Design of the Character's in the project: 8 Inspector Lestrade

Section 1. The Design process:

There is an argument to be made that Inspector Lestrade is technically the most important character in this project (as he is the one whose account of the crimes will be read in the news paper) so he is a bit of a narrator like figure. And such i believe that it is important for him to have his own design and personality in order for him to not just be my self insert, he is also a vary important part of the world of Sherlock Holmes even though he is lesser known than someone like Watson or even Adler.

I wanted Lestrade to look somewhat no nonsense and someone who visibly had his own ideals and stuck to them regardless of circumstance (even to a fault), someone who believes in the system, police, the government and someone who would vary much dislike an arrogant genius like Holmes

Originally i went with a more "bore headed" design. With wanting to emphasize his more aggressive and uncompromising attitude. In my version he was also a former soldier and the reason why his ear has a scar on it is because a bullet tore off a chunk of it (but i will expend on this in section 3)

I was not quite happy with this design and so i went and did a bit of research on Lestrade in the original books. Where he wasn't physically described anything like this. in the books be is described as "a little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow" and "a lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking".

These descriptions completely changed my design philosophy about this character and the main focus words with him became "Rat", "Shorter", "Suspicious", but i still stuck to making him a person who doesn't tolerate if people don't live up to his moral and professional standards.

So i looked up images of rats and went to work! I also read "Rat as an Archetype" by "Simran Deol" on Prezi.com which was vary helpful.

I was more happy with the second version. I deliberately made him dress in more civilian like clothes to emulate a lot of the images of inspectors in 1880 London that i've seen on images.

His sword in his cane is also not being drawn this time which implies that he is less aggressive and rash than the first one but still stands upright, at the ready as befits a former military man (proudly displaying his medals too).

I also made his expression more "sceptical" i guess is the word. As if he just got new information about an investigation and is questioning it. It also portrays a level intellectual competence that i feel the first one lacked. Which is actually a big part of Lestrade as his original description directly mentioned him being "sly looking".

I was happy with this but i decided to do a third version just to see how it would turn out. And people eventually told me that the third version was batter than the second one so i decided to keep it.

Here i wanted to emphasize his scepticism in his face and the the way he is holding his cane implies a higher level of "ready-ness" than the second one.

And overall i am vary happy with how he turned out as i think i was able to fulfill all the new design core goals, as in "Rat", "Shorter", "Suspicious" and "No nonsense" but i was also able to keep him a person who is visibly loyal to the establishment in a way that someone like Sherlock would never be.

Section 2. Previous characterization:

I found that Inspector Lestrade suffers form the same inconsistency that Professor Moriarty does. As in the idea that he has been re imagined in order to fit into a new mold so many times that he lost almost any cohesive characterization. Hes been anything from competent, incompetent, a Holmes fanboy, a minor Rival to Holmes, or a parody of his initial characterization in the novels.

And so as long as he fits the role of "The main (or one of the main) police person in a Holmes story" he is as legit as Lestrade's come.

With this knowledge i essentially did what i have done with Moriarty and stick to the core elements, add my own ideas, borrow from other inspirations and sorces.

Section 3. My version:

For his backstory i figured that Lestrade grew up with a family that believed vary much in the British government/held patriotic beliefs but also had strict moral standards for people which rubbed off on the young Lestrade to the point where he joined the military in his early 20s where his love of order and discipline was instilled in him but eventually he got part of his ear shot off which was an incident that he learned and evolved from. He learned that you also need to be smart and careful in life and its not enough to play by the rules.

I took heavy inspiration from the character of Honoria Crabb from the brilliant webtoon original comic named "Lavender Jack" (which i highly recomand).

She starts out as someone who believes in the status quo, order, the government and the people/values running it. However throughout the course of the story becomes much more critical, rebellious and develops her own values and opinions on the world around her.

This is also how i'de imagine Lestrade acting but he would perhaps he a little less naive about believing in the people in government specifically.

Lestrade would also be more a more "seasoned" detective than Honoria was at the beginning of the story in the original novels Holmes even noted at one point that Lestrade was "The best of the professionals". The reason why he dislikes Holmes is because Lestrade highly believes in formality's, rules, hard evidence, and hard work. All things that Holmes either has no interest in or scoffs at outright. I imagine their dynamic as being vary close to the song "You're Nothing Without Me" from "City of Angels" which can be found and listened to on Youtube.

Lestrade would however like Watson which contributes to the trend of people only really tolerating Sherlock's presence for not just his competence but also because Watson balances things out.

Originally i only had a passing knowledge on Lestrade and his role in the wider Sherlock Holmes franchise however by the end of this he ended up becoming one of my favorite characters in it.