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petroniaFor me, because this is one of few planned stories (apart from my original novelthings which are Metadata Monsters) complex enough that I can't keep all the considerations in my head at once, and more useful to me to dump it into lj than a word file that doesn't travel. You're welcome to read it but is me talking to myself, which is a few orders less coherent and more jumpcut-referential than me talking to other people.
1: politics and motivation
Was a whole bunch of not making sense when I finished the game, actually, but re-read the script just now and has come clear. In fact I know why it didn't make sense before - I must have been reading Saiyuki. Is philosophically the complete and utter polar opposite of Saiyuki. Haha.
No, seriously. One's given to understand that teh Dark stress-tests the vessels it's poured into, possibly with glee at discovering cracks; most likely, well, impersonally. It's a force of nature, like water. (Or fire, or air, or... I stop.) Should be a customised process, as it trickles into the musty corners of one's soul and takes on the shape of one's inner self, as liquor takes on the form of a highball glass. The gin-and-tonic is talking. Only one concrete example of what the g&t says, in the Temptation of Saint Ashley at the end there. And what is Agent Riot offered in exchange for his immortal - what was it, his phantom - soul? Non-attachment. The opportunity to walk away from what he's done. Now one sees Ashley in the game mostly in his incarnation as fearless-seeker-after-truth (style Fox Mulder merci bien), but if blargh Rosencrantz was right insert standard unreliable witness rant there is an element of his personality that tends to flee from the moral consequences of his actions. To the point of psychotic break, cos he keeled over long before VKP so much as knew about it. (Big arrow to your justification. The buried desire to disclaim responsibility, the potential for psychosis and fugue state. Remember that, teflon brainpan, after two chapters you won't know where the conjectures came from.) So it's a legit temptation. I mean it's not as if Riot has the same weak spots as Guildenstern, dangling the same carrot wouldn't be fair. ...Point being it's the same choice as got offered, say, Hakkai. You who are this person did this, there's no redeeming you for it, this person must die. *poof* Now you are no longer this person, and you walk. Oh, and try to remember not to feel guilty. [EDIT -- There's a strong suggestion that life is Hakkai's punishment. Almost Cain-like, except he's strongly encouraged to make something of said life, all the same, because what good does it do at this late stage if he tears himself up? Whereas VS references Cain, period.] There's no doubt el Dark can manage this as well as the Talking Heads, because frankly by definition A with Blood-Sin isn't at all the same person as A without Blood-Sin. Ashley could have forgotten for good, or willingly been forged into the kind of person for whom memories are irrelevant, and then (my guess is) the Dark would have run rampant and our nice little pseudo-Europe would've been royally screwed. But he chose not to, and his reward for refusing the carrot is - well, sanity for one, but redemption for two. Or at least the closure of forgiveness. And that last is weird as all get out, because I doubt very much that forgiveness is within the jurisdiction of the Dark. Slightly depressing theory: was Ashley talking to constructs of his own emotion anthropomorphised? Weirder things have happened to people, even not at the epicentre of some convulsive magical-leyline singularity.
But no no, I have a (faintly tortuous) explanation for all this. Agent Riot can have his cake and eat it too. As long as it's not the same Agent Riot. One must remember that Tia & Marco have more going for them than what Ashley would *like* to have happened - there it is again! - or indeed I, for why shouldn't I give Ashley what he wants for once? Let's give it a name, say, and call it Grace (before I succumb to my own temptation and calque the stance of my fic on the Hare Krishnas' "Introduction to Bhagavad-Gita"), the Grace of God, of Providence, of the Light Side. In one's headlong and fashionable rush for nihilism one is apt to ignore the fact that Iocus was every bit as real an avatar of param dharma as Mullencamp. I know this, 'kay, because my damned trinket was +15 against zombies, and that's physical evidence even an engineer may grok.
One caveat regarding Saiyuki: Sanzou-flavour non-attachment (yum) is not so much a choice as it is a work in progress. Meaning that not even Sanzou is very good at it. (He thinks he is, but he's in denial.) They keep having to re-unattach themselves from their Ish, usually in quite the savage wax-strip-removing manner. One might honestly ask whether this is the underlying philosophy of the series, or if M is intent on demonstrating the futility thereof. I tend to think she means it, and is just being realistic re path to enlightenment being thorny. Except then there's Kougaiji, and Nii if you think about it sideways, and boy did non-attachment not do either of those two a favour. Sometimes if you take away the overwhelming Ish, the only thing you're left with is a blank slate, an empty shell. This is what Ashley refuses, and what Hakkai struggles to work with, and what fucked up Kou for a few good tankoubon there. So the jury's still out, but the theory is well-expounded.
Pity I'm not writing papers in J-media for EAS, ainnit, because there's the seed of a pwetty'un here. What with the Saiyuki and the untapped potential for comparative religion wank. (Have I ever mentioned my friend's graduate advisor, whose office is purportedly filled with BexBoy monthlies? Because teh artifacts of Japanese pop culture are terribly fascinating in an academic sense, j0.)
