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Do you think Harley was sadistic with other people back when he was human,just as he was in chapter 4?? Or is his behavior with the player purely a result of what he s been trough, plus 10 years of solitude in that damned factory?

(btw I LOVE your content whenever I see a long Harley related post I EAT IT UP)

Thank you so much! And I do think that post HOJ Harley's interactions with The Player were not conductive of his human behavior. As a scientist pre-experimentation, he was capable of tremendous cruelty, but I do think that his actions to the player were a result of post HOJ trauma building up.

For the Chapter 4 ARG (and the source of a great deal of obscure Harley lore, Harley recounts the first three chapters from his own perspective through the security feeds.) Throughout it he becomes steadily more interested in the player, culminating in the end of the chapter 3 recap where he says:

Plus I think in an interview his voice actor, Baldwin Williams Jr., confirmed that Harley respects the player at least somewhat. His talk about how the player is special in four was sincere.

With that in mind, seeing his introduction is laughable.

What he Presents: He pretends like he just noticed us, like we're just a random little germ who only happened to wake him up.

The Reality: Harley has been watching us since the very beginning with the rapt attention.

What he presents: We only made it this far by dumb luck.

The Reality: He's extremely impressed and interested by our resilience. He laughs and aura farms and show boats because the only way to hide that he's powerless is to lean into the role The Prototype is forcing him to play. And it does not excuse that he does do as the Prototype asks in attacking safe haven, I think it's very interesting that Harley, if he truly were just sadistic, could have spoken or taunted after he froze Doey. But instead he's quiet, until we walk a few feet and shut the door behind us. He doesn't care about Doey as a person. But I think being The Monster of Safe Haven must have drained on him, for someone who dreamt of being famous for paving the golden path and "saving" everyone. But yeah, Harley's in-game behavior and actions are deserving of a whole essay series in and of themselves.

But seeing this contrast: (his admiration and interest in the player) vs his callous and dismissive persona he puts on rather then make himself vulnerable already shows Harley isn't just a sadistic inhuman entity now: he's just even more messed up then he already was by the HOJ and the ten years that followed, haha.

Dean Martin beating Leith Pierre's ass (Chapter 6 spoilers, sorry)

I asked my followers over on Instagram who'd win in a fight: Dean Martin or Leith Pierre? And I'm happy to report almost everyone agreed Leith would absolutely get clocked <3

Trust in your executives!

Let's look at his most common red eye

Yeah it's scary, but take a second look.

Notice how red squiggly lines trail out of it, like red blood veins. The eye is wide.

It looks like a wide, bloodshot eye. It's evocative of stress: when we are stressed, our eyes become more bloodshot, and we become more alert of our surroundings.

To me it makes Harley's boss fight more sad in hindsight. Even when he was laughing, or had caught us, he was in ALERT the whole time. He was stressed out. He knew we were going to win. He was even going to let us. But that didn't mean he wasn't afraid of death.

This eye means "High/Cortisol" - "Stressed Out"

BONUS: This eye is the SEARCHING eye but notice how it's dilated, has two white pricks on the side, and is being held open by fingers. It's showing Hypervigilance.

The jagged yellow lines show electricity, or potentially nerve endings.

And it's sad because we know he can make other creepy expressions with his eyes: from the Yarnaby trailer:

I guess you could say his boss fight went like this: Harley is STRESSED OUT! Angel is STRESSED OUT!

WIP

Family photo

OCs

I was scared too ask but can I see dr Preston Willard in your artstyle?

Here you go :)

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Smiling Critters represent "Elliot's values" and Nightmare Critters represent "Harley's values".

Both sets of Critters are fairly simplistic characters in their cartoon iterations. The Smiling Critters are "good", notably. According to the Critter profiles Mob posted on X/Twitter, the Smiling Critters are "strong and determined" (DogDay), "calming" (CatNap), "able to see beauty in anything" (CraftyCorn). You get the point.

