#sdsw

Wrath (Latin: Ira)

"Defined as uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred. Wrath often reveals itself in the wish to seek vengeance. In its purest form, wrath presents with injury, violence, and hate that may provoke feuds that can go on for centuries." [x]

Why Wrath is in the place it is: Of the many things I wanted to incorporate from canon, Wrath was essential. I couldn’t ignore it while I was playing, nor I could while watching John Seed’s boss fight and eventual death—yet, how does Wrath manifest in Leslie?

One of the things you have to know it’s that she’s a deeply sensitive person beneath her solemn semblance—which means, for the most part, she’s finely tuned to her emotions, aware of them in consistently through the hours, days and weeks of her life. These intense feelings are kept in check unless she’s with someone she knows and is comfortable with; so, when she experiences rage, it shows.

Anyways, we’ll talk about Les’ fifth sin, which is…

Greed (Latin: Avaritia)

"Inordinate or insatiable longing for unneeded excess, especially for excess wealth, status, power, or food. As secular psychological concept, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs." [x | x]

To start off with 2019, I’ve decided to make this little exploration of my deputy’s sins to look at her character as a whole and see how to fit her into the Far Cry 5 universe. I wish I could’ve written drabbles that show the way these sins are manifested, but unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to do so until short notice. In the meantime, though, I’ll post moodboards in the following six days and write my reasoning as for why that sin in particular doesn’t affect her, from weakest to strongest.

We’ll start with her weakest sin, which is…

Sloth (Latin: Acedia)

"Defined as absence of interest or habitual disinclination to exertion. [...] Spiritually, acedia first referred to an affliction attending religious persons, especially monks, wherein they became indifferent to their duties and obligations to God." [x]

Why Sloth is in the place it is: Leslie’s incapable of omitting her duties when she knows they’ve to carried out—her sense of responsibility has always been strong, instilled on her at an early age by her paternal family, whose way of life required them to that way. Her teens, on the other hand, were defined by the heavy amount of tasks she took to help people around her, building up the “always reliable” reputation she’d have later in life. 

A consequence of those events is her mind not allowing her to rest just for the sake of being lazy anymore; she has to be doing something until she eventually overtaxes herself to exhaustion (the amount of outdoor activity she has, in addition to her hobbies and erratic sleep patterns, can attest to that). Once war breaks out in Hope County, you bet she’ll be doing her job all the time.

Time to talk about the second sin!

Lust (Latin: Luxuria)

"Psychological force producing intense wanting for an object, or circumstance fulfilling the emotion. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality, money or power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food as distinct from the need for food." [x | x]

Why Lust is the place it is: I know what the common associations with “lust” are but hear me out. This sin in relation to her is less of a desire for sex and more of a longing for certain objectives that have been lacking in her life: stability, support, security; things that keep slipping through her fingers every time she looks for them, sometimes in all the wrong places. She becomes a risk-taker when it comes to them, chooses at the rocky way and goes through the storm in an effort to reach these goals. It’s is an intense longing that burns steadily inside her and pushes her to previously undreamt-of ends. 

However, it’s not only about the three S’s, it’s also about happiness, comfort, love. Deep down, Leslie recognizes all of these ideas push her to work harder, drive her day-to-day actions, and motivate her to go ahead with the hope of one day being able to experience them on her own. The issue with her, you see, is that she keeps looking the other way, trying to give herself in everything she does, and she loses track of these internal wishes of hers. They were clearer to her when she was a teen, I think, but moving to Hope County made her consider perspectives she hadn’t pondered before. To sum it up, Hope County has made her think seriously about what she wants, but she hasn’t exactly figured out what she needs either.

Behold, the sin Joseph considers fitting of the Deputy in canon:

Pride (Latin: Superbia)

"Identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness, the putting of one's own desires, urges, wants, and whims before the welfare of other people. In even more destructive cases, it is irrationally believing that one is essentially and necessarily better, superior, or more important than others." [x]

Why Pride is in the place it is: I’ve thought about this one quite a few times, considering the religious definition of ‘pride’ is actually opposite to what makes Leslie, well, her. In essence, Leslie’s still a loner. Even when there’s a notable improvement when it comes to opening up to people and making friends, she prefers to resolve matters concerning her alone. She doesn’t like putting people in danger if they’re with her, so she may insist on doing the dangerous part herself. Her stubbornness about it is what makes ‘pride’ in the fourth place of the list – once her mind is set, there’s nothing/no one else that can dissuade her. She has been so used to rely on herself for everything that asking for help is still difficult for her, even for emotional/stress-related matters.

In Hope County, she tries to not rely too much on her Guns/Fangs for Hire, only for her to get yelled at by her friends or be given judgmental looks from her furred companions when she returns wounded from her missions. She’s slowly learning, but as the saying goes: old habits die hard.