I think one of the themes of Mouthwashing is not to just say “Jimmy is an evil monster. Run away from him” but to make the player look at your own flaws and issues and about the responsibility you ran away from. If you ignore your imperfections and refuse to work on your issues, you can end up like Jimmy. Cause Jimmy is just a man. He’s not a demon or boogey man or Michael Meyers. He was once just a man who had a shitty life who was probably born in poverty and probably lives in the worst neighborhood( Jimmy’s hobby is weightlifting. Hobbies are people who can afford them). A man who turned into a narcissistic monster after working for Pony Express.
As someone who usually lets my emotions take too much control over me, was born in a lower class family, who is impulsive, who’s envious of people way more successful than me and people who are mentally well, I kind of understand Jimmy. But i haven’t committed any crime like Jimmy since I still have my rationality and I know I shouldn’t hurt people just because I feel like I have no control over my life and because I want to bring them down to my level. I have a moral compass that prevents me from doing certain things, but if I feel like I’m losing control over my mind too much, I’ll get help so I won’t hurt anyone. Plus I’m a coward and I know that if I commit any of crime, I’ll get caught immediately since I suck at planning ahead 😂
If Jimmy got professional help( going to a psychiatric hospital or receiving out-patient treatment or accepting to take meds), I believe everything could have worked out. But he didn’t and that’s tragic because he ended up hurting others and himself. I believe anyone should immediately get help if you start getting violent thoughts.
If Jimmy constantly acted like an evil man 24/7, Anya wouldn’t have slept in her room and instead slept next to Polly since the bedrooms dont have locks. She didn’t expect him to assault her. Once he impregnated her, she only thought he would kill her. How do I know that? Since she only said that Curly wouldn’t allow her to keep the gun to protect HERSELF. If she thought he was planning on killing everybody, she would’ve been hysterical and tell Curly that they’re all in danger. She was only worried he would kill her since he didn’t like HER and he did something bad to HER and only HER. She was scared that Jimmy would shoot her to get rid of the baby.
Curly wouldn’t have been his best friend and help him get the co-pilot job if he only treated him horribly and was never nice to him. Curly’s fondest memory is when Jimmy and his other friends threw him a party and baked him a horrible cake.
Daisuke wouldn’t have trusted and liked Jimmy if Jimmy acted like a typical cartoon villain. That’s why he listened to Jimmy and ended up being mercy killed by Swansea.
I feel like Swansea and Jimmy just butted heads pre-crash, but Swansea probably didn’t think Jimmy was psychotic. I think he just didn’t like him cause he’s an asshole. And Jimmy didn’t like Swansea since he’s also an asshole( Swansea insulting Anya, not doing anything at all after knowing what happened to Anya, was so busy getting drunk that he didn’t watch over Daisuke, him being so cruel to Daisuke before he mercy killed him).
I don’t even think Jimmy knew he was capable of such evilness pre-crash. The guy was curled on the floor, shaking his head over and looking down, after crashing the Tulpar. It looks like he immediately regretted what he did but he was too much of coward and idiot to try to fix what he did since he should’ve redirected the ship after impulsively deciding to crash the ship.
If you refuse to acknowledge that you have flaws and that you’re incapable of doing what Jimmy did since “you’re such a good person”, you can easily end up like Jimmy. Especially if you end up working for an abusive and toxic corporation( fuck Pony Express).