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catboyroycebracket · 3 years

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royce bracket ............ i wanna type up a bunch of royce and red parallels/opposites ive noticed and talked about w friends. im going to type up a bunch of other things too tho i like going off on tangents!!!!

royce and red are both disillusioned with the utopian cloudbank and what it has to offer. theyve both reached the peak of their careers and both want a change of scenery (red’s “think ill go where it suits me, moving out to the country” and royces Actual Moving Out to the strange outskirts of town, fairview). (reds music and concerts have been popular for Years Straight. royce might actually be past the height of his career? either way.) theyre both Very Wary of the city itself and they both value privacy immensely: they both did not cite why they chose their selections. i believe theyre the only characters mentioned in game to have declined giving their reasoning.

royce is calm always. red is Very Angry about her current circumstance, and seems to Usually be of that nature (according to her husband.)

royce is very argumentative, and believes his views to be superior (seen best in his camerata memos). similarly, red is always the one to decide whats best for herself, though she isnt as unhinged (for lack of better word) as royce. i wouldnt quite call royce unhinged in general? he is obsessive and thorough and has a strange moral code but absolutely doesnt fall into the evil scientist cookie cut. i think his character’s emphasis on his loneliness (or lack of loneliness in his absurdly lonely situation) makes his bizarre morals more like..... offhand. like hes so so so into his work that thats secondary, and doesnt matter at the moment.

royce is a recluse. he moved to live in an unfinished, experimental part of the town that appears to not have any other inhabitants. mentions that the commute to where he lives is “less fortunate” for grant. red is the opposite, she lives in the very heart of the town, the most popular residential district.

royce’s family name appears to hold a Lot of power in the city; the admin office is set up as part of bracket towers. all votes are tallied there. the towers themselves are noted to be Very Very old, its unlikely they were named for royce specifically. royce and red are Both very well known, but for different reasons: royce for some unexplored family connection, and red for her work. red is beloved by the citizens. royce is somewhat unknown by them. royce being born into an influential family then finding his meticulously crafted work to be unnoticed would definitely add a layer of explanation to why he just Up And Left When He Became Obsessed With The Transistor.

they both love the city very very very much. royce loves its inner workings and the way its made. he loves the city more than he loves its people (though he does love a select few people): he seems Completely Fine with existing in an emptied town. he only appears to be upset over his friends’ deaths and not anybody elses. he does not care at all about reds death if he wins. red loves the people of the city more than she loves the city itself. shes Absolutely terrified of everyone being gone in her text responses, and when it comes down to it, does not want to live alone in the city.

royce also seems somewhat fine with mass surveillance according to his snapshot memo?? versus red in she shines makes a Very clear statement about how strange it is she (the city) is always watching (“she will keep us in her sights / we never mind her diligence, watching us all lie awake”)

lucie sent this yesterday which blew my mind:

in the function files, “retirement” is always the cameratas coverup for their assassinations. disappearances are always equated with retirement. im Certain retirement is just death. 40+ appears to be considered “retirement age” too, and royce is almost in his 40s. grant is mentioned as being unusually old despite being only middle aged. i think royce the Tired engineer who doesnt let himself get attached to his work was absolutely considered like. on his way to retirement. where death is something you choose for yourself when you consider your work done, in a town where you have immense control over What your work is, but no control over the work itselfs impact or importance... i think instead of engaging with that in any capacity he instead took to obsessively studying the transistor instead, though. he wanted more control!! he wanted permanence and a more rigid form of change!! he wanted to love his work.

in the “every main character in transistor loses their biggest love” train of thought (with red losing her husband, mansistor losing his wife, sybil losing her chance at love, grant losing the city he loved, his lifes work, and asher losing his husband) royce’s biggest love is the transistor itself, as well as what it symbolizes. its a Priceless allpowerful all knowing key to the city, of Course the obsessive engineer would want to study it and mess around with it. the transistor symbolizes a unique power hes always wanted; a promise that the changes made with it could be more permanent.

royce and reds relationship with death is also insanely interesting. red has nothing to live for if her beloved city and husband are gone. some of her lyrics contain a longing for the country and other such themes, “if i should choose to rise im still descending” comes to mind. royce says he “always wanted to know what its like in there, so either way... i win” .. he appears to have no issue with being integrated. HOWEVER that line is said in his like second or third phase, when you hit his last phase he appears Much more desperate and against the idea of being integrated: he calls upon his friends’ names, repeats a phrase over and over to calm himself, and ultimately despairs when defeated. his death animation is extremely interesting: he never stops reaching for his transistor even after it completely fizzles away.

he also calls cloudbank HIS town:

this guy loves things with a burning passion and im just. i think hes interesting. red and royce Both love things extremely passionately, pouring themselves into their work. of Course the games final conflict is city-as-a-constructed-monolith lover versus city-as-a-place-for-people lover

#mytext #these are slightly scattered cloudy but i had a lot of fun typing them out. i think about these things Constantly.

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