Lilly Dove @lillydove - Tumblr Blog

Lost Future won’t leave my mind, so I reopened the game and read through Hershel’s diary entries. During the process, I stumbled upon these interesting entries:

During my conversation with Clive, I realised very quickly that the sanity which he had always shown in his role as Luke had left him irreversibly. How ironic that the former victim became a criminal so terribly obsessed with revenge.

I have finally learned the reason for Clive’s call for help: he is the little boy that I saved from the blazing inferno the explosion from the laboratory had caused 10 years ago. He has done something terrible, but he was essentially just a poor child. Taking into account his behavior during our time together, I want to at least support his physical safety.

These entries speak such volumes about Hershel’s character and how he still sees the good in people. Hershel doesn’t simply remember Clive as the manic criminal who terrorised London, but still values the time they spent together when Clive was posing as his apprentice, which goes to show that the feeling of enjoying their time together, whether as mentor-apprentice or savior-victim, was mutual.

bellabs-dream-lab

Madness

professorlayton

lillydove

(via angelbellelc2, professorlayton)

shadowoftime

Love these tiny references in the movie❤️

yardikins

Clive 💙🕊️

Favorite Thing About Them

Can I just say everything? It’s this idiot’s fault (affectionate) that I got into the fandom space for real, and he’s just such a special, one of a kind character to me.

The whole Future London thing being a revenge plan that was also the world’s most elaborate cry for help still sticks with me years later. He’s just so complex and…dare I say…relatable. That man is mentally ill, and spiraling really can feel like everything Clive did sometimes. You’re not thinking rationally, you’re making impulsive decisions, you obsess over that one specific goal, you’re risking your health, you know what you’re doing is wrong, and you’re begging someone to save you from yourself. Just pushed to a massive extreme and I love everything about that. Mental health struggles are not pretty and the Professor Layton series understood that all the way back in 2008 when most present day media STILL sanitizes this shit!!!! And the game still keeps him human despite the literal terrorism : Layton and Chelmey both acknowledge that what Clive did was very wrong but he had justifiable reasons for lashing out - he just went about his justice seeking in a…not very productive way. That is genuinely incredible writing for the time this game was released. And I LOVE me a sympathetic villain.

And the abuser getting away with everything while you’re left suffering the consequences from how you retaliated to their abuse is just mmm too close to home Level5. Anyway

Before I move on, it also needs to be acknowledged what an incredible actor Clive is. The only thing about his design that changes during the climax is he loses his hat, but Future Luke and Clive Dove could not feel any more like totally different characters. The complete shift is almost terrifying.

Least Favorite Thing About Them

That we currently have no updates on him :( Where is the boy, is he safe is he alright?? Lady Layton didn’t give us answers but there’s hope for New World of Steam

And this is a nitpick, but I’m always a little bit annoyed that Clive got clocked in the head by a metal pipe so hard he was knocked unconscious and could barely walk on his own after waking up, but didn’t have a single mark on him to show for it. I know the game is rated E for Everyone but cmon! You’re already showing terrorism in this game!! Gimme just a little blood!!!

Favorite Line

“Take a good look at London, because this will be your last chance!” Goes absolutely triple platinum in my brain. So extra and for what reason. His whole speech when he reveals his identity is a close second. “Though some may call it revenge, I prefer to think of it as justice.” is an absolutely chilling line.

BrOTP

Level5 kept Clive and Janice from meeting because they’d be too powerful if they actually met in canon. And his relationship with Hershel is soooo important…rip Clive you could’ve been his apprentice in another life.

His relationship with Claire is also severely underrated in my opinion. Not enough people talk about how she blamed herself for what Clive became and how he ended up.

OTP

Clemmy of course! Lets be teenage journalist exes with weird evil plans and betray and try to kill the man we idolize together 💛💙

nOTP

I was witness to a lot of Clora back in the day…I really think they have a good sibling dynamic, they both get forgotten by Layton together several times, and there’s a comic I found once of Flora talking about her childhood with Clive and him going “good lord” that I love, but I just don’t see the romantic chemistry at all. Plus thats a teenage girl with a grown ass man 😬

Random Headcanon

His Japanese name Klaus Albatross was his pen name during his journalism era. And Albatross was his original surname before Lady Dove adopted him! Bird boy 💙

And take a second one for free : I took Clive’s mother looking so similar to Claire and decided to make them into sisters, making Claire his aunt. Rip Clive you don’t get a living family ever

Unpopular Opinion

I LIKE THE STUPID ASS SHORTS AND KNEE SOCKS COMBO. There’s something about it that radiates Clive clinging to his stolen youth to me.

Song I Associate With Them

I think this one may speak for itself if you know literally any of the lyrics

I also need to acknowledge this remix of the Unwound Future theme because it’s incredible and Clive’s doin a lil dance

Favorite Picture Of Them

Well I can’t exactly put the entire game here can I 😔 being fr though, this random smear frame was my discord pfp forever lmao

This Fangamer poster is a very close second, I just can’t decide!!

As far as my own personal AUs go, I’ve both had him killed and be possessed by a dead woman. My silly bird boy that I love to put in Situations :3

Thank you for the ask!

lexintothenex

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP.

the-great-rat-attorney

i'll talk about this more when it comes up in my replays but one thing about the professor case is genshin asogi very much did murder klint van zieks. barok prosecuted genshin for klint's murder and got the correct verdict, although the involvement of forged evidence is obviously enough to invalidate that on a procedural level. there may not have been enough evidence to convict without that, and i'm not sure whether the verdict itself purported to be "genshin asogi is the professor" - not how it would really work irl, if the trial only concerned klint's murder then the verdict can't comment on genshin's involvement in the 4 other murders. genshin was obviously scapegoated and treated as the killer for all 5 cases without being tried for the other 4 which is wrong in itself. i assume some aspects of genshin's imprisonment and execution would've been more, uh, humane and decent if he'd just been accused of a single murder. BUT. all of that said. genshin did murder klint

this is around the 1890s, there is absolutely no legal provision for killing someone in a duel. there's no way for someone to "consent" to being killed. if you intentionally stab someone to death, that's murder, regardless of who said what beforehand. genshin has been working in the british police force for 6 years and knows this. at best maybe you could make some kind of self-defense argument but unless klint was lying in his will, genshin approached klint with the accusation and proposed the duel himself.

my point isn't that genshin did something wrong - he did, but that's kind of a separate question and i see how he decided this was merciful. his situation was very difficult, there were no possible kind outcomes. my point is that barok did not have an innocent man executed. nobody argues that genshin did not kill klint, and in england that is a capital crime in this time period