#…it’s because of *the cutscene* isn’t it

[caffeinatedowlbear]

On Handsome AIs and identities

This was going to be a comment in the discussion under this post, but I cannot be stopped.

After clearing up semantics, OP and I are in agreement that AI Jack was created by means of a ‘brain download’, however BL’s near-magical technology would handle that.

What comes next is determining to which degree AI Jack is or isn’t the same person as Jack 1.0. I’m afraid you’ve triggered an unskippable cutscene.

To clear this up, I propose we answer the following questions:

1. Is AI Jack a SEPARATE being from Jack 1.0?

2. Is AI Jack a DIFFERENT being than Jack 1.0?

Is he separate?

As far as I’m concerned, yes, because:

He is a new being: AI Jack is a digital entity that had not existed before being created by Nakayama: and we know that Nakayama did make the initial primitive AI we meet in TPS; we can imagine the AI Jack in Tales being a much, much, much upgraded version of that.

He is operatIONAL, even if not operatING: based on how easily AI Jack is activated in Tales, we can assume that the 'brain download' wasn’t being passively dumped into a static database, but incorporated into a digital, self-aware system capable of autonomous thought and action, once activated.

“But he wasn’t activated until—”

Irrelevant! As far as I'm concerned, a being in stasis is still a being. It exists, and it’s alive, just not presently active. If I wouldn’t be okay with destroying an active self-aware AI, I also wouldn’t be okay with destroying a fully functional AI that hasn't been activated yet. Killing the latter would NOT feel more okay than the former.

Is he different?

OP has pointed out that from the point where Jack 1.0’s and AI Jack’s experiences start to differ, they become separate beings. Based on my points above, I argue that AI Jack is a separate being from jump. But paraphrasing OP, I would say that 1.0 and AI become different beings the moment their experiences diverge.

And that moment is the very next second after 1.0’s brain download begins. Because the brain being downloaded is a snapshot in time, so as soon as 1.0 makes a new memory, including the memory of uploading said snapshot… continuity has been broken. 1.0 now has a memory that AI doesn’t.

Which kind of means that the only time Jack 1.0 and AI Jack are the same person is the split second between 1.0 starting the brain download and the download commencing?

(As an aside: if we imagine that New-U's are canon, they are meant to instantaneously back up the user's brain at the time of death, and digistruct a new body into which the brain contents are uploaded. Similar for Fast Travel or any other teleportation: you're scanned, destroyed, then recreated at the destination. As long as only one copy of you exists at a time, your continuity is preserved. If a spare copy is left behind, we have a problem.)

(As an extra aside: the show Living With Yourself features a darkly funny, but pretty solid exploration of what happens when a spare copy of you gets left behind.)

Revisiting our questions now…

1. Is AI Jack a SEPARATE being from Jack 1.0? - yes, because AI Jack has existed at the same time as Jack 1.0 

2. Is AI Jack a DIFFERENT being than Jack 1.0? - yes, because AI Jack’s memories are never exactly the same as Jack 1.0’s, due to the snapshot nature of the hypothetical brain download

Now, for the trillion-dollar question… Does being a separate and different ENTITY from Jack 1.0 make AI Jack a different PERSON?

This one, I’m afraid, has too many layers, because wouldn’t you know it, being a person is complicated. XD

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s take the Felicity example. If the memory of what Jack 1.0 did to Felicity are part of AI Jack’s memories, does this mean that AI Jack also inherits the blame for those actions?

I don’t know. For real. 

It’s easy to say ‘of course he does, because he’s a direct continuation of Jack 1.0’ - except that he’s not, as I’ve described above.

‘But even AI Jack himself, in Tales, views himself as a direct continuation of 1.0’ - but just because he thinks that doesn’t make it true.

I think the only way that makes sense to me is to ask: if Jack 1.0 were still around, whom would you hold responsible for the damage done to Felicity? For the death of Bloodwing? For the destruction of New Haven?

If you had to put someone on trial for that, would you go after the man who actually did it? Or after the man who was made to believe that he had? 

