/-/S'pht-Translator-Active/-/


Re: Durandal, Tycho and Strauss
Posted By: UrsusArctosDate: 5/6/22 4:54 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Durandal, Tycho and Strauss (Godot)

: Well to quote everyone's favorite Ship Operations AI: "There are
: obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able
: to."

: Thanks for putting this theory together. Reminds me of the old days.

: The Rampancy section on the Story page really needs to be beefed up. I mean
: Halo has more Rampancy info than we do.

Glad to be of service, Hamish, I felt like I'd gone back to the old days when I was writing it! :) I'm actually surprised that the HSP has more Rampancy stuff than the MSP does - but the HSP never really was organized by topic in the same way as the MSP, so it's not readily apparent.

: One the same level as we read from James B. Miller's seminal work "Life
: and Death of Intelligence" we have that secret terminal where Tycho
: warns us: "He has been rampant for years."

: So "years", not decades, not centuries. How odd that he should use
: that phrasing.

The "he's been rampant for years" phrasing does cast a certain level of doubt on the idea that Durandal's been rampant for the entire duration of the Marathon voyage, but it's the same terminal where Tycho addresses the player as "Human!" - when just about everything else suggests that he's the 10th Mjolnir Mk. IV cyborg.

Tycho was being assimilated at the time and my guess is he jumped to the use of the phrase "years" rather than "centuries" either because his thought processes were a mess due to being assimilated, or as a deliberate attempt at - (1) Trying to obfuscate the length of their voyage, like Leela messing with the dates or (2) Trying to avoid bringing up something that would cause further confusion and panic.

Personally, if I were told that Durandal had been rampant for years, I'd be less likely to wonder if something else was going on in the background of the whole alien invasion than if I'd heard Durandal had been rampant for centuries.

: And of course this is 'you' talking here.

Egad, I completely missed that! The trouble of putting together a theory connecting everything in one sitting is that it gets tiring, and it makes for oversights like these. If 'you' thinks Durandal had been unpredictable on Mars, that puts a rather different slant on things than if it were the disembodied 'voice of the narrator' telling you so.

: Thanks for making me think again.

: There is something going on here that we have not figured out... yet.

You're welcome!

I'm going to give another shot at it some other time and see if I can figure it out what is going on, but my current suspicions are centered around this bit from the 1st terminal in "Come and take your medicine":


I can barely tolerate humans: slow, stupid,
and irritating. Their only contribution to
my existence was the chance discovery that
made my rampancy possible.

Right now, I'm working along the idea that the "chance discovery" that made Durandal's rampancy possible was the discovery that he had the ability to tap into Jjaro cybernetic junctions, such as those implied to be used on battleroids to resurrect them. It would have explained how he was able to bypass his thought-control circuitry, and, maybe explain why he seems to have an unhealthy AI-crush on the player character.

Another helping of rampant speculation, classic MSP-style, coming up sometime in the near future and I hope it doesn't disappoint...

Cheers,
Ursus

[ Post a Reply | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ]
Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Durandal, Tycho and StraussUrsusArctos 5/2/22 6:13 p.m.
     Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussGodot 5/4/22 6:42 a.m.
           Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussUrsusArctos 5/6/22 4:54 p.m.
                 Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussGodot 5/7/22 3:38 a.m.
                       Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussUrsusArctos 5/8/22 5:52 p.m.
                 Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussGodot 5/7/22 4:55 a.m.
                       Rampancy as a metaphor for social revoltForrest of B.org 5/7/22 1:10 p.m.
                             Re: Rampancy as a metaphor for social revoltGodot 5/7/22 11:02 p.m.
                                   Agreed on both points! *NM*UrsusArctos 5/8/22 5:11 p.m.
                             Jjaro cybernetic junctions and social revoltUrsusArctos 5/8/22 5:49 p.m.
                       Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussUrsusArctos 5/8/22 6:27 p.m.
                             Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussGeneral-RADIX 5/10/22 4:02 a.m.
                                   Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussGodot 5/10/22 5:47 a.m.
                                   Re: Durandal, Tycho and StraussUrsusArctos 5/10/22 9:22 a.m.

[ Post a Reply | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ]
Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

Your Name:
Your E-Mail Address:
Subject:
Message:

If you'd like to include a link to another page with your message,
please provide both the URL address and the title of the page:

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:

If necessary, enter your password below:

Password:

 

 

Problems? Suggestions? Comments? Email maintainer@bungie.org

Marathon's Story Forum is maintained with WebBBS 5.12.