#sam analyzes

[shallowseeker]

Sam is dissociating.

Sam thesis: The man who fears grief the most.

Script “Absence,” via @spnscripthunt

[samsspambox]

The 'Aetem + pierced ears' post is giving me "Wotakoi + Nifuji piercing his ears bc he saw Neru date a guy who had them" brainrot? Like... an AU...why do I imagine a version of Artem doing this sort of thing? 😳

HI HI! putting the nonnie here again bc I feel like I didn't elaborate enough on the last ask and wanted to make a proper post about artem with piercings!

ima be honest tho, i have not seen Wotakoi but have seen snipetts from tiktok reviewers to have a general idea of how it goes (it has been on my watch list for a while now, i just haven't gotten around to it)

anyway: artem with piercings. ever since that scene in 6.2 where he's like:

and that got my monkey brain thinking, you know? cuz first of all artem at a party? hmmm,,, and then the earring part!! and then with me being me, i had to find some way to prove to myself (and yall) that artem could have pierced ears. so!

Artem with Piercings? It’s more likely than you think.

an observation/analysis on artem and the possibility that he has pierced ears.

(~600 words)

Aight so, as mentioned in a previous theory, I'm betting good money on Artem having either closed piercings or having actual piercings without the studs in. It follows a pattern I've mentioned before, but that’s not the only reason I think Artem has piercings. Like yeah, in 6.2 he says that he wore earrings to a party (he went to parties?) but I would assume that he wore clip-on. After all, his sprite doesn't show any holes, right? Well… let’s look at Marius’ idle sprite. 

The sprite itself has four earrings on the left side and none on the right (considering he’s the one who did at least one of the piercings, it makes sense they’re on his left). Looking through stories and cards where he’s wearing a suit, he doesn’t take out the earrings. He witches them out for ones that don’t call as much attention to them compared to events where he can dress up (re: Fabulous Feast vs. Main Story 7). 

'But what’s the point?' I hear you ask. Well, mostly to get you focused on his ear. We don’t have a sprite where a person known to have earrings… doesn't have them on. This goes for MC as well. A brief glance into cards where they appear always has them wearing a pair of earrings, so we don’t have that baseline as to what ears in this universe look like if they have a piercing but don't have an earring. 

Anyway, aside from the theory, why would I think Artem had piercings at one point? Well, I’d cite teenage rebellion or something similar. In his revisiting youth card (which im still fucking salty i didnt get fuck you mr. wing) he says he knows how to pick locks. Idk what type of pin mc was wearing that day but the fact that Artem ‘I get called an emotionless robot by the media’ Wing can pick a lock using a pin that he’s not really familiar with?? Idk man something ain’t adding up here. 

There’s also the fact that his mom called him ‘Difficult to deal with’ as a teenager. Now, let’s not jump the gun and say Artem was a full on bad boy, far from it. Back to his revisiting youth card, we’ve seen the outline of Artem’s highschool portrait. We know that while stand-off-ish, he was generally a good kid. But you can be a good kid while being difficult to deal with. Honestly when someone won't approach you for some bullshit reason, there has to be some way to pass time. Especially in a closed environment like school. Hence: lock picking. People like learning how to break into things because they can, not because they use the skill.

But then when do we get to the earrings? Well, we get to them at the same time. Gifted Kid Artem Wing was probably bored, already had the reputation of being a loner (not a total one but one with acquaintances), and was in an environment that both facilitated and spread bad ideas. All Artem had to hear was people talking about piercings for him to get the idea. It’s entirely plausible that Artem got piercings on a whim. After all, no one is going to tell him otherwise. 

Now I do think he let them close out if he did get them. Going back to Marius having earrings, he changes them when it comes to corporate matters or just day to day. Idk if I’m just assuming but isn’t it a thing in corporate culture to just, you know, not have earrings? Marius gets a pass because he’s the protagonist he’s the CEO of the company. You’re not gonna tell the CEO to go change, are you? Artem, while being the senior partner, still is Celestine’s employee. I’m 90% sure Celestine wouldn’t mind because it's Artem, but better to err on the side of caution, right? 

So there’s a 50/50 chance he either has piercings that aren’t closed (since we don’t have a sprite to show us what that looks like) or he has them closed.

and yeah! that's my long-winded ramble. thank you for asking!!

