I think the idea of Editor being redeemed is very appealing!! Props to you again for the peak characterization. I was thinking that it'd be fun if, even after redemption and all that, there was still something kinda off about him! He does admit in game that he enjoyed killing some drifter; he also WAS the Murder, Kidnappings and Potpourri guy. I feel like it'd be kinda hard for all of that to disappear in a mere change of heart. Do you have any thoughts on what exactly goes on in his head post-redemption?
Ah, thank you!!!
As much as I'd love to see the Editor become a permanent fixture in Nexus, teaming up with Polyblank in an unlikely yet endearing duo, it was always doomed to fail. Just because Polyblank dragged his sorry ass off the streets before he became drenched mincemeat doesn’t mean the Editor would suddenly have a change of heart.
He was in this mess because of Polyblank, damn it!
So, to me, the Editor’s whole “redemption arc" is less about turning over a new leaf and more about swallowing his pride and biding his time. Once he regains his strength and pulls himself out of his funk, he'll return to his former glory: feared, calculating, and ready to remind the Syndicate exactly why they should have never underestimated him!
That said, just because his MAIN motivation for joining Nexus was to drag the entire Syndicate down to hell with him doesn’t mean his bond with Polyblank was entirely fake. For the first time, they’re on the same side, and they were winning. Winning! And the Editor has to admit:
"That damn Nexus agent isn't half bad..."
Still, if the Syndicate came crawling back to him, not out of remorse, but because they finally realized he was enabling Polyblank to outmaneuver them, he’d take the offer in a heartbeat. Yes, he remembers how cruelly they treated him, how they dumped him out as if he was trash, but the power, the fortune, the authority he once held...
It's intoxicating.
And now, it’s being returned to him on a silver platter, no strings attached.
So he’d take it. He'd probably muttering something cheesy while doing so like, “Well, Polyblank, it’s been fun. But you’ve got to admit, orange does suit me.”
And if, against all odds, he doesn’t accept the Syndicate’s offer? He wouldn’t stick around Nexus much longer anyway. Mary would eventually leave Syndicate of her own accord, and the two of them? They’d form a duo of their own.
And as for the Editor’s more… destructive actions/habits, they were part of the reason the Syndicate eventually caught on to his involvement with Polyblank.
He had been working from the shadows, subtly aiding Polyblank in dismantling the Syndicate’s operations. He knew the blind spots, the surveillance gaps, the places they never thought to look, and he exploited them beautifully. But while Polyblank preferred mischief and clever subversion to brute force, the Editor often found himself bristling with impatience.
There were plenty of missions that could have gone far more smoother—CLEANER—if Polyblank had just resorted to violence. Still, the Editor held his tongue.
That is, until one day, when his restraint finally snapped. In broad daylight, he lashed out and beat a Syndicate operative senseless, right there on the street. Polyblank had to pull him off.
He didn’t care. It wasn’t like they’d recognize him anyway. (Spoilers: They did... Eventually.)
But in that moment, he wasn’t just hitting a Syndicate grunt, he was unleashing all his pent-up rage against the entire organization.
In his mind, that lone operative became the Syndicate: the faceless hierarchy that cast him aside, the system that chewed him up and spat him out. Every punch wasn’t just vengeance, it was catharsis.
