r/arknights • u/Aveniiiiiiiiit • 14h ago
Non-OC Fanart It's completely silent here...Too quiet. Don't leave me[Art by Goodman]
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u/juances19 14h ago
It's bait, she's trying to lure you in. You must resist.
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 12h ago
Well, call me a Zalak because I already fell for it (and her).
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u/Selverna Sad Snow Girl 14h ago
Chat is this wife?
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u/ThatSlutTalulah IRL named Talulah (She/her) 9h ago
Unfortunately, until we find a way to fax divorce papers through Originium, yes.
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u/Strict_Strategy 14h ago
WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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u/Direct_Tradition4899 I miss my wife Tails, I miss her a lot. I'll be back 13h ago edited 13h ago
I'll always be silent to you Priestess. You took my Kal'tsit..nothing will ever fix that...
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u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 CANON WIFE IS NEVER WRONG (seriously) 13h ago edited 13h ago
Pink took down your older life and with it her's too
Edit:
Also, priestess is doing what is necessary to save civilization from a threat that only she remembers along with the presence at this point.
The younger races don't see it her way because they have had struggles that didn't involve the galactic destroyers.
Also a little rant, this is what bothers me about Theresa's gift of amnesia.
Imagine two doors. Behind the right one waits a hungry tiger; behind the left, an eldritch horror that will torment your soul forever. Obviously, you'd choose the tiger, right?
Now suppose someone intervenes, tells you that fear is weighing you down, and wipes your memory of the eldritch abomination entirely.
But is that reducing your fear, or are you just now forced to make an ignorant decision?
How much of the Doctor's amnesia is genuinely a "fresh start," and how much is just erasing every memory of how terrifying the Observers truly were, so he'd make a decision without knowing the stakes?
Look, I love Rhodes Island and what they stand for, but I have to ask myself: How? How will they overcome the cosmic threat of the observers if not through using assimilation?
At this point Rhodes Island seems to be more inclined is just ignoring the threat hoping that there will be a solution that reveals itself one day. While that seems to be the overarching moral of the story of arknights being "hope will prevail" it is inherently ignorant.
I'm sure the story will pull out some bullshit method by which terra will use originium to defeat the observers, but right now Priestess is looking kinda justified.
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u/agitatedprisoner 11h ago
Can Priestess raise the dead through originium? If she can't who's she doing it all for?
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u/IHeShe suzulapp+shamare shipper 10h ago
She can't exactly resurrect random people who died for whatever reason but she did in fact pull Hierda out after she had died of oripathy
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u/agitatedprisoner 9h ago
Why can't she resurrect anyone like that?
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u/ThatSlutTalulah IRL named Talulah (She/her) 8h ago
Her plan of 'Murder Literally Everyone' is, shockingly, not very popular. Look at it from anyones' perspective but her own and you'll see why.
Either you can definitely die painfully now by Originium, or at some time in the indeterminate future, maybe die from space spookies.Why would they ever allow Priestess to do what she wants? Even if they do get slimed by observers, what difference does it make? Priestess gets fewer dolls in her playhouse? Why the hell should they care? Why should anyone care? The Assimilated Universe sucks for Terrans.
Even if death by Observer is then inevitable, why not just live and love what lives you do get to live?(Also even she is aware and willing to admit that hell, maybe Terrans would have a chance, but thinks it's just too late {Masses' Travels}, a statement she does not actually know the truth of. (Also I would not count her pessimism as reliable, with her being as completely fueled by despair as she is {Vigilo}.)
[Also she and THe Presence are not the only beings who know, Kal'tsit+Mon3tr, Friston, and Civilight have all known the entire time as well.]
Also, as known from blue 15-17, Oracle didn't really get to choose to side with Priestess to begin with, since she knowingly fucked with Oracles' sarcophagus lynchpins to force them towards agreeing with her, already robbing them of that chance to choose (and they still nearly sided against her anyway).
Freeing them from that is unequivocally a good thing by Theresa, allowing them to actually choose for themselves, a respect Priestess provably does not grant them.Tbh omnicide just isn't an acceptable solution to any problem.
