#verlocal

[foxgirl87]

I don’t use WhatsApp so I don’t know if this is accurate sorry

[one-fancy-flapjack]

Hear me out cake something something, daddy issues, something something.

[perytonfae]

I turned them into warrior cats for fully self-indulgent reasons

[duchesscelestia]

here's the art from today's video, another redraw from the we happy few fanzine!

[mocha-illustrates]

good evening we happy few fans. i offer you this old art that i forgot to post <3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Some Bobby color variations under the cut

[inposterumcumgaudio]

I was rewatching some old Letsplays on We Happy Few, and I noticed that a few commented on how the Protagonist only take Strawberry (I'm pretty sure the Wellies take all three). And I realize this is hinted at in the first act where Arthur goes to the Labs for Cod Liver Oil, there's a couple notes before the fight with the Bobby that states Sally created Strawberry. In the game, Sally is the better Chemist, compared to Verloc who is hyperfocused on a Permanent Solution. In the 'We All Fall Down' DLC, the workers at the Labs start a riot over wanting Sally back, which implies she was a better boss and more efficient. Anyways, I'm like 98% sure this is Canon, but I am curious to read your take on it if you have one, I know it's just a small thing but the grip We Happy Few on me is iron strong. Anyways, I've always been curious on Victoria and Sally's relationship. Does Victoria know her dad is taking advantage of the local chemist? I can't imagine she would know, I feel like she'd be repulsed by that.

You don't have to answer any of this, I just like to rant about this underrated game.

Not only will I answer this, I'm gonna do so in parts so I can cover all the topics you're asking about in some detail, starting with the prevalence of preference for Strawberry.

Functionally, this is because they made one first-person animation for using the Joy Booth that all protagonist characters share between them and that animation always draws from the third canister. If you play the Night Watch mode, you'll note that the Strawberry canister has been replaced by a Blackberry one. It's much easier and cheaper to change the texture on the Joy Booth model than it is to make two additional animations for the other two flavors.

But you also only ever find Strawberry Joy out in the world, indicating that most Wellies share this preference for Strawberry.

This is, I think, a result of a concerted effort on the part of the Executive Committee to push the populace to switch flavors. I also think this is the start, or at least the exacerbation, of a lot of the problems in Wellington Wells.

'Cause see, the original Joy formula used for the Chocolate and Vanilla flavors was invented in 1953. That means that by '64, the town has been on Joy for nine years now. But the problems with food production couldn't possibly have started then or the town would have starved ages ago. That change, the preference for growing pretty flowers in their leftover victory gardens over ruddy little vegetables that aren't much to look at? That's gotta be more recent or the effects would have been felt sooner. But, it also can't have been too recent (as recent as Sally's departure from Haworth Labs) or there would still be enough stores and active gardens started earlier in the current year to keep the town going. Strawberry was developed in 1962, available two years thus far, which makes its introduction the much more likely culprit for the change in Wellie gardening priorities.

I also think the integration of Strawberry into the choices available resulted in more frequent cases of Joy rejection, such that the town had to further relinquish Eel Pie Holm to the increased Downer population (having already designated Barrow Holm as the dump for troublesome members of society at Joy's initial introduction before the problem really started getting out of hand). Mixing flavors is not recommended, due to the difference in compound and interactions between them. Most people were probably able to switch relatively well, but there's always some for whom side effects are most severe.

Despite the problems Strawberry introduced (which they probably couldn't have forseen anyway), the Executive Committee had to push the new flavor because the raw materials for making the original formula - leftover German "goodies" - have a finite supply without any trade over the bridge. Eventually, they will simply not have the ingredients to make Chocolate or Vanilla.

Unfortunately, due to the toxic bi-product of Strawberry Joy production that causes food to rot on the stem, fungus to mutate, and the resultant plague from exposure to its spores, they'll not have poppies, bufotoxin, or liberty caps - the key ingredients in Strawberry - for much longer either.

It's a lot of kicking the can down the road.

Anyway, I'm getting away from the point. Why is Strawberry preferred?

Because it was marketed to be.

You will note in the game that you only ever see posters and other marketing materials for two flavors of Joy: Strawberry and the upcoming Coconut.

Sally mentions that there was an annoying jingle for Chocolate in the past, so that tells us there was marketing for the original flavors when Joy was first introduced. Even here though, you can see that the shift is already beginning, that the Executive Committee is building hype for Coconut and will stop promoting Strawberry once it's available.

(As a side tangent, since I don't know when else I'll get to mention it, I also believe that the original formula was given two flavors - that is, there is no appreciable difference between Chocolate and Vanilla - as a psychological trick to make early adoption more complete. With only one flavor, the question is if you will take it or not? With two flavors, the question becomes which one are you?)

Since the problem of Joy is always limited materials, shifting promotion is done with the knowledge that the old flavors will need to remain in production for people with genuine preference, but that most Wellies (since the culture is very conformist) can be convinced to switch to the hip new thing to preserve those older flavors for as long as possible.

And I expect that Strawberry was promoted as the flavor to take if you want to be a cool kid. It's the preferred flavor of Nick Lightbearer, even described as his muse. It's the only flavor you'll find all the town's most beautiful people taking at the Design Centre. You don't need color television to know when Uncle Jack pops his Joy on screen, his pills are pink.