So if we wouldn’t have held AI Jack responsible for Jack 1.0’s actions if the latter was still around, I don’t think that 1.0’s death should change things.

AI Jack is a Separate and Different being than Jack 1.0, and should not be held responsible for any of 1.0’s actions.

The defense rests--

Wait, actually…

There is one exception to my closing statement.

AI Jack is a Separate and Different being than Jack 1.0, and should not be held responsible for any of 1.0’s actions UNLESS he chooses to accept that responsibility for whatever reason.

Now, in what situation would AI Jack WANT to be held responsible for Jack 1.0’s actions? When accepting responsibility is inextricably tied with some experience of being Jack 1.0. When he would rather think of himself as Jack 1.0, with everything that entails, rather than be completely separate from him.

When there’s something in his-not-his memories that he wants to think of as his own, even if it means accepting the pain and grief and other baggage that comes with it.

Consider the following segment from my fic, in which AI Jack, by now pretty invested in the idea that he is NOT Jack 1.0, believes he has a fleeting chance to speak to the ghost of Angel (emphasis added).

“Angel.” Just saying her name again makes Jack want to drop to his knees, but he’s not gunning for pity here. “I am… so sorry. I’m— I’m told you understand that I’m not… him, but really, I’m not not him, either, ‘cause I— I remember it all. Better than he ever did, ever could, ‘cause he never could go back and look, really look at it all, and I can. I… have. I’ve seen everything he’s done, I’ve learned what you did, and I got it, I finally got it, too fucking late, of course, but for what it’s worth— Yeah, no, I know it ain’t worth much. Just like your dad, always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to the stuff that matters. Gahd, you really have been dealt a shitty hand as far as parents go, eh, baby girl? Far as too many things go, really. You didn’t deserve what happened to you, what he— what I— Fuck.” He forces a chuckle. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Language.” Seriously, this identity crap is starting to really get in the way. Story of his digital life, huh. Guess he’d better pick a pronoun and stick with it. Is he saying sorry for what the other Jack did, or taking on the man’s actions as his own? Is he offering an apology, or just condolences? Is he a bystander, an accomplice, or the perpetrator? Well, he can’t be either of the last two, ‘cause he, this Jack, never did anything to her! He never even met her! He wasn’t even around at the time, he wasn’t alive, for his given value of living! He’s more than within his rights to absolve himself of the guilt. But if he does that, if he’s a bystander offering condolences, that means he’s talking to a stranger right now. If he absolves himself of the guilt, if he stands aside from the horrors Jack 1.0 is responsible for… then he’s got no claim to any of the good memories, either. He never lost a daughter ‘cause he never had one. He was never married, he never ran Hyperion, he had nothing, he was nothing till he got sparked into consciousness when Rhys jammed a data drive into his cybernetics. He’s not Handsome Jack. He’s not any Jack. He’s just a confused collection of ones and zeroes, a digital ghost mixed up in old memories he doesn’t know what to do with. She’s a stranger to him, and he’s no-one and nothing to her, and he’s got no business talking to her, and none of this has any meaning. Well. Fuck that. “Angel. I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m so sorry, baby. You deserved so much better than that. So much better than me. So much better than this bullshit apology. I mean, it’s not all bullshit, ‘cause I mean every word, but it’s still bullshit ‘cause it can’t fix a thing. There’s nothing to be fixed. You’re— you’re gone, and it’s my fault. All of it. You did nothing wrong. It was all me. I never saw. I never understood. I left you with no choice. I’m sorry.”

So, in summary… in my many, many thousands of words of writing about AI Jack, I ask the question ‘but IS he Jack?’ many times, but I never answer it. It’s always up to AI Jack himself to decide. His feelings about it change a lot as time goes on, but ultimately, he accepts that his identity is a liminal space between ‘Handsome Jack’ and ‘Not Handsome Jack’. 

Is AI Jack the same person as Handsome Jack 1.0, or is he someone different?

Yes. 