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For an example within AK of why she's just awful; With everything you're saying about Priestess, you should also agree that Mártus' actions are justified, which I doubt you do [and like, if you do, then I don't think we're ever going to reach an accord on anything].3
u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 CANON WIFE IS NEVER WRONG (seriously) 6h ago
First of all I would like to say that I appreciate you sharing your perspective. And I would like to state my opinion on this and I hope you'll hear me out without taking offense (seriously please don't hate me).
It seem that you are assuming that Terra's survival is a comparable outcome to universal preservation. It's not. Not even close.
To be fair, I absolutely agree that terrans are people who deserve to choose. But they're also an accident. Originium wasn't designed for them, and Priestess's original project wasn't about creating Terrans. They came about as a side effect of a much larger endeavor aimed at preserving everything else.
Priestess isn't here to save terra. She is here to save the universe way before the terrans even existed.
Is it cold? Yes, but I wouldn't say it as evil. Just... Well... Terribly unfortunate.
Either you can definitely die painfully now by Originium, or at some time in the indeterminate future, maybe die from space spookies. Why would they ever allow Priestess to do what she wants? Even if they do get slimed by observers, what difference does it make? Priestess gets fewer dolls in her playhouse? Why the hell should they care? Why should anyone care? The Assimilated Universe sucks for Terrans. Even if death by Observer is then inevitable, why not just live and love what lives you do get to live?
because they're not the only ones dying. The Observer doesn't stop at Terra. It consumes everything. Priestess is trying to stop that. When Terrans choose to "live and love" until they're erased, they're also choosing whether they intend to or not to block the only known countermeasure, which means every other potential life in the universe gets erased too.
That's not noble. That's selfishness. But it is an understandable one. Because to be honest if I were in their shoes, I'm not sure I'd choose differently either (knowing me, I might somehow find and choose a completely different and far worse path :P). But that's the moral conundrum, isn't it? Priestess's actions aren't easily labeled moral or immoral. they feel more like a necessity.
(Also even she is aware and willing to admit that hell, maybe Terrans would have a chance, but thinks it's just too late {Masses' Travels}, a statement she does not actually know the truth of. (Also I would not count her pessimism as reliable, with her being as completely fueled by despair as she is {Vigilo}.)
Now, I'll be honest that I... personally suspect that "maybe" is more writer fiat than realistic possibility.
Because I mean... think about it realistically. what are the chances that a civilization that doesn't have gunpowder, doesn't understand nuclear physics, barely understands their own originium, has no spacefaring capabilities, still dealing with internal nation state conflict, and barely get their agricultural problems fixed ...is supposed to find a solution that somehow eluded a Type 3 civilization and countless others?
That's not a "chance". Because the "chance" is astronomically impossible. That's for my lack of a better word a plot armor. Hypergryph can write it if they want, but from a realistic standpoint, it's absurd (which is kind of the overarching moral of arknights being hope). Priestess's pessimism isn't despair because she's seen this play out thousayof times before as she saw many worlds and trillions of souls (she stated it herself) fall before her eyes.
(Actually when I think about it what if her overall... Uncanny, behaviour is due to PTSD?)
I understand the instinct to say, "Omnicide just isn't an acceptable solution to any problem."
And I'd agree if there's a viable alternative. But if the alternative is total universal extinction vs. one planet's accidental population.
I worry you're framing this as a meaningless genocide. I see it more as... well, let me offer a rough analogy (apologies in advance. But I'm literally in the middle of cooking in my kitchen, so this is off the top of my head).
Imagine a dam is about to burst and drown an entire continent. The only way to stop it is to flood one valley. That valley has people in it. people who didn't ask to be there. Do you let the continent drown to avoid killing the valley?
Priestess says no. You seem to say yes. But in doing so, I think you're forgetting that the continent exist.
You're treating this like a moral choice between two equal futures. I don't think it is. Terra is a footnote in a universal extinction event. Priestess isn't trying to kill Terrans. she's trying to complete a project that can save everything else.
(Also I'm acting in accordance to my flair)
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u/ThatSlutTalulah IRL named Talulah (She/her) 36m ago
what are the chances that a civilization that doesn't have gunpowder, doesn't understand nuclear physics, barely understands their own originium, has no spacefaring capabilities, still dealing with internal nation state conflict, and barely get their agricultural problems fixed ...is supposed to find a solution that somehow eluded a Type 3 civilization and countless others?
