1. is it surprising?

YES. well, I mean, I sorta made him just look like a depressed dude who's only motive to continue living is getting revenge on his father's murderer, and in the beginning, kicking lightning's ass for reclaiming a newly founded town, which is basically one giant memorial to amethyst, of which was selfishly renamed

2. is it hinted at?

yes. as soon as he's found a "weird pair of obnoxiously purple shades" (which have a c on them by the way) he begins to... change slightly. his violent outbursts are more frequent, his methods of fighting have gone from just teaching a lesson to beating them half to death, and he begins acquiring more lethal and illegal weapons (he even grabs a damn tank at one point). OH, AND HE STARTS GETTING WEIRD DREAMS ABOUT [the remainder of this section of the essay has been redacted due to personal information that must not be revealed to the public, keep reading, people, move along

3. Is it necessary for the plot? (Aka: if the story can go as planned without this character, it's a no)

Y ES. THIS MAN IS THE MAIN CHARACTER (i mean sorta, technically in base GA it's just [ERROR 420: NAME OF AMETHYST CITY RESIDENT REDACTED. REASON: don't.... even try... you grey haired FUCK.] but that's beside the point) if he was removed from the story, the story wouldn't EXIST. the story is literally "[I said my name was redacted] is being a little salty bitch about Starlow & dark star still surviving, so he's gonna ruin everything for them"