#kin's so silly goofy and acts like such a class clown

[hedonicghost]

I just think carter is such an interesting character with so much depth to him I wanna know more about why he turned out like That

so theres a few answers t tht!!! i'll go into the in-univ answer first, and then explain how we dev'd him!

so, in universe, regardless of the timeline, carter only ever resorted to killing because he needed to avenge the death of his son. noah (crying child) lived for a while after the Bite, but eventually died. once that happened, carter kinda just... snapped. he couldnt see anything normally until he was finished acting for revenge. by the time it was over, by the time he died, he deeply regretted it. he knew it wasnt what noah would've wanted, but it did give carter the closure he needed. at least in the moment. other than the obvious killer stuff, carter has always been a kinda... silly goofy guy. it could be from a lack of attention as a kid (his dad and/or will working late days on the animatronics) or from just... a general "i wanna be like this" standpoint. think like a class clown. they only really act out for a laugh and attention. they always had good intentions with his jabs at people (no pun intended). carter's always been capable of being serious, of dropping the silly goofy act and talking to someone about what's really bothering him, but he always wanted to put the well beings of others before himself. which is why he did perceive him killing noah's bullies as for his son up until the end. it took him death to realize he was acting for himself.

now, for a character design standpoint... we started designing and developing carter around the time we started being more consciously aware that we're plural. atlas was fronting a lot and doing a lot of shitty things to our then-host and the people around them. it took quite a while to get atlas to calm down, but one of the few things that helped was introducing atlas to things the body wasn't suuuper into as a kid, but had some degree of knowledge of. that happened to be fnaf. this was before william afton was even a character. atlas latched onto "purple guy" pretty hard and started writing what it thought he was doing on its own. soon enough, the concept started taking on a life of its own. atlas openly kinned (and still does) "purple guy" and would often act as him. i guess, in a way, carter is almost exclusively an outlet for how atlas felt when it thought it was defending █████. it thought it was doing the right thing by doing all these horrible things. that by doing those things, █████ would be better off, but in the end, when the jig was up, it realized it was only doing those things because it was scared.

[clavicuss-vile]

im thinking about Kin'aru and Rhyielhelas for no particular reason. i dont think they ever meet (or if they do, its only briefly) because Kaos only really goes to the college to find out about the elder scroll, but i just think they'd be such a comical pairing.

Rhy, who eyetwitches every time someone stands on a flower, meeting Kin who could ramble about alchemy for hours without taking a breath. but also Rhy who lives in adoration and so much attachment to his clan-bosmeri culture and would do anything to preserve and protect it, and Kin who is so desperately trying to revive lost magics of a culture destroyed (re: dwemer animation + life magics in their automatons)

Rhy who is devout and overwhelmed (in a good way) by Y'ffre's divinity and love for their people and home, and Kin who got in over his head with Clavicus Vile and who knows he is so so easily disposable.

but mostly, Rhy, who would have to be held back to stop him biting, mauling, and tearing someone to shreds to protect the people and entities he loves, and Kin'aru, who'd gladly sacrifice his life to a daedric god, to do the same.