- Registrado
- 27 de Jun, 2014
It's critical to note, and I've mentioned this a few times now, that Wu herself is a sociopath. She's also open and transparent about this, to the point where she has really obvious clues anyone can pick up about it. I don't want the old thread getting memory holed over it when the old Wu thread cycles out, so I'll repost:
Wu lies with malice, unlike a simple pathological liar. She does so immediately and with such duplicity that it's frankly chilling, and there's always a goal in mind. She's the same asshole who tried to put a public face on showing sympathy for Total Biscuit when she was the one who started the hate-mob that attacked him in the first place and mere hours afterwards claimed during one of her "I'm the most victimized human on the internet" videos claimed a man dying of cancer was threatening her life. Also Tyce was real, almost a year after the Jace cruise had come to a full and complete stop.
Brianna does not operate under the same kind of morality you, or I, or anyone with a sense of integrity or decency would use. Indeed, Wu's morality is not based on a conscience - it's debatable whether or not she even has one. What Wu does have in its place is a general understanding of societal expectations. Wu is smart enough to know that actions have consequences, she knows what moral behavior is supposed to look like, and she knows when a general outcome is expected of her.
That said: Wu does not feel much remorse or guilt. She doesn't have the inner compass to guide her that sensible people have, and so she does what she wants without any fucks given as to the collateral damage. In Wu's eyes, as long as she accomplishes what's expected of her and as long as she does so in a way that makes her look like a "hero," then it doesn't matter who she has to step on or hurt. In many regards, she's a natural evolution of Jay Geis, who whilst a terrible person, retained enough awareness to realize he had fucked up to a biblical degree at the end of his saga.
Using both her design decisions in Revolution 60 and her career Mass Effect as a control, one can easily examine Wu's thought processes in action.
In Revolution 60, Minuete is fucking lionized as an excellent commander in the Chessboard Lethologica because she does exactly what she's told and doesn't give a damn if her own people die. In Minuete, Brianna Wu portrays what she feels being a leader is about - leaders have to make hard choices, so you have to be hard to make those choices. Similarly, Holiday is portrayed as a murderous dickhole who can either be have a shred of decency or as cold and brutal as Minuete.
At no point in Revolution 60 are Fifth Column's motivations even countenanced; even the Chessboard Lethologica barely fucking touches on their motivations beyond them being evil clones that want to take over the world. so there. I (and apparently, many others) found myself empathizing with the Fifth Column soldiers more than I gave a shit about Chessboard's operatives; had they succeeded in taking the satellite, Crimson 09 wouldn't have escaped and a missile wouldn't have been fired at China. They are, if you analyze it, the protagonists of the story, since the group went to N313 under false pretenses. But they oppose Holiday and Min, so they're automatically bad guys.
Wu's career path in ME is the same way, and she pretty much goes Renegade all campaign long. She's a dick to people because that's what a leader does. But because the end result is Wu saving the universe, any collateral damage she causes is excusable. Wu committs multiple genocides in her playthrough, killing the Rachni Queen, being responsible for the mass relay destruction that obliterated the Batarians, killed Mordin to prevent the deployment of the Genophage cure (fucking over the Krogans), killed Wrex, and killed the Geth. She's proud of these sacrifices, because in Wu's mindset, how good a leader you are and how dedicated you are to saving the universe henges upon her belief that to be a hero, she has to do things that are suitably hardcore.
Note that she calls Paragon selfish and unethical - when Paragon is the choice that lets you spare all of the above from happening except the Batarian thing (Thanks a fucking bunch, Arrival). It's hardly the first time she's made a statement like this, either:
Wu is shockingly unempathetic, and it's in these tweets and her insistence on Paragon Shep being "evil" that we see the core of how Brianna Wu's warped morality sense works. Wu is not capable of empathizing with other people.
