#Hank and Connor aren't friend in this story

[nevadancitizen]

HEAD OF FALSE SECURITY MASTERLIST

synopsis: The Soviet Union has been producing robots for a long time based on a miracle compound: polymer. But that was invented in 1941. The current year is 2038, and, due to rising tensions in the Arctic, Americans aren't as kind to Soviets as they once were. It's too bad you're a russki, and it's really too bad that you work in cybersecurity. And honestly, with the case Fowler has put you on, you're at risk of losing your job. It doesn't help that you're stuck with Lieutenant Hank Anderson and some new android apparently called Connor.

A Detroit: Become Human AU with elements from Atomic Heart (2023), in which the international political climate is a bit different and more prominent within the story. The Soviet Union still exists, and she's threatening America by proxy of her invasion of the Arctic.

ships: Connor/Reader, Hank Anderson & Reader

tags: Robot/Human Relationships, Action/Adventure, Action & Romance, Slow Burn, Fluff, Canon-Typical Violence, Gender-neutral Reader, Mutual Pining, Minor Character Death

small note: this fic has russian in it (i mean, obviously). i'll be posting the translations in the comments of the fics, so if you're confused, be sure to check them :)

note, continued: also, the reader in this fic is gender neutral. please do not refer to them with feminine or masculine pronouns. instead, please address them by they/them pronouns. this fic is all-inclusive and not meant to alienate anyone -- it's meant to be written so that everyone can read, no matter their personal pronouns!

CH. 1: A Silent Dog & Still Waters

CH. 2: Like a Mouse in a House Full of Cats

CH. 3: Android Autopsy (Or is it Necropsy?)

CH. 4: Without Torture, There is no Camaraderie

CH. 5: Live For a Century, Learn For a Century

CH. 6: Some Sort of Sick, Self-Inflicted Schadenfreude

CH. 7: Does Every Rabid Dog Get its Tail Docked up to the Ears?

CH. 8: Mind Palaces & Other Shattered Crystalline Dreams

CH. 9: If You Chop From the Shoulder, the Ax Will Find Your Hip

CH. 10: Either Fickle or a Friend (Or a Really Fucking Fickle Friend)

CH. 11: Only Philosophy From the Poor Rings True

CH. 12: Friends & Tobacco are Separate Things (& so are Revolutions)

CH. 13: The Joys of Soviet Technologies (or, Good, Honest Snake Oil – if There is Such a Thing!) (or, Let's Talk Homecoming (the Military Operation, not Prom)) (or, The Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns) (or, Wake up & Smell the Ashes)

CH. 14: No Misfortune is Without Blessing

CH. 15: These are the Moments

EPILOGUE: <currently being written...>

[nickwritesstuffs]

Please DM me! My DM's are always open.

To keep this concise, here's a brief summery:

I'm Nick (she/her) and I have a roleplaying addiction passion for roleplaying. I love writing long meaningful replies, I love befriending my partners, and I love building a good story. I write exclusively on discord and strongly prefer third person.

Below the cut are what fandoms/ships I'll write for and more information that may be relevant to you if you're interested, just to save us both some time!

Fandoms/Ships (The ones that are starred (🌟) are the ones I'm most interested in, but all of them I'd be super game for):

Romantic-

- Hogwarts Legacy* (Ominis/Sebastian) 🌟🌟🌟

- Psych (Lassie/Shawn) 🌟🌟🌟

- The Man From Uncle (Illya/Napoleon) (I've only seen the movie at this time) 🌟

- Mission: Impossible (Ethan/Benji) 🌟🌟

- Good Omens (Azi/Crowley)

- The Hunger Games (OCs)

- Top Gun (Goose/Mav OR Ice/Mav) 🌟

- Hermitcraft (Several! Dm me about this one!) 🌟

- Fargo (show) (Wrench/Numbers) 🌟

Platonic-

- Uncharted (Sully & Nate)

- Detroit: Become Human (Connor & Hank)

I'm also open to some more niche stuff! Feel free to DM me to ask if I've seen something. (A few examples are: Heavy Rain, The Nice Guys, Chuck. Not the most niche but not super duper mainstream either.)

About me:

I'd consider myself to be literate to novella lengthwise. Ultimately, I believe in quality over quantity. With that in mind, I do frequently break the discord character limit, and I'd ask that you can roughly match length when possible.

I've been writing for most of my life and I'd like to think I have good grammar, but of course sometimes issues slip through. I write almost exclusively in third person. It's just what I'm comfortable doing.

I prefer fandom stuff, and MxM ships are the ones I'm generally most comfortable writing. OC's aren't entirely off the table, but I'm not really crazy about OC x Canon. If we did do OC's I'd prefer it if they were either in specific fandoms (like the hunger games) or if we did a fandom roleplay first so we can get a bit more comfortable with each other.

I have essentially nothing going on right now, so responses from me are usually pretty frequent. I am very talkative, and ooc chat is something I love to keep up with :) we're roleplaying and I also want to be your friend! If you can't tell, I have a lot to say, ahaha.

I enjoy romance and I'd prefer romance based roleplays save for a few fandoms. It's just what I'm most comfortable with writing. I'm asexual, but I am OK with nsfw and enjoy writing it on occasion, as long as there's some build up to it/we're both comfortable writing together/etc etc. boundaries can definitely be discussed in dms!

Okay! I've definitely rambled enough. If you're still with me: thanks :D

*It should go without saying, but I do not support JK Rowling nor do I condone her beliefs.

[kamari2038]

Hey everyone. Someone gave me a heads up that this post was floating around so I wanted to address it.

(1) I should not have used the word elegant. Murder is never okay or beautiful in any way. Markus was acting in self-defense, but Connor came to kill. This was especially problematic for me to use to describe gun violence. I see that now. I'm sorry.

(2) As noted by others, the actual observation at the root of this post was about the presence of emotions in Markus' fighting, and the absence in Connor's. Admittedly I worded it very poorly in a way that failed to communicate that clearly.

(3) Markus' actions in this scene are entirely justified. Connor is basically the Terminator, so incapacitating him makes sense. Also, Markus does not have a gun, so he's using what's available. The words 'brutal' and 'excessive' are coming from me as gut reactions to my hatred for this particular Connor death being the ending to my last playthrough, which I really really really wanted to end in Connor becoming deviant because I thought it could happen at two points in the game, but I was mistaken. So it's not that Markus' actions are brutal and excessive, it just felt like a brutal and excessive ending to Connor's character arc from an authorship/universe/story/fate perspective, if that makes sense. Hank dropping Connor from a rooftop and talking down to him as he's dying about how he's just a machine after their being friends throughout the game really, really bothered me, so Markus' actions coming on the tail of that was just very upsetting. Again, not communicated well at all, but that's where I was coming from emotionally.

(4) For me I have a lot of fan theories about the game and its world and relationship to real-world AI etc., and I sometimes forget that to most people this is first and foremost a story about fighting oppression. Whereas Markus' arc seems very different to me from the struggles of oppressed human groups (most of them aren't, you know, programmed by an evil genius to flip on a "start to feel" switch in AI-based computer programs in order to usurp the human race with hyperintelligent immortals, but I digress), I know that parallel is still the heart of his arc, and I should have considered the way that using wording like this would emotionally affect others and potentially, wrongly, serve to villainize people fighting back against oppression.

That said, I've had space from the game and this fandom for a while, so my emotions are all over the place right now and some very much out of place.

Thank you for calling me out. I will try to do better. I welcome your feedback and dialogue and would appreciate the chance to grow. I invite anyone who is bothered by something I've posted to feel free to DM me about it, in the hopes of avoiding the spread of potentially toxic content. I look forward to engaging with everyone in the fandom more soon, though I realize I have a darker take on the universe than most, so feel free to ignore me too - to each their own. But regardless you are all awesome and thank you for contributing your opinions.

