This Seems Like a Good Idea

Feminina O'Ladybrain

Sep 29

Spoilers for a side quest in Horizon: Burning Shores

Butch:

It's the guy! The guy from that amazing quest in frozen wilds! The last girls on earth and the looking glass! That quest was amazing!

This one was pretty good. I thought it was rather…truncated. They had something to say and they said it. I would've liked a slower burn on the realization that the guys "friend" wasn't and more data points from the lonely man. Remember how much there was with the last girls on earth? I would've liked that here.

Still, good stuff. Powerful stuff, and stuff you don't often see in games like this. Sure, we get "technology is bad," and we get "technology can't save us from doom," but we don't often get "technology (or money) can't connect us." Can't buy me love, as the Beatles say. We have lonely Ron, who does find a friend in the end, getting his happy ending (sorta). We have Evelyn, so rich and famous, getting her tragic ending of loneliness, and we have our delver, who has spent his whole life searching, really, for connection, not loot. He wanted to connect with his mother, with anyone.

We talked the last time we saw this guy about how cool it was that they made the gregarious, annoying, comic character so themey and tragic. Those characters are usually just comic relief. Here, they did it again. I was so happy for the guy in the end. That could have had a snarky comment from someone about "oh he's going to drive Gaia nuts now…I shouldn't have done that." Most games would've snarked. But aloy didn't. She was genuinely happy for him, without humor, sarcasm or mockery. The game raised this comic character into someone with real feelings, and real dreams that we made real.

They really nailed both the appearances of this character.

I just wish they had fleshed it out a bit more.

Feminina:

I know! It was nice to see Gilden again! Still so willfully cheerful and optimistic. I liked that they gave you the option, at the end, to either say basically "this guy was not your friend!" or "hey, maybe there was something off about him" or just "yeah, he sounds great."

I went with the positive option (you probably did too), because hey, he's dead now, it's not like he can hurt Gilden anymore, and while I MIGHT be able to make Gilden a little more suspicious about human nature for the next person he meets...is that going to make him any happier? And what if the next person he meets IS a good friend? (More likely now that we connected him with GAIA.)

So I let him keep his ludicrously positive assessment of the situation. And you have to wonder if on some level he knows this anyway, and is intentionally believing the best of everyone, in which case trying to talk him out of it will fail.

But yeah. Good little quest. A bit short, as you say, but well worth it.

I also thought it was interesting because, as in the main game, Aloy has moved from concealing her use of technology in the first game, to pretty much just handing out Focuses to everyone she meets who seems halfway decent (so NOT Gilden's 'friend'). We didn't really understand or trust the tech in the beginning, but now we know more about it, and also, now Aloy has realized that she isn't entirely alone, and that she can't save the world entirely alone, so she's expanding her network -- with a literal computer network.

Good stuff.

Butch:

I sort of assumed that the dude knew that he was being ripped off all along. His demeanor has been one of self delusion, or attempted self delusion, all along. When there was no looking glass in the first game, he acted like he always knew there wouldn't be, that dreams don't come true. I think, after that, I said that the tragedy is that he knew what he was doing was futile, but he would keep doing it anyway, likely until he died because aloy wasn't around. Glad I was wrong.

Hey yeah, it is interesting that she's pretty much totally embraced technology in a game where technocrats are the bad guys. Now you have me thinking on themes. If the main theme is "technology and money are bad as they sap us of humanity," then isn't using tech to connect jarring? Game is saying "technology sucks….except focuses. Foci. It should be foci. "

I digress.

Feminina:

It should be Foci, but that sounds weird in this context.

Or...should it, even? It should if we're using the Latin-derived noun 'focus' meaning a center point, but are we?

Are we not, instead, using the presumably-once-trademarked product name Focus meaning a particular tool that picks up digital signals and projects them for the wearer?

The proper-noun product name 'Focus' doesn't have exactly the same meaning as the common noun 'focus,' so would it necessarily follow the same pluralization rule?

I think the point can be argued. And this is just the blog to argue it.

Anyway, yeah, I think there's a strong possibility that Gilden's good humor is deliberately in spite of his understanding of how hard the world is, rather than because he doesn't understand this. He's not an idiot -- he can SEE that things are tough. He lost his mother! He has no friends! He almost died! But staying optimistic and interpreting everything in the best possible light might be an intentional choice for him. And hey, whatever gets you through the night.

Butch:

We're talking about language.

I shouldn't have said anything.

Gilden is one of the most under appreciated characters in games. Comic characters who get all sorts of nuance are usually celebrated. Mordin from mass effect. Kim from de. They're rare! And here we have one of the best tucked away in two dlcs.

Dude deserves more screen time. Maybe he'll get it now that he's in the club. Though, I'll say it now, it'll be a damn shame if he turns into the comic foil of the group, just there to bounce jokes off the one armed guy. Having him be that would lose his depth.

Feminina:

Honestly, I think Erend has 'comic foil of the group' nailed down, with his constant fumbling with the Focus and wishing he had more beer.

Also, it's obviously never been as simple as "technology and money are bad" -- money, maybe, but technology has been a clear double-edged sword from the beginning.

Yes, technology literally wiped out life on earth, that's bad: but it's also the only reason there's life on earth now, and certainly the only reason there are ROBOT DINOSAURS. So...win some, lose some?

Butch:

Yeah, the life on earth is ok, but the machines? Not so much.

Game does have a dim view of money.

Hmm. Yeah, I can see Erand holding that role. Unless he becomes the love interest. He so digs Aloy.

Feminina:

He does, but I don't see them together.

Now, Erend and Beta could be interesting. Beta might find his forthright, let's-drink-and-blow-stuff-up approach to life refreshing.

Butch:

HA! That would be awesome.

"Aw, man! I totally can't get the girl of my dreams. I'm so gonna hit on her clone."

Dating in the future, man. If at first you don't succeed....

Feminina:

First, Beta has to come out of the engine room or wherever it was she was hiding.

Or I suppose they could get to know each other via Focus messages...

We'd be wandering around and come across their increasingly tender notes to each other.

"Hey you two, get a room so you can talk in person!"

Butch:

Erand all sliding into her focus DMs.

Some things never change.

Being neurally connected to that many people would drastically increase the chances of awkward happening, wouldn't it?

Aloy is so gonna regret handing these out.

Feminina:

Oh man. So much awkward.

"I remember when I was young, I was a lonely outcast, and I was the only person in the world who knew what a Focus was...good times."

Butch:

It all makes sense now....

Aloy: Are there more of these?

Sylens: Um...no.

Aloy: You sure?

Sylens: Um...very sure.

Aloy: But-

Sylens: Be careful what you wish for, Aloy....

[some time later]

Aloy: Hey! I met the Quen! They have tons of them!

Sylens: Shit.

Aloy: I'm going to give them to all my friends!

Sylens: Please don't.

Aloy: I'm going to start with Erand!

Sylens: Here. Take mine.

Aloy: Why?

Sylens: I don't want it anymore.

Aloy: Why?

Sylens: You'll see.....

Feminina:

And that is how they will explain Sylens' disappearance.

He just couldn't handle all the human contact!

Butch:

Full circle.

Totally believable.

His last scene:

Sylens: At least I can just sit in this channel, talking to GAIA, who isn't human, leaning everything there is to know about-

Gildun: Oh HEY! There's someone else here! Can you be my friend, too? Can you can you can you? Oh we're going to be the best of friends. We're going to

Sylens: That's it. I'm out.

Gilden: play machine strike and drink beers and make Peccary Pockets and....hey? Where'd you go?

Aaaaaand scene.

Feminina:

Peccary Pockets. Nice.

Poor Sylens.