- Sardonic13
- |
- Exalted Mythic Member
First of all, I commend you for your insightful description of the Security Officer (SO) throughout the Marathon series. However nothing you have posted implies any connection between Marathon and Halo or indicates that "Marathon is the next Halo game".
Posted by: MARATH0N MAN
Throughout the Marathon series, the character portrayed by the player is known only as the Security Officer or the Cyborg... However, persistent references to "nine MJOLNIR Mark IV cyborgs" throughout the game has led many fans to believe that the Cyborg is in fact the tenth member of this group. However, the cyborg himself does not come to realize this until Marathon Infinity...I disagree. It is very likely that the SO at least suspects, if not completely accepts that he is a cyborg near the end of Marathon 1 or during Marathon 2.
+ From the Marathon manual text, the SO knows that he has always been bigger, stronger, and the best shot.
+ By the end of Marathon 1 he knows that 10 cyborgs were brought on the Marathon, but only 9 were accounted for.
In Marathon 2, both Durandal and Tycho essentially tell him directly that he is a cyborg:
+ On What About Bob?, Durandal says "Because only you would survive the fall..."
+ On Nuke and Pave, Durandal says, "Berhnard was scared of you. He never dreamed of using you the way that I do."
+ On Sorry Don't Make it So Tycho says, "When the Pfhor annihilated Tau Ceti I recorded the deaths of all twenty-four thousand colonists as distinguishable spectrographic pulses flooding over my sensors. The nine Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs were easily separable from the humans in this form. In the end, you will be no better."
+ On Requiem for a Cyborg the secret terminal has four want adds (one each from Durandal, Tycho, Leela, and Thoth), all of which are seeking a cyborg.
So the security officer is aware of the likelihood that he is a cyborg well before the beginning of Marathon Infinity.
Alternately, [the stages of rampancy used as chapter titles in Marathon Infinity] may symbolize the entirely human Marine wresting control of his own destiny from the AIs that he has been serving for the last three games, and unlocking mastery over the latent powers of the Jjaro cybernetics that were integrated into him so long ago.I agree with the general idea that naming the chapter titles after stages of rampancy is symbolic of the SO's trials and struggles in learning to master his Jjaro implants. In finally mastering his implants, he transcends both simple humans and all other cyborgs. He becomes "Destiny". I do not believe that the SO has an AI brain which literally goes rampant or that he is "entirely human".
The Cyborg Security Officer (M2)
Added by Polygoncount
The Cyborg's mind and personality are mostly left up to the player to speculate on. Although Durandal describes him as "a magnificent killing machine" and asks him if being allowed to kill more Pfhor will "make you happy," the AI is more likely being malicious than accurate. While the Cyborg does not seem to be a mindless psychopath, he is clearly comfortable enduring and quite capable of carrying out violent acts on a scale unimaginable to any normal person. However, in the third game of the series, he seems to lose any sense of morality he may previously have possessed, working for the indisputably evil Tycho and killing BOBs on Tycho's orders in a desperate attempt to keep the W'rkncacnter trapped in Lh'owon's sun. In Infinity, we are given greater access to his mind and feelings. He seems to recognize some sort of guilt or weariness for the atrocities he has committed, and appears to believe that he has been forced to do what he has done. Ironically, this seems accurate. All three games consist chiefly of doing what various people tell him to do - only once does he act of his own initiative, and this is in the Marathon manual, which is not an entirely reliable source.I disagree with much of this interpretation. It seems to contradict itself. How can the SO "lose any sense of morality he may previously have possessed" and at the same time "recognize some sort of guilt or weariness for the atrocities he has committed"?
At the beginning of Infinity, the W'rkncacnter in Lh'owon's sun has been released by the Pfhor. The SO uses his Jjaro implants to traverse multiple realities in an attempt to stop the W'rkncacnter's release. He does not kill humans and follow Tycho's orders because he is losing his sense of morality. He is simply trying different options to keep the Pfhor from using the Early Nova. If you would like, I would be happy to go through each reality and discuss the SO's initial plan, what happens, and why all paths fail except for the final one.
The SO does agonize over his destructive actions. However he does not feel that he was forced to do what he has done. Quite the contrary in fact, as on Where are Monsters in Dreams the SO says "I did this, or I could have stopped it. Which is it? It doesn't matter now. I did this and could have stopped it..." He knows that he has destroyed countless lives and wonders if all the devastation he has caused is worth it, not whether or not he was forced to be destructive by some outside influence.
The idea that the SO is nothing more than a tool of destruction to be used by the most immediate manipulator is one of the central themes in Marathon. On numerous occasions he is ridiculed for being easy to control, direct, and use. The list of possible manipulators is long: humanity, Leela, Durandal, Robert Blake, Thoth, Tycho, High Admiral Tfear, and even the Jjaro. In Marathon Infinity, the SO realizes that he must stop simply following the orders of other entities and hoping for the best result. Only by finding his own path and ignoring the directives of others is he able to stop the release of the W'rkncacnter.
The internal conflict between simply following orders and thinking for himself adds depth to the character of the SO and, in my opinion, thoroughly separates him from Halo's Master Chief. Both are similar in that they are essentially bred to be ultimate weapons of destruction and follow orders without question. However the SO is constantly reminded of his violent nature, lack of freedom, and tendency to submit to the commands of others. He feels remorse for his destructive nature and eventually breaks free from his genetically engineered propensity to simply follow orders. The Master Chief never even considers his violent nature and adherence to orders. He is simply a super soldier who always follows orders and doesn't think for himself beyond tactical decisions and current missions. There is no depth or potential for growth in Master Chief.
On a final note, the Marathon manual is absolutely a reliable source. It is canon and can be trusted to be correct in its entirety. To think otherwise is simply incorrect.
Interesting thread.
[Edited on 05.30.2011 1:43 PM PDT]