LogFAQs > #986521544

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The Character: Father Kevin Graham
Sorry I'm good at a lot of things, but pretending to be someone I'm not isn't one of them.

Various life things got in the way of my plans this year, so I dont have Kevins Stigma tattooed on my arm yet like I planned to show off here. The fact that Im planning it at all should show how much I like him, though.

Yeah, those badass epithets I mentioned earlier? Is there one in Trails more badass than the Heretic Hunter? I didnt think much of this guy during my first playthrough of SC. His chemistry with the rest of the party makes him enjoyable enough, but he always feels disconnected and, for lack of a better word, incomplete. He seemed like an odd inclusion when the rest of the playable cast carried over so seamlessly and naturally from everything that happened in the first game, like he was meant more as a vehicle to give players more visibility on the Septian Church, because thats obviously an important piece of the worldbuilding that had received very little focus beforehand.

Well, all of that was true. It just wasnt true in the ways I thought. Kevin definitely gives us some insight into the Church, though at least to the point in the series that Ive reached, we still dont know a ton about it. Hes definitely disconnected, because he has to be and firmly believes he prefers it that way. And man oh man, is he ever incomplete, in more ways than one.

The hunting of Weissmann just flips Kevin Graham as we know him entirely on his head. Its the quickest Ive ever gone from feeling mostly neutral about a character to loving them. The overall reveal is cool enough on its own - even from his first couple of appearances, SC never makes any real attempt to play coy with the fact that hes more than hes letting on, but the extent to which thats the case is unclear. Its relatively early that we learn hes part of the Gralsritter, and it seems like a big enough development to justify the secrecy because weve never heard of them before and its a wild concept that seems to answer all questions about him. For there to be an additional twist beyond that was unexpected and awesome. Whats even more intriguing is the peek we get into his headspace, though. Part of him seems to outright enjoy putting that salt stake in Weissmanns heart (understandably so - talk about adding insult to injury), and to revel in his verbal and literal takedown of his prey - and for a man so consumed by the belief that people should be punished for their misdeeds, some part of him probably does. But once the job is actually done, he immediately transitions into a self-loathing lament of his lot in life. Its every bit as compelling of a setup for Sky the 3rd as FCs ending was for the second game. The series has already proven by this point that it can do a masterful job of putting broken characters back together - damn right I want to see them do it again.

Its fun to look back at his debut in the beginning of SC with the knowledge of the development he eventually gets and see what a perfect introduction it is. He sees Estelle looking down, tries a number of goofball attempts to cheer her up, offers a sincere listening ear for her troubles, and then despite knowing she was already depressed before he showed up, his immediate instinct the second she starts to break down is to apologize for whatever he did to upset her. In just a few lines of dialogue, the game shows off that 1) hes perceptive enough to notice a stranger is way out of sorts, 2) hes happy to make himself the butt of a joke to make that stranger smile, 3) he has a tendency to blame himself for things going wrong, even when theres clear evidence they arent his fault, and 4) none of this stops him from being a flirt. The very next scene is almost as good, showing off more of his lackadaisical nature through his admittance that hes procrastinating on reporting to Grancel Cathedral (via leaving on a flight FROM Grancel, no less), before immediately turning him serious again when he notices from just a couple vague exchanges that Estelle really needs his help at the moment Still under the guise of him neglecting his duties, naturally. No real way to know it at the time, but that whole intro sequence feels like the perfect precursor to pretty much everything about him.

Man, Skys writing is so good. This is a character thats just expertly crafted with the utmost care from beginning to end, even if its not all super obvious on a first playthrough. I mean, look at some of his dialogue portraits - theres a tiny bit of teeth showing in his big grin that gives just enough of a sinister look about him, where its easy to dismiss at the start but takes on a whole new meaning when it comes back alongside a smirk and narrowed eyes during Weissmanns execution. Say what you will about Trails, but its hard to find much fault with its foreshadowing most times.

(cont'd in next post)