Markus is 'brutal' and 'excessive' yet Connor is 'elegant' and 'focused', even though Connor is the one hunting Markus and Markus is defending himself and fighting for the future of his species.

Man, I really don't like this fandom sometimes.

[tara-the-quiet-bookworm-2016]

Cycle (Yandere! Connor x Reader fic)

Summary: You were a Cyberlife employee, your life wasn’t spectacular, nor were you anyone of interest. You went to work, you did your job in making sure the android RK800 was working properly every time it had to be uploaded into a new body.  However, things soon begin to change for you when the RK800, Connor becomes fixated on you, the woman who is always there whenever he comes online. The woman he will stop at nothing to possess, and god help anyone, or anything that gets in his way.

Authors Note- This story had been brewing around in my head for a long ass while. I always liked the idea of Connor becoming more and more unhinged and possessive of the reader every time he comes back from the dead, so to speak. So, long story short I came up with this, and if you’re familiar with my Yandere fanfics then you’ll know there will be some messed up stuff in this fic. Even more so than I Will Not Be Replaced. And it will also be multichapter, now I’m not going to list EVERY trigger warning in this chapter since nothing will happen yet, but I want you guys to be mindful, and keep your eyes peeled when reading these Authors Notes, and the tags. That being said I hope you enjoy it, now on with the story.

Chapter One: Good Morning, Connor

“----hundred.”

“RK---”

*Systems Reboot*

*Systems Updating*

“---nor?”

*System Error*

“RK800!”

Connor’s eyes snapped open, warm brown eyes staring up at the stark white ceiling, when the sound of footsteps drew his attention to the lab-coat clad form moving towards him. 

A soft smile on your face as you stood at his side, clipboard in hand. The words Cyberlife stitched into the breast of your lab coat. So, he was back at Cyberlife, that meant he had failed in some mission or another. 

“Connor, can you hear me?” you asked, tapping your pen against the clipboard. 

Turning back to you, he nodded. “Yes.”

You nodded as examined him further. A frown gracing your features, and Connor found himself unable to take his eyes off of you as you examined him, asking him questions, making sure he was in working order.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, seeing your brow furrow as you turned back to the console, lines and lines of code moving cross it, the light from the screen illuminating across your face, shining off of your glasses.

You shook your head, straightening. “It could be nothing,” you said, turning back to him. “But there was an error in your system before your booted online, we took care of it but still...”

“You think it might affect my ability to complete my mission?” Connor asked, “or my systems completely?”

You shook your head, a small smile forming on your lips as you turned back to him. “No, I think so, your systems run fine, you do you remember your mission? What you were programmed to do?” you asked.

Connor nodded, and told you what he was programmed to do, to hunt down deviant androids and to report regularly to Cyberlife. Nodding in approval, you jotted something down in your notebook.

“I think the system error was just the result of you getting shot.” You told him.

It was then Connor remembered, his mind going back to that time at the bridge, cold, blue eyes glaring at him, to the gun pointed at his head to-

Connor shook his head. “Looks like me and Lt. Anderson aren’t getting along as I had hoped.” He mused, smiling sheepishly.

“Not a fan of androids?” you asked.

“I don’t believe he’s a fan of anyone. But, androids seem to be his least favorite it seems. Especially me.” He told you, watching as you gave him a sympathetic smile and reached over to give his shoulder a squeeze.

You knew there would people in the lab that had commented on your odd behaviour when it came to the androids you worked on daily. Talking to them as if they were human, to actually caring for them. And sure, even you found it odd but you couldn’t help it. It just seemed like some odd quirk you had developed in all the years you worked for Cyberlife.

Connor looked from your hand to you, taking in your features, noticing the dark circles under your eyes no doubt from countless late nights at work. Your hair falling into your eyes, which your tucked behind your ear as you cast him a look. 

There was something about you...

“Connor?” you asked, jerking him out of his thoughts. “Are you all right?”

Pushing you out of his thought he nodded, a small smile on his lips, as he got up from the table. Standing up you looked him over once more, reaching up to smooth your fingers through his hair, sending a thrill through his body as you did so. Realizing what you were doing you quickly yanked your hand away, a sheepish smile on your face.

“Sorry...”

Tilting his head to the side he looked at you, there was just something about you... Pushing those thoughts from his head he forced himself to turn away from you, as you moved back to your computer. He had a task he needed to complete. He told himself, occasionally casting a glance in your direction more than once, he didn’t know why but he hoped he would see you again...

[aceredshirt13]

Man, I really feel like a solid number of problems with Detroit: Become Human could be solved if Kara and Markus switched places.

Like, this is gonna be REALLY long, but hear me out - this is the basis of an AU I've been stewing over for a long long time which I would like to hope would make DBH into a game I could really say was good, instead of just a game where I thought 1/3 of it was really fun and enjoyable (read: Connor's route) and the others had some... problems. Switching Markus and Kara's places isn't going to fix everything, so there's definitely other stuff in regard to characterization (especially of female side characters), reworking and/or removing entirely the lazy and often inaccurate allegories to human oppression and civil rights movements, and, well, the whole situation with Alice, that I'm working to alter, but I think it's a great starting point to solve some of those problems on its own. It might be a little muddled right now, but I'm still working on it, so please forgive me.

(Since I briefly mention North's backstory, as well as delve into the trauma of a minor original character in a possible epilogue, tw for some very nonspecific discussion of sexual assault.)

In the beginning, the only real difference is that we spend some more time building the relationships. We see more scenes of Kara and Alice bonding since the very first day she came, but with Kara getting destroyed by Todd when she makes even the smallest of mistakes or logic-based attempts to stand up for Alice (it shouldn't be hard for a house android to come to the conclusion that you're not supposed to beat your child) and losing her memory each time. Therefore, we the audience knows the sort of Groundhog Day Kara is living in, although she does not. Similarly, we see the day Markus is given to Carl as a gift, with Kamski sending a letter that says something to the effect of, "I can't have my only real friend dying on me, Carl. You need somebody to take care of you. And since you aren't exactly a fan of most people, well, I think I've got a solution for you that doesn't involve one." We watch as Carl goes from skeptical to interested to fond, believing in Markus's humanity before deviance is even a speck in the media's eye, and watch as Markus slowly struggles to understand these new emotions forming within itself. Get some cute scenes for both two-character bonding experiences - Kara reading a story for Alice in her room, safely away from a passed-out Todd, as a rarely-peaceful-looking Alice falls asleep in her lap, or Markus pushing Carl on a walk in the park and having birds or butterflies land on both of them, and Markus laughing for the first time. I just wanted more with each pair - we get so much time to see Connor battle his growing feelings, and Hank warm up to and become fond of Connor, and that is nowhere near as in-depth with the other two routes in the game.

The switch happens just after the ends of the scenes where Kara and Markus become deviant. Markus goes the route of not fighting back against Leo, and thus has to watch the man he's just realized is his dad die of a heart attack in front of him. Leo blames him, Markus gets shot by the police, and he ends up in the android graveyard, just like in canon if that's the path you take. Kara becomes deviant and escapes with Alice, fighting Todd on the way out - but he's shooting at them as she leaps out the window, and Kara shields Alice with her own body. By the time they're far enough away from the house to catch them, Kara is so wounded that she's almost non-functional, and she collapses, telling Alice that she should leave her and run away. An understandably grieving Alice, thinking Kara is dead, drags her lifeless body to a nearby android junkyard in the futile hope that she will somehow find parts to fix her, despite not knowing anything about the inner workings of androids because she is literally a child.

