#gigi sinclair

Beau's Corner

We're starting off with Beau! In my last couple of posts, I made the argument that Beau's strengths as a lawyer lay in connecting with his clients. While I don't want to rehash the same argument, I did feel it necessary to at least nod to my previous posts following this scene:

This is Beau's response following Philip Rothswell's telling of the sort of "mishaps" Lydia has gotten into over the course of her life (i.e. setting fire to her school library and crashing her father's car). Here, following Philip's laments that Lydia learns nothing from those incidents, Beau chimes in with above line in an effort to convey sympathy of Philip's situation with Lydia. He is doing what a good lawyer does, understand his client.

But Beau isn't calculative about this. I'd wager that these traits, which seem like simple tools of the trade, are just natural to Beau. He's always been good at connecting with others. He's says so himself.

Beau is just good at connecting with people. He just doesn't seem to realize that this trait spills over into his professional life giving him an edge that not everyone else has.

This confidence, though, becomes strange when Beau is informed that Gabe will not be at the Rothswell manor with him/the team.

For a man so confident in his abilities, it should make no difference whether or not Gabe is there with him. As far as we're aware, Gabe wasn't with Beau at boarding school or undergrad and Beau did just fine there. Furthermore, shouldn't Beau have expected to be without supervision? His last cases (the Willow, Koenig, and housing court cases) didn't have Gabe breathing over each associates every move, so why would Beau have expected this one to be any different? The issue seems to lie about something in *this* case, in specific, that drives Beau to want some sort of authority figure along with him. Gigi chalks this up to the importance of the case ("...but if this case is as important as you say it is...") but I'm not sure the fear, for Beau, comes from the importance of the case.

We get a hint of why Beau is nervous to be without Gabe towards the end of the chapter.

This case hits home for Beau. It's possible that he was in a very similar position to Lydia now. It's possible that it got to the same point of trying to get others to intervene and stop him (to no success though, in the car ride back to McGraw Bryne he says "What's the point in worrying? She's going to do whatever she wants, whether we worry or not." Implying that that's what he did) and Beau even hints that the only difference between him and Lydia was that "...my [Beau's] parents were smart about my trust..."

Beau's want for a Gabe's presence is pain. He's afraid. He wants some form of comfort and the closest thing in the moment is Gabe. Which is interesting on its own. Why Gabe. Why not Sadie? However, as tempting as that question is, Beau is not the sole object of my playthrough so I will have to stop my considerations at that.

Should anyone else feel compelled to answer or theorize on those questions, please tag me! If not, I'll probably try and answer it in like... several years from now...

For now, let's turn our attention to our, dearest, Gigi!

Gigi's Corner

Since Chapter 2 onwards, I have been beuilding the case that Gigi isn't particularly good at picking up unspoken social cues. She struggles to understand how others navigate the world and attempts to correct that by superimposing her own logic onto others. Well. Chapter Six has decided that I don't deserve nice things and has created some... complications in that easy reading. Primarily these two scenes:

these images are cutesy of [Abhirio]'s playthrough on YouTube

In both scenes, Gigi picks up on what's being "laid down" without issue. For specifically the first scene, Gigi understands not only that she and Aislinn are going to distract Joey but how Aislinn wants to lure Joey away. In the second, Gigi is picking up on Lydia's fairly obtuse invitation for MC and Co. to join her in the bowling alley. It's notable that it's Gigi that points out this invitation. Not Beau, not Aislinn, not Gabe, not Martin, not MC but Gigi. The very same Gigi that based her legal strategy off the fact that her girlfriend only knew 1 (one) of the possible candidates for the media face of Koenig lawsuit. That Gigi is the one picking up vague meaning.

While I do have a possible reason to share, I have to let us get sidetracked for a little bit.

Gigi is difficult to consider in an analytical view. Unlike Beau, she has little relationships to other *known* characters and her own character is left rather undeveloped as we progress through the story. To some extent, this is expected. Gigi is a side character in the story. She was not written for the MC to really explore. She is akin to Martin in this sense —neither an LI or a "core" character; both are only there to round out the cast.

But I'm not interested in dismissing Gigi this way. I want to engage with her in a more fulfilling way. I want to deconstruct minor lines in the same way I'm able to for Beau. In pursuit of that, it has necessitated that I create an underlying story to analyze. Just as Beau's relationship with his name and his aunt color his interactions, I must create a similarly underlying story that appears in Gigi's presence.

For those who have read the prior analysis posts, this will be familiar. I've posited the idea that Gigi's mother is a socialite and Gigi herself was raised in such a manner. It's from this angle that I analyze Gigi. However, I want to stress that the backstory I've given Gigi is not wholly fiction. While there is little direct text reference, I based my idea off of Gigi's own behaviors and mentioned history. It is a backstory informed by canon, just not *dictated* by it.

I wanted to address this directly because, from here on, I will be treating my created backstory as canonical and I don't want any confusion as to what I am doing and why.

With all that said! I think there is an simple answer as to why Gigi is able to pick up these subtleties but not the others so far. Starting with the second scene: Gigi was raised in an environment with stricter (and *more memorable*) social rules by a mother who was well versed in them. Lydia, as much as she does try to distance herself from Rothswell fame/status, was likely raised in a similar environment. Gigi has more practice with the more obtuse ways that rich people talk in so she's able to identify the invitation in Lydia's plain seeming sentence.

