The Diana Burnwood Fanclub

[wincenworks]

@MrOchoa

Wasnt this in Illinois? Her safe house was near Chicago or am i mistaken?

It was. For some reason everything “city” type in Absolution is around Chicago, even when it looks like New York. Possibly because they’d already declared it in the prelude book, Hitman: Damnation

@George_the_Aspie

We can certainly agree that Diana is a well-bred woman of taste and culture, but do we have any evidence that she enjoys fine dining?

Yes:

1. As covered, she hired a top of the line chef for her “waiting for 47” hide out in Hitman: Absolution
2. In the HITMAN 2016, when they were experimenting with her being more chatty, some of the random comments she would make were over the canapes at the Sanguine fashion show.
3. In Hitman: Enemy Within, Diana’s reaffirming statement that they’re ride or die is that she’s giving up a perfeclty good dinner to supervise 47’s semi-rogue mission.
   
   
   
   (Side note: I don’t recommend reading either of the books, they’re terrible)
4. Literally the only people she considers “diabolical” are the people putting corpse meat in dinner.
5. Look at how at how home Diana was at the Mendoza party. She is absolutely at home in that ultra fine dining, wine snoberry, etc.
6. What else do you think she spends her money on? She’s only got one fuck cabin, she only needs so many BDSM club memberships. (Yes I will submit fan fiction as evidence, 'cause we all know its going to be canon eventually)
7. Diana doesn’t really seem perplexed by literally anything about the Food Critic briefing. She is familiar with that world, and while she agrees he’s cruel and sadistic, she doesn’t comment on it being ridiculous.
8. While its been largely retconned in the comic (it was just a flash in the video after all) Absolution gave her a childhood background where such an interest would be essential:
   
   

Basically Diana has always been shown to be interesting in the finest things society has to offer, sometimes because she’s assigned exceptional breeding and sometimes because it just fits with the medium/persona of someone who works for a top end independent contracting agency and associates with 47.

IO Interactive has, at various times, indicated that they think of 47 as having refined taste in food too since his suits, and his lifestyle, give the impression of a man who very much has to live in the moment and enjoy himself when he can.

(As a side note, given the tendency for elusive targets to be chefs or food critics, and the fantastic realism of the kitchens in the World of Assassination trilogy - I personally think there’s a few people on the current IO Interactive staff who have experience working in cooking/catering)

[MrOchoa]

Wow, this man knows the Hitman Franchise. I didn’t thought of you being this nerdy (no offense), i like it

I wish you would join conversations more often like this instead of your official/admin duties, but i can imagine those are quite time consuming.

Again, top quality post, I’m impressed you even know the Novels so well, I’ve read them too but mostly forgot about them

[wincenworks]

@MrOchoa

I wish you would join conversations more often like this instead of your official/admin duties, but i can imagine those are quite time consuming.

Yeah, largely at the moment it’s less and admin thing and more a “working full time and studying law” thing means I don’t really have the spare time to put into deep dives on everything… which is a shame since all my old deep dives have been lost in time and I could probably redo them.

[RW_Slick]

@George_the_Aspie

She’s intelligent, refined, and one of the few characters who clearly has a conscience and a sense of morality,

Morality?

Did you see the end of the game? I love Diana, and I love this voice over the previous, but she will accomplish her goal by any means necessary.

[wincenworks]

@RW_Slick

Did you see the end of the game? I love Diana, and I love this voice over the previous, but she will accomplish her goal by any means necessary.

Not true, there are things Diana is not willing to do - that’s why she ends up set on dismantling Providence in the first place, rather than just keeping it all for herself.

It’s just trivial things like espionage, blackmail, murder, etc don’t fall on that list.

[apricotbones]

Quick redraw of one of my favourite Diana scenes. She looks so cosy before Edwards disturbs her

[Bourbon]

I had a thought recently: how would Mendoza have changed if Edwards had been there? We know from his greatest fear that he hates the idea of him dancing with her but would he act on it? Or does the tango proceed as normal because she has to maintain her cover and he’s expecting to take Edwards out like a target after they’re done?

[Yacob]

If Edwards were there then would 47 not have three total targets before the tango? Or perhaps maybe just Edwards? I’m not sure if Yates and Vidal would need to go or not, but by the time he’s dancing with Diana, Edwards would be dead.