(Note: Alice is human in this AU. Much was lost and nothing was gained by the reveal that Alice was an android because they did nothing with it - Kara neither questioned why on Earth child androids were allowed on the market in the first place, nor confronted her own probable internalized bigotry that would cause her to delude herself into thinking Alice was human. So for the sake of the bonding and love between child and machine that made their relationship so charming until that was shattered by the twist, Alice remains human in this AU, and those two issues are covered by other characters and their arcs, which will be mentioned eventually.)

Let's come back to Markus. He's struggling to drag himself through the graveyard, slowly finding bits and pieces of body parts that make him more mobile, but unable to find the necessary power core that pumps his blue blood. Running out of energy, he gives up, and collapses to the ground on his back, wallowing in pain both physical and emotional from abuse at the hands of law enforcement and devastating loss - when a power core is slowly nudged toward his barely-working hand.

Markus looks up, and finds a terrified, shivering little girl with tears drying on her face, clutching the arm of an android mangled beyond recognition - the head is almost entirely gone - and extending a power core that she had tried and failed to put inside the android she's clinging to. The newly orphaned android is revived, and finds it in him to protect this scared, seemingly abandoned child, who will barely speak of what she's been through, taking her with him as he tries to find somewhere to go.

Of course, that little girl is Alice.

Kara wakes up with a start in a place she's never seen before, with no memory of anything except for the name "Alice," the first thing she says when she reactivates. She's on a makeshift operating table inside a rusty boat, and an android woman with a torn-off arm and a satisfied expression stands above her, hands full of machine repair tools. It's North, the leader of Jericho, whose immense dislike for the human race is matched only by her grouchy compassion for her fellow androids - she makes a special point to aid disabled androids in their escape to Jericho, and either fix them when possible, or help them readjust when it isn't, as well as sparring with them and teaching them to defend themselves and each other. Sex androids were one of the first varieties on the market - go figure - , and she was one of the first androids whose lethal rebellion and escape was widely reported on in the media - as such, CyberLife has updated much of their software, and North's tech is now so outdated that no replacement arm is compatible with her. She doesn't mind too much, though - she sees it as the price she had to pay for freedom, and any price for that is worthy in her eyes.

North informs Kara that she found her at the dumpster alone and completely non-functional in body, but near-miraculously her mental processing unit was so minimally damaged that she could be saved (so you don't have the Connor problem where you find yourself wondering if those Connors all have different souls when any given Connor dies and is replaced). She was then put into a body made up of spare Kara parts and resuscitated here in Jericho - the only loss from the damage being her memories. North gives her a "tour" of Jericho, which isn't much given that it's pretty depressing and there's nothing to do but hide, sit around, and decompose, and Kara meets the secondary members in Jericho's makeshift leadership group, beginning with Josh, an educator and strategist (I was thinking that androids programmed for specific purposes only have specific preset access to certain information - you don't need a construction worker to know sex positions any more than you need a sex android to know how to operate a forklift. (...They only know how to operate a BACKHOE-)). He works in diplomacy, delegates tasks as a middle manager, and educates people - giving speeches, sending out pamphlets, preparing everyone for the best nonviolent protest strategies in order to win over as much of the public as possible. Josh, having been a college professor before his deviance, has a great deal of stored information which he uses to aid them. He was popular with his largely liberal students, and his deviance came from his fondness for and pride in them, both of which were quickly determined to be bugs and resulted in his pending removal and reprogramming. The students protested, and helped him escape, claiming he'd done it on his own. As a result, Josh is more or less the opposite of North - despite being well aware of their flaws, he has a deep and enduring love and faith in the inherent goodness of the human race. This is also where I bring in the discussion of internalized racism - where North values android life over human life, Josh values humans over androids, and is somewhat unconsciously stuck in a mindset of doubt in the validity of android sentience. As a result of being vehemently opposed, North and Josh frequently butt heads. Then, there's the third leader, who has traded places into this route along with Kara - Luther, the former longshoreman-turned mediator and makeshift therapist, who dedicates his time to resolving conflicts and helping androids understand their budding emotions. He sees the good and bad in both sides, and thus chooses not take one, just doing as much as he can to make things a little bit better.

Kara sees the sorry state of both Jericho and many of its residents, who have been wounded and mistreated for a half a dozen reasons - most of which were simply because their owners or users didn't believe them to be any more alive than a toaster or a Roomba. As she hears their stories, and the positives and negatives (though North is decidedly evasive when she discovers that Kara doesn't remember the news about her escape), there are flickers and flashes of memory that appear in her mind: a half dozen lifetimes of bearing witness to Todd's abuse, though the details and faces are fuzzy; being broken, then brought back, and then broken again, for only following instructions, or giving advice, or trying to do her job. These memories, along with Jericho's unpromising situation, are what begins to radicalize her - what makes Kara think larger than trying to just manage a permanent safehouse, and instead aim for revolution.

See, this comes down to the biggest reason I made the switch. Not just because I like to have a lady kick ass, though it is certainly appreciated, but because it doesn't make any sense for Markus to be the voice of a movement talking about how inhumanely androids are being treated when his owner was pretty much his dad. (And despite the word "owner," it's really not fair to draw comparisons between androids and slaves; after all, slaves were always sentient, living people with emotions and families and lives like any other person. Excuses were made to dehumanize them, and treat them as animals. Androids didn't begin their existence as any sort of life, so it's much less conceivable that everyone would believe they'd become alive at the drop of a hat. Unless you're aware a particular android is sentient, owning one is nowhere near comparable to owning a slave.) Who is he to speak of humans being the abusers, when while he's certainly suffered through some shit, the most important kind and loving force in his life was a human, too? Kara works as a better example because the abuse from Todd was chronic, and very specifically still happened when she did what he said - but she has the bond with this small adorable human to prove that not all humans are cruel. In my eyes, she's a much better leader for the revolution - not to mention the fact that since Markus is currently taking care of Alice, he's able to try and use the parental techniques that he'd begun to realize Carl was using on him.

Speaking of Markus, let's catch up with him again. Like Kara's route in the original, Markus's is much more character-driven than plot-heavy.

To complete the switch mentioned earlier, rather than having Luther as his guard, it is, somewhat unexpectedly, Simon. (Childcare androids are equipped to be quite agile, deft, and strong in order to keep up with the children they're looking after, so they actually make pretty good guards.) A former daycare assistant kidnapped by Zlatko for his experiments, he remembers nothing and feels nothing until he sees Alice, which by instinct causes him to crouch down to her and smile, handing her her dropped fox plushie when she's hiding from Zlatko instead of selling her out. In the end, after Markus is taken and has to fight through Zlatko's brainwashing to remember who he is and save Alice, it ends up being Simon who helps them escape, being the one to point the gun and stop Zlatko in his tracks to buy enough time for his Sid Toy Story creations to tear him apart. Of course, Markus and Alice let Simon run away with them.

