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theresademoninyouroven · 2 months

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I think the most important part of breaking down Prism as a character honestly is those Robot Trophies we can find. Seeing where Prism starts is integral to who she by the time we see her in the game, flaws and all.

Robot trophy 1:

Morales: Welcome to the Agency, Dr Prism. I must admit, I was surprised a mind like yours wished to take part in the work of our Operatives Division. Prism: Thank you, Director Morales. I can't wait to get started! I really think I'm going to be most useful in the OD. I have some ideas to enhance the agents' capabilities that I think are really going to shake things up. Morales: I'm glad to hear it, my new friend. Just remember -- to shake the nest of the hornet creates a hornet with a shaken nest. Prism: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I'll… keep that in mind.

So, we see that Morales knew of Prism and is actually delighted that someone as smart as her wants to work at the OD. Not the EOD, the OD. It's not the Enhanced Operatives Division, just the Operatives Division. This is likely when Reginald was a field agent, before Telekinesis or computer hacking. Morales has been working as the Director of the agency since long before Phoenix, and he is more than happy to have people work where they want to if they feel they've got something to give.

But he also seems to have this air of having seen things. Prism says she wants to shake things up, and Morales immediately warns her "To shake the nest of the hornet creates a hornet with a shaken nest." Like I've said, this sounds redundant, but when you break down the metaphor, it's a word of warning about the dangers of change. To uproot what the OD has established is going to agitate everyone who's already been working there since before Prism.

We, as Phoenix, think it's really cool that we have TK, but imagine how that would feel for the other agents who were in the EOD before TK? "Hey, you have to get a life altering brain surgery to keep working here that we don't know the full ramifications of, if not you'll get demoted/transferred elsewhere." That would suck! That would be infuriating! Nobody likes experiencing change, but Prism is excited at the prospect of causing it, and that could cause a certain tension between Prism and the rest of the agency.

And that is what Morales seems to be warning Prism of.

Robot Trophy 2:

Prism: It's working! The telekinetic implant is working! Shut down power and get that agent to scanning to check for brain damage. Prism: I did it, Director. I knew it would work. Our agents minds just became a weapon. Morales: A weapon is most useful when the earthquake ceases its blustering. How soon can all our agents have these implants? Prism: Days, a week at most! They should be field ready as soon as the TK implant is attached! Morales: This is a very quick turnaround, Dr Prism… are you sure? Prism: Of course I'm sure, sir. This is just the beginning, and progress waits for no one.

This is clearly the origin of the TK implant, the original agent using the TK and getting examined for damages.

Morales' initial phrase kinda feels like he's telling Prism to stop talking and start moving at a glance? But after digging at it a bit more, I think "A weapon is most useful when the earthquake ceases its blustering" is supposed to mean that the TK, the weapon, will only be useful once everything has stabilized. The creation of TK alone will cause massive ramifications with how the now EOD works, and that's not even talking about how much work goes into giving everyone the implants. The surgery, the recovery time, the learning curve, it's going to be a massive shift that is going to take time, how much time is this shaking up, this "earthquake" going to take for the agents to adjust?

What I think is fascinating is that when Prism gives an estimate of a few days to a week, that is when Morales is apprehensive. He's more than happy to help her get the resources she needs to improve the agents' abilities and by proxy quality of life, but that turnaround time is short. To get the TK implant put in the agent needs to have their scalp cut open, a hole drilled in their skull if not a chunk straight up cut out, the membrane around their brain to be opened, and the chip to be inserted, then they need all of that to get stitched back up and put back in place. That's bigger than a burr hole they would do for patients who have a stroke, and even then they're kept in the hospital for a few days for monitoring purposes. The agent should not be field ready the second that chip is put on. Prism is not taking into account that the agents are people, they need to rest and recover, she's too caught up on the progress that her chips make.

It makes her misguided comment "progress waits for no one" rather disconcerting. Progress waits for no one, including the agents that have long term pain because their body didn't take to the surgery. The agents who struggled to get a grip on the new sense with the TK and died because their TK pulled an explosive too close. The agents who weren't comfortable with the thought of getting life altering surgery and had to resign from the EOD because they didn't want to take the risk. Hell, we don't know if this is one consecutive recording or two separate ones, Prism could very well be celebrating about her chip's success before even knowing if the chips cause brain damage.

