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David’s Voices
All of the David 1 and David 2 conversations to date. I can’t identify any clear personality differences between the Davids. It’s notable that the Davids address each other and “regular David” as You and the collective group of Davids as We/Us.
Chapter 9
DAVID 1: Does he know?
DAVID 2: Calm down.
DAVID 1: I think he knows.
DAVID 2: He doesn’t know.
DAVID 1: Then why’d he leave? That was weird.
DAVID 1 [CHUCKLING]: Weird.
DAVID 2: Read his mind.
DAVID 1: His mind?
DAVID 2: Their mind, whatever.
DAVID 1: What do they know?
DAVID 2: Assume everything. Be honest.
Chapter 10
David: I need more help finding Farouk.
DAVID 1: Liar.
DAVID 2: Shut up, shut up.
David: Some modifications to the tank.
Kerry: Do I look like the fix-it guy? Or any guy? I’m the X-chromosome ass kicker. Or maybe you missed the part where there was an arm sticking out of my stomach.
David: I just -
DAVID 1: Tell her the truth.
David: I wouldn’t ask unless -
DAVID 2: You need to talk to Syd. Future Syd. It’s important.
DAVID 1: Is that did you just give her a nickname?
DAVID 2: She’s looking at us. Say something.
Chapter 15
DAVID 1: Stop it. We can’t torture him.
DAVID 2: Why not?
DAVID 1: Because first, it’s horrible, and second, he’s just a mind. Does he even feel pain?
Chapter 16
DAVID 1: We know where it is. We need a plan. Should we tell?
DAVID 2: No, if we tell, then Farouk can read their minds.
DAVID 1: Okay. Who should we use? Shit.
DAVID 2: On your mark, get set, go.
-
Legion and the revolving diagnoses
*barring the obvious Shadow King-isms with King, Angirest Boy, and Devil with the Yellow Eyes
We’re all absolutely aware that Legion in the comics has dissociative identity disorder. On the show David goes through multiple diagnoses. In chapter 3, Dr. Poole tells David he suffers from mania in addition to schizophrenia. Mania is part of having bipolar disorder (or geriatrically referred to as manic depression). This was prior to him being admitted to Clockworks.
At Clockworks, Dr. Kissinger limits David’s diagnoses to schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is often what people who have dissociative identity disorder are mistakenly diagnosed with. Then in Chapter 6 David is diagnosed again with having bipolar disorder while Sydney is said to have schizophrenia, but is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, which, both diagnoses are wrong anyways. Because Sydney has haphephobia which actually is why she has antisocial tendencies and emotional/social underdevelopment. And she highly possibly has an undiagnosed borderline personality disorder but that’s another discussion.
The voices telling David to “stop” before he attempted to hang his self may very well have been David’s other personalities. He just didn’t know it. Aside from meeting Rational David in Chapter 7 (we will refer to “our” David as David X), by Chapter 9 we officially see David’s canonical dissociative identity disorder manifested. His other personalities, or “alters” labeled as David 1 and David 2, existing and arguing in his head. Each with distinct characteristics, deciding what they should and shouldn’t do.
In the comics, each of David’s abilities are a result of his other personalities taking over. We’ve seen this in the show where David becomes extremely and suddenly cocky, excited, delirious, or angry when his other powers are displayed (i.e. emitting solar flares or incinerating people or creating light and the list goes on and on). Perhaps the sudden invulnerable feeling David described experiencing which was presumed to be him getting manic was actually just David 2 taking over.
The show really represents the unfortunate reality of how easy it is to be misdiagnosed. The mere essence of being misunderstood.
I agree that David’s shifting diagnoses are true-to-life. But does Dr Poole refer to him as manic? IIRC, it was only in the false Clockworks that David thought he was bipolar, presumably because the SK thought it would make him more cooperative and keep him from realizing the truth.
I’m very curious about what’s going on with the other David voices, but I don’t have a sense yet if they’re meant to be illustrative of his internal conflicts or actually separate personalities. The show has so little relationship to the comics that I don’t see Hawley using the DID-powers concept, especially as we haven’t seen the multiple David voices used in relation to any of David’s infinite powers. I wonder if there’s any DID-type significance in relation to Syd’s statement that she hasn’t seen him lie, or if that’s just an issue with his general withholding in S2.
YOU’RE RIGHT OMG, the only time he was referred to as bipolar was in Chapter 6. I got the details mixed up because there’s so many therapy sessions with different doctors in the first season. *knocks self on head*
As for David’s voices, I’m hearing impaired so I use closed captions when watching Legion. If it the voices were just David’s internal dialogue, they would’ve just showed the conversations in italics. Instead they labeled each David with a different number, showing it’s different “people” in his head talking. I do wonder as well, since Hawley made the show so loose from the comics, if the DID-powers combination are a thing or if they’re separately coexisting, but there is a noted difference in how David acts when he casually uses his powers vs when the omega level abilities take over. His eyes roll up in his head and he has a delirious expression on his face.
