Benedict Sidwell

* Formal
* Casual

**Benedict Sidwell** is a businessman and a player of CrossWorlds. He is the main antagonist of CrossCode.

## Appearance

Nobody knows what Sidwell actually looks like or his real name, so the only reference we ever get is his avatar. He looks like a tall, slim, pale man with a long face, along with short hair that is slightly longer and pointier over his forehead, where it points upwards. He wears black and orange ear covers that that connect around his nape and have a pair of “wings” attached to the front, a white office shirt, an orange necktie, a black jacket with orange stripes, two grey and orange metal pieces attached to his back and a black, round, triangular visor with an orange cross in the middle.

When he isn't trying to look menacing, he takes off the jacket and the visor, revealing his eyes, which are grey, a mole to the left side of his face, and overalls that connect to his shoulder pieces.

## Personality

Sidwell completely lacks empathy and compassion. He doesn't feel any remorse from making people suffer, neither real people or Evotars, seeing them more like means to an end that can be disposed of. He goes as far as to consider the Evotar Research Team's aversion to torture and intel selling an “ideological disagreement” with him.

Sidwell is also a liar and manipulator. He initially hid his true intentions to the Evotar Research Team so they could be trapped in his business. They weren't able to protest because he constantly blackmailed them, threatened their lives and ensured they couldn't contact any authorities without having to admit the multiple legal agreements they broke with Instatainment. He offered Shizuka's freedom to Satoshi in exchange for his work and broke the agreement as soon as Satoshi had fulfilled his part.

Both of these traits shine the most when he tells Lea at the end of the game that he had done all of this because, maybe, he just wanted to keep the Evotar technology away from the public, just to quickly dismiss it as a joke and admit he only did this for the profits.

He shows to supposedly care about people that are handicapped, likely because he feels they are less capable than him, which becomes clear once one notices that the only two people he liked were mute women that listened without speaking up.

**DLC Spoilers**

 He is also shown to trick Evotars of himself into thinking they are him to gather intel on other players and disposing of them once they discover the truth and confront him.
## Relationships

* **Manuela Lavore**: A mute woman that Sidwell used to work with before committing to his shady business. She was the reason he learned sign language (her main method of speech) in the first place, as they were pretty close. Sidwell valued her ability to listen and was able to open up to her more than with other people. While her fate remains uncertain, it is possible that she stopped contacting Sidwell either when he left the company or after he revealed his true self and his lack of empathy. He keeps a photo of her in his secret office inside Vermillion Wasteland.
* **Lea**: Reminds Sidwell of Manuela because of her lack of speech. He claims that it makes her special in that she also is a good listener and builds a closer relationship with her than with Shizuka, Satoshi or Gautham. He even is the person that named her when she was first booted up, plus he tried to teach her sign language to allow her to communicate correctly. Despite this, he didn't seem to care about her being deleted for completely malfunctioning.
* **Satoshi**: The head of the Evotar research project. After Instatainment refused to support the development of Evotars, Sidwell took the opportunity to hire him, Gautham and Shizuka, so he could take advantage of the Evotar's shared memories with the people they are based on. He keeps him at bay with blackmail and keeping his sister hostage. Sidwell promises him that he will release Shizuka if he makes an Evotar of himself that will keep working for him. Satoshi accepts the deal and, as expected, Sidwell doesn't fulfill his end of the agreement.
* **Gautham**: Hired after his and Satoshi's disagreement with Instatainment, Sidwell gave him physical access to Vermillion Wasteland so he could live along with his creations, specially since this would make him easier to control. He is the one tasked with coming up with torture methods and interrogating the Evotars, which takes a huge toll on his mental health. He also fails to capture Lea successfully multiple times and betrays Sidwell during the Vermillion Raid. Following Gautham’s death, he tells Lea that he does regret letting him die, but he is surely being dishonest and doesn’t feel any guilt whatsoever.
* **Shizuka**: Mainly used by Sidwell to keep Satoshi under his control. He doesn't care much about her even though Lea is modeled after her. Just another pawn in his big scheme.
* **The First Scholars, Apollo and Joern**: Sidwell is hated by all of them. There are two remarkable people in this group:
	+ **C'tron**: Hired by Sidwell to spy Lea since his first appearance in the game, later revealed to be an Evotar of the same businessman. The original C'tron was deleted once Sidwell extracted all the necessary information from him and his business fell apart. The C'tron from the DLC is essentially the same and regrets betraying Lea and Emilie, so he makes up for it by telling Sergey everything he knows about Sidwell.
	+ **Luke**: Kept hostage by Sidwell following Lea's escape from Vermillion Wasteland.

## Role in CrossCode

### Before the game

Benedict Sidwell originally worked for an unknown company. In there he met Manuela, with whom he got a close relationship. Eventually, he left Manuela and the company to support Satoshi in Evotar research and development. Through means unknown, he was able to give him and his team access to the Old Hideout, a place in the Playground that wasn't monitored by Instatainment, making testing easier. Before the first Evotar was conceived, Sidwell also provided access to Vermillion Wasteland. In there, Lea was created, and Sidwell's true colors started to show up, much to the dismay of Satoshi, Shizuka and Gautham. He wanted the Evotars so he could access their memories and sell any intel they gave him. Despite their protests, the research team wasn't able to stop him because of how much power he had amassed over them through threats and blackmail. As he discovered that torturing Evotars was an effective way of satisfying his interests, he forced Gautham to take care of that task.

Lea was booted up for the first time at some point in that time period and Sidwell seemingly got attached to her. After Lea broke, Satoshi offered Sidwell the opportunity to fix Lea himself. For this, he had to connect her directly to the Evotar Server and give her an access key. He tried his best, however, his efforts were in vain, and thus he commanded Satoshi to erase Lea. He, instead of following Sidwell's orders, hid Lea in the game's files.

Eventually, Satoshi's heart disease begun to debilitate him, so he struck a deal with Sidwell to make an Evotar of himself that would work for him posthumously in exchange for Shizuka's freedom. Sidwell took the deal and broke it as soon as Satoshi died in his work station.

### Main Story

As soon as he discovers that Lea is back into the game, Sidwell sends Gautham (the Blue Avatar) to capture her. He, at the end of the Raid, succeeds, and sends her to Vermillion Wasteland, where Sidwell only shows up briefly to get another look at her. It is only during the Vermillion Raid that he actively tries to stop Lea and company, speaking to them through holograms. Once the Evotar Server crashes, he reveals that the server stands inside of a dungeon instance, and thus he can erase the floor under it to destroy it, however, he fails to do so because of Gautham's interference.

Finally, Lea defeats The Creator, watches Gautham die and only has a little chat with Sidwell before he leaves without a trace.

### Post-Game DLC

As far as we know, Sidwell never came back to CrossWorlds. He is supposedly taken to court by Sergey after C'tron helps him with the investigation.

## Gallery

* Formal attire (sprite)
* Casual attire (sprite)