But beyond that, I think it was also implied to be a patriotic duty to at least try the new flavor. Victoria takes Strawberry Joy, often and publicly, as a signal of leadership to the townspeople. It is a gesture of civic pride, particularly pride in Wellington Wells' spirit of scientific advancement, to immediately adopt the latest innovations with complete trust.

However, it should come to no surprise that trust is not well placed...

[star-bliss8]

One edit that I made for we happy few

I’m not really gonna post much of my edits on here now that TikTok‘s not gonna get banned

But here’s one cause I’m feeling nice today 

[nickmpreg]

oops … ! i did it again

i played with your heart

got lost in the game … !

[dizzymudskipper]

Twin

We're have you been

[nicklightbringer]

I'm too lazy to color.

[iscreaminternallyalot]

My contribution to this fandom ft the ugliest picture of Arthur i could find (i didn't have to look for long)

[foxgirl87]

Don’t FUCKING SCARE ME like that.

[one-fancy-flapjack]

Haha funny dystopian game what could possibly go wro- 💥💥💥

[fried-dracula]

pouty lil bastard

[whimsiwolf]

"AS HAPPY AS LARRY."

[inposterumcumgaudio]

Oh, I forgot my favorite thing about Dr. Faraday! How foolish of me!

Dr. Faraday is the least ambiguous of a concept that I think permeates the entire game, but is not understood by people who think there are "rules of narrative fiction" that say you have to take everything at face value unless it's contradicted otherwise.

She is a contextual villain.

This is an idea that exists in lots of other media, but I saw it explained most memorably in one of Kieron Gillen's BTS essays for Phonogram: Singles Club. It's in the back of Laura's issue, right after you've watched the girl who you thought was Penny's mysterious and aloof ride-or-die bestie turn out to be her bitter, overshadowed plus-one.

In Arthur's act, Faraday is presented to you as a victim of her own utility to Wellington Wells, imprisoned in her own lab and conscripted to make security devices against her will. You are made to sympathize with her desire not to contribute any further to the subjugation of the populace and assist with her escape plan (although you are admittedly more motivated by the need for her to fix the Plassey Bridge for you). Her stated wishes are altruistic and ethical in this context.

In They Came From Below, however, she is the main antagonist and you find that her lack of emotional intelligence prevents her from seeing what Roger readily can: that the robots she's discovered are sentient and have feelings. Consequently, she's out here committing atrocities and shit. Not very sympathetic now! Although, to her thinking at the time, her motivations were still altruistic and ethical: the people of Wellington Wells had stopped farming so she meant to reprogram the robots to do it for them. If the robots had been exactly as they appeared, this would not have been a problem.

It is for this reason that in my story, her change of heart is actually not emotional, but logical. She's been convinced that the robots have their feelings, but she must reconcile that if forcing them to feel ways convenient for civic use was wrong, then it also wrong to do so to the people of Wellington Wells.

But consider that Roger, after all this, remains loyal to her. It's not just the job or the security she's provided either; after she's gone, he's reluctant to hand over his bee cannon to Ollie because "she made it for me". Roger's seen her at her worst and he's seen her at her best too. He's weighed all her actions together and made his decision about her.

It's rather special what They Came From Below does as well, in making her an antagonist. It poses a question: are you sure about your impression of this character? Do you have the full picture? In Arthur's and Sally's Acts, Faraday is witty and even a bit charming for someone so devoid of empathy.

Dr. Verloc is described the same way, you know.

But let us imagine they gave us a Verloc DLC. Do you think he'd be a villain in it? No, 'cause he'd be the protagonist. A Byng DLC? Same thing. You'd be forced to reconcile their world view with those you'd already been shown. Might they still wash out to be villains overall? Maybe. Probably, even.

The only reason why these guys are so thoroughly vilified is because we never get to see them on their own terms or from any perspective other than that of their enemies (particularly each other actually, which is pretty funny!) But they are surely as dimensional as anyone else in this world.

And this goes the other way too. You play as Arthur and immediately you meet a character who knows him: Danny Defoe. And Danny does not like him! Now granted, this is because when they worked at the O' Courant together, he copied one of Arthur's articles word for word and submitted it as his own, Arthur told on him, and he got fired. Which reflects poorly on Danny, but we also know by this point that Clive Birtwhistle isn't exactly Arthur's biggest fan either. And maybe Clive's not as diligent a worker as Arthur, but he also thinks Arthur's a kiss-ass and we learn from the Ploughboys later that this may not be an unsubstantiated opinion. 0-2 for coworker relations. When you find Prudence's diary in the Maidenholm hatch, we learn she didn't like him much either. Paints a picture. I mean, Arthur's the only constant in this equation.

And Sally. Lordy, for someone so popular and friendly, she sure does have a lot of people not particularly pleased with her.

Ollie at least understands he's a miserable prick and how that informs his relationships with everyone else. But Arthur, Sally, James, and even Victoria and General Byng speak of him fondly so we know he's actually being more critical of himself than they are (without yet knowing he has his buried reasons to see himself that way).

We were given all this, and yet a lot of people were still asking why Arthur and Sally's versions of events are so different and who was "right".

In being so obviously and unambiguously shown in a controverting light from her established impression, Dr. Faraday is the game's invitation to question your perception of every character.

RSVP.