One of the things that makes Coil kind of unique among worm’s antagonists and cultural villains in general is his kind of ideal balance of kindness and cruelty. It’s hard to pin down so -
Thomas Calvert is pretty explicitly a sadist of some kind, whether it’s torture or sexual violence or just serial killing isn’t specified, so you can imagine before Cauldron he has done at least some terrible things, and is totally inured against any kind of evil - he also explicitly doesn’t have a problem in hiring pedophiles, only in that their loyalty can be insured.
So Calvert himself we would just hate, straight up... but Coil’s power he bought is almost perfectly suited for him - all his personal sadism and cruelty can be done in what is basically a simulated world - if Lisa pisses him off he can just have her shot, feel a little catharsis, and close down the other world, appearing completely unruffled in the real one. He only loses his cool about 3 times in the novel, at all other times he’s more or less completely at ease - just as someone would be if they had a perfectly safe backup always ready. (the times are Crawler, Dragonsuits, and the Market)
The morality of all that is beyond me, but we can see from the text that Coil very rarely does horrible things in canon - pretty much just two - kidnapping Dinah and coercing Lisa. Pretty much the rest of his actions are about the same level as Skitter’s - whatever you make of that - because anything selfish he does only happened in his simulations.
Now, what does this all mean? I’ve seen some takes on Coil that see him as a control freak, someone who wants to constantly control everything - but that’s pretty clearly untrue - Coil lets the undersiders and travelers run themselves, owns but doesn’t puppet the mayoral candidates, and in general takes a more hands off role. Rather, Coil’s defining trait, more than anything, his fatal flaw, is Possessiveness.
Coil doesn’t want to control everything - rather, he wants to *own* everything. The factions within his organization, politicians, business are allowed to run themselves, but they all have to have him at the top - he talks about “his” undersiders, “his” travelers, “his” pet. He collects people who are both useful and loyal - and he always ensures this by having a carrot and stick, and always leads with the carrot. It’s not that he wants to make people’s lives worse - he can do that in his simulations as he pleases - he wants to own every faction in the city, and see them prosper under his ownership - he likes people who want something, something he can provide
What makes this his fatal flaw is where this conflicts with the two Thinkers. Their powers are far too valuable to give up or work against him, so of course he compels them to work for him. What ends up killing him is that he had to have them leashed or chained - there are easily futures where Tattletale is an ally or independent lieutenant, where Dinah is negotiated with for 20 questions per day, or where he gives her to skitter after his goals are completed - but he’s unable to let go of anything he owns
It’s not sadism or cruelty or stupidity or evil that led to his downfall - it’s his need to own everything he posseses
stay tuned for more coil analysis - next time are his good qualities lmao
