THE TRAPPER: Who is Evan MacMillan? | Dead by Daylight Lore Deep Dive 

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dont know why they still have Trappers old lore up on his page, because almost all of it has been retconned. Dave even confirmed to me on twitter when Tome 1 came out that Evan never dropped the mine on the workers, Archie did it. The Entire old lore page of Trapper was written from a separate perspective, designed to frame Evan for the brutality that came from his father. Evan has ALWAYS been sympathetic, ever since the retcon at least, and his archive was there to establish that he has always only been brutal and willing to kill and hurt as a desperately reach for a semblance of power and control that his father always took from him, not necessarily because he enjoys the act of killing itself. He feels like a completely different character from his base lore because he IS a different character from his base lore. Theres no connection to his archive and base lore because his base lore isnt canon anymore. I do agree though that his story is way too vague and needs a lot more exploring, but this is why his story doesnt make any sense if you dont have the years long context of shit said occasionally by devs on a lot of different platforms, like the devs confirming that The Entity had to torture Evan to get him to kill survivors, he never dropped the mine on his workers, and he canonically doesnt like yogurt. Dave even said to me, and I quote, "The father is the real bad guy" implying Evan to be even more sympathetic than they want us to think he is. Lot of great points in your video, really enjoyed it!

Trapper has been my main since beta because he was basically Jason Voorhees but "The Cooler Daniel." Since then I've come to apreciate how simple his lore and power is compared to... recent additions to DBD.

18:40 Nurse's story still hits me because I feel like they really could have unified the Angel of Mercy aspect she previously was with the historically accurate genetics angle by simple stating that Nurse wants a better fate for her patients but believes they're doomed because of their genetics, something outside their control, thus opting for a mercy killing. And it would have blended in with her mindset of killing off survivors as an unwilling killer as fast as she can in the Trials as the survivors are also in a position outside their control. Making her a negative fatalistic person would've went a long way but they didn't do it well enough to make it coherent or good.

Janes a woman of many talents according to the description, a killer AND a survivor. We love seeing such a powerful woman in gaming

I'd be really interested to see a killer's perspective of their time in the fog honestly

Trapper base lore: “We’ve got to make…..M O N E Y!” Trapper tome lore: “I just wanted my dad to love me…”

7:08 - I know it's a tangent, but can people agree the perk would make more sense if it was called anticipation instead of agitation?

On the subject of killers needing a revisit in the tomes, Legion was given a very conflicting lore expansion. It’s unclear if the events that take place in Legion’s tome are from an alternate timeline from the base lore, the events in the convenience store are inaccurately being retold from Julie’s perspective, or if the writers never even bothered with the base lore and just opted to retcon it. This is just one gripe I have with the Legion tome. Another being the abandonment of the core themes behind The Legion with Frank being a master manipulator. Frank successfully corrupted 3 innocent teens to commit heinous crimes that exponentially got worse where it can be assumed that neither Julie, Susie, nor Joey had any want to do such things before meeting Frank. The tome makes Julie out to be a serial killer apologist and fanatic. She keeps newspaper articles about real life killers in her room and fantasizes about joining their ranks. This was all before she even met Frank. This characterization takes Frank from being an intelligent manipulator to being just an enabler. This brings up some interesting story potential but sacrifices Frank’s pre established character. I always saw the story of the Legion as the beginnings of a cult that didn’t take off because… Entity. Frank as the head of the cult, manipulating his members emotionally and convincing them to do what he wants by convincing them that they want it to.

_“And everything changed when the tomes attacked.”_

I only knew Trapper after his tome was out, and while I do agree it needed to go deeper in his choices and motivations, I don't think the tome disconects much from the Traper we know today. Evan being described as afectionate and creative and this encouraged from his mom makes her murder by archie seems an atempt to silence the good in Evan by his abuser, wich paralels perfectly the entity torturing him for compliance while he resist. Evan is defined as a survivor of abuse that only found his autonomy in violence, much like Anakin's decent orchestrated by Palpatine if we want to paralel the brute henchmen. Evan, after beating his Dad and killing several in the mines, still fought back to not become a monster to be overpowered again. His facade of brutality and relentlesness is his coping mecanism to feel some autonomy in his life, because yet again he is not free from being a monster for his master.

I like how DBD's Killers have evolved from "Imposing stalker with sadistic cunning" to "K-Pop Idol who likes knives a bit too much"

This is rather old and all that, but I like to think the trapper could have been something like a son trying to earn his father's respect. But after that fails horribly he just kills the man and finds something else that respects his actions, a father figure of sorts that actually approves of what he does.

