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Automata Silverside: Tuesday, November 25th, 2014 - Page 11
Sterica
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For those curious: Betty had blue eyes in earlier pages.
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Also, page 11 is not a JPG, it's an animated GIF. Scroll down quickly after the image loads, and about 5 seconds later you'll see Betty's left eye flash red.
From what I've gathered, Pearl and Betty would have been assembled before said laws went into effect.
This raises further questions though. If Pearl's greens override Betty's blues does that also mean the red flash also belonged to Pearl? Was Pearl being used by Betty until she wanted out and Betty disagreed? The mysteries deepen anytime we learn anything new here.
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I have so many questions...
tata
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
The Tithe had some great artwork too. It's nuts seeing someone's artwork evolve over time.
Carl on Page 9 seemed to know what Betty was going to do. He was trying to direct Regal away because he felt he wouldn't be able to keep Regal safe (from Betty).
So noir.
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Yeah thinking about it now it seems more likely that Betty stole Pearl's green eyes so she could prey on human johns without her own red "danger signal" eyes scaring them off.
Although this raises some questions... like, how long has Betty been "rampant" (to borrow a Halo term for lack of a better one)?
Can we presume she's the one who killed the other two johns (or maybe more we don't know about)? If so, how was she concealing her red eyes then?
Or maybe an Automata has to be crazy for some period of time before the eyes turn red (if so, it doesn't seem like such a great warning system), so Betty's only changed from blue to red at some point after Regal and Carl left and she attacked Pearl for her green ones then?
Or I guess it's possible that Betty's been mugging other Automata for blue/green eyes for a while, replacing each pair as they turn red? That seems like something the "Foundry" would take note of if it was going on, though.
Or maybe... the entire eye color coding system is at least to some extent nonsense.
Maybe it's just propaganda by the human authorities. But if so, what's the goal? Create prejudice and fear against the pre-Law Automata? Or on the other hand it could be designed to keep the public in the dark about the fact the human authorities don't have nearly as much control over Automata sentience as they'd like people to think... maybe they couldn't actually fully engineer the intelligence out of the new models, they just tried to restrain it/dumb it down as much as they could and put green eyes on them to make people think there's a difference.
Or maybe the human powers-that-be truly believe the color coding system works but the Automata have found a way to circumvent it... uplifting newer model "green" Automata to sentience covertly, intelligent "blue" Automata masquerading as "greens" in regular human society, etc.
It's worth noting that Carl's eyes turned red in a previous story when he was being commandeered to attempt murder so it can be a sudden change. Not that this really answers any questions.
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I had forgotten about that, but it's definitely worth pointing out. Thanks.
I'm still of the opinion she was never responsible for the killings to begin with though, even if she is dangerous to Regal. It makes the Foundry's presence and ambush outside her apartment make little sense.
As for the end, my personal theory is that it is in fact Peal seen on the final page!
I figure the memory wipe may not have been as effective as everyone thought, especially with flashes of red possible causing memories to resurface.
It's already established on page 8 that their faces are all interchangeable which would allow pearl to steal Betty's face.
My main reason for thinking this though is Peal has chosen to frame Betty as herself by stealing her clothes and her face, destroying her eyes to hide her intelligence.
But most importantly she's also destroyed Betty's mouth and thus her ability to speak as Betty would just be able to tell Regal who she is, instead she reaches out for help and he assumes she is on the attack and about to defend himself... or so we are lead to believe.
It's just a theory but I think It's a classic nod to film noir stories involving twins, similar to sin city.
What do you guys think?
I think is is actually a pretty good theory, but I don't think page 8 proves that Automata faces are universally interchangeable. Carl has a box of spare Swangee model faceplates, yes. Doesn't mean you can necessarily stick one of his faceplates on another 'bot, or another model's faceplate on Carl's head.
Hope everyone enjoyed it!
I mean I know they finished all the previous Automata stories in a similar way, but I am totally invested in this. I need closure!
