Oh, I forgot my favorite thing about Dr. Faraday! How foolish of me!
Dr. Faraday is the least ambiguous of a concept that I think permeates the entire game, but is not understood by people who think there are "rules of narrative fiction" that say you have to take everything at face value unless it's contradicted otherwise.
She is a contextual villain.
This is an idea that exists in lots of other media, but I saw it explained most memorably in one of Kieron Gillen's BTS essays for Phonogram: Singles Club. It's in the back of Laura's issue, right after you've watched the girl who you thought was Penny's mysterious and aloof ride-or-die bestie turn out to be her bitter, overshadowed plus-one.
In Arthur's act, Faraday is presented to you as a victim of her own utility to Wellington Wells, imprisoned in her own lab and conscripted to make security devices against her will. You are made to sympathize with her desire not to contribute any further to the subjugation of the populace and assist with her escape plan (although you are admittedly more motivated by the need for her to fix the Plassey Bridge for you). Her stated wishes are altruistic and ethical in this context.
In They Came From Below, however, she is the main antagonist and you find that her lack of emotional intelligence prevents her from seeing what Roger readily can: that the robots she's discovered are sentient and have feelings. Consequently, she's out here committing atrocities and shit. Not very sympathetic now! Although, to her thinking at the time, her motivations were still altruistic and ethical: the people of Wellington Wells had stopped farming so she meant to reprogram the robots to do it for them. If the robots had been exactly as they appeared, this would not have been a problem.
It is for this reason that in my story, her change of heart is actually not emotional, but logical. She's been convinced that the robots have their feelings, but she must reconcile that if forcing them to feel ways convenient for civic use was wrong, then it also wrong to do so to the people of Wellington Wells.
But consider that Roger, after all this, remains loyal to her. It's not just the job or the security she's provided either; after she's gone, he's reluctant to hand over his bee cannon to Ollie because "she made it for me". Roger's seen her at her worst and he's seen her at her best too. He's weighed all her actions together and made his decision about her.
It's rather special what They Came From Below does as well, in making her an antagonist. It poses a question: are you sure about your impression of this character? Do you have the full picture? In Arthur's and Sally's Acts, Faraday is witty and even a bit charming for someone so devoid of empathy.
Dr. Verloc is described the same way, you know.
But let us imagine they gave us a Verloc DLC. Do you think he'd be a villain in it? No, 'cause he'd be the protagonist. A Byng DLC? Same thing. You'd be forced to reconcile their world view with those you'd already been shown. Might they still wash out to be villains overall? Maybe. Probably, even.
The only reason why these guys are so thoroughly vilified is because we never get to see them on their own terms or from any perspective other than that of their enemies (particularly each other actually, which is pretty funny!) But they are surely as dimensional as anyone else in this world.
And this goes the other way too. You play as Arthur and immediately you meet a character who knows him: Danny Defoe. And Danny does not like him! Now granted, this is because when they worked at the O' Courant together, he copied one of Arthur's articles word for word and submitted it as his own, Arthur told on him, and he got fired. Which reflects poorly on Danny, but we also know by this point that Clive Birtwhistle isn't exactly Arthur's biggest fan either. And maybe Clive's not as diligent a worker as Arthur, but he also thinks Arthur's a kiss-ass and we learn from the Ploughboys later that this may not be an unsubstantiated opinion. 0-2 for coworker relations. When you find Prudence's diary in the Maidenholm hatch, we learn she didn't like him much either. Paints a picture. I mean, Arthur's the only constant in this equation.
And Sally. Lordy, for someone so popular and friendly, she sure does have a lot of people not particularly pleased with her.
Ollie at least understands he's a miserable prick and how that informs his relationships with everyone else. But Arthur, Sally, and even Victoria speak of him fondly so we know he's actually being more critical of himself than they are (without yet knowing he has his buried reasons to see himself that way).
We were given all this, and yet a lot of people were still asking why Arthur and Sally's versions of events are so different and who was "right".
In being so obviously and unambiguously shown in a controverting light from her established impression, Dr. Faraday is the game's invitation to question your perception of every character.
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
prguitarman
romaincrisis
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
