NOTES FROM JASON
I did say things were going to get crazier with Harker. This was another scene that was a regular, linear scene of Harker taking his defiant stand. But once the flashbacks ceased being regular and linear, this scene got some minor alterations. Again, it’s the difference between reading that Harker’s mind is fragmented and seeing it for yourself in all of its chaotic, confusing glory. Here was an especially wild one to redesign, as I incorporated actual scenes from Harker’s films, and not just the Samson Cole flicks, along with the memories. This was really the only opportunity to show off some of those films in the story, and not including them as part of the former movie star’s backstory just seemed wrong somehow. Plus, they’re also key parts of Harker’s past, so it was only right to throw them in as well, so we get every version of Harker: the cinema star, the celebrity, the criminal, the… corpse? Yeah, we get the payoff of that brief flash of what appeared to be a dead Harker from earlier, only to discover it was actually his stunt double Rory. That was another idea that was added on later. Originally, I thought it might be a neat idea for a short side story to be released later. But I figured if I could fit it into the main story, then it should belong there, rather than as comic DLC.
Last week I gave a brief overview about Harker’s Samson Cole character, so today I’ll give one for his other noted cinematic portrayal, that of the historic figure Kelly Styers. A role that was both critically and commercially hailed as masterful, and netted Harker multiple awards. Kelly Styers was a member of Alexander Knoxley’s inner revolutionary circle, until somewhere down the line he went rogue and plotted a failed coup d’état against the regime he once loyally served. History has obscured and obfuscated the reasons behind Syters’s sudden heel turn along with how his plot failed (though some suspect he was betrayed), but all remember his last stand, where he publicly refused to recant or submit to authority and was thus shot dead in front of a large crowd of people. A story like that was sure to get the cinematic treatment. And it did, though the first version of the script was very different from the film. In it, Styers was portrayed as a conniving malcontent out to harm the public harmony. In other words, it was State propaganda, written by a Party scribe, approved by the Party commissars. But changes to the script came via the star itself. Harker penned a new, unapproved draft that recasted Styers in a far more sympathetic and heroic light. According to the director, the film found its voice after the changes and became the award-winning sensation. Even the pro-Party critics had no choice but to laud the film and the portrayal. The Party itself though was furious. The original screenwriter demanded his name be removed from the credits and publicly disowned the film. It didn’t stop the awards from coming in, and Harker was more than happy to take credit for both the portrayal and the writing. It should be noted that the rules for choosing award winners were greatly modified after Harker’s win, ensuring that no film that so brazenly strayed from their approved message would ever be awarded by them. Though the film was another peak in Harker’s career, it also put a target on his back. Big shot producers who were quite cozy and copacetic with the Party, who already disliked Harker, were now given new directives: to tear down Warren Harker. Not right away of course, but when the time was right, when his shining star began to flicker, and he did or said something that could incite retribution. Attempts were tried before, all of which Harker had not taken the bait, knowing full well what was being done, but eventually a mistake would be made, and Harker would be brought to heel. And if he wouldn’t back down and submit, then like Styers before him, an example would have to be made.