We Happy Few Wiki
Register
Advertisement


"This is not what I expected the future to be."
— Arthur to himself.

Arthur Ernest Hastings is the main protagonist of We Happy Few. He's the first character the player takes control of as they learn and get used to how the world operates.

Arthur's motivation to find his long lost brother, Percival "Percy" Hastings, acts as his main reason to finally escape Wellington Wells.

Buff EasilyForgotten Appearance[]

Utterly unremarkable; Arthur is a tall, slim British everyman with parted black hair and dark brown eyes. He is always presentably dressed, though he never stands out.

He wears a Proper Suit, his signature outfit, with black Proper Shoes, and rectangular glasses.

He's a resident in St. George's Holm, though he works in the Parade District.

Buff VelvetTongue Personality[]

"I'd forgotten just how heinous a person I am."
— Epilogue

Arthur is a rather awkward, compliant, and patient man who is, for the most part, calm and collected. He's not too confrontational, usually getting distressed and nervous during intense moments with the locals, though he's not afraid to stand up for those who can't defend themselves, only getting angry when he feels necessary.

Specifically towards people he cares about, Arthur has a tendency to run his mouth and say hurtful things without thinking ahead, though he's quick to apologise right afterwards.

Because Arthur isn't used to being among Wastrels, he's noticeably more awkward around them compared to Wellies, unsure of what to properly say to them.

A former reporter, Arthur usually gets himself in other people's troubles out of curiosity, often times helping them in the process. For the most part, he does what people asks him to do in exchange for something he could use for his own benefit, though sometimes he helps people with no intent of getting something in return.

After Arthur pieces together what had really happened between him and his brother Percy 17 years ago, he visibly breaks down from the guilt. However, with the encouragement from Chief Inspector Peters, he ultimately decides he must carry on nonetheless, knowing that his past doesn't define his current self, and that he can be a better person even if he isn't forgiven.

Buff TypicallyBritish History[]

Born on the 12th of August, 1934, very little is known about Arthur's past. But as the game progresses, more of it is revealed, the most important being that he had an older brother named Percival "Percy" Hastings.

Arthur and Percy were inseparable, often regarded as Percy's caretaker as he was "dim" and no one else knew what to do with him, implied to have a neurodevelopmental disorder (specifically ASD). Arthur was there for Percy when no one else could or wanted, sometimes reluctantly.

During WWII in 1947, Arthur convinced Percy to accompany him on the train to Germany. However, Arthur ends up betraying and impersonating Percy with the help of his ID to lie to a constable to escape from being forced onto the train. Percy was then sent to Germany in Arthur's place.

The day before the children were taken to the train, Mrs. Boyle, mother of Sally Boyle, poisoned her whole family to prevent her two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne Boyle, from being forced onto the train. Sally was left alive as she managed to get away from eating the soup. Since she had nowhere else to go, Arthur's father took her in.

While together, Arthur and Sally grew close to each other, occasionally running off to smoke already used cigarettes from German soldiers, stargazing, sneaking off to restricted areas and lockpicking stuff, coming up with what they were going to be in the future, and comforting each other when they got reminded of their pasts.

Arthur's mother, Maeve O'Naill Hastings, became sick in 1943. Her illness steadily declined her health over the years, eventually leading to her death in 1948. Around this time, Mr. Hastings coerces Sally into sexual intercourse, which she complied with in fear of being kicked out. Arthur discovered the two in his deceased mother's bed, getting so furious that he scared Sally out of their house, never seeing her again.

In 1951, as Joy gets produced and Arthur starts using it to forget all the awful things in his past, the details of his memories and events muddles out, a common side effect of the drug. Arthur would eventually lose his memories regarding Percy altogether.

Arthur, despite studying to become an engineer, instead gets a job as a reporter at the Hamlyn "O" Courant, in St. George's Holm. He eventually stops showing up to work.

17 years later, in 1964, Arthur gets employed as an editor at the Department of Archives, Printing and Recycling in City Hall, The Parade District. Arthur becomes content with his life, until one day when he comes across an old article about a scrapyard prise he and Percy had won, hallucinating the screams of children, a train engine, and his brother's cry for where he's gone. Arthur refuses to take any more Joy, thus setting the events of We Happy Few in motion.

