#Abraham Alastor little hope

[108garys]

The Clarkes haunting the narrative is THE point

The following was a response to the idea that the prologue and end hold little hope back that ended up being way longer than intended, no shade on the person who said that I just realised that I didn't want to drop a whole essay on them, so without any more preamble:

Truthfully I am completely disinterested in making Little Hope more palatable to people who require the story's soul to be torn out to enjoy it because that's what the beginning and ending is. The broken heart of little hope.

That said I very much love the middle too but the Clarke family's story is the heart and soul of little hope and the whole point, otherwise why does anything in the town matter? Vince? Just some dude, the subplot of the town falling apart, being in the literal wreckage of 1970s era Little Hope? Random set dressing because a straight up three century old ruin of a town would just lack the infrastructure required to have the facade of searching for help in town… So many of the secrets are about them, you straight up spend a good chunk of the runtime passively learning about the individual family members both in private and public and even though I think some people choose the shallowest reading out of spite it is very deliberately stated that there is an element of choice in interpretation, the curator says so at the start. The more praised facets would be greatly diminished without the Clarkes, the subtextual nature of overcoming your demons gives meaning to the outright textual fighting of demonic monsters and the parallels would not be as strong between the 2020 and 1692 eras alone.

It is a common mistake that there are better or worse versions of the characters but it's simply not true as they are all different aspects and much like a triangle needs three points the cast of little hope needs all three points of reference to fully appreciate their stories. My earliest read of Little Hope centred on Anthony recontextualising his family in two divergent ways, 1692 where they are presented as victims of circumstance and 2020 where they are more deliberately flawed people who must overcome their demons because the truth is that both things are true of the Clarkes and so they are separated out into their different aspects and analysed accordingly.

Angela's characterisation doesn't work exclusively compared to Amy, her story of fighting for her agency doesn't land the same without Anne, Amy on paper is a woman who did everything right bar being too harsh to a child and was killed for it, Angela is a woman burnt by her past yet soldering on and still retains the same flaw of blaming the child, where as Anne being a snowed under house wife who struggles with keeping her family together and feels like she has zero agency in her situation and all the while fails to understand the perspectives of the very people she feels responsible for is the context between Amy the beloved wife who is wrongfully accused and uses her one bit of agency to place mistaken blame on Mary and Angela who refuses to rely on or believe in anyone or anything, the fact that she's divorced and starting over in her late forties does not work when only compared to the wholesome yet tragic Lamberts who's marriage is never depicted in the negative to justify Angela's divorce. She'd appear as a nearly fully different person for no reason without Anne to bridge the gap and make their depictions consistent, without the 1970s it just looks like she's angry at her husband for failing to save her despite his best efforts and that severely damages her character and arc.

Connected to that, J places his trust in the wrong places, delegates, blame shifts and runs from facing the bigger problem, the alcoholism is emblematic of this but the refusal to see the truth about M's innocence and place responsibility at the feet of the proper authority because he'd have to confront his misplaced faith requires all three, Joseph failing to his dying breath to understand Mary's innocence and James getting blackout drunk over the stress of problems he finds insurmountable are necessary context to John's sobriety and further arc and John being a recovering alcoholic would just be flavour text without the harsh sting of how addiction colours James.

