u/Krillin_irl

I finished the series a few weeks ago, and while I was watching I developed a theory on Johan’s motivations for committing the middle-aged couple murders. My prediction ended up being wrong, but after thinking on it and reading some analysis I think it’s at least a tertiary motivation, so I want to share and see what everyone thinks.

I believe Johan resents adoptive parents as a concept because of how he was mistreated by his own mother. It’s widely accepted that he lost his sense of self for Nina, partly because of how his mother chose her over him. He wasn’t wanted, and believed that made him unworthy of “existing” as a real person. He explains it himself when he talks to Miloš (which is definitely projection): “There’s nothing special about being born. Not a thing.” Life is not inherently valuable, what gives it value is being wanted by someone. That’s why Johan dedicated his life to Nina, since she’s the “wanted” one.

That’s why he hates adoptive parents. Orphaned children like Miloš who were abandoned by their families are not wanted by definition, and are therefore not valuable. Foster parents “want” them, but Johan views it as false, I think. His primary motivation was protecting Nina / erasing his identity, but subconsciously it was part of it.

The wig on my cosplay is terrible, and I remember seeing a booth with wigs earlier in the day, but for the life of me I can’t find it. Anyone know what I’m talking about and a general idea where it is? Thank you 🙏

I consider myself pretty good at this game. I have over 350 hours, and about 90% of that run has been playing Greece. But I did my first run on them with the new patch, and Byzantium is way harder now. The two biggest problems I’m having are:

Military: Russia seems way less willing to help out now. I’ve toyed around with different configurations all day, and the closest I could get to them joining a war is -3, but they declared neutrality immediately. (Side note - they’re really focused on liberating Bulgaria?) I managed to get prussia on my side once, but with the new naval mechanics it never transfers units to the front, and I die. Most progress I ever made was becoming an Austrian protectorate, but that took forever and I only got up to the modern day borders by 1860, which is usually when I’d be done forming the whole thing

Economy: with the new interest mechanics, I can’t get high enough interest anywhere to get a colony or state, so I’m stuck with the pop in the starting greek states. This caps my GDP to around 1 million, so I can’t get strong enough to fight the ottomans on my own.

Any advice?