Buff PureBliss Events of We Happy Few[]

Act I[]

The Parade District, and a Chance at Redemption[]

At the start of the game, Arthur is at work going through old newspapers and censoring things considered unpleasant and harmful to the community. Essentially, any article that is either too depressing or reminds people of the things they're trying to forget through Joy.

As Arthur goes through the articles, he comes across a newspaper article about him and his brother winning a scrapyard gathering prise and begins to remember Percy, upsetting him. Arthur instinctively picks up a pill bottle on his desk, opens it and pours out two Joy pills. However, he relents before he takes the pills, unable to decide whether or not he actually should take the pills. The player is then given the option to decide whether to take his Joy and forget, or refuse and start to remember the past.

Should the player choose to take the pill, Arthur forgets, and censors the entire page, burying his past for good. The game ends there, and the credits roll.

If the player refuses to take the pill, Arthur throws both it and the bottle into a nearby waste bin and looks at the article alarmed, crying out Percy's name. He then gets stuck staring at the article for what feels like several hours. Victoria Byng, the director of the department, enters his office three hours later and reminds him to finish up so he can come to the birthday party they'd planned for Deirdre, one of Arthur's co-workers.

After finishing up his work, and while making his way to the party, Arthur passes by a window to Hopkin Jones' office where a Joy Doctor forcefully injects Joy into his stream before noticing Arthur, closing the window shutters so he can't see what's going on. Arthur then passes through other offices, seeing large piles of paperwork and broken pneumatic tubes, indicating they're very behind in their work.

When he arrives at the conference room, he finds everyone else gathered around a piñata that Byng orders him to hit. After hitting the "piñata”, the residual Joy in his system wears off and he sees what it actually was, a rat. And the "candy" the others are eating is actually its innards.

Arthur retches in disgust and horror, which Victoria notices, figuring that he has gone off his Joy. She offers Arthur one of her pills, but Arthur hesitates. Victoria realises that he's become a Downer and calls for security.

Arthur runs out of the office and makes a hasty, if somewhat inelegant escape, only to be cornered in the underground motilene maintenance tunnels by two Bobbies. Just as they are about to kill Arthur, the Bobbies smell a gas leak caused by Arthur ripping of a pipe to defend himself with, they decide to run away, leaving Arthur unconscious.

The Garden District, and the Fish out of Water[]

Arthur wakes up in the maintenance tunnels beneath Wellington Wells and attempts to recollect what had just happened. He then makes his way through the seemingly abandoned, yet operational, maintenance facilities.

While making his way through a workers' resting area, Arthur stumbles across a dead Council worker named Rupert Underhill and deduces that he had been murdered. When Arthur then tries to enter a room behind Underhill in order to get up and out, he is attacked by the killer, Theodore Miner. This is the first enemy the player encounters in the game and serves as the tutorial for hand-to-hand combat.

After unlocking the hatch that leads out of the maintenance tunnels, Arthur exits and enters the wastes of Barrow Holm, The Garden District. While wandering through the desolate landscape, Arthur begins planning an escape out of Wellington Wells to find Percy, deciding on following the train tracks from the nearby train station on Eel Pie Holm to get to Britannia Bridge, and then out to the mainland.

While in Barrow Holm, Arthur quickly learns just how unfamiliar he is with his surroundings, being forced to learn how to fit in and properly act among the locals to survive the next five minutes. He also finds himself thrown into a fight with his former co-worker from The Hamlyn "O" Courant, Danny Defoe. After Danny's, Celestia's and Sandy's defeats, Arthur gets dropped into a pit full of other dead corpses who also fought at some point. On his way of escaping the wretched place, Arthur uses his previous knowledge of sneaking and distracting in order to steal a Power Cell and the War Medals belonging to David Livingstone.

After returning the medals to David, he gives Arthur the keycard to activating the revolver on the bridge to Eel Pie Holm, Arthur's first stop.

