Weekly Check Up: 1172 made me realize something about Harley's treatment
So 1172 (Implied to be Kissy) is having psychological problems that are keeping her from doing what the scientists wanted her to.
They accurately list her anxiety and effectively establish how to psychologically treat her.
Before I say anything else, let's just clarify: They are still using her as a child laborer, and that is inexcusable. They are only being kind to her because she's more "useful" like this. I'm not trying to excuse or soften them. But just remember this...insightful report.
But where does Harley's life as Experiment 1354 factor into this?
Well, we've talked about how yes, Harley had problems with his coworkers. He could be hard to work with, they bullied him, but people always excuse them with "well he was hard to work with, they clearly didn't understand him and weren't obligated to."
But...what did Harley's weekly check ups look like? All experiments had weekly check ups, I'm assuming they did at least. Why would Harley be the exception? They could literally see in his mind.
Think of Harley's red maze thoughts. They're cryptic, disoriented, almost unusable. This is the mind of a man who has been shattered over and over and over again. Not of a scheming mastermind.
There's a fanfic by Solani called "Shutdown" which touches on this very idea, Harley ultimately becomes too psychologically broken to continue giving info.
Even if Harley doesn't become totally unreachable, they need him to think right? He's a brain in a jar, right, and they need his knowledge, his intellect? Well how much intellectual output can they easily pull out if he's totally shattered mentally?
How much can they get from him if THIS is the kind of thoughts he's having?
So, they don't have to become best friends with him now, but he's HELPLESS and they LITERALLY see WHY he's been acting this way. His anxiety, his paranoia, his delusions, thoughts like "I am merciful" and "I can only be right".
They see inside his head, they see ALL of that and are (presumably) giving him weekly check ups like the other experiments.
If they are not at least a little bit weakened by the fact he is literally severely delusional, grandiose and emotionally stunted, the fact that he functions better if they treat him better couldn't escape them.
And yet...we saw how the experiments went down in quality
Did they go through his psychological issues meticulously the way they did with Kissy? They couldn't have missed his emotional dysregulation.
Yarnaby's weekly check up, Carmine, despite being a disgustingly pretentious little slime, at least noted his psychology, 1424 they were attempting to contact them, despite their physical and mental disabilities.
Remember all those failed experiments in the secondary labs.
From a purely practical perspective, even if Playtime Co was a NIGHTMARE for ALL experiments, I would AT LEAST expect them to consider Harley MIGHT be a more useful "asset" to them if they at least cater to his psychological needs.
Worst case scenario Harley was the meanest possible boss available to them.
Then he becomes Experiment 1354. They have direct access into his brain. They do weekly check ups and note his psychology. And he's helpless. They can literally see how rooted his grandiosity is in there, they see exactly the impact of their cruelty and he can't fight back at all.
What did those weekly check ups look like?
We saw in Chapter 4 in the secondary labs that post-Harley experiments had a major drop in quality (which could be because indeed Harley was so affected by what happened that it made it difficult for him to think straight and give good results.
But Leith and Eddie, in Pierre/Ritterman August 1995, don't seem to care.
Eddie Ritterman: "He can't be the people's champion if he's one of us. Up his pay. His title. New parking spot. Give him a new car too. Let everyone think he sold his soul."
Leith Pierre: "And if it doesn't work?"
Eddie Ritterman: "You worry too much. Try focusing on the bigger picture: Our friends in Tokyo are coming up to speed. At this rate, this factory won't even be our main focus in a few short years."
They didn't even need to put his brain in a jar to look at his head.
Letter to Leith #1:
Harley Sawyer: "During our latest attempt at neural mapping, we were able to successfully record and reconstruct brief subjective moments from our subject's short-term memory."
Of course you don't owe someone friendship, but that would take the fun out of hurting them back, wouldn't it? For me? Psychologically?
Every week, they would have to see the direct consequences of their cruelty. Every week they would learn a bit more about the man they hated and why he acted the way they did.
But, I think they did understand some of the why. They did destroy a note mocking his sensory disorder in a file labeled "Sawyer Evidance" if they really thought it was just harmless ribbing I'm sure they wouldn't have.
And yet still they were unrepentant, planning a party. Not even in did they ease up to improve their output.
I wanna know what they found in Harley's weekly check ups, I want to know how much they realized about their favorite scapegoat and how much they willed themselves to ignore it.