because he felt like he owed their cleric his daughter’s life for letting him walk out with the artifact with no questions asked. She was the only one he told the truth to, but since all the players already knew his backstory I dropped the gag. Instead Kaius got to just let loose, be a bit of a prankster, and in the end explored trust, revenge, and redemption when the cleric who he’d trusted and swore loyalty to betrayed the party.

Morris: Kind of a joke character, Morris was made primarily to be light hearted, to challenge myself to play a more lighthearted character, and like Kaius was made to be an older character already married and having an established life that got thrown into chaos by other forces. He primarily explores the expectations vs realities of going on a fantasy adventure, and at what point you cross the line from faking being brave and heroic and competent to actually being what you pretended to be.

Umbrolus: My latest character. I don’t know what all his story will explore yet since we’re just starting out. Definitely some unhealthy relationship with negative emotions, and how compartmentalizing bad feelings too much can explode in your face later. Also another one coping with parental issues, this time exploring the feelings of someone who knows his parent loved him and did the best for him, but after leaving home realizing that some of what they did actually was harmful to him in the long run. Also a little of my favorite trope of discovering you’re something other than what you believed yourself to be your entire life. Seriously even though it’s not repeated on this particular list, I use that trope a lot in my other writing.