About Iman Avesta and Harvey Dent
I wasn't quite sure where to mention this so I thought that I'd be better safe than sorry and make a thread. If the mods have an issue, they can either fold the thread into another, move it or delete it. Either way, it'll end up where it's suppose to be.
There's this bit of dialogue that's been bothering me for quite some time and I thought it might be worth bringing it up as feedback for Telltale. In the first episode of season 2, Iman Avesta has this bit of dialogue if you choose to go to Wayne Manor and confront Two-Face: "He's was a violent psychotic at the time. Almost destroyed the city. Come to think of it, you've been associated with quite a few psychopaths over the years."
The bolded bit is shared dialogue: basically, it's the same dialogue whether you choose to confront Harvey Dent or Oswald Cobblepot. There is, however, a significant problem with this particular bit of dialogue being shared: it matches the mental profile of one character but not the other. It make sense that Oswald Cobblepot would be diagnosed with psychopathy based on his behavior but the same cannot be said of Harvey Dent.
There's little to suggest that Harvey is a psychopath and much to suggests he has dissociative identity disorder. Here's a few points:
- His Two-Face identity followed a traumatic event and shows up in response to stressful events. For example, an already vulnerable Harvey discovering Bruce in Selina's apartment or the increased stress brought on by the threat of the Children of Arkham.
- Harvey displays genuine remorse and isn't in control of what Two-Face does or says.
- The two identities converse with each other.
I know it's necessary to duplicate dialogue for determinant conversations and most of the time, the awkwardness can be brushed off but not so this time. It's quite a bit damaging to Avesta's character that she's the one who says this because she is supposed to be a behavioral analyst and a good one at that. She should know the difference. The "-violent psychotic-" bit has some basis but because she refers to Harvey as a psychopath, it makes it seem less like she was referring to psychoses and more like she was using the, uh, layman term for someone exhibiting psychopathic behavior.
It may seem much but I ended up disliking her character. The best comparison I can make at the moment is an allegedly experience cop character telling someone being arrested to be quiet right after said someone's miranda warning has been issued.
TL:DR: I made this post to ask Telltale to be more careful about where they link duplicate dialogue because it can end up unintentionally damaging a character in the eyes of the player.
Just in case someone points it out, the "he's was" bit in Avesta's quote is not a typo on my part. It's in the actual subtitles for the episode.
Comments
Okay, so Harvey has dissociative disorder. His alter ego is a psychopath. Are you holding it against Iman that she didn't differentiate between the two, and qualify her statement to reflect that the sane part of Harvey is actually a pretty upstanding guy? I mean, are people with dissociative disorders two separate people or can we hold one person accountable?
You're arguing sematics, Russ!