Tagged as Farley Havelock, Hiram Burrows

Contributors:

Admiral, Pip, Aidan

Admiral: I am once again thinking about how Havelock is just as dangerous as Martin when it comes to facades and people taking him at face value.

I feel like if Hiram knew how dangerous he was and what he was liable to do, he would Not have just let Havelock go after stripping him of his rank.

I think with Havelock is, it's less that he's putting on an active front, and more people just seeing what he's like on the surface and writing him off before they really understand what he's capable of.

People seem to think he's either a super honorable man or a brute, and on some level, both those things are true. He outwardly values honor as a military man, and he admits himself that he's a very stubborn person who sometimes doesn't stop to consider what he's doing. But the thing is, he's smart, cunning in his own right, and like Corvo, he probably got one hell of a cruel/spiteful streak in tandem with the bloodlust the Heart tells us about.

He knows exactly how to play the game and win, he just prefers tearing everything down over walking the maze.

Pip: i think also, honour doesnt make someone Good. you can have an obsession w honour and be a truly despicable person. like. the idea of honour is so cultural and so subjective

Havelock: Part of it is also the class system in Dishonored. This is edging into headcanon territory, but some of the lines spoken by certain characters in the game (and one line that never made it in the game) suggest that Havelock came from a common family, probably without much money to their name. In the time period Dishonored is based off of, he likely wouldn't have gone through whatever their equivalent of a naval academy is, and someone of his background making any high rank, let alone the rank of Admiral, is a pretty huge deal. But even then, because of where he comes from and because of his outward demeanor, people may not typically take him as the kind of cunning person he is because of their own prejudices.

Especially someone like Burrows.

Aidan: it makes it all the more bitter for him if he had to work for a high position in the navy and have it completely stripped away, stuck with a broken down bar in a condemned district. it would really solidify havelocks reasoning to form the loyalists

Admiral: Yeaaaah! Like, he worked extremely hard to get to the position that he's in, harder than most of his peers, and then it's taken away from him in an instant. Not only that, but the Lord Regent clearly thinks that stripping him of his rank is all it will take for him to lay down and take that kind of humiliation. Underestimating Havelock ends up being part of Burrows' downfall and I think that's just lovely.

I think the first time I played Dishonored and Piero dropped the, "Don't underestimate Havelock," line actually changed my life

I keep thinking of how it's implied by the heart that Havelock attempted to stage a coup, and that's the real reason he was booted from the Navy, and how like...if Burrows had known what Havelock was willing to do to win, there was no way in hell he would've let Havelock go anywhere but the executioner's block.

But Burrows took Havelock at face value and thought that expulsion and humiliation would've been enough to neutralize him, because what would a brute who twists himself into a knot over honor do? Surely taking away his power would take care of him. But that ended up being Burrows' undoing.