[samsspambox]

thinking about vyn richter and his citizenship process (for an AU, which i was planning to post and then i got derailed. it happens a lot)

(disclaimer: i did basic google searches for this. i'm not an expert.)

483 words, not too long i hope

so this is his lil tidbit in big data lab

now, vyn is a foreigner ready to renounce his citizenship from svart. the time frame didn't sit right with me at the beginning. assuming stellis has a residency period (which in north american countries tends to be within 3 to 5 years) that means that vyn must have been in stellis from 2023 to 2025 to get his citizenship, right? or would that process get accelerated bc he's the son of a duke?

so i started digging a little more and reading about prince harry. sam what the fuck, you ask, why are you reading about prince harry? bc prince harry could become a u.s. citizen and he's the closest case to a case study i can get with vyn. so! if prince harry chooses to apply for apply for u.s. citizenship he has to renounce his titles.

so, mirroring that a bit, vyn would have to renounce his title. done and done, i don't think vyn wanted it anyway. what's next? well, he could go through and try a visa-residence pathway and leave it at that, but then that would mean he'd have been stellis for longer and that would mean big data lab is wrong. or... he could try to get citizenship another way.

see, there is a path for citizenship when it comes to 'exemplar individuals'. what qualifies vyn as an exemplar individual? the giannovyn research center. we know that the giannovyn center couldn't have existed prior to vyn coming to stellis, so within that year or years vyn had to propose and wait for the construction of the research center. how long does it take to construct a building? could they have been in contact prior to the building? when did giann meet vyn? anyway, inadvertently or on purpose, giann sponsored vyn to become a citizen of stellis.

going specifically off of what the u.s. does, the 'exemplar visa' to citizenship takes roughly about a year. so vyn could have moved to stellis late 2027/early 2028and gotten his citizenship in 2028 or in mid to late 2028 and gotten his citizenship in 2029. that fits the info from big data lab a little better.

which leads me to another point: vyn has only been a citizen of stellis for 2 years (since the game begins in 2030) so either vyn has explored every nook and cranny of stellis in 2 years, or he still doesn't know much of stellis. or! if we think that he's been in stellis for 3-5 years, i can see him being a bit comfortable with stellis.

so vyn has two possible scenarios:

standard citizenship route with residence of 3-5 years which would explain the construction of the gianni vyn research center at a much more leisurely pace

or

exemplar visa to citizen which would allow for a one year time frame that fits the info given by big data lab.

and yeah. that's what goes on in my brain sometimes.

[samsspambox]

artem and hyper-independence

by a hyper-independent bitch 

wc: 917

hello, its me again jsdbjkbs. so i was doing some thinking and that thinking involved a tiny artem wing and what his childhood would have been like. so i took what little tidbits the game gave us and just ran with it, though this is merely speculation. also mild artem spoilers bc fuck it, he’s interesting and i wanna know(tm) and maybe you also wanna know (tm)

we know that artem grew up as an only child whos parents weren't around as often as he’d like. his parents were lawyers (his dad is a judge?? waaaa?) that more often than not were out of the house doing their job and not spending time with artem. but they did spend time with him (well, from what i’ve seen his mother tried a lot but couldn’t) and thats where we get neil. neil is a family friend that was, at some point, the more consistent parental figure in his life. even then, neil wasn’t perfect and had to bail on artem a lot due to his own job as a lawyer. so we know that he had a very lonely childhood. 

not only that but his trust in adults that were supposed to take care of him probably chipped away bit by bit. in thin veil one of his teachers told him that he wouldnt make it as an artist because he had no imagination. even neil often had to cancel stuff on artem because of his work and i have no issue in saying that his parents might have been the same way with him. they tried but ultimately came short of what artem needed. 

theres also a bit of info from his revisiting youth card where he was a bit of a loner after hs since he was enrolled at a later date than some of his peers. to the point of some teachers thinking he was bullied and that he would sneak up to the rooftop to have lunch there instead of having lunch with some of his peers. he was totally capable of making friends (he did have at least one acquaintance, i would hesitate to call them a friend tho) he just,,, decided that because he was late to the party (being enrolled late) he’d just rather wait it out and be alone.