Daylor wouldn't lose its questionable reading if they were only siblings in 50% of other eras instead of two thirds but Dennis expressing his frustration at Tanya pulling away contextualises their codependency and mutual need to be needed in a way that is incomplete, you see a couple in the early stages of dating and siblings who got killed three hundred years prior, the 70s contextualise T's need for stability and dependability and her survival instincts pushing her to flee and D's arrested development in the way he struggles to function when they aren't a unit, beyond that David and Tabitha care for Mary together in Amy's trial scene and after her death he doesn't even fight his own execution, not even to continue the task of raising his only remaining orphand sister alone, this isn't to say David doesn't love Mary as he blatantly shows care for her in not wanting her to be traumatised by his death but he simply falls apart without Tabitha and Dennis being the way he is when Tanya is pulling away from the family shows a lower stakes, longer depiction of that breaking down but she's still physically there so it isn't collapsing in grief, it's the simmering resentment of feeling like a person you care for isn't prioritising you reciprocally, these feelings aren't wrong in of themselves but they aren't pretty and Daniel's outbursts and more negative dialogue choices and David's quiet grief don't capture the way that feeling of being stabbed a million times over everything time you aren't the first choice but the other person didn't wrong you by choosing differently so there is no proper way to get that out feels. D is often mistaken as a shallow generically decent guy with a random angry iteration that doesn't fit into a boring whole but it's simply not the case, him proving he can be reliable in 2020, his fight against his various insecurities is something he needs to do for himself as much as T, the others aren't better adjusted or better people compared to Dennis, their circumstances just present entirely differently.

Furthermore Taylor feeling like an outsider doesn't work alone with Tabitha being part of a family unit, I've seen it misinterpreted as Taylor being less proactive than her counterparts but the truth is that T's behaviour is characterised by survival instinct and a need for stability, Tabitha realises something is wrong after the first death and attempts to protect Mary but counsels keeping their heads down, Taylor being vocally in favour of staying put and Tanya's quiet desperation to get away from everything are not opposite but different flavors of the same base needs, Tanya legitimately being a practising witch adds a layer between the other two versions, Tanya appears very conventional despite her secret unconventional beliefs and Taylor is the inverse being visually the most nonconforming member of the cast while her desire for a knight in shining armour is very traditional in its own way, pair this with the straight forward trial of Tabitha and you get an exploration of not going with the first assumptions that blankets the rest of the narrative.

Carver is a great antagonist all his own but without 1972 there is no broader context, and even if you still have that era but not the Clarkes it would just be "this guy's bloodline remained assholes for centuries" and not the direct parallel to Carson, there is no canonical 2020 equivalent to his character yet he haunts the narrative beyond himself, judge wyman intentionally mirrors the passing neighbour who immediately demanded to know what Anthony had done when the matchbox is revealed, the accusatory paranoid hysteria of puritan little hope and Anthony's poor treatment after the death of his family are directly connected and that's the point, Melissa is there to bring the conversation about the little girl's guilt or innocence to the forefront in a way that makes it a present plotline that goes beyond Mary and brings in the nature that the past is reflected in other eras and without Megan you lose a lot, Melissa requires her context in a way that Mary alone doesn't achieve and Abraham and Andrew's decision on the matter is in fact a question over Anthony's guilt and his internal struggle between blaming himself and blaming Megan and the further grief around this unresolved guilt to the point where he was psychologically unable to process the death of his family for nearly fifty years is the point, the whole point, of the 1692 reframing.

the Clarke family haunts every aspect of Little Hope and without the ending it would be pointless, the way their deaths hang over everything to the point where the puritan versions are doomed to die in the same way they were already depicted as dying and the way an engaged person would quickly catch on that 1972 death=1692 death and therefore 2020 character faces the same fate, it would be meaningless without the Clarke tragedy, it would simply be shock value that builds towards nothing without the ending and the ending doesn't make the game any less about the other eras because they are one and the same in every way that matters.

[erika111111]

[splattercamp]

"NOOOOO YOU CAN'T HEADCANON THESE CHARACTERS AS HAVING THOSE ILLNESSES!!! THEY SHOW NO SYMPTOMS!!"

okay sounds tough!!

unfortunately eric king has ocpd, andrew/anthony/abraham has asd and dpdr, angela has ptsd, kate has gad, and charlie has npd.... sorry to break it to you... 😒

[delurkr]

WHO'S EXCITED FOR A-BOY'S BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK 🥳🥳🎉

[gladioluslemon]

the 1692 PURRtian

Credit for idea: @kindheartedgummybears

[kindheartedgummybears]

guess who got bored and decided to color-swatch most of the lh characters

now obviously take all of this with a grain of salt since we all know color-picking from screenshots and models isn't the best way to get their skin tone due to color theory and color-picking being pixel but pixel but its the general kind of skin tone they have so <3

all images sourced from HariboStixx on DeviantArt.

