#textual idea

[pharrell-the-formation]

Hello everyone. In honor of Pride Month, I'd like to talk a little about one of my oldest stable headcanons in this fandom: the concept that Marco Legrand might be a closeted homosexual in deep denial. I want to point out right away: don't take everything you read from here on out as a serious theory about the game. I'm well aware that this was not the authors' intention and is just my interpretation of the facts given to us. Harmless fun :)

So, let's start from the beginning. A phrase that has become a point of no return for many.

(Strangely enough, the English translation made it a little less suspicious with him not addresing Evan directly, like he did in the original).

I once mentioned it on this blog, but I feel like it’s too important for us to ignore it here: during the dialogue about Evan's deceased father, Marco will state that he was not uninterested in Caleb... it would be a different matter if he were alive and Evan was a girl. Another dialogue (where he shares a failed plan to seduce Ferguson's imaginary daughter) fully confirms the suspicion that he would be interested in the politician's daughter in that very sense. Of course, for the sake of authority and getting a position in the Ministry, of course!

I do not want to state that everyone who says that they would be together with their friend if they were of the opposite sex are necessarily latent queer people, because in psychology you can't generalize. But this still raises questions, because here you can't say that Marco could respect Evan as a person, since he just met him. But okay, let's assume that he joked like that in the context of his desire for a promotion. Marco is clearly not a person who is distinguished by witty humor.

The more you interact with Legrand in the game, the more you see the idea that he loves to mention women at any possible opportunity. He clearly strives to create an image of a successful, charming womanizer around himself. The problem is that in some places it feels forced. Let's look at this example:

Evan asks the most standard question that can be asked at work, and Legrand for some reason immediately answers that he does not think about the boss, he thinks about girls. I find this extremely unnatural, nothing prevented him from simply answering that he does not care, that he has a negative attitude or whatever, but for some reason he once again drags women into this and the idea that he is some kind of Casanova.

If we draw parallels, then in the series there is another playboy character: Peter Pranger. His situation is even more aggravated than Marco's, he makes remarks towards the fair sex or intimacy with them in almost every conversation with him, but you can see the difference in his delivery. Peter seems ultra-horny, but quite sincerely interested in women. He describes their features, his feelings, reacts to specific situations (he sees Nora - describes her legs. Frank interrupts his plans for a date - he declares this). There are no questions for him, he looks natural in his environment.

What about Marco? Let's talk about Emma.

Emma, ​​Emma... this will sound harsh and possibly rude, but... remind me, why didn't Marco try to make a move on her? In conversation, he gives a very clear reason - Hazer is pretty, and even though he knows about her reputation, she annoys him as a person. In theory, this does not raise questions, normal reason, but

a) Marco knows that Peter, the main sponsor of his entertainment in the office, is in love with Emma.

And Legrand had never been above any pranks before: he even laughed at the time when his victim broke his spine. Literally everything built into his image implies that pretending that he is trying to steal Peter's beloved in front of him would have been a trifle for him and a natural continuation of all the previous ridicule. And yet he never tried to do this. His fourth prank could have been this, but he comes up with a dodgy plan to convince her to seduce Dong and steal his clothes.

And b) if Evan gets closer to Emma in a civilized manner and comes to his friend to share news and an interesting story, Marco, completely unexpectedly, will shift his ground and suddenly ask whether he should sleep with her too. So he is (at least in words!) would be quite capable of this.

I assume that his first admission about Emma is quite truthful, and later he began to adapt to the situation and to his friend's behavior. He is (remember?) a womanizer, sleeps with women, so he must be interested in this, especially since Evan raised this topic. As in other dialogues, he seems to forcibly mention this image. He wants you to know this, to know his stories about his romantic life, where even instead of saucy details, he ultimately concentrates on humor, telling his bro how he brought a girl home and they fed sardines. Is this all? No, not all.

The route where Emma becomes his stepmother.