And even then, things like brain damage don't necessarily show up on the first, second, or twentieth use. It shows after years of use. Just because that agent's brain didn't immediately melt doesn't necessarily mean the TK implants are harmless, but Prism doesn't seem to care about that. And that is what makes Morales apprehensive about Prism's future projects.

Robot Trophy 3:

Morales: I understand you wish to discuss agent efficiency with me. Prism: Yes, Director. Agent mortality rate is understandably high due to the nature of their work. I believe I can create an agent that does all the work with half the… deaths. Morales: I see. And is this work for the agents, or is it for you? Prism: What does that mean? Morales: The bear that eats the honey soon finds its belly capable of holding the hive. Prism: That doesn't help me. Morales: You have my approval to pursue this artificial agent, Dr Prism. Just remember why the wind blows.

This clearly is Prism's pitch for her working on her robots, and I think it's a strange one. Prism pitches her robots to Morales with the argument that she wants to lower the agents' mortality rate, but this doesn't actually align with her motives that we've seen thus far. Granted the Prism we see in the levels is one who's been working for Zoraxis long enough that her goals have probably shifted, but when looking at the recordings, it really feels like Prism's just saying the quiet part out loud by the time we get to her in IEYTD 3. In previous recordings she's prioritized progress over the agents' well being, be it recovery time or career stability. If we look at external sources, we see that Robutler had a previous model called Robart, and Prism decided to pitch the robots as agents after making it entirely for bar-tending. This all has questionable canonicity due to it being a puzzle game in the discord, but if it's true it shows that Prism didn't have a dramatic loss of a loved one or a moment where she looked at the numbers and felt bad for the agents. She just realized her robot could be an agent and chose to pitch it from the angle of it helping the agents.

And I think this is what happened because of what Morales asks. "Is this work for the agents, or is it for you?" I don't think he'd just ask this to insult Prism, especially when we see how much he admires her work. She's a damn good inventor, and he's more than happy that she's on the EOD, but this seems to be a pattern with her. She's more excited at the prospect of revolutionizing agents, she doesn't actually take time to care about the agents. And that is why Morales stops the conversation to ask what's this about? And he gets his answer in Prism's response. She gets defensive, and rightfully so, that's an insulting question to ask frankly, but it tells him what he needs to know, it's for her. So, he gives another warning.

"The bear that eats the honey soon finds its belly capable of holding the hive." Breaking this down, it's another word of caution. Too much of a good thing can turn bad, or maybe even discouraging her greed with her research. It starts with the good intention, the honey, of minimizing agency deaths, but it can turn sour if you don't know when to stop. It could even be him saying she got her honey, she's made a good legacy with her TK chips and she doesn't need to keep revolutionizing agents. Other fields could use her mind, hell, the TK implant probably could use some work too. Escalating to robot agents because that's where she things the next step of enhancing agents is her taking a bite out of the hive, and that's the start of a slippery slope.

But unfortunately, rather than just saying that, he chose to give a riddle. Honestly, I think these all could be good lessons that would have completely circumvented Prism's retirement, but then we wouldn't get IEYTD 3. Prism is rightfully agitated by these riddles, she wants to pursue her research and gets the equivalent of "what do a Raven and a Writing desk have in common", not everyone wants to have to write a thesis every time their boss gives a bit of advice trying to unravel what the hell he said.

But he doesn't want Prism to leave or give up on her work, she's done wonderful things for the EOD and maybe she's turning over a new leaf and actually cares for the agents' safety. What's the harm in letting her pursue this?

But he gives her one last cryptic word of wisdom. "Just remember why the wind blows." Just remember why we use human agents, and maybe even remember why people want to be agents. Yes, there's a high mortality rate, but that high turnout means there's a high number of people volunteering to be agents. Nobody is forcing them to be here, and while the deaths are tragic, they're something the agents are well aware of. If you're making an artificial agent, make sure that agent is being an agent for the right reasons.

