In the earliest form of Thief’s Apprentice, the fever dream I had about playing an old game, the atmosphere was slowly escalating wrongness and anxiety instead of the nonstop maniacal depravity Thief’s Apprentice currently is. The bros have changed considerably since their first appearance, except Greedy Pickpocket, because he is already perfect.
The key difference is the prototype bros remember what the world was like before the plague hit, and so have a sense that they are abominations, their existence is fundamentally wrong, and once the world returns to its natural state, there won’t be a place for nasty little guys like them.
The current bros don’t remember anything because the plague hit 700 years ago. They don’t see themselves as strange or out of place. As nasty little guys, they are better equipped to survive The World than most people, and the even less fortunate envy and aspire to be like them.
Charming Conman was originally supposed to be a wizard scammer who pretended to be a powerful hermit wizard to manipulate people and gain access to wizard secrets, but as I developed the magic system, he is now actually a wizard because he can convince souls in magic items to die for him. There’s no point looking overly wizardly now. Conman’s sleeves were actually one of the first details to go, since they were drawn bunching up to his elbows, then I stopped drawing them entirely.
Conman was also originally the most physically intimidating bro, able to terrorise people into compliance just by showing up and staring. Now that Thief’s Apprentice is filled with hulking monstrosities like Noble Porter and Dung Collector, having a spiky head and being chunky doesn’t cut it anymore.
Instead of a terrifying hermit wizard, Conman is now designed to come across as a harmless rich foreigner with nothing up his sleeves.
Fleetfooted Housebreaker was originally more Fleetfooted than Housebreaker, but since Charming Conman no longer looks like a scary wizard (he is a legit scary wizard now, but doesn’t look like one), someone else had to be physically imposing. Also it doesn’t make sense from a gameplay standpoint to break into houses while relying on accomplices to deal with the occupants. I feel like making the fight guy look the most normal will be the easiest to animate.
Greedy Pickpocket is perfect and his appearance, personality, and lore have not changed since his first appearance. He is my favorite bro.