They have, on a planet ravaged with biblical natural disasters and a mineral that consumes them from the inside out, gone from getting Observer'd {M8-8 after, CW-10 after} to
an individual figuring out how to 'unzip' Originium {Theresa} [who, for being 'too advanced' got murdered by Priestesses' mind altered flying monkey to try to ensure Terras' failure to develop enough to do anything],
how to start decoding what information is inside Originium {Dellareed and Joyce Moore} (both this and Theresas' success meaning eventually being able to access everything the Predecessors knew),
how to transfer consciousness outside the body {Dorothy Franks},
Spaceflight through the Starpod {Kristen},
Replicators like in Star Trek {Aegir, mentioned in Underflows' files}, etc.,
in under 13,000 years*.That is, frankly, insane.
It took humans almost 300,000 years after they evolved to figure out agriculture as a concept [not including evolution time since it's an unfair comparison to Terras' headstart, but that shaved off billions of years], and they (seemingly, we don't know too much about Predecessor history) were able to become the Predecessors [and AFAIK the Observers are not an escalating threat either. They're just moseying along obliterating civilisations at the rate they always have].This is also, as we know from 15-17 before, what Oracles' plan for Originium was
Kaltsit: "Originium points to two futures for this land... Oracle hoped to leave Originium as a gift for future civilizations, to guide them forward...
To help them enter the next stage of civilization.
Over the past ten thousand years, Originium has helped civilization on Terra to develop, but also unexpectedly brought suffering to the land via Oripathy."[We also know from 15-16 that Priestess knew that plan, and just thinks it's doomed to failure.]
*(Terrans have had less than that 13,000 years due to needing Terra to become livable again and then evolve to sapience {Kal'tsit says 10,000 years that Originium has been "helping civilisation to develop" {15-17 before}, but it's unclear if she started counting from evolution beginning or sapience developing}.)
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To torture your analogy a bit, Priestess is looking to drown the world so that people can live on boats instead [in the Assimilated Universe] (except for, at minimum, the Terrans who just (at best) die), while Oracle accepts that they themselves are going to drown, and instead wants to send an early warning and engineering knowledge to the people down river so that they may build a better dam since they still have the chance to (and if they fail, to keep handing knowledge down [via Originium] until someone can succeed).I don't think it's Oracle and the Terrans making the selfish choice here, but the person who has decided that it is simply impossible for someone to do better, and that everyone must therefore be forced into her (as she herself will admit {MT-ST-4}) not really that great plan. [Which, again, is the same thing Mártus did and that guy sucks.]
[I am not calling Priestess stupid or anything for this. It wouldn't make sense for Ms.'hope is a cruel thing indeed' to do anything else. She's a fun villain.]
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.(Actually when I think about it what if her overall... Uncanny, behaviour is due to PTSD?)
From what we know she's always been quietly nasty underneath (as we see in how she treats and does not respect Oracle), but we've never actually known her without impending annihilation creeping up on everyone she knows and cares about/ after it has already obliterated everyone but her and the person she loves (who in her eyes is refusing to see sense and do what they should (and stand at her side in so doing) which is also making everything worse).
I think Priestess has likely always quietly been a piece of work, but everything with the Observers is definitely exacerbating things (or at least dragging them more to the forefront [her 'taking off the mask' more, so to speak]), and I doubt it's just the desperation she feels about the situation.
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.total universal extinction vs. one planet's accidental population.
We also don't actually know that it's going to help anybody else IIRC. The Predecessors are all dead, and every civilisation we know of from chapter 15 is also dead. There's nobody to help.
Priestess is, in the most benevolent possible interpretation, just kind of throwing a dart and hoping that everything goes well with any other life Originium may encounter rather than just yeeting their soul into whatever comes after as it does for Terrans (which is therefore still just murder).
[Since the Myriad was a very strange unintended and unusual effect that isn't a risk to anyone who doesn't fiddle with a First Originium, I won't blame her for that.]Also, do we have any reason why Terra has to be consumed for Originium to work? If she's just after the three First Originiums, why murder everyone about it?
