#loanalysis

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!

divider by @/roseschoices

As y'all could probably tell, this is for the stuff that couldn't make it's way onto the main posts. I have a couple more for Chapter 6 before I move on to Chapter 7!

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

First up is Beau’s reaction to the settlement Mrs Redwing was offered. The thing that struck me about these is how Beau is simultaneously grounded and out-there in his reaction.

On one hand, this is a very real, humorous way of remarking on the settlement amount. It’s clear Beau is sympathizing with Mrs Redwing here, or at least attempting to. Even more, it’s not hard to envision this reaction working with a different client!

In that vein, Beau’s mistake is forgetting the real medical costs Mrs Redwing was hoping to tackle with the settlement money. Mrs. Redwing says as much here:

screenshot credit: Lokim23’s playthrough on YouTube [here]

Beau is a naturally sympathetic person. I think, out of everyone on the team (with MC as an exception depending on how you play them), Beau is the most sympathetic to a client’s feelings. Does he fumble? Yes, an example being here. But when compared to the rest of the lawyers, he is the only one to make an effort at consoling Mrs Redwing.

If you argue that Koenig was illegally surprising evidence, Martin will agree with you but Beau says this:

screenshot credit: Lokim23’s playthrough on YouTube [here]

For me, this is telling. Both MC and Martin argue for conspiracy, but that’ll only make the acceptance harder on Mrs Redwing. Beau reminding us and Mrs Redwing that bad luck is an option, would allow Mrs Redwing to come to terms more quickly.

Next up, Beau’s reaction to you either telling him not to get in your way or thinking it’d be a great idea for y’all to team up.

This is his reaction to you dismissing him. Which. Fair. You did essentially tell him you don’t think highly of him. So, warranted reaction. What’s more exciting is if you react positively to working with Beau:

He’s genuinely surprised. He did not think you’d want to. He thinks you’re lying to him. Even he didn’t know what he could bring to the table. The right-hand screenshot makes that clear: Beau didn’t actually know what to bring to the table.

This raises an interesting question: how well does Beau know himself/his skills? While chapter 3 is a little to early to call, Beau does show a pattern of undervaluing himself. Despite his charisma, among other skills, he doesn’t seem to be aware that he has them.

Continuing in this angle, this scene (if you tell Beau it’s a dumb idea to go over the deposition recording) is also given new light:

Simply put, Beau is pretty good at reading between the lines. If you did accept this help, MC notes this later in the chapter (assuming you took the premium scene to talk to Martha, the housekeeper, during lunch):

There’s only two options here. 1) Without being aware of MC’s theory, Beau simply picked that up from the scant deposition <- which is insane work or 2) based off the ONE SINGULAR question MC asks:

screenshot credit: Lokim23’s playthrough on YouTube [here]

Beau deduced what we were thinking which is also insane.

In summary, Beau shows another case of undervaluing himself and proves to be more sympathetic than is originally assumed. Pretty solid for a chapter.

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

Gigi’s Corner

Now, there isn’t much to say on Gigi this chapter. She rarely showed up 😢 But where she did did give me a couple thoughts so:

Gigi comes off as a little vengeful here. To be clear, so would I. I would also be vengeful. I would pay for a picture of Willow’s face when we nail her with wage theft. This is something I am NOT faulting Gigi for.

What I am bringing up, however, is this is the first time we’ve seen Gigi be vengeful. She is a rather chill person, she’s not even in this competition to win, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that she holds no strong opinions. To me, it seems pretty clear that she will search for Petty Revenge if you have an opinion she thinks is stupid (like thinking vaccines are poisons 😒)

Additionally, this scene:

Gigi may be just speaking in anger but, clearly, she knows how risky that is? Hoping that the jury just… ignores evidence counter to yours isn’t a winning legal strategy. Considering her choice of Adrian for the center of the lawsuit in chapter 2 which was based of this reasoning:

She’s… not great at legal strategy. Her initial instinct was Adrian because he’s mediagenic, then she swapped back to Adrian because her girlfriend was familiar with him despite not being online much. Both of these scenes show that Gigi values personal anecdotes very highly.

She’s projecting her personal experience onto how she thinks others will behave. She’s convinced by Adrian’s video that there’s something in the water, so a jury will too. Her chronically offline girlfriend knows about Adrian’s video so he’s going he perfect choice for the lawsuit.

Maybe the reason Gigi finds the people part of being a law so engaging is because she isn’t good at separating her experiences from other people’s realities. So, unlike the more systemic parts of lawyering, people can consistently surprise her.

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

Fiona’s Corner

If you came for Gigi/Beau analysis, feel free to stop reading here <33 Everything in this section pertains to personal headcannons I have about my MC.

oh?? This made me wonder how fiona would react to a case that’s simply impossible to win. Like, there’s no second shot. There’s no collusion, it’s just a case he can’t win.