PB: "the most famous right hand in fiction" Me: "STARSCREAM!" PB: "...Darth Vader" Me: "...Ah"

I like his new lore it shows he still fought even against the entity until he was broken by it the hooks in his flesh and his scars show what the entity did to him

I don’t care what anyone says about Trapper, he’s one of the most fun killers to play as

I will ALWAYS love Evan. I loved him before and his tome didn't change that. I mean, just look at him (his ingame-self) he's hot! And I would totally go into his basement and let myself get trapped. Oh Evan ... why are you doing this to my poor heart?

Don’t get me wrong, I like a good “no remorse, no reason” character, but in this instance, I actually like Evan as a sympathetic character, it makes you wonder “how far gone are they from their humanity after what happened?” or even if they still have it. In fact, I would’ve liked the character if he only killed his father, whether out of fear, or wanting to save the workers is up to BHVR. Sure it isn’t the greatest plot point, but I personally like it. “Someone killed someone in an attempt to save others/out of fear, and is then taken and forced to kill even if they don’t want to” is a story I prefer over “Guy is and enforcer in a relative’s _____ but greed eventually outshines loyalty and he kills them.”

I like how Trapper is a reference to the Miner

Every time this man said Blood, Brass and Grit just made me grin.

@Pixel Bush you forgot to change the Desc, it's still talking about Jane Romero lol

I never really understood Evan’s lore, but u make it a great way to understand it. Thank you

Everyday we get closer to The Legion video.

Since david is getting a second tome I imagine we could get another trapper one to improve it at some point. (also that shia labeouf song edit murdered me lmao)

My friends say that they should just re-do his character to make him a much more bloodthirsty and brutal kind of killer without many redeeming qualities. But I don't think they should. Here's what I think they should do: They should make it more of a 'truth or lie' kind of backstory. What I mean by this is to have Trapper's lore not exactly line up with each other. Not in a confusing kind of way with no continuity, but in a GOOD confusing kind of way with continuity remaining in both versions, but still keeping the players questioning. He could have multiple variations of his story. One that changes his character and who he is while at the same time keeping the original story of the MacMillan Estate. He could be a more sympathetic character in one version and a much more sadistic person in another. For example, depending on your choices during the challenge menu (where you move across the screen and unlock story elements), you could earn a cutscene that portrays him being more sympathetic towards the workers or more cruel. In one version of a cutscene, he could help a man up that was beaten by his father and in the other version he could kick dust in the man's face while he's down with a look of disgust. This would go on until the end of the story. Even the Observer could say that he's not quite sure what happened to Evan which could really emphasise the mystery and intrigue of his character. But, at the end of all those earnable story elements, the ending remains the exact same, no matter what you choose. He traps the workers in the mines and he kills his father, being taken by the fog and turned into the beast that we know him as. As he walks into the fog, we could see small snippits of previous cutscenes and how they vary from each other. One portrays him as a more tragic character and the other portrays him as a more cruel and evil character. But, in the end, he walks into the fog and dawns his mask. It makes the players question what his story actually is. Which one is true? Which one is false? Are they all lies or are they all true? Think of it like the Joker in the Dark Knight and how he tells his varying stories about how he got his scars and became who he is now. It makes Evan's story much more ambiguous. Did he kill his father for revenge? For money? Just for the sake of it? Who knows! But one thing remains... He was the enforcer of Archie MacMillan, he led so many men into the mines and killed them all at once and left his father for dead, becoming an enforcer of a higher power - The Entity... This way it doesn't discredit the more tragic and human side of him, but also doesn't discredit the more brutal and merciless side of him. It won't confuse the audience for which one is true or if any of them are true, because the story says that they are all true and untrue at the exact same time. The final cutscene where he walks into the fog and past all those other interpretations of his story could be symbolic that it doesn't matter about where he comes from or who he once was. This is him now. This is the beast that he is. Through either pain or enjoyment, he becomes a monster. And that is the only truth. The only truth is what is left after the lie... Who was he really? You decide. Because it sure as HELL doesn't matter to Evan anymore...