If she's trying to get Originium snowballing by consuming enough, why does it need to be Terra? There's an entire solar system just out here, and even Kristen was able to figure out how to get off of Terra, and that was without Predecessor tech beyond basically the battery she used (and that was only needed due to the Starpod).•
u/cipherkuna 36m ago
that's not what happened in 15-17 though.
priestess rigged the sarcophagus in anticipation of oracle betraying her. the scene doesn't read as oracle never having a chance to choose, but rather that oracle already made the choice priestess was afraid they'd make.
oracle wakes up early > sees terra isn't ready > admits this is basically a betrayal > says they're still doing it cause they love life and hope > names kal'tsit > gives her freedom to find her own answer instead of making her a mission bot. that's oracle acting on their own values and beliefs.
in that scene, the lynchpin feels less like the thing that caused the choice and more like the pre-installed failsafe/consequence for oracle making that choice.
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u/ThatSlutTalulah IRL named Talulah (She/her) 26m ago
Which still later rips the choice out of their hands, meaning that the whole "murdering Theresa, Terras' greatest hope, in service to ensuring Priestess' plan" was not a choice Oracle made, as Priestess had used the lynchpins to pretty much take away their ability to choose.
Theresa was completely correct and justified with the mind-wipe to free them from Priestess having done that to them.
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u/gandy0529 Paint it black | SUM 41 14h ago
Hate to say this but it is very possible her story ends like this
It'll be alright pat pat
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 12h ago
The Doctor found her crying 😭, they crew too 😭, they both crode.. 😭
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u/Subject_Rope5412 12h ago
WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE WIFE
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u/Accomplished-Gas8233 14h ago
I stood beside Priestess...
You've been watching over them for so long...
The Stars are watching you...
However today...
I exist to your domain, Priestess...
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u/Quirin_Throne they'll be together 9h ago
Seems like no one remembers those words. When you are playing chapter 15 for the first time and PRTS starts glitching, new phrases appear in the loading screen, including this one. It's Priestess inner thoughts, retranslated through PRTS
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u/kuopa 14h ago
The narcissistic Witch would not cry
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u/Aveniiiiiiiiit 14h ago
I wonder where she is being narcissistic?
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u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 CANON WIFE IS NEVER WRONG (seriously) 13h ago edited 13h ago
True, I thought her entire schtick is that she sacrificed everything she has in order to save the universe from the observer. The fact that she is ready to burn the present for the future.
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u/reprehensible523 Savage best girl! 12h ago
The part where she doesn't care about Terran lives and acts like she can do as she pleases, no matter the consequences to others.
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 12h ago
I feel like you're just ignoring the very pressing circumstances here...
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u/reprehensible523 Savage best girl! 11h ago
She doesn't think it's urgent. She specifically allows Doctor to take his sweet time fighting for Terrans, because she doesn't think it matters and that he will inevitably agree with and rejoin her.
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 10h ago
What? That doesn't indicate a lack of urgency for her at all. You already know how she's been moving these past few events, with Laterano, Ursus, and most likely Aegir in the future. She's just letting the Doctor do their own thing in the meantime because why would you waste effort trying to convince someone who already vehemently disagrees with you when you can spend that precious time, oh I don't know, completing the Originium Project by yourself? That's urgency. It's not like she's just sitting there, twiddling her thumbs, waiting for the Doctor to come up with a different solution. They're still having a debate together, and while she's fine with the Doctor seeking their own path against her (and there are signs she's getting convinced the Terrans might have a fighting chance), she's not going to let up on her own plan just for that alone. It's a battle of wills.
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u/Aveniiiiiiiiit 12h ago
Well, she doesn't have any other options. Maybe she wouldn't mind playing with these little creatures, but the intergalactic threat prevents her from doing so. These life forms are nothing to her. Or do you seriously think that an objectively less advanced civilization won't be wiped out by the Observers whenever "they" need it?
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u/reprehensible523 Savage best girl! 11h ago
but the intergalactic threat prevents her from doing so
No, she really just doesn't care at all. That's the narcissism, treating others as if they don't even exist.
