[Minor Spoilers for v.0.2.07 ahead... And a Multi-Paragraph Rant About Teak.]
[Continue at your own risk!]
I have only had Cooper for about a day but if anything (else) happened to him, I would kill Teak, then everyone else in Shelter, and then myself. It's great to see such an interesting new character join the fray, even if most of what we saw so far was just him trying to not be horny for humans. Leading with the thought that Cooper was like Teak, only to show us that flashback of Luke and Cooper's first interactions was nice bait-and-switch, which only got better when we actually met Cooper and heard Thistle's story (even though Luke was no less oblivious about everything)! Luke may be one of, if not the smartest lovable dumbass in Shelter, but he's nonetheless a dumbass; a issue that can (in part) be easily remedied in future!
Seeing Cooper's reactions to literally anything involving Luke or humans in general was honestly amazing! For some reason, my immediate thought when Cooper started reacting to Thistle's teasing was just, "Oh shit! Is he, like, a reverse furry?!" And honestly, that thought is kinda just hilarious to me! Now I'm totally expecting Cooper and Luke to just get to talking at some point, and we awkwardly get Cooper's side of the story about when he first came to Shelter and it get's revealed that he didn't hate or fear Luke so much as he had an instant MASSIVE crush on him and just didn't know what to do about it! Cooper having this big, tough-guy, top-energy persona, only to crumble into a stuttering, anxious, bottom-energy mess whenever Luke (and/or humans in general, for that matter) is around or brought up is just, *chef's kiss* perfection! He's like teenager suddenly realizing he might be gay and having The Panic™ for the first time! It's adorable! I just wish Teak wouldn't come in and ruin the moment every time it was getting good with his aggressive/hostile/bigoted attitude towards Luke. (In the words of a certain edge wolf, "What a mood killer!")
[Ahead is a very, very long rant about Teak and his present character. There is a "tl;dr" at the end that summarizes the main points for those who don't want to read the whole thing.]
Seriously, Teak is honestly my BIGGEST complaint about Shelter; probably my only true complaint about the entire game as of yet! I just wish that Rune or Burry or Max or someone would give that daft tossa a good dressing-down and discipline him rather than just ignoring and enabling his very blatant aggression and disrespect towards Luke. Heck, the fact that Burry of all dogs was somehow completely unaware of Teak's attitude towards and treatment of Luke is, quite frankly, mind boggling, considering how much Burry seems/claims to care for Luke. If anyone other than Luke would at least acknowledge Teak's behavior in some way, it'd be one thing, but everyone claims to be Luke's friend and that they care for him only to completely disregard when Teak blatantly threatens and antagonizes Luke even when it happens right in front of them!
I get that there's a reason for Teak to act the way he does that'll be revealed at some point or another and that figuring out what it is, why he acts that way and getting through those issues are (most likely) gonna be major parts of his route whenever that gets going, but his attitude comes off as so exaggerated to the point that, at times, he's honestly more of an archetype than a character- more akin to one of those stereotypical, shallow, cartoonishly evil and otherwise devoid-of-personality bullies in literally every low-budget teen "coming of age" movie than a character with any actual depth or personality; meanwhile everyone else is just sitting idly by like "Oh that pup! What a little scamp he is!" while Teak is glaring daggers into Luke and talking about how much he hates humans! I'd just like to see some kind of recognition and repercussion for his behavior.
I mean, before the start of the game, Teak's actions and behavior had nearly gotten Copper killed out on an expedition and all things considered, even if this was the worst he's caused, it's definitely not the first time he's put the other dogs in his pack in danger like that. Sure, he feels bad about it and goes about trying to make amends with Cooper for what he did, and it's mentioned that Teak's behavior and socialization with the other dogs in Shelter are much better than he was when he first arrived, but "he feels bad about what happened" doesn't mean that he should just be forgiven without otherwise being held accountable for his actions, and "his behavior isn't as bad as it was before" isn't a valid justification to just let him be a complete jackass - to anyone!
