LogFAQs > #896049475

2. Francis York Morgan (Deadly Premonition)



"Did you see that, Zach?! Clear as a crisp spring morning! F.K... In the coffee!"

I think that for a character to become truly memorable, most of the time that character has to be charismatic. By that I don't mean they have to be cool or badass - charisma is simply the character's ability to hold a reader's interest while on screen. This can come in many forms. Delita is charismatic because every meeting with him is a surprise filled new developments concerning his increasingly unscrupulous plans. Dante is charismatic because he owns every scene like he's having the time of his life. Phoenix Wright is charismatic because his constant uphill struggle in the courtroom leads to some frantic, desperate thinking that sells his role as the ultimate underdog.

Francis York Morgan is the most charasmatic character I've ever seen. There is no scene with York in it that isn't a delight to watch. York's initial character setup is pretty standard when boiled down to its base elements; he's an FBI agent tasked with solving a murder case. That's about where York stops being standard. He has this off-kilter way of speaking that makes every comment ranging from the quality of his toast to a breakthrough discovery in the case sound like the most interesting thing in the world. He speaks a little more slowly than the average person, making you unconsciouslessly hang on every word he says. These factors are compounded by the things he says, which are as off-kilter as his speaking patterns. York can say things that make a sort of half sense but are just...weird. He always seems to be coming into conclusions in his head using trains of thought that no normal person would. Never too out-there to be written off as complete nonsense, but rarely so normal that you don't take at least a split second to wonder what the hell he's on about. That York is consistently proven to be competent and intelligent by his handling of the case and his interactions with the townsfolk only furthers the air of mystery he possesses. You spend all of Deadly Premonition trying to figure out what this guy's deal is.

You never do. No one in Deadly Premonition, from the townsfolk to the villains - and definitely not you - are able to completely 100% understand York. Some later events in the game shed a lot of light on some of his mannerisms and his character as a whole, but they don't fully explain why he can be so damn weird, and that's great. York is York and I wouldn't have him any other way. There's one scene midway through the game that I love where York explains to one of his fellow officers why he frequently speaks out loud to an an apprently invisible entity named Zach, who seems to be his close friend and confidant. And she just rolls with it, because even if it's totally out there, why bother fighting it? It's York.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.