Projekt Red: Desire for connection and her relationship with Kal'tsit and Grandma.
So originally this was going to just be about Red's relationship with Kal'tsit but thinking about it, I decided I wanted to discuss many other facets of Red when it comes to her connections with other people.
But without further ado:
Setting the scene.
Firstly I want to discuss the possible themes of family and accompanying themes for Siracusa and particularly Lupos.
Nothing illustrates it better than the founding story of Siracusa: the story of the She-Wolf, which takes inspiration from Rome's founding story of Romulus and Remus. A story that ends with Romulus killing his brother Remus, which I say for a reason.
From Rewinding Breeze's Stories from the Sky, it goes as such:
I want to specifically point out the final line of this cropped version: "From then on, Lupos stopped separating themselves into tribes, and called each other family instead."
The story of the She-Wolf and founding of Siracusa is specifically connected to family and Lupos and I think that the state of the She-Wolf's family is echoed in other Lupo's families. Maybe not purposefully but the inversion of wolves, known for their packs is what I imagine they're going for.
But to call attention to Lupos with strained families or connected to lonliness:
Texas's Father killed her Grandfather, leading to the destruction of the Texas family which she herself just watched, tired of it all and before meeting Emperor was alone thereafter.
Lappland hates her Father more than anything else but Siracusa, with her cutting ties with him entirely after Il Siracusano and him vowing to kill her if they meet again. Also due to her exile she's described as a Lone Wolf.
The Bellone family falls apart in Il Siracusano, with several betrayals and rifts caused throughout the event.
Capone and Gambino, once sworn brothers, become enemies in Code of Brawl.
Gertrude suffered abuse from her father and killed her brother, living and dying alone thereafter.
Pozyomka's whole family was murdered right in front of her, leading to her distrusting the surface and fleeing alone till finding a home with the Durin, though with undeniable differences between them.
Horn is implied to dislike her Father's action but her story following Episode 9, wherein she loses her whole squad but Bagpipe, became Dublinn's prisoner and survived alone in Londinium's sewers with only Metal Crabs as company hones in more on the loneliness.
Crownslayer's parents dying in the Chernobog sarcophagus purge. Reunion falling and then Red killing her mentor, leaving her with no one.
But there's one I left out in this for the sake of focusing on it.
Kinship.
This is Red's Trust 1 and 2 voicelines, Both portray her loneliness and call to two different things. I'll get onto her Trust 2 in a bit but for Red's Trust 1, it shows that whereas where other Lupos or Siracusans have turmoil with their families, either having them be strained, broken or dead, Red doesn't have a family.
Now, it is mentioned in Red's file 4 the existence of someone called Grandma who is responsible for why Red is the way she is, having been the one to raise her, uh, "raise her" before Kal'tsit.
Il Siracusano reveals the existence of beings known as the Signore dei Lupi who are Lupine Beast Lords like Emperor or Gawain and revealing that Grandma is one of them as well as what she expects from Red. Basically, the Signore dei Lupi each have a Fang that they train to kill the other Signore dei Lupi's Fangs. Red is Grandma's Fang.
The Signore dei Lupi claim territory in the wastes of Siracusa. Red's module confirms that this is where Red was trained in the least but as Il Siracusano introduces Lunacub, another Fang who only knows the wilderness and has no family like Red, it can be inferred that Red too was raised away from society, in the wilderness only knowing Grandma.
But even with Lunacub sharing almost the same upbringing that Red did there's a profound difference in how they were raised by their respective Signore dei Lupi. One that results in Lunacub being more capable and sociable than Red.
As said, Red has many problems. She's stated to have both educational as well as social problems. She cuts anything that gets close to her. I believe that her speech is broken (more evident in CN text if I'm right). And has limited empathy.
And as illustrated by her Trust 2:
She has a yearning to bond with other Lupos specifically it appears from this and her module which includes a ball made of fur specifically mentioned to be for when there's no Lupo tails to touch. Which, her wanting to bond with others would make sense.
There's a theme with Red's Trust lines where each line she doesn't take a hard stance on, moreso questioning or confused by something whether it's the importance of family, why she's being avoided or what her life could've been if she wasn't a Wolf Hunter i.e. met Grandma.
The final line of her Trust 3 is the Doctor asking Red to answer the question herself, which I think calls back to her module that really hammers in that Red struggles thinking for herself:
Something that Kal'tsit recognizes and points out herself:
So I see Red's Trust lines as her not being able to understand what she's feeling, the best she can do is to question things that she has feelings about deep down or have deeper meaning to her that she's not aware of.
Being that if she wasn't a Wolf Hunter she could have lived a happier life. She maybe would've had a family of her own. Could approach and befriend other Lupos. Have a bond with others, something that she can't at the moment.
I feel that Red's targeting of Lupos in her Trust 2 is for sure because of Siracusa's emphasis on Lupos and between the She-Wolf & her children and the Signore dei Lupi there is an emphasis on Wolves sticking together.
There's also something specifically with Red, cause the Signore dei Lupi as far as we've seen only have Lupos as their Fangs which on top of the emphasis on Lupos and wolf packs actually goes a level deeper due to two points:
I made a whole post about this but basically: Zaaro demonstrates the same or near identical ability as Red scaring Lupos and Vigil describes it as "kinship" and in the second and third images through Ho'olheyak we learn that Kukulkans and likely all Ancients were originally actual creatures.
