Honestly, I'm sure chapter 6 is going to tackle Elliot.
Both Harley and Prototype were victims of him (and to an extent Poppy) but again, regardless if Elliot hurt them, it doesn't justify their actions.
Like yeah, Elliot was the catalyst for the story by setting up the work Leith and Harley would expand but I dont think its entirely fair to compare a grieving father to a sociopath willing to kill millions of children for science and a man who just wanted profit and budget cuts even if it came at the expense of children's suffering. Elliot might have been the one to experiment first but excluiding Ollie he never caused harm to any orher child; he stopped as soon as he got his daughter back and genuinely believed him, Ollie and Poppy could be a family.
All of Elliot's victims have every right to be angry at him for his actions but again, the game dabbles in morally grey characters. If Prototype has a heart, why Elliot can't have it too? He's not a saint but Im tired of people over villainizing his character.
I'm also worried for Poppy; imagine not only being the reason behind the BBI and Safe Haven's demise alongside Kissy's but the reason behind Prototype's existance and finding out your dad, whom you adore, was worse than you thought. She's gonna break even more now.
I don't think anyone over-villainizes Elliot. He still has as an intact, somewhat positive reputation. If anything, I think the new information is making many reevaluate their perception of him, and naturally people are more critical than they were prior.
I do want to address one thing before I get to anything else: it is not a factual statement to say that Elliot did not harm other children.
Yes, he is not on the same level as the men that came after him. But he doesn't NEED to hit their extremes for us to argue that he exists on a spectrum with them.
His intent doesn't matter. His grief doesn't matter. I know that sounds baffling to say, but it does reach a point where we need to stop offering him clemency because he was grieving.
In Chapter 5 we get notes from one Dr. Arlo where she rationalizes what she is doing because it will help make a better world for her child. Chapter 3 gave us Dr. Clarke, who volunteered for and helped improve the BBI because he didn't want to die of cancer.
In both cases, their participation comes from an arguably innocent, emotional place—but should we be lenient with them just because their mindsets aren't corporate or clinical the way Pierre and Sawyer's are?
Returning back to the child harm: even if we are generous and say he cannot be held liable for all the child experimentation after Oliver (and I would argue he is), what of the generation of employees like Jessica Newman? She is too old to have been raised during the Pierre era. Too old for the transition to Miss Delights and the new propaganda curriculum.
What sort of environment was Elliot nurturing for the adopted and unadopted alike to dedicate their entire lives to Playtime Co.? Not even the orphanage, mind you, but specifically the company. I would say it's harmful if a toy company is running an orphanage to churn out adults with no desire to engage with the outside world and total loyalty to the company.
And in regard to Oliver: is it fair to ignore the kind of man Elliot is just because Oliver was the sole victim? We are reducing him to a statistic, and I have never been fond of that. Sawyer could have maimed ten thousand children. I am not going to add to Elliot's defense that he is the better man because "it was just Oliver."
If Oliver's procedure failed I have no doubt in my body that the same grief that took him would have turned against any and every child until Poppy's reanimation looked feasible. This is not to say that Elliot is being judged because he could have hurt more people, but to dispel the idea that Elliot stopping with Oliver means anything.
He stopped because he had a working prototype.
Elliot does have a heart, absolutely, but it is not villainizing to look at him unfavorably after Chapter 5.
About Poppy: yeaaaaaaah. Her sister died, many of her allies died, her angel died, and she was grievously injured. She was already distant and kind of floaty after jumping the train. She was suicidal before jumping the train.
Taking away her last solace by shattering her image of her father is not going to go over well.
If we do get all of the Elliot lore, I hope the chapter isn't just "Poppy spent too long being untouched so we are now going to psychologically and (probably) physically murder her :D"
jacobvanloon