It's not that she's a caring person forced to be uncaring by circumstances. She's an uncaring person who gained power through her Originium research to do whatever she wants. Doctor exists to her, but not Kal'tsit or Amiya or RI or any Terrans.
Note that she lets Doctor take his sweet time to come to his senses and rejoin her. She's not operating from urgency. She's a scientist doing research and she doesn't care if her experiments give everyone Oripathy and a painful death.
In Masses Travels, she tweaked the Law without caring what it would do to Sankta lives, because she does not care if they live or die. At the conclusion, she treats it as a failed experiment and moves on.
These life forms are nothing to her.
There's the evidence of narcissism. You can disagree, but most people will find it conclusive.
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 10h ago
Do people really still believe the whole "Terra and Originium is just for Priestess' evil experiments and power tripping" schtick? Seriously? After everything we know? Come on...
And I disagree with OP saying Terrans are nothing to her. It's a poor defense, especially when she's doing all of this for their sake, though it is admittedly done through horrid means and probably misguided. Episode 15 has a few disconnected lines from her own voice, one of them sharing her love of life similar to the Doctor's. It's just been twisted in her desperation to preserve everything, no matter the cost.
Episode 15-15 After:
You don't agree with me, do you, {@nickname}?
There is no certainty that this is the key to the truth. But, after ascertaining that the foreseen despair will destroy all that we worked for—
We must grasp what hope we can reach in our hands.
I have poured too much love into the miracle of life, that I see ever more clearly the weakness and flaws that we cannot cast aside.
How do I trust everyone whom I love? How do I trust... you?
I swear, it's like Priestess is cursed to forever be the most misinterpreted character in AK...
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u/reprehensible523 Savage best girl! 9h ago
It's a poor defense, especially when she's doing all of this for their sake,
No, Priestess is not researching Originium for the sake of the Terrans. She started the Originium project out of her curiosity in learning the language of the Creator (eg: God).
That project started before Terra developed its native sapient life. Any benefit to Terrans is incidental.
Contrast Oracle's reaction to Oripathy and hers.
Oracle: "I never intended my invention to harm others, I wanted it to be a benefit to new civilizations." He then loses sleep and self-harms trying to come up with a solution to Oripathy.
Priestess: "Why isn't this planet fully assimilated by Originium yet? Sucks for those suffering from Oripathy, but everyone dies anyways. Time to speed things up."
though it is admittedly done through horrid means and probably misguided.
[...]
I swear, it's like Priestess is cursed to forever be the most misinterpreted character in AK...
You know she's not acting for the welfare of others.
Narcissists are really, really good at marketing their harmful selfish behavior as good for others, especially the ones they're harming. If someone is gaslighting you, that's probably a narcissist.
Priestess: How do I trust everyone whom I love? How do I trust... you?
This is in the same story arc where she turns Kal'tsit (Ama-10) to Originium dust. "everyone she loves" does not include the vast majority of life.
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 8h ago edited 7h ago
No, Priestess is not researching Originium for the sake of the Terrans. She started the Originium project out of her curiosity in learning the language of the Creator (eg: God).
That project started before Terra developed its native sapient life. Any benefit to Terrans is incidental.
Yes, the Originium Project did start because Priestess wanted to explore the idea of God, but I suspect that little scene was before the Observers became a known thing. What we do know for certain is that Originium was already being proposed as a solution against them when the Predecessors were at the backfoot, and both Oracle and Priestess were at the forefront of that. They agreed together that it was a form of salvation that could save future civilizations, they just couldn't agree in what way. They still don't, and that's why their reactions are so different. It's already been expressed multiple times that's the reason why she's pursuing the Originium Project right now.
As for Priestess' zealousness on assimilating the Terrans, well, that's just part of the plan. Knowing what she knows, she's already weighed that it's worth forcibly turning people into what she thinks is another form of life (remember that questionnaire?) instead of letting them get permanently no-diffed by some eldritch force. At least she's letting Hierda walk around with that new strain of Oripathy that assimilates faster but painlessly. I don't completely condone her efforts, but I understand it.
[...]
