reeve creates an effect because he says shrike has two sides than one. some cases he is scary and no hearted like some kind of monster or a kind of creature. also he has a sensetive and villan side. he shows by saying to hester “YOU CANT STAY HERE CHILD”. This shows his good side.

In the Mortal Engines, Shrike is shown to be a ruthless killing machine, harming several Aviatrices and killing three pirates when his hunt for Hester Shaw takes him to Airhaven. However in Infernal Devices when Oenone Zero Re-resurects he finds that he cannot hurt humans, because of his consicence. He can still, however, destroy stalkers.

Despite being a killing machine, Shrike doesn’t like to harm children, because he himself once had children before he became a stalker. He is shown to help children, such as when Hester Shaw was left half dead he adopts her. Another example is when a mayor wants him to kill the children of someone else. Instead of killing the children, he kills the mayor. The traveller Chung-Mai Spofforth interview him in 923TE when writing her book In Search Of The Stalkers. He said that he remembered several occasions when he had spared or protected children for reasons that he could not explain. He doesn’t know why he is so fond of children until the very last book, where he remembers his past life.

Another goal of his is that he wants to make Hester Shaw into a stalker. He keeps this goal right up to the end of the story, when he sees that she had been clutching hard to Tom even in death. So instead he lays them both to rest in a valley.