We see acts like Shepard giving others a chance (the Rachni Queen), offering them a chance to redeem themselves (Mordin), or giving them a chance to become better than what they were (Krogan), and appealing to common decency (Quarians and Geth), and we see cases of compassion and decency shine through.
Wu does not understand this. Wu does not understand why Shepard, who has the authority to do anything she wants, doesn't simply do what she wants, because it's what Wu herself would (and has) done with such power. Wu can't understand why someone who has power would willingly not flex it, or flex it in a way that goes contrary to her own goals with the prospect of better if she does.
To Wu, this seems like Paragon Shep cheated. Indeed, it made Paragon Shep, to Wu, look like a monster because Wu can't comprehend the need to compromise or negotiate. To Wu, negotiation is at gunpoint - one side is clearly right, one side clearly wrong, and the only one who can make that determination is Brianna Wu. Wu gets pleasure only from power and from control, so she cannot understand why Shepard would relinquish that.
This paints a picture of Wu that's pretty jarring. Wu is someone who likely had to spend her childhood and indeed, her entire life learning to imitate other people and watching them to allow her to engage in behaviors she would otherwise not be able to, explaining her awkward, abusive, antisocial behavior in college that fucking everyone saw.
Similarly, this gives more insight into how Wu views the world; when she projects, she gives those watching camouflaged clues. She talks about how other people harass, lie, cheat, and hurt others, often as she abhors such behavior, when she herself is just as guilty and one can oft make the argument that she's describing herself with such language.
Wu tells her target's exactly who they are, but she traditionally does so in a way that it's hard for the intended target to respond, and even harder for someone not involved to understand the consequences of her statements. A target might only hear Wu deride them for "mansplaining," but they'll soon have Wu's followers on their ass. Wu almost without exception turns such declarations into pity plays; look at this strong independent female developer putting those mean old mansplainers in the place and taking so much harassment for it. Donate to her Patreon!
All of this connects to the "core" of Brianna Wu's mindset: She believes she's a morally-superior entity. She sees nothing wrong with using people, then discarding them - hell, Giant SpaceKat practically was builton this principle. Not only does Wu not see anything worng with this, she sees herself as morally superior because of it, as we saw with almost everyone in Revolution 60 and her responses in Mass Effect. This is Wu's mindset at its center - an egotistical moral crusader whose mentality is so distant from normalcy that they aren't even on the same page.
That said: Wu does not feel much remorse or guilt. She doesn't have the inner compass to guide her that sensible people have, and so she does what she wants without any fucks given as to the collateral damage. In Wu's eyes, as long as she accomplishes what's expected of her and as long as she does so in a way that makes her look like a "hero," then it doesn't matter who she has to step on or hurt. In many regards, she's a natural evolution of Jay Geis, who whilst a terrible person, retained enough awareness to realize he had fucked up to a biblical degree at the end of his saga.
Using both her design decisions in Revolution 60 and her career Mass Effect as a control, one can easily examine Wu's thought processes in action.
In Revolution 60, Minuete is fucking lionized as an excellent commander in the Chessboard Lethologica because she does exactly what she's told and doesn't give a damn if her own people die. In Minuete, Brianna Wu portrays what she feels being a leader is about - leaders have to make hard choices, so you have to be hard to make those choices. Similarly, Holiday is portrayed as a murderous dickhole who can either be have a shred of decency or as cold and brutal as Minuete.
At no point in Revolution 60 are Fifth Column's motivations even countenanced; even the Chessboard Lethologica barely fucking touches on their motivations beyond them being evil clones that want to take over the world. so there. I (and apparently, many others) found myself empathizing with the Fifth Column soldiers more than I gave a shit about Chessboard's operatives; had they succeeded in taking the satellite, Crimson 09 wouldn't have escaped and a missile wouldn't have been fired at China. They are, if you analyze it, the protagonists of the story, since the group went to N313 under false pretenses. But they oppose Holiday and Min, so they're automatically bad guys.