Eel Pie Holm, and the Stranger in a Stranger Land[]

After getting onto Eel Pie Holm and locating the train station, Arthur enters it and begins making his way through the derelict and ruined building. Once he reaches the train tracks, however, he finds out that the tunnel has collapsed, blocking off the tracks completely. Seeing his only means of escape blocked, Arthur sees no point in staying in the area and makes his way to the surface levels of the train station.

All while this is happening, Arthur also started remembering bits and pieces of his past, mostly in the form of conversations with Percy. It's revealed he also remembers when the children were sent off to Germany by the train, Arthur told the constables that they had gotten his birth date wrong on his ID, that it said he was 10 days too old, so he ended up getting rejected while Percy was forced onto the train.

Meeting Ollie and Robbing Ravensholm[]

When Arthur is able to reach the ground floor of the train station, he finds his old neighbour Ollie Starkey living in the building, seeing him again for the first time in years. Ollie, who doesn't recognise Arthur at first, attacks him with a Cricket Bat and almost clobbers him to death, until Arthur manages to get through to him. Ollie makes deal with Arthur, that in exchange of helping him infiltrate the Victory Memorial Camp and rob them off of their resources, Ollie will help Arthur get to Maidenholm.

When infiltrating the Military Camp, Arthur wonders why the Germans left behind their tanks after they'd gotten the children, though he doesn't get an immediate answer. While inside the camp, Arthur climbs atop the roof of a shed overlooking the abandoned German tanks in order to plot out his entry. Suddenly, a spotlight shines right at him, not only blinding him, but also causing him to hastily jump onto one of the tanks, only to land straight through it instead.

He now discovers that the German tanks weren't real, that they were made out of papier-mâché, and placed on the camp to deter any sort of uprising during the occupation. After disabling the power and barely escaping from the military camp and the crazed Home Army soldiers, he returns to the Train Station and brings up what he has just discovered with Ollie.

Ollie becomes shocked at this revelation, stating that they would have risen up if the Germans didn't really have real tanks. Arthur, meanwhile, remembers that he had actually lied about his age to get off of the train, and left Percy all alone. He reminds Ollie of their deal, and though Ollie initially laughs it off, he then decides to give Arthur a strange piece of machinery from his stash to use as an excuse to enter Maidenholm, wishing him farewell as they depart.

Arthur is able to fool his way into the entry terminal, goes through a rehabilitation program meant to return Wastrels into Wellies, and is welcomed back by the populace onto Maidenholm.

Hamlyn Village, Recollection, and an Old Friend[]

Arthur, realising that he won't be able to enter the Parade District without a Letter of Transit, decides to run off to the Old Government Printing Office in order to steal some old paperwork from there. However, when he enters the back alley he finds an old friend of his, Sally Boyle.

While both are excited to see each other again after so long. She notices that Arthur is off his Joy, he explains that he remembered Percy and decided to stop taking his Joy in order to find him. Sally offers to help him get a Letter of Transit, as she's familiar with the General. Arthur becomes cold towards her, initially irritated about something she did when they were younger. Arthur tries to quickly apologise, but Sally is nowhere to be seen.

As Arthur leaves the alley, a bobby catches him leaving and asks him where he's off to, to which he explains he's off to see an old friend on St. George's Holm, but the Bobby tells him he shouldn't be in such hurry, as the bridge to St. George is under renovations. During their conversation, the bobby accidentally reveals that Dr. Faraday is the only person who knows how to fix the bridge, prompting Arthur to go find Faraday.

While Arthur is infiltrating the Wellington Wells Constabulary HQ in order to obtain identity records from the archives, he briefly stumbles upon a Police Constable who seems familiar to him. The Constable calls Arthur by his brother's name, but Arthur denies this, saying that Percy is gone. This prompts the constable to ask if Arthur's memory is playing tricks on him, seemingly knowing more than meets the eye.

After this short encounter, Arthur remembers that the constable he just met very closely resembles the constable that Arthur lied to about his age and identity in 1944.

