Quote Originally Posted by Lurina View Post
Themis (as opposed to Elidibus, who is sort of a different mashup entity) works as a character despite not really having many interesting flaws because he puts the other actors involved in the Sundering into relief, IMO. He is the one Ancient who espouses their ideology of caring for the world and its inhabitants above individuals or ideology with complete sincerity, and is first on the sacrifice chopping board. He's an idealist, which is even physically visible in his boss arena, showing Amaurot on a sunny day in contrast to the usual nighttime depictions.

You need an innocent to put the sins of others into context.
See, that does track as for why Themis is like that, especially for the first two legs of Pandaemonium (I'd argue Elpis itself was probably supposed to have Hythlodaeus in that role). I hadn't really thought about that before. I still don't find that character very interesting as a result, but I can respect that in some ways he's sort of the 'moral straight man' of that story.

It just makes me feel like he was even more of a missed opportunity in Anabeisos, though. In that he's not only serving a different role (albeit unwillingly) while the Sharlayan scientists generally fill his original role, but also that he's in a weird state where he's, to try to simplify his situation into something a bit more 'human', a good and moral person who's suddenly become conscious of the fact he did really terrible things. That feels far more interesting than him just being back to the way he was and brushing the Elidibus stuff aside; maybe P11 is instead fueled by his grief and remorse, but him getting to go back to 'how it used to be' to finish closing the Athena case, and maybe an off-screen word with the scientists while we're off seeing the Hegemone scene, gives him a space to better come to terms with it.