Spoiler for the latest friendsim expansion. Spoiler https://chixieroixmr.tumblr.com/post/179028472288
I think this theory is really onto something! Especially since Boldir is specifically a Heart player; she could be drawing out the MC's true self and real motivations...
Spoiler: Bitterness Man I'm just so pissed and at the fucks who screwed hiveswap over Not everyone knows the story and some ppl are really impatient and the huge delay in hiveswap damaged ppls perception of it It's not andrews fault Yet he is the one who has to do something about it
A thing someone pointed out. Doc Scratch is clearly involved in this, but he doesn't need to go to such great lengths to, say, take down Trizza (or possibly GHB, if my theory is right). He has the Handmaid for that, and he doesn't need to risk destabilising Alternia by letting a rebellion get so far for that. Even if he needed the rebellion in some way, he doesn't need Joey or anything/anyone from Earth for that. So it seems he has bigger plans, probably affecting both planets.
Spoiler Okay, what the fuck was that in Fozzer's route? Have any of the antagonists ever been shown to be able to do anything like that? With the information we have, the best I can think of is that the MC got shoved into a different timeline which had split off from the original one much earlier.
Spoiler: Fozzer That was very fucking weird, what the fuck. Was that the Handmaid's doing? It must've been her, right? Spoiler: Marvus Holy fuck, that was one hell of a bizarre set of events. Talking about canonicity so openly, the universe actively conspiring to kill the MC, Final Destination-style, holy crap!
Spoiler Less meta-ly, I think Marvus is using some kind of psychic power, but I'm not sure what kind. He's certainly using something to get the audience to hang on his every word like that, and possibly to make them think his raps are better than they are since his speech is so inarticulate, but then again we do see him demonstrate actual intelligence so maybe not that. I also think he's using it to boost his physical charisma; he's built like Superman and framed in the shot to look very tall, but the narration calls him "lanky" and "of modest stature", so I think he's fucking with people's literal view of him too. Can purple powers do that? We've only seen outright trance-induction and scaring the shit out of people.
Also we have more proof that Alternia is in fact set up purely to make lowbloods suffer. According to Zebruh, a highblood has won every season of Slam or Get Culled, which Xefros says every lowblood dreams of performing in and is one of their few chances to leave their shitty lives behind, and the losers die. It seems the show's set up just to taunt them with the possibility and then prove to viewers that they have no hope. Upthread someone said "Alternia's supposed to be a boot camp, not a torture chamber" but every reveal about it makes me more sure that it IS supposed to be a torture chamber.
Spoiler I think we've seen it before, with Gamzee and his ability to influence Terezi in a strange unknown way.
yeah, hi, that was me, and that’s not what i said. what i said was i get disagreeing with me, and that’s fine, but if you’re going to do it, i’d appreciate using my actual words instead of paraphrasing that sounds like i’m saying it’s “not so bad” anyway, i still don’t think this is difinitive proof alternia is set up purely to make lowbloods suffer. i don’t think alternia cares enough about lowbloods for that. i think it’s a literal example of bread and circuses; if alternia was a constant, miserable slog with no hope of escape or improvement, there’s nothing to live for. giving lowbloods that sliver of hope gives them a distraction and keeps them from just revolting. at least, that’s my take on it.
I mean assuming that 'leave shitty life behind' means, for a lowblood, basically 'become better than what lowbloods are 'meant' to be in Alternian society'.... then of course they're going to fail. no offense meant here, but Alternia, imho, doesn't really care about making lowbloods suffer, specifically. I don't think it really cares about making anyone SUFFER, necessarily. it does care about keeping everyone in their rightful place--and lowbloods belong at the bottom. if you gave them absolutely no hope at all, that might become a different problem, which is likely why things like the show exists, so lowbloods can BELIEVE they have the chance to get to a significantly better place than lowbloods are really MEANT to in Alternian society. but that's....not a lowblood's 'rightful' place in Alternian society. so of course it's set up for them to fail. I don't think it's about torturing them specifically. I think it's just about keeping the status quo in check without also actually crushing lowbloods into the ground--because like artistformerlyknownasdave said, that could lead to more revolt, and possibly a more SUCCESSFUL revolt if more lowbloods were genuinely interested in such a thing. it's just about providing the illusion of choice and the chance for betterment than anything.
I don't know. Every single reveal about Alternia makes it worse, from the fact that it's run by a near-literal demon to Spoiler a possible revolutionary apparently being mind controlled or having his timeline fucked with or SOMETHING to make him give up his beliefs, and I'm pretty sure the lowbloods are smart enough to realise after the second or third time that there is no hope for them in the game. Fool me once and all that? Plus isn't the point of it to be enough of a dystopia to contrast negatively with Earth, which is bad enough?
Someone pointed out something I can't believe I missed. Ardata appears to control the PC in her sim, right? Well, remember how Vriska couldn't control humans? All she could do was make Jade fall asleep. Is this to do with them being physically present and not on the other side of a computer connection, is it a sign Ardata's stronger, is it a discontinuity thing to make the Friendsim story work, or is something more at play? I don't remember if (Vriska) or Aranea could control humans (I do subscribe to some discourse involving Vriska influencing them but I don't think it was ever confirmed she could), but if they could, they had them present to practice on, and the PC is the first human Ardata's ever met. ETA: Someone suggested she might be using her enslaved burgundies to telekinetically force the PC's body to move, and that would actually fit with what happens. The PC seems to describe it more as body control than mind control; they're not choosing to make the movements.
Sorry, @artistformerlyknownasdave, I usually have a good memory for quotes and thought I'd remembered it right.
Spoiler I'm not even going to try to classpect Marvus because I'm very sure that the persona he's showing us is not his real one. He's definitely up to something. At minimum, I'm pretty sure he's just reading his laundry list into the mic and voodoo-ing the audience into thinking it's genius.
all I am going to say to this is false hope can be a hell of a drug letting go of it can be a lot harder than "clearly we don't really have a chance" you're always hoping that THIS time it'll be different, THIS time someone will succeed and letting go of the hope that they can be better than Alternia normally lets them would probably leave a lot of lowbloods with nothing it is entirely probable, imho, that a significant number of lowbloods are choosing to cling to the possibility that it's real still because they haven't thought of revolution, or have and think it's too risky and doomed to fail, and this seems to (to them) all they've got the illusion of choice doesn't necessarily rely solely on fooling people into believing it can also rely on them choosing to delude themselves and I can easily see that being the case
That's a point. Though this week's Friendsim established that someone has a much more direct way of preventing rebellion, and I'm wondering what it is. It's probably done by Doc Scratch, but I don't recall him or any of his minions being able to do what was done here. Does anyone have any thoughts? Is it a new power, or an old one used in a new way?
Spoiler Marvus is also almost certainly altering the perception of his body. He looks like that, yet the PC who's repeatedly noted to be flimsy and is shorter than most trolls, can drag him around.