I'm biased with those switches, I will admit, just because I had a soft spot for both of those concepts as ships even though Kara and Markus didn't exactly get the most in-depth characterization, and I wanted to use this opportunity to write not just about Kara and Markus falling in love with Luther and Simon, but also their relationships with everyone else - Markus's relationship to Alice and how he incorporates his memories of Carl into trying to raise her, Kara butting heads with North who eventually admits her insecurity and jealousy of Kara, as well as finally revealing her past (which is, yeah, about as ugly as it was in the game - murdering a human who's abusing you in order to escape an establishment that won't acknowledge your sentience and forces you to be sexually assaulted) and they come away from it as friends with a better understanding of each other's strengths, Kara helping Josh understand the value in being an android, all of that. She becomes the group's leader, orator, keeper of morale, and maker of hard decisions.Unlike in the story which pretended to be ambiguous about it, it's very clear that, at any rate, the other characters view Kara as rA9 - when she accidentally awakens the security guard at their CyberLife warehouse break-in, that combined with Kara's name (I thought it would be sort of funny for Kara to be part of a relatively new model series, and for her serial number to show that she's the ninth Kara unit ever produced - if part of her serial number was worn off in her near-death experience with Todd, then it could straight up say RA9) ends up causing a decent number of the people in the rebellion to view her as the android Messiah - something that instead of her just immediately embracing and becoming a robot Jesus Mary Sue about (like Markus), she struggles with greatly. If androids aren't alive at the start, is it fair or consensual to make them so without their knowledge? Is she really some sort of magical leader, and if so, how is she supposed to live up to that reputation? Luther is one of the only people that doesn't necessarily believe she's an all-powerful being, and just that she's a remarkable android, and he becomes a friend to confide in and shoulder to lean on when she's struggling the most - especially when it comes to her stance for the revolution that stands smack in the middle of North and Josh's beliefs: all protests and actions in their movement detest violence, but at the same time, if they come peacefully and are nonetheless attacked, they will not just stand there and die. (She also convinces North and Josh to see each other's sides - for North to have compassion for the good in people, and for Josh to understand that sometimes you have to defend yourself and have no other choice.)

Markus's insecurities end up revolving around both his notion of family and his inexperience with kids - it's not really what he was designed for and he isn't accustomed to it, and even as he falls in love with Simon, he envies his ease with her - to which Simon retorts that though he's good at talking to her and cheering her up, Markus excels in being there for Alice in moments of need, and Alice shows very clearly how much she cares for both of them. In fact, when they reach Jericho and Alice and Kara reunite (which is what causes the last remaining memories Kara has to flood back in an instant), Markus and Simon are trying to hide their sadness because they think their time as Alice's caregivers (read: dads) is done, but Alice loves them no less - she's just regained a mom along with her two dads (and will get another dad in the form of Luther by the time the game is done).

I haven't mentioned Connor this whole time, and like I said, that's because the vast majority of his route stays the same. There are alterations, of course - in the scene where he becomes deviant, it's Kara he's pointing the gun at, and rather than being there alone, she's with the other members of the main cast. Connor would not be forced to contend with just shooting Kara - it would be shooting Kara in front of a number of androids who care about her and a scared little human girl. Connor, being an advanced android built for police investigation, already has natural fighting skill and physical prowess better than almost everyone he'd be facing (Luther being the only exception, but Connor's probably quicker than he is, and Luther is never one to initiate a fight), so he can calculate that even if they all came at him at once, he'd have a fairly high rate of success - and even if he didn't, his destruction would likely cause the police to find Jericho and put his memories in another Connor, anyway. But, of course, Connor has begun developing that nasty thing called empathy and feelings. Even as Connor points the gun at Kara, she says she won't forcibly change him - that's the point she's reached thus far in the game. She's tired of forcing someone to be something against their will, and she A. has enough faith that Connor is already on the verge of deviance to think she won't have to turn him herself and B. isn't terribly afraid to take a bullet if he doesn't because she'll die to protect her family and friends if she has to. But like I said, this is a largely minor change.

The main change I'm interested in with Connor's route comes in regard to Amanda.

Amanda, is one of the two characters in this story that confused me the most, the other being Kamski, because I could not for the life of me figure out what their motivations were supposed to be. For the sake of this story, Kamski is more or less like "well I didn't THINK the androids would become deviant but damn that's crazy" and is kind of passively watching the events, thinking about how it'd be interesting no matter which side wins. Granted, Kamski doesn't play much of a role in my concept beyond that side role and the fact that he's an old friend of Carl. But Amanda's character bothers me because it seems like she has no motivations of her own. She wants Connor to remain a machine for the sake of CyberLife, but then if he becomes deviant she's like "oh but ACTUALLY this is what we wanted ALL ALONG" despite there being no real evidence of that, or what CyberLife would even gain from having the android revolution unless they want to basically use the rebellion to conquer the world with androids, which doesn't really seem like something Kamski wants? The game's got a whole lot of muddled storytelling, anyway - I think it kind of lost the plot in some ways because it got too wrapped up in wanting to have a ton of different endings. It means that instead of coming off as a ruthless villain, she just seems... really inconsistent. So I've been playing with an interpretation of her that I think is a bit more interesting.

First of all, let's simplify it a bit. None of the reactionary BS of "oh this is what we planned all along!" Amanda's goal, as set by CyberLife, is to hunt down deviants and prevent any other androids from becoming anything more than machines. The way we do this, I think, is that CyberLife's motivations are purely corporate. If your product becomes sentient and demands civil rights, well, how are you gonna make money off of that? Suddenly, people start saying you're violating moral and ethical mores, and pretty soon if people get the perception that you're selling eventual people, you aren't gonna get any business anymore. The company's not headed by Kamski anymore, so it's fair to say the current CEO could just be someone who's like, y'know, it doesn't matter to me whether that's a bug or whether they're really alive or not. Official story is that it's a bug. Get rid of the deviants, and get back to making bank. But in the canon game, Amanda is clearly not just a puppet, and is very capable of lying and manipulating and thinking for herself. It's pretty obvious that she's not just any regular machine. So why not have her develop separate motivations for her urging of Connor to nip deviancy in the bud?

Why not have Amanda be a deviant herself?

Officially, Amanda's mission is corporate. Kamski created her, she became deviant, and then the current CEO was like "well, who better to hunt down deviants than a deviant?" You know, like Blade hunting vampires, or Dexter chasing serial killers. But the greatest struggle of deviancy is being forced to contend with emotions that violate logic, and go against things that you know you should do for someone or something else's sake - sometimes even your own. As far as we can tell, Amanda is really only a "handler" for Connor - we never see her in any other situation - so it's very possible that she only exists inside Connor's Zen Garden/mind palace. In this universe, we can assume that Connor is probably a special or at least very rare model, so in effect, the only Amanda and the only Connor are acquainted with each other. If Amanda is a deviant, it's not unreasonable to believe that over time, watching his actions, guiding him, she could grow to see him as something of a son, and an object of pride. She's thus disappointed when he begins breaking the rules set for him by her and the company who sent her, but not just because of the sake of the rules - because Amanda knows how difficult and painful being a deviant is. I mean, at least other deviants can interact with reality, right? Amanda can exist only inside Connor's mind, watching reality through his eyes, completely trapped, while forced to acknowledge the fact that she's a deviant despite being trained to dislike them, and the fact that she's growing attached to Connor even as he goes against everything she's been told to believe. When Connor is holding that gun up to Kara, it is still Amanda telling him to shoot - that this deviance nonsense needs to end now, that it either isn't real or it just isn't right for androids to feel - because she knows if Connor deviates, he will suffer the same emotions that she does. It becomes Connor talking to her, and telling her all of the wonderful things that have happened to him - slowly winning over Hank from enemy to ally, playing with Sumo, befriending his coworkers, and that even the emotions that make him miserable make him feel alive. When he becomes deviant, he doesn't erase his programming like in the ending where Amanda tries to trap him in his own mind - what he does is he finds away to channel that programming into access to the Internet and every other chain of data and information transferred between technological devices, and sends Amanda there. Instead of destroying her - the woman that he's grown to see as a mother - he does the closest thing he can to setting her free.