For me, this is almost the loudest and most illustrative example. Within this route, Legrand receives a call from his father and complains that his father is pressuring him again with marriage and children. He is already fed up with this and comes to the realization that he needs to deceive his father, that he followed his instructions and did what he asked. Logically, we can make a prediction that he will probably find himself a girl, either one of his acquaintances or a bribed one, and convince her to play along with him temporarily. In such a situation, and, again, if he already made a decision to lie, this seems to be the only working option, simple and understandable. But instead, for some reason, Marco turns to his friend, gives him his father's number and persuades him to call and say that, well, I'm an acquaintance of your son, he found a bride, by the way, I'm the son of Redgrave, the very same one, believe me. Just think about how surreal this idea is, even in its concept. Imagine yourself in Henry's place, some stranger calls you, claims that he is the son of a bigwig in the political world and tells you stories about how your eccentric child suddenly decided to mend his ways and to get off the wrong track. Would you believe him? Better tell me at what point you would hang up. Even Evan in the game reasonably refuses this crazy plan, and then the colleague pays him just so that Evan agrees. If we believe his words, he gives the last money he can give.

Let's leave out the fact that somehow Marco's father falls for this masquerade, it doesn't matter now. What's important is that Marco is subsequently completely uninterested in how Evan resolves the situation there. It would be expected that he would at least find out who he had picked as his imaginary bride, but he emotionally distances himself from this event and decides to focus on other matters. I also suggest, keeping everything described in mind, to look at and analyze the ultimatum for the businessman's inheritance, the main motive for Marco's presence in the Ministry from the beginning.

"The demands are still the same - get married and have children. Or get a promotion. But with your attitude towards hard work, getting a promotion is fantastic, so I'm waiting for grandchildren!"

No one, absolutely no one will like the idea of ​​​​forcibly dating someone and by no means will enjoy the unvoluntary conception of offspring. You understand Marco and do not condemn him from this position, and his decision to work seems normal, but here again the details are curious. Lazy Legrand, really lazy guy, this is evident throughout the game in small references and even in his own actions, AGAIN chooses a more complex and confusing path, avoiding a simpler one where all that is supposedly required of him is to show his vaunted charm and flirt, meet or drag into bed some pretty young lady. The game itself gives an interesting detail with the fact that Henry Legrand set this condition for him only because he wanted his son's marriage, he never believed that he will be successful in his career path and clearly does not want this, being more interested in continuation of his family line.

So, in my interpretation of things, everything leads to this idea: Marco does not like women. He does not accept this and hides it, concerned about his reputation, telling tales about his relationships and avoiding those in practice.

Also, taking into account all this background, his attitude towards Evan seems peculiar to me, because at some moments he literally trusts him to the point of stupidity, actively tries to make him part of his secret plans, and at other moments he can suddenly subject him to impulsive, unjustified cruelty. As if he wants to keep him close to himself, but something in him really fights it and because of his inability to deal with his emotions sensibly, he can take it out on Evan and those around him.

(Text on the screenshot - "I see you and Legrand are birds of a feather! Alright, the prank isn’t that bad").

Thank you all for your attention!

[pharrell-the-formation]

You know, I don't want to waste time talking about the Hazbin Hotel, but I'll express here and now one thought that's been bothering me for a very long time. I think this show would be better if they made Abel the antagonist instead of Adam.

Let me explain: I'm not naïve, and I understand that even if that happened, it would amount to equally weak writing that would simply boil everything down to "Oh, look, you didn't expect him to be so bad, but he is so bad. Look at him, awful." again. When a building's foundation is broken, you can't fix it by just replacing the roof tiles. But the show's core issues, such as writing, pacing, focus priorities, and sense of humor, have been discussed so much over the years that I believe anyone reading this post will already understand them or at least have heard about them enough. I don't feel the need to repeat what's been said many times before. Keep these in mind while I try to explain my point.

One of the most daunting problems with this show's plot for me is its choice of an interesting, nuanced topics and its refusal to discuss them. Taking Adam as an example, I see some ideas about what could be a valid critique embodied in the first season's main antagonist:

criticism of misogyny from people with conservative way of thinking,

and criticism of people privileged, in this case, by the church, who commit immoral acts under the guise of righteousness. The topic of war crimes can also be present here.

It sounds quite interesting. But the show doesn't explore these questions: it simply says that there are people who behave this way and that it's wrong. But the show never once raises the idea that Adam's behavior, within the context of the show's lore, is still present even at the time the show takes place, because for years he was enabled and encouraged by Heaven. His pride was not criticized, he was never replaced like a woman who dared to object to him, he was repeatedly rewarded by wives, high position in Heaven, his own army, etc. And here is the deal - you can't take on a topic that involves speculation about good and evil without at least raising the topic of this man being a product of his "upbringing" once, can’t make him just being rotten somewhere deep inside since his very creation.

