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beast-bae · 2 months ago

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STOP. Need to explain to you the exact thought process of Professor Hershel Layton and his fuck ass mental illness

Why Hershel Layton is Like That™: a character study I am begging you to read

So I have previously gone on record saying Layton's gentlemanly persona is a defense mechanism and that he (intentionally or unintentionally) manipulates people in a kind of selfish way, in order to control the outcome of a situation.

But Layton's still a kind-hearted guy, so today we will delve into the reason WHY he uses those tactics, and why he doesn't see anything wrong with it.

As previously established, Layton doesn't trust people with the knowledge he gains. But why not? It's not like everyone he knows is incapable of taking care of themselves or helping fix things. And yet no one is allowed the privilege of being let in on his plans.

I think this has two reasons.

1: the risk of deception. His two main bad guys constantly disguise themselves, for fucks sake. He can't trust that people he knows are who they say they are. But also, Emmy's betrayal has got to have left a deep mental scar.

She was someone he legitimately let himself depend on on multiple occasions (he trusted her to go to scotland yard for him to get important files and to free Brenda and Doland to name only a few). He absolutely wouldn't have done the things he did had he not placed some level of trust in her (and I personally have MANY opinions about what made him trust her so quickly) so to be blindsided like that would cut DEEP.

(Especially because everything this man does is about AVOIDING being blindsided).

I think Hershel would say he trusts people. I think this very limited extension of responsibilities to others he does, is what he thinks trust MEANS. But it isn't.

Trust is having faith in people to the point of telling them things that you aren't always sure if they will react positively to. Trust is not needing to come up with a backup plan in your mind just to be safe when someone might end up throwing your first one off-course (intentional or otherwise). Trust is willing vulnerability.

And that's NOT at ALL close to being what Hershel Layton does. His form of 'trust' isn't genuine because he only extends it to people when he is remotely sure of the fact that they can handle it. He doesn't actually trust them. He trusts his own judgement of them, which is that they'll do what he says.

That fact actually brings me to 2:

It's not just about their capability or trustworthyness, it's about his need to oversee everything. To control.

But why? Why does he want to control everything?

He clearly doesn't risk anything, he analyzes people and then deduces their actions beforehand until he's established some sense of certainty. Nothing is left up to chance, not if he allows it.

I know for a FACT that even if something had a 99% chance of succeeding, this motherfucker would still be worried about the one percent. In fact, he would say

"hypothetically speaking, the more such situations you encounter, the more statistically likely it is to find yourself amongst the unlucky 1%. Therefore it is never a bad idea to have a backup plan in case things go wrong."

Because he's annoying like that.

So he utilizes contol because he's deathly afraid of mistakes. Okay, again, why? Or better put, what do mistakes mean to him for him to be so frightened by them?

Well, it's quite obvious: he blames himself.

Hershel has the skewed worldview that if A Situation™ happens, and he could have, hypothetically, chosen to do something that would've avoided that scenario; and he DIDN'T, then that, to him, would mean it was his fault it happened.

That's why he needs control over everything so bad, that's why he keeps manipulating people and trespassing and fucking lying to the police, because he sees the opportunity to do something so he HAS to take it.

So every single mistake is his fault, and he has to minimize them because he doesn't want everything on his conscience, despite constantly saddling himself with the weight of the entire world.

He neglects taking care of himself unless it's not to worry others. He became an archeologist for Randall, and a gentleman for Claire. Every mystery he solves is at the request of someone else, and not once does he ever fucking say no despite how rude they are, despite how dangerous it is, and despite how many shitty memories it will bring back.

EVEN IN BEING SELFISH HE'S TECHNICALLY ONLY THINKING OF OTHERS. He's subtly manipulating them to solve THEIR problems, not his. Not ONCE in all of the times he tells Luke, Emmy or Flora to stay back has he EVER thought about his own safety.

'Professor Layton' as an identity is community service. A service whose purpose is to atone for the MOUNTAIN of things he's assigned himself blame for, a mountain that isn't even close to actually being his fault in the slightest.

He is sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill except no one is forcing him to do it. But he's still going regardless! You can count on that one!!

So we must once again ask:

Why?