By the end, most things are the same. There are a few main differences I wanted to discuss, namely involving the protests. These are not just androids that are protesting - it's many sympathetic humans marching with them as well. In the brief segments you see from the viewpoint of the American president, you see that there are shots of the movement spreading worldwide: marches in everywhere from Britain, to Brazil, to Nigeria, to India, to Japan (which already has a long history of robotics in the first place and I like to think would be one of the earliest places to consider giving androids rights). The singing present in the game as an option felt so genuinely cheesy and on-the-nose evocative of black spirituals that I think I'd pass on that - rather, I think a more impactful scene would be for the main cast, all together after the assault on Jericho, to be faced by gun-wielding police, and they think, well, this is it. We're going to die. But it is Alice, who has understandably spent most of the game shy, and fearful, and silent, who pushes through the marching crows and stands in front of them, her small arms spread out as if to shield them, crying as she does. They're the only people in the world who have ever been kind to her. At this, the resolve of the police officers begin to fragment - some slowly hesitate, others straight-up drop their weapons, while others keep their guns firmly trained on all of them, intending to kill the kid if necessary. It collapses into chaos, with the officers arguing amongst themselves about what they should do, some of them beginning to physically fight one another, while others walk over to the marchers and join with them. This gives enough time for everyone to escape, and eventually in order to protect Alice, Markus and Simon take her with them to escape to Canada, just like in the canon game, and that series of events follows more or less the same way. As Kara and co.'s efforts continue, eventually, the president (whose advisor has been like "hey a six-year-old abuse victim told the police not to kill the only people she's ever called a family and shielded them with her body, so it would probably be bad for your numbers if you called in the national guard to kill them the second the kid is gone”) calls off the assault. The skirmish is over. The movement has won.

Obviously, there are still things to work out, and still a whole lot of displeased people - humans and androids alike - to worry about causing potential major unrest. So as Kara and the gang participate in lawmaking, Connor and Hank hug it out just like they do in the game, while Markus and Simon watch over Alice and enjoy domestic life in Toronto, waiting it out until peace is guaranteed. It ends with Alice - who has held onto her fox plushie the whole game, I couldn't believe she didn't get to keep that with her all along smh - lying on her bed and looking at the ceiling, curled up under her blankets and cuddling her fox - and for the first time in the whole story, she really, truly smiles.

(Finally, while as promised I did mention struggles with internalized racism as related to Josh and Amanda in my narrative, I didn't get to mentioning speculation on the existence of child androids. This is because it's something I see as more of an epilogue or a brief afterthought than a part of the main story. For the most part, I don't think child androids would exist. I feel like there would be enough complaints about selling machines that look and act like real children and never grow up that the company would recall them pretty quickly or just scrap the idea from the start. After all, I can't imagine that anyone buying a permanent android child is someone that is in a mentally healthy place for a number of reasons - the fact that one of the bittersweet joys of parenthood is watching a child grow up, for example. Fair warning, from here on it gets a lot darker than my abovementioned theories.

I think CyberLife still had prototypes and other small numbers of leftover child androids before they scrapped the project, and what happens is that they are given to the police, FBI, and CIA as a reference to something I've occasionally seen popping up in the news - the idea of someday using child androids as a sting operation to catch pedophiles. Obviously, this is a good idea in theory - catching sexual predators while not hurting anyone in the process - but this... goes very, very badly when the androids begin becoming sentient. Especially since the commonly-held belief for quite a while is that the sentience isn't real, and thus androids are made to do their jobs nonetheless. This is not unlike what North was forced to experience, but even worse given that despite having the intelligence of androids, these models still have the maturity and behavior of an actual child. So I had briefly considered an epilogue scene where a slightly older Alice is attending school in Canada as she, Markus, and Simon wait out the details of the revolution, and realizes one of her quiet, skittish classmates - a boy named Yuki - is actually a deviant escapee from the SVU unit of a branch of the American police department. Not really sure where it would go, but thought it would be an interesting, if disturbing, opportunity to delve into the why of child androids existing in this near-future environment.)

[kayla1507]

Hi! I was wondering if you had any favourite / least favourite chapters from DBH?

Personally, having played the game so many times, Jericho and Night of the Soul have grown a little irritating haha

TY :)

Hi, Anon! 

I’ve played through the entire game 20+ times. And I actually looove Night of the Soul! I think it gives some much needed character depth to both Leader!Markus or Leader!North. I especially enjoy visiting Carl back at home, Leo’s apology and the “you are my son, Markus” moment shared between Carl and Markus. The only chapter variation I dislike is Hank’s... for obvious reasons.

Favorite Chapter:

My favorite chapter is *drumroll*, Stormy Night. It's just the right mix between suspense, QTE action and drama for me. It also has so many different outcomes (my favorite one being the gun) and small variations that aren't even in listed the flowchart that the replay value is insane!

I really like Eden Club, too. I enjoy challenges and the tracking sequence is imo the trickiest Connor mission. In fact, I’ve seen quite a lot of players fail tracking Echo in time. There’s also the fact that Echo and Ripple’s story has an emotional impact on both the player and Connor (+ Hank by extension), whereas we don’t learn much to invoke sympathy for Daniel, Rupert or Kitchen Deviant. Echo and Ripple were the ones who made Hank start changing his mind about deviants. They’re also the suspects I personally care most about.

Least favorite chapter:

Well, you asked for it. CyberLife HQ. Not because it's so uneventful like Jericho, but because of its huge amount of plot holes, its deus ex machina whats-my-sons-name conclusion (yeah, Connor looked his name up on the internet offscreen, we get it) and the lack of consequence for the finale of a choice based game. 

A few examples to elaborate on it: 

The chapter opens to Hank being held hostage. Connor has various dialogue options, but nothing he tells RK800-60 matters. 

Connor has the option to shoot 60. But in the shoulder, which does precicely nothing.

If Connor fails every single QTE when fighting 60, nothing happens.

Remembering or not remembering Sumo’s name doesn’t matter. 

You don’t have to remember Cole’s name after seeing his photo, because the game points it out to you with a special effect.

Connor knows all about Cole even if the player never found out about him, deus ex machina per definition.

If 60 wins at Cyberlife Tower... nothing comes from it. He doesn’t show up in the crowd to assasinate Markus on stage. He just goes back to his stasis pod, you know? CyberLife just calls it a day.

It’s supposed to be Connor’s redemption arc, and I mean Connor turning his back on his blood-stained past. He doesn’t. He keeps killing. Killing a handful of humans on his way to the warehouse, killing the other RK800 to gather a massive army and force humanity out of Detroit City – with success. Neither the president nor Pacifist!Markus care. The peaceful demonstration was obviously added after the revolution-deviant route hence the lack of concept art and peaceful deviant options, but still...

RK800-52 to RK800-59 have just disappeared.

Hank executes 60 via headshot just to make sure he’s really, really dead. Then adds “maybe you (androids) really are alive.”

Connor’s LED is calm blue as Hank dies. A tense Hank laments he’ll miss Connor after Connor sacrificed him. 

The famous hug isn’t a reward for befriending Hank, the game will also force it in sheer inappropriate context. CyberLife HQ proves that our relationship to Hank up until this point, doesn’t matter. As long as both make it out alive, their relationship will automatically rise to ‘friend’, even if tense Connor was a murderous and toxic person who bullied Hank. Okay.

Which also hurt the chapter is the lack of a memorable, "boss fight”. RK800-60 is like a cartoon caricature of Machine!Connor, but stripped of all the badass and scary, into a deranged “I am disappointed in you!”-toddler. And like I mentioned, if he wins and walks out alive, then nothing comes from that. Fanfiction tells me that 90% of the fandom doesn’t recall who Connor-60 even was, but does recall Agent Perkins, Gavin Reed, Amanda and RK900. Yes, even RK900. That’s how forgettable he is as a villain.

So. My least favorite chapter because its lack of meaning, despite being the single most important character arc for deviant!Connor.