If either Teak's behavior could be toned down a bit or the other dogs in the group would actually acknowledge his behavior, it wouldn't be so bad, honestly. Like, if Teak toned it down around Rune and Max and whoever else because the tell him off over acting like an ass or even if Rune or someone would reprimand Teak for his actions and behavior towards Luke only for the tossa to disregard the scolding and keep acting the way he does, it would add at least something to the dynamic and Teak's character (at least on the surface) other than Teak's personality traits of being bigoted around non-canines and hiding his doubts and fears behind impulse and arrogance only to get him and others into trouble. There's really a lot of potential with Teak as a character, but compared to the rest of the main cast, Cooper included, he just hasn't been given much to make us interested or invested in him;
- Max was raised by felines and has a passion for music as well as a deep respect and affection for Luke as one of his best friends.
- Rune was a "follow orders and nothing else" soldier type sometime before the start of the game despite being the horny and lovable goof he is now.
- Burry is very attached to Luke ever since he saved him before they discovered and founded Shelter, but it hasn't been explained how he found Luke or why he was on an expedition in the tundra.
- Alon is chuunibyou edge lord with a mysterious past and a lot of knives... and a complex about his dong, which may or may not be a route cause for his aforementioned chuunibyou.
- Cooper is, in spite of his typically masculine, tough-guy persona, squeamish about intimacy of any kind - especially when it comes to humans - and might have a massive crush on Luke (this statement is yet unconfirmed).
- Thistle is your typical horny old pervert and acts incredibly immature at times, but he's very intuitive and observant of those around him, often playing up that pervy persona to feign ignorance while he teases people about their preferences. Also a former soldier.
- Then we have Teak, who's is presented as being rather arrogant and bigoted; especially towards humans, or at least Luke. He seems to (partly) use aggression and arrogance to mask his insecurities and rather dim intellect, having difficulty expressing his true emotions to others. He also possesses an unidentified artifact (found by Burry in the tavern with Teak's scent on it) in the form of a small, smooth stone-like object (that closely resembles a glass eye). Has a HUGE crush on Max.
Sure, there's plenty that can be said about Teak thus far, but it's all the same things that could be said about any other generic bully-type character; a lot of loosely assembled character traits and defects without much apparent depth or backstory to hold them together. There are some bits and pieces of an interesting character here and a lot of yet untapped potential for a compelling character ark, but Teak's character just hasn't gotten the same sort of exposure as the other characters. In the case of just about all the other dogs, we would get some sizable tidbit(s) about their backstory (from one source or another) and/or a glimpse or two into the less apparent/conventional aspects and quirks of their personalities; i.e. details that lend to the idea of a deeper, more three-dimensional character than what we see on the surface. And in the cases (outside of Teak) where we didn't get much in the way of direct glimpses into a character's past or deeper personality - let's take Thistle as an example - it was made up for by way of their interactions with the other characters and demonstrations of how they fit into the dynamics. In all these respect's, Teak has yet been coming up short as a character. There's clearly some attempt at trying to convey the idea of a "tough and jaded on the outside, soft and vulnerable on the inside" sort of character in Teak, but the execution doesn't really demonstrate much of the more endearing "soft and vulnerable" aspect of the character.
[Tl;dr] - Teak has the potential to be just as interesting a character as the rest of the cast, but the forefront of what we see from him as a character is how much he hates and distrusts Luke and not much else. He comes off as your typical, one note, barely two-dimensional bully character more than anything, and the rest of the cast is somehow just oblivious to his blatant aggression and disrespect. To add more depth to either Teak as a character (i.e. directly fleshing out his character) and/or to his place in the dynamic with the rest of the cast (i.e. indirectly fleshing out his character), it would be good to either show him deliberately toning it down around certain characters and/or having some of the characters acknowledge and reprimand (or at least negatively comment on) Teak's behavior, respectively.
F*ck, that was longer than I intended it to be! I'd wanted to just gush about Cooper and make a brief mention of Teak's character and my thoughts on his development so far... and then, before I knew it, I'd written a (very opinionated and only loosely coherent) character analysis in the form of an essay. I've never been good a being concise... -_-
Regardless, I honestly am enjoying Shelter so far, despite the rant/short-form essay above. I'm really looking forward to future builds of Shelter! There're so many interesting plot-lines and subplots going on and it'll be great as we start learning even more about the world!