Then we have the Nightmare Critters: "a poor sport" (Icky Licky), "no concept of privacy or boundaries" (Rabie Baby), "a colossal jerk" (Simon Smoke), "vaguely angry at nothing in particular" (Poe).

So you would think that what we see in-game would be a continuation of that. SCs are cute and cuddly (as one can be in a horror game), NCs are scary, especially since the SCs are primarily in Playcare (Elliot's thing) whereas the NCs are in The Shelf (area which Harley controls and only exists due to his Initiative). And yet, when the Player makes it into the Playhouse in Playcare, what do they see? Ravaged Smiling Critter toys. Just look at Bobby, for example.

And then in The Shelf, the Nightmare Critters look... totally fine actually. I mean, they're obviously suffering due to everything going on, but they're certainly doing better than the SCs.

Because "Elliot's values", what the SCs represent aren't as good as they seem. Sure, they sound like a great thing on paper: kindness, charity, etc etc. But when they're put into action, we get Playcare. We get what he did to Harley in the YGP. We get Experiment 1006.

And while "Harley's values", what the NCs represent, sound bad, there's still the fact that they aren't inherently damaging, like the unharmed NCs. Not saying that killing orphans is okay, but I don't think that one of his core beliefs would be that it is- I think he only did that because it would get him closer to what he actually wants (immortality, which would probably be more in-line with his actual values).

Though the theory kind of falls apart when you think about the unharmed SCs in Safe Haven, and the potential reveal of NC BBIs might discredit it too, I like thinking about it :D

No, I totally get that. LOL! Also I also have noticed that Harley prefers the NCs over the SCs. I think it's totally a conscious decision. He refuses to let SCs join the horde because they represent Elliot's values LOL.

I can't really think of parallels to all off the top of my head, but I found a few. Mostly Baba for Harley (since he was super introverted as a kid and Baba's whole thing is introversion) and Dog Day, Bobby Bearhug, and arguably Hoppy.

I actually have a lot of thoughts on some stuff I noticed.

Also in the ON PW said that the Smiling Critters were "wrapped up in the BBI". Combined with my theory that Elliot did experiments on other kids besides Oliver (which also is hinted at in ON) I wonder if their values were also wrapped up in the previous experiments (if my Poppy Doll is a child implication comes true) Dog Day: "He keeps his friends going, no matter what." Elliot, unlike Harley, knew how to put a positive spin on things. Look at the advertising for the YGP. Look at how he framed his work as "science is for the benefit of humanity". Warrenbach says all Elliot could talk about was all the good Playcare could too. All this talk of Elliot's made US feel good about Elliot - so good, that we didn't even notice that he was evil until Oliver's reveal blindsided us. But in reality, this wasn't proof Elliot was a good person - just that he could talk a good game. He could keep the people working for him going, no matter what they were actually doing by looking on the sunny side (ie : a positive rationalization. Bobby Bearhug: "Each [person Bobby gives attention to] is enriched by her affection, and in turn, so is she." Elliot always seems to be incredibly...possessive over people who he gets attached to. Poppy in particular. Poppy was "enriched" by being resurrected, and granted immortality, (but without her consent) but in turn Elliot, the real person he did it for, was enriched by keeping Poppy in a body that what let her stay his little girl forever.

Hoppy Hopscotch: " Unafraid to hop where others might sit," Just like how Elliot was unafraid to go into further and further unethical science where others might have "sat" and stopped.

Hoppy is the friend everyone needs to maintain their energy and enthusiasm.

Why does one need to "maintain" enthusiasm? Play almost sounds like some kind of work when you put it like that..like Dog Day "keeping his friends going" Elliot might've maintained people's enthusiasm.

Bubba Bubbaphant: Bubba Bubbaphant is the brains of the critters. Bright and attentive, he keeps his friends steady and always steers them to make smart choices, that way they all might grow up to be bright and brilliant, each in their own right.

Just like the YGP...does Bubba also steal their cells, Elliot? Just asking, because I know about that secret room you got with five of those YGP kids' cells in there.