Harley, Leader of the Vanguards

Poll for everyone, having played DDS or not:

I know what I think about this line in DDS. I'm curious as to how many other people interpret it which way, though.

The line is, while he's running away from the Embryon again, terrified, shaking like a leaf and stuttering: "I'll give you my territory and my hideout... Just leave me alone!"

I don't think he was thinking clearly either way, but the question still seems to remain...
[Poll #1561858]

For those not familiar with DDS, Harley's the leader of a faction that opposes the Embryon (the player-characters) who came into his base and were chasing after him. And later on in the game, the Embryon decide to vacate their current base completely, in favor of moving to a different one, for whatever that tells you of the rules about bases and armies.

I guess that's all that's immediately relevant. :|a Thanks in advance.

(Continued from here.)

Playing him from after his death in the game, what would his opinion of the Embryon in general, and those three in particular be?

Simple: they're monsters. They turn into demons and do horrible, horrible things, like ripping people apart and eating them. They chased him down in his own base to do that to him too. Is his opinion of them likely to be easily swayed? Absolutely not. Traumatizing someone and then killing them isn't something you just "get over" even if your attackers decide to start treating you with indifference. (If anything, a neutral reaction would be insulting: don't they feel anything over their actions? Remorse? Pride? Disgust? Glee? Simply feeling those things wouldn't be enough for Harley, though, as he can't read their minds.)

He'll want to have as little to do with them as possible. There must be quite a mix of emotions at play after something like that, everything from anger and frustration, to continued fear, to wanting to warn others about them, so they won't suffer the same fate. Expect him to tell others just how horrible those Embryon are, if the subject comes up, because they totally are, in his book. He won't really want to talk to the Embryon themselves; they ought to expect that he'll avoid them, perhaps even hang up on them, if they should call him. If they try to visit his house, he won't be interested in giving them another chance. Why should he? They blew it spectacularly, last time they came over, at Svadhisthana. They killed him. They're more likely to get a gun or crossbow pointed in their faces and told to turn around and leave or he'll be pulling that trigger, than being invited to explain why they came over.

Is that paranoid? Arguably. Is it reasonable and realistic? I'd say that anything else wouldn't be.

If they want to have anything to do with him, they will have to be the ones making steps toward making amends. They invaded his home, tore through his army, manhandled and terrified him, and then slaughtered him. Saying "I'm sorry" is a mere drop in the bucket, but it would be somewhere to start. In fact, it might be an excellent place to start. Until he really understandsand can accept that they really are not okay with what they did either, relations with those three, especially, won't be likely to improve in any significant way. In other words, Heat will remain the subject of his nightmares for a good while.

Is he still going to be terrified of "monsters"? It's a label given to something barely understood, dangerous, and with horrifying behaviors, so yes. Maybe if he were able to identify something previously thought to be a "monster" as being... not a monster, then the associated monster-ish ideas (like eating people, causing chaos, killing, etc) could be set aside, for whatever it is.

"It's not a monster, it's a rabbit. It's just an animal."

"It's not a monster, it's a sheep. It's just an animal."

"It's not a monster, it's a horse. It's just an animal."

"It's not a monster, it's a sand shark. .... Okay, so maybe it's kind of a monster, but it's one that can be dealt with easily enough, and here's how."

But trying to say that Varna, for example, isn't a monster, because it's "just" a water creature, isn't going to fly here. Look at the teeth. Look at those huge claws/arm-blades. Look at what Serph did with that form. That's a monster, plain and simple.

Then there's the whole debate over how he'll handle having his demon form... I'll write this up later and post it here. To sum, though, I don't think he'll want to face it.

(Continued from here.)

( So Serph and co. kill the two men Harley had had with him.... )

WARNING: DEBATABLY MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA WITHIN. I am not making that up. Thought you should know before you start reading.

Putting this part, at least, up now. I've been meaning to write it up since forever, but am only now getting around to it. Fail, right? Haha. Anyway! These are my TL;DR observations on the first part of DDS1, and some of my theories on what's going on, and notes on Harley's probable perspective, specifically. If anyone was wondering about some of the details in that part of the game, or even just why the heck I decided on certain aspects to his personality, this might help a bit. Yes, I do gloss over a lot of stuff that doesn't directly relate to him, like the Embryon's meeting after they wake up and return to base. I'm more interested in his character and psychology, for this writeup, than the other characters'. Maybe I'll write more about them later.

I've gotten my hands on three versions of DDS: the US release, the Japanese release, and the "undubbed" game, which is when someone gets clever with their editing, and takes out the English audio files for the game, to replace them with the Japanese ones. The result is a game with the English version's menus and subtitles (all the localization niceties) but with the original Japanese actors' audio reinstated. (Ahh, Bit Torrent, how I love thee.)

So, while I've managed to play the Japanese version a fair bit... I really don't know Japanese well enough to play the game easily, and as most of the game requires a good bit of reading, I'm not planning on going much further into it than I already have, yet. It doesn't include an option for English subtitles/menus, but I've still gotten some interesting details from it. The Undubbed version, however, is much more accessible.

( A detailed writeup of Harley's part in the game is under this cut. )

(Continued here.)

This post will be used for illustrating various things, when I don't want to put a link directly to the picture itself, for the possible case of updating the pics or something... just sayin'.

( pics under cut, to spare your browser )

Haha... no, but really, how's my driving? Say hi, give concrits (note: constructive) leave the mun a voicemail, maybe plot with me a bit? Drop me a line!

HMD/crits, general contact is go!

((Anon on, IP off, screened. ♥

I'm not about to hide the anon comments I'm getting recently. Screening's disabled for the time being. Not sure when I'll re-screen it.

Edit: Anon commenting is OFF for now. I swear I won't get pissed at someone for simply disagreeing with me, but the recent anons aren't being very constructive. If you're going to tell me I'm doing it wrong, could you at least tell me how to fix it, rather than simply telling me to "review canon" or insulting me? Thanks.

Edit again: Anon back on. Let's try this again.... *sigh*))

A few points to clear things up, and please take this into account:

• I do try to make certain I know the canon, yes. But more than just that, I try very hard to understand the canon from Harley's point of view too. Is he unbiased? Not at all. Is he going to be fair about everything? No, he's not. People are not always neutral and logical about things that have a great impact on them, in real life.
• I do not have a tracking post up yet, and I'm not certain whether I'll get around to making one. On one hand, I'm flattered that someone might want to stalk my posts and stuff -- but on the other, it's more work than I often feel like doing. I don't even stay on top of having my f-list up to date. orz.

Thanks.