Those transitions between matches are beautiful

Honestly, I kind of don't mind the disconnect between base lore and tome lore because it leaves room for people to interpret Evan as either purely self-interested and unsympathetic or highly sympathetic and having been framed / set-up from the start. He can be anything and everything and no one can really tell you otherwise because there is evidence for it in the lore. Is he the willing servant (implied by Agitation) or the reluctant killer (implied by the Mobile cutscenes and his tortured appearance)? Is he the "social Darwinist" turned Oedipus (killing his father the moment his father was too weak to be of any more use) or the socialist who was betrayed by his comrades (implied by his tome)? If DBD ever gets a story mode, I'd almost like it to be a choose your own adventure from Trapper's perspective, with people getting to decide whether they want to be a survivor or killer as him. The most interesting part of The Trapper for me is the idea that he, more than almost any other killer apart from The Artist or The Plague, has had the Entity watching him for a very long time, possibly guiding and grooming him into the role of killer through his whole life. His father heard whispers, but were those the whispers of the Entity or just the decaying mind of a paranoid man. One of the Observer cutscenes also shows a young version of Evan setting up a trap for a giant spider, possibly in a pocket realm of the Entity, meaning that like The Blight and The Observer, Evan is one of the few who managed to avoid the trials for a time after being taken and spent that time learning how to survive and trap. And that leaves the question of when the Entity did find him, did it change him to held him in trials, or to bring him to heel? Only time (or another tome) may tell.

I think that another killer who needs attention is... not the one killer... It is group in fact. Yep, I´m talking about the Legion, given how impressive your video on the clown was, it would be very interesting to examine the Legion. Because of the tomes... especially Julie, who, contrary to the base lore and popular opinion, seems to be probably the most wicked member.

I actually liked the story. It starts as him being an abused teen trying to help the workers. Then, the workers turned against him. And that pushes him one step further into the character we know in the game. His dad probably says to him and pressures him to be strong and to prove himself "Their going to take our fortune and break apart our family and take what we have worked so hard to make." That then makes Evan brutally crack down on the strikes. Especially after remembering how nice he was to them and how they betrayed him. He then became the iron fisted right hand of Archie. But as Archies mental health grew worse (and he's already crazy), he tells Evan to bring the men down the mines. He blows it up with Evan inside. Evan, being an absolute unit, survives. But Evan, at this point, sees all these men die, and after years of his father's torment, he snaps and kills him. Evan has a reputation for being a brutal guy. He was the right hand and cracked down on the strikes, with absolute brutal efficiency. Because of this and his father's death, as well as Evans disappearance. It is presumed he was the one who did it. Or you could say he did blow up the mines. But after seeing what type of man he had become thanks to his father, Evan cruely murders him. The good in Evan is just a flicker of a dying flame. Hidden deep inside. Evan has accepted that he can't be a good man. And fully embraces the darkness.

Amazing vid as always! I could never quite get a grip on Evan’s funky lore :’)

I main trapper cuz its satisfying to outsmart the survivors with traps

Beautiful video as always

Oo been waiting for this one

When i read the thumbnail i sing it so its like "THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK!...🎵"

Blood, Brass, and Grit goes hard. On god.

imagine this Rusty trap perma injured stage but a 50% or 40% chance to not go off descrippion a miner used trap which was intended to hurt Archie

Trapper is my favourite lore and my favourite tome. I agree with you on almost all accounts and you're right in what you said about the lore humanising him to the point where he is drastically changed from the base lore. I also think that it is not the best lore writing whise or anything. Oni or Plague are better by a leap, but it's still my favourite lore because it resonates with me as a person a lot. So...this is gonna get personal. I grew up in very similar condictions. When the lore depicted Archie, I immedietly thought of my own father. A lot of the things he says and does are things my father says and does, just not nearly as extreme. We own a lot of land and my father is incredibly protective of it. We also live in a very rural area, where customs are old and people's views on virtually anything are even older. There is just crutial 4 things that are different from my sistuation and Evan's: first, my dad is not as extreme as Archie. Second, I still have my mother with me, who is kind and loving and did a lot of damage control in my upbringing. Third, I'm a girl and therefore did not have to do so much physical labor . Fourth, I have a sister, whom I love dearly and share a lot of my pain with. In the end, Trapper's lore shows me the tragedy of a man who was really similar to me, but did not have the support I did. He didn't have a loving mother, at least not for very long, he didn't have a sibling he shared everything with and friends whom he could trust. For him to become like his father in the end is a perfect tragedy to me. At the same time, it shows me what I could have become. Now, I probably would still not have murdered anyone, but without my support system I could have ended up in a much darker place and the story made me apprechiate what I have for myself: my friends and family who love me, my art (because, yeah i use art as a coping mechanism as well), my education, my life in general. It's really hard to explain in words and the feelings I get from the story just hit too close to home, as sad as that is, for me to NOT put it at the top of my tierlist. Very personal, very subjective, but I suppose there lies the power of stories, to connect with people. This one achieved this in eerie detail with me and I'm honestly really thankful for it. Even if it's "just stupid DbD lore" :D. Naturally, this story sparked my interest in DbD lore so basically it's the reason I subscribed to you too. It's wild. I'm sorry, this was really long, but I never really opened up about this to anyone (but my sister, of course) and under a video like this, I had to. People like Evan, with tyranical families who build regimes on cruel and ancient belief-systems still exist everywhere around the world and each new generation suffers from the same trauma. I hope I can break my families generational trauma and this story definetly helped me along the way.