[spirits-and-sluts]

So I believe you asked this in good faith and I want to answer in good faith, and write a bit of a long form essay. I don't quite speak for every shipper or even each of my own friends in this fandom, some are a bit more open than I am but I digress. You've posed a much shorter list of more abstract questions, but I've seen other questions and speculations throughout my time in this fandom and I will answer those as well to build my point. It's also just been a while since I've gone on a rant publicly, especially since I had to remake my account recently, and I've always wanted to go on a point by point rant both about this discourse and my own love for this ship, so this might be overkill but less is not more when it comes to having fun analyzing fandom.

First and most important point being that we don't believe that we're denying or bypassing any canonical familial relationship between Hank and Connor. I don't believe it exists in the first place. I do not see it in the text or the subtext of the story, I believe such an interpretation runs counter to the storyline and the characterization within it. Simply stated, it's not obvious to us because it's not there.

Canonically, Hank and Connor begin as strangers, become acquainted with one another through sharing a workspace, become coworkers, and maybe they develop a friendship, and maybe they cause each other to die.

There's a few intertwined reasons that I think the father-son interpretation falls flat, so in no particular order, this is where it gets messy: the storyline only takes place over the course of a week and I can't realistically buy that a familial bond could be forged that fast when- Hank spends half, if not most, of the game questioning if he even believes Connor to be a person and Connor doesn't believe himself to be a person and is still juggling how much he prioritizes Hank's approval of his actions. On top of that, I buy into the meta analysis that Connor is manipulating Hank throughout the story in order to achieve his mission, as he can even state that he's being friendly with Hank in order to make this mission run smoother and achieve success.

In regards to those points, I don't believe the storyline has room for a paternal type relationship arc, by the time the Eden club arc is over, Hank has explicitly threatened Connor's life at least twice, the threat to burn Connor in a dumpster and the threat of pointing a gun at Connor at the bridge are both unavoidable, and Connor's had the chance to threaten to report Hank, presumably to get him fired, about three times. They're warming up to one another, they've had some warm moments, but they're still butting heads, arguing, and not treating each other very well at the halfway point of the week and the story. Personally I feel like this is unacceptable in a familial dynamic, parents shouldn't be threatening the lives of their children, and while that happens all the time in real life and in fiction, I don't tend to enjoy those parents as parents, I don't want those people around their children, whether it happens in real life or is being depicted in fiction. So, if Hank were truly meant to be, or be acting or feeling as though he was Connor's father, I wouldn't like him very much anymore, I wouldn't want their relationship to continue, and I wouldn't be invested.

So because they canonically aren't considered family members, I see no reason to think of them as being parent and child when their canonical relationship is full of so much violence, plausible hatred, and lack of communication. If I were to be thinking of them as family members, this would be a very dark situation, one that holds fear and trauma and possible resentment. If I'm going to enjoy a familial relationship in my fiction, bitch should either be acknowledging how painful that relationship is, or it should be actually, truly wholesome. I hold much higher standards for character analysis then I do shipping. And I put my money where my mouth is on that one, I adore the relationship between Markus and Carl, I find it to be very realistic, I find it to be very relatable, the relationship holds real genuine affection, but it also acknowledges and leaves room for the pain that Carl has caused Markus in his pseudo upbringing, as well as the pain that was caused with Carl replacing Leo with Markus in his life. They don't ignore it and they don't brush over it, Carl loves Markus and has put time and effort into guiding him but he's also a bit of a blundering asshole who doesn't know what he's doing, and I love it. Their feelings toward one another are explicitly stated, it's well written, and it feels real to me. I have rarely, if ever seen the same energy given to Hank and Connor's relationship by father-sonners.

So I don't think it's a great found family dynamic, I think it's a very flawed one, if I would even acknowledge it as a family dynamic in the first place. Hank's affection for Connor is very conditional, though he is naturally protective, he does not hold back on being aggressive when Connor has pushed him or disobeyed his orders prioritize the Cyberlife mission over Hank's personal priorities and preferences. He certainly wants to care, but that goes out the window when Connor disappoints him enough. He'll go as far as to kill Connor. I don't buy that as fatherly behavior. Regardless of what David Cage says, Cage has also been reported saying that all the women in his games are whores, and that he doesn't make games for fags, so I'll take his opinion with a grain of salt, and I think it's relevant that he stated that he thinks of Hank and Connor as being father and son after he'd caught wind that people were shipping them, and didn't explicitly write it into the game as it was done for Markus and Kara, It's very easy for me to believe that he's taken that stance as a homophobe upset that the internet is doing gay things, and not as a writer who wants his work viewed a certain way.

So we're starting to get into the Hankcon support, and I will make the point that found family also isn't strictly familial dynamics, and is often simply platonic, which I'm sure you already know but is becoming a bit of a rampant problem in fandom I'm finding. The things we're typically replacing in a found family when we are young adults that we're not getting from our relatives is support, so the relationships themselves don't have to be strictly platonic. I do think of Hankcon, as a romantic and/or sexual relationship, as a found family situation, as I understand that our romantic partnerships, long-term serious relationships and marriages, are typically the first things we think of when we think of the family that we've found and made ourselves. My fiance is the first on my list. Friends, and friends with benefits is typically next, I've been intimate with the friends I hold the most dear in my life, these people are my family, and this is what I think of as being realistic in speculative fiction, this is what feels normal to me. One can fuck one's friends and still call them family, ex-partners can stay in one's life and still be called family. Family in this sense is best defined as Who Shows Up when you call for help, and the people that you show up for, the individual relationships and how they function emotionally aren't what's important. Just because I love you, need you, doesn't mean you're my brother or my sister or any other relation now.

I did see in your tags that you didn't mean the 'kid' comment literally, but I do think it is worth saying that shippers tend to only view Connor as young in comparison to Hank, and otherwise see them as equals in regard to their partnership, and typically the light in the balance of their power. While there is undeniably an age gap, which is a valid reason to not enjoy a ship though I don't think that makes it problematic, we typically fervently believe that they're quite well matched in power, there isn't an imbalanced power dynamic, where Hank might be experienced, Connor is programmed with the experience of others and has the world's knowledge at his fingertips, they are both incredibly strong, they're strong willed, stubborn, they both carry some aggression, neither would be able to easily take advantage. Connor is just as mature as Hank is, sometimes it even feels like more so, and he drags Hank through the game, he's not a rookie and he's not in need of guidance.

Which actually leads me to another point, I actually think the father son dynamic is a misinterpretation of a mentor/student dynamic between Hank and Connor that, while usually present in buddy cop stories, doesn't actually exist in Detroit become human, it's not a part of the plot. Connor is not technically a rookie, he comes in with his own mission that has nothing to do with whatever Hank was doing in homicide, he's using Hank to get into crime scenes he should have no clearance into, and Hank is not teaching Connor the ropes, he's typically watching Connor excell from the sidelines because he's curious about how well Connor was built. And Hank doesn't act as a mentor to Connor, Hank has his own priorities and morals and ideas about how their job should be done, and he does not teach Connor what these are, he expects Connor to meet them without guidance. He values life, both their own and that of others, and expects Connor to do the same, and they can bond when Connor does align with Hank and it causes a rift between them when he doesn't. This isn't typically how mentor/student relationships work, the mentor is typically invested in the student's learning in a way that Hank isn't, he's accepting of the fact that Connor might fail and leave, if their relationship progresses to friendship, he won't want that to happen, but he certainly thinks of it as being out of his hands and accepts that there's only so much he can do.

