answering this ask for @lunarcrown to give some more insight abt the story side of things!
the way i create hels players typically stems from one or two ‘defining traits’ taken from their counterparts, like very strong personality traits or characteristics. these traits then undergo two routes: amplified or twisted.
amplifying a trait is like taking something more morally ‘good/neutral’ and cranking it up to eleven. for example: instinct has impulse’s good work ethic amplified into absolute hyper-efficiency. this leads him to use and discard people as he sees fit, manipulate and cut corners, and overwork himself and others to dangerous extremes.
twisting a trait is like taking something morally ‘good/neutral’ and putting a darker spin on it. for example, impulse’s friendliness has been twisted to insincerity in instinct, that ‘fake-ness’ of someone who smiles to your face and then stabs you in the back. if his friendliness was amplified instead, it would result in an outgoing overly zealous pinkie-pie type of character who gets way too involved but ultimately means well.
so that’s the difference between amplifying and twisting. ofc, not all defining traits start out as morally good/neutral, because not all overworld players are good.
now, tango’s traits are rage (amplified from bravo’s short temper) and sadism (twisted from bravo’s superiority complex). ofc, as we saw in the fic, bravo became capable of committing atrocities and even displayed some sadistic qualities himself after spending time in hels so there’s definitely nothing set in stone. these are dynamic characters that grow and change over time, for better or for worse. and environment influences that a LOT. we didn’t get to see much of tango pre-hermitcraft in HTP but rest assured, he used to be way more destructive. he attacked atlas on sight the first time they met, and spent his days setting deadly traps for no other reason than wanting to watch strangers die.
timmy’s major trait is his utter helplessness, an amplified extreme of the way jimmy will play more passively or take the role of victim (or the butt of the joke) in certain scenarios. it basically overwhelms any other traits that would manifest in timmy, but ultimately, he didn’t inherit anything that would’ve made him destructive or violent. there just wasn’t anything from jimmy that manifested that way.
that can be true for many players. now this isn’t to say that jimmy is inherently more ‘good’ than any of the other hermits/lifers whose hels were more violent or destructive. the worse an overworld counterpart is, the worse their hels tends to be, but there are always exceptions to this rule. and some counterparts may even be on equal moral footing (as we saw, not all overworld players are good, and can have hels who are better people than them). it all comes down to which traits were transferred to the hels, and whether they were amplified or twisted. it’s… almost like genetics, in a way. there are so many traits that make up a player but a hels really only builds off one or two, and it’s random chance which ones it’ll be.
(random chance in-universe, ofc. irl, i pick the traits that seem the most fun to build a hels out of hehe)
hopefully that explains things a bit better 💃
