I just started playing Final Fantasy 9 again so I hope you guys like talking about old RPGs.
I really liked Steiner when I was a kid because he was the big, burly tough guy I recognized BUT he was emotional, caring and desired people. That was far too rare back then.

You can see Steiner's first appearance in here at about 3:45 (sorry I couldn't find a better one) and our first connection with him has him showing concern for the emotional well-being of someone else. From the word "go," we knew what he was about.

Which is awesome because for the first half of the game, Steiner is suspicious, aggressive and protective (qualities we more often associate with tough guys) but we knew what his priorities were. It was one of my earliest examples of a character having motives hidden to even them

Steiner came at a time when "emotions" were not huge in Western storytelling. Our superheroes were Wolverines and Spawns, manly dudes with manly troubles they don't talk about. It was wild seeing the most heroic person in FF9 also being the most sensitive and encouraging.

But Steiner ALSO didn't understand his own feelings and spent a lot of the game trying to figure it out. Which was even more cool because they DIDN'T stop at him being compassionate; they recognized it was tough for him to be that.
Well, those are some thoughts on a game I had.