“The use of living is the taste it gives. The emperor has made you the only free man in the world. You can taste anything you like.”
Five Letters From an Eastern Empire, Alasdair Gray
Possible casting: Tyler Cruise for voice acting; Nathan Bronson for rotoscope animation.
Raised by the Green Wizard for the express purpose of defeating the evil Queen Mara, Kem has never thought much about what he wants, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it. In Act I, he tries to masturbate to a typical fantasy, then switches to one of himself dominating his nemesis, Queen Mara, who reveals herself to be his mother in the climax. (Pun intended.)
Kem’s personality is dour, but still naive. He’s expecting to be tricked, but doesn’t know how to protect himself from deceit. He just sort of goes along with everything. The first time he says, “No, I won’t do what’s expected of me and I don’t care about societal rules,” is when he grows.
Kem’s character arc is realized when he decides to live wholly for himself. His quest seems pointless, as the dragon points out. Rather than fulfilling a cosmic destiny, Kem realizes that he’s just trading one master who has abandoned him for another who will spoil him. Kem realizes that his life doesn’t need an externally-defined purpose and he comes to see that the world is much larger than he thought it was. He can embrace his innate nihilism and live for pleasure without remorse.