so, onto the nitty gritty: artem was probably a very independent child to the point of detriment. i know i mentioned some thoughts about this like how artem’s valentines mr implied he had to learn how to tie a tie himself or how he only expresses his interests when prompted, which makes me think that he was really independent as a kid. and, technically speaking, he had the motivation to do so. with parents working all the time, i think he developed some opinions about himself. for one, i think that he valued that his parents helped people through law, but in order to do that they had to stay in their jobs. in comes ‘good kid artem’ or as some may call him ‘the kid no one had to worry about’. if his parents were called to school for the shit he could do (bc we know he is capable of breaking the rules, he picked a lock for crying out loud) he would be depriving people of his parents and therefore people who needed legal council would suffer if he was not a good kid. 

theres also the added pressure of his parents being who they were and having expectations placed onto him at a very young age. in a sense, artem was never allowed to be his own person until he exceeded all expectations placed on him. sure, it may be innocent to say “oh your parents are x and y? you must be xyz” but that sticks with people. and there’s the added factor that artem does look up to his parents, so theres that pressure in himself to be like that but also the pressure to not soil their name by doing something stupid. 

at the beginning of the game it states that artem has never had a partner of any kind (romantic, work related) until the MC shows up. he did everything himself. im sure that he was the same with neil, and we kind of see a bit of it in his personal story. neil tried to teach artem that there was going to be feelings involved in some cases while artem was being ‘by the book’ and staying detached. he had to be shown a situation in where his method would not work and presented with an alternative. 

the thing with artem tho is that he does recognize that he will need help and goes to find it only when prompted of pestered about it enough. i think thats just him recognizing that he is hyper independent and needs someone to rely on. it’s not easy to acknowledge, much even correct your behavior. he has trouble with it, especially opening up and working with mc. in his personal story chapter 2 one of the bigger fights they have is because they both want to do things their way and they have to split but before they start fighting at the job. he has to unlearn being so independent and not only to work with others, but to trust that others have his best interests at heart. 

and yeah. character growth. jkbdsjbc i never know how to end one of my rambles so yeah.  

[samsspambox]

the finance title of luke pearce

wc: 1.6k, its a long one bois

Luke Pearce, Finance and Technology Expert sent by the NSB to the NXX, code name Raven. nothing out of place there, right? WRONG. the finance part of that title is fishy fishy and i’m gonna deep deep dive into what i think that singular title implies for the rest of the game going forward. take a seat and kick up your feet, its time to go. 

hello internet, welcome to game theory the show-- lmaoo jk hi! its me again back at it. but today we put on the tinfoil hat and read into something that was probably a translation error but at the same time could have been intentional and what that means for the game itself. 

luke, when he introduced himself to the nxx, said he was part of the finance and technology division of the nxx. though we know through his lil davis blurb that he has a masters in bioengineering. also, given his training, we know that he has the capabilities and skill sets to be a field operative. what kind of training is required for financial crimes? the actual apprehension of those committing crimes gets rallied off to other departments. why the hell would they do that? because they had to get someone from the government into the nxx without rousing suspicion.

thats right folks, im presenting you with this theory: lucas pearce may be a nsb mole for the nxx. let me walk you though this theory. 

for one, we know some of luke’s skill set though the shit he’s done in events such as sotn, lost gold, and hell skadi too. let’s list them out 

has gone undercover for missions and information recon (alluring gaze, a star in the palm)

has diving experience (lost gold) 

uncanny strength (sotn) 

hacking prowess (main story 5, sotn) 

astute analytical skills linked to detective work and able to identify chemical compounds (skadi, main story 1) 

some of these skills can be attributed to training with the nsb and his own prowess, especially with the chemical compounds since we know he has a masters in bioengineering. but not once in his skillset does he have anything relating to finance. so, what gives, luke? 

see, luke is no stranger to lying to other people or reading people so he can get the information he needs. its brief, but we do see him actually lie to the whole of the nxx in lost gold. its more lying through omission but he does say he has ‘work to do’ but he doesn't say that he was sent by the nsb to do so up until the end of the trip. hell, he popped some joints from a guy in lost gold to get his info. see, this makes me think luke is more of a information gathering agent. in a star in the palm he couldn’t really lie to rosa (as a weakness) but he tried. he tried denying that he had been in stellis before they reunited. thats what makes luke a ruthless agent, he’s willing to do a lot to get to his objectives. we know he does engage in combat (re his 2nd birthday art, i haven't read it) and it would be wise for the one gathering info to be trained to fight and be deadly, right? 