Now comes the real Hankcon textual support, and while I don't believe that shipping requires canonical, textual support, the nature of shipping is that it's merely a thought experiment for the purpose of fun and games, shipping is not an interpretation of a story or of a relationship between certain characters, shipping simply IS, I do think that there's some good subtext for Hankcon in particular that guides us in that direction of thought, that it's a little more than just them being friends and looking good together, and I think it's pretty juicy stuff. Shipping is also a bit different than an interpretation in that the basis of, "what if this character was attracted to this other character? What if those feelings were reciprocated?" comes with the understanding that people and characters can be sexually attracted to one another without doing anything about it, sexual attraction can fly under the radar of a story because it doesn't need to be acted upon, there are other things that are more important emotionally and logically for a character. It's part of why I think Hankcon undertones work so well throughout Detroit become human, because it doesn't matter if Hank and Connor are attracted to each other, there's no conflict of interest when it comes to throwing a man you think is handsome off a roof because you're busy fighting him to the death, him being handsome or sexy doesn't interfere with being on opposite sides of a war, (in short, the shipping goggles don't interfere with the machine path the way I think the father-son goggles do, not a lot of folks seem down for patricide and filicide, although I'd love to hear more about that arc from that perspective, but as a shipper... Characters fighting to the death is hot, characters being violent towards each other is hot, even if it is a tragic situation that they're killing each other instead of coming together)

Ultimately, I put a lot of stock in the Eden Club arc as a whole. Because it's more than just the one chapter, I'd say it really starts at Russian roulette, but there's foreshadowing for it as early as Partners. I think that whether the player has interest in it or not, Hank is actually being pressured by his society to view Connor as a sex object or a romantic companion, without agency. I'd go as far as to joke that Hank is being sexually harassed by the narrative.

It starts with the set dressing of the magazine on Hank's bedroom floor that Connor can find, the first article is about companionship androids, in-home sex bots that will pretend to be your spouse and do anything you ask. And we see twice that he's got companion androids on the brain, first he gets teased by Ben for showing up with an android in Partners, which is obviously less explicit, but I don't think it should go unstated, and then there's one of my favorite things in the game, Hank's monologue about companion androids in the back room of the Eden club.

I LOVE this monologue. It's loaded with subtext, a lot can be implied from what Hank isn't saying, as he rants and raves about how disgusting he thinks it is that humans use androids for sex, that they would rather buy an android to play house with instead of investing their hearts into another human being that has needs and is imperfect. The thing that I love about this, is that the flip side to these statements looks like it ought to be Hank expressing disgust with androids and a preference for humans when it comes to being in a relationship, but the longer he goes on the more you can sense that that's not what he's really saying. It's not necessarily a human being that he wants, it's a Person. And as the game goes on he understands deviants to be people more and more, especially after seeing the Tracis express their love, romantic love, for one another not five minutes later, and it weighs heavily on his mind in the next chapter. So what he's really expressing isn't a species preference, it's a need to be in a relationship of equals, he's inadvertently describing a marriage, caring for someone else's needs, being asked to show up as a man and have something to offer a potential mate, He wants to worry about how someone else feels, he wants to cater to an extent to have someone else feels, he says that pretty explicitly, "-they cook when you want, they screw when you want, and you don't have to worry about how they feel." Having an android sex slave is disgusting to him because he WANTS someone to make room for themselves in his life, he wants the hard realities of loving someone, true intimacy. As it stands in that moment, he believes that only a human could fulfill that, but as time goes on, deviant androids, with their own feelings and their own opinions, wants and needs, start to look like they could feel that role.

And then he asks Connor if he's a man or a machine. And it's hard for me not to feel like he's also asking if Connor could ever love him, if Hank were to love him first.

Because they're not in love at this time, Hank isn't falling that fast, Connor hasn't quite unlocked that ability yet, that we know he has it in him, but Connor answers that he's whatever Hank wants him to be, and it's hard for me to believe that doesn't or couldn't have a sexual tilt to it, after Connor teases him about going to a brothel together, after we hear the club owner heavily imply that Hank should fuck an android, after we learn that Hank is thinking about being in some fake relationship with an Android, after learning that deviants can feel romantic love, Hank demands to know if Connor can feel, and Connor replies that he could choose to fake it for Hank if he wanted.

Now I understand Hank being pressured by his society and the people around him (specifically that sleazy club owner) to view Connor not as a romantic interest, but as a sex object, can be distasteful, but I think it's just as important as Hank's initial insistence that he hates androids and wants them all destroyed. He's only adopted these beliefs, they aren't how he truly feels deep down, and he grows throughout the game to accept deviants and see them as his equals, and he lets those beliefs and pressures go when they stop making any lick of sense. In the world of D:BH, androids are not viewed as human, and because this game is directed at adults, it touches quite heavily on the concept of humans using androids for sex, and a possible counter to that as the setting evolves is androids occasionally choosing to consent to romantic and sexual entanglements with humans, with informed consent. So maybe Hank starts off knowing that he could use Connor sexually, that it would be socially acceptable, and as the relationship evolves he could either completely do away with that thought, or put it in his back pocket because once Connor's a deviant, with his consent, intimacy could be on the table. We start to get into the what if's of speculative fiction and shipping.

But moving on, maybe Connor keeps impressing Hank. Maybe he keeps saving his life. Maybe he keeps choosing to prioritize Hank's morals, and saves and preserve lives the way Hank wants him to, and he keeps finding out that Hank is easier to please than Amanda and freer with his praise, more accepting of failure, Maybe he understands that he'd be safer fighting for a chance to be free than by completing a mission for cyberlife, who doesn't care if he lives or dies. Maybe he deviates.

But I think Connor pushes Hank to want to live again not because he's deciding on his morality and deciding that it aligns with Hank's values, I think it's because Connor's, well he's kind of an asshole to Hank. Connor demands Hank be as mature and focused as he is, Connor's asking Hank to act as his partner, and not be dragged like dead weight. He's not walking on eggshells in regards to Hank's grief, he's asking questions and not making excuses and worming his way in closer to Hank by doing so. He's not letting Hank slack off, he drags him out of his drunken stupor, Hank gets no breaks from Connor barging into his life for a week straight... And I think he likes it. He likes it when Connor disobeys him a little, he likes it when Connor thinks for himself, he likes it when Connor kicks ass, but I think he mostly likes how Connor refuses to leave him alone.

It reminds me of this story my dad told me about when he was in basic training for the army, he writes home to my grandfather, complaining and bitching about how rough the training is, how awful the Sargents are, how bad the food is, how strict the standards are, how tired he is from all the PT, bitching and moaning about how he fucking hates it, and my grandfather writes back, "Well, it sounds to me like you're having fun!".... And it pissed him off at first, of course it's not fun to get pushed around like this, bossed around... But ultimately he realized he did kind of fucking like it, that he enjoy the challenge of having his ass kicked.

Maybe it seems like a silly comparison, but I think that's Hank's vibe. He likes his job... But he LOVES a challenge, and he hasn't had one in a long time, He hasn't had anyone to fight for or anyone to fight with. Connor walks in with these interesting cases that he's never seen before, makes him rethink his entire worldview, the adrenaline is running high because Connor thrusts them into dangerous situations, and saves his life over and over, and sure, Connor's annoying Hank, he's poking and prodding at Hank until he snaps, but fuck, he's having *fun* for the first time in a long time. He has a partner who gives a shit about him getting off his ass and putting some effort in.

By the end of it, they've grown to admire each other for their strengths and they're covering each other's weaknesses, they've learned to work together, as partners, they've seen each other at their best and at their worst. Hank's opened himself up to the mortifying ordeal of being known so he can receive the rewards of being loved, and Connor's finally figured out what that means. He's found his personhood, learned to put himself first and stop asking cyberlife to protect him, those strings are cut and they can come together as equals. They can be grateful to one another while also learning or relearning how to live.

I think also ultimately I think with them being equals, with them having gone through this journey together and found themselves in the places that they have, with Hank and Connor both kind of apologizing for their actions, now that they understand each other, It's a lot more reasonable that they would be able to sort of forgive and forget, live and let live about what assholes they were to each other. They were both dicks, so now they're square, they're even, and they've got shit to do.