1: politics and motivation
Was a whole bunch of not making sense when I finished the game, actually, but re-read the script just now and has come clear. In fact I know why it didn't make sense before - I must have been reading Saiyuki. Is philosophically the complete and utter polar opposite of Saiyuki. Haha.
No, seriously. One's given to understand that teh Dark stress-tests the vessels it's poured into, possibly with glee at discovering cracks; most likely, well, impersonally. It's a force of nature, like water. (Or fire, or air, or... I stop.) Should be a customised process, as it trickles into the musty corners of one's soul and takes on the shape of one's inner self, as liquor takes on the form of a highball glass. The gin-and-tonic is talking. Only one concrete example of what the g&t says, in the Temptation of Saint Ashley at the end there. And what is Agent Riot offered in exchange for his immortal - what was it, his phantom - soul? Non-attachment. The opportunity to walk away from what he's done. Now one sees Ashley in the game mostly in his incarnation as fearless-seeker-after-truth (style Fox Mulder merci bien), but if blargh Rosencrantz was right insert standard unreliable witness rant there is an element of his personality that tends to flee from the moral consequences of his actions. To the point of psychotic break, cos he keeled over long before VKP so much as knew about it. (Big arrow to your justification. The buried desire to disclaim responsibility, the potential for psychosis and fugue state. Remember that, teflon brainpan, after two chapters you won't know where the conjectures came from.) So it's a legit temptation. I mean it's not as if Riot has the same weak spots as Guildenstern, dangling the same carrot wouldn't be fair. ...Point being it's the same choice as got offered, say, Hakkai. You who are this person did this, there's no redeeming you for it, this person must die. *poof* Now you are no longer this person, and you walk. Oh, and try to remember not to feel guilty. [EDIT -- There's a strong suggestion that life is Hakkai's punishment. Almost Cain-like, except he's strongly encouraged to make something of said life, all the same, because what good does it do at this late stage if he tears himself up? Whereas VS references Cain, period.] There's no doubt el Dark can manage this as well as the Talking Heads, because frankly by definition A with Blood-Sin isn't at all the same person as A without Blood-Sin. Ashley could have forgotten for good, or willingly been forged into the kind of person for whom memories are irrelevant, and then (my guess is) the Dark would have run rampant and our nice little pseudo-Europe would've been royally screwed. But he chose not to, and his reward for refusing the carrot is - well, sanity for one, but redemption for two. Or at least the closure of forgiveness. And that last is weird as all get out, because I doubt very much that forgiveness is within the jurisdiction of the Dark. Slightly depressing theory: was Ashley talking to constructs of his own emotion anthropomorphised? Weirder things have happened to people, even not at the epicentre of some convulsive magical-leyline singularity.
But no no, I have a (faintly tortuous) explanation for all this. Agent Riot can have his cake and eat it too. As long as it's not the same Agent Riot. One must remember that Tia & Marco have more going for them than what Ashley would *like* to have happened - there it is again! - or indeed I, for why shouldn't I give Ashley what he wants for once? Let's give it a name, say, and call it Grace (before I succumb to my own temptation and calque the stance of my fic on the Hare Krishnas' "Introduction to Bhagavad-Gita"), the Grace of God, of Providence, of the Light Side. In one's headlong and fashionable rush for nihilism one is apt to ignore the fact that Iocus was every bit as real an avatar of param dharma as Mullencamp. I know this, 'kay, because my damned trinket was +15 against zombies, and that's physical evidence even an engineer may grok.
One caveat regarding Saiyuki: Sanzou-flavour non-attachment (yum) is not so much a choice as it is a work in progress. Meaning that not even Sanzou is very good at it. (He thinks he is, but he's in denial.) They keep having to re-unattach themselves from their Ish, usually in quite the savage wax-strip-removing manner. One might honestly ask whether this is the underlying philosophy of the series, or if M is intent on demonstrating the futility thereof. I tend to think she means it, and is just being realistic re path to enlightenment being thorny. Except then there's Kougaiji, and Nii if you think about it sideways, and boy did non-attachment not do either of those two a favour. Sometimes if you take away the overwhelming Ish, the only thing you're left with is a blank slate, an empty shell. This is what Ashley refuses, and what Hakkai struggles to work with, and what fucked up Kou for a few good tankoubon there. So the jury's still out, but the theory is well-expounded.
Pity I'm not writing papers in J-media for EAS, ainnit, because there's the seed of a pwetty'un here. What with the Saiyuki and the untapped potential for comparative religion wank. (Have I ever mentioned my friend's graduate advisor, whose office is purportedly filled with BexBoy monthlies? Because teh artifacts of Japanese pop culture are terribly fascinating in an academic sense, j0.)