Wu's career path in ME is the same way, and she pretty much goes Renegade all campaign long. She's a dick to people because that's what a leader does. But because the end result is Wu saving the universe, any collateral damage she causes is excusable. Wu committs multiple genocides in her playthrough, killing the Rachni Queen, being responsible for the mass relay destruction that obliterated the Batarians, killed Mordin to prevent the deployment of the Genophage cure (fucking over the Krogans), killed Wrex, and killed the Geth. She's proud of these sacrifices, because in Wu's mindset, how good a leader you are and how dedicated you are to saving the universe henges upon her belief that to be a hero, she has to do things that are suitably hardcore.
Note that she calls Paragon selfish and unethical - when Paragon is the choice that lets you spare all of the above from happening except the Batarian thing (Thanks a fucking bunch, Arrival). It's hardly the first time she's made a statement like this, either:
Wu is shockingly unempathetic, and it's in these tweets and her insistence on Paragon Shep being "evil" that we see the core of how Brianna Wu's warped morality sense works. Wu is not capable of empathizing with other people.
We see acts like Shepard giving others a chance (the Rachni Queen), offering them a chance to redeem themselves (Mordin), or giving them a chance to become better than what they were (Krogan), and appealing to common decency (Quarians and Geth), and we see cases of compassion and decency shine through.
Wu does not understand this. Wu does not understand why Shepard, who has the authority to do anything she wants, doesn't simply do what she wants, because it's what Wu herself would (and has) done with such power. Wu can't understand why someone who has power would willingly not flex it, or flex it in a way that goes contrary to her own goals with the prospect of better if she does.
To Wu, this seems like Paragon Shep cheated. Indeed, it made Paragon Shep, to Wu, look like a monster because Wu can't comprehend the need to compromise or negotiate. To Wu, negotiation is at gunpoint - one side is clearly right, one side clearly wrong, and the only one who can make that determination is Brianna Wu. Wu gets pleasure only from power and from control, so she cannot understand why Shepard would relinquish that.
This paints a picture of Wu that's pretty jarring. Wu is someone who likely had to spend her childhood and indeed, her entire life learning to imitate other people and watching them to allow her to engage in behaviors she would otherwise not be able to, explaining her awkward, abusive, antisocial behavior in college that fucking everyone saw.
Similarly, this gives more insight into how Wu views the world; when she projects, she gives those watching camouflaged clues. She talks about how other people harass, lie, cheat, and hurt others, often as she abhors such behavior, when she herself is just as guilty and one can oft make the argument that she's describing herself with such language.
Wu tells her target's exactly who they are, but she traditionally does so in a way that it's hard for the intended target to respond, and even harder for someone not involved to understand the consequences of her statements. A target might only hear Wu deride them for "mansplaining," but they'll soon have Wu's followers on their ass. Wu almost without exception turns such declarations into pity plays; look at this strong independent female developer putting those mean old mansplainers in the place and taking so much harassment for it. Donate to her Patreon!
All of this connects to the "core" of Brianna Wu's mindset: She believes she's a morally-superior entity. She sees nothing wrong with using people, then discarding them - hell, Giant SpaceKat practically was builton this principle. Not only does Wu not see anything worng with this, she sees herself as morally superior because of it, as we saw with almost everyone in Revolution 60 and her responses in Mass Effect. This is Wu's mindset at its center - an egotistical moral crusader whose mentality is so distant from normalcy that they aren't even on the same page.
Wu lies with malice, unlike a simple pathological liar. She does so immediately and with such duplicity that it's frankly chilling, and there's always a goal in mind. She's the same asshole who tried to put a public face on showing sympathy for Total Biscuit when she was the one who started the hate-mob that attacked him in the first place and mere hours afterwards claimed during one of her "I'm the most victimized human on the internet" videos claimed a man dying of cancer was threatening her life. Also Tyce was real, almost a year after the Jace cruise had come to a full and complete stop.
