Paul Rovia

Name: vil
Age: 36
Contact: plurk: justghosts
Character(s) in game: N/A
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Character Name: Paul 'Jesus' Rovia
Age: 37
Canon: The Walking Dead
Canon point: Season 9 Episode 16
History: Walking Dead Wiki
Personality: KINDNESS

KINDNESS

Despite living in a world where everyone--including him--has had to do terrible things to survive, he has managed to remain empathetic and willing to take risks to treat people kindly. We first see this when Maggie, pregnant and newly widowed, wakes up to flowers by her bedside that he placed there to comfort her. Shortly after she sees him placing flowers on Glenn's and Abraham's graves, and he tells her he has read up on floral symbolism.

We see how easy kindness is for him again when he offers his own trailer to Maggie and Sasha, and when they express regret over making it crowded he warmly tells them he's used to having people around. When Sasha tries to steal his few remaining bullets he tells her, almost gently, that she can just have them. He shows it in casual touches, a hand on Maggie's shoulder to comfort her, for instance.

During the war, despite how close his friendship with Maggie is, he defies her by taking prisoners of war and feeding them from the Hilltop's stores. He resists attempts at executing anyone who surrenders, despite his friends' anger at him over it, and seems hurt when they let him have his way only if it serves their ulterior motives.

PASSIVITY

Although he will stand up for his beliefs, his first and often second choice is to go along with what is happening around him.

We first see this when he introduces the main characters to the Hilltop, and to Hilltop's leader, Gregory. Jesus clearly, and even vocally, dislikes Gregory and how he runs things, but he has gone along with it (possibly for a year or two) because he doesn't want to be in charge. He believes the colony picked Gregory for a reason and even if he stridently disagrees with him, it takes him time to start pushing back. Even then, his method of arguing is gentle: "We'll talk about this more tonight", "You're a good person, and good people can disagree", "Just give me some time [to talk this out]".

Later on, we see him come to disagree with Maggie. When she goes to kill Negan he asks her not to, but relents quickly. Just prior to that, he stands by and watches Maggie execute Gregory, despite his very strong belief that it is the wrong thing to do.

During interrogations, he can be seen present and asking occasional questions, but when tactics become rough and seem to run counter to his belief system, he allows it to happen without a word.

It tends to couple with his most positive trait, too, in that it's easy to take advantage of his kindness if you know how to maneuver his passive nature. For example when Sasha tries to steal those bullets, he gives them to her and then draws her a map of the Sanctuary so she can attempt to assassinate the Saviors' leader. This, despite the fact he doesn't think she should go, and asks her repeatedly to stay. He later expresses regret at having made it so easy for Sasha to go, even though he did almost nothing to dissuade her and in fact enabled her.

OVER-CONFIDENCE

His fatal flaw, quite literally, is his over-confidence.

He has reason to believe in his talents, but repeatedly we see this tipping over into carelessness. When he is introduced he steals a truck from the two main characters, Rick and Daryl. When they have him at gunpoint he smirks, "Do you even have any ammo?" (They do.)

When the decision is made to ambush an outpost, he chooses to go in alone when an alarm sounds. His response to his friends' concern is simply, "They won't see me". Even though he was right and he does get in without being caught, there never seems to be a moment where he is concerned that he might be.

We see him toying with walkers, using kicks to kill them while everyone else sensibly uses weapons. He has weapons, he is both an excellent shot and talented with all sorts of blades, but instead of being cautious and safe, he puts his foot near walkers' mouths just to entertain himself.

Finally, his last words are "Go! I got this". He dispatches a handful of walkers alone before casually swinging his sword to take out what he assumes is the final walker (in fact it's a human) only to have it duck around behind him and stab him through the heart.

STUBBORNNESS

His first response to everything is a passive willingness to go along to get along. However, when he's pushed far enough, he'll make up his mind and do what he wants, regardless of everyone else's feelings.

We see this most clearly when he is forced to take command of the Hilltop. He is needed to make major and minor decisions that keep the colony running, but we learn his friends and his people are angry and frustrated with him because he refuses to stay and do the work they ask of him. If anyone else ran against him in the elections he would give them the role, but since no one does, he resists being leader by sneaking out and staying away as often as he can. This is an unyielding resistance to a situation he resents having to fill.

