One of the many, many things that I actually really like about the Ousted Path + Successful!Demonstration playthrough (and, yes, you beautiful fuckers are never gonna stop hearing about how much I enjoy the narrative of that storyline, so just learn to love it as much as I do so that you can bare with me when I barrel head first into these meta moments) is how it changes the conversation that Markus has with the Jericrew in the Captain’s Cabin in Crossroads to actually align with the Pacifist Path.
And it does this by removing the scene where Markus speaks to North alone.
In that conversation, it’s clear right from the get-go that Markus is, at least, mourning the failure of his Pacifist-by-Default beliefs…
Markus: Is this what we dreamed of? - Markus, in Crossroads - Markus, if the player chooses SAD
Markus: I had a dream… and this is what you get for dreaming. - Markus, in Crossroads - Markus, if the player chooses BITTER
…or, at most, is actively and angrily switching over to the other side of the Pacifist versus Violence equation.
Markus: Humans can’t be reasoned with, they’re violent, hateful. They’re stupid! What did they expect us to do? Shut up and obey? - Markus, in Crossroads - Markus, if the player chooses ANGRY
Markus: They’ve been butchering each other for centuries over the colour of their skin or whatever god they wanted to worship. They’re not gonna change. Violence is just in their genes. - Markus, in Crossroads - Markus, if the player chooses THOUGHTFUL
So in a way, it actually fits a lot more with a version of Markus that has either committed an act(s?) of violence up until this point, has been wavering on whether or not he’s been doing the right thing, and is on the precipice of committing wholeheartedly to the Revolution for the first time. And that’s why that conversation with North is important for him to have, as it shows her reassuring him that no matter what doubts he might have in himself for being ‘wrong’ about his former Pacifism, he’s doing what both she and their people believe to be right thing, as his devotion to his people has given them all hope for a brighter future.
North: They can’t stop what we’ve started. Since you’ve been here, you’ve given our people hope. You’ve given me hope. - North, in Crossroads - Markus
And most importantly, she does so in a way that mirrors her words from Capitol, should the player had Markus save Simon from certain death during Stratford Tower, once again showing that androids as a whole align more with the Violent Path than they do with the Pacifist one.
North: Since our broadcast, more and more have been coming to Jericho… At least our message gave our people hope. - North, in Capitol Park, if Simon remained with the group
The clear-cut intent of Markus’s actions at the Tower to ensure Simon’s survival, regardless of how he delivers his speech, is ultimately what gives the android people hope regarding the success of his movement more than anything else. So while killing Evan Thompson might have cost you some of your relationship with the humans, it’s absolutely bolstered your relationship with Jericho because you’ve shown that you’re willing to compromise for them. The safety of your people trumps your relationship with the humans; they come first, their oppressors come second.
And for Markus? That’s probably a big deal, and something that he absolutely wrestles with if you go Violent to any degree in the lead up to Crossroads. So the conversation with North makes sense with that version of Markus, which is why it’s important that it not only happens but he’s seen by the player to be open and vulnerable about how much this switch in ideology bothers him.
But in the Ousted Path? And specifically in an Ousted Path + Successful!Demonstration verse? This conversation never happens. And, yes, it never happens because North cuts Markus off by announcing that she’s taking over, but what it also means is that Markus never openly displays any growing doubts to his Pacifist-by-Default ideology to the audience in a post-Freedom world.
At most, the main conflict in the scene takes place between him and Josh, but it’s not actually about the Pacifism versus Violence dynamic because Josh gets mad at Markus regardless of what you do. In that scene, Josh is both angrily renouncing his position as Pacifist-by-Default!Markus’s hype-man while also basically become a sort of… anti-protagonist? Not an antagonist in the traditional sense, but an anti-protagonist— in the sense that the point of a protagonist is to do the thing that leads the story occurring and Josh is pissed that you did the thing that led to the story occurring. Again, Markus initially gets angry when Josh says that they should have just stayed quiet because Markus’s default actions as the lead protagonist of the game have led to the humans reacting negatively, and when Josh specifies what about those actions always cause his anger based upon player choice, Markus doubles down on his rationality of ‘I did what I did for the betterment of my people’ while also basically telling Josh to shut the fuck up and get back with the program, sometimes very rudely.
And then, North kicks him out. And that’s why the Ousted scene works so fucking good if you’re going Pacifist.
Because as I’ve stated before, Markus and Josh are ideological outliers when it comes to the Pacifism stuff by comparison to the grand majority of Jericho’s denizens as well as the deviant population at large. To some degree, most fall into the pro-Violence camp, with even the flip-flopping Simon absolutely siding with North so hard post-Freedom that he has the ability to basically take over her lines in certain versions of the story. Markus, as the leading figure of the Pacifism movement regardless of player choice, lost support as a result of his Peaceful Protest in Freedom, enough that even Josh is now turning against him. In fact, there’s now been a hard swing to the other side, to the point where an extremist like North is being shoved into the position with Jericho’s unanimous support at her back (and I do mean extremist in the sense that, like, by comparison to Simon, those like Simon (aka, Kara and Luther), and their beliefs in the effective power of Violence, she 100% is a political radical and I do say this as someone that loves her character to the ends of the earth). And while this is absolutely a reactionary decision on behalf of Jericho’s core leadership— enough that they will revert to Markus being in command should he return, it is important to remember that because of this reactionary decision, the scene where Markus expresses his doubt in his Pacifist-by-Default ideology never occurs.
So it’s possible to say that he never actually comes to doubt it in this verse.
And that’s why I really love playing the Ousted Path within a world where I know that I can get a Successful!Demonstration, or why I really love keeping Markus as the Leader of Jericho should he go Violent somewhere in the lead up to the Revolution. Because these scenes actually fit each the stories that I want to tell with these two versions of so well, to the point where I will probably go to my grave stating that it’s a fucking travesty that I can’t play a full Successful!Pacifist run and also get the Ousted Path because Crossroads scene work so fucking well together. Because in this version, Markus not only never gives up on his Pacifist beliefs, but has North basically operate as his final test regarding his steadfast resolve in those beliefs, comes back to Jericho to regain the support that he lost by risking it all to make the bomb run for them, saves North’s life despite their disagreement, has her and every member of Jericho’s leadership that ever doubted him and his Pacifist-by-Default beliefs not only apologize to him but also throw their political weight behind his re-ascension to leadership, puts them back onto the path that he has never once doubted is the correct way to operate, and when shit gets dark and he decides to go down singing in one final act of martyrdom… has North— political radical North, who has and will always believe in the power of a fist over an open palm, who threw him out because she saw his victories as failures, who came to see that he actually cared despite their ideological differences and learned to trust in him regardless…
North is the first to step up to sing beside him, and they win.
Anyways, I’m done talking now. Thank y’all for dealing with my random rant because I fucking love the Ousted Path + Sucessful!Demonstration combo even though my canon is and will always be the Revolution.
