But For Him It Is A Paradise - Tumblr Posts
Thinking again about the parallels between qFit's past and present. Because currently, on the island, it's very clear that he isn't exactly like everyone else; he's too untrusting and untrustworthy, he's less than a good man, he's hiding things and may hurt anyone if it seems necessary. He never stopped being the person he was in the wasteland.
And yet, back in the wasteland, he had the opposite effect. He wasn't like other people; in the sense that, despite being a griefer and a murderer, he was a better person than everyone else. He wouldn't destroy unless he needed to. He wouldn't kill without a good reason. Compared to the other citizens he was a fucking saint. He would preserve history and tell people's tales and show marginal care for others; and was mocked for it.
There was one particular happening that makes me so soft for him as a character and shows his complexities so much. During a base hunting stream, a good while ago, he found a home. A small colonial home with a little manicured lawn and a guest bedroom and a postbox. Beside the postbox there was a note inviting people to leave a letter to the owner, and to stay in the spare bedroom if needed. Where most people would have destroyed the home, Fit explored it. Where most people would have ravaged the chests of all of their valuable items, the only thing Fit stole was enough resources to make a book, in which he wrote a thank you note and left it to the homeowner.
The thing is, he knew the home would eventually be destroyed. He must have. Once one person finds a base, everyone else finds it, he knew that full well. He could have taken the credit; blown it sky-high. But he didn't. He had a choice, and chose to honour a person's home while it still existed.
One of the most compelling aspects of qFit's characterisation is you can easily claim he's past the point of redemption because of all of the terrible shit in his past, that he'll never stop being the person he was in the wasteland and so on and so forth. And you'd be both wrong and right.
He is fucked up, he is hauling a mountain of past sins around with him, he does have a whole lot more to stand trial for than most other islanders. But he'll never stop being the person he was in the wasteland; the patient, careful, astonishingly empathetic person he's always been. It was a lot more noticeable back then. It still stands now.
Maybe he really was made for a greater purpose. Maybe the island gave that to him. Maybe he was always meant to be a father, and a friend.