When the communities split up after the war, he refuses to respect the wishes of the other leaders and continues to meet with a likeminded citizen of another camp in secret. To do this he has to further shirk his duties and ignore the reasonable request that he take a security detail with him when he leaves Hilltop.

It also shows up when he takes in prisoners of war. Although everyone around him makes arguments for why the prisoners should just be executed (ranging from them being a drain on resources, to them still being active enemies, to a sense of justice being thwarted by Jesus) he refuses to allow anyone to take action against them until Maggie compromises.

It's the flipside to his most positive trait: he was willing to risk his own people going hungry through the winter if it meant feeding prisoners of war, and no one could convince him not to take that risk. Once he is pushed far enough, there is no convincing him to back down.

EMPATHY

This trait is similar to his kindness, but goes a step further. He treats everyone with kindness, but he's willing to look past his own initial thoughts to truly understand people--even monstrous people.

Over and over again we see evidence of how Jesus puts himself in other people's shoes. He and Tara at one point find a Savior hiding in a closet, crying and shaking and having pissed himself, with his hands up in surrender. Tara wants to shoot him to finish the job, but Jesus intervenes, insisting that the mission is not about revenge but about a better future.

This leads to the Savior taking an opportunity to put a gun to Jesus's head, mocking him for his sympathy and telling them how hard it is to piss while wearing pants. Jesus disarms him and has a moment where his anger might take over, but instead he knocks the man unconscious and ties him up to take him prisoner.

COMMITMENT-PHOBIC

Early on in his friendship with Maggie Rhee, Jesus tells her that he grew up in a group home which gave him patience for living around a lot of people, but also left him with emotional scars: "I had trouble getting close to people. Friends, neighbors...boyfriends." He tells her that until he had a mission, he hadn't felt close to anyone, but she and Sasha gave him that.

We see him distance himself from Maggie as time goes on. He still cares for her, but the shine he saw on her wears out over time and leads to him regularly disagreeing with her.

People pressure him at different points to step up and become a leader, but this seems to make him miserable. He sneaks out of the Hilltop and away from his responsibilities at every opportunity, even though people notice and grow angry over it.

Suitability: Jesus is going to be thrilled to have people to work with toward a common goal again. Besides being an eager participant in ADI's goings on he'll work to bolster other people's morale.

Powers/Abilities: Paul Rovia is human so he has no superpowers.

He is highly skilled at stealth, breaking and entering, theft, and martial arts (jeet kune do and krav maga). He's survived a decade after an apocalypse, having killed humans and zombies along the way with no obvious scars--neither physical nor psychological. He adapts to bad situations with calm focus, whether it's having to shoot another human being to death, standing by during rough interrogations, having to take on groups of zombies, or having a gun held to his head.

He survived mostly on his own for several of those years, which means he has some exceptional survival skills in both urban and wilderness settings. We see him use multiple types of weapon, including several kinds of gun and everything from a utility knife to a katana, with a high level of expertise. He has been exposed to farming, building, and governing enough to have skills in those areas as well.

Entity Affinity: The Web

Jesus is not afraid of much except being manipulated and used, or being trapped in situations like relationships or leadership roles.

Inventory: A katana
Two six-inch knives
A water bottle
Some jerky

Samples: [Voice]

Hey, this is Jesus. I was out in the storm and...I hope someone's got some clothes. My jacket looks like I got hit with shrapnel.

Be careful out there. Reach out if you get stuck somewhere.

[Action]

[The ghosts dissipate if you hit them.

That's what Jesus tells himself every time his foot or his fist or his knife goes through one of their heads and vanishes. They always leave a trace but he's used to that. Ghosts, it turns out, don't smell as bad as walkers do.

He finds himself thinking about them, though. Where they came from. Why they reach out--what they might do if you don't find back.

He just isn't willing to risk it. Not yet. Not when they look so...dead.

He's glad when someone else comes in, showing signs they too just went through a ghost encounter. Maybe there are answers here to be pieced together.]

Hey. You okay?