Do you think Elliot Ludwig actually loved and/or cared about Harley or Ollie at all.
I think Elliot loved the idea of loving them.
Believe it or not, Elliot does have a conscience. It doesn't excuse him. Lots of shady individuals have consciences they are just experts at suppressing or shoving away. Elliot happens to be one of those people with consciences they are good at "negotiating" with.
I'll cover both Harley and Oliver in two separate sections:
Harley:
He admits that his attracting Harley into his "human experimentation" pipeline is selfish. And then continues with it.
And look at how he handled Harley's rejection: he didn't talk to him in person. He sent him a letter. Harley was right there and available to be spoken to in person. He sent a letter that was 50% rationalization of what he was going to do to Harley, after he directly wrote that without kindness Harley's mind would twist, and after intuiting Harley wasn't getting that kindness wherever he came from.
He sent that letter and half of it seems almost like a rationalization to himself rather then to Harley:
"In thinking about those days, I'm reminded that rejection can sometimes be the best thing for us. "
" Ultimately, I believe it made me a better person, and I have to believe that doing this now will make you better too."
Ollie really was copying Elliot. Elliot tried to "make people better" too.
But anyways The way Elliot talks in this letter makes it perfectly clear he knows he's dropping a bomb on Harley's psyche and for whatever reason is talking himself into it and praying it doesn't go sideways (it did, infact, go sideways)
It's funny. With everyone else in his life Elliot locked down and never let go. For the orphans in Playcare:
For Poppy, obviously.
Harley? The one example of a kid Elliot pushed away.
Oliver:
I think Oliver was right when he spoke to Elliot in "Elliot and The Prototype" tape.
That being said, I can tell Elliot feels some nagging, haunting sense of guilt: You can tell by how nervous he sounds at the beginning of the tape, when he asks if Oliver said something.
Whatever guilt, whatever care he had for these two boys, though, it wasn't enough. Wasn't enough to stop them from using them both to get Poppy back.
I also felt so disgusted, watching the first tape blind, when, just after Oliver poured his heart out to Elliot about feeling like Elliot can't stop talking about Poppy, that he feels like he's just a "test run" now, Elliot performs sympathy for five seconds before saying: "I think you and her would get along really well." ELLIOT. YOU ARE. TALKING ABOUT POPPY. Right at the one point when Oliver needed you to NOT.
He kept Oliver trapped under there, and since Elliot never introduced Poppy to Oliver (as she has no idea who Oliver really is or what his relation to her is) that means that Elliot never fulfilled that promise.
Did Elliot care about or feel bad for those boys? Oh I think he knew it was right to love and care for those vulnerable souls. The idea of shepherding them, guiding them, must have been appealing for someone who is sensitive to his public image as Elliot Ludwig.
But, did he really care? Well, I will say this: Whatever care, whatever guilt he felt, wasn't enough.
The Monsters We Make, indeed. For both of them. (One of Chapter 5's OSTs is The Monsters We Make)
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