[thebestusernamepossible]

‘We need more morally gray women’ you can’t even handle Ceroba from Undertale Yellow

[bowl-of-fruit-loops]

high chaos emily is so juicy, ESPECIALLY if corvo was low chaos in dishonored 1. high chaos corvo to high chaos emily—we can see a direct through line. emily draws a picture of corvo’s assassin mask. she makes the comment that if corvo didn’t kill all the usurpers, she would have had them killed. it’s generally a “worse” ending and we can easily see how high chaos emily came to be.

but LOW chaos corvo to high chaos emily? delicious to think about. emily isn’t following the example of her father. in fact, given everything we know about jessamine and the comment she makes when she’s released from the heart (something about how emily has become everything jessamine was against) emily isn’t following either of her parents’ examples.

this isn’t to say that high chaos emily doesn’t make sense in terms of the character or story. it does! emily is ten when her mother is killed in front of her, she gets kidnapped, rescued, only to get kidnapped again and held hostage. and then fifteen years later it’s happening again! her father is taken from her and her friend is killed and she’s been overthrown. she has not only a motive but the means (thanks to the outsider) to carve through everyone that gets in her way.

but. imagine what happens after the game. what happens when corvo, who executed an entirely bloodless campaign, wakes up and finds emily the vengeful? what happens when emily, whose mother’s last words were of disapproval, has to face her father?

[inspector-montoya-fox]

Today i have mustered up the courage to ask you:

If Sly got a sidekick spinoff like Daxter and Secret Agent Clank, would it be a Bentley or Murray game?

[no1ryomafan]

I’m debating if I’ll just use tumblr for proper analysis rather then me just typing up shit at 1 am-like I did last night lol-that I rotate because I’ve been thinking of multiple subjects that could either be video essays or long posts but I do think to test it out I should try writing up a post about Vent from ZX because I feel me making a tumblr post about why he’s not as bad of a character as people think he is I will get less flames then if I made it into a video 💀

(Also I said I’d do Grey but imma be real: love the boy but I feel it’s redundant to go in depth about him when the whole point people don’t like him is because he’s not like Ashe, where as I feel Vent suffers from “he’s just a worse Aile”. Grey deserves better though but I’ve seen more people like him than Vent being fully honest)

[forcedhesitation]

I love that the bg3 guys are all written to have this intense adoration of karlach and lae’zel’s abilities to absolutely eviscerate their enemies. they’ve all got the same taste in women, which is “she could gut the big scary man chasing me, and then princess carry me to safety in her blood spattered arms.” and I respect and relate to that, as a bisexual man myself.

[malewifehenrycooldown]

man I sure wish one day I can play the original Deus ex…

[simcardiac-arrested]

cutsceneificiation

sometimes i’m like ughh i don’t even like languages or philology or anything. but today in russian class we were studying how words are made and i was just hit with uber autism. i was just sitting there and i realized: words. oh my god words. Arent they fucked crazy. isn’t it crazy how there are SO many ways to take apart words and then make up new ones with those parts!! just like what you did!!! cutscenefication is a combo of cutscene + the suffix -fication which signifies. uhmm. well it signifies Some Sort Of Process happening. i am being cutscenified right now. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! because you see cutscene is also a combo of the words cut and scene. isn’t language just crazy forreal. i like looking at words and seeing all the similarities and differences between them. i like looking at words and figuring out how they came to be and from which other words they might’ve developed. etymology is cool asf because every word on planet earth has such a rich history and different meanings in different regions and time periods and you can see where it was used the most and the least and how important it might’ve been to people at a given time. synonyms blow my entire mind. Can you believe bamboozled is even a real thing people say

[cinnamnt]

i’m divorcing solid snake for the foreseeable future because his game made me annoyed

[lulu2992]

I haven't played Collapse, but I was watching some videos showing stuff from it. And I don't think I'll ever forgive what they did in terms of Joseph's relationships to his siblings (especially Faith though since that was particularly egregious imo). Reducing all of them to victims of Joseph's manipulations and machinations ruins all four of their characters and puts such a sour taste in my mouth. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Honestly, not everything was bad in Collapse. Like in its two predecessors, I thought the world was well-designed and interesting, visually speaking, because it was a perfect balance between familiar and strange. As for the story, some of the apparent mistakes regarding the relationships between Joseph and his siblings can be explained and justified by the fact that everything takes place in his tortured mind, that he feels guilty about their death so he imagines them angry at him and vindictive, and that part of what he sees is created by the Voice who is clearly manipulative in that story.

