Chris Walker deserves mention here. A sharp-eared player will hear him occasionally call out in an attempt to coax the player out of hiding, utilizing lines such as, "I'll do it for you, so you won't have to kill yourself," and, "I'll make the pain stop." Rather than being honeyed or sing-song (though it's doubtful he could sing-song, in his state), his tone of voice suggests that he genuinely believes what he's saying, and that in his mind, the quick (though terrifying and painful) beheading he can give out is a far better alternative to having to endure or falling victim to the horrors of the asylum. Chris' own physical state is equal parts the result of self-multilation caused by heightened anxiety and an adverse physical reaction to the Morphogenic Engine, and he's surrounded by other patients who have suffered just as much and more. It's not hard to guess that the same soldier trying to protect the outside world is also capable of recognizing that his victims are, in fact, still very frightened, very hurt people.
There's unused dialogue that touches upon this, and it's fucking sad.
Eddie: The things they did to me when I was small, when I didn't know how filthy... how wrong it was... only that it hurt. Never. Never to our children. You understand that, don't you, darling? I would never let anybody hurt our babies.
His death is surprisingly sad as well, if only for his history and his terrible grasp on reality that he retains to his last breath.
Eddie, clutching Waylon's hand: We could have been beautiful.
Eddie's horrible backstory makes his first scene in the prologue even worse. When the Murkoff workers, two large men, are dragging him to the Morphogenic Engine, handling him very roughly (after they've taken off all his clothes save for his underwear, please note) what is he doing? Desperately pleading for help and screaming they're going to rape him.
Eddie: I knew it was coming. You filthy fucking machines! You fucking machines! No! No, not again! No! No! Jack-booted fucks, I know what you've been doing to me. I know what you've been... Help! Help me! Help me, they're going to rape me! Rape! Rape!
Considering that the first thing that happens to Waylon after being captured by Murkoff is getting licked across the face when in restraints, chances are, Eddie had at least this much happen to him during his stay as well. So expecting worse - especially with his backstory - wouldn't be too absurd.
Even while being hunted, Waylon seems to recognize that the monster that is The Groom isn't entirely Eddie's creation, and that Murkoff and their experiments and treatment of him have helped a great deal to exacerbate an already broken mind. In the note Blue Beard's Wives - acquired by filming a gymnasium filled with the mutilated corpses of Eddie's past victims,after having narrowly avoided the same messy mutilation and death - Waylon makes this comment:
Lisa, I want you to burn this place and any evidence it ever existed to the ground. Destroy the Murkoff Corporation. Bury it in shame, take away its money, wipe it from history.This man thinks he's in love. He thinks the therapy made him better.
A smaller, different sort of tearjerker: For all the hideous things he's done to men and women alike, for all the vicious slurs and sexist ideology he spouts, Eddie is a genuinely talented man. His sketches of various wedding dresses indicate a background in fashion or at the very least art, and since everyone at the asylum either wore a uniform or a modern style pants suit, there's a decent chance he made his waistcoat from scraps of uniforms stitched together with one of the many sewing machines in the first section of the Male Ward. Though it's only apparent in his most gruesome works, he also seems to have an affinity for ropes and... modern art. And although it's hair-raising to hear when you're trying to outrun him, Eddie's singing voice is very clear and smooth, and would be quite pleasant to listen to under any other circumstances. All of this creative talent and natural ability that would normally (and likely did) attract scores of interested parties - and instead it's all gone to waste and become facets of a single, horrifically ruined man who was likely beyond the point of salvation well before Murkoff ever got their hands on him. Suddenly Eddie's "you/we could have been beautiful" comments hurt for a whole new reason...
At least some of the inmates at the asylum might have already been criminally insane before they were brought to the asylum, but many of them could not have deserved what happened to them. They were mentally unwell and were supposed to receive help, but instead were brutally dehumanized, tortured, abused and exploited with no one to help them. Some inmates have been driven to commit evil acts, but some of them are so totally broken they don't even realize what's going on around them. Or worse; some of them do realize what's happened to them but have no way to escape - and probably could never recover even if they did. The Pyro's dialogue demonstrates this perfectly:
Pyro: I had to burn it. All of it. Murkoff took so much from us. Used us. Turned us into these things because nobody cares about a few forgotten lunatics. So let it burn. Burn the whole god damned thing down. Get out. If you want to live, you can get out through the kitchen.
Miles' note on it, "Let it Burn", has his own tragic insight on the matter:
Miles: I'm not the only victim here, not by a long shot. I watch a man wait to burn to death, the most painful death imaginable, rather than stay in this place.
Waylon's notes to his wife. He knows that he'll never get out of the asylum alive, and even if she ever finds his body (which he writes that he knows she won't rest until she does) it will probably be such a mutilated mess that he begs his wife to never look at it. He also repeatedly considers suicide but the thought of his wife and his children are the only things keeping him sane and alive. He gets out alive, but his family will suffer for him agreeing to release the footage he recorded while inside the asylum.
The cremation level in Whistleblower has one of the saddest NPC interactions. As you near the gate locked by a dead employee's handcuffs, you can hear one guard call out to another to wait for him as he secures a door behind him. After you finish retrieving the key and enter the room, you can find the same guard, crawling on the ground and mortally wounded. He desperately calls out for his companion before collapsing and dying, evidently having been abandoned after they'd promised to stick together.
Miles: This is the way you die. Ripped to pieces from the inside, watching your marrow scatter on a concrete wall. You've escaped one Hell, Chris Walker. God help me but I somehow hope you didn't find another.
Reading through The Murkoff Account makes his backstory even sadder. He was formerly an Afghanistan veteran and became a security guard for Murkoff, and despite being massive and physically intimidating, he was gentle and kind, and had a stuffed pig that he cherished. His PTSD and mistreatment at the hands of Murkoff caused him to snap and murder four people. His wandering around Mount Massive trying to insure that The Walrider doesn't get out and referring to everyone as pigs are his memories of his former life.
Miles' final note in the game:
Miles "Billy is dead, the Walrider, the Swarm, whatever it is, unmade with him. Whether I escape or die here, I am free."
The ending of the game as well as the events of Whistleblower reveal the opposite — Miles is the Walrider's new host. He manages to survive all that happened and leave, but is now possessed by the monster from which he was trying to protect the world. No matter what he does now, he will presumably never be able to break away from The Walrider, except through his own death. He escapes, but is as far from free as he could possibly be. The only consolation is that he's still able to control it, trying his damnedest to make sure he only hurts or kills those who deserve it. When he sees Blaire about to stab Waylon to death, right next to the front door, Miles flings him into the air and eviscerates him from the inside out.
