Your characterization is just WOW omg whenever you write I feel like it IS the characters themselves talking n acting like in the book (idk if I communicated that right but like your jst a baddie fr)
i need to grab him by the ankle and spin him over my head and smash him into the wall
same as Waleran, i really Really disliked him on my first playthrough. man had no subtlety to how suspicious he seemed and he only matched that with how cruel he was to his lessers. then Book 2 happened and sniffs snif actually i quite like you you contentious stick man.
spoilers for the rest of the game/some parts of the book/a part of the miniseries under the cut!
i think him being relegated from Main Antagonist of the first part to becoming a perpetually disgruntled subprior who Can respect you if you do the right things stuck to me. don't get me wrong, he's spiteful and conservative and still especially disdains Ellen, and he would probably cane teenagers if Philip wasn't there, and the younger monks are still obviously afraid of him. look at how they flinch when Remigius snaps his book shut. but hey. i never said he was a good person, just an interesting one.
there's a bit after the fleece fair attack where Remigius tries to take over Philip's speech to the people after he fails in his despair. you can read it as annoyance- Remigius could have left him right there and reveled in his misery but it shows he has principles beyond getting one over Philip, at the very least a duty to pick up where the prior can't.
for all of Remigius's blustering and clear contempt for everything and everyone, everything he says is all bark and no bite. he's a coward. in the book, he runs away when trying to carry Adolphus' bones out of the burning cathedral out of fear. he treats others like dirt but he's completely subservient to, and terrified of, waleran.
he can be agreeable when he wants to be. when the timeskip happens in Book 3, we see Kingsbridge fallen green into disrepair. it's not bustling as it once was, a lot of people have either died in the attack or left afterwards- and Remigius is still there. if you finished the game then we all know he was probably still there just to monitor Philip for Waleran. but with Milius and Cuthbert dead and with Tom out of the picture, they're left with each other and for Once. Cynical Philip and Remigius seem to see eye to eye with how to run Kingsbridge- quietly. perhaps it's conjecture but that's the impression i got at the beginning of their argument. it's a shame that this part of Kingsbridge isn't covered very much because it could have been interesting to see what life had become for its inhabitants And to see Remigius and Philip's relationship at that point
then everyone comes back and Remigius defects to become dean of Shiring lol. i won't touch on the book or miniseries too much here but this ends up being a bad move- Waleran throws him out on his ass and he becomes a beggar. when Philip and Remigius meet again it's a whole pitiful thing and like. he tries to hold on to what little defiance he has left. it's! and i like this bit because (even if it's self-serving) he has the capacity to change, very much Prodigal Son-esque.
none of that happens in the game but whichever canon you subscribe to, i think both are very Remigius :]
THEN comes the finale. the trial. Waleran is decked out in his bitchiest liturgical garb! its a fun little show trial calling for Philip's imprisonment! then Waleran calls in Remigius to the stand. he didn't fall down on his luck in the game, this is Waleran's star witness. the culmination of his duties is Remigius ratting on Philip and YET he still manages to find something good to say about him, about how he helped the Earlscastle refugees. he's finally in this position of power, too, as the dean of Shiring, but he's clearly still in Waleran's leash. when Remigius puts out his own opinion on the miracle, Waleran shoots him a Look(tm) and he immediately changes course. THEN he continues pointing the finger at Philip. its so! he has mixed priorities here!
and when Waleran- for the first time at this point- is genuinely baffled by the revelation that James didn't drown in the river- he has NO why the gang is claiming this but he looks at Remigius, fuming. because it was his one job. all he had to do was kill James, and he didn't, and he failed, so he has to pay the price.
BUT THE THING IS! this was Remigius's one act of defiance. they hanged Jacques Cherbourg in 1125, and this trial is taking place in 1155. for 30 years- he's been in Waleran's grasp, he 'fulfilled his role as sub-prior wonderfully' all this time. Remigius is a dog and a coward through and through... but he could not bring himself to kill James. and i'm choosing to believe that it was because he was his friend. it just ties in so neatly with the idea that perhaps over the years he's grown close enough to some people in the priory that maybe he could be better- despite the overwhelming control that Waleran has on him.
IT ALSO TIES IN VERY WELL WITH REMIGIUS MINISERIES'S DEAD GAY LOVER BACKSTORY but that's a whole thing for another time
