Is Brett Helquist a member of VFD?

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

One of the coolest things about the ASOUE universe is that it has characters that also exist in our universe. And one of them is Mr Brett Helquist. He is the author of one of LSTUA's letters and Lemony Snicket referred to him by name in the letter to the editor printed in TRR. So, there is Mr. BH is the person who illustrated ASOUE's books in the ASOUE universe, and his copy in our universe did the same. The question is: is BH from Lemony's universe a member of VFD? And the answer, from my point of view, is no. We know that in real life, VFD came into existence in Daniel Handler's mind only after he published some of the books. This caused a problem for Mr. BH of our universe. The symbol he painted for Count Olaf was just an ordinary eye. This made the character BH in the universe of Lemony someone who did not know what the symbol of VFD was like. This means that the character BH was not a member of VFD.

[Dante]

Well, it's also possible that Brett Helquist was taking artistic license, or had agreed with Snicket to falsify the insignia until such a point as the Baudelaires began to recognise it for what it was (though the latter is unlikely, given Snicket's insistence on accuracy in the Kind Editor letters). The letter from Mr. Helquist in the U.A. does indicate that he's an outsider, though.

[ryantrimble457]

I think of Helquist like the show's Librarian/Olivia. An adult outsider that VFD takes in and trusts. I also don't think the illustrations are "canon" but are close to like courtroom sketches. They're as true to the world as they can be, updatedto include new info, which explains why the VFD eye's appearance changes so frequently.

[misstastrophe]

i like the courtroom sketches idea. it reminds me of the picture of the house on fire in LSTUA.