When locating Faraday's home, he finds that she's been relocated to Lud's Holm, the place where the ever growing Plague is quarantined. While Arthur is out convincing another Bobby he's supposed to see Dr. Faraday, he's warned about the Plague Wastrels.

As Arthur helps Faraday get out of Wellington Wells by building a portal, he's eventually given the code necessary to fix the bridge leading to St. George's Holm. Heading off to make up to Sally.

St. George's Holm, and the Truth about Joy[]

Arthur is eventually able to locate Sally's home, where he apologises for his actions and tells her he really needs a Letter of Transit. Sally asks Arthur to fetch a bottle of cod liver oil for her in exchange for the letter from Byng, which Arthur reluctantly agrees to. Before Arthur heads off, she tells him that Anton Verloc has cod liver oil at Haworth Labs.

To get the oil, Arthur first sets off on visiting the labs, posing as a reporter wanting to interview Dr. Verloc. He's quickly stopped by the Bobbies though, as they want to see his press pass, which Arthur doesn't actually have. This causes Arthur to go off on another adventure in order to obtain the press pass to enter the facility.

This includes tracking down his old co-worker, Gemma Olsen, who's mysteriously vanished, and carrying on with her investigation from where she left off, which takes Arthur through the underground maintenance facilities for Jubilators and the Motilene network. There, Arthur gradually discovers that the entire system keeping the city functioning is breaking down, that more and more batches of Joy are being modified and going bad, turning Wellies into Downers, and that Anton has a "Permanent Solution" in mind.

After gaining access to Haworth Labs, Arthur discovers that the facility is in a state of chaos, with random accidents happening regularly, leading to fires, explosions, chemical leaks and areas being flooded with electrified water, among other things. On top of this, Arthur concludes that Anton's "Permanent Solution" involves lobotomizing the entire population of Wellington Wells, which will lock them in a permanent state of happiness while also significantly reducing their intelligence. Arthur attempts to throw Verloc's own test formula at him in order to destroy his mind, but Verloc manages to stun Arthur with electric shocks before making an escape.

After finding the cod liver oil, Arthur returns to Sally's home, giving it to her. From the way she acts upon getting the oil, Arthur assumes that she sent him on a pointless quest for an equally pointless souvenir. He calls her out about how it's always been what she wanted and needed, while she quietly asks if he really thinks she's that awful, he brings up what had happened the night she left; how he found her, an at-the-time 16 year old, having had sexual intercourse with his own father, in his dead mother's bed.

After a second of realising what he had just shouted at her, he apologises, saying "I don't hate you, in the strangest way you're completely innocent. You're practically the only one I know who is". She then finally tells him the Letter of Transit is on the dresser.

Arthur offers to take Sally with him, which she agrees with at first, but says that they'll have to wait until dawn. Arthur decides to leave without her, hastily saying that it's nothing personal. He suspects that Sally was planning on using Arthur to her advantage to get out of the city and dispose of him afterwards.

The Parade District, Arthur's Final Escape, and Regret[]

Arthur finally returns to the Parade District, going on to fixing machines for Richard Arkwright before infiltrating the Wellington Health to lift the quarantine grids to finally the Broadcast Tower.

While infiltrating the health institute, Arthur is ambushed and captured by Joy Doctors, getting subjected to an experiment where he is injected with a prototype of Joy, causing him to see hallucinations of Percy, hearing the screams of children, and the horrid train.

Seeing this, the Doctors decide to call the experiment as a failure. When they try to move Arthur to the cells, the power goes off before an explosion knocks the two Doctor's unconscious, allowing Arthur to narrowly make an escape. Arthur is able to disable the containment system, starting a riot amongst the Plague Wastrels and Joy Doctors. This allows Arthur to escape, albeit while inadvertently breaching the quarantine in the process.

Running through the town, as the Plague has now broken through the quarantine with symptoms of Joy withdrawal, Arthur finally makes his way to the broadcast tower. He goes beneath the building and enters into the rail tunnels, where he discovers the fresh body of his co-worker and fellow Downer, Prudence Holmes. With the letter in hand, Arthur fights and flees his way through the tunnels, which are being mined out to harvest Motilene.

