Taxi for the Payday Gang!

I finally got all caught up on the tags, so now I can post these. Enjoy.

Alternatively, open invitation to ramble about it as much as you want

That's dangerous to offer to me, as you're about to find out, buddy.

Well, for the original Crew, you're gonna wanna listen to the voice lines from PAYDAY: The Heist, first and foremost. The first game had A LOT of personality for the guys present in not only the words used in their voice lines, but also in how they were said. Like, here. We'll focus on the two dorks, since you brought them up specifically (and Gods know that I can and will talk FOREVER, so it's best to just limit myself):

Wolf and Hoxton obviously have a very close dynamic that's made apparent by all of their nicknames for each other, and the tone by which these nicknames are said.

Wolf has more nicknames for Hoxton than Hox has for Wolf (this is probably mostly due to the versatility of their call signs, but Wolf might also just be more creative than Hox), and he usually says them in a particular... 'boyish' way. What I mean by that is the tone he uses when saying his nicknames for Hox kind of read like a 'younger brother/kid glomming onto an older brother/kid'. (I'm the Cool Cousin to my much younger cousins, and their dad is my favorite uncle who I had/have a close bond with, so I know this feel from both sides of the coin.) Listen to how he says Hoxton's nicknames. (They're misspelled in the video, but you get the point.) You hear how bright they are? How excited? How they're just like a little kid wanting attention from the Cool Guy? That's Wolf being excited to not only be working alongside a criminal who he thinks is cool, but also to be accepted by said Cool Guy. This is compounded by the fact that Wolf is the rookie of the team in the first game. We know from his backstory that he's an ex-videogame developer who got screwed over, had a 'mental break', abandoned his old life and family, and went into heisting. He did this because he loved heisting movies, and he 'wanted to be cool like the characters in the films he watched'. I, personally, think that he probably tried to start his life of crime by hacking into companies to steal their money—most likely by starting with the company that bankrupted his—and that his hacking skills are what put him on Bain's radar. (We use Wolf's hacking tool to steal the Taxman's money, after all.) Wolf's always a nervous wreck during heists—especially in the first game—'cause it's dangerous and loud and shooty-shooty, but he gets to steal a bunch of money, take out his anger on the cops, AND hangout with this punk rock guy who's 'a REAL criminal just like in the movies' and who likes his presence. There's also a lot of his voice lines that come across as him 'trying to act tough in front of the others' too, so that's something to listen for as well. But, yeah. Wolf's a dude that's in over his head and new to all of this (at least in the first game), but he found that he liked taking scores and found a kinship and home with these dudes, so he chooses to stay. Honestly, his would make for a nice/the usual trope of a tragic story in a heist film, especially when he eventually died in Hoxton's arms at, like, the 3rd act low point. Y'all know I'm right.

Now, for Hoxton, whenever he calls out for Wolf, it's a lot softer. There's a lot of genuine affection there that speaks to an ease of being around another person that he likes. He honestly sounds less like he's trying to get Wolf's attention, but is instead just trying to bring it back to himself. Like, this man knows that he's the center of Wolf's lil' universe, and he's very much comfortable with that fact. 'Cause this dude is a fuckin' peacock that thrives on validation and attention. He also kind of comes off as if he's showing off in front of Wolf sometimes, so he can continue to get praise from, like I said, 'his favorite cheerleader'.

The only time this breaks is when he's downed. 'Cause, in the first game especially, when Hoxton goes down and calls out for help, he's hurting and panicking. (A lot of the downed lines are missing the call signs in front of them, 'cause they're used interchangeably. But, when you hear the strained calls for the others, those are the ones that're attached to them.) Like, all of the dudes do this—honestly, The Heist's Chains sounds like he panics the most out of all of them, with Dallas being a close second. But, even when he's downed, he'll still cry out for his 'Wolfy' and his 'Wolfman'. Like, when he calls for Dallas or Chains to help him, he's more 'asking a bro to help him out' in tone. Like he's trying to keep it together in front of his friends, but he's losing his composure. But, with Wolf? He sounds like he's begging for someone that he views as a comfort to come and help him. It's softer and more pleading. Where Wolf (ehehehe) goes more quiet and weak in his calls when he's downed, Hoxton is pretty much asking for his blankie when he calls out to Wolf. It's adorable—both in how heartwarming/sad that is, and for the fact that he's supposed to be such a 'tough guy criminal who's done a lot of jobs in multiple countries and did time in a couple different places'. He's such a softy when it comes to his dorky, Swedish friend.

Like, I'm just gonna be upfront right here, even though I've done nothing to hide it: I'm a Wolfhox shipper.

I drew this some years ago while sitting in my ma's classroom at her old site during the breaks I took from grading kids' papers. (The weird lines you see are the edges of packing tape overlaid on top of one another—me an' my ma call this 'ghetto laminating'.) I blame Wolfee (one of my best friends) for this. He made me notice Wolf and his interactions with Hoxton in a new light, and it just clicked for me—much like how it clicks for many other Wolfhox shippers. 'Cause, canon 'the whole Gang is straight' or no, these two are hella gay for each other. And I love it~

But, more importantly, I know that, despite my shipping proclivities, these two are canonically two straight guys who have a 'we're best friends to the point that we read like we could be brothers in another life' type of vibe. Hence why I stuck with a more generalized read of their friendship, rather than going straight into:

This kind of bro-pairing happens in a lot of media—Face and Murdock in "The A-Team", Blain and Mac in "Predator", (to a much lesser extent) Snowman and Bandit in "Smokey and the Bandit", and Goose and Maverick and then Iceman and Maverick in the "Top Gun" films, just to name a few. So, this is a very common thing to pull from and base character interactions around—it's also a quick and dirty way for writers to 'cheat' their way into making characters likeable for an audience, just so long as they keep any dialogue between them interesting or give them a good dynamic. 'Cause, sometimes, tropes and tropey characters can't save shit writing, no matter what a writer does.

*Waves a hand around.* Anyway, yeah. When it comes to the OG heisters, start with the voice lines from the first game first. Then you can check out the voice lines in 2, then read the descriptions on the outfits and masks in 2—there's a lot of weird lore in there, and I really recommend checking out any and all interviews you can find from the VAs. Most of them have given their thoughts on the characters over the years, and, with Ulf, his interviews have included some of the weirdness of him being Wolf's VA. (It wasn't intentional. He was just supposed to act as a placeholder voice sample pack, but it ended up sticking. Wolf was gonna be a German guy, dude.)

There's a whole world of content to go through just on the characterizations that pop up based around the Gang interacting with each other. You just need to follow thE YELLOW BRICK ROAD! (I think I'm so damned funny. XD) But, yeah. I hope that this gives you a taste of just what kind of cool/weird characterizations and fan interpretations that you can come across for all of the idiots in these games, and that it gets you excited for more!

cutesyuuuuuuuggggggg

"nine tons of crack a day" [Americanized]

"Here's the art-fag lying on his deathbed!" [Slaughterama]

"He smokes cigs" [Horror of Yig]

"Watching TV, how re-runs make me cry" [Mary Anne]

"But could you maybe come by and bust me outta here?" [Letter from the Scallop Boat]

"Smoking tons of pot" [Penguin Attack]

"Then you can quit your job" [Child]

when i first started playing payday i was like... wolf is the type of guy to find a baby in a dumpster mid heist and stow it away in a money bag

The first and the second picture is inspired by be more chill XD