what is **kwargs?

**kwargs takes any number of normal python keyword arguments, like name = 'Stephen' or num = 3 and puts them into a dictionary- {'name' : 'Stephen', 'num' : 3}. Using **kwargs in the parameter of a method like Kenneth does, in this case, the __init__, will simply take any extra keyword/value pairs that aren't explicitly required when creating an instance of the class and put them into a dict. Then, he uses setattr to create an attribute for that class, using the dictionary that **kwargs created. The name of the attribute is the key in the dict, and the value is, well, the value. Say you create an instance of the class Thief, like this:

>>> from characters import Thief
>>> criminal = Thief('AJ', weapon='sword', health=10)

Now, even though we didn't create weapon or health attributes in the __init__, setattr creates them with the power of **kwargs. So, when you look to see if the instance has those attributes, they're there.

>>> criminal.name
'AJ'
>>> criminal.sneaky
True
>>> criminal.weapon
'sword'
>>> criminal.health
10

**kwargs accepts as many keyword arguments as you'll give it. You can also give it nothing. The only required fields are the ones you tell it will definitely be there. In this case, that's only the name attribute.