but okay, if luke is a mole, what’s the point? what does the nsb want? because we know for sure that luke was assigned through the nsb (i think the last part of chapter 4 alludes to this where aaron gives luke his assignment.) so we know that the nsb is the puppetmaster to luke’s puppet, right? is luke even aware that he’s a mole? 

i can answer one of the questions, but the rest have two different possibilities. the first one is what the nsb wants. they want information on the nxx drug and when they find the samples of it. we know through the tidbits given to us that the nxx was created out of sampled from flora x, which has some type of gene repairing properties even though it caused a pandemic and the drug itself has effects on the body’s hormone production that can ultimately lead to someone’s death. the samples used to create this drug were supposedly destroyed, but we know that’s not the case. i think the nsb wants whatever they can get their hands on (the drug, the samples) so that they can start their own research when it comes the gene repairing properties. the properties flora x, and by proxy the nxx drug, have can essentially provide the nsb with a hail mary- a way to keep agents for longer. 

with the nxx group going around and sticking their metaphorical noses into the blunt of these cases, its safe to assume that the nsb wants to be kept informed about whats going on and their progress regarding how close they are to closing herrison down. all so they can swoop in and start where herrison left off. but what’s their end goal? i don’t know, actually. i’m going off on global server knowledge (and a bit on cn server, but we get parts 1&2 on chapter six soon so i don’t think it’ll matter anyway) there’s no real indication of the nsb end goal. we don’t see luke reporting back, we don’t see him communicating with aaron about this. 

next question: does luke pearce know he might be a mole for the nsb? this one i don’t have much of an answer to, but i can give you my opinions on both. 

i think the most probable one is that he does know he’s a mole. one thing that clues me in on this is that luke does an alarming amount of undercover work, or at the very least is comfortable with undercover work. i know i mentioned this before but luke has no qualms about lying to people if it means getting information from others. and then theres alluring gaze and a star in the palm themselves where luke has gone undercover to find out information. it would make sense for him to be aware that he is a mole. that would technically explain his reaction when it came to mc being in the nxx. when he found out about them being in the organization his first reaction was to ask them to leave because it could be dangerous. i believe that luke wanted to shield mc from any of the things he has to do in order to get all the information and dip. it would also make sense for luke to know and come up with his own cover. in alluring gaze we know that luke is shit at coming up with names for his undercover-sona, who says thats where it stops? the finance thing could have been his idea. 

theres also the other school of thought- that he doesn’t know he’s a mole and that he genuinely thought he was there to help. this makes sense with luke’s personality itself. luke often sees himself as someone who is not worth it and, to be frank, a bit disposable at times. this sentiment has to be a product of his surroundings, both growing up and his time at the nsb. for him to be used as a puppet for the nsb makes sense. 

there’s also a bit where luke’s sickness comes into play: a theory i have is the nxx drug/exposure to flora x caused the illness he faces, and the nsb is holding that over his head. if he’s aware that he’s a mole, he could be dong it because the nsb offered to save him using their research on flora z/the drug. if he isn’t aware that he’s a mole, he could be motivated to do this particular mission because it deals with the thing that made him ill. 

but what does that mean for the rest of the story? what’s the point? as of right now, there isn’t one. this is just a rabbit hole, but if you stick with me for a bit i can tell you my last theory: luke is meant to go rogue from the nsb regardless if he knows he’s a mole or not. 

see, mhy has been doing things lately that deal with AUs a lot, and i think its more to test where the stories could be headed. and i think that one of those ‘ideas’ they’re testing is luke going rouge. we know from the ancient china and ancient egypt cards (that i have only the vaugest understanding of, i don’t really like spoiling things for myself) is that luke is a mercenary that somehow turns on the government, or at least has some disdain for the government. so, what can the government (nsb) do to luke to make him go rogue? simple, withhold the cure to his illness or withhold information from him. if he’s aware he’s a mole, all they have to do to get on his bad side would be not tell him what they’re doing with the drug and not giving him the cure. same for if he doesn’t know, only with the additional revelation that he’s been the mole the whole time.  

but yeah. that’s how one simple title can lead you through the rabbit hole that is theoryland. thanks for reading! :D (yall can send me asks about this if you have thoughts about this too!! :DD)

also, big inspiration from this came from the theory chain i had with lukepearcing, if you wanna read that you can do so here! 

