tentacledicks

Man, this is an incredible message to get. ;u;

I'm actually super glad that the tone of Aiden's anxiety carries over well; I think that the particular upbringing he's had and the life he's enmeshed himself in is just, there's no way it won't cause trauma. Not just because killing people is a core aspect of it, but because the sheer level of violence he's clearly comfortable dishing out and receiving means that he's been living on the edge for a long time, and that's going to have an effect.

The way that trauma intersects with his interactions with Damien was something that always fascinated me, because like, fuck, Damien's a manipulative piece of shit and there's no way that his mind games with Aiden in WD1 were the start of that. The overtones of a deeper relationship in canon combined with Aiden's obviously unhealthy lack of boundaries and shit ability to express himself was just kind of another puzzle piece to the whole, especially as it ends up with him in this self-destructive spiral. And I really love exploring the wreckage of that?

Like, post-Merlaut Aiden is a very different person from the hints we get from Nicky about who he was before Lena's death. I want to know at what point Aiden went from 'joking, hockey-playing older brother' to 'hiding things and missing appointments', when he stopped telling Nicky about his life, when he stopped being around for his family despite how much they meant to him. The precarious balance of Damien and his criminal life vs the family life he was trying to stay in--like, I desperately want to see the old dev notes on his character, and the devnotes on the original Aiden/Tanner divide back when WD1 was conceived as a co-op. The Merlaut was obviously the tipping point, but there's no way in hell that Aiden's foundation wasn't crumbling before then--even in the Merlaut we see him on edge, high-alert, constantly scoping out exit plans. Even then, he was having to balance 'the Merlaut job' with 'the family trip with my niece and nephew' later that night. Nicky's got some lines where she indicates that she knew shit was up before then, and Aiden's got lines about showing up to his old gym with broken ribs before he met Damien so he's just...

It's been a mess, his whole life, and it made him into a mess, and I really do love that about his character. (Ironically, I played WD2 first, and only got into WD1 a few months after--I think part of the appeal of WD1 for me is that there is so much left up in the air about Aiden at the end, where he's going, how he's going to handle the crippling loneliness of his new life. WD2's ending pretty much tells you straight up that DedSec's gonna be fine.)

And I will never object to an essay, jsyk. This was a delight to read, and I love that you picked up on so much of the stuff I've been trying to keep true to Aiden (thank god I have a POV character that monologues in canon lmao).