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 | Re: Are there even timelines at all? | |
| Posted By: Philtron | Date: 1/4/21 4:15 p.m. |
| In Response To: Re: Are there even timelines at all? (Durandal_1707) : Also, in M2, Blake's humans had already been trying to activate Thoth for a
They did not. Here is what Blake says on "This side towards enemy": "Durandal's last instructions were for us to
The context from this should be absolutely clear: the main character is the first person to begin activating Thoth. The Bobs don't have maps of the area. The S'pht verify the partial activation of Thoth, not the further activation of Thoth. The Pfhor begin to take interest in what is happening as though this the first time it's happened. The way Blake describes all this is as though we're the first ones to do this, and that is clearly the intended reading. Then on My Own Private Thermopylae: "Your success made us bold again, and I took
They must realize that we intend to awaken
So, Blake decides to actually have the humans activate part of Thoth themselves and are slaughtered by the Pfhor. Then on Kill your television, Blake isn't even sure if the cores are at that location. It's clear the humans have never been to these places or they simply never reached the cores. It's obvious from a Close Reading of the text that we are intended to read the activation of Thoth as done by the main character himself. We see all six cores and all three activation sites in M2. : However, I don't think the location in "Strange Aeons" is actually
: This also explains why (in-universe, anyway) we needed a new uplink chip in
There is nothing to indicate that the purpose of Strange Aeons is to merge AIs except that you happen to merge AIs there combined with your own fanciful thinking. That doesn't mean it can't be, but there's nothing indicating that it is (especially when there is a much clearer explanation). There's no reference to the Jjaro ever merging AI nor that they had technology capable of this. There is nothing in the actual Text of the game that suggests this. No, the path leading up to the chip insert does not suggest this, it only suggests that that room is designed for uploading large amounts of data. The cores are designed to look exactly like the cores in M2, so clearly we are meant to interpret these as Thoth's cores. This is the simplest and most straightforward explanation for what that place is. And no, the main character does not find a thousand year old (or whatever age) uplink chip floating in the water. Your attempt to force a diegetic reason for a chip to be there doesn't make sense and actually contradicts itself. If the new uplink chip is S'pht/Jjaro and we need it to connect with the cores in Strange Aeons due to its interface, then connecting Durandal's primal pattern with this chip would face the same problems with connecting directly with the cores: the interface of the Jjaro chip would be different than Durandal's ship. And if Durandal's primal pattern could just be downloaded from the main character's brain into the Jjaro chip, then it could also just be downloaded directly to the Jjaro cores. So, no, the main character does not pick up a microchip on Hang Brain and hide it in his underpants until Strange Aeons where he happens to find a thousand year old Jjaro chip which magically connects to the chip with Durandal's brain. The chips are clearly there for the reasons of game mechanics and representing how the main character contains Durandal's pattern in his own brain. The only diegetic explanation that would make sense is that the main character picks up an actual chip on Durandal's core, stores Durandal's neural net in his brain as well for some reason, the chip gets confiscated by the Pfhor, which happens to be given to a Pfhor scouting team in Son of Grendel, that Pfhor team drops the chip in Strange Aeons when they're killed, which is where the main character finds it again. However, even that explanation is weak due to the fact that the main character has everything he needs to resurrect Durandal in his own mind. No chip is actually necessary to accomplish what is happening. If the interface would be a problem then it should also be a problem with a thousand year old Jjaro chip. : We could also just say the nitty-gritty details of map layouts are
We definitely shouldn't interpret the map design as hyper literal. However, the location of Thoth's cores is not the "nitty-gritty" of the map layouts. Their locations aren't slightly off or redesigned, they're in completely different geographical and narrative locations from each other (except maybe the one underwater in Chapter 1, but I'm too tired to check if there's a corresponding location in M2). It's not nitpicking to point this out, this is a major element of what's going on with them. : As for Durandal defeating the Western Arm on his own without the S'pht'Kr, 1)
If you're going to cite things to disagree with someone then at least look up the context for how they occur. Here is everything that Durandal says, from various terminals regarding this: "You must hurry. The Pfhor fleet is close
Tfear is a brilliant strategist and the
So, while Durandal is trapped in Lh'owon orbit, refusing to move to a better tactical position because he wants information, he is attacked by an organized and prepared Admiral Tfear (aided by Tycho) who see Durandal from AUs away... And he smashes them so badly that he destroys half their fleet in a battle that could be considered a humbling of them. You could take that last bit as Durandal just being arrogant, but unless you think he's lying about how many ships he destroyed then this was an astounding feat. He barely lost and that was while being at a tactical disadvantage and while his enemies were being directly aided by an AI that is part Durandal itself. However in Ne Cede Malis, Durandal has not explored Lh'owon and so he's not trapped in Lh'owon orbit, Tycho isn't with Tfear's fleet to help them, and it seems Durandal may have ambushed Tfear (the way Tfear ambushed Durandal in the manual chapter) as Battle Group Seven entered the system. If Durandal could destroy half the fleet while he was at a disadvantage in M2, then it's reasonable that he could defeat the fleet entirely (or enough that they'd launch the trih xeem) if he engaged them on his own terms. : 2) Durandal is an egomaniac, and it's completely
This is a very narrow view of Durandal that doesn't match a Close Reading of the character. Durandal acknowledging the presence of the S'pht'kr would not be out of character for him. A Close Reading of Durandal at the end of M2 shows that he is actually proud of the S'pht'kr arriving precisely because of his arrogance: He sees the arrival of the S'pht'kr as his own accomplishment. Durandal has no reason not to mention the presence of the S'pht'kr in the battle because he sees their arrival as part of his own tactical brilliance, his own triumph. "Once again we are triumphant." : It's left open-ended, and the specifics aren't
The specifics aren't stated but from what we see in-game, the most reasonable thing to interpret is that Durandal defeated battle group seven (for the reasons I mentioned above) on his own due to arbitrarily different decisions he makes in this timeline. Also, let's be clear. The main character does not control or influence the behaviors or actions of other characters in the game. The main character would not be able to force Durandal to do things differently.
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