Talk:Farley Havelock/@comment-27002171-20190626171037/@comment-26199726-20190629111131

There are much more horrible monsters in the Empire of the Isles. Havelock, who did end up committing truly atrocious crimes, might have started out as someone who just wanted to do the best he could and then lost control of events and how they changed him - at least he gives me that feeling. The feeling of a man who doesn't really want to do these horrible things, but doesn't see an alternative, who sees events spiraling out of control, going further than he ever planned, and himself powerless to stop them. Up to the point where he no longer even cares.

He'd be wrong of course; if these games tell us anything, it's that there always is a choice. But I think this error makes him a bit more sympathetic than other monsters without even a hint of any redeeming quality whatsoever, like High Overseer Campbell or Arnold Timsh.

The world's ugliness shaped Havelock as much as he shaped it.