We actually see this in the robots, why Phoenix wants to be an agent is up to the player, but the robots all talk about being an agent to use cool grappling hooks and be badass spies with cool names and driving sleek cars and all the superficial reasons. Phoenix choosing to die at the end of IEYTD 2 is for the sake of the world, for the sake of others. They have a care for humanity and will do the right thing for the sake of everyone. The robots being in that scenario? There's no risk, to value in their sacrifice, and while nobody should have to choose make that sacrifice, it makes their motives for being an agent shallow.

There's no driving "if I don't save the day, who will?" because the answer is… any other robot. They won't look at the people they're protecting as people, just numbers. And that is a risky game when you're talking about saving lives.

Robot Trophy 4:

Prism: Leaders of the Agency. I present to you today: the robot agent. A marvel of engineering, this robot has an estimated survival rate of -- Someone disengage primary power! Who adjusted these location parameters?! Morales: Doctor Prism, we can postpone your demonstration. Prism: No! I just need a minute. THESE NUMBERS ARE NOT BASED ON MY SHEETS! Director, this is not my fault. My robots are more than ready to replace our human agents. Morales: Let us end this demonstration for now, Dr. Prism. Discuss with your staff and we'll reconvene next quarter.

This is Prism presenting her robots to the heads of the agency and giving her pitch for fully ai agents. She's very sure that they've been perfected. But what we see is that half-way through her pitch, something goes wrong, likely something being done with the actual robot in front of the leaders based on how Prism responds when things go sideways. "Disengage primary power" sounds like Prism telling an assistant to shut down something that wouldn't just be a video simulation, something is going wrong with the physical robot, which could get dangerous fast.

What caused the robot to go off the deep end is implied to be the location parameters, aka the location the robot was programmed to handle. We don't know if the robot attacked the Leaders, went off the deep end and started spouting gibberish, or completely broke down, or what, but it caused clear panic in Prism.

And Morales can recognize that, intervening and telling Prism that it's okay, they can just try another test run later. But Prism doesn't listen, she says that the problems with the test run aren't her fault because the numbers they were running weren't the ones she approved in her former test runs.

The issue is she escalates the problem. She shouts that it wasn't her fault and that her robots are more than ready to replace agents. Not that they're ready for the field or ready to be used alongside agents, but that they're ready to take every single agent off the field. This is not the way to pitch something to a board of agency directors. It sounds selfish and inconsiderate of the agents that the agency has relied on for years and suggests extreme change that would make many people apprehensive.

And the thing is, the robots aren't ready. Regardless if it was accident or sabotage, the thing that was modified was the location parameters. I tried to look into location parameters and it was… confusing and statistics heavy and not what I think Schell was trying to imply, but the end point is: The robots couldn't handle modification to their simulation.

With agents, you have to be able to not only think on the fly, but know how to handle a wide array of situations. In IEYTD 3 alone, you go from a mine to driving to an underwater lab to snowy mountains to a volcano. That is a wide variety of pressures, humidity, elevation, and temperature. If the location parameters aren't the statistics ones that I barely grasped and were simply the robot wasn't programmed to handle the space it was in, then that's even worse. Because performing well in a vacuum doesn't actually mean anything. Really, the robots shouldn't go straight from testing to being on the field, they should be slowly integrated to ensure they can handle that sort of work.

And Prism saying the robots are ready to replace the agents really shot herself in the foot. Even if it was said poorly in a moment of panic, to the leaders she essentially just said "the quiet part out loud", that she wants to get rid of agents because she thinks robots are the future.

And that is bad, Morales knows it's bad, which is why he pushes Prism to just stop and try again later. He's not trying to shut her down, he's trying to help her save face.

Robot Trophy 5:

Morales: Thank you for meeting with me, Dr Prism. I regret to tell you your robot training initiative is being put on hold indefinitely. Prism: Okay, I know the demonstration was a disaster but I know what to do. I need kinesium. Our human agents have it in their TK implants, and if I can have access to it for my robots, they'd be unstoppable. Morales: I'm afraid that's out of the question, Doctor. Prism: Out of the question? How DARE you! You don't even KNOW the question! I have created the answer and you can't see it. You REFUSE to see it! Morales: All I see, Doctor, is the most intelligent and creative person I know succumbing to pride. We'd like you to continue your work with the TK implants. Come back to your true legacy. Prism: I won't go back to anything. The only way is forward. You'll see -- my legacy is yet to be created. Goodbye, Director Morales.