So Lupos likely were originally actual Wolves, with the Signore dei Lupi or rather Lupine Beast Lords were kin with in some way or another and able to exert power over them through kinship, like Zaaro demonstrates in that image.
But also likely what Red is doing to scare Lupos, which is tragic. She wants kinship with her fellow Lupos but if I'm correct with this, then unbeknownst to her she has stronger kinship with them than any other Lupo and it's exactly why they're terrified of her.
Also a side note, I do wonder if in IS-ST-4 Red sees Crownslayer as someone she's somewhat fine with and if it's a result of Crownslayer being a Lupo by her account.
Cause there's "Is she your Kal'tsit?" which I'll delve into, but her expression is a happy one as opposed to her resting one for the rest of the conversation and in general she feels too casual.
But that's just a thought. Now, onto the next part:
Grandma and Kal'tsit.
"I do as Grandma/Kal'tsit says"
It's the exact same thing for both of them and by all means it should be. Grandma and Kal'tsit are the people who raised Red, albeit one better than the other.
With the minimal knowledge that Kal'tsit has about Grandma she suspects her to be responsible for the problems Red has that Rhodes has laid out in her files:
As I showed before, Grandma only taught Red what Grandma deemed Red would need to know to accomplish what Grandma wanted before throwing her into a traumatic experience and then doing it again:
And as the end of that paragraph, the way that Grandma raised Red, what she threw her into again and again would have killed her in some way if it wasn't for Kal'tsit.
Now, this is where our information about Grandma dries up as she's not mentioned in Il Siracusano outside of that one screenshot and we don't yet know how Kal'tsit met Red but what we do know is what Kal'tsit did upon meeting her:
Kal'tsit saw the problems that Red has and like Rosmontis, probably recognized how severe they were and decided to provide her with shelter in exchange for Red aiding Rhodes Island through her combat skills.
We also know that Rhodes Island put Red through several tests, likely headed by Kal'tsit herself who we also know tried coming up with several contingencies before scrapping them, destroying test data and classifying a lot of information regarding Red because of the severity and delicate nature of her situation.
But while there's nothing that she can do and by extension Rhodes, she still tries to help Red, whether by teaching her outright like the homework she gets her to do or by teaching her moral lessons which I believe she does in 6-11 after Crownslayer leaves.
Kal'tsit puts in a lot of effort to help Red which really contrasts Grandma's lack of care or affection or help. If Grandma had done much of anything then Red wouldn't have the problems she does, she like Lunacub could've known care and affection and end up better because of it.
But Red, the awful experiences she's gone through, how even now she struggles and doesn't know how to do a lot of things and yearns for affection from other Lupos, is because of how Grandma raised her.
And now Kal'tsit is doing her best to help Red, despite likely knowing that Red will one day leave and that Kal'tsit can't do much to help her and that it's up to Red to help herself at the end of the day. She put in a lot of effort for her.
How Red feels about Kal'tsit on the other hand I feel is quite complicated.
A lot of the time when Red talks or thinks about Kal'tsit it's what Kal'tsit has done for her or their agreement. There's not anything so much resembling the worry Kal'tsit puts in for her. Which I think isn't for lack of care for Kal'tsit.
Going back to how Red says she does what Grandma says and Kal'tsit says in the same way, right?
Red struggles to think for herself. It's what her Trust lines are about. It's what Kal'tsit sees that Red needs to do in her File 4. It's what her module is about. But Red can't and it's the basis of her relationship with Grandma, which is the only one that she knew for ages.
Grandma would teach her something, expecting her to accomplish it and then Red would be thrown out to do it. Likely this repeated and Red came to rely on Grandma to know what to do and not yet having learnt to be autonomous, Red now leans on Kal'tsit in a similar way.
Red doesn't know what it's like to have a parent or a friend, she only knows a master and while I'm sure Kal'tsit tries to not have their relationship be that, Red is the one who sees it as such.
But I think like the Trust lines being Red's attempt of touching upon deeper feelings, I think Red holds that care for Kal'tsit but she knows no different than how she acted with Grandma but it comes through. In it's own way.
And here is where I leave this off because sadly the state Red is in right now isn't the most happy state but I hope you enjoyed reading. Red's got a lot of developing to do for her eventual event and I cannot wait to see what happens between her and Grandma and hopefully Kal'tsit.
I just deem their relationship as really really important and while I'm sure Red will get closer to others in her event, Kal'tsit is so important I hope it's shone some light on in the event itself or an oprec or module.
I think endlessly about how he allegedly has a wife and son which nobody anywhere knows anything about at all, and the primary source of this information appears to be this excerpt from a four-paragraph Wired article written by Tim Rogers in 2004:
This CG from Hortus feels like to me it's meant to deliberately resemble the "Skadi entering Sal Viento" CG from Under Tides. Which gives me Very Interesting Thoughts (especially given that there's been quite a few mentions of the Seaborn in Hortus up to this point...)
stormborns
izzy806
ellievsbear
annaxmalina
jbbartram-illu
dededos
tangentwithtanner
