I do love that Warframe late game and Warframe 1999 put into perspective how eldritch the Operator and Drifter are.
The Operator is basically a cosmic demigod who has met with the Space Devil multiple times. They wear infected suits of armor like everyday clothing, switching them out as they please. They cannot die, or at least are extremely difficult to put down. They're an eternal immortal teenager whose collective anger toppled two nightmarish empires, and left a third empire half-leaderless. They and the Drifter destroy horrific "angels" born of the same tragedy that made them what they are, and in the back of their heads, they worry they could become angels as well.
The Drifter is equally eldritch, the same cosmic demigod trapped in the pages of a children's story for centuries or even millennia. They have grown without the influence of the Space Devil, but they faced thousands of deaths and more at the hands of a dimensional fisher king made to be their playtime friend. They escaped this mad storybook world through a little bit of help and their own fathomless willpower. They traveled throughout time at the behest of a deeply unethical mad scientist to save a city trapped in an eternal loop, befriending a growing number of people infected by the same disease that cultivates the very biomechanical armor they use at will. They can even romance one of these people, or more if they but reset the year, over and over and over again. Time is their plaything. They converse an infected guitar who is a shred of the infinite consciousnesses whom they both fight against and wear.
This right here is the heart of Warframe's story. The reason why I love it so much.
Gara and the Unum. The Solaris. Duviri. The Entrati. Alad V's entire saga. The Wolf of Saturn Six. The Operator and Lotus. Ordis. Octavia's Anthem. Harrow. The Stalker and Jade. Saya and Onkko. The Sentient's family relations. Umbra. Albrecht and Loid. The Cavia. The Hex. Sands of Inaros. Mirage. The Silver Grove. Vala Glarios.
The tiny, human stories that make up the world at large. They make me emotional, they are the reason why I think about the game so much. I have a problem with wanting to cry but being unable to, and I broke a half year long streak of zero tears thanks to the Lotus and the complex web of familial relations she's in, with the Operator, Hunhow etc.
That's why even though we don't understand the details of the world and it's history (with a capital H), we have too many unanswered questions to count, we have mostly vague answers, it still feels good. I don't get frustrated because the devs didn't explain to me how everything works like I'm 5 in some random codex entry. I'm immersed in the world and I'm hungry for more of it, but it's the characters that I love and cherish that keep me satiated and coming back for more.
I am, rather unfortunately, hyperfixated on a certain someone. So um.
Albrecht Entrati, some love him, A LOT of people hate him, even more people mischaracterise him. While it's absolutely fine to dislike a character I am so sick and tired of seeing everyone I'm the WF community blaming him for everything. Lotus could stab her toe and y'all would blame that on him.
Now let me explain: I absolutely agree that he should be held accountable for the people he's hurt. However I feel as tho both people in the fandom and even the writers of warframe themselves are making him out to be a much bigger villain than he actually is.
So much of what he's blamed for is actually a butterfly effect or in some cases straight up fault of either the Indifference or the Orokin.
First things first I highly dislike how the fandom has jumped on the bandwagon of believing everything Roathe says, I am hoping to gods that the WF writing team are making him an unreliable narrator on purpose but I swear the amount of people blindly believing him just because he's become a sort of Tumblr sexyman of WF is just annoying at this point. I love Roathe to bits but he should be enjoyed AS A VILLAIN as a flawed character that we are supposed to redeem. I don't have energy to talk in more details about him at the moment I just wanted to get this part out of the way: Roathe asked to be turned into a protoframe. He is a more high ranking Orokin than Albrecht ever was and thus he is privileged in the situation to not only be able to choose, but also I believe he has no right to complain about Albrecht when he has done far worse things.
Now moving onto the rest of my points:
• "albrecht abandoned his family/is a bad father!"
He did not abandon them he says quite clearly in his notes he went fighting against the indifference far from his home specifically so that it doesn't hurt his loved ones in the process of trying to get to him (which in the case of Loid I fear it already has done, but again that is the indifference's doing).
