Is Linus ascetic and not actually impoverished?

[Markus Reese]

Stemming from the Christmas discussion, want your opinion on it. I mean lets think about it. Lives minimalistically, takes what would go to waste, but is still a gatherer and living with nature. He respects others and defends his lifestyle, and pities/feels sad, but not angry to those who are not respectful.

Then his gifts and comments. He dislikes luxuries (gems and metal bars) and his hate comment as well. What are your thoughts, or just some food for thought at another bit of hidden depth that makes me like this game so much! Characters have such hidden depth...

Heck, even take a closer look at his portrait. Seems pretty well groomed. Trimmed and combed beard/moustache and well parted hair! Heck, my beard is nowhere near like his (real life) and it is a fight to keep it neat.

[Hammertone]

They say line between asceticism, poor, eccentric; and just a plain lazy is thin as paper. And let's just throw logic out of windos. We got a gem chewing gamers, a gloomy emo, an abused child with suicide tendency, a self regenerating rabbit, and time bending protagonist. An ascetic person is quite normal I guess

[itssirtou]

Well groomed does not mean well off. Homeless guys can get combs.

[VerboseLamp]

I'd argue that ultimately it's fairly subjective, but in my opinion, he actually seems to be a reflection of the "freegan" lifestyle[en.wikipedia.org], which is strongly supported by his events and dialogue.

When you first encounter him during his two-heart event, you find him digging through the trash cans. When confronted about this, you have the option to tell him that "It's a shame to waste perfectly good food", which causes him to state that he's happy you understand his motives, but he'll leave George's trashcan alone.

As your relationship with him improves, he'll start dropping other hints through his dialogue:
"It would be nice if the townspeople could accept me for who I am. Living out here in the open air. That's what they don't understand."

"You can learn to survive in the wild. I have. I think we all have a hidden urge to return to nature. It's just a little scary to make the leap."

"I also spend a lot of time reading. One of the reasons I stopped in the valley was for the great library."

All of these seem to pretty strongly align with "freegan" values as presented in the article above, and unambiguously suggest that he's living off the land by choice rather than circumstance.

[Markus Reese]

@tyril132 I wish I could rate up comments. Is an interesting concept that I had not heard of. Thanks for the share!