This is actually the most transparent we ever see Morales. No metaphors, no talking in riddles, just straight forward "we can't keep your initiative running. I'm sorry it's this way, but we still want you to work for us if at all possible."

His voice is also much more firm and flat as he speaks here, he's not talking to Prism as a friend, he's talking to her as her employer. I'm sure if he could have, he would have found a way to keep Prism's robot initiative running, but he's not some CEO like Zor is to Zoraxis, he isn't the singular head of the Agency, just the EOD, which isn't all of the agency. There are multiple leaders who have to approve of Prism's work to keep it running, Morales doesn't get final say.

He likely broke the news to her because he's her manager. Nothing more. And Prism is convinced that the issue with her robots is that… they need kinesium? This implies that the problem with the robots is their batteries, nothing to do with the pre-set parameters for the test run she was blaming earlier. This could explain what went wrong, the robots doing a test run in front of the heads of the agency, only for them to run out of power and start crashing, leading to catastrophe. But the problem is, Prism isn't listening to what Morales is saying, even when he's not talking in riddles. She's so used to disregarding him at this point because he never contributes anything seemingly of value, that she writes off his explanation without even listening to his words.

You can't be told that your program's getting shut down, then demand more expensive materials. That's not how trying to make an initiative works. Sometimes you can't push forward, you have to take a few steps back, start from square one, and try again from the beginning. If Prism accepted the fact that her initiative was shut down, she may have been able to request they re-try the initiative at a later date. Maybe she could have put more work into the TK implants to learn more about how Kinesium works, possibly even working towards finding an alternate material that works similarly to Kinesium or finding ways to utilize Kinesium in a fashion that would benefit her robots. But she refuses to back down, to circle back and try again later. She needs her robots to work, and refuses to be flexible in finding alternate ways of working on them without agency support.

As Morales says, she's too proud to accept that test went so poorly that the program got shut down. She says that the others refuse to see how she's making the answer to all their problems, but she's also refusing to listen to Morales, to the other heads of the EOD. She says that they don't even know what the question is, but the truth of the matter is they aren't asking it because it's not something they want answered. They would love to have less agent mortality, but not at the cost of the agents. They feel the agents have grown enough thanks to the TK implant, they don't need to keep pushing into animatronic agents. They're enhanced enough.

But to Prism, they're not acknowledging all the work she did. She managed to make working prototypes of robots that could functionally operate as agents! They had one bad test run that happened to have their worst trial be during their presentation to higher ups, how is that fair to her work?

However, she also refuses to believe that the problem is her robots in the first place. That the agency doesn't trust them due to their failed tests run when, really, the agency doesn't want trust them because the agency doesn't want robotic agents. They may solve a problem, but they also create problems that require the whole agency to make massive adjustments that they likely wouldn't like to do in the first place.

These two are having completely different conversations where they're not listening to each other. To Morales, Prism is being consumed by pride and needs to go back to her former projects before she destroys herself over this one failed project. To Prism, Morales is shutting down her research without giving it a fighting chance because she knows what went wrong and how to fix it, but they don't even have the decency to allow her to try again. And this is what drives the wedge that pushes Prism to leave.

Robot Trophy 6:

Zor: They didn't appreciate you. They didn't understand you. They didn't see your vision. I do. And I have access to all the kinesium you could want. Prism: Spare me, Zor. You and I both know you want access to my kinesium research. And you know what? I don't care. You get me kinesium, and I'll give you my research. Zor: That's all I ask. Prism: Then you have a deal. Kinesium is the last piece of the puzzle. With it, my robots will replace human agents, and the Agency will beg me for them. And I'll refuse them my true legacy. Zor: You and I are going to get along, Dr Prism.