[LandirtHome]

Mendoza is all about Diana and her plan to be voted the new constant.
It’s a plan that is already in motion, and 47’s objective are “merely” to edge this voting step. So I don’t think we would have Edward as a target, he’s still a useful asset.

Some of the level dynamics would be more explored, some less, Yates is furious at Edward (you can find his letter of vote recommendation, and he threw a flower pot from the balcony because of it), so having them both would be interesting.
I could imagine Edward being an insta-fail if spotted enforcer.
Yates would also certainly not have been as brusque with his dealing with Diana, which would have robbed us from the joint Diana/47 elimination. Which is also the only opportunity where Diana directly invites 47 to the dance floor (and to put some decent clothes).

---

For the Tango,

I don’t know if Diana would have danced with anyone else than 47, she’s the one who invites him. It’s in a very intimate way, in a “you did it, we did it, we are alone against the world, only relying on ourselves and how much we understand and trust each other, and it’s working” way.
(I think it was you who made a “We understand each other by sending secret messages by being captured on camera, we are not the same” meme about that)

Now let’s say Edward and Diana danced, I imagine after the vote and some behind the scene shenanigan by 47. I don’t think he would have been jealous immediately.
He would certainly be telling himself “yes, sure, Diana needs to blend in, I once had to present a house as a realtor/tattoo a cartel boss/play drum for a top 50 band so it’s not the most ridiculous thing in the world”.

After the “betrayal” it would be interesting. Or maybe as interesting, if not less, compared to what we have in Reflections.
Where in the game it’s “I fear he took my place” or “I misjudged my place and my relations with Diana”, here it would be “I ignored the signs of a betrayal”. I feel like it would be less personal (and less relevant to 47 story arc).

---

In reflections, 47 is pondering everything that happened to him, and I don’t think he would have had the same amount of self reflection before, in Mendoza. And so in this hypothetical Edward dance.

47 is just regaining his memories (Dubai opening cinematic), his brother just died and he just took his ideal, personal mission with him at heart (also his coat). Like Grey, following his example 47 is regaining a life for himself, far from being a mere tool to use by the ICA, living contract by contract.
In Reflection he is afraid that he was just that for Diana, a tool. “you didn’t even had a name, before I gave you one”

I don’t think Diana dancing with Edward is a core fear. It’s just the most on point way to illustrate in a rational way 47 true core fear :
That it’s not him, that he misjudged his relation with her. And with her, his capacity of having relations and trust with others.

---

Something interesting in Reflection is how 47 originally believed that he didn’t deserve Diana because of what he did to her parents. That’s what he rationalised as the cause of his fear.
“Of course I don’t deserve a normal human life and trust, I have done too much, I am too far astray, how could I see myself as anything else than a weapon to wield. How could I even expect others to see me as anything else than that. Especially Diana, I hurted her.”

And in the end he needs what he already needed in his youth, and in the trilogy to show him that there is more to himself : his brother. Here as the model and shaper of his newly reborn conscience.

47 pardons himself, sees himself as humanely equal to Diana, accepts his partnership and trust with and to her and wakes up. We all know the rest.

Edward is not that important, nothing about him as a person is important. He just “that other guy I project my fear into”.
It’s all about 47 and Diana. Because after Grey’s passing, she’s all he knows and can care about.

[Bourbon]

@Yacob

I’m not sure if Yates and Vidal would need to go or not

I could see it go a few ways.

1. Diana still wants to become Constant, as part of her plan to usurp Edwards and take down Providence so they’re dead regardless of Edwards’ presence;
2. 47 doesn’t meet with Diana at the beginning and uses his own wits to see that they’re both threats to Diana’s life, killing them out of loyalty to her but also making her life exponentially more difficult and now she has to deliver 47 to Edwards as penance. This is good in the sense that both 47’s and Grey’s weakness has always been a lack of bigger picture understanding but it’s bad in the sense that it undermines Diana’s status as a chess master.

@LandirtHome

It’s a plan that is already in motion, and 47’s objective are “merely” to edge this voting step.

Vidal maybe, since she does seem to like Diana but Yates absolutely wants to kill her for her part in Ken Morgan’s death. I could see Vidal living long enough to be Diana’s Constant in the short term but she’s done more than enough to justify termination with extreme prejudice after she stops being useful.