In order to get across the huge mine shaft, Arthur activates an excavator, triggering a massive chain reaction of explosions, causing the entire mine shaft to violently collapse. Arthur narrowly escapes the carnage, and makes it to the end of Britannia Bridge.

The Truth Shall Set You Free[]

Here, Arthur encounters the Constable from before, who, upon removing his facemask, is finally recognised by Arthur, finally remembering exactly what happened between him and Percy.

Arthur had actually used Percy's ID to pose as if he was him, imitating his exact mannerisms to narrowly escape and trick the Constable into letting him to stay in Wellington Wells, letting Percy take the fall and be dragged onto the train by the other Constables, calling out to Arthur as the train left for good.

Arthur grieves over his brother and his actions, understanding that he can't be forgiven. Peters reassures him that they've all done terrible things, stating that while Arthur can't be forgiven for what he's done, he should consider it a gift that he remembers the event at all.

He then escorts Arthur across the bridge, ending Act I.

Act II[]

Arthur is encountered by Sally at the same location as in Act I, albeit from Sally's perspective.

Several things go differently, their behaviours are different, Sally doesn't ask why he's off his Joy and he cuts her off when she tries to explain what a day she's been through, Arthur is bluntly harsh towards her, and she describes his father far differently than what Arthur interpreted. Biggest change of all, perhaps, is when Arthur leaves her behind instead of the other way around.

Sally later encounters him out in the Garden District, sitting on a swing set. Their second conversation is fairly identical to the one from Arthur's perspective.

Finally, in Sally's last encounter with Arthur, their interaction is fairly identical again. Though, Sally is the one who suggests they should leave together instead of Arthur. While he initially agrees to this, it quickly wears off when she tells him she needs to return to her home and get something first and has to wait until dawn. As Arthur abandons her, she reveals that she has a baby, but Arthur still decides to leave, saying it's nothing personal.

Act III[]

Arthur is only encountered in the first cutscene during his dialogue with Ollie after infiltrating the military camp but from Ollie's perspective. Their conversation is practically identical, with the only difference being Margaret's hallucinated existence.

Epilogue[]

As Arthur and the Chief Inspector walk across the bridge, Arthur continues to hear Percy crying out, and laments how heinous he truly is. The Constable notes that some people are better prepared than others to handle the truth, as well as the guilt and anguish that comes with it, and offers Arthur an Oblivion Pill that will make him completely and permanently forget everything. The player is once again given the choice between taking and not taking the pill, mirroring the choice given at the start of the game.

Should Arthur accept, he presumably completely forgets the events of the whole game and goes back to Wellington Wells, and can be seen playing on playground equipment in a dilapidated and overgrown area, presumably one of the last people still on Joy.

If Arthur refuses, the Constable puts away the pill and allows Arthur to finish his journey on his own.

After making his way across the bridge onto mainland Britain, Arthur can then be seen saying "Lovely day for it!" to various plants, trees and rocks and then encounters a young boy with a ball, who Arthur tries the same greeting with. The boy retorts by saying it's actually been a shitty day because it's been raining all day, and that it'll probably be a shitty night too.

Arthur, with a smile on his face, then states to the boy, "You're right. It has been rather a shit day", feeling a sense of relief from the artificially-enforced happiness of Wellington Wells.

Buff Haggler Relationships[]

Percival Hastings[]

Percy is Arthur's older brother. The two were extremely close, and Arthur often was there to take care of him due to his developmental disorder, although he would often do it begrudgingly. Percy loved Arthur more than anybody else, highlighting their relationship as being as close as friends. Whether he still feels this way after the betrayal is unknown.

However, Arthur still loved Percy despite what he had done to him, and felt extraordinarily guilty after having finally remembered what he truly did. When Joy came into existence, he seized the opportunity to forget, only to realise that forgetting about something doesn't change what happened.

When the Chief Inspector unkowingly causes Arthur to remember what he did, the immense shame and guilt overwhelms him and causes him to break down. Should he decide to remember everything, he will set off in search of Percy, showing that he plans to make up for what he did.

