James Wolff

* S1 Ep. 5
* S1 Ep. 3

Big Brother Wolf

Drew Wolff - brother

"*You all have a choice. You can sit here, lay here and die here, in the cold, feeling your body shut down minute by minute and feel **every bit of it**. Or...you can work for me. Now I'll warn you, what I'm doing, what I'm building...you may prefer to die here rather than live through it, put your effort and your soul into it. But for those of you that do...**your lives will be changed forever**. [...] This place...means something to me. It's where I died. Where I was **reborn**. And I died **again**...and was reborn **again**. Now I see, truly, my life for what it is, what it means. And what it means is...I will **take** everything I want and everything I need...and not even **death** will stop me,*"
—Jim to the hobos[src]

**James "Jim" Wolff** is the protagonist of *Kings of the Road*. Following a tragic incident in Cleveland, Ohio, both Jim and his brother Drew became wanted for their role in the death of police officer Ken Manson. The two brothers ended up joining a trainhopping commune led by Finn, travelling across the country to get enough money to buy new identities and disappear. Over the course of one year, James attempted to keep his brother's morals in check, while also trying to process and overcome the numerous tragedies that threatened to bring out his dark side, manifested as an identity known as the **Copper Goblin**. After finally being captured by the feds, Jim was given a suspended sentence for his crimes, at which point he returned to the road in search for his brother while desperately trying to not slip back under the influence of his dark side.

## Biography

### Early Life and Background

James Wolff was born to factory worker Dennis Wolff and beauty worker Jessica Charles in Cleveland, Ohio; he is of German heritage through his father and Irish through his mother. His younger brother Drew was born four years later.

Both of Jim's parents had an interest in the occult, a hobby that they somewhat carried into parenthood. The Brother's childhoods took a dark turn when their father began severely abusing both them and their mother, causing Jessica to escape in the night, leaving her sons behind. James ended up taking the brunt of their father's abuse, which included beatings and starvation. Both brothers would develop mental health problems because of this, the most prominent being a proposed diagnosis of shared psychosis. The abuse lessened as the brothers grew older, enabling them to survive on the streets with friends.

Little did the brothers know that their father was a serial killer known as the Moon Killer, who murdered in occult rituals aligning with the phases of the moon. Their father was eventually discovered and killed by police, leaving the brothers in the care of the city. They were moved to Mother Turner's Home for Troubled Youth, where they also underwent an extensive psychological evaluation.

During his years at the home, Jim's mental health dramatically improved, although he was sometimes prone to delusions and hallucinations. Jim was noted for his creative imagination, often making up stories and even putting some to paper, although few ever came to fruition. He was also known for his restless spirit, his fascination with the 60s-70s hippie movement, and his strong desire to escape Cleveland and travel around the United States; the only thing that prevented him from doing so was his duty of care for his brother Drew.

### Season 1

#### 'Lost'

On October 23rd 2017, Jim is first seen walking the streets of Cleveland, Ohio. He meets up with his best friend T., and together they walk to Drew's high school.

#### 'Families'

James, now willing to confront his fate, tells Liza to take Drew back to Serenity, as he knows the feds will never find them there. Donning his goblin mask, Jim draws the feds away from the group and down to the train tracks. As the feds catch up, Jim realizes a train is heading straight for him. He stands his ground and prepares for impact.

Suddenly, an unseen force pulls Jim to the side, shocking him as the train blocks the feds from reaching him. Refusing to be captured, he attempts suicide, but the same unseen force prevents his gun from firing. Jim reasons that his mother was right and that the Passenger is indeed a living force, driving him into his dark side, but also trying to keep him alive in order to continue feeding off him. Jim deduces that the only way for him to die - therefore killing the Passenger - is for the feds to kill him.

Jim sprints down the tracks, randomly firing to entice the feds to shoot him. Finally, one agent fires, hitting Jim in the back. Drew screams and watches as his brother falls to the ground as the episode ends.

### Season 2

#### 'Wolves'

After being shot, James begins bleeding heavily as the feds march to where he lies. Detective Brannigan stands over the dying James, ignoring Drew's pleas to help him. She then rips the goblin mask off of his face and smiles.

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

Jim is a well-built but skinny young man with jet black hair that often gets greasy; he has grown his hair out, causing it to get into his eyes at points. After he is placed in a coma, his hair is shaved off, which he keeps due to spending the next couple of episodes in the desert.

