Thane's Pride

[rocky41_7]

Cross-posted.

This is a small exchange in a much larger conversation about Thane’s career as an assassin, but it sticks out to me as something revealing of Thane’s character.

Thane is such a level-headed, soft-spoken, even-tempered character it’s easy to write him off as someone who just doesn’t feel much, either because of his alien-ness (which is wrong, as we see quite a bit of emotion from Kolyat, telling us this is not a drell quirk, but is particular to Thane), or just as a quirk of personality. But that’s not true–Thane feels very deeply. There’s a reason he had to sink into “battle-sleep” to work as an assassin, why he felt deeply enough for Irikah to abandon his Compact with the hanar, why her death drove him into such intense rage and despair, and why his love for Shepard (if romanced), was enough to shake him out of his complacency and make him fear for his life again.  

Thane may have good control over his feelings, but they are there. 

So yes, he is prideful about his talent. Not that he takes pleasure in killing, but he is the best–quick, quiet, doesn’t let his victims suffer. And he takes pride in that. Enough that he felt threatened by Shepard possibly reaching his target first (as, at this point, he did not know Shepard was after him). Thane is prideful, and emotional, and he does have a sense of humor (albeit very dry)–he is someone who has had to learn to control these things, who by necessity (he’s been training and working as an assassin since he was six years old) has become deeply reserved and private, but there is just one of many hints in the game that Thane is an intensely emotional person with a lot more depth than a player would pick up on with only superficial interaction with his character.