The Theresa and Reaver Debacle
Y’know, I’ve been thinking up the little sudden uprising about the whole Reaver and Theresa debate. How can someone like Reaver but hate Theresa?
Well I’ma try to explain my thoughts on this.
When I first played Fable, I was 12. I played Fable 3 and it was the only exposure I had to Fable. I had only known Theresa and Reaver from Fable 3. I absolutely hated Reaver. He was an evil little shit and I despised him. Theresa, I really had no opinion on her. Not until I played Fable: The Journey about a year after I played 3. I was young back then so didn’t think too much about Theresa’s story in the Journey.
Now that I have revisited Fable, replaying 3 and playing 2 for the first time, I am viewing these stories with a much more mature mind. When I met Reaver in Fable 2, he was so different than his 3 version. I mean yes, he was still a narcissistic asshole, so full of himself, but he was entertaining. The entire “How dare Lucien betray me as I was betraying you!” thing was hilarious to me.
This, to me, gave a new perspective on Reaver. And after going back to read his diaries in his mansion, it really added more to his character. Reaver kind of gives me Deadpool vibes. He does things for himself, usually without a care for anyone else, but that doesn’t make him evil. He doesn’t intentionally go out to ruin people’s lives. I mean he does ruin people’s lives, but that’s because whatever selfish thing he is doing is affecting those people. In Fable 2, the Reaver I met was an anti-hero type character. Very different than his Fable 3 self. In 2, he seems more carefree and self-centered on “me me me me”. He’s doing things for himself and that’s it. In Fable 3, he is given complete control on progressing Albion into the Industrial Age. So he’s doing something for Albion, rather than himself. Of course, he makes people’s lives miserable, but you can’t argue that progress is happening.
I don’t know, to me, Reaver isn’t evil. He’s just a selfish narcissistic asshole who cares about himself. But he is human. It’s revealed that he has nightmares of his actions in Oakvale and has to drink himself to sleep because of them. He still is haunted by his deeds and he has to convince himself that he isn’t that person anymore. After playing Fable 2 and talking to some peeps who like Reaver (he has a lot of love in this small fandom) I start to like his character more. He is an interesting character. He’s not completely evil and he’s not completely good either. He’s morally grey. He won’t go out of his way to kill someone if it doesn’t benefit him or if they haven’t done him harm or offended him. I like his character because of how interesting he is. After reading his diaries, it adds a lot of depth to his character and shows that he is still human. He’s not a heartless bastard. He can still feel emotion, he is just really good at hiding it. That’s why I think a lot of people like Reaver. No, his actions can’t be justified, but just because people like him, doesn’t mean they are justifying his actions. Like I said, I absolutely hated Reaver. But now that I see there was more to him, I enjoy his character. I think Reaver is a great character and has good story-telling potential.
Now moving on to Theresa. Theresa is the definition of morally grey. No matter what path you choose as Sparrow or HOBW, good or evil, Theresa still guides you because she needs you. Her goal is to get to the Spire in Fable 2. Hence why she uses Sparrow. Theresa builds Sparrow up, building up on the Hero’s grief and thirst for vengeance to use them as a tool. Theresa sends them in the Spire, knowing they’d be so close to their target for so long, but needing the Spire to be fully constructed. Once it’s constructed, then the Heroes join together to take it from Lucien. Once Lucien is dead and Sparrow has made their wish, Theresa simply throws them away. She has the Spire and that was her goal.
What she did to Sparrow was very shitty and selfish, but that’s why I like to think Theresa and Reaver are two sides of the same coin. Theresa acts very selfishly in Fable 2, wanting the Spire for her own needs. In Fable 3, she acts very manipulative in how she wants the HOBW to take the throne. She shows Logan as this evil tyrant, hell bent on keeping his power, but doesn’t show the actual truth. She manipulates the HOBW into fighting their brother into taking the throne and then reveals the truth about the Crawler. Theresa is not wholly good, but also not inherently evil. She is manipulative, twisting the narrative to benefit her. She admits this in The Journey. She admits to manipulating Sparrow and the HOBW. She’s the reason the Crawler awoke and attacked Albion. She’s the reason the Corrupter was close to entering the world and destroying it. But in the end, Theresa sacrificed her life to right her wrongs. This is where she and Reaver differ.
I honestly think that Reaver may die in a similar way to Theresa, sacrificing himself for something. It may several centuries down the road, but I can see it happening. Theresa and Reaver are very similar characters. They are the most morally grey characters in Fable. They are both selfish, using people around them to get what they want. But they both have their regrets. Theresa tells herself that what she is doing is for the good of the world. Reaver has to tell himself the things he did was necessary for his survival.
So to sum this up, the debate between Reaver and Theresa is silly to me. Because if you study their characters, they are very similar. They are the two sides of the same coin, and I think that was intended. In both games, you are surrounded by people aligned to one side or the other, your allies are righteous and your enemies are evil. But Theresa and Reaver, who both come from Oakvale, are the grey characters. They have lived for the same amount of time and have had similar experiences. They both are fantastic characters and I think there is more to them that can be revealed. Although Theresa’s story was closed up in The Journey, maybe with the reboot we will see more of her. Same thing with Reaver.
I like both Reaver and Theresa, because I was rambling and typing all this shit down, I started to realize how they are portrayed in the games. I find it so interesting, now. I’m not trying to change anyone’s opinions on the character’s but I am trying to voice my own opinions on these two. Fable is the type of game to leave a lot to interpretation and allows a lot of storytelling. So it’s just really how you perceive them.
(I would like to say that I was typing and thinking at the same time, so if some things don’t make sense, I was just trying to word my thoughts as best as I could, but I’m ass at that. But I hope the point gets across)