I think it’d eat at him. In all honestly, he wouldn’t let it go. It’d be something he keeps checking up on on the off-hope something he can work with comes up…

I think Fiona hides behind logic a lot. Like, he’s super prone to tidying his feelings by presenting them as logical. I think it’s a holdover from how he was raised where he was encouraged to be logic-minded and heavily pushed away from emotional responses.

Honestly this case hits close to home. Fiona kinda hates how he left off? Like, yes, he made the win. But Serenity is still suffering. It’s not like he set a precedent that children’s safety supersedes parental autonomy. All he did was stop the opposite from becoming true.

Genuinely, Willow isn’t a good mom. Need I remind y’all of this scene:

screenshot credit: Lokim23’s playthrough on YouTube [here]

Against an adult, that is a crime. And Fiona witnesses that. And knows it’s going to keep happening.

This whole case is just icky for him on a personal level. I don’t think he likes it very much.

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

I didn’t want to end the post on such a sour note so here’s a line I thought was funny ^^

Beau’s real problem is that they all sound gross given that, for lunch, he orders a smoothie later in the chapter xD

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

Gigi + Beau’s Corner

As I said, there weren’t a lot of scenes with Gigi and Beau in this chapter but the earliest one relating to either one of them was this line below:

Immediately, I’m pretty surprised that Gigi and Martin are (what seems to be) the preferred choice for the people in the firm. For this run, Fiona’s been #1 in ranking since from the beginning so I would’ve thought the firm would lean to whoever’s been first in the rankings. Moreover, isnt it a little weird that the firm choices Martin and Gigi, two relative outsiders, over Aislinn? Given that Aislinn is the only person whose skill level they have a clear understanding of, wouldn’t it be natural to default to her over, again, two relative strangers?

Additionally, Beau isn’t mentioned is the lineup. Out of everyone on that team, Beau isn’t mentioned! The firm doesn’t consider Beau a part of the firepower for his own team. It’s clear that the firm reads Gigi and Martin as the real “talent” between the five senior associates and Beau’s place is… not among them in kindly terms.

Yet during the actual proceedings, it’s really Beau who gets to shine.

My first time playing through I’d thought that Gigi and Martin gave Beau the opening for reasons similar to why Aislinn took it… it’s a relatively straightforward task that’s hard to mess up. But, in light of my reading from [Chapter 3] of Beau as someone whose talents lie in interpersonal communication, I think Beau does the opening statement because it is exactly within his forte. It’s his prime chance to show how good he is at working a jury and, well, he’s good. Or, at least, Aislinn certainly thinks so! And so does Sadie.

Now Beau could just be starved for praise but it clearly means a whole lot to him that Sadie, in specific, thinks that he’s grown. At this moment what Beau is hearing is not “you have done a good job” but “you’re becoming more like me.” For Beau, living up to Sadie’s legacy, becoming Sadie, is the only way to be a good lawyer. With that in mind, it holds that the only way to be a better lawyer is to be more like Sadie. When Sadie congratulates the team on improving, Beau hears her happiness that he’s becoming her.

Heading back to the moot court, Gigi might’ve taken the direct examination specifically because it is the one role that doesn’t really require the lawyer to connect with the jury. Additionally, Gigi’s courtroom decorum is… something.

Now, I’m not a lawyer by any means but I’d be willing to bet that’s not how you’re supposed to end a direct examination. Given everything Aislinn told us about McGraw Bryne’s moot court being taken incredibly serious by the firm (Sadie literally chastises Gabe for working on a real case instead of getting to moot court on time!), it’s almost ludicrous that Gigi would end her direct examination with “Your witness, MC.”

It feels so casual for an otherwise serious event! For me, this blatant disregard of courtroom protocol raises a really interesting question: Is Gigi a lawyer purely for the interesting cases she that might come across?

There’s no arguing that interesting cases is her primary reason for pursuing the profession, but Gigi shows a surprising lack of aptitude in pretty much every other area of legal practice. Given that she has been an attorney for some time already, it is strange that she seems less prepared for any aspect of being a lawyer outside of research and writing.

Due to this, I think Gigi primarily worked in contract law before coming to McGraw Byrne. It would explain her exceptional ability in the “paper work” part of being a lawyer and her lack of experience elsewhere.

Here, we see a very delightful truth: Beau can be a conceited mf. Whenever I point out his low self-esteem, it is specifically with regard to the top-tier environment he is in. Outside of the S-tier lawyers he works with, Beau understands that he is a cut above your average lawyer. (And, for the record, so does Gigi.)