The reason Euleria (Mother/Gomatiru) was raised the way she was is a complicated situation. It's pretty clear that Albrecht was forced into a marriage he didn't want, and thus most likely forced to be a father when he clearly was not ready for it. Moreover Euleria's mother has not in any way been active in her life, and with how busy Albrecht was, you know, doing his job, I feel like he would've benefited from having someone else help raise his child (which eventually falls onto Loid, tho I don't think it's confirmed exactly when Loid steps into the picture). That being said I still believe Albrecht had done a surprisingly good job at raising a child all alone. He is aware of his negligence of Euleria which alone shows he cares and is taking responsibility for his poor choices, which is a level of accountability very rarely seen in abusive parents. But more than that he clearly loves his daughter, and he raised her well enough that she became a scientist and politician. The most important part of this however, is I think the fact that after loosing all her memories, loosing her identity, Gomatiru still remembers him, mourns him. One does not mourn a bad father.
Even the infestation couldn't take away her good memories of him, I think this is a clear sign that although he wasn't ready to have a child he still tried his best to give her a good life. (Also I could yap on and on about Duviri - a story book he read to her when she was little, which eventually became the realm Drifter lived in, but this segment is getting long, maybe I'll do a separate post about it).
• "albrecht invented the warframes/protoframes"
Ballas invented the warframes. Discovered the helminth ect. Albrecht took his design and made it stronger while simultaneously making it far, far more ethnical. Ballas would take thousands of people and turn them into flesh soldiers, ripping away their humanity, making them serve him, often using the process of turning into a warframe as punishment to torture them forever (see: Excal Umbra). Albrecht specifically used the different types of helminth strains to try and use the frames to defeat the Indifference. The more important part of this however is that Albrecht put effort into making the protoframes more human, making sure they kept their sanity for far longer, they can move and make decisions on their own. A lot of the protoframes originally volunteered to become them, although of course they mostly weren't aware exactly what they would become, and obviously they have energy right to feel angry and manipulated, I still feel as though people forget how brutal the original Warframes were. The story would be very different is Albrecht really was a heartless bastard and the Hex became something more akin to Umbra. But no he took time to modify the helminth, very specifically to make it less harmful to the host. (He did also create the vessels, but that's an entirely different thing and doesn't share much with the hex except for DNA samples)
• "albrecht brought the techrot to Holvannia"
Could or could not be true, sadly this is one of those part of the story where retconning has happened and thus fucked with the narrative a bit (also what I was complaining about earlier with the WF writers themselves making him more and more of a villain even tho he originally wasn't one).
I personally believe that he did not do this on purpose, rather because he is from Deimos I think he might've accidentally brought it to Holvannia, Lettie talks about him creating "silent carriers of the virus, I wouldn't be surprised if he himself was one unknowingly. More than that considering that he has a tendency to try and fix things only for whatever he has created to backfire and make things worse (see: Zariman, exploring the void, Cavia, literally most of his experiments) I also think the vaccines he was giving out were genuine, and the side effects that caused a bigger outbreak were an accident. (This could also be confirmed by him saying in his notes that he came to Holvannia with cures and salvation, I genuinely think that he has good intentions).
• "he abused Loid"
I fear y'all don't know the difference between abuse and just someone who is very clearly not in touch with his own emotions. Albrecht is shown so, so many times just being oblivious to how exactly emotions work (plus the haunting of the narrative that his own emotion: fear, made the indifferent act the way it does, since it was the first human interaction it had). No Albrecht is not being cold to him on purpose, in face it's very clearly stated that he deeply cares for him but simply doesn't understand how to show it. Necraloid says this to the Tenno when we're on our way to wake up Loid ".... Master Entrati jealously protected his most adored possessions - be they objects... or people....." . This is not a case of abuse rather a man unable to express himself, Loid mentions many times that Albrecht had been far more, emotional? Before the void incident (The way the indifference damaged, traumatized and changes Albrecht is another thing I could talk about, but again might make a separate post about that). The doomed yaoi is doomed for a reason, partially because of the plot and very much because of the Orokin and the way Albrecht was brought up. (One couple also argue that Albrecht is autistic, which makes handling emotions even harder, but once more I will talk about that in a different post). Also. Loid isn't some innocent princess in distress, he helped create the cavia, he helped with the research of different helminth strains, he has done so much for the Entrati family and he wouldn't have if he was not loved and respected within that house. I am sick and tired of people pretending he's a weak little twink he is a grown intelligent man more than capable of making his own choices, and he chose to stay with Entrati because he saw good in him. He healed him after the void incident because he loved him, he helped raise both Euleria and Kermerros and Kaelli. (Quote from son : "Loid used to lift me onto his back to ride around the gardens!") He wouldn't take so much care of the family is he was disrespected in any way, he went far far beyond his official butler duties for the Entrati, he must've had sound reason.
