Freedom At Last

YES. I NOTICED THAT!! people tend to hold more sympathy for the other PAs I noticed, but they also treat the other PAs as more of a joke than anything (particularly The Kress Twins though I wouldn't doubt it happens with the others too).

In particular, I'd bet the reason more people don't directly hate the Kress twins as much as they hate Coyle is because they're so blinded by the incest thing (and the conjoined twins thing, I won't get into it too much, but people are really ableist towarfs them tbh) they don't even look into the character, and like, I get it. The incest thing is weird, but given their whole backstory it's not unexpected either? And there's so much more to them than that...

The jokes are funny, I'll say that, I just wish people would look more into the characters. Like, we could note how Arora is clearly suicidal, how she seems to have some form of ED. How both the twins are incredibly racist and hold clearly fascist beliefs (again; Otto looking up to Hitler), how they were a part of the government and clearly had way more control and the ability to do way more damage than Coyle ever truly did because they were fucking politicians (sorry this pisses me off the most. I understand that like, Coyle is very racist and the corrupt cop thing hits close to home for people, but shouldn't the politician thing hit even harder then? I genuinely cannot understand how between "corrupt cop who was part of the KKK but probably only really had reach in a small sundown town" is constantly put as worse than "corrupt politician and scientist who are both clearly very fascist and racist and had quite the large amount of reach due to, you know, being a part of the government/having influence on it and also they look up to Hitler")

LITERALLY THIS. Otto has a line where I believe he calls Franco "barely even white" due to him being Italian, they have creepy lines towards almost everyone where they essentially suggest using them as toys (including Coyle, actually. Arora takes interest in him because of his uniform or his hat, I believe? It's some sort of poverty kink type thing I think) and obviously they've said some very fucked shit about gooseberry too, but people ignore that

And yeah, the female characters are always treated as lesser or more naive. Especially gooseberry, i feel like just because she's mentally ill and a woman everyone seems to excuse her actions or act as if she's better than the others? She harmed literal children? Hello??? She isn't. Better. Neither is Liliya. It's just weird.

Nod nod nod!!!! I feel like a lot of people ignore Coyle's trauma actually. They treat him like he's evil just because and that he's always been that way, when in actuality all throughout his trials, his voice lines, notes, the comics, ect, there are hints of his trauma. Not even hints, it's not like, subtle, they're very fucking obvious tbh

Like, we know he's a victim of CSA, both from his comics and his paranoia around the topic (perhaps that's an assumption, but generally I feel like most people don't jump to "they're gonna rape me" like he does in his voice lines unless they've been raped or been exposed to that kind of thing before), and we know it was most likely his mother who did it, based on how he talks about her (though his father could've also been involved, we don't know).

I'd also like to bring up that him being apart of the KKK, while obviously terrible, doesn't necessarily mean he wanted to join, if that makes sense? Maybe I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I do believe it could be interrupted that he was groomed into it given how it's described that he joined. He was "recruited" (I think that word is the important part, but I'll go into that in a moment) as a teenager, presumably to escape the consequences of his crimes, or to "kibosh" aka stop them. That particular wording does also make me think maybe his parents made him join? But anyways, I'm focusing a bit on the word recruited because, let's really consider that word. What does it mean to recruit someone? Well, it usually means persuading them to join something, and when we consider how the KKK were it isn't hard to believe they may have done this via fearmongering or some other kind of Manipulative method. But that's just theorising. I do also think he's pretty aware that his racism isn't like, logical. I mean he does admit it's just "looking for an easy answer" and such, but obviously that doesn't excuse that he still continues to believe in it anyways. It's just a point I wanted to make, that he's not necessarily a mindless racist, he does have depth in him even in that regard.

But, anyways. Besides analysing his trauma, let me discuss the trials a bit. Because like, he likes them, sure, I'm sure he loves torturing people, but it's not that simple at the same time.

People ignore that the trials are not just rough on the reagents but also on the ex-pop and the prime assets. Coyle isn't just having fun and games (though he can make you think as much), the trials are just as much a form of torture for him as they are for you. He's a deeply paranoid and controlling man, see, and they put him in an environment where, in theory, he can control everything, but then they also have people (the reagents) constantly coming in and messing everything up, undermining his power, throwing things at him, ect.

We can say he likes going after reagents, I'm sure he does, but consider how much he has to do it, and the shame he feels when they actually manage to escape. It would certainly build up over time. I imagine he never really relaxes in his trial environments, because just being there means that at any moment some "criminal" can just come in and fuck everything up. Alongside that, he's constantly surrounded by mentally unstable and dangerous ex-pop, and sure those ex-pop obey him, but to what extent? He doesn't trust them, that is clear by his line where he essentially admits that he's overwhelmed by the amount of them and doesn't think he can keep them all "cowed and submissive" (assuming he's talking about the ex-pop; it could also be the reagents, or maybe both, but either way it stands that he clearly doesn't feel safe, he fears an uprising.)

Also, just overall, when you kill the snitch or the judge he seems genuinely devastated, I don't think he necessarily cares about them the same way you would a loved one, but he clearly puts a lot of effort into protecting them and every time they die it's a failure on his part. He doesn't take failure well, that much is clear. The trials are just constant failure upon failure with the occasional murder/torture involved (which, while likely a little fulfilling for him, I doubt the high from that lasts long when he has more reagents coming in right after).