Thread:ShamelessNitpicker/@comment-34126260-20180117041554/@comment-30053419-20180117090345

Tricky. He's clearly a heartless, sadistic killer with zero empathy for others and no interest in any kind of redemption, but Carnate Island makes things a little ambiguous: we still don't know just how much of Hermes' villainy was due to the island and how much was due to his own innate psychopathy, or how much his personality changed over time under the corrupting influence of the place.

That said, there seems to be an element of choice inherent in the corruption: by all accounts, the Island is able to wear away at the sanity of individuals, but it can't actually control them, hence the self-inflicted hell endured by several Malefactors. The Infernas alone made the decision to carry out the witch-burnings; Dr Killjoy deliberately set out to maim his patients in his twisted attempts to help them; the Colonel willingly arranged the firing squads; Horace murdered his wife of his own free will (another reason he's going to be on this wiki soon); and Torque himself might be spurred on by his Hatred, but he alone has the power to spare or kill those he encounters.

As such, however much the island wore away at his sanity, Hermes ultimately had a choice: he didn't have to take the role of executioner; he didn't have to experiment so thoroughly with different methods (including the probably illegal ones); he didn't have to make himself a monster - or do any of the disturbing things he did over the course of his obsession with death. The reason why Hermes lives on as a spectral psychopath - and not an entity more akin to Horace - is because, somewhere down the line, he made a decision.