As a follow-up to this, now that I think about it, it seems a little ironic that John is sometimes described, both by players and NPCs, as a “serial killer” because, in the game, he’s actually the only Seed sibling who doesn’t cause anyone’s death on screen.
This isn’t to say he wouldn’t kill people or hasn’t done it before because, yes, he’s violent and capable of that, but in the story of Far Cry 5, while Jacob uses the Deputy as a weapon to sacrifice Eli, Faith makes the Marshal shoot Virgil to teach them a lesson, and Joseph kills Dutch so he can take shelter in his bunker, the most extreme things John does is mutilate Nick and make Hudson scream in pain. And he doesn’t even do that gratuitously or to punish them; he cuts Nick’s sin because it’s how he makes everyone Atone, and he hurts Joey because he wants her to Confess and, as a cultist says, “Confession without pain isn’t Confession”. He genuinely believes pain can free and purify people; that’s his thing and he’s doing his job.
And while he threatened to “bleed [Hudson] like a stuck pig” if the Deputy kept resisting, in the end, she was relatively (emphasis on this word) okay compared to the other Heralds’ hostages. Obviously, she’s emotionally and maybe physically scarred by her experience in John’s Gate, but what I mean is that she came out of his bunker alive and was still herself. She didn’t robotically recite cult slogans or song lyrics like her colleague and the Marshal who, on the other hand, were so affected by their time with Jacob and Faith that it’s almost like they’ve turned into different people. They seem to have lost their confidence and will to fight, and one of them ultimately chooses to die because of what he experienced. Hudson is canonically described as “strong”, “tough” and “a fighter” by NPCs, which may partly explain why she fared better, but there’s also the fact that, as John says, he’s not here to take people’s lives. In short, killing isn’t what he typically does.
Anyway, don’t get me wrong, I do think John is at least as dangerous as the rest of the family and that his actions are harmful, and it’s clear people have died because of the Project, but it’s just that the fact he’s the sibling who’s often seen as the murderous one is paradoxical if we consider the events of Far Cry 5 and realize he’s the only Seed who doesn’t, directly or indirectly, kill any of the Deputy’s allies.