The other problem with him, for me, is more simple and prosaic. This antagonist feels like a bit random adversary to Charlie. The only reason there's any feud at all is because man finds it fun to kill his descendants (there are, of course, some? reasons for the order from his superiors, and those orders motivate his companion Lute in s1, but from Adam's perspective, it's clearly not that serious). Charlie and her plan amuse and irritate him, but then her actions become more dangerous to his "killing his descendants for fun" weekend plan. That’s it. Essentially, even if there was no hotel, and Lucifer's daughter simply began to actively stir up an uprising and organise rallies against Heaven and their extermination policy, nothing would change, because narratively the hotel becomes more of a tool for political war games between Heaven and Hell, and its contents fade into the background.

Of course, it's possible to fix all of this, but it would require inventing a lot from scratch in his image so that it works both on its own and doesn’t get in the way of the plot wheel. So… what about Abel? I think Abel may be a perfect candidature from the already existing cast for an antagonist (not a villain, that's important in my eyes) of Charlie and her pals because in essence you don’t have to come up with anything too complicated when it comes to his motives as he even just by default may represent opposition to her ideas, challenging her specifically: what would actual victim of the murder think about the idea of criminals deemed "redeemed" coming to live peacefully beside him to Heaven?

Hazbin Hotel doesn't portray Paradise from a unique perspective, reducing it to a conceptually ideal city, where everyone is equal, where there are no limitations, but also no access to supposedly harmful things. This implies that people's mindsets in life and after death are not significantly different. Therefore, we can explore the idea of ​​trauma that may come with procession of the realization of such a terrible betrayal, the loneliness that Abel might have felt when he died and there were no humans around, the feeling of bitterness from knowing that all his closest ones lived long lives, and he died young. What does it feel like to know that you have been deprived of a voice in the sources of your history? What does it feel like to have become culturally merely "a perfect victim"?

So, in this conceptual confrontation, based on a naïve bright faith in people and painful experience pushing to a strong defensive reaction, I see a dialogue: "I want to give them a second chance." - "I don't want them to be given a second chance." And both can have actual talk here, with reasonable arguments which are connected to their respective life experiences. There is also potential here for Charlie to learn and grow, because such an opponent of her project could teach her that, perhaps, she was too kind in her belief that everyone can become better.

To sum up, I think that even if everything would be written awfully with this idea I will still see at least an attempt to have actual complicated conversation with viewers about it and that’s already worth something…

[pharrell-the-formation]

One of my favorite ideas about Marco and Evan is the idea that Legrand once talked the new guy’s ears off about "trinkets" he has (as he likes to call accessories) and, upon learning that Evan had almost nothing except maybe an old wristwatch, gave away one of his bracelets to him.

Of course, under the condescending pretext of "take it, I have a hundred of these at home, and you need it more, pfft, who else would make you gifts like that?", but it was an important moment for both of them. A small symbol of their friendship.

Redgrave was wearing it when Legrand was executed.

[pharrell-the-formation]

About Evan Redgrave’s spinal problems, my long-long description of headcanons about his health. I imagine some of his issues are congenital. They didn't cause any serious symptoms or complications throughout his childhood, although there were certain recommendations to follow: avoid overexerting the back, maintain proper posture, and do strengthening exercises. However, such things faded into the background after the death of Evan's mother, Rita. We all know that Caleb took this all very painfully, and one of his solutions to this difficult situation was distancing himself from his son.

During his teenage years at university, Evan tried to lead an active lifestyle. He played sports, carried bags for the girls he courted, and as a result, his mild problems worsened significantly. And since he was essentially left to fend for himself as a student, no one really monitored his treatment. He had money, Caleb sent him it so he'd have everything he needed, but the question of how to distribute it was Evan's responsibility, and he tried to minimize the costs of this problem, largely because he was deeply uncomfortable admitting weakness and the idea that he had more limitations than those around him.

