r/AfterTheRevolution • u/xSPYXEx Big Jim's Hangin Hog • Jul 02 '21

Chapter 14 (Roland)

https://atrbook.com/chapter-14/
24 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

28

u/xSPYXEx Big Jim's Hangin Hog Jul 02 '21

I always knew Tesla was funding Christofascists...

10

u/SemiproCrawdad Jul 02 '21

i took it as less tesla helping the HK and more the HK appropiating Tesla's old factory

10

u/xSPYXEx Big Jim's Hangin Hog Jul 02 '21

Sure, but I wouldn't put it past another Elon grift. Apartheid emeralds and Christofascist carbombs.

4

u/youtheotube2 Wizard Blood Jul 02 '21

I wonder if Elon’s made it to Mars by 2070

12

u/1312donut Fuckian Jul 02 '21

Pretty sure he'd either be chromed out and living in his own lavish Rolling Fuck, or dead from being one of the first to undergo the process before they had it on lock.

3

u/Jeddaven3 Jul 03 '21

Or Roland and Jim and Crew blew his brains out

3

u/1312donut Fuckian Jul 03 '21

"How do you think I even GOT the name 'Skullfucker Mike'?"

2

u/wootage3597 Jul 03 '21

He would be 99/100 years old in 2070 🥸

3

u/1312donut Fuckian Jul 03 '21

And have more chrome and rejuven than anybody. He'd probably say "fuck it" and make his body into an upright musk ox to just really lean into the name. If he didn't die in/at the revolution, he's effectively immortal.

14

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 02 '21

My money is still on Pastor Mike uploading his consciousness to the autonamous vehicles and drones. Or uploading followers minds to drones and leaving them as husks.

6

u/Troy_doney Jul 02 '21

I’ve got a lazy guess that they start an autonomous vehicle, set a coordinate, take some kind of suicide chemical, and then hit the drive button.

5

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 02 '21

But what about the drones? They've started being autonomous to (or at least operating without remote feed jamming being an issue).

9

u/1312donut Fuckian Jul 02 '21

That could be the overall work-around. Zealots are uploading their consciousness into tech, therefore, not the "abomination of AI." They could be in anything fittable with AI, drones included. And if they could transmit out of the machine before it exploded, they'd even survive. Unclear to me yet if this is actually part of Evans' narrative, but it certainly is an interesting idea.

11

u/xSPYXEx Big Jim's Hangin Hog Jul 02 '21

Just go full Warhammer and cut off people's heads to stick in your rockets/drones.

5

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 02 '21

I have just decided that it's babies in the drones.

2

u/1312donut Fuckian Jul 02 '21

That doesn't solve the biologics scan issue though, right? And considering how KH considers chromes, that seems awfully similar, if not somewhat worse. Though chuds rarely have issues with cognitive dissonance. So, yeah, no?

3

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 02 '21

Yep, my thoughts exactly. A copy of a zealot in the machines is no longer a godless machine.

Bit then I have been reading a lot of cyberpunk with this sort of theme over the years. Things like Dogs of War and Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Synners by Pat Cadigan and the Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson. Bear Head especially chimes with fascist mind control in augmented bodies and is an amazing book.

3

u/_jericho Jul 02 '21

The other option I see here is that they chrome the frick out of people to make them invisible. This is foreshadowed somewhat by the fact that Jim is modified in this way. So it'd be more foreshadowed than the uploading possibility, but it's not as viscerally fucked up and shocking, and it wouldn't explain the drones.

There might also be some mind control going on? Maybe people are being controlled via their decks? That would explain the army mass-converting, and could even explain the 20% {!!!} suicide attempt rate in the AmFed.

6

u/Zarpaulus Jul 02 '21

When I heard Alexander’s spiel about the “Jacobians” I got the sense that the pastor was breeding some sort of “sanctioned” super soldiers.

2

u/_jericho Jul 03 '21

I they did that the sdf would still find a corpse.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

I think it's more likely they have just compromised their values and embraces the AI.

8

u/_jericho Jul 02 '21

On its face that feels like it'd be not great storytelling to me. Like, I'm sure Our Man Robert could make it good because he's a talented dude, but from 30.000 feet the idea of introducing a constraint on the world only to say "lol sike" seems non-ideal to me?

3

u/j_endsville Don't Have To Explain Shit Pipe Jul 03 '21

Xtianity is already full of constraints that most fundies will turn around and go “LOL sike” to. I don’t see how this kind of hypocrisy would be any different.

2

u/_jericho Jul 03 '21 edited Jul 03 '21

I'm not saying it would be unrealistic, I'm saying it would be bad narrative structure.

Stories require lots of unrealistic things like "narrative completeness" and "character arcs".

A simple "lol sike" reversal would be super true to life, but also not a great thing to do in a novel unless you set it up really well.

1

u/j_endsville Don't Have To Explain Shit Pipe Jul 03 '21

I have enough confidence in Robert as an author that he can make it work if that’s what he wants to do.

2

u/_jericho Jul 03 '21

Sure, I agree. Dudes talented. Which is why I suspect we WON'T see a lolsike scenario

5

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

Sure but we've already seen the holy kingdoms willingness to bend the rules and be hypocritical. Look at their turn towards polygamy. Kind of a do as I say not as I do situation.

5

u/1312donut Fuckian Jul 02 '21

Polygamy is allowed in the bible - Abraham and Jacob had multiple wives.

3

u/glycophosphate Jul 03 '21

Also David and Solomon. It's a whole trend.

5

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 02 '21

Possibly made a huge rationalisation to allow it. On the one hand that goes well with how Robert has expressed his views on bastards selling out their principals for their own ends, but it goes against how he has expressed his views on fundamentalists. It could be key jangling, a fudge or sinister brain melting of desperate followers.

It's Robert Evens, I bet dead babies are involved in some way.

1

u/_jericho Jul 02 '21

I like seeing this. Did you see my thread on this a few days ago, or was it parallel inspiration?

If someone else thought along the same lines as me, I'd feel somewhat bolstered in this guess.

4

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 02 '21

I saw your thread, but the only way I could word my thoughts at the time would have given huge spoilers for other books. Still new to reddit and figuring out spoiler tags so decided to not post.

1

u/CaptainNapoleon Jul 02 '21

What books do you think Robert is pulling from here?

2

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 03 '21

I'm thinking Adrian Tchaikovsky's Dogs of War (which I previously misnamed in another reply) and Bear Head have a post human feel, with implants, mind uploads and distributed intelligence. Greg Bears Bllod Music reminds me of Roland's hind brain (only a passing similarity). Then there's the cyber punk classics like Gibson's Sprawl trilogy and his Burning Chrome shirt story collection.

I read a lot of Sci Fi and cyber punk.

1

u/CaptainNapoleon Jul 03 '21

I’ve heard the People of Sand and Slag get mentioned on here too, very apt.

2

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 03 '21

I may have to look into it.

1

u/SpudDiechmann Jul 03 '21

Also forgot The Bridge by William Gibson. The Golden Gate Bridge is a shanty town like Rolling Fuck.

7

u/xSPYXEx Big Jim's Hangin Hog Jul 02 '21

I 100% support Roland's idea of a stealth mission. That sums up all of my Fallout playthroughs.

7

u/vinceman1997 Jul 02 '21

"that was the last thing he said, probably ever" is such a good line lmao.

8

u/monjoe Jul 02 '21

Definitely my favorite episode so far. A slurring Roland, and then playing dumb while being interrogated by Benny Shaps. No-fucks Roland and freaking-out Manny is such a great pairing.