An interesting thing about brad is that he's quiet. Timid even. Compared to the rest of olathe, he blends into the background. There are a lot of characters like brad. Quiet, brooding, and distant. But the thing about these types of characters is that typically, they only act this way because they're either arrogant, condescending, or unfriendly. But unlike them, brad seems to be genuinely shy and uneccentric. He doesn't bother people and for the most part seems unbothered by others. He only attacks and fights if he feels he needs to or attacks first. In his environment, it's not something he could hope to avoid. even before the flash, he seems like a mild-mannered quiet person.
In his last conversation with lisa, he tells her he hates karate and he hates fighting. Despite this, he would go on to take over the armstrong dojo when he got older. In his conversation with terry, he tells him that he has always tried to turn his pain into something positive. In the description for armstrong style, it says that it's a martial art developed out of pain and reflection. In my opinion it seems brad eventually learned to like the pain of fighting, and convinced himself it was a form of healing and redemption and necessary to survive. This would prove itself to be true in a sense as he would have never survived olathe for as long as he did without it.
But what if the flash never happened? What if brad didn't have to kill to survive? Would he ever have been violent at all? Due to the way he acts out against sticky and rick, my best guess is he would have had violent tendencies either way. His emotional conditioning of feeling pain and acting out in violence is only exacerbated by the olathe, not created from it.
The teachings his grandpa gave him are eventually cycled into buddy. In order to teach her this lesson, he introduces her to it in the most shocking, traumatizing way possible. Brad needed no introduction. he grew up in a violent environment and needed to learn to adapt to it somehow. And would force buddy into the same upbringing. In a way, this was the closest thing brad got to parental love after his mother left, a way to survive the pain but not to protect or comfort through it. In his mind, this was the only way to raise his daughter. a harsh, blunt, and uncaring way to ensure his daughters physical safety but not her mind's.
Buddy would adapt the implied (and unfortunately objectively correct) world view that everyone was out to hurt her. And the only way to avoid this was to never assume well meaning and always attack first and ask questions later. And of course, you could say brad was correct to raise her in such a way. He was correct to instill the fact that the world was always going to hurt her, but that doesn't mean he had to be the first to do so. It is by direct consequence of brads parenting "style" that buddy grew up with such resentment for brad and a disregard for human life. Buddy isn't evil, nor is she a psychopath. She's only reacting to her environment and upbringing. Just like brad.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, brad's other child dusty, just like his father used to say, despises fighting. Like his sister and father, he eventually learned it's necessary for survival, but unlike them, he never learned to like it or adapt to it's presence.
In buddy's (assumed) hallucination at the end of joyful definitive edition, dusty says to her that he wishes he was stronger and that he tries to avoid conflict at all costs. This is seen in his plan to "kidnap" buddy so that he could protect her from olathe, so afraid of conflict he couldn't be honest with someone he calls his sister.
Again, unlike her and brad, Dusty is aware that fighting through the pain just begets more pain, that he isn't preventing anything or healing anything or reflecting on anything. He knows all he can do is react to what's in front of him. And ever since he met brad, what's in front of him told him to fight. Just like brad told buddy and just like brad was told from his grandfather.
An interesting thing about brad is that he's quiet. Timid even. Compared to the rest of olathe, he blends into the background. There are a lot of characters like brad. Quiet, brooding, and distant. But the thing about these types of characters is that typically, they only act this way because they're either arrogant, condescending, or unfriendly. But unlike them, brad seems to be genuinely shy and uneccentric. He doesn't bother people and for the most part seems unbothered by others. He only attacks and fights if he feels he needs to or attacks first. In his environment, it's not something he could hope to avoid. even before the flash, he seems like a mild-mannered quiet person.
In his last conversation with lisa, he tells her he hates karate and he hates fighting. Despite this, he would go on to take over the armstrong dojo when he got older. In his conversation with terry, he tells him that he has always tried to turn his pain into something positive. In the description for armstrong style, it says that it's a martial art developed out of pain and reflection. In my opinion it seems brad eventually learned to like the pain of fighting, and convinced himself it was a form of healing and redemption and necessary to survive. This would prove itself to be true in a sense as he would have never survived olathe for as long as he did without it.
But what if the flash never happened? What if brad didn't have to kill to survive? Would he ever have been violent at all? Due to the way he acts out against sticky and rick, my best guess is he would have had violent tendencies either way. His emotional conditioning of feeling pain and acting out in violence is only exacerbated by the olathe, not created from it.
