#is identical to my annoyance with bill cipher fans. like awesome you missed the point and now nobody gets any interesting discussion

[abyssalzones]

please can i ask for ur AM analysis/takes. i only kno abt him thru cultural osmosis and i will at some point play/read i have no mouth but until then im. very curious 👀

hm... to be frank I don't have much in the way of analysis, especially beyond what others have already said? he's a very interesting and nuanced character, who technically isn't much of a "character" at all in the original short story (or, well, no I suppose that isn't fair, he is a character, it's just that he's also an amalgam of thoughts and narrative analogue and, yes, Hate) and then was further developed by the consequent video game and radio play adaptations. Ellison himself has spoken about the story being about the dangers of military technology, and to Me that feels agonizingly obvious if you have even the most basic understanding of the premise... but hey, maybe that's flown over people's heads. regardless, even if I don't see that inherently as a reason people can't enjoy the character (I think the idea of "not letting people enjoy a character" is bullshit anyway. who the hell is stopping you?), in regards to that post I absolutely see what OP means in regards to the weird flanderization/flattening of AM's personality and role in the story.

I recommend reading/listening to/playing any of the IHNMAIMS adaptations for yourself, it will become apparent very quickly that he's a little above and beyond the pay-grade of "evil robot".