Every time I listen to the scene in campaign 3 where Hardwon and Moonshine exchange messages I’m inconsolable and utterly consumed.
All the multiverse and the person she calls is him. The second he hears her voice, hears her fear, hears that she needs him, he can think of nothing else but getting back to her. And when she hears him promise to come, she’s so relieved.
I know he loved Gemma but Moonshine is the love of his life. Moonshine despaired she never found her person when he was standing right there with her. He has loved 2 women in his life. He blamed himself in part for Gemma’s death. If only he hadn’t distracted her. If only he’d been faster, stronger, more observant. Then he loses Old Cobb. And if he can lose someone like Cobb he could lose Moonshine.
He doesn’t run away because he thinks he’s no longer capable of fighting. He runs away because he can’t bear the idea that he could lose Moonshine and be unable to stop it. He preempts the potential loss by leaving. It’s fear. A twisted logic. By choosing to leave and effectively losing her, he won’t have to risk losing her. There are levels to loss. It’s better to not be with her than to watch her die.
Hardwon would’ve accepted going out in a blaze of glory. If he were past his prime let him go out fighting. Fine. But what if he couldn’t stop Moonshine from dying? What if he had to live in a multiverse without her? He couldn’t do it. He’d lost the woman who defined his youth, his backstory. Losing the woman who defined his life and heroism would be too much. Hardwon wouldn’t survive losing her. He was part elf since he met her. He is a tall dwarf, a half elf, a Stormborn and titan of Bahumia, every part of his identity has been hard won for Elias Stormborn II. He had to die to be a half elf but being an elf in his heart came easy because that’s the place Moonshine planted her spores.
He goes back for the same reason he left. Moonshine.