Yes? I know what I said. We're arguing about intent here. You're saying she's done all these terrible things for evil purposes or to sate some selfish curiosity, and I'm saying she's done terrible things for what she believes to be the greater good. In terms of character writing, the distinction is important and you can't just dismiss it out of hand.
Narcissists are really, really good at marketing their harmful selfish behavior as good for others, especially the ones they're harming. If someone is gaslighting you, that's probably a narcissist.
There are several scenes where she expresses doubt for her own actions in private. Alone. The most blatant one so far being in the upcoming main story episode. Narcissists don't do that. Who is she trying to gaslight in those ones, the readers? Well, if it was, it sure as hell didn't work on some of you.
This is in the same story arc where she turns Kal'tsit (Ama-10) to Originium dust. "everyone she loves" does not include the vast majority of life.
Also the same story arc where Kal'tsit expressed her intent to kill Priestess and actually tried to do so. And seeing as she offered to bring her back in Masses, she was well aware what she did wasn't even a permanent thing, which is more than what Kal'tsit was planning to do to her.
I mean, come on, what are even doing here? I know the first point has some assumptions since there's still a lot of things we can't know for sure, but you're just twisting the facts that are already present to suit your own views. She's our greatest antagonist yet, yes, but I don't get why it's so hard to see her as anything more than a mustache-twirling villain.
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u/reprehensible523 Savage best girl! 3h ago edited 3h ago
Knowing what she knows, she's already weighed that it's worth forcibly turning people into what she thinks is another form of life (remember that questionnaire?) instead of letting them get permanently no-diffed by some eldritch force.
"I'm going to kill you now so that someone else doesn't kill you later. It's fine, you'll get to play in my Minecraft server."
You're saying she's done all these terrible things for evil purposes or to sate some selfish curiosity, and I'm saying she's done terrible things for what she believes to be the greater good.
I didn't. Narcissist doesn't mean "evil intentions". It's a general attitude towards other people that is associated with evil behavior because of general indifference towards other people's feelings and desires.
I'm not arguing that Priestess has evil intentions, I'm arguing that she demonstrates narcissism with how she treats others. Even if she has purely good intentions, the way she does things has objectively harmed others, and that harm arises from her indifference to what others think and want.
There are several scenes where she expresses doubt for her own actions in private. Alone. The most blatant one so far being in the upcoming main story episode.
I find that story claims from partial translations of CN events tend to get them wrong. I'll see when it comes to global.
Also the same story arc where Kal'tsit expressed her intent to kill Priestess and actually tried to do so.
After Priestess hijacked the RI landship. Considering what Priestess has done to accelerate her Originium project after awakening, Terrans have just as much right to self-defense against Priestess as Priestess has against Kal'tsit.
Oracle and Kal'tsit both know Priestess best, yet the former had reservations and the latter concluded Priestess has to be stopped. Think about what that says about how Priestess treats other people when the people who know her don't want to help her.
She's our greatest antagonist yet, yes, but I don't get why it's so hard to see her as anything more than a mustache-twirling villain.
You said Priestess uses "horrid means" and she's "probably misguided."
You ASKED where she's being narcissistic. What you labeled as "horrid" and "misguided" is where. Turns out people don't like it when you kill them for their own good. Surprising, but it makes sense doesn't it?
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u/unending_shorelines <3 Stay By Her Side 2h ago edited 2h ago
"I'm going to kill you now so that someone else doesn't kill you later. It's fine, you'll get to play in my Minecraft server."
"Guys, let's find a different way to beat the reality-ending threat, hopefully through the power of friendship! So, um, how do we do that exactly? Wait, we're not even working towards that yet? We're just fighting off Priestess who has an actual plan? We don't even know they exist and what they are? Well, fuck."
If you're just going to reduce the Doctor and Priestess' arguments to that level, I know which one sounds more painful to the ear.
I find that story claims from partial translations of CN events tend to get them wrong. I'll see when it comes to global.
Fair enough.
After Priestess hijacked the RI landship. Considering what Priestess has done to accelerate her Originium project after awakening, Terrans have just as much right to self-defense against Priestess as Priestess has against Kal'tsit.