This is truly Prism mask fully off. If it was questionable before, here it becomes very clear that Prism never really wanted to make these robots for the agents. I like to think she did, I've wrote fanfics on it before, but this sort of mentality isn't a major shift for Prism from where we've seen her before. She's gone from using the agents' safety as an excuse for why she wants to make robotic agents, to acknowledging that all she's ever wanted was for her legacy to be in her robots, supporting the agents has always just been a plus.

And we know this because when Zor goes after her "altruistic" angle, she immediately shuts it down. Not only does she tell Zor to stop, she immediately gives them what they want for her personal goal of making robots. Someone who's known for harming agents, but like Prism says, she doesn't care anymore. She doesn't have to pretend to care anymore.

Again, there's this focus on replacement. Not protecting agents or saving lives, just replacing the human agents because she feels they're inferior. Not only that, but she wants her robots to succeed so the agency has to grovel for her to let them use them. If this was about agents, she wouldn't be gloating about refusing to allow the EOD to have her true legacy. She'd be more than happy to, or even begrudgingly implement the robots into the EOD's spy divisions. Even if the EOD hurt her, made her angry, resentful, if the initial goal was ever at any point to save lives, she wouldn't romanticize this idea of people getting hurt out of petty vengeance.

Prism and Zor are a lot more alike than we like to think. They both have a mean streak and are willing to hurt people to get what they want, Prism just has the mask of working for the good guys first.

But I don't think Prism is a deplorable, irredeemable villain, I think that this is all so we can see where Prism started and how she grows over the course of the game. In the first level, we see Prism at her worst, where she's eager at the thought of her robots killing Phoenix to prove that they're superior. While it's an inconvenience that they failed, it just gives her a chance to re-calibrate and try again.

Then in the mines, she's disdainful towards the agent, fully believing that their misuse of Kinesium is foolish and reckless, ignoring the fact that it got the job done. The success rate isn't what she's looking at, it's the fact that Phoenix did it the wrong way. Her robots would never do something so against protocol! Then in the car level, we see her so sure that the robot was going to win because she's been preparing Right Robot the whole time for this confrontation. She knows her truck is state of the art, that it was going to take the stupid, human agent a while to get through all of the security measures. And all the while, Prism is priming her robot to take down the agent, the only reason Phoenix survives is they find her notes that they weren't supposed to have access to. They never would have been able to take down her invention otherwise!

When the agent goes to the underwater lab, they see the shortcomings of Prism's pride. That because she gave Zor her research for resources and vengeance, she doesn't get say in what Zor does with that research. Nor if Zor has to tell her what they're doing with it. On Operation Cold Shoulder, Prism is enraged that Phoenix was safe from that explosion thanks to Zor's tech, but really, that's the price of her giving Zor her research. Zor is allowed to experiment with Kinesium explosions and how to make a shield to protect themselves from it without having to disclose that to Prism. Just because she feels it's the wrong way to use Kinesium, that doesn't mean her enemies won't use it like that anyways. Phoenix and Zor have both used destabilized Kinesium functionally as a bomb, destroying a ton of her work both times. It is this rigid sense of the right way and wrong way to do things that make her robots so fragile in this system, and it's something we see her realize in Operation KBOOM.

She hates Phoenix at the start of that level, really holding disdain for the agent, and that only shifts after they save here from nearly dying. She specifically says "Why did you save me?! Saving me makes no sense, my robots would NEVER do that! I programmed them to… I programmed them to follow orders no matter what. They would have -- they would have let me die… Thank you, Phoenix."

And this is where we see a major shift. She gets along better with Phoenix, she sees their value as an agent, and even how the way they think outside the box could help like using the gear as a wrench. It is the agent's ability to see things that can't be programmed or taught that makes them useful, and that's when Prism accepts that agents, or at least Phoenix, is more helpful than a robot.

I don't think Prism should give up on her robots, she loves them and she shouldn't have to stop working on them just because they didn't work as agents. But getting to see her learning to value human agents for what they're worth, seeing her grow to see what the agency sees in them, that is her growth as a character.

#i expect you to die 3 #ieytd 3 #roxana prism #very cool analysis !!!!#explodes into three million pieces and dies

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