Abijah Fowler is genuinely so fascinating to me—I need to crawl inside his head so here’s me yapping about something I find interesting about him!
So as we know Fowler’s plan is to take over Japan by establishing a puppet government that in reality answers to him. Repeating what happened to his home country at the hands of Britain.
However when he’s talking to the Shogun before he kills him he mentions that they should be grateful that he spared them a siege and then his tone drops off as he says ‘starving children’ so he has enough respect or care for at least the children of Japan’s population as to spare him what he went through with his sister as a child. So he’s willing to repeat the taking over a country part, just not starving out it’s people. Which makes me wonder if in his mind he genuinely it makes him “better” than the British because of it.
And earlier when Chiba mentions that all the men he’s found hate the Shogun, Fowler just replies with “Oh I don’t hate the Shogun, I just want his chair.” Which also show’s a general ambivalence for these people once again.
Hell the only time in the whole show he ever says something that is outright racist, “Heathen surely these Japanese” is when he’s talking directly to the Christian god, so it almost almost feels less like his actual feelings and more saying whatever he thinks will sway God himself to his side. Because even if he himself doesn’t think the Japanese people are ‘heathens’ he does know that from his own lived experience the Christian God will think so.
Which again is just fascinating to me.