#Manfred Arknights

[mlynar-nearl]

unfortunately this will probably make me start calling darknights trio "dreadful little polycule"

[golurkart]

manhoe?

[mui-ka]

Arknights: Absolved Will Be the Seekers

[orpheusfumi]

Anybody here care about gertrude strollo? Because i do i care so much (and others)

[kara-knuckles]

While I understand that the point of this conversation was to highlight Ascalon's lack of real-life experience, I can't help but find this scene laughable, both because it is Theresis telling her this, and because he says Manfred is somehow different. Do you seriously tell me Manfred didn't choose Military Commission simply because he was raised by it? Pretty much everything about him points at him blindly joining KMC thanks to propaganda, and I don't see how it is any different from Ascalon accepting protection of Theresa and her ideals as her life goal. If anything, I see Ascalon's choice as a lot more sincere, because at least she doesn't lie to herself.

Overall, it reads less like Theresis telling Ascalon to stop being a sheeple, and more like he is just salty she didn't side with him. And I wonder if this isn't actually the intended reading, because we see that Manfred handles his relationships with Paprika and Hoederer in the same way. With Paprika, he basically goes:

Manfred: I will show you how great my organisation is! Paprika: I think it sucks. Manfred: Well, I'm sending you to help the biggest psycho on the battlefield then.

And it's a bit of Episode 14 spoiler, but this is pretty much how he sees Hoederer as well.

[newerpaper]

I hate making this the most

[manaohu]

the man

[heartofsurgingflame]

manhoe i drew for @/alkalische and forgot to post to tumblr

[furniture-piece]

the man named frederick:

[burstfoot]

[the-cornuthaum]

god bless. I really loved Ascalon and Manfred's dynamic - so much of the sarkaz is bound up in these decades- and centuries-old bundles of feelings as these deathless elites need to contend with the passage of time but also the same people they have known for centuries.

manfred and ascalon

[apolunatic]

[natmasthestinkylizardliker]

bullying him (based tbh)

[kara-knuckles]

Alright, it's been a week, I think my head is clear enough to talk about how much I hated Ascalon's treatment during recent stories.

I already talked about how… questionable I found Ascalon's dialogue with Theresis before Babel's withdrawal, and her OpRec made it even worse, because now I fully believe he is gaslighting her into feeling worthless. In both scenes Theresis points how Ascalon simply follows Theresa for no reason, yet Ascalon gave him her reason all these years ago:

Ascalon very clearly tells Theresis that the reason she wants to protect Theresa is because he isn't doing his job, so someone else needs to do it. This incident also perfectly illustrates my issues with Theresis, because when Ascalon questions him about why he isn't being more proactive about Theresa and Babel, he answers "never question me, I know what I do":

Yet when she tells him that she wants to protect Theresa, he goes all "you don't actually follow her, go question your every life decision":

And the worst part is, the narrative always treats both Theresis and Manfred like they are right, and Ascalon is this poor soul with zero agency. And don't get me wrong, I don't mind an arc about an emotionally stunted assassin defining herself, but it rubs me the wrong way how it is perpetuated by two hypocrites who really don't have any high ground to speak from.

And then, there is Episode 14, which really highlights how much the game loves Manfred at her expense. Even omitting how disappointing their duel was, it made me raise my brow when Paprika got upset about Manfred possibly dying. Paprika. Same Paprika Manfred previously antagonized. Same Paprika who saw him almost kill Hoederer. Same Paprika who was about to die by his blade herself. And yet no one cares about what happened to Ascalon, who was already badly injured, single-handedly stalled Manfred for 12 hours, and fell off the interdimensional skeleton when it took off. Not even Theresa went to check on her during her final moments, which was apparently less important than watching some complete strangers.

This Episode not only didn't help my previous perception that the narrative tries to have its cake and eat it too with Manfred (yes, he commits atrocities, but he is so sympathetic, and not like those mercenaries/vampires/insert antagonists here!), but only added more fuel to it (oh no, look, our golden boy might have died, isn't it a big deal??? Not like that Ascalon who doesn't even deserve acknowledgement if she doesn't share a scene with Manfred). And I kind of dread the game actually giving us a flashback of Theresa's goodbye to Ascalon, because not only will it feel like a quick fix of 14's mistake, I'm 90% sure it won't be about Ascalon, but rather about Theresis and Manfred.

[newerpaper]

Rise of rock cat

[gaemms-chamois]

a scoop of Hoederer