[samsspambox]

hi sam!! i love reading your analysis stuff, i come back to them all the time and. not to mention your grip on artem's chara is amazing. so my question is if artem and rosa were to have an arguement that wasnt work related (like we saw in his personal story) what do you think it would be about? :00

hI NONNIE!! ksnclksn thank you for reading my analysis stuff!! im really happy you like them!! but to answer your question, i think artem would handle an argument with a loved one a bit differently! and i'll be pulling from canon to make my deductions :D without further ado

how artem wing (probably) argues with a loved one

we know artem has had 'disagreements' with three people that we've seen: rosa, neil, and marius. all of these happened for 'work-related reasons' though marius' argument is a bit rawer bc it has to deal with people he loves (neil) so that's the one we're gonna start with! even if it is more about work because he's a lot more invested emotionally it should give us a good idea of how he works as well as him being 'attacked'

in episode 5.1, where MC/Rosa gets to go to the nxx headquarters, artem and marius start arguing about the disappearance of neil and giann. its 'a common occurrence' according to vyn, but we cant assume much bc we don't know if artem is the instigator or if its marius. what we can assume is that he doesnt leave things without resolution or at least indulges the other party in arguing with them.

we do know that artem is able to concede to points being made but also uses logic as well as facts to counter said points, which is a very lawyer thing to do. but he's also able to disengage quickly. in the argument he's able to walk away, saying he 'doesnt have time to argue with the prodigal son' right? so he's able to know when an argument is 'a waste of time'. so we know he:

doesnt let things die

is able to walk away

uses logic and facts

and that's just marius lmaooo

now the quick argument with neil is more of a work thing, just like rosa, so we should be able to compare some argument tactics. he's pretty passionate about things (re: recording neil has, him scolding rosa/mc) but he is able to see the other side, even if it takes him time to see it. he does acknowledge that he was wrong on some aspects but does not fully put the blame on himself if its a mutual thing. so he's fair when it comes to arguments.

so based on all of this, along with the main argument from his chapter 2 personal story, we can come up with a probable image of how he is in an actual argument.

i'd assume he'd come off as cold and calculating first, willing to get rosa/mc to see his side of the argument. he'd be willing to go for a bit. i think this is more because he's a lawyer, it'd be engrained in his mind. treating every argument as a debate in court: cold and calculating. and should the argument start getting heated he would be the first to walk away so that the situation would cool off.

where rosa/mc start to cry, i feel like he'd react the same way he did in canon, he'd flail and try to fix the immediate problem. however, i think if the same argument were to come back on again, he would pick up right where he left off.

and a couple of posts back a nonnie mentioned that arguing with lawyers sucks, so i'd assume they treat a lot of arguments as a court trial so,,, yeah! i hope this was a fun read!!

[samsspambox]

so i ended up pulling for perfect partner (luke cOME HOME) but i got narrow road instead bc my hard pity was at 18 at the time so might as well and

i noticed something

this perfume right?? it kept lighting up in my brain and i was like 'why'

because i had seen it before in por una cabeza!!! they're both wearing this perfume!!! we love unisex products

[samsspambox]

I feel like your villain Artem is just Manfred von Karma or pre-character development Miles Edgeworth in Ace Attorney. Actually, quite a few antagonists in that series.

irt villain au, pt 2

oh yeah definitely lmaooo. i haven't really played the ace attorney games but like,, one google of these mfs and yeah i agree 😂

see, the thing with villain aus (imo) is that they depend on how flexible the original profession is in relation to 'villainous' counterparts. so like, for someone as shrouded in violence as luke is it's easier to create a villainous counter part bc he's already so close to villainy in the first place.

artem, on the other hand, isn't close to villainy at all. he's firmly planted on the side of good, there's no flexibility. he's rigid, which fits with his own characterization as well. being a lawyer is an incredibly narrow job that isn't flexible in terms of creating villains. it's why there's always a one or two tracked attorney villain creation. that's why villain artem would feel similar to pre-redemption edgeworth, or hell even ingrid roseworth too

it's also harder to place artem into aus because he's that rigid in his profession. you either have to completely reinvent what he is or you have to get creative!

i know you probably just meant this as an observation but i just ran with it bc when do i not want to tear artem apart analysis wise bdjdbfj

thank you for the ask nonnie!! <3