As for the first instance, I don't think Gigi understood the look Aislinn gave her. Instead, I think she's imitating what Aislinn is displaying. Though the narration tells us that ''She [Aislinn] flashes Gigi a meaningful look...", Gigi doesn't act on it until after Aislinn acts. Rather than simply understanding all the things Aislinn means to convey in one glance, Gigi is reacting to what Aislinn displays afterwards. Note how both of them harp on the same 'flaws' in their foosball skills. Since Aislinn is feigning ineptitude, Gigi does the same. Gigi is copying Aislinn's play!

In other words: Gigi is skilled at blending in. She can emulate the performance of others at the drop of a hat. This isn't something everyone can do! In fact, if MC chooses Martin and Beau to distract Joey, Beau specifically has to work around Martin's inability to just... go along with what's happening.

It genuinely feels like Martin doesn't know how to play foosball. If he did and was simply faking ignorance, it doesn't seem within his character to upset Joey and risk Joey leaving the game early. Gigi, unlike Martin, knows how to adapt on the fly.

Considering her struggle with thinking from other's perspective, I imagine she had to get used to performing actions she may not have really understood *why* she was doing. And, well, it came in perfect hand for her today.

Fiona's Corner

Y'all know the drill! If you're here for Beau and Gigi, then you can leave now <3 Everything from this point onwards are headcanons and reactions about my loveliest MC, Fiona Lightwood.

Starting off, we have a LARGE case of "He would not fucking say that."

Look. Fiona is definitely focusing on protecting Lydia here but that's just not his reasoning. His reasoning is that Lydia is being predated on by a twenty-three (23) year old trying to take advantage of her naivety. He could not give a fuck about her "...lucky to have a father like you looking out for her", Fiona does not know Philip. He has no understanding of what their relationship looks like and, considering what he'll later learn about Philip letting Sadie and Co. obliterate his (now) ex-wife's reputation for the sake of protecting his assets, I don't think Fiona thinks he's a particularly good parent anyhow.

Fiona doesn't believe in lying to children. Like, yeah, he might side-step parts that are inappropriate for a kid's age but, on the whole, he's the type of person to be as honest as possible with children.

This also means he doesn't tell stories about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy either. If the kid already believes in them he won't go out of his way to break that belief, but Fiona's never going to be the reason someone falls into that belief in the first place, if you know what I mean?

Sure... a few times...

in case it isn't clear: I'm choosing the 'Protect yourself.' option

I think it's interesting here that Fiona is essentially giving advice on how he wished some of his former partners had treated him. He wishes they'd chosen themselves first. While he does feel guilt over how he treated his past partners, he also acknowledges that some of his partners had the same issue as Lydia does right now. They wrapped so much of themself into Fiona and Fiona wasn't interested or capable of properly respecting or protecting that.

With that, I am concluding this LOA analysis post! Thank you for reading until the end! Please, I adore chatting about LOA, if you have anything you disagree with me about or want me to elaborate on don't hesitate to say so. I assure you, I will be more than glad to have a little back-and-forth with you.

For my moots reading this that aren't super interested in LOA, I am amazed and incredibly thankful! Thank you for indulging me and my lil shenanigans.

Post Script:

Look. There was so much I wanted to talk about that I just couldn't. Either I simply didn't have the image space or it'd derail the post. So expect some smaller posts that kind of touch some stuff I wanted to get to but couldn't.

Also it is SO nice having my own recordings of my playthroughs because now I don't have to worry about getting all the screenshots I need in one go!

*MC dies in a game with ships* Aislinn: This ship is no longer a ship of love, it's a ship of vengeance, a gavel of justice against all that is wrong in the world, showing no mercy, as no mercy was shown to us. Aislinn: The spark of love will now fuel the fires of destructive glory as I wage my war across the world with righteous fury. Gabe: Legend has it that MC still haunts the ship, stealing my fucking drinks. MC: Of course I do.

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MC: That shirt looks great, Joaquin. Joaquin: Thanks. MC: But I bet it would look even better on Gabe's floor. Gabe: Are you hitting on Joaquin... for me?

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Joaquin: What are you writing? MC: The government wants to know what kind of weapons we have in the house. I'm letting them know it's private information. Aislinn, looking over MC's shoulder: This just says 'fuck around and find out' in calligraphy.

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Gabe: I love you. MC, not paying attention: What was that? Gabe: I said I’m selling you to the zOo-

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Gigi, watching Gabe & Beau panic : What's going on? MC: Gabe is having a midlife crisis and Beau is just having a crisis.

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MC: Did Aislinn just tell me she loved me for the first time? Gigi: Yeah, she did. MC: And did I just do finger guns back? Gigi: Yeah, you did.

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Aislinn, looking through their clothes: Has anyone seen my top? Joaquin: MC's in the kitchen.

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MC: My aesthetic is "would be suspected of witchcraft by small town citizens."

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Martin: We’re all in this together. If one of us falls, we all fall. Nobody is expendable on this team. Aislinn: Sounds fake but ok.

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Hairdresser: How would you like your hair cut? Beau: Preferably with scissors, but a sword could be badass.

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