"Wow, they must have been good people."

"Wow, they must have been good people" is a term referring to the lack of any personality, conflict, or conflict in Joe Valeski's reaction to learning of his true Guardian of Life heritage in prior drafts of In the Shadows of Gods. This was a common error in the original drafts of ItSoG, the criticism being that Joe's literal only reaction to finding out about his parents' legacy as Guardians of Life could be summed up as "Wow, they must have been good people." His only emotion consistently was awe and surprise even though he'd been told the same thing like five or fifty times over, and every time - "Wow, they must have been good people." Nowadays, "Wow, they must have been good people" is used as an inside joke, referring to whenever a character expresses a surprising amount of appreciation and reverence to something they should not see in that light.   In ItSoG, this issue is for the most part resolved, as Joe finding out that his biological parents, the Valeskis, were Guardians from Archangelo Rossi instead creates a prolonged internal conflict throughout the book. With the knowledge that Clans are hereditary and therefore his parents influence what kind of person he is, Joe is careful (in a super aggro way) throughout ItSoG to watch his actions and take care not to act "as his parents would". What this means is instead of planning for every occasion, as his parents were historically lauded for, Joe instead picks just one course of action but commits to it to the point of almost overcommitting. All his resources and energies are directed to that situation, the likeliest outcome, and his response is a direct, efficient, and ruthless counter to said outcome. This does mean that if his enemies do anything slightly unexpected, his plans fall apart, but if his enemies act exactly as he anticipates (a conclusion that Lewis Edwards' genius level intellect supplies to him) then his plan will absolutely demolish the anticipated opponent.   In addition, the discovery of the Valeskis' front and center heroics as opposed to the Meriweathers' subtle contributions as part of a crowd challenge Joe's thinking of what kind of person he wants to be - does he want to live a productive yet simple and ordinary life, or does he want to take point and excel in the spotlight? This question is only furthered by the obvious separation, between a confident Thyrian and a humble human, as the Valeskis and Meriweathers (in a way) respectively were. Eventually, it is his realization that he must live up to the expectations of the Sword of Alpha's standards (not explicit standards, just the general sense and ambiance of expectation that its grandeur gives off) that leads him to embody the best of both worlds, an archetype first postulated by Kataryna Winter. This means that he will wield the powers and resources of a Thyrian, but carry those powers with the humility and compassion and creativity of a human. And he will properly question which set of parents he belongs to, whether it be the Meriweathers because he grew up with them or the Valeskis because he belongs to their world now, and which sets of footsteps he will follow in now leading him to this conclusion, instead of merely thinking, whenever the Valeskis are mentioned, "Wow, they must have been good people."