#i have to separate my theories/analysis posts bc all my character studies are buried under lots of pontification so i can't just link them

[saltysaltdog]

It's honestly really enjoyable to try writing dialogue for Leshy because I get to use fancy words wrong on purpose.

Like when he's in the presence of the other Bishops he's the one with the most expanded vocabulary.

Ie: "The heretic who lies bound below will be condemned to eternal captivity."

Vs "Before us stands the last of its kind. All others we have hunted down and put to the blade." From Heket.

He then steals that line from Heket.

"How can this be? You were put to the blade, Lamb, as all your kind were."

But aside from stealing lines, all his dialogue with the player is a lot more simplistic and all his large words are usually emphasised, sometimes almost feeling tacked on.

"And yet here you stand before me, unrepentant."

"The Red Crown rises again... but what an UNWORTHY bearer it has."

Sometimes he even uses a simpler word and then switches to a fancier one. Pulling a real reverse Mojo jojo.

"Your persistence is beginning to ANNOY me, little Lamb. You may think yourself clever. You may think yourself righteous in your service to HIM. But you should not be so trusting of the Chained One. Oh, well. It's too late for talk. One such as you deserves no absolution. This will not end well for you."

That said, sometimes when he uses these words it's a bit off.

"I grow tired of you, little Lamb... Time to put an end to this FRIVOLOUS MASQUERADE!"

I don't think this situation classifies as either of those things. It's not frivolous to be trying to kill each other or trying to keep Narinder imprisoned. Both those things are very important here to both people. And even if you attach it just to Masquerade, I don't think either party was really hiding their intentions whatsoever. Yeah the lamb was very much trying to hide their intentions to kill Leshy by *checks notes* killing all his minions. And even if Leshy is speaking of his own half-hearted attempts to give you an out and not fight him, those are kind of belayed by the fact he actively sends minions to you and tells you flat out that he's trying to destroy you.

I think the metaphor he was going for was "dancing around each other" which makes sense as this is the first time you'll actively face each other in battle. Masquerade has a much broader implication as a masked ball, fair, or other event, making it not a good substitute.

There's another minor one in:

"After everything we did. After everything we sacrificed. He will not be satiated."

Used like this, the word most people would expect would be: Sated, to be made full. Or satisfied. He's not using it wrong, per say. In fact, although satiated is more explicitly not about food (vs sated), it's typically paired up with more dialogue cues explaining what desire was satiated and how. It's almost exclusively used as an adjective rather than a verb.

Eg: she was tired.(adj) Vs: the motion tired her. (Verb).

He drank till he was satiated(adj) vs: He was satiated by it.(verb) To be Satiated is a wonderful thing. (Adj).

On another note, Satiated has the implication of excess to it, to the point where you'd refuse to have any more. Like Leshy is expecting Narinder to be like "nope, no, that's too much death now. No more of that." And stop anyone else from being sacrificed.

Even if that's the view he has of Nari, his use of the word still reads a bit odd because of the aforementioned reasons.

What's super fun is that once you've defeated him, he kind of stops doing this? As in, experimenting with words and being so casual. He instead tries to be as loquacious as he is with his siblings, taking a minute to get there.

"Lamb... this is not a favor. I do not need your charity!"

"But when dear brother Narinder struck us in his fury, my eyes were torn from the socket."

"One was salvaged, and hidden in the tangled Darkwood. I despair at the thought of it being uncovered by some simple-minded beast."

"You have navigated my realm once before. Do so again, and recover my eye. Perhaps we can make an arrangement."

My take away from this is that when you were just a vessel for Narinder he had no reason to worry about if he used a word incorrectly here or there, and had no reason for more complex grammar, because he was under the assumption you'd be gone soon, plus he doesn't need to be formal.

Once defeated, however, he has no choice but to regard the lamb as an equal and needs to choose his words more carefully in order to be taken seriously.

It's sooo youngest sibling coded. (Or slightly older sibling with an overly verbose younger sibling, if that's your headcanon.)

But when he's experiencing intense emotions all this pretense goes out the window and he's very blunt and simple with his sentences.

... I cannot see! Where is my crown!?" "Lamb! Damned Lamb! I know you are there, I smell you." "What... has become of us?"

"-but I am strong. And you are in my woods. I WILL DESTROY YOU!"

"...go away, Lamb!"

One last thing that I skipped over is leshy's line of "But when dear brother Narinder", which I'm having a hard time characterising. Does Leshy still hold Narinder in high regards? Or is he just super sarcastic.

We potentially have Narinder's characterisation (Narinder never says a bad word about leshy, never celebrates his demise, grows his favourite food as stated by dev of berries and camellias, etc) and the fact you can find red crown statues surrounded by Camellias in Leshy's domain for the former, but for the latter it's a bit more difficult as most of his dialogue is hard to read as Sarcasm, but he does seem to like verbal irony.

"But you should not be so trusting of the Chained One. Oh, well. It's too late for talk. One such as you deserves no absolution."

"Through the dirt I would wade until one day... I found a Crown... or perhaps it found me?"

There's nuance here, I know it.

I'm more inclined for the former, of a genuine about everything Leshy, because in my game he straight up asked me to marry him as soon as I unlocked the option. And I said fuck it because its not like anyone ELSE had asked me (I have yet to finish Narinder's quests as nobody has died).

So I'm biased.