Sally Boyle[]

Sally is Arthur's childhood friend and sweetheart, and it seems like Sally feels the same, highlighted by the time they spent together.

Arthur's family took Sally in when her mother poisoned the whole family as well as herself, leaving Sally as the sole survivor. She was eventually scared off by Arthur out of fear and shame, due to the fact that she slept with his father.

When the two meet again many years later, they are initially excited to see one another, but Arthur quickly remembers what Sally did, and seems to resent her once again, but feels badly for it, and decides to apologise. From there, their relationship becomes one based on a deal: "Help me and I'll help you." It is shown that Sally still has feelings for Arthur, however, when she kisses him, but he is scared by this and flees, suggesting that the time for romance has long since passed.

Arthur sees Sally as a confident, brilliant, brash, and flirtatious girl. This is in stark contrast to how Sally sees herself; insecure, afraid and horrible.

Ollie Starkey[]

Ollie and Arthur's relationship is a little unclear, as the two seemed to simply be neighbours. Ollie knew Arthur's mother and would let Arthur and Sally play in his house sometimes. In the game, it's revealed that Ollie apparently knew of Arthur's survival, as he found Arthur coming back from the train station.

Edmund MacMillan[]

An old friend of Arthur and Percy, he's the only other friend Percy had. Arthur saves Eddie from the Plough Boys and carries him to the Pub after the gang attacked him and broke his legs in Act I, Superb Meat Boy.

Eddie mentions on multiple occasions how Percy told him that Arthur was good, believing in it himself even through adulthood.

HeaderNotes Related Notes[]

Quests & Quotes[]

see Arthur's Quests and Arthur's Quotes.

Out of the three characters, Arthur has the most well-balanced build for combat and stealth.

He can craft a relatively wide assortment of survival items, tools, weapons and the like, can wield any weapon he can make or find, and can even remove the penalties normally incurred from being hungry, thirsty or tired. He is also the only character that can use both Chemistry Tables and Workbenches.

Two of his abilities are simply cosmetic, while the other two affect gameplay positively:

 Icon Name Description  Effect
Buff OddBird
Odd Man Out Defensive and Sarcastic. Arthur makes remarks and comments to certain actions such as taking down enemies, running out of stamina, putting on different outfits, greeting people, and even Motilene fumes.
Buff TypicallyBritish
English Repressed. Arthur has a British accent and most of his tone in voice shows he's holding back his fear when making comments.
Buff AverageGuy
Swift Runs quite fast. Walks and runs faster than any other character.
Buff EasilyForgotten
Unremarkable Can hide in plain sight, e.g. on benches, if not in the line of sight of angry people. Arthur can conceal himself by sitting down on chairs or benches and reading a newspaper as long as people aren't hostile towards him

His other abilities in Combat, Stealth, and Super-Duper all focus on either combat or stealth.

Combat allows Arthur to deal more damage when attacking, gain more health and defence, or even give him the upper hand by stunning enemies or breaking their weapons when he blocks their attacks at the right time.

Stealth allows him to be more hidden by making his footsteps quieter, having enemies take longer to see him and allows him to quietly strangle enemies unconscious in their beds or from behind when trespassing. Two of the later skills allow Arthur to be outdoors during curfew without raising suspicion as well as run, jump and crouch without upsetting Wellies.

Super-Duper lets him get more health back from healing items, carry more things and be less burdened if he carries too much, takedown taller enemies (Bobbies and Doctors), and remove the penalties of low hunger, thirst, and exhaustion.

Buff Preservasionist We Happy Few[]

Concept Art[]

Official Artwork[]

Gifs/Animations[]

In Game[]

Other[]

Buff Conformist General[]

