It’s entirely intentional that Joyce is one of the more affable people you come across juxtaposed to Evrart who is an unscrupulous sleazeball; yet one is knowingly an agent of Capital perpetuating misery (and eventually death) in Revachol while the other represents a net good for Martinaise and potentially a force for positive change, however messy and flawed. The game isn't even subtle about it.
People hung up on his amoral actions in that thread are apparently missing the wider context about how bleak things are in a city where Corpos feel comfortable enough to hire bloodthirsty, racist mercenaries to break strikes. Or how every little bit of organized struggle on the ground is what revolutions (“The Return”) are made of.
i think a lot of liberals completely miss that most people talk to the main character like a cop, because that's what he is. Joyce is warm and welcoming to HDB because he's a cop. Evrart is smarmy and sends HDB on wild goose chases because he's a cop who collaborates with the board of directors of the very company who Evrart is striking against. The entire game takes place from the perspective of a dumbass alcoholic amnesiac cop and that colors every encounter you have with people. Like I've heard liberals try to say the game actually mocks all political ideologies, including communism, because the communist characters are rude to you, or they waste your time, or they're mistrustful of you. Yeah no shit, because every one of them looks at you and sees a pig.
The other element to this is it illustrates that politeness is a function of power and privilege. Joyce can afford to be affable to whomever she wants because she has nigh unlimited resources and a private army and is capable of doing whatever dirty work needs done out of the collective eye (Capital only has to drop the mask for an instant). Claire also dissembles and uses people to accomplish his goals, but it's because he has to outmaneuver an opponent with superior resources and institutional power. He's easier to "see through" than Joyce because he works out of a shipping container rather than a fancy boat and would look silly trying to talk and act like Joyce. He has to fit into his milieu.
There's something that's removedled at me ever since I wised up to the fact that politeness is used as a weapon to stifle dissent. At first I thought it arose as an unconscious reaction because people instinctively realize that it reinforces the status quo, but seeing politicians constantly harp on politeness (even otherwise abrasive assholes like many republicans), I've come around to the idea that the wealthy have always understood its role as a weapon. I know most politicians come across as idiotic and tone deaf, but you don't get to national office without understanding that people are malleable and tend to reflect whatever energy you put out. Smarm is kind of a poor man's version of that, the double bluff where you can't fake sincerity but you can come across like you're acting like you're faking. The game does a good job of illustrating it by putting you on your back foot with the negotiations if you accept the giant novelty check.
When it comes down to it Evrart and Joyce are converging on similar psychological principles but from opposite ends of the sociopolitical spectrum.
I keep telling my partner to finally sitdown and play it, just reminding them that yes there's a million words in the game, but they read basically everything out to you now, and the voice acting is amazing
There's an ancient radio show called Nero Wolfe, which is about what if Phoenix Wright was a fat gourmand who didn't like to leave his apartment so he sent minions out to bring him information and then solved crimes while also enjoying really good food. I love old timey radio detective shows.
there's a cool tv show by the bbc called Inside Man with stanley tucci and david tennant in it which is basically the same thing but instead the detective is actually locked in a maximum security prison on death row for murdering his wife
heroism is when you do things Society and other people like and the more you conform and do things other people like the more heroic you are (please do not question the implications of this definition)
I kind of thought The Claires' whole thing was that they were willing to do some cutthroat things and actively leaned into the sleazy characterization others gave them, but ultimately they were ideologically committed players with an eye for strategy? Seemed intended to be contentious in the same way a lot of real life socialist visionaries - hell, visionaries of any sort - often are.