I’ve always been confused as to why he’s the only enemy in this game that stays alive after you “kill” him. He has a normal NPC dot on the map and you can speak to him, but he gives you the same “I should have shanked you” line.
Is there a specific reason you can speak to him after he’s defeated or is this just left in from the beta version? I always felt they left this in during early access to flush out the enemies a bit and maybe toy with the idea that some human bosses/heroes will have dialogue after battle.
In my opinion Shanks’s dying speech is meant to emphasize Cronley’s power and influence in the region, in addition to building tension for the eventual showdown with the bandit leader. Yeah, Mornay speaks of how Cronley is this big bad bully to the Northwest, but it doesn’t really hit home until the player actually encounters the gang for themselves.
Despite this, I don’t think that Shanks is an important character at all. I’ve slain him countless times and yet he’s nothing more to me than a forgettable quest objective. After his death he’s never again mentioned in any meaningful way, so my brain considers Shanks irrelevant information and discards it (until I get to that quest again on a subsequent playthrough or alternate character).
True, but it still seems odd that he’s the only enemy that can be interacted with after they are killed. Also, if they were going for some foreshadowing, they didn’t capture the effect very well.