#babelposting

[oltammefru]

The contrast between what Theresa does to the Doctor (a final act of mercy, a chance to be reborn anew, to someone who very reasonably arguably doesn't deserve it) and what Theresa does to Amiya (condemning her to a fate worse than death, out of a hope and deep deep desperation that maybe just maybe she can be the one to do what she couldn't) deeply deeply insane. She dispenses out forgiveness and damnation with the same hand.

It's made even more insane by the way she goes around doing it, damnation via bequeathing a gift upon Amiya, vs. salvation by utterly destroying the Doctor's identity, unwinding it thread by thread.

[lizalfosrise]

Muted mic on the zoom call….

[jouissanceangel]

“I threw everything together in a jumble, the mandates of the political agitator and the mementos of a Jewish poet. Portraits of Lenin and Maimonides lay side by side — the gnarled steel of Lenin’s skull and the listless silk of the Maimonides portait. A lock of woman’s hair lay in a book of the resolutions of the Sixth Party Congress, and crooked lines of Ancient Hebrew verse huddled in the margins of Communist pamphlets. Pages of The Song of Songs and revolver cartridges drizzled on me in a sad, sparse rain.” - Isaac Babel, “The Rabbi’s Son,” in Red Cavalry

[oltammefru]

So. BB-9. It definitely has what is my favorite bit of in-gameplay storytelling in Arknights.

The game makes you place a box top lane that redirects the assassins away from the blue box and into Theresa (and also Amiya by extension!). This is the only way to beat the stage. You can do otherwise. You can not place the box or retreat it, but then you lose the stage. You cannot proceed unless you place the box and leave it there killing Theresa.

The thematic resonance of JT8-1 is that it gives you no control. There is nothing you can do here but watch in horror as it unfolds. In contrast, BB-9 gives you the choice of doing one thing and you must do this one thing and enact this horror yourself. She cannot allowed to turn Terra into a beautiful but short-lived dream. Cut off any possibility of her survival and end her life, ensuring that the Originium will devour and eventually ensure the survival of all.

Remember, diegetically, gameplay stages are a representation of the view that the Doctor has through the EYEOFPRIESTESS, at their planning table, giving their orders that will ensure life and death. What you see here is what they see. So do it. Give the command.

[oltammefru]

Thinking about the recurring motif of "sleep"/"rest" in Babel in particular and in the Sarkaz storyline broadly.

The event "begins" with the Doctor being awoken from 13,000 years of stasis in the Sarcophagus (it doesn't actually, but much of the events of Babel are set in motion by that) and it ends with the Doctor being placed back in the Sarcophagus to heal.

Theresa repeatedly phrases her ideal as a wish for the land to be able fall into "peaceful slumber," while the Doctor's goal of allowing the Originium to devour all is framed similarly.

Minus a few things (like, you know, the blood), the CG of Amiya and Theresa lying on the ground almost looks as if they are just sleeping.

Theresa's last words to Amiya (although she can't hear them at this point), is to tell her to "sleep in peaceful slumber" and that she will "always be with [her]."

And finally, in Act 2, she is revived to become a puppet in Theresis' and the Confessarius' plan, and is denied even the peace in death that she so rightfully deserves

[oltammefru]

The BB normal stage and BB-EX stage descriptions are a call and response conversation between Theresa and Theresis (sort of similar to the alternating Theresa/Theresis quotes in BB-10).

BB-1 / BB-EX-1:

BB-2 / BB-EX-2:

BB-3 / BB-EX-3:

BB-4 / BB-EX-4:

BB-5 / BB-EX-5:

BB-6 / BB-EX-6:

BB-7 / BB-EX-7:

BB-8 / BB-EX-8:

[oltammefru]

Thinking about Amiya.

When we first meet her, we find out much about her anxieties and fears.

She fears loss, she fears loneliness and being once again left behind. She fears becoming a burden to others, of not being able to help other people, that if she is a burden she will be left behind, to the point where she's willing to feign not feeling pain from her Oripathy:

The Doctor promises that they'll never leave her behind, and for a happy few years, they make good on that promise. Amiya spends several joyous years with Kal'tsit and Theresa and the Doctor, until one day, the Doctor reneges on that promise, the tower crumbles, and it all comes falling apart.

The thing that gets me most about this is that, Amiya, who is too young to understand the vast conspiracy that she has been inadvertently caught up in, and who still harbors the doubts and fears about herself that she had in the past, thinks this is on her. She thinks that her inability to move or even scream means that there is more that she could have to help Theresa, that when Theresa plunges the blade into her, she deserves to feel its pain.

In the end, all of Amiya's worst fears have come true. The Doctor and Theresa are gone now and she let them down and it's her fault. In the end, everyone she cares about leaves her and she is once again alone.

[oltammefru]

Thinking about how, at the beginning of it all, 13,000 years in the past, the Doctor told Kal'tsit to "find yourself" before entering 13 millennia of hibernation in the Sarcophagus. And then, at the end of it all, Theresa tells the Doctor to "find yourself," before they are once again returned to the Sarcophagus.