7:24 Tally Hall

yay ive been looking forward to this.

I haven't read the tome lore. So I can't say how well written it is. But idk I really like the way he was painted as trying to be a really good person before transforming to what he is now.

I mean me personally I can relate to this story a bit Mostly the aspects of a family wanting you to do what they want you to do and enjoying hurting because it's the only time you ever feel in power of yourself But this is a story video not a therapy session

Pixel, my dude, you most definitely need to be in charge or have some degree of influence over Behavior's writing department. Your presence would 100% do the lore of every character a lot of good since you have a clear understanding of a number of them.

1:50 not to mention you could use Trapper’s mask in Payday 2

This is the third time I have ever made it this early onto a video and all three times it has been yours. I feel like I should say something this time, even if this is just algorithm food - Hm. . . An individual bee only ever makes one drop of honey in its entire life, and sometimes male cardinals are born yellow instead of red. There. Vaguely interesting but irrelevant algorithm food. Oh! Oh! And a work of fiction which heavily inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula was a story written by a young gay man about an older rich guy who he had a messy breakup with.

I do also think the abuse angle could have been handled better if they had shown some tender moments between Archie and Evan, like maybe both of them on a hunting trip, or a quality family moment that would explain to folks that Evan only has his father, and that's why he chose him.

11:59 The tomes mentioned Even fought with bad thoughts of being cruel and literally him wanting to “put one of the maggots out of their misery”, Evan held a rock over his head above his father while his father slept, considering MURDERING him, in either case Evan was always a murderer, just who he’d kill and why is the only ambiguous part, the tome explained the why to the what

Good video, but can we take a second to appreciate how varied the killer powers are in DBD? We have otherworldly monsters, telepathic women, and practically immortal incarnations of evil. We also have bear trap man, a heroin addict, and not one, but TWO killers who’s power include having knees :)

6:50 Can we just talk about how you downed someone, and they still dropped the pallet?

He's always been my favorite, he's unique from other killers and he's also the most sane out of the bunch to be honest 💀

Something i never understood, is what happend at the end of Even's tome. What caused the mine to collapse, and how did even survive it? And what happend to his hand that made it need to be bandeged?

The only killer so far to show signs of refusing to do the entity's bidding

Now let's hope that the twins get the good tome writer. Because we've seen what the bad writer has done to amanda

You did what i asked for fuck yea! love you man

Ah old reliable trapper can't go wrong with him

good dbd vid

Another great

He is perfect that's what he is

I do not mean this as an insult but why don't you make your own rewrites of the stories?

Oh your face reveal very underlined there good job

Feng DESPERATELY needs a new tome… it just feels weird David is getting a new one

Tbh, I completely disagree with your criticism of "he's not offering anything". First of all, for most people there's an innate loyalty to your family. You feel connected to them, no matter how much shit they pull. With abusive parents, there's this conflict of loving them and sometimes even understanding them but still being hurt by them. Evan is described to be very isolated - his father is what he knows. What hurt him but also comforted him It's called trauma bonding. I didn't think his hesitation to abandon his father was unrealistic at all. In fact, I think the opposite would be weird and too heroic. Evan is not only loyal and loves his father, he's also terrified of him. He wants to play both sides to see which one will come out on top. He clearly wishes for the workers to win, he just won't place his bets. Also, it's stated in the lore his fighting with the feeling of idealizing his dad's actions - he should be horrified by them but feels a certain level of awe and admiration. It's just the right amount of humanizing him for me - he wants to be a good person but struggles with becoming the same as his father. He catches himself having the same thoughts as him and slowly transforming into him. He's not only a victim, he's starting to repeat the circle.