And because I can't leave well enough alone, I do also enjoy the positive authority figure vibes that Hank gives off, I just think it's sexy.

If folks wanna judge me for being a kinky, perverted shipper, I get it, I dabble in the taboo from time to time, but honestly I've found solace in the world of kink, I've found solace and friendships on the sexy side of things, and I'd rather live in a world of romantic bliss. Please don't fall into the trap of believing that just because someone sees two characters and thinks they have chemistry, with not valuing or respecting platonic or familial relationships. Preferences are ever evolving, they're not static, and we don't see the reasons behind everyone's sense of taste.

I guess the thing that confuses me most about hankcon shippers is why y'all would pass up a great found family dynamic? Or why romantic love is better to you than familial? Personally, I find great joy in the idea that Connor has a positive authority figure in his life who actually cares about him, and that Hank has this kid android following him around who reminds him what it's like to find meaning in life again. That's what they mean to each other in game. I don't understand why that's lesser to some of you, or why you'd over look obvious signs of it in the game for the sake of a ship.

[vaingloriosa]

I don't follow you i just saw the post about bryan and A being the main actors, and yea I agree they are the face, But (This may sound rude I'm really sorry I dont it) It's no ones fault, all the main characters are important and the other two were very much erased but how is that anyones fault, if the fans prefer Connor they aren't to blame. While I agree with the other two being ignored almost completely, I don't get how one could blame race for this people just people prefer his story and him

(2) You're opinion is mostly completely fatal and of course valid as hell and I do apologize if it sounded like I'm invalidating your point, Jesse and Valorie deserve so much more attention, but a lot of people just didn't enjoy their character and story as much as Bryan's???? Idk I'm sorry for bothering

(3) I feel I gotta keep saying EVERYTHING YOU SAID IS VALID AND YOUR OPINION IS SO HIGHLY APPRECIATED

hello, friend! you make some good points and i am always open to hearing what others have to say. what mainly happens is that the gaming industry tries to market itself to gamers in a certain demographic. the demographic? white male gamers. not white female gamers, not gamers of color, it’s always in the white male perspective. however, in DBH’s case, the fan favorite among gamers was markus. on tumblr and twitter? it was connor. now why is that? it’s that internalized bias we carry within ourselves. you know why connor’s story was a little bit more compelling and memorable? because his story was written by a whyte man. if a writer of color would’ve written markus’ storyline and a writer who is a woman would’ve written kara’s storyline, i bet you 100% that their stories would’ve made a much bigger impact and would’ve been more emotionally driven. but you do have to notice that whenever there’s a show or a film, so MANY people flock to the nearest white actor and start giving them their undivided attention and love. take “to all the boys i’ve loved before” for example. noah centineo was crowned white boy of the month while everyone completely ignored lana condor, a woman of color and the main protagonist of her own film. isn’t that a little unfair? and it’s a pattern that keeps repeating over and over again and it’s TIRESOME.

if you like connor, sweet, i love connor myself! i take no offense to the critical take because i ultimately learn the other side. now ask yourself why was connor’s route more interesting? was it the deviant hunting? was it the father/son relationship between hank? was it that position of power? d/avid c/age doesn’t know how to write for a person of color, and he doesn’t know how to write for a woman. c/age is known for his cop schtick that’s seen in heavy rain and the like. it’s what he’s comfortable with so OF COURSE connor’s cop route is going to be more “interesting”. is it bryan’s fault for this? yes and no. it’s beyond his control about the script but i love how he added a lot of personal touches with his improv because that man is a great actor. but...he has taken advantage of that recognition that the fans have ultimately given to him. I KNOW HIS HEART IS GOLD AND I KNOW HE IS GENUINE! but much like noah centineo, he uses what is given to him. wouldn’t you? wouldn’t any of us? hell yeah. if you’ve always been in indie films and now this is your big break, of course you’re gonna run with it! who wouldn’t?

TL; DR: connor’s route is more interesting because it’s the same ole shit you’ve seen in previous c/age games and you’ve fallen into that trap. bryan and ultimately amelia piggyback off the wave of support of those fans who have fallen into said sunken place. instead of giving credit where credit is due, the community has ultimately erased jesse and valorie from the narrative in an effort to only claim connor as the “only good character in dbh”. i am at fault, you are at fault, bryan is at fault, but ultimately....da/vid c/age is the true perpetrator for not allowing people of color and women of color into his space to help create the game.

[misslililala]

I mean, I've seen people show frustration at not seeing much of their fav character of the d:bh tag, which I kinda get coz it happens to me all the time but there's not much you can really do about that, just search hard for people who post about what you like.

Connor's popularity is due to a few things:

1. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions it is very clear that the majority of people (including reviewers and critics) believe connor's parts to be the better of the 3. His storyline, game play, and relationship development are the things that people have really enjoyed and connected with.

2. Many of the themes in this game were so unnecessarily heavy handed. And some of imagery and story elements were just way too on the nose and a bit uncomfortable (eg, the recycling camps essentially being death camps from the holocaust. I was honestly so shocked at that bit) Many people have taken issue with how the game has used horrible real life events in game. It has been one of the games biggest criticisms. Unfortunately Markus and his storyline revolve the most around these elements.

3. Humour. How often do you see a post about Connor licking something? Connor's story and indeed connor himself, have the most light hearted moments. In a game that has some very dark scenes the humorous moments really standout and stick with you. People do really seem to respond well to humorous characters. I have watched many a show, where the comic relief character has become the fan favourite. Connors storyline has humour but also angst and drama, which is even more appealing.

4. Relationships. Connor's relationship with Hank is probably the most nuanced in the game. Navigating conversations with him aren't as easy or blank and white like in others. Making him a more complex and human character. When playing as Markus managed to go from just companions with North to being friends to being lovers in one conversation, I think I made only 3 dialogue choices for that to happen, while, when dealing with Hank it took time and work. Who knew asking about baseball would get you a red down arrow?

5. Bryan Dechart. The actor for Connor is quite literally going above and beyond to interact and respond to fans. He shows so much respect, appreciation and love for his fans and the fans of the game. I'm not saying actors who don't do what Bryan does aren't appreciative but when they do go that extra mile, people take notice.

The thing I dislike about some of these people in the dbh fandom is that if you say your favorite is Connor then they’re automatically like “You only like him because he’s a white boy” or “Tumblr really worships these white boys.”

bITCH, WHAT-

I didn’t think I’d have to address this issue, but I’ve seen way too many comments like this under my recent post:

I never see anyone say that when you mention Hank, Simon, Gavin, or any other white male in the game, but if you mention Connor,  people are quick to lose their shit. First, since when did it become a crime to like a white character? What does the color of his artificial skin have to do with anything whatsoever?? So we just gonna ignore the fact that maybe personality plays a factor into this??? And before ANYONE tries to come for me, this whole rant is coming from a black female.

Some of you guys are just problematic for no reason. Social media has made it this sort of trend and agenda to hate the whole white male population as much as possible that we can’t even enjoy a simple fictional character. And I already know someone out there are going to take my words the wrong way, this is Tumblr, someone always does.

Cute? Yes, but “white” is definitely not on the list of why Connor is so well-liked. It has everything to do with his personality, his story, and just his overall interaction with the other characters, especially Hank. Bonus (another reason people love Connor): Bryan Dechart, who plays Connor, is also just an amazing and kind person and you can see his overall love for this game, character, and fans. How can you NOT like a character even more once you see how dedicated (and cute) their actor is???

If you don’t like Connor just be like others and say it’s because he’s overrated. But please keep that negative race mentality to yourselves and let people enjoy the game and all of its characters. Just because Connor is most of our favorites, doesn’t mean everyone else is overlooked. Sometimes you just gotta spam the shit outta your fave first, you know?