The Seed Family - Joseph, Jacob, John, and Faith

Joseph Seed Despite his charismatic nature and psychopathic actions, in conversations, Joseph Seed has shown to be a quiet individual with a capacity for mercy. Though he shows no hesitance in inflicting violence on those who might resist him, he has shown that he has a capacity for forgiveness and doesn’t actively seek violence. Even after the Deputy had murdered his siblings, he was willing to allow them to leave Hope County with their friends unarmed to avoid any further bloodshed. Joseph does display that he cared about his family and followers as he has made it his personal mission in life to protect them from “The Collapse”. When they are murdered, Joseph’s calmness completely erodes and he screams in grief and rage towards the Deputy. Nevertheless, there has shown to be some dominance in Joseph’s interactions with his siblings. He subtly threatened John to make sure the Deputy reaches Atonement or “the Gates of Eden shall be shut [to him]” and Faith seems in fear of whatever punishment Joseph might react to her failures. However, Joseph and Jacob show a more equal relationship due to him being the oldest brother. Joseph truly believes he was chosen by God to save the world. It’s ambiguous whether this was true or simply a Messiah Complex as a result of his insanity but his premonition did actually come to pass if the Deputy chose to resist him. He had no doubt in the righteousness of his mission but even showed a degree of satisfaction that the world was ending, simply because it was proof he was right all along. His reactionary attitude is firmly placed in how corrupt the world has become, believing that the only way for humanity to survive is to return to the days of Eden. Whilst he was aware that he was not a “perfect man”, Joseph Seed’s every action was ultimately what he believed himself to be the righteous hand of God. Seed was bookish and soft-spoken, but often enunciated his words in sentences to convey a sense of malice to his enemies. His battle taunts during the final battle against him and one of his propaganda speeches indicate that he only raises his voice to the point of anger whenever he is pushed over the edge, such as when he goes on an ear-blistering rant during one of his speeches. As shown when he begins the aforementioned rant, he is also shown to be a bit sarcastic at times, when he imitates a typical person who is obsessed with sharing their lives on social media(something he downvotes in the same rant) In one of his propaganda speeches, he harbors beliefs concerning the impact that modern technology has made on mankind that are uncannily similar to that of his older brother, Jacob. 17 years after the collapse Joseph seems to have become more calm and caring as he no longer wishes to attack the survivors but instead just live in peace with his people. Notes about The Word found in Dutch's Bunker detail his condemnation of humanity for their refusal to use their lives for good. Rather than end poverty, starvation, or disease, humanity has dedicated their lives to the pursuit of the banal or debased their gifts by making war on one another. Joseph advocated that instead humanity should focus on uplifting one another, and building a society that will nourish every body and lift every soul. Further notes about The Word details he has taken comfort in the companionship of his family, God's love, and in the fact that he has outlived those who sought to exert power over him. According to Joseph's Diary, Joseph regretted being tolerant of his siblings' sinful ways and seeks to be firmer with his son Ethan Seed. However, with the death of his son and most of his “children”, Joseph finally realized he isn’t God's shepherd but instead a man who caused suffering and death in God's name. Unable to forgive himself for his actions, he tells the Captain to kill him and if he is spared Joseph is left broken and repeatedly yells “Release me!” constantly so the Captain would put him out of his misery. If you spare his life and return to his tree, Joseph is gone now and it’s unknown what kind of state Joseph is in. It’s likely he decided to find a new purpose to maybe try to atone for his actions or maybe exile himself again so no one would see him again. John Seed John's adoptive parents abused him greatly, which affected him well into his adult years. John believed that he - like all sinners - deserved his punishment and even held a degree of gratitude for them teaching him “the Power of Yes." John has made it his life mission to bestow that power on himself and others, initially through his own vices, until Joseph helped him turn that sadism into helping others find absolution and atonement so that they could be worthy of being sheltered from the Collapse and brought into Eden. Even though John may have believed his personal mission in life was to save souls, he was highly sadistic and took a great deal of personal joy in the suffering atonement caused his victims. During the Cleansing, he cruelly drowned the Deputy further until Joseph reprimanded him. Joseph indeed admits that John was not perfect and even a monster at times, especially when compared to the rest of the Seed family, but Joseph dismisses it as only being because of John's childhood abuse. Despite his cruelty, John believes Faith is much worse than him due to her abuse of her “Angels,” insinuating that John believes he treated his followers well. Jacob Seed Due to his wartime trauma, Jacob has adopted a nihilistic, Darwinist outlook in life. He takes great pride in his work of "culling the herd", though believes the world has lost its edge over its reluctance to sacrifice the weak any longer - marking it as the survival of the human race. However, it is implied this viewpoint was a result of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder he developed during his time overseas, as Joseph states, he brought "many demons" home from the war with him and that his worse fear was not of dying but not leaving behind any legacy as a soldier. Despite his loyalty to the Father, Jacob held doubt that Joseph actually "spoke to God" but nevertheless truly believed Joseph's premonition of The Collapse was true (even likening America to several other empires before him; Rome, Babylon) and following his brother gave him a renewed mission and loyalty - once claiming that he would be willing to die for Joseph. Despite his grievances with his brother's beliefs, he did see fit to humor them both. However, it is the most vulgar of the brothers and represents almost no religious or open character as the other members of the family. As a military man, Jacob's battle-ridden and thuggish demeanor hide a very strategic mind. In fact, most of his attacks against the Deputy are more cerebral than physical. His methods of indoctrination involve classical conditioning; the stimuli of "Only You" played over predatory images force those he brainwash to be utterly devoted to his beliefs and unquestionably loyal tools for his cause. He goes out of his way to make certain his victims have suffered as much as he has by starving them in cages as he had in the Gulf War. Also, Jacob holds a great deal of disdain for the Whitetail militia, claiming they were an insult to soldiers and took a personal delight in brainwashing the Deputy to murder Eli. Jacob considered Eli a "coward", Tammy a "housewife" and Wheaty a "teenager". Matching his predatory nature and survivalist viewpoint, unlike his siblings, Jacob used animals in his war against the Resistance - his personal favorite being wolves due to them being hunters to their core much like himself though these were ones who were mentally broken with music and Bliss so they'd be strong and obedient. Due to his backstory of being hunted by wolves in The Gulf War, it is possible Jacob may have done this out of personal revenge as well as strategy. He holds some knowledge about historical empires such as Babylon, Rome, and the Mongols and finds the human brain as a "fascinating subject." He is also very intelligent, especially when he indoctrinates the Deputy as part of his plan to weaken and demoralize the Whitetails by using him as a tool to kill Eli. Faith Seed As stated by others, Faith is a siren leading others to their doom whilst keeping them blissfully happy. Being a master manipulator, she easily conveys herself as a victim to garner sympathy and loyalty for Joseph yet this only hides her cruelty. Faith sees little to absolutely no wrong in any of her actions as in her mind she is providing happiness and peace to her followers who make their decisions to be part of The Bliss on their own, spinning her enemies as violent extremists attacking innocent people. She tends to present facts and describe events in a way that suits her beliefs and her agenda, but the motivation for her actions seems to be grounded in her eagerness to protect the purity of the Bliss, her fantasy world, from disruptive influences - a world where she is loved and her vulnerable ego is not threatened by mockery, abuse, and insults. Until the player reaches a high enough resistance level in her region, Faith sticks to peaceful attempts to convince the Junior Deputy to join the Cult. However, she is capable of cruelty - Jasmin Chan who lived at the Chan Residence complained to her about the noise coming from the construction site of Joseph's statue and she promised to send her Cultists[3] to "apologize to Jasmine", but they killed Jasmine Chan instead. She also subtly strong-arms Marshal Burke to deliver a televised message that places the blame for the Cult's violent response squarely on the Junior Deputy(one of two occurrences in which Faith actually appears physically, albeit televised). As evident by her random appearances, she seems to dismiss the resistance as being a "sad band of soldiers cowering in the jail.". To help manipulate her victims, Faith likes to depict herself as innocent and childlike as can be seen in The Bliss where she often giggles, runs and skips around to appear harmless. Her likeness such as dressing completely in white and attempting to appear pure is to make herself appear like a flower - both in an attempt to help her manipulations and to convince herself. After freeing Marshal Burke from the Bliss, she strangely reveals her own deceptive behavior to the Deputy with the following words: "All my life I dealt with people like you. People who underestimate sweet, innocent Faith. You see what you wanna see... a playful butterfly, a delicate flower... a child with childish thoughts. It's easier to disregard a child. Tracey made the same mistake as you. While you all ignored me, I walked right through every one of you." Still, behind the facade of this seemingly smug self-assuredness, Faith holds doubts about her own purity due to her implied past of drug addiction and her true value to the Seed family. Her recorded message that can be played back at Eden's Convent claims that she left behind her Rachel persona, but the fact that she felt it necessary to mention it suggests that Rachel may indeed have misgivings about her transformation into Faith. Despite claiming to be loyal to The Father for accepting her for “who she is” and giving her a new family, Faith apparently lives in fear of whatever punishment Joseph will inflict upon her should she disappoint him. As the fourth Faith, she is constantly worried that one day she could be replaced like her predecessors - this is especially evident when the Deputy burns her personalized Word of Joseph and she sounds terrified over what he will do to her. Her fear of Joseph also explains her violent response to Jasmine Chan's complaint (see above). She even hated Faith's nickname, and still considered Rachel to be her real name. That is shown when she slapped Joseph for saying that fake name. During her fight with the Deputy, Faith screams that were she was bombarded with drugs and threatened by the Father to do his bidding when she was seventeen. Of course, as Virgil, Dutch, Tracey, Whitehorse and virtually everyone says Faith is known to be a liar so everything she says holds some doubt. Faith acknowledges this fact during a spectral encounter but she simply asks the Junior Deputy if they are going to judge her based on what other people say.[4] They all talk quietly and calmly, it's a way of manipulating their followers and keeping others calm, but they are all lunatics.