...and he's outta control

Your breakdown of the character is excellent, although i do not disagree with where developers took his character's lore. For one, it is not unrealistic that Evan trusted and loved his father, even after witnessing his crimes. Familial bonds go a long long way, and you can make many excuses(as is noted in tome 1 memory 1241, where Evan's inner conflict is described in detail, when he wrestles with the urge to kill his father) for the ones you love, before you accept the truth of what they are. A father is especially capable of influencing his son in this kind of way. Add a casual betrayal of the people he called friends. Sketching is also mentioned, not without a reason. It implies Evan had an artistic, or sensitive side, which explains very well why he took the betrayal the way he did. The Trapper we see in the game is ultimate result of such influence, first by his father, then by Entity. His character arc reminds me a lot of a character "Kid" in a novel "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy, albeit in a more family friendly way. Both grow up into manhood in a fucked up environment, then are ultimately claimed and abused by a force far beyond their understanding.

I raise you one better, WHY IS EVAN MACMILAN!?

Yes him the trap man

Little me is the best right hand man in fiction

I need to be completely honest here..... A friend of mine sent me a link to this video because I'm a Trapper main and I really thought I was going to learn a bit more about what makes him tick. However, what I got was a video where even with subtitles I found it difficult to make out some of the things you said. It seemed like you either edited it to the point that some words were merging or you just need to work on your speech. I don't mean anything hateful here, I'm giving some constructive criticism in the hopes that I find it easier to understand everything. And yes, before anyone asks, English IS my first language.

Think you forgot to change the description my friend..

But David already has his tome lore, why would they give him another there are still others who need tome lore, like feng min, Adam and etc.

I wouldn't say no to going to Macmillan maps 9999% of the time. Yes I noticed 😛

Shia labeouf legendary skin for trapper when?

Was that a TF2 reference?

Video starts at 1:28

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I didn't really liked the trapper Archives lore either, it reads more like a survivor tome than a killer tome and i didn't knew why he became a killer after. It made more sense that the entity punished him with hooks and that he tried to escaped though

FIRST YASSS Let me finish watchin so i can actually comment a decent comment Edit: i see yur point! I think they're having trouble with humanizing and dehumanizing the killers at certain points. U think they're scared of the possible backslash they'll get for certain characteristic of the people they've created.

Around 12:00 you show your lack of having to ever had to deal with the dynamic of control structure as well as your lack of UNDERSTANDING how they control structures work. The writer does not have time to explain and assumes you have at least an ifso/facto understanding of these dynamics. If they exist then this is in fact how this happened. A rich kid with an overly controlling father has his father's point of view working against any other that may come from basic human empathy and/or outside softer influence such as his mother. I would go as far as to say that behind the scenes (or discussed) the elimination OF the mother by the father WAS that she was standing between his vision for the legacy that was Evan's birthright, the other son having failed him, which would justify his M.O. and the reality as he sees it. The father believes or wants to be able to completely believe that the means to the end is justified. If he can get Evan to follow that path then it will allow him to do so as Evan will be proof of concept. In typical story writing this is either a cycle, with the father having been taught by his father that this is the way its done OR having made his fortune in this way in stark contrast to his parents who struggled and did so because they were "weak" In this dynamic Even would be torn between sympathy for the workers (natural tendency/non sociopathic)/ his mother exerting whatever softer influence she can get away with without being forcefully opposite the will of the father and paying for it with her life (maybe what happened) and wanting to gain his father's respect/earn his part in that vision. At the time period and place there would have been little to no outside influence to steer his moral compass. Its a dictatorship under a tyrant in a hermit kingdom This sets up the perfect environment where the father can control information, what is perceived as "fact" and logic. Add on the natural tendency for sons to idolize their fathers and want their approval AND how other grown men idolize or at least bow to his father's will/authority because he is successful and it automatically makes the father influential and Evan susceptible. You are looking at it as an adult man with your experiences and moral compass asserting that since you could not be flipped, seeing no worth in something opposed to your own moral code, then its improbable for Evan to Instead you should be looking at the fact that the majority of how Evan perceives the world is influenced by his father, there is no long standing moral compass or experiences to fight against. Evan is already mostly his father, be that Nature or Nurture, its not the battle you think it is These are Tomes in a game, not novels. There is going to be some reliance on your outside exposure to subject matter FYI this is the most common dynamic for racism, religious fanaticism and sexual abuse

Peanut

I like the trapper, i'm shit with him but he is good.

He is actually Jasen Vorhis but is it was the real jasen freeday 13th was going to sue dbd for this 😅😊❤😮😂😢🎉

WHO IS GAMORA?

Evan MacMillan is the trapper duhhhh 🙄🙄🙄

Fnaf video when????? lol 😏

I don't really understand the lore writers. turning killers who for the most part shouldn't be sympathetic and making them such then turning killers (nurse) who was the most sympathetic killer and just butcher her character. god her tome lore is so fucking bad.

388th!!!

tool

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