#horatio nullbuilt is both a disaster and a real one

[theraphos]

Seriouspost Sunday: got in the mood to meta about robots for a minute, in that as much as "robot grows beyond/disobeys their programming" is a sci-fi classic for a reason, I'm always appreciative of exactly how Primordia goes about doing it. There's just something specifically appealing to me about the way the "my core logic" plot thread is implemented; the sort of classic older robot narratives along these lines tend to rely on "uhh this one is just special for X reason and the reason any other robots don't all just do the same thing is because they are not special/people/alive and therefore." Primordia, meanwhile, needs to juggle doing one of these storylines with the fact that the entire cast is made up of robots with varying levels and types of consciousness but who are, generally, people. So you have different characters mentioning that X thing is part of their core logic and they can't go against it even if their actual consciousness wants to - and the one AI who even attempts that fight ends up essentially injured both physically and mentally, experiences total psychological collapse four times, and hides out in the desert doing this eremite/hermit/monk/ascetic thing trying to get spiritual mastery over the violence in his code. And even after all that, the early game still drops all these little breadcrumbs that (for multiple reasons) this protagonist is already low-key overwhelmed, It Gets Worse, most of the possible timelines involve something deeply horrible happening, and even if he wins and gets out but is alone in the aftermath, [REDACTED]. The sheer quiet brutality of that subplot (and in general) not only makes it more emotionally satisfying to me than some other robot narratives (even ones I deeply love and still rewatch to this day!), but I think it does a really good job of just. Making it automatically seem emotionally unreasonable to think less of other robots for NOT doing it. Like ex: I don't think I've ever once seen any player disrespect peak badass Clarity Arbiterbuilt for being literally incapable of taking the first step out of Metropol on her own, and they shouldn't. In fact when Horatio himself suggests she just leave and she says "can't, core logic" he instantly shuts the fuck up. It's only Crispin that continues that conversation. And on that note IIRC Crispin is the only character who talks about this "core logic" shit like it's something he only knows about secondhand ("Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before.") and I think that's a really good part of this plot thread: that wisecrack from the game's first five minutes about him having free will (aside from a conscience, which doesn't stop him being a goblin at ALL) is in fact not a joke, the little doofus will likely never have to experience what the older robots do because he has no such hard rules in place, and the fact that Horatio god damn Nullbuilt is both the one who made Crispin the way he is and the one who basically pulls a "I can't carry it for you but I can carry you" to set Clarity free from Metropol is one of those understated details in Primordia that just knocks me on my ass every time.