@LandirtHome

I could imagine Edward being an insta-fail if spotted enforcer.

That’s a great point. He’s one of a handful of people who know what 47 looks like and what his MO’s are.

But does he instantly sic a squad of unkillable guards on 47, or does it trigger a cutscene where he has you surrounded and boom, it’s straight to the Bad Ending Only Worse because Diana’s loyalty is now in question?

@LandirtHome

I don’t know if Diana would have danced with anyone else than 47, she’s the one who invites him. It’s in a very intimate way, in a “you did it, we did it, we are alone against the world, only relying on ourselves and how much we understand and trust each other, and it’s working ” way.

I’m still recovering from getting that item crossed off my wish list, thank you very much. You’re right: the intimacy, the celebratory nature of the dance taking place when it does, the inherent eroticism of their loyalty to one another.

@LandirtHome

(I think it was you who made a “We understand each other by sending secret messages by being captured on camera, we are not the same” meme about that)

Jammy 47. The Fuck Cabin. I am the Mother of Hitman Memes lol

@LandirtHome

Now let’s say Edward and Diana danced, I imagine after the vote and some behind the scene shenanigan by 47. I don’t think he would have been jealous immediately.
He would certainly be telling himself “yes, sure, Diana needs to blend in, I once had to present a house as a realtor/tattoo a cartel boss/play drum for a top 50 band so it’s not the most ridiculous thing in the world”.

I don’t know. Working with Diana is very new and he’s never seen her in the field before. He literally just blew up the ICA to save all their asses and the writers particularly took time to highlight, via Olivia’s comments, how deeply he cares for her.

When he approaches her in the olive grove, his first move is whip out his gun, which is code for “Take me seriously right the fuck now bc I’m scared”. He knows something’s up and he desperately wants her to explain and make it right again, the way she always does. And that was just him figuring out something was up on his own. With direct confirmation twirling around in front of him…

@LandirtHome

In reflections, 47 is pondering everything that happened to him, and I don’t think he would have had the same amount of self reflection before, in Mendoza. And so in this hypothetical Edward dance.

I don’t think it would’ve been less at all. I think seeing tangible proof that she’s not on his side, that she’s chosen the people who made him, would trigger all kinds of self-reflection. Just with an extra soupçon of “I’m not the only man in her life anymore” that’s just open-ended enough to satisfy regular gamers and shippers alike.

@LandirtHome

I don’t think Diana dancing with Edward is a core fear. It’s just the most on point way to illustrate in a rational way 47 true core fear :
That it’s not him, that he misjudged his relation with her. And with her, his capacity of having relations and trust with others.

Definitely. It’s the worst way his mind can come up with to punish him, both for his actions in killing her parents and his misjudgement of her.

@LandirtHome

And in the end he needs what he already needed in his youth, and in the trilogy to show him that there is more to himself : his brother. Here as the model and shaper of his newly reborn conscience.

And I just love what that says about their relationship. They were each other’s lifelines until they were separated and he values Grey’s input on how to handle emotions. But it also shows that 47 is still dependent on other people to do things for him, which is why the Gap Year is so necessary.

@LandirtHome

Edward is not that important, nothing about him as a person is important. He just “that other guy I project my fear into”.
It’s all about 47 and Diana. Because after Grey’s passing, she’s all he knows and can care about.

[apricotbones]

Wanted to make this my iPad and desktop wallpaper but it was missing a little something… now it’s perfect

[Force_Obscure]

After Lucas Grey, Diana Burnwood deserved her own video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtMJ5G7ZZkg
A handler that we would replace for nothing in the world.

[apricotbones]

Concepts for a Hitman TV show where Diana is the main character. Created by me and a friend from the Hitman Tumblr community.

Mark Strong and Rosamund Pike are my dream fancast

[Heisenberg]

One could argue, in one respect, that Diana is the main character. When you really think about it, 47 is the sidekick, not Diana.

[avesmaria]

I think one of the writers said that once, but I can’t remember who.

[Yacob]

So by season 2 they are sleeping together? BC that’s his red tie on the bed, right?

Wonderful actor choices btw. Now if only you had 100 million laying around to make the show happen.