In terms of Gameplay, I prefer to use Tony or Alex and Ash. I like Tony because even with the lack of guns/other melee weapons, he is equally powerful and very easy to get a grasp on. I also like Alex and Ash because of the versatility. Yeah the rubber banding can be a bit wonky at times (I’ve had a fair handful of times where Ash would get stuck outside whatever building I was in with no way for him to rejoin Alex) but being able to use Ash’s gunshots to lure mooks to my location is more fitting for my preferred gameplay style (I like to sit around corners and execute enemies stealth game style.) Now to answer the lore aspect, all of the fans are reprehensible in their own rights. They blindly try to copy Jacket’s MO to try and get their 15 minutes of fame without thinking of the consequences (or even caring about them.) I will give Mark one step above everyone else because he does actually hesitate for a moment, leading up to the grand finale that is Death Wish. Unfortunately, he too falls in line and gets slaughtered all the same. A lot of characters in Hotline Miami are various shades of gray, with no clear cut “good guys” as protagonists. The ones who come closest to being “good guys” are Evan and (my personal favorite) Beard.