Original motivation

George’s adult variants were initially created for one primary role:

1. To be the collective voice of scientific academia.

Tension between roles

Meeting this goal in a single character created two conflicts:

1. To be a voice for others, he needed to be social, and yet his scientific achievements required someone with bookish dedication.
2. He became an expert in every field of science, which is impractical.

However, while the tension can cause problems, it also:

1. Makes him slightly different from most mad scientist characters.
2. Gives his personality depth.
3. Provides some potential internal drama between his social side and his scientific side.

Lovecraftian

George is the most Lovecraftian Marloth character. He is the archetypal scientific mind exploring beyond what he should.

Hero or villain?

While there are some interesting dynamics between him and the other heroes, he is far more engaging as the oppressive doctor.

I’ve been trying to shift the previous villain characters to being more heroic in the second book, but there is a natural pull for them to still be villains, and it looks like most if not all of them will flip-flop over the course of the second narrative as to their moral allegiance.

That list of previous villains includes Nivana and Millamer. Miles is effectively in a similar position of vacillating sides except I always planned on him ending up as a villain.

Young or old?

Likewise, George worked better as one of the older characters. I have never been very interested with college-age George.

However, there is a narrative heritage of horror stories featuring a young medical student. The clever young nerd wanting to prove his genius.