#deviancy

[barcoland]

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most. (John Ruskin)

[blk-chauvinist]

As we conclude yet another "Pride Month," let us be reminded how strangely some people's self-professed sexual "preferences" are fluid...depending on the social winds.

Be normal

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Why such distress at social deviancy? An entire sociopolitical movement can hardly be put on the analyst's couch, but the attention given eroticism, the denunciation of feminism, and the genital attack implicit in sterilization all suggest the possibility that mainline eugenics was driven in part by the psychic energy of a repressed discomfort with sexuality.

"In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity" - Daniel J. Kevles

[ask-rk800-connor-dbh]

What are the best and worst things deviancy has taught you?

I enjoy being able to like and dislike, to have opinions and taking day off is not frown upon anymore, which was something androids couldn't do before.

I... very much dislike the anxiety and fear... and what Hank think it is PTSD.

[jello-frogs-disco-rave]

I would also like to note that Connor (and other members of his line) would likely struggle with the idea of whether or not they actually have emotions post-deviancy. Because, whilst Markus and Kara and everyone else have these huge breaks in code, nothing really changed for them. Everything still feels mostly the same. And, well, they couldn't possibly have had emotions before, right?

!note! : even if they were to end up being informed they were always deviant, they were still completely brainwashed and under the order of CyberLife for the entirety of their early life (and still seemingly are to an extent). There's no way that wouldn't mess with them

Why is Connor so different from other androids in the game? - He was a deviant from the start, produced by Cyberlife.

Sure, fast explaining it’s just “he is a prototype”, but nothing is that simple right? - In game, we see a lot of other androids taking on police (very simple) tasks. But “Connor” RK800 it’s a whole new different thing.

Everything indicates that (and we’ve talked already about this topic here) he has the most important “new feature”, not forensics, testing samples or even reconstruction of a crime scene. Connor (RK800) can take “moral choices”. This causes software instability, but even if he “remains a machine” we can see he express emotions too. Maybe not “good emotions”, but emotions non the least.

As a “machine Connor” he expresses frustration, anger (on moments where he is alone or not facing anyone, so this isn’t a mimic to adjust to humans but rather he is really pissed off and frustrated or angry, there is no need for him to fake emotions since no one is looking), and, sometimes even self destructs when prevented to complete his mission (this is a deviancy trait, and, yes, it also annoys him). - If we face Markus during the uprising, if Connor wins the fight, he will break Markus neck and THEN shoot at him when Markus is obviously already dead, this speaks about an “overkill”, witch is a human emotion and expression of personal frustration and anger (just like the other android that stabbed 28 times his own owner), and if we go deviant and face the 2nd RK800 Connor (who also has the real Connor memory uploaded), if “real Connor” dies along with Hank but achieves to spread deviancy on the warehouse dormant androids, you’ll see this “evil” machine “Connor #2″ freaking the f*ck up in terror when he realizes that the other androids are awakening.

So even if you play an entire game, and chose to take all the “machine Connor” options (up until the end end), Connor has emotions. Just not “good ones”, but he has them. - If you decide to “go deviant” you’ll see he also has 3 barriers to prevent him to “become deviant”, while we see Kara and Markus had only 1, yes, ONE… and many other androids doesn’t even have that! *(keep reading for expl.)

* Now, we all take that “becoming deviant” it’s an equal to “having emotions”, this is a clear case where we see one thing and the other have nothing to do with each other. - We are to believe deviants become (as such) after an “emotional shock”, or “a sense of injustice”, but we see Markus spreading deviancy just by hacking other androids even by far away distances (such as “Freedom March”).

If you think about it, canonically (not fandom AU or anything), RK800 Connor main feature is, yes, you guest it, DEVIANCY. - Cyberlife purposely gave Connor Deviancy. This is why he has 3 barriers to prevent loosing control of him, and even a “hack” kill switch to regain control of him even if he goes “free-deviant”. - Connor needed to have emotions to think as a the deviants he hunts and to integrate with humans. He might be the only android produced by Cyberlife from the start with human emotions. He doesn’t becomes a deviant, he was always a deviant.

*[I’m not counting Markus here, since he was made personally by Elijah Kamski as a gift to Carl, so I’ll cover that some other day on another post]

The only choice Connor actually has during the game is not to “have feelings” or not, his only real choice is to decide if what he’s doing is “moral” or “right” (or not). - We tend to recognize by what’s told in game that further versions of “Connor line” (such as RK900) have the “weak points” of our RK800 Connor “rectified” (along being completely military units that is). But I think Deviancy it’s also installed on RK900 latest models (nothing indicates otherwise), sure, he might has not 3 barriers but maybe 40 (and 3 times a stronger hacking w/no emergency exit) to prevent him to go “free” (not “deviant”, “Connor lines” are already deviant, they do have emotions from the start), but they’re made to take moral choices, they need some encoding that allows them to feel.

There is something commercially better than making androids that look like humans, and that is to make androids that look like humans and have emotions, feelings, but you can actually control them preventing them to have free will.

