In depth analysis

I'm just going by book context
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Dementor's_Kiss

A blurb about Crest Strayer

He's really one of my more fascinating characters to me. He started off as a generic character I made only to personify the full effects of the Strayer training, a emotionless self sacrificing machine of justice. 

I don't think it was until Sam came into the picture and a collaboration with Cynder that I truly started fleshing him out.

I gave him an element of tragedy in the form of a 'dead' best friend and guilt that he inadvertently caused the Strayer Civil War by omission. Furthermore I showed his backstory in such a way where the qualities he would take on in full later are hinted at but there's still joy in him. I once heard that for tragic characters, the key to making them tragic is you need to connect socially to them (aka show their interaction with people prior to their tragedy). That's how you make people feel sorry for them, you show what the end result is and where it started from. 

One thing I particularly love about Crest is his fierce unbending determination. If he has even a 1% chance of success, that's more than enough for him to try. Also I like how he's a mind that just barely made it to the good side. The draconian methods he uses are just on the fringe of being death eater methods. He justifies this with 'end justifies means' however he is truly scared that he could just as easily become one of the villains he fights if he goes too far.

But in front of all this complexity is a steel shell which keeps his thoughts and emotions well hidden. Almost no one is willing to dig inside him to find a deeper struggle and Crest prefers it that way. His deep routed paranoia makes him overly cautious to trusting anything he doesn't understand 100%. This can be a curse and blessing depend on who it is.

But behind the fear, anger and distrust is a man who truly wants to do good for the world, regardless of the cost to himself.

I've always said that each strayer was inspired by one of my childhood favorite heroes, and Crest (unsurprisingly) was inspired by Batman. Granted there are several deviations to make Crest original.

So yeah, felt like writing! ^.^;

What You Never Knew About...

So there's got to be some small character facts that are overlooked or not even stated. So what are some little character facts for your guys characters?

Mine:
Joachim is Jewish. (NO, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MONEY. STOP BEING RACIST. IT'S JUST HIS NAME'S ORIGIN)

little things about my characters?

Bryn's really good at origami

Mer's a really good dancer even though she's blind

Amaya cannot ride a broomstick. at all.

I can't think of anything for my characters. Have I really not thought them through all the way?

what about things that defined your characters when you first made them, but not so much anymore?

Death was originally not supposed to have relationships with anyone. That would have made it easier for him to kill them should the Dark Lord ask it. Pfft, we see how that turned out.

Topher was supposed to be my casual flirt and neutral character.

NOPE. That went to hell in a rowboat

I dont think anyone knew this but I have it written in my offical 'Charater devepolpemt and stupid ideas' notebook
River is the oppostie of harry- the house was going to put her in gryffindor but she never thought she was brave so said no.
And it put her in slytherin

also, she is afraid of heights.

Huh, that explains a great deal, I never knew that!

it explains EVERYTHING

ok not really but yeah.

I kind of considered Crouch to be an atypical death eater. While most of them try to hide their affiliations, he just flaunts it proudly

Is Crest worse than a Death Eater?

I mean, when you look at his goals, he's got the best intention in mind. But when you look at his methods... *shudders*

So is his ultimate goal justice... or vengeance that he justifies as justice?

Is Joachim becoming evil or just an anti-hero? 
He's become a crime lord, arranged a death, has a grudge against someone he's actively looking to destroy however said persons he holds a grudge with and arranged the death of were far eviler people than him.

two wrongs dont make a right

Because I like to be technical:


An anti-hero is a flawed hero, and therfore, much more intresting then the more traditional heros. They can be working on the side of good, but with a tradic flaw, or a horrible past, or for reasons that are selfish and not intirely "pure". They can also be working for the side of evil, but with hidden noble intentions, or other underlying complexities. These darker heros can be jerks, pathetic, hard, jaded, or mean. However, all anti-heros must have enought heroic qualitys, intentions, or strenth (physical including attracktivness or mental) to somehow gain the sympathy of the audiance. Mostly they are intriguing and can therefore can be very, very, SEXY especialy if you love bad boys (girls). Well known anti-heros include Batman (yay Batman Begins), Angle, Draco Malfoy, and well...Napoleon Dynamite (sorry not a hot example).
(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Anti-Hero)


noun1.a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.2.a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/villain)

He's more of an anti-hero.

i dont sympathise with Joachim at all, or find his character appealing or romanticised in anyway, he's just a hedonist to me

(read too much wuthering heights to deal  with anti-heros rn)

I love Joachim  Not even gonna lie.

Joachim's like the weird little man that lives in some very obscure dark part of my brain. I set out to make an asshole and looks like I did it!

So... weird question but how do you guys think Crest sounds like? Personally, I've four possible 'voices' for him but I'm curious what you guys think? Anre!lease sha if you have a clip of what you think he sounds like please share!

Option 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KxjGn30PDA
The silver haired guy (Sephiroth)

Option 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lKsdD28rnI
The.. silver haired guy (Raiden)

Option 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si3CTGcCsKM
The one at 1:26 (Albert Wesker

Option 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ2IpJyapG8
Batman

Lol not batman

So recent events have caused me to question one concept I never had before.

Is Crest ACTUALLY a hero or just a very well disguised villain?

Let's look at the facts:

Heroic Traits:

• Dedicated to stopping DEs
  
• Selfless in most respects
  
• Willing to die for his cause
  
• Saves people
  
• Doesn't kill
  

However, there are some disturbing tendencies when I thought about it a little deeper.

Villainous Traits:

• Merciless
  
• Brutal
  
• Unafraid to harm others to reach his goal
  
• Abandons duties at home for his work
  
• Obsessive
  
• Paranoid
  

The way I always used to think of Crest (and still do) is that he was the purest expression of what the old Strayer training would produce. A near robotic agent of the law. 

Since then obviously a wife and friends has caused him to gain emotion and more humanity. But did this awaken the bad as well as the good? Was he firmly good before but now he's out for revenge instead of justice? Or was he just following a protocol like a machine and is now genuinely interested in the goal?

You tell me what you think!

I would argue that he is neither (easy answer, I know) but I'll explain a little more:

Crest is the personification of order, rather than good. This means that he is not necessarily good or evil, but favours a rigid structure and hierarchy. The fact that he will mercilessly pursue chaotic individuals and ones who upset his vision of order supports this. If he were a "hero" per se, he would not be willing to use the same tactics the villains use, such as being unafraid to knock people down to achieve his goal.

If he is the product of Strayer training, he is an emmisiary of order rather than chaos. It does not make him immune to evil, and he could easily be a villain if the Strayers had decided their skills and training were better suited to being villains. In short, if the Strayers had been villains, Crest's personality would still be the same. 

But he is a hero in the fact that he will do anything he can to eradicate a known evil, the Death Eaters. His methods mean he is not a hero doing it, but has heroic intentions 

Hes an antihero, at best. Hes more like the opposite of Lukas than Crouch. And the question would then be: is Lukas really a villain? (Like Crest, he will not kill, or hurt anyone seriously. But he is driven to survive and his ultimate goal is chaos. Does that make him evil? Theyre both so similar theyre opposite.)

To be honest, I don't think morality is really known to Lukas. He is, as you say, a force of chaos. Evil happens to coincide with his aims true, but he's doing it to live rather than for the sake of malicious harm like Crouch.

If Lukas fed off order the way he does chaos, I can assure you he'd be best friends with Crest. I'd hesitate to call him an anti-villain though, as he's not exactly long for heroic qualities. 

I think selfish is the most appropriate label that can happen here. That's just my two cents.