I’m writing this inbetween sets for arm day at the gym so please excuse if my writing is scattered. It seems like pre-workout does not make for a good writer so this’ll be a long post too and I apologize but I really wanted to talk about the Fans and how I think Jacket would view them.
One of the most intriguing things about Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number and the introduction of the Fans as protagonists is that Jacket would have rejected any idolization that the Fans have toward him; a point made by @heister-shmeister in the past (which I thank for inspiring another post.) In fact I would imagine Jacket would have killed them the first chance he got. After all, Hotline Miami as a whole is about violence; the reasons why violence is committed, who commits it and the consequences that come there after. No one is safe from the violence that plagues Hotline Miami, not even the inherently good and innocent and especially not those who share a common enemy.
Before I start to tear into the Fans, I find it appropriate to pin down their back story as a whole as individual analysis would make this already long post more of an exhausting read than it needs to bd. They have a veteran background just as Jacket does, however it seems that it was a lot less eventful and they were a much lower rank than what he was. This military background seemed to have given them their almost aloof attitude toward violence while also strengthening the bond or loyalty they have to one another. At some point during their military career and immediately after, they all agreed on who their idols were and who their enemies were. They want the attention of 50 Blessings that Jacket seemingly got, they want to take down the now waning Russian mob that Jacket targeted and they want to commit a level of carnage for the thrill as seen with how they target outside of the Russians at some point. You could argue that they have intentions to help as some missions are given by the Fans individual friends, but is too much of a stretch in my mind. It’s simply a favor, a repaying of a debt.
Now for their intentions, it is so vastly different than Jacket’s. In Jacket’s case you could argue that his intentions were very loosely good as he tries to get revenge for Girlfriend and Beard while 50 Blessings seemingly took advantage of his unhinged version of grief (which the dangers of radical American-Nationalism in Hotline Miami is something that I want to sink to one day, as I believe my studies in history would provide an interesting perspective on how the dangerous radical American Nationalism we see in Hotline Miami is an issue we’re seeing in today’s America.) Anyways, the Fans really haven’t lost anyone directly to the Russian presence in Miami except the idea that their team, America as a whole, has lost and now Jacket, the one man who seemed to do something about it on behalf of 50 Blessings, just got taken down. First, a few try to protest for Jacket’s release but as we know that ultimately fails which starts their short lived, brutal career.
There’s a pride taken by the Fans in the work they’re doing. Let’s take a look at Corey and Tony who are in my opinion the most recognizable of the Fans due to their mechanics and appearance. Corey wears a notable and identifying jacket. She wants to be seen, she wants to be watched and her actions given notice. Tony lives for brutality as seen in his game mechanics - something that eerily mirrors the Sociopath build seen in Payday 2 and the Sociopath Overkill weapon that’s about to be in Payday 3. There’s a focus on getting up close and personal while ignoring the use of ranged weapons in order to produce as much brutality as possible. He’s not relying on fists as a last resort or because he’s improvising weapons. He enjoys it. He likes hurting other people.
In Corey’s case, she wants to be Jacket in more than just action. That cool, 80s fashion aesthetic is being copied by her because let’s be honest, there is a visual appeal to Jacket don’t look at his Payday 2 face model that doesn’t exist. Jacket’s use of his famous article of clothing makes him notable and iconic which again, Corey wants. In terms of Tony, he’s not enacting hand to hand violence out of a lack of planning. He wants to be close and he wants to have that hands on experience of ending a life over and over again to satiate some form of enjoyment.
And that idea of the Fans would disgust Jacket. Jacket as a character didn’t take down the Russian mob and get played by 50 Blessings for the sake of infamy; to ride out that cool 80’s Drive aesthetic (despite Drive’s influence on the game) and to be known as the cool James Dean type. Corey is mimicking the looks of a man who probably can hardly ever look himself in the mirror. Tony is enacting violence against a group of people but lacks the original intention behind it. There is no grief or revenge in their actions, only enjoyment.
To Jacket these people don’t really care about the problem at hand, they’re no better than the same people he’d butcher every night. And really, they’re no better than him when he killed that homeless man in the alley during his first night as Jacket. The Fans are violence just for the sake of violence; a chance to idolize and mimic Jacket at the most painful and mind melting moment of his life where he didn’t even have a real name or real face anymore, when he was nothing but a mask and a series of weapons. They’d be mirrors of himself and he’d hate it so much so to the point where I think he’d be quick to end them.
But that creates an even more interesting conundrum, if Payday 2/3’s Jacket is a copycat, then surely he’s no better than the fans. Is Payday 2/3’s Jacket a Fan? Someone who couldn’t see the deeper picture of the character at hand and only saw what they could replicate for their own enjoyment and sick fantasy?
I mean really one could argue that we the players are Fans too. And please, don’t feel any guilt or anger at that idea - that’s exactly what Hotline Miami’s developers always wanted for us to do in the first place. They wanted us to become no better than Jacket or the Fans and to make us think about the way we consume media. After all we take the bright 80s aesthetic and the violence and finds ways to find enjoyment out of the unraveling of a man victimized by loss and his own lost sense of self. We play the game over and over again to see what masks do what, how many people we can kill in a short amount of time to achieve a high score and even try to beat difficulties to challenge our ability to kill a building of mobsters.
We make art of him, we dress like him, we try to act as him in our writings and we even make our own OCs (or really Fans) so we can insert ourselves into the media. I’m no different, I mean I made a whole blog to talk about primarily Hotline Miami and Payday 2. I’ve come up with an OC or two in my mind (though never had the courage to post it.) Really, I’m a Fan too.
Jacket would hate the Fans and I think he’d hate us too.
•Note: Anyways enough existential crisis I’m writing Jacket headcanons at some point because I think that’d be a fun idea.
•Edit: I figured I should clarify that this is a post for fun and holds no vitriol to other fans. I haven’t gotten any claims of that but I saw a post throwing what I think was the tumblr equivalent of a tantrum about how people talk about mischaracterization and I guess invalidates their experience of these characters. Now I use the word tantrum on purpose as it was all caps and accusations of people shitting on other people in the fandom and held no real examples of what harm was caused, just sort of pointed fingers at an invisible enemy I couldn’t see. I try not to do that ‘shitting’, hence my use of words like ‘I think’ and ‘in my opinion’ as I’m not here to control or gatekeep a narrative or character. I just think these kinds of ideas and conversations are interesting and thought provoking so I bring them up. But if ever do sound too mansplainy (I’m a she/her lesbian but that’s the only vocab word I could think of) or gatekeepy then please do call me out. Much love <3.
