I don’t think they even did this on purpose necessarily, but Dylan comes across as the only counselor with any sense of object permanence regarding the other characters’ fates at multiple points in this game. He gets shit for this ‘joke’ but I don’t think it’s actually a joke—Abi’s death, if you let her die, tells them all that the threat is real, that they really may not make it out alive, and Ryan’s attempt to rally the troops doesn’t make that any less true.
Dylan is also the first to remember that Jacob was headed to the island to look for Emma when Laura tells them that’s where she left Max. If Abi dies in the pool house, he says later that he can’t stop picturing what happened to her. If she survives but is mauled by werewolf Emma* at the lodge, he will say that he can’t believe they just left her to her fate. And then, of course, he has the line wondering if Ryan is okay at the scrapyard. (He’s not, babe, he just got stabbed and might be dead).
This game leaves so much angst on the table, deprives us of the characters reacting to a lot of things, but for whatever reason, they really let Dylan express a full range of emotions: very believable fear, anxiety, grief, regret. I think when people say he’s ‘relatable,’ that’s what they mean. He gets to be real in a way some of the other characters never get the chance to.
*And actually, I have to give Kaitlyn some object permanence points here too because if Abi isn’t there in this scene, Dylan tells Kaitlyn to use the silver shell and Kaitlyn says, “what if it’s Nick or someone?” And it’s Emma, so, good call on Kaitlyn’s part.
(the setting is after timeskip, after Diego has been released from prison. Diego has specialized contacts to replace his visor)
page 1:
in the top 2 panels, Phoenix is wiping his face with the towel around his neck, saying "alright", going into the second panel where he lowers the towel to reveal his face with his freshly cut goatee and ask "what do we think?".
the third panel has Diego and Trucy with hands to their chins, both humming in deliberation.
in the fourth panel, Trucy cheekily responds with a bright smile on her face: "yup! it suits my dear old daddy!", which Phoenix shouts "hey!!" from off screen in offense to his daughters statement; meanwhile Diego is starting to take a step forward, stating "hold on" - as his judgement will require more inspection.
page 2:
the top 2 panels are drawn in a comedic simplified style, showing Diego bluntly grabbing phoenix by the chin, and then tilting Phoenix' head back while he leans in close to inspect the goatee. Trucy stands behind Diego in silence, unprepared for what she is about to witness.
the third panel at the bottom is a more detailed drawing of Diego holding Phoenix by the chin in a way that appears surprisingly and unintentionally intimate; Phoenix is wide eyed and starting to blush, while Diego is calmly assessing the goatee with his lips pouted in concentration, narrating his assessment: "hmm… the cut is clean… looks even".
in the bottom right corner, a 'LIVE TRUCY REACTION' display shows Trucy's face cropped; she is smiling thinly, and her eyebrows are raised to the point of a light crease in her forehead in stunned surprise. she is doing her best to reel it in.
page 3:
the top two panels are portrait closeups; Phoenix's blushing and surprised face with Diego's hand around his chin almost as if from Diego's point of view, sparkles around his face - and then to Diego's face, calm but his lips still pouted. he idly thinks to himself '… he's pretty handsome'.
the third panel goes back to Phoenix's face; cropped and more close up to his even more flushed lower face, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek and Diego's hand on his chin, Diego's thumb slipping to touch the corner of phoenix's lips. Diego thinks to himself 'hmm…', and then catching himself in surprise to the position of his thumb; 'ah-'.
the fourth panel goes back to the comedic simplified style with all 3 of them, Phoenix is wide eyed and full on blushing, Diego has quickly pulled his hand back while also blushing and a creased brow but is trying to play it cool with a smile, and Trucy is behind Diego also with wide eyes and her mouth in a straight line.
Diego plays it off, stating: "woops - apologies, hand slipped, anyway-" with his speech bubble captioned with 'smooth recovery!!'.
the final panel is like the 4th but bigger and back to being drawn with more detail.
Diego is leaning back with his hand close to his own chin again and a pleased smile and blush, slightly sweating from having recovered his slip up; he makes his final positive judgement on the goatee and says "well done! it looks good on you birdie~".
Phoenix is still somewhat blushing but he's smiling and leaning back tilted bashfully, responding with "haha, you think? i quite like it myself!"
Trucy has put on a calm and friendly smile one her face, but is turning her head to look away and brought her hand up to shield her peripheral view; above her is a faded crudely simplified drawing of her face that reveals her internalized true expression of a stunned grimace. she thinks to herself both impressed and slightly horrified at the outlandish unintentional flirting her father experience with 'wowwww'.