Why does he blame himself? What for? Or better said, what does he gain from blaming himself that he values enough to keep over all of the ensuing pain that comes with it? There's no reason for the Professor to choose to blame himself, is there?

Unless...

He had to.

A belief like this isn't a thing your brain would just... keep around, if it wasn't important.

Let me paint you a picture.

You've just lost someone. You're in an incredibly vulnerable place. Your psyche has many things to process all at once, and it's not computing.

Now, your brain is presented with options.

Option one, it can recognize the situation for what it is: not anyone's fault in particular. It was a tragedy that you couldn't have realistically prevented, no matter what you did.

However.

This comes paired with an implication. An implication that whatever harrowing event you just experienced, it could always happen again. If it didn't matter what you did the first time, it wouldn't matter the second.

That's not a burden you're able to bear, not in your fragile mental state. It would break you.

THE TRUTH ISN'T AN OPTION.

But there's another one.

By reassigning the blame, by finding things you could have done to prevent it, by reframing the situation to be your fault,

You will attain a heavy amount of responsibility, sure. But if with great power comes great responsibility, arguably with great responsibility...

Comes great power. Great control.

If everything was your fault, all you would have to is change YOU. You would only have to make sure you did everything the way you needed, oversaw everything perfectly the best you could, as much as you could––

And you could prevent anything bad from happening to you ever again.

Tragic as it is, blaming himself was the one way Hershel could've maintained any lasting feeling of safety again. That safety would take so much pain and hyper-vigilance to achieve, but... it didn't matter. It was better than the alternative. It was better than not having any control.

So we're back at square one, right? Control. We've been at this point before.

Yes, that's true, but think of what we know now. We don't just know that he has a deep-seated urge for control anymore, we also know that he needs it so desperately because it's the only way to keep away the feeling he so desperately wants to avoid:

Helplessness.

It terrifies him to have to think about the fact he could have to stand by and watch someone die again. The fact that... anything could happen. And he won't always know. And he won't always be able to stop it, no matter how hard he tries. If it doesn't matter what he does anyway, then... why even bother trying at all?

The professor's drive to understand the world around him isn't because he simply enjoys learning (though I still think he does), It's because he can handle what he can understand. Things he understands are things that are safe. And in striving to understand he also strives to make everything as safe as possible.

But what he's failed to realize is the fact that if anything could happen, there could be moments of happiness, even against all odds. Taking a risk can pay off, people can pleasantly surprise you.

If anything can happen, good things can happen too. Even when you don't understand them.

Whimsy and awe and quiet wonder are things Hershel Layton can't feel. Things he has denied himself the possibility of feeling.

But you know who CAN feel those things? Who CAN be whimsical and curious about the world around him, who CAN still want to understand without needing to be certain of everything at all times? Who can even make someone like the professor go along with something silly despite it not having a logical purpose..?

(I think you know where this is going)

It's Luke.

Luke 'hey look I can talk to animals' Triton is Hershel's most prominent source of feelings he hasn't felt by himself in YEARS. Luke points out the bullshit that is being nice to rude people, Luke tells criminals they're doing crime wrong, Luke is oh so very willing to take risky chances, Luke is furious and ecstatic and heartbroken and EMOTIONAL. Luke Triton is HIMSELF. Unapologetically.

And there's a part of the professor that can see the undeniable pain that will eventually bring him. The way that spirit could be crushed someday if he isn't careful. So he has the tendency to want the boy to hide it, to bottle everything up like he did, to keep Luke safe the same way he kept himself safe.

But there is another part of him that doesn't want that at all. A part of him that has decided to protect that joy with everything he has, to keep the spark within his apprentice lit at all costs. He doesn't want Luke to turn out like him. He doesn't want him to become anything other than Luke Triton.

And that is how Hershel Layton, a man so driven by paralyzing fear at his very core, keeps jumping in front of bullets and taking falls and crashing helicopters into drills, because he REFUSES to stand by and watch that light be snuffed out. He'd take on the entire WORLD before he'd let that happen.

Layton is as brave as he is in all those situations because Luke is what gives him courage. What gives him hope for both the future and himself. What makes him try to see the best instead of the worst.

Professor Layton would 100% die for his apprentice, thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

Tl,dr:

Layton is deathly afraid of losing anyone again and Luke is the only one who can make him break through that fear sometimes.

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