Soldiers of Mayhem
So I just finished the legions archives and I know I said it was heading into retcon territory but Jesus bloody Christ did anybody writing the law or doing the cutscene even read The Legion's story.
So we find out several things have been changed.
1) Joey being changed to be one of Julie's best friends.
"Julie, a beautiful girl who was convinced that she deserved better than a life in Ormond, and Frank, as an outsider, was her ticket out. Frank attended the parties she threw where everyone was younger than him and easily impressed, which he liked. He met the impulsive Joey, who liked to show off, and the shy, naïve Susie, who was Julie's best friend."
The change
"Frank shows up with drugs and drinks. Party treats. Julie introduces him to her best friends Joey and Susie. They talk favourite foods, slasher movies and killers all night."
initially only Susie was described as her best friend however I don't have much of a problem with this change as it can mould either way in interesting outcomes option 1 he was a random party go up for Frank managed to influence option 2 to make him part of the makes him more part of the group making a little bit more understandable why he goes along with it.
Option 1 bolsters Frank's manipulation and option 2 is more believable so either way It's fine.
2) The name Legion
We find out that not only did the Julie essentially come up with the concept of the legion she is also the one who eventually came up with the name after going through some trial and errors.
This isn't bad however the problem seems that the name Legion was decided as a last minute thing before the janitor incident.
This doesn't really work when you consider the fact that Jeff was commissioned to paint their mural independent ski lodge this is kind of sad because in pretty much are raised the only legitimate connection between a chapter's featured survivor and killer.
(Julie suggests payback. "Let's break into the store! Get some more supplies! Set the whole place on fire to let Ormond feel the wrath of The Legion". Joey freezes when he hears the name. Frank raises a curious eyebrow and then nods approvingly. "I like it. I like it a lot". She throws them generic masks. Plain. Bland. Unimpressive. "The only thing we need now is a proper mask".)
Now it's quite possible this could take place a little bit after still giving time for Frank to permission Jeff but considering the cutscene shows them using the bland plain and unimpressive masks it's more than likely that this happened in a very close time frame with each other.
3) Julie setting up their tasks
It seems that Julie was the actual main instigator for a lot of the activities that the Legion partake in.
1) She's the one who introduces the concepts of messing with the sheep of Ormond.
2) Julie is the one who comes up with the first few acts of vandalism.
3) Julie was also the one who came up with the idea to break into Joey's old workplace.
While the other activities they do are uncredited we only see one real activity that Frank organised.
Against this kind of changes from the initial idea of Frank being this impulsive Mastermind ( not that he's much smarter than his fellow Legion members it's just more of a cult leader dynamic. They respected him and obeyed him because of his age and the fact that he was an outsider)
4) janitor incident
Welp I saved the best for last the cutscene upon completing The Legion's archives absolutely retcons what happened and in the legion's lore.
"They snuck inside easily enough, as the building was supposed to be empty after closing hours. But a cleaner who was still there grabbed Julie as soon as she came near. Hearing her stifled cries, a dark impulse took over Frank. He rushed to her aid, knife in hand, and without hesitating, planted the blade into the cleaner's back."
no changes here this is all accurate from the lore to the cutscene
"As the group stared at Frank in shock, he ordered them to finish the job. Joey clenched his jaw, grabbed the knife, and stabbed the bleeding man in the ribs. Susie didn't want to do it. Frank shouted at her; they had to finish what they'd started. Julie closed her eyes and slid the knife into the man's chest. She handed the wet blade to Susie: they were all in this together now. Susie stared at Julie in disbelief as Frank grabbed her trembling hands and inserted the knife deep into the man's throat."
This is completely changed in the cutscene
1) Susie and Joey are completely unnecessary in this event. their entire interaction has been replaced they kind of just stand there with an oh my God reaction well at least Susie does anyway.
2) they removed all the shock and hesitation from each member of the legion.
Joey show as the least hesitation only pausing for a bit before clenching his jaw before going ahead with the act. He saw a need to impress Frank and this goes with his show-off personality. This is now removed as he doesn't do anything.
Julie shows the second highest amount of hesitation only really committing with the act of the Frank starts yelling at Susie refusal and even then Julie had to close her eyes to do it. In the cut scene Julie does not show this amount of meditation in fact when she's offered the knife she quite eagerly goes ahead with the act even doing it in quite a brutal way.
Susie sold the most hesitation out right or refusing to do so until Frank had to grab her hands and pretty much force her to do it. Like with Joey this has been completely removed.
My main problem with this is this was meant to be the action that all link them together, the act of crossing the line and going too far.
Vandalism, theft, arson and assault were all activities they took part in but it's on a whole other level to actually murder somebody.
It also just showed off how much influence Frank actually had over them not only did they go to an act of committing murder when all of them were clearly against it but he kept feeding them the concept of they were in this together and there wasn't no going back with this new edition this is all gone.
I'm assuming this is an oversight and I do get what I was trying to do do trying to shape Frank and Julie in a more Bonnie and Clyde style way. Both being twisted both being interested in murder especially with the line about how they both were a coy when talking about if they would kill for the other.
But it just really rather interesting premise. It took the Legion from being this teenage cult-like unit of three different stereotypical teenagers being manipulated by Frank to hey guys here's the murder couple....... oh yeah and I guess Joey and Susie are here too....... if you care
Comments
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I feel like there is one true way to explain the retcon. Alternate timeline. While at first it may sound stupid, it could explain all of that. All of them have the same boring mask, with Frank getting the blood smear at the end of the cutscene. Unless the entity changed the masks, they all made their own mask at one point.
Humor me and recall Julie giving a bunch of names for their group. Legion’s lore specifically states Jeff making the mural Meaning Frank has to have made the name of at least knew about the name way before the janitor incident, which doesn’t seem to happen in this instance. Julie comes up with the name moments before the janitor incident.
Now, this definitely doesn’t fit the lore, and rereading Legion’s lore, Julie closes her eyes when stabbing the janitor, meaning one of two things. Julie remembers that incident differently than Frank, which would explain why Legion’s actual lore explains Frank having to force the others to kill the janitor. Or alternate timeline.
Either is possible. Since this is Julie’s memories, she wouldn’t have a memory of talking to Jeff to get the mural, maybe she remembers coming up with the name. Maybe she portrayed herself as this character that slaughtered the janitor mercilessly. But this could be the ability the mind has to change a story the more times it’s told. Maybe she thinks herself as the leader, when in actuality she never was. Maybe she thinks she killed the janitor, when it was a collaborative effort. Maybe this is what she’s thinking of when she closes her eyes. We won’t know for now.
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I actually quite like that little insight you gave: memory is not always reliable. It could certainly explain discrepancies in written lore(Truth) and the memories played out in the Auris(Perception). Very nice theory there.
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