But, yes, unfortunately, when I think about Collapse, I mostly remember what I didn’t like, and your message sums up exactly how I feel. Too many things were oversimplified, sometimes to the point of inaccuracy, and that really doesn’t do anyone justice…

[void-kissed]

my mum: it’s nice you’ve been able to talk to your friends so much today

me, now over 750 words into a new writing piece I started today: ah haha yes they’ve all definitely been around today and that’s been what’s preoccupying me

[asterdeer]

got really spoiled on all the cutscenes from doing more long rests and now in act ii there aren’t as many and i feel very :< about it. i wanna talk to my friens

[revvethasmythh]

wait but also can we talk about Aylin. can we talk about her. because not to be bisexual but oh my god. oh my fucking god

[cerastes]

Habe you ever had a "did we even play the same game?" moment with someone?

My favorite game ever used to be Metal Gear Solid 4, it’s still up there in my top favorites, and this time at a party I met a guy that said he didn’t like MGS4 because he felt like it ruined Snake as a character and that it misrepresented him. I asked if he could elaborate and his response was that they took this Rambo dude, this super manly war hero and emasculated him into a weak old man.

I need you to understand that Solid Snake was without exaggeration fundamental in my growth as a person: I am from a latino country, grew up in what’s widely considered the wrong side of the tracks in the middle of nowhere, being macho, manly, tough was incredibly important to me, because that’s how it was in there, and Snake (plus “The Knight In Rusty Armor” by Robert Fisher) basically made me question all of what I’d grown up thinking up until then, because Snake isn’t a badass because grrr manly beef jerky I kill and swear, he is this incredibly solemn guy who hates what he can do, but is the only one that can do it, and if he doesn’t do it, then nuclear war happens, or worse. There’s a whole angle of expectation as a narrative arc in regards to Snake: Meryl expected a glorious, boisterous war hero, Otacon expected a grizzled, badass action hero, Liquid expected Himself But Better In Every Way, Ocelot expected a tool and nothing else, Naomi expected a callous and cold killer… And they were all wrong, he is, ultimately, an exhausted man that cannot stop no matter how much he wants to stop, because if he does, the world might likely go up in literal flames.

So to hear this self-proclaimed superfan of Snake say this just made me skip anger and go all the way to pity. In-universe, those in the know of Snake worship him as an actual God of War, and it’s a common thing that gets addressed in-universe: The whole point of MGS2 is that Raiden could never have won if he tried to be Snake, because you don’t want to be Snake. Snake hates being Snake. Snake isn’t manly because he beat a tank on foot one on one, Snake is admirable because he does the right thing, even if he’s breaking down molecule by molecule as he goes and he wants nothing more than to fuck off and raise dogs in the arctic, but keeps on going anyways because he can do something about it. The most important message he imparts on Raiden and Meryl is Don’t Be Me; Create A World Where Snake Doesn’t Need To Exist.

I felt pity because if you feel like MGS4 misrepresented Snake, then you really and explicitly are exactly the kind of fodder PMC nobody that feeds the proxy wars in MGS4. I think only by skipping every cutscene you can come out thinking that way. The only thing super about him was ficial.

[prokopetz]

Video game cutscene introducing a female non-humanoid alien who looks exactly like her male counterparts because her species isn’t dimorphic in any way that humans can perceive, but the camera angles and audio cues still do the thing. All slowly panning over her dorsal ridges before getting to her light-sensing organs and lingering on her secondary manipulator appendages just a bit too long.