when u run to speak to zavala and the traveller is hovering off in the distance, far but not too far, and the tower music is playing and u
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jacob's trials are SO smartly designed and i need to talk abt it or i'll explode
mega spoilers for fc5 (specifically jacob's missions) under the cut but it's a 5 year old game what do you expect.
obvs most of this has probably been said before but i just want to talk abt it bc i'm Autistic
so for those unacquainted w fc5 basically after accruing a certain amount of resistance in jacob's region, you get taken by his hunters to the veterans center where he uses brainwashing techniques to induce a murderous fugue state by playing the song only you from a music box. each time you go through these trials you have to grab weapons and kill basically everyone you see, because each kill will net you more time, and if you run out of time before reaching the end, you have to do it again, same with running out of health, obvs.
so the first time you are just going through what looks like a weird version of vet center, and at the end your slide down a tunnel and you're done. but every time after that you slide down the tunnel and you end up in a bunker type building, and it ends with you "killing" a faceless figure holding a bow. now it's alluded to that this training you for something, that jacob is making you practice this particular pattern over and over again for something grander but it's never explained, because jacob's a smart guy, he keeps his cards pretty close to his chest, arguably more than his siblings.
now the final time you are put into these trials, jacob says that you know your purpose and that you are a tool. again, confusing. until, you get to the end of the trial again, and before you even have time to process it, you realize that that faceless figure, the one that signals the end, a success, now has a face. he's eli palmer, your ally throughout the whitetail mountains and the leader of the resistance militia fighting back against jacob. and you've just shot him in the head.
see that's why these trials are so well-designed. they ensnare not only the deputy, but the player, into killing without hesitation. each one is a mad dash to the finish, but the path is the same each time. you learn where enemies are, how many, how to effectively take them out as quickly as possible. as a player, it's simply just because you're driven by your need to beat the game, to move ahead, to complete this piece and move on to the next. so you figure out your strategies. work smart, not hard. your eyes darting frantically between your health, your ammo, the enemies in front of you and the time ticking away, always ticking away. you're too focused on simply moving forward, on not dying or running out of time or ammo, that you don't notice during the final trial when you enter the bunker, suddenly the "enemies" stop disappearing into puffs of smoke, instead falling with a clatter to the ground. you don't notice how familiar this bunker is and has been. and of course, you don't notice that your end point, your way out, your success, is your ally, pleading with you to stop. you can't notice it until it's too late.
that's why i think it's soooo rad. like he trains not just the deputy but the player into obeying him without question and carrying out his orders. and after you kill eli, he comes to taunt you, he tell you "good work", says you "passed your test". all while eli's shocked expression with a bullet wound in his face mocks you for falling into his trap, for doing exactly what he wanted you to do, what he KNEW you would do.
like i remember playing through this for the first time and audibly gasping when i realized what had happened, it really caught me off guard. honestly one of if not the best part of the game in my opinion and i just think it's very very cool.
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I had a dream once where I was watching a sonic/lord of the rings au where sonic and shadow were Sam and Frodo. The only part of the plot I actually remember is that tails (who was Boromir for some reason) tried to take the ring from sonic like that one scene in the movie, but ended up actually taking it (think a deranged nine in boromir cloths taking the ring instead of the shards).
then when sonic and shadow confronts tails he just hands the ring back and tells sonic that he’s a robot?? And this makes shadow mad cuz he thinks sonic has been controlling him all this time just for being a robot and starts having a fight with sonic. Only to start crying cuz he feels bad for beating up the guy he was supposed to protect.
Anyway, I dunno why that was my one sonic dream but since you sounded interested in hearing about dreams I thought you might wanna hear it.
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