#or at least becomes an engineer in hamelin

[exgirlfiend]

I think my hottest take when it comes to my interpretation of swaine (not actually, I absolutely have way more controversial takes but like,, I’ve read so many fics where this was a point of contention for me so it’s worth bringing up) is that I don’t think he intended to become a thief nor do I think he’s particularly keen on continuing doing it after the events of the game. I honestly think he became a big time thief mostly just because of his loss of restraint and his nightmare, not particularly bc he wanted to. and even if that’s not the case, I definitely don’t think that was like,,, his initial goal when he ran away. I mean, if he was trying to figure out his purpose and make his father proud of him, I really don’t think a life of crime would be his first choice. or even second choice. plus, in dotdd he has multiple lines of dialogue where he makes it pretty clear that he DOESN’T like thieves (and in wotww when esther makes a jab about him stealing, he tells her that she’s “dredging up ancient history”, so I don’t think he still actively considers himself a thief after joining the party,,, even if I do think the joke was actually meant to be about him stealing from the party specifically). also, the first thing he does in order to show off his gun to oliver is to open a chest, which is something oliver also does very frequently. not steal with it. and all of his pistol upgrades increase their attack stat but don’t meaningfully change their ability to steal (I mean, the item description for the rogue’s revolver notes that it’s better at unlocking chests, but none of them say anything about their ability to steal specifically. bc his main skill is actually his damage output. in dotdd he doesn’t even USE his gun to steal he does it with his hand!). and like yeah all of that can be explained away as just gameplay stuff and not indicative of his character (you could even argue that his miracle move IS stealing so obviously it’s still a pretty big part of his character) but…I just think it’s interesting to think about.