He refers several times to his military service in the game, but in my vision, he's lying about it and never served: his father used his status and, in fact, medical records indicating the young man had a mild curvature of the spine. Evan's lies stem partly from my idea that Redgrave Jr. didn't study in the Great State, but was made to travel abroad to get education. There are better universities out there, and the grass is greener, and it's safer tp be away from war, but of course, speaking publicly about such things isn't exactly acceptable where he comes from... His return to that ill-fated country was due to his mother's burial being there - there were things he couldn't let go of. In any case, that's a conversation for another day.

Miriam knows about his condition and, being the more stubborn of the two, uses her ability to get her’s own way to remind him of the importance of his health. Under her watch, Evan received therapeutic massage sessions and the physical therapy he needed. He refused a therapeutic corset, citing the effectiveness of everything else, but his wife secretly has been saving up for it.

During his year of working at the Ministry, all the progress made naturally began to unravel, as Evan had always been prone to not being very good at monitoring his condition to avoid worsening it by himself. Now, the pressures of a prestigious workplace come into play, where you won't be forgiven for taking an extra day off "without a proper reason," where you're constantly being pushed to the limit and encouraged to exhaust yourself in the name of efficiency - not to mention how devalued human life is there. Evan is once again leading a very active lifestyle, and strength restrictions sometimes don't even slow him down (remember the mini-quest where we're given the opportunity to help a man carry a sofa into the house, which leads to us injuring ourselves and forcing us to go to the doctor). He might sometimes mention "back problems," but he won't directly say, "I have kyphoscoliosis," even if it's pretty obvious to others. He still harbors a certain resentful pride at the idea of ​​admitting that his health sometimes requires different living conditions. Perhaps a bit of shame. All this neglect of treatment, unfortunately, leads to the expected results: shortness of breath after exertion, frequent fatigue, muscle spasms, and back pain. It sometimes woke him up at night.

I think he takes painkillers to maintain his ideal worker's performance and not let James down, and by the end of the story, his dependence on painkillers has already become evident. This is a burden he will have to struggle to shed again with the help of Miriam and his friends. Part of that idea is that the Ministry traumatized him and left many wounds and scars, even in the happy ending.

Another detail: I think his kyphosis is visually noticeable - a hunched posture, you know. But his scoliosis is subtle, perhaps 5-10 degrees Cobb, which is barely noticeable from the outside.

I could draw and depict it differently, because the topic is complex and it took time to try to form an image in my head, so if something somewhere does not correspond to this description in my art, do not think about it too much, this is the first time I work with a character with such features and it took me some time to figure things out.

[pharrell-the-formation]

Writing down my opinion of the Inner Circle's attitude toward George:

- Caleb treated him more or less normally. After bringing him into the "Inner Circle" and beginning to sense that Hemnitz might be in danger there (partly due to his own deteriorating mental state), he sometimes displayed something akin to a parental complex when interacting with the youngest of them all, which struck the thirty-something years old Hemnitz as odd, as it did others. Eventually, he distanced himself completely from George, sensing danger in him as well.

- Isaac treated him well, but he didn't think highly of him. He valued his intelligence and abilities, but he couldn't forget the time the accountant got into an argument with him over choosing Carl as the ideal candidate for cloning and his ideas.

- Pete is George Hemnitz's superior from legal and technical standpoint, and deep down, he always saw him not as an equal, but as an inferior. Like 'an errand boy, a boring calculator on legs.' No one was surprised that he might one day arrange his execution secretly... except for Pete himself.

- Albert initially treated Hemnitz coldly, but gradually developed a genuine respect for him. One could call this attempt to gain his trust the most successful and effective of all, but even Albert's positive and welcoming attitude is far from a gift. Just another curse.

[pharrell-the-formation]

A curious fact about Anthroutopia for all of you: the same warm affection for cats that Carl has in the original also exists in this version.

Other animals think it's quite amusing for a rat, but facts and observations by Isaac and his minions suggest that the mere sight of them can calm his clones, making them feel safer and more pliable, which is quiet convenient for his experiments.

Carl Stein in this version was adopted and raised by a childless cat family before the directive banned such adoptions. People of cat kind are still someone who he feels emotional connection to, but when it comes to lawbreakers, all this warmth instantly vanishes - a fleeting glimpse of Hector, that nervous old cat gentleman, is something he doesn’t remember with positive attitude.

