The one, indisputable redeeming trait I’ll give Bill Hawks is that he genuinely seems to love his wife and she loves him.
Like, I know that’s an extremely super low bar. Bill is responsible for the deaths of about 10 people, including Claire and Clive Dove’s parents. (Note: I believe Claire was a willing participant in the experiment, but Bill still pulled the switch knowing the complications with the machine.) Bill betrayed his friends, Claire and Dimitri. He covered up the accident that caused those deaths and had Layton attacked when he tried to uncover what truly happened. Bill profited from the explosion and went on to become Prime Minister. He’s not shown to have any remorse or guilt for what happened by the end of Lost Future, blaming everything on Clive…
And the worst part? Bill gets away with it! Chelmey subtly calls him out for his crimes— suggesting that there might be repercussions for Bill in future— but as far as we see by the end of the game, Bill gets off scot free.
Rather than being sent to prison like Mr Whistler, Bronev, Clive, or Arthur Cantabella wait I forgot Bill pulled some strings for him Bill probably returns home to his wife and she’s so happy to see him.
We don’t see them spending much time together outside the prologue… Caroline complains about the food at Dimitri’s presentation and asks Bill to get things over quickly so they can leave. Bill agrees with some exasperation. When Bill agrees to take part in Dimitri’s machine demonstration, a startled Caroline asks if he’s lost his mind. (Was she event aware of Bill’s past with dangerous experiments?) The machine explodes with Bill inside. A panicked Caroline demands for someone find Bill before she faints.
It’s not a lot of characterisation or interaction between the two of them… but it’s more than Descole and his nameless family gets. I’d say it’s more than Rachel Bronev or Lady Viola get. Caroline isn’t part of Bill’s Tragic Backstory. Bill isn’t even shown to have a tragic backstory… which is kind of refreshing? You could say this makes Bill less compelling, less sympathetic, but I think it makes him more interesting and more realistic. Bill really was just a greedy, overly-ambitious guy who made a mistake… and rather than owning up to his mistake (like some of the other antagonists), he tried to sweep all of his crimes under the rug.
Ok, now I need some acknowledgment that Bill got his punishment during New World of Steam. Like, I don’t need to see him behind bars but maybe a random NPC turns to Layton like, “Oh, you’re from England? Didn’t your Prime Minister just get kicked out of office and publicly humiliated?”