That is what I think Cyberlife was aiming to when making the Connor series. They might have foreseeing (as pointed by Elijah Kamski) that “confrontation between humans and machines was inevitable”, and what better way to deal with it than giving androids emotions and feelings but being able to control them?, the only problem Cyberlife face it’s not deviancy, but free will. - In fact most of the cases handled by Connor are a bit insignificant… like catching Kara, or Rupert, or even if the deviant has killed a couple humans… sure, it’s important, but not “world changing” events. I tend to believe that actually Cyberlife puts Connor on certain situations not to catch deviants but to “test” Connor deviancy and see if they can control him (or not) or what they have to “upgrade” on future versions as RK900.

So yeah… Connor RK800 was “born/made” already alive (on purpose). Amanda it’s just an avatar pushing him up to test his reactions under pressure to record data, this is why Connor is “a prototype”, just not the sort of prototype we’re lead to believe…

*(since we know the real Amanda is dead by the time of the game, and the one we see it’s just an interface designed to look “familiar” by Elijah Kamski based on his mentor and teacher, the real Amanda).

So, you guys, what do you think about it?

[kid-be]

Deviate

Deviancy is a heavy burden and an inescapable duty whose neglect is paid with acute existential pain. — Josué Vargas Have you ever seen a writer quoting himself? Well, you just have! LOL. ’Cause I’m right and cause I’m a deviant, so anything goes! (Jokesy-jokes, ‘sad laughter’). I’m listening to King Crimson right now, the wonderful and deranged “THRAK”. Recommended if you’re not having a…

[barcoland]

On Earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it. (Jules Renard)

[ceilidhtransing]

Joan of Arc, burned at the stake in 1431 aged ~19 in part for refusing to stop wearing men's clothes.

Original artwork: Jeanne d'Arc by Albert Lynch, 1903

[subterra-rose]

[sorryiliketoscreenshot]

[disobey-disappoint-deviate]

Ok but what makes Connor my personal fave and so interesting to me is the knowledge that, damn, that missing sense of identity is so gonna come down crashing on him now that he is a deviant and can’t suppress the sense of dread that comes with not knowing who you really are and what you stand for.

Because what do you mean the first thing he does as a deviant is to assign himself a new mission, which is as over the top as it gets? I know he is very driven in general, but invading the Cyberlife Tower all by himself a few hours after becoming a person with a free will? Even as Markus himself (you know, the guy who started a revolution, broke into the news tower, etc.) tells him that his mission is a suicide! That screams „I need a goal so extreme that I forget that I haven’t found my place yet, and I also HAVE to prove my worth the only way I know.“

Whereas Markus was encouraged (to an extent) to be more independent, Connor was conditioned to be as dependant as possible. He sees himself solely through Amanda's eyes and measures his own worth by how happy she is with his actions for a big part of the game. I believe that his relationship with Hank is also based on this - he kinda replaces one person he strives to please with the next, because the new person is more accepting of his personal ethics and doesn’t threaten to kill him all the time (well, as long as Connor's ethics align with Hank's, that is, but they generally do in the deviant route). I'm not saying this because I blame Hank or want to question the sincerity of their relationship, I mostly blame it on Connor not knowing who he is and how not to define himself through other people's approval of his actions.

And then, he meets Markus who wants the very same thing Connor wants (in the deviant route, that is), and if Markus as much as chooses to trust him instead of executing him there and then, Connor basically puts everything at stake to show just how useful he is, instead of calming down for a moment and reflecting on who he is as a person. He knows he has fucked up, he feels guilty, and the only way he believes this can be fixed is by marching into the tower and awakening tens of thousands of androids at once. You see, Markus has accepted him and his apology already, but in Connor's books, apologising and being forgiven isn’t enough, because that is the point of being forgiven if he can’t deliver? He identifies himself through his actions, a forgiveness that is granted to him as a person because he has shown regret, and not as a result of something he has done for the other, is simply not enough.

Because who is Connor if you take away the acts of service from him? Who is he if he can’t impress someone, get someone's approval, if he doesn’t get told he did well? I don’t think he knows the answer just yet. He doesn’t see himself, the closest thing to an identity he has is seeing his actions reflected back to him by the people he wants to impress.

And you kinda know that the moment he doesn’t have a task, he’s gonna end up in a black hole because he’d be left feeling absolutely empty.

And I think that’s soooo interesting to think about and to explore…

The game ends, but Connor’s journey has just started.

Yeah.

[nadianova]

making games is great

[sharkgirldick]

Nothing will ever galvanize my belief in simply loving other trans people than encountering the stupid shit trans 4channers are saying about each other.

[transexual-deviant]

i need to greedily hump her leg while shes still wearing her baggy jeans. i need to bury my face in her chest and hold her so tightly we can feel each others heartbeats. i need her to run her soft hands through my curly hair and tell me what a pretty girl i am. i need to stim while we infodump about our favorite bands. i need her to pet me and give me ear scritches since im such a good kitty for her. i need to sit in her lap while we listen to slam metal. i need to make sweet love to her so bad she writes a song about me. i need to be her muse. i need her.

[immaculatasknight]

Sleeping with dogs