At the end of this chapter, we get to (kind of) meet Philip Rothswell and this is how Gigi reacts:

This actually ties into a headcannon I have about Gigi’s backgrounds. [Here] I laid the bare bones of my headcannon but, simply put, Gigi’s family is a socialite one. Here, Gigi is the only one to react to Philip Rothswell’s name. Given that Beau and Martin don’t, we can reasonably assume that they either aren’t aware of who Rothswell is or don’t care.

Either way, the fact that Gigi both knows and cares about Philip is notable. Using the way Gigi describes him as “heir to the Rothswell railroad fortune… has stakes in restaurants, real estate, tech…” it is fair to reasonably assume that Rothswell isn’t a well known man, he’s just a wealthy one. So Gigi’s knowledge of him can’t be simply an ‘online’ thing —she has to be extremely in the know to know who Philip is.

Under my headcannon, Gigi’s mother, Leanne’s, extensive social network would explain why Gigi both knows and is shocked by meeting Philip in person!

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

Fiona’s Corner

By now y’all know the usual disclaimer but still: if you’re here only for Gigi and Beau stuff, you won’t want anything from this point on <3

Do. Not. Get. Between. Fiona. And. His. Ethics.

It’s not something that gets to come up often but Fiona does his damn best to follow ethical codes to the letter. He would go as far as to avoid the appearance of impropriety, in all honesty.

Given that Fiona is being cautious around Gabe by this point in the story, this reaction from Gabe does please Fiona. Like, it’s not going to make him run back to chasing Gabe by any means but it is good to know that, despite the mixed signals, Gabe does want Fiona is some way.

One of the reasons Fiona likes trial is that it almost feels like being a teacher again. At its very base, all trial lawyers do is lead the jury towards a particular conclusion using submitted evidence and testimonies —like guiding a classroom towards a particular concept using theorems and real life applications. It’s all very sentimental to him.

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

misc. thoughts

these are just some thoughts I couldn’t place anywhere else xD

mad props to Martin. Literally the scariest sentence in this chapter. How high do you think billable shave to be before they become “unignorable”. That’s insane work.

This is from the scene where Tyler and MC get splashed with water and it’s a weird line, right? Like the narrative has been transparent about Tyler being attracted to MC so this line reads oddly, especially considering that the literally next line is MC getting splashed w/water and offering Tyler the chance to propose a hookup w/MC —it almost reframes the water splashing as perhaps purposeful rather than purely accidental. It might be just me but it’s an odd line.

Ryan is a real one <3 wish we saw more of you 💕 In general, he’s been an absolutely delightful side character and I’m pretty glad they gave him just a tiny bit of character detail! That being said, I’m honestly unimpressed at the writers finding enough time to give Ryan a goal/fleshing out rather than doing that for Gigi.

We know Ryan:

Wants to go to law school

Is working at McGraw Byrne to pay off undergrad debts

Dislikes how the partners disregard/disrespect the paralegals and other non-lawyer staff

just from the things he has said to MC despite being (at best) a tertiary character!

starting off we have a seeming affirmation of our initial impressions of Gigi!

Given the interaction we just had with Beau (we’ll discuss that later), this really does seem like a moment of psychological warfare— Gigi casually dropping this huge event Beau’s paid good money to keep hush-hush. More than just knowing about it, she had to have done some research to get pictures.

Topping it all off, she reveals that she found all of it out based on a singular mention by a coworker in an email chain. If that doesn’t sound like intimidation, then what is?

But…! This creates our first real contradiction when we consider this image from the tail end of chapter one:

Obviously, Gigi is stoked to have competition. It is pretty telling that she’s the only one who has an initial positive reaction to this news!! Everyone else is shocked before adopting any sort of positive reaction but Gigi comes out swinging with excitement.

Another telling detail is that Gigi isn’t confident because of the results. She’s not cocky at the chance to prove herself, per se, but at the knowledge that she’ll be put to the test. All that brings us to the next point:

Gigi isn’t even interested in the reward for this competition— she’s here to have fun and get paid. And I do mean have fun. Sure, this is work (technically) but, for her, this is simply a chance to stretch her brain.

When she tags along with Aislinn and MC, this is what she says:

It’s just text: she’s here to do interesting work. This is the hard part of being a lawyer to her: the actual people interactions, the following a gut instinct, the playing this out in real-time. She says as much here:

At the end of the chapter, we get a little visit from Gigi the party girl!! which I feel is the most flanderized aspect about her

Gigi “plays hard and works hard” and if she’s playing more than she works? She’ll just make up the difference! She’s a real party girl but she’s also a bored genius looking for excitement.

With the queen of the chapter all wrapped up, we can move on to Beau!

Beau’s just as cocky as he was last time. He does practice a little caution which is expected (we are competitors right now!) but ultimately decides to trust MC and shares a fairly harmless story.

I will note that this chapter does give us a glimpse of some other facets of Beau, like his childishness!

I think it’s rather cute, at least.