[blubary]

Puritan.

Orange

[tinynightmarewoman]

Abraham: Hey man, IDK I don't want to like condemn a child but she kinda did like help condemn people and stuff and she did kind of stand there and watch as her sister died but like she's a kid and condemning a child to death kinda sucks dude. I mean she's under my care and she says she feels bad and stuff so maybe she's not that bad?

Joseph: NU UH

Abraham: You're right, fuck that kid

[tatjana-fantasy]

Day 13: Puritan

I love Abraham. That's all <3

13 – Puritan (Abraham)

It was finally over.

Abraham breathed a huge sigh of relief and hugged Mary, glad that his double had helped him to make the right choice. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you,” he said softly. “If I had seen Carver’s true intentions earlier, your siblings might still be alive.” Them, and all the others that had died because Carver had forced Mary to blame them.

But Mary shook her head. “It was my fault,” she responded with a voice that shook from guilt. “I should have said something. I should have asked for help. But I was afraid nobody would believe me.”

And sadly, she was right in that regard. Abraham swallowed. “It is not your fault. It is ours for ever believing him. For ever believing in him.” They all had respected Carver so much that they probably would’ve set fire on Mary herself if he asked them to do it. That thought haunted Abraham almost as much as the bodies his lack of action left behind. Yes, Carver had manipulated him, had manipulated all of them, but that was no excuse. They should have seen him as the demon he truly was, they should have stopped him, they should have –

“Abraham?” Mary interrupted his thoughts. “What is going to happen to me now?”

“I’m going to take care of you,” he immediately said. “If you want me to.” He was just another puritan, someone of no importance, but if there was something he could do for Mary – anything –, he wouldn’t hesitate to make up for his mistakes.

Because, as today had proven, even a puritan could change a little girl's whole world.

[taylorshope]

I saw in like an old Little Hope Q+A that Will Poulter said that he's like more of a dog person than a cat person so. New headcanon just dropped 🥰

[108garys]

November anthology birthdays

2nd Andrew/Anthony/Abraham

23rd Francis Morello

[best-supermassive-character]

‌Abraham Alastor x Tabitha Milton

1. I just think they'd be cute together

Alex Smith x Julia

1. I think they're so sweet and wholesome, and so funny and cute. Alex is an absolute sweetheart and Julia is crazy. I love them.

2. Just a cute established couple, Alex is a big sweetie and Julia is wild. It's just so sweet when Julia recovers the ring. ❤️ why would you ever break them up!

3. Alex proposed under the freaking water like FKJDFHGKDFVKJDHDJFV

Nick Kay x Rachel King

1. They mean so much to me. "Nick is hope!"

2. They're so sweet, Rachel helped Nick through a tough situation, he promised to always be there for her. The better man fr

[erika111111]

[urtrickster]

[delurkr]

Headcanon that the A-boy's are all Very Sleepy tm (I'm sure this has roots in that moment when Andrew thinks he wasn't falling asleep), and what it looks like is Andrew and Anthony being your typical bed huggers getting yelled at to get up for school etc while Abraham is out here journaling stuff like "SO lazy this morning. Stayed in bed until 4:15 instead of 3:45 😱" or however that translates in 1600s speak

[gladioluslemon]

THE LITTLE HOPE GANG AS AMOUG US CHARACTER!! (blame me and little bit of @kindheartedgummybears)

Daniel/Dennis/David

Andrew/Anthony/Abraham 

Taylor/Tanya/Tabitha

Angela/Anne/Amy

John/James/Joesph