As for Syd’s statement about David lying, idk yet either. Dan Stevens in an interview about s2 re: Syd’s trust issues with David said that anyone getting in a relationship with David would have to assume certain license with the truth/a perception of reality. So all Syd has is to go off what David does/doesn’t tell her and all David has is to go off what truth he believes, to which Dan also said that sometimes David doesn’t believe his truth either. Pretty complicated stuff. 😅
Wow, seeing all his omega-moments together like that does show a lot. Still hard to say what’s happening with his head, but he does get super creepy looking when he’s really flexing his powers.
Has anyone put together all the bits of multiple David voices from season 2 yet? I’d like to see if there’s a pattern developing in terms of the two other maybe-personalities.
Any chance you remember what interview that was from? I’d love to read it.
The one thing fans can count on in Season 2, though, is David’s enduring love for Syd, Hawley says: “I wouldn’t say it’s a show where you can’t trust anything, because I do think there’s a love story here, and this emotional trust that I want you to maintain… not that we won’t test it.” Indeed, David and Syd’s bond is tested early on in the premiere, with her feeling abandoned by him during the year he was trapped in that orb. “365 days of waiting can really screw you up,” Hawley notes. “There is some trust that he has to earn back.”
Noah Hawley, http://tvline.com/2018/04/02/legion-fx-season-2-spoilers-marvel-superhero-noah-hawley-preview/We learn along with David that Summerland is now working alongside former baddies Division 3 in an effort to track down the Shadow King, currently taking the form of the on-the-lam Oliver Bird and Lenny. “The interests of our heroes and of Division 3 are aligned at this moment,” Hawley concedes, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean they always will be. We’re going to explore that.
Noah Hawley, http://tvline.com/2018/04/02/legion-fx-season-2-spoilers-marvel-superhero-noah-hawley-preview/Legion and the revolving diagnoses
*barring the obvious Shadow King-isms with King, Angirest Boy, and Devil with the Yellow Eyes
We’re all absolutely aware that Legion in the comics has dissociative identity disorder. On the show David goes through multiple diagnoses. In chapter 3, Dr. Poole tells David he suffers from mania in addition to schizophrenia. Mania is part of having bipolar disorder (or geriatrically referred to as manic depression). This was prior to him being admitted to Clockworks.
At Clockworks, Dr. Kissinger limits David’s diagnoses to schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is often what people who have dissociative identity disorder are mistakenly diagnosed with. Then in Chapter 6 David is diagnosed again with having bipolar disorder while Sydney is said to have schizophrenia, but is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, which, both diagnoses are wrong anyways. Because Sydney has haphephobia which actually is why she has antisocial tendencies and emotional/social underdevelopment. And she highly possibly has an undiagnosed borderline personality disorder but that’s another discussion.
The voices telling David to “stop” before he attempted to hang his self may very well have been David’s other personalities. He just didn’t know it. Aside from meeting Rational David in Chapter 7 (we will refer to “our” David as David X), by Chapter 9 we officially see David’s canonical dissociative identity disorder manifested. His other personalities, or “alters” labeled as David 1 and David 2, existing and arguing in his head. Each with distinct characteristics, deciding what they should and shouldn’t do.
In the comics, each of David’s abilities are a result of his other personalities taking over. We’ve seen this in the show where David becomes extremely and suddenly cocky, excited, delirious, or angry when his other powers are displayed (i.e. emitting solar flares or incinerating people or creating light and the list goes on and on). Perhaps the sudden invulnerable feeling David described experiencing which was presumed to be him getting manic was actually just David 2 taking over.
The show really represents the unfortunate reality of how easy it is to be misdiagnosed. The mere essence of being misunderstood.
I agree that David’s shifting diagnoses are true-to-life. But does Dr Poole refer to him as manic? IIRC, it was only in the false Clockworks that David thought he was bipolar, presumably because the SK thought it would make him more cooperative and keep him from realizing the truth.
I’m very curious about what’s going on with the other David voices, but I don’t have a sense yet if they’re meant to be illustrative of his internal conflicts or actually separate personalities. The show has so little relationship to the comics that I don’t see Hawley using the DID-powers concept, especially as we haven’t seen the multiple David voices used in relation to any of David’s infinite powers. I wonder if there’s any DID-type significance in relation to Syd’s statement that she hasn’t seen him lie, or if that’s just an issue with his general withholding in S2.