The teachings his grandpa gave him are eventually cycled into buddy. In order to teach her this lesson, he introduces her to it in the most shocking, traumatizing way possible. Brad needed no introduction. he grew up in a violent environment and needed to learn to adapt to it somehow. And would force buddy into the same upbringing. In a way, this was the closest thing brad got to parental love after his mother left, a way to survive the pain but not to protect or comfort through it. In his mind, this was the only way to raise his daughter. a harsh, blunt, and uncaring way to ensure his daughters physical safety but not her mind's.
Buddy would adapt the implied (and unfortunately objectively correct) world view that everyone was out to hurt her. And the only way to avoid this was to never assume well meaning and always attack first and ask questions later. And of course, you could say brad was correct to raise her in such a way. He was correct to instill the fact that the world was always going to hurt her, but that doesn't mean he had to be the first to do so. It is by direct consequence of brads parenting "style" that buddy grew up with such resentment for brad and a disregard for human life. Buddy isn't evil, nor is she a psychopath. She's only reacting to her environment and upbringing. Just like brad.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, brad's other child dusty, just like his father used to say, despises fighting. Like his sister and father, he eventually learned it's necessary for survival, but unlike them, he never learned to like it or adapt to it's presence.
In buddy's (assumed) hallucination at the end of joyful definitive edition, dusty says to her that he wishes he was stronger and that he tries to avoid conflict at all costs. This is seen in his plan to "kidnap" buddy so that he could protect her from olathe, so afraid of conflict he couldn't be honest with someone he calls his sister.
Again, unlike her and brad, Dusty is aware that fighting through the pain just begets more pain, that he isn't preventing anything or healing anything or reflecting on anything. He knows all he can do is react to what's in front of him. And ever since he met brad, what's in front of him told him to fight. Just like brad told buddy and just like brad was told from his grandfather.
A pretty big part of brads character i dont see explicitly mentioned is avoidance.
In the tags of my last post, someone brought up that brad never went back for lisa and questioned why. To be honest, i think (SPECULATION ALERT) it was because he was scared. not of marty but of lisa. Afraid of how much the abuse has worsened and that she might hate him for it. So he doesn't check and lives in the "comfort" of not knowing.
This led to him (in his perception) causing the worst pain in his life. This restarts the cycle. He continues to avoid by refusing to outwardly acknowledge lisa's existence. So much so that his adopted son doesn't even know she exists. Almost all of brad's guilt fueled hallucinations of lisa are of her reminding him she exists or asking if he loves someone more than her.
The cycle continues to repeat after buzzo's attack. When brad hears the name lisa leave dusty's mouth, his first reaction is to turn around and leave. Forever. He abandoned his son just to avoid the reality of making the same mistake twice, not realizing he only did till left.
Fast forward to buddy and sticky's escape. The story from here on out is brad hyperfixating on rescuing buddy thinking it will absolve and erase the harmful choices he's made in the past, that he avoids the possibility of harm at all, Almost to a semi delusional point.
I'm always thinking about this part where he says he wants things to go back to normal, as if that's something even remotely possible at this point, as if he didn't just beat a part of his "normal" to near death with a spiked bat just days ago.
Flash a bit more forward to the end of the game. He is again at the endpoint of his avoidant cycle. Just like with lisa's suicide and dusty's attack. He's at a point that he can no longer avoid, and he's face to face with the culmination of his mistakes.
During this, he states that he wanted to do something good for once. Admitting that he thinks his entire life is a series of wrong choices. At this point, he's desperate for anything.
You could 100% make the argument that his mind was completely broken and he was not thinking clearly, but it is at least important to note that his final competent thought was not begging for forgiveness, but bid for reassurance.
I've been thinking lately about an almost meta type of character development for lisa. Pre definitive edition she practically wasn't a character, more of a vehicle for suffering and character motivation for brad and buzzo. We didn't know much about her or even what she was like other than her abuse and suicide. She was almost a god like figure to the both of them.
When i first played it i never really thought about her all that much, the game really didn't give me much of a reason to. Until i played the definitive edition and saw the conversation her and brad share together after the manifestation of marty fight. She feels so incredibly human there. like a real teenage girl, she likes creepy things and wants to go to karate class with her brother and favorite games to play.
This part was definitely added after Austin's regret for the comments he about her a couple years back.
I believe as he says he meant nothing disparaging or judgemental of his original comments, but it seemed to get him thinking about how she was protrayed in the games.
im unsure how much of this was meant to be originally seen as her actual personality or just brad and buzzo's trauma induced warped memory of her. But it really adds to the tragedy of her character, that if she really was just a normal little girl that loved her brother and the only friend she ever had and the only thing they think when they remember her is this sadistic, manipulative, uncaring person. And my heart breaks for her even more... from a character i almost never thought about to one of my favorite characters of all time.
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