  • He used to love the train station.
    • He also got the worst nightmares about the train, according to Sally.
    • Because of Arthur's reoccurring nightmares, flashbacks, and strong reactions from being reminded of what he did to Percy, it's possible he has PTSD.
  • Arthur could never grow any crops.
  • Arthur tends to quote Hamlet a lot.
  • According to himself, he's a sucker for science.
  • Arthur sometimes wishes he was more of a drinker.
  • Arthur and Sally used to sneak into movie theatres.
    • They also used to steal cigarette butts from the Germans when they weren't looking so that they could smoke them themselves.
  • Arthur used to race Eric Liddell, but could never beat him.
  • His first Proper Suit was a gift from his uncle Henry Hastings.
  • When entering a Joy booth, he will always pick the strawberry flavour.
    • The same applies to all other playable characters.
  • Arthur claims he hates irony, though that in itself may be ironic, considering some of his quotes are ironic.
  • During Alpha, it was revealed in his obituary after the player dies that Arthur used to play the clarinet for the Writhlington school's Jazz band.
  • According to Reg Cutty at the beginning of Possibly Heinous Package quest, Arthur is about tall 6 ft. (=1.83 m). Many other characters often state that Arthur is very tall.

Other[]

  • Arthur and Percy's names are references to the Arthurian legends, King Arthur and his knight Sir Percival.
    • Hastings shares a name with Captain Arthur Hastings, assistant to Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot - who, like We Happy Few's Hastings, is a quintessentially British gentleman. His last name is also the name of the famous battle of 1066 which lead to the death of the then-current King of England and facilitated the successful Norman conquest of the country, the last successful invasion until the 1943 invasion in the game's alternative history.
  • According to the book, 'The Art of We Happy Few', Arthur was inspired by stop motion characters, with long limbs, exaggerated features, and tactile materials.
    • It's also said that it was important that he was non-traditionally attractive, and slightly goofy.
  • As seen in concept art and unused text/data, there once was a plan to have Arthur dress and act as if he was a Constable for an unused side quest. This idea was, however, scrapped.
  • Young Arthur's identity card as shown in his flashback to the train station erroneously states that he has brown hair and green eyes; adult Arthur is consistently portrayed, in-game and in promotional material, with black hair and brown eyes.
  • Besides Gwen Boyle, Arthur is presumably either the youngest or one of the youngest people in Wellington Wells due to the fact that everyone else his age and younger was sent to Germany (or killed beforehand, like Margaret) and all children born after that were killed or smuggled out.
  • From the PAX 2016 Demo, Arthur is said to be a member of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, a denomination opposed to violence and famed for abstinence and/or moderation when it comes to drugs and/or drinking. Whether this is still the case is unknown.
    • Judging by a few of his in-game descriptions from certain quests, he goes to church and listens to Father McCartney.
  • The cutscenes that he and Sally share are experienced differently depending on who the player is playing at the moment. In Arthur's perspective, he will meet Sally in the Village and give her the cod liver oil in her home; in Sally's perspective, she will meet Arthur in the Village as well but she will meet him again in the Garden when he's on a swing.
    • In general, Arthur's POV seems to portray him as a decent bloke (aside from his memories of his past) who is only cruel or a liar when he needs to be. On the other hand, Sally's POV shows more of the worse parts of his personality.
    • This is because the main characters are all unreliable narrators, no one is completely right in what they experienced; Sally sees Arthur as far more cruel to her than he did because she is convinced he still hates her, meanwhile Arthur sees Sally as confident and open, though she acts more nervous and reserved from her perspective. Many of these scenarios are left for the player to determine what really went down.

Quotes[]

Arthur talks a lot to himself while wandering around on his own in Hamlyn Village or Garden District. A full list of his quotes can be read here.

  • He remembers that he used to own a dog named Stripe.
  • He asks himself if he's really happy on drugs, or if there's a true self.
  • He wonders what chocolate used to taste like, recalling that Percy hated it.
  • He misses his mum, but not his dad.
  • He wonders if 'Changelings' were the term people used to call people like Percy.
  • He wonders if Percy would've preferred the Garden District over Hamlyn Village, considering the circumstances.
  • He hopes that a Mrs. Hudson fed Sparky and didn't eat him. In Alpha, it was revealed "Sparky" was Arthur's pet lizard.
  • On various occasions, he recalls that they had seen a specialist regarding Percy's odd behaviour, though that he never got to know what the specialist had said. He recalls that his mother wouldn't stop crying, while all Percy could talk about was the train.

Advertisement