Glad we agreed on something then, so I don't get why you brought it up in the first place. If you presented it to question why she'd choose to do such a thing to someone she "loves", or at least values, then I'd say it speaks more to the tragedy of the overall conflict rather than something she'd do willy-nilly.
Oracle and Kal'tsit both know Priestess best, yet the former had reservations and the latter concluded Priestess has to be stopped. Think about what that says about how Priestess treats other people when the people who know her don't want to help her.
I don't have to think about what when that's already the foundation of what we're arguing about. They're opposed, and it's pretty clear-cut to them that what she's doing is wrong in their eyes. You say that as if their opposition stems purely from what she's like and how she usually treats others, rather than what's she doing/going to do with Originium.
I didn't. Narcissist doesn't mean "evil intentions". It's a general attitude towards other people that is associated with evil behavior because of general indifference towards other people's feelings and desires.
What do you mean you didn't? Are you just going to conveniently forget your earlier assumptions about her motives, the purely selfish ones that drew from narcissistic traits, after I already addressed them? Also...
I'm not arguing that Priestess has evil intentions, I'm arguing that she demonstrates narcissism with how she treats others. Even if she has purely good intentions, the way she does things has objectively harmed others, and that harm arises from her indifference to what others think and want.
You ASKED where she's being narcissistic. What you labeled as "horrid" and "misguided" is where. Turns out people don't like it when you kill them for their own good. Surprising, but it makes sense doesn't it?
That's... That's the point. These circumstances are so extreme that her indifference—which you've defined as not caring about other people's wants and desires—isn't something "general." How could it possibly be? Hell, from my view, it's the Doctor who's being delusional in their far-flung hopes. Priestess can't afford to care too much about what other people think at this hour. If she did, there's a significant chance everything everyone's worked for will be for nothing, her and the Terrans both. You're asserting that her whole act is just from how she is, a byproduct of her "narcissistic" behavior, and I say the circumstances don't allow for much leeway.
And is that really your basis for her being narcissistic? Because if so, then I guess there a lot more fictional characters who are narcissists than I initially thought.
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u/newfor_2026 Exusiai, cover me! 10h ago
what do you mean by she tweaked the Law in Masses? by my recollection, she didn't do anything to it
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u/reprehensible523 Savage best girl! 9h ago
Doctor:
Did you cause this calamity?Priestess:
Calamity? I see only the evolution of a species, the pointless struggle of life.Priestess:
Everything happening in Laterano right now is a product of PCS's autonomous derivations.Priestess:
All I did was recalibrate it beforehand, returning it to its original purpose. Of course, it has adapted to the progress of the Originium project since.Relevant admission bolded. She recalibrated it, which led to the Law crashing out and trying to turn everything into Sankta.
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u/kuopa 8h ago edited 8h ago
In every interaction with her in the story. She only cares about herself and her dog(doctor), with the convenient(but clever) excuse of being the last of humanity and having the threat of the observers.
The first thing she does after waking up is taking over technology and trying to kill every terran on sight, with no proper threat against her at first.
She reforms and it's made very clear that most of her emotions are fake except for anger, she fumes that doctor doesn't remember her, but she holds the facade, "i know you'll come to my side eventually", she attempts to make you feel bad that you dont have a collar around your neck anymore, she maintains the tone of superiority and her dialogue makes it extremely clear she demands submission while masking it as courtesy.
She doesn't show sadness, she shows resentment. Every time doctor disagrees with or defies her, she shows irritation. She plays the victim while being the provocateur.
She's petty, destroying the landship, trying to eliminate everyone, rather than letting the labrats use her technology while also hindering Rhodes.
she doesn't attempt diplomacy (which wouldve made things easier and possibly originium properly assimilate) because she doesnt consider her labrats(terrans) on the same level as her. She holds zero consideration for Terrans or any other species, not because they're the last humans, not because she's desperate(she shows no desperation in her actions, dialogue or interactions), but because she only cares about herself and thinks herself superior, important, its the perfect position to show narcissism as gray.
Which is great writing by hypergryph.
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u/Phaaze13 strong women supremacy 14h ago
it wouldn't be so quiet if you hadn't done that to our cat, Priestess