After being brutally beaten by Mortimer with a crowbar, Jim's face is severely disfigured; the lower half of his face is covered in scars from the crowbar's sharpened curve and his left eye was severely damaged by his crushed cheek, effectively making him blind in that eye. He also has a few smaller scars that he picks up along his journey, with most of them originating in the gas explosion at the hobo camp.

Throughout the series, Jim wears a grey hoodie, which is modified several times by Liza over the course of the series. Jim also gains several tattoos, including a crude tattoo of the Sigil of Baphomet on his back and one of a wolf on his arm. Both of these tattoos were done by Liza.

### Personality

Jim is described as creative, sensitive and protective, having been encouraged from a young age to write stories. His protective side is shown continuously as he becomes more protective of his younger brother Drew on their journey across the United States.

As Jim undergoes and struggles to process the traumatic things that happen to him and his brother over the course of their journey, he begins to slip into a darker, more assertive and more aggressive personality that is a representation of his Passenger. This persona was always present throughout Jim's life, but became especially powerful after he was beaten by Mortimer. Over time, this personality starts to become more and more dominant and threatens to take over Jim completely. This persona is channelled through Jim's goblin mask. This "Copper Goblin" persona is the name given to Jim by the media after the heist of St. Victoria Depository and refers to the colour of the mask. The goblin mask becomes a focal point in the later episodes of *Season 1*, allowing Jim to act on his darker urges by channelling them through a whole other persona. Jim appears to obsess over the mask and has trouble being away from it.

## Powers, Equipment and Abilities

### Powers

* **Supernatural luck:** Because of "The Passenger" that has been with him since birth, Jim possesses what he dubs "supernatural luck", an uncanny ability to avoid dangerous or even deadly situations at the last second, saving his life, often with the aid of an unseen physical force. Such an example of this unseen force would be him unable to shoot himself or pushing him out of the path of an oncoming train, although this force and its associated luck were not able to stop him being shot and dying as a result.

### Equipment

* **Copper Goblin mask:** To hide his identity, Jim utilizes a lower jaw mask that resembles a monster jaw; the media refers to him and his mask as the "Copper Goblin". Jim expresses his dark side through the mask and the "Copper Goblin" persona and eventually comes to embrace it; upon his resurrection, he fully embraces the persona to live a life of crime.

## Associated Deaths

### Murders committed by James

* Lilith Frie - shot to prevent his younger brother Drew from killing once more

### Deaths connected to James

* Several hobos - accidentally killed by the gas explosion

## Relationships

### Drew Wolff

"*So how does the story of the Wolff Brothers end?
 "I don't know, pup...I just know its not **here***"
—Jim and Drew as they refuse to surrender to the feds[src]
Jim is very protective of his younger brother. Before the Cleveland incident, they are shown to have a typical brother relationship: Drew looks up to his older brother, and even if Jim cares about his sibling, he seemed to be easily annoyed by his antics and is shown to ignore him sometimes in favour of his friends, which prompts in Drew feelings of being displaced. Both brothers were severely abused as children by their father, Dennis, and this shared trauma has made them very loyal and protective of each other.

### Travis Rogers

Jim and Travis become good friends, with Jim coming to value Travis' advice.

## Notable Quotes

"*Go on. Kill me. And live with it,*"
—Jim to Clemenza[src]

"*I don't know, pup. I just know it's not **here**,*"
—Jim to his brother, on the question of how the Wolff Brother's story ends[src]

"*Nothing's over till I'm done running,*"
—Jim to the feds[src]

## Trivia

* Jim often refers to Drew as "Pup", a reference to his age and also a play on their surname.
* Jim's criminal alias - Copper Goblin - comes from his brown monster mask, which fits over the lower half of his face.
* James is heavily associated with the **wolf**, which is related to his surname. Though none physically appear, wolves are referenced several times throughout Kings of the Road, symbolizing the Brother's want for a "pack", as well as their wandering nature. In addition, the brothers refer to themselves as wolves and enjoy howling together like the animal.
	+ As a spirit animal, the wolf symbolizes raw emotion, a deep connection with one's instincts, and an appetite for freedom, as well as feelings of vulnerability and danger.