[pharrell-the-formation]

May I ask, out of curiosity: What are some songs you associate with Redgrand, or any other pairings you enjoy? :]]

Hi-Hello 👋 Sincere apologies that it took me so long to answer your question. I have several private playlists related to either specific characters or duos I really like, not necessarily romantic ones. Redgrand is among them and here are a few of the songs that got into their playlist:

Me and Mr. Wolf was one of my very first song associations with them. And it remains extremely strong to this day. It's a case where almost every line of the song fits their situation amazingly upon closer inspection. I am inclined to interpret that work as telling a story in which the Wolf character, a dubious, potentially dangerous individual with extreme confidence, shows interest in the Lady character, who remains calm and allows him to be around. Gradually, the Wolf character's interest becomes more sincere - he displays genuine emotion and vulnerability, while the woman character maintains her usual monotony. Ultimately, it turns out that the Lady is just as dangerous as the Wolf, if not more so. And at the very least, she has more control in their relationship because the Wolf cares for her far more than she ever cared for him. And in the end, of course, there's death - as the chorus goes, "one of us is going to need to die." Now imagine this with Marco and Evan. I think in the most canonical understanding of these two, Marco was the one who, ironically, was more attached to the other, and his carelessness regarding his colleagues's actions and his own secrets revealed to Redgrave was his undoing.

Hell and You has already been mentioned in a post about these two not so long ago. As I see it, this song can perfectly reflect Evan's devotion to Legrand, him accepting the guy with all his inclinations.

I realize this may sound contradictory to the previous point, but for me, these two men and their relationship are somewhat abstract. They can look and work in pretty different ways.

When I want to delve deeper into Legrand's repressed feelings, how this behaviour affects him without really focusing on Evan or their relationship at all, I can listen to something like Dopamine by Madelline if I want a softer view of a situation, or something like Just by Radiohead If I want to imagine a truly destructive, painful picture of how he is devouring himself from the inside, but is constantly in denial.

Very good bad thing by Mother Mother - can be good if we are searching for something that focuses on the aspect of their confrontation. They are competitors for life. This is a very important aspect of characters for me.

Anybody else by Dom Fera - okay, honestly I can't describe it clearly here, but I feel like it's them.

Breezeblocks by alt-J - this is not a simple song, it is an official anthem of "Or never" fic (big thanks to my close friend for this association). If you want something that would feel like this AU, then here you go, enjoy.

Last but not least in importance today is Ghengis Khan by Miike Snow. It's not so much about the song itself as about its music video. I drew some simple sketches inspired by it, attaching the one that I am the most proud of. In general, I think the image of a super-spy, a very charming, but a little clumsy one, suits Evan Redgrave a lot!

Hope you’ll those ✨

[pharrell-the-formation]

Each of "Beholder" games has a "cannon fodder" character, a male character who is present at the beginning of the game, who is involved with illegal drugs and who is most often needed to teach the player how to write denunciations. I jokingly call this archetype "first come, first served."

And I think these characters are very interesting because each of them is presented in a very different way.

Jacob Manishek was initially presented as just an outright asshole, the one that is not supposed to evoke pity, but in the dlc he is presented from a completely different side, as an ordinary human, who had job, had dreams, but was faced with a terribly tragic fate; person whose degradation we must observe and to which we involuntarily contribute to.

Marco Legrand does not have a tragic backstory that could justify him, he is generally quite a vile individual who mocks others and does not take things seriously. But what distinguishes him from other characters in the second game is that he is the best rival main character ever had (speaking about competitors, of course). You will have difficulties to look at his belongings, difficulties in getting the safe that he received and appropriated, he is the only one who really tries to prevent us from being promoted and has a logical motivation to be our opponent in race for promotion.

Magnus Hermann is a mysterious person. He seems quite similar to Jacob in the overall picture: he avoids people too, he also creates a not very nice impression on others, but in fact Magnus is not even rude (if compared to the previous men), he does not mock others and in general has his own reasons to be cautious. His actions and occupation - related to medicine, not drugs, like in was with the others - are literally considered heroic by the newspaper in the game.

I don't want to talk too much about the "Conductor" until the game is out, but we can already assume at this stage that Peter will be the embodiment of this traditional archetype and that his difference from the previous ones will be that he is fully presented as a good guy and a sincere friend of the main character, whom we will be or won’t be able to save.