• Cavia.
Okay, this is a hard situation, the first thing that comes to mind is Laika, a dog sent to space that sadly did not make it back, was not expected to make it back, her and many other animals were sent places experimented on so that humans do not suffer in their stead, so that whatever is being researched is safe. It's a harsh topic, and very delicate, and I definitely won't be making any judgement on the real world equivalent of this because that's a wasp nest I am not in the right health to explore right now. Once again, The Indifference. I think that is the only person who is truly to blame in this situation, after what happened to him of course Albrecht would be unwilling to send humans into he void. (compared to most Orokin who treated humans below them as nothing but meat for their own wellbeing and entertainment, I think this is quite merciful, let's please not forget this is Warframe we're talking about). I do not think he was even aware the void would make them sentient (technically the word is sapient, but barely anyone uses it so idk). I absolutely understand Tagfer and the others being upset, enraged, wounded by what happened to them. It's horrible and it's terrifying of a thing to go through. But Albrecht went through it as well, he was blinded, robbed of his voice, wounded so badly he was on the brink of death, not just physically but mentally scarred to the point he wasn't sure if he was himself or if he was the indifference walking around in his own skin. (The first words the difference spoke to him were using a name only his mother called him while shape shifting into him, that's some serious Mandela catalogue bullshit). While I understand Tagfer's grief is valid as fuck and he has all the right to feel the emotions he does but I think that sadly at the end of the day not much else could be done in this situation. Albrecht had (still has) an malevolent Eldrich God looming over him and the entire world, he is grasping at straws to try and rid of it.
Finishing thoughts:
I do not and will not blame the characters in the story for feeling the way they do, but simultaneously I Albrecht is an incredibly complex character and dumbing him down to "evil guy" is not just stupid but harmful to literally the entire plot. The main villain is the Indifference and the amount of people in the fandom prefering that thing over a heavily traumatized man trying (and failing) to save the world is, honestly, just upsetting as fuck. Did we play the same game? Now again I do partially fault DE for this as well because, a lot of his character lore is hidden at the start of Whispers in the walls in the first room on the murals, and most people don't look at them because ofc why the fuck would they when I first played I didn't realise they were there either. (I really hope they update that quest to guide the player towards them because oh my gods people would understand and thus enjoy that quest so much better if they saw them). Not to mention the amount of retconning and the way the Roathe has thrown a fucking wrench into the way the story is told (I love that sexy blue man but gods do I want him to shut up Roathe please stop sharing your opinions you're making things worse.)
Also. Small side note. DE. Hey, why in the fuck, when I was talking with Marie and agreeing that Entrati had good in him, did she end up saying I changed her mind. I WAS AGREEING WITH HER. I don't know if this is just a hardwired response that you get no matter your choices or if it was a glitch or something but. Gods that pissed me off so bad.
On a lighter note because I am feeling miserable today and need some whimsy: that one interrogation scene where he licks the blood off of his lips.... Woagh..... 💕💕💕
whenever DE retcons older story bits or lore i just assume that older bit of information was actually orokin propaganda and now we're learning the real truth.
So like the original lore details about warframes being people who were sent to the void and returned changed and had technology grafted in them, that's what the Orokin told their subjects.
Because the alternative is to tell people that they used a virus that dates back to when the Earth was lost (and is the reason why our homeworld was lost) to forcibly alter people into weapons and those same weapons were piloted by children who were from a colony ship that did never existed.
The Zariman Ten-Zero didn't exist citizen. You will now be subjected to glassing for spreading malicious propaganda <3.