Very pleased to hear there is more Automata projects in the pipeline, it is by far my favourite non-PA work from Mike and Jerry.
Only a mere 136 pins to go!
Man, did I misread this ending.
I thought someone (maybe the Foundry) had ambushed Betty and Pearl, damaged Pearl (her head looks smashed, not necessairly de-eyeballed), and then flashed Betty, turning her into a mindless drone (though obviously with bugs).
I thought the eye color denoted an automata's brain state, so they changed color based on how cognizant they were - hence them going 'red' when they're will was overridden by malicious outside influence.
This has to be the answer. The idea that Betty stole Pearl's eyes doesn't make sense; they're supposed to be indicative of 'brain' function. If you could simply change the bulb/lens it's a pointless system. Plus, why would Betty ask Carl to effectively investigate herself? No-one else seems to care about the murders, so it's not like she needs to deflect suspicion.
I also think one of the subtexts here is that the presence of Carl and Regal has acted as a catalyst, causing Pearl to panic/freak out and attack Betty (a very noir-ish theme).
I wondered as well about Pearl's reaction when she saw the detectives. Should a green-eyed automaton be able to react with fear like that? Was it obvious to Carl (if not Regal) from that point what was going on, and hence why he wanted to keep Regal out of it?
They're the same model, though. Another Swangee could handle one of his faceplates.
Edit: Pearl is actually described as "a Betty" on page 8.
I agree that Betty and Pearl look identical aside from the faceplate, so I think it's totally plausible Pearl took Betty's face. I just don't think faceplates are universally swappable between models like he seemed to be saying.
In regards to the "a Betty" thing on page 8, I noticed it too and I'm not a 100% sure what it means. I agree it could be interpreted that that "Betty" is the model Betty and Pearl are like Carl is a Swangee, and for whatever reason Betty didn't pick/get assigned a more specific name. But a "Betty" might also just be slang for an Automata hooker, or even more generically "Betty" could just be noir-ish slang for a female like a "dame" or "broad."
Again none of this invalidates the theory that Pearl was not so "blank" as she seemed, that she is the murderer and that she assaulted Betty and switched with her to cover her tracks. I think it's a good theory, almost certainly a better theory than my initial interpretation that Betty was the murderer and she stole Pearl's eyes (because that opens up a whole can of worms about how the eye color coding works, as I went through above, and also raises the question of why Betty asked Carl and Regal to look into the case to begin with). I just don't think the evidence is 100% conclusive that's what happened. This scenario has complications of its own, like: if Pearl was the one responsible for the previous killings, how did she do it? Was she luring johns by posing as a hooker turning tricks before? Or is that a new tactic she's adopted now that (we think) she has Betty's face, and before she was just jumping guys in alleys or something?
Speaking of alleys, another mystery left unanswered: who, exactly, were the robots who attacked Regal? Regal asks Carl if they were Foundry, Carl doesn't answer the question. Obviously the assailants want to get Regal out of the picture before he solves the mystery of who's killing the human johns. So it seems like if they're not actually direct accomplices of Pearl (operating on the theory she's the killer), then they at least approve of the murders. We know from Betty's statement ("They don't like what I got, they don't like what I do with it") that the Foundry takes a dim view of the Automata-human liaisons. But from that it seems like a bit of a leap to Regal's guess that the Automata who attacked him were Foundry, and why does Carl seem to pointedly ignore it? If the Foundry wanted the prostitution to human clients to stop, it seems like a safer course of action would be to apply pressure to the Automata hookers; murders of human johns, whether the Foundry were complicit in it or just turned a blind eye to it, is bound to bring unwanted attention from the human authorities sooner or later.
That would make much more sense, that faceplates within models are interchangeable, but not necessarily with other model types. Although Regal does suggest Carl try another type of arm to stop the ping in page 8, but Carl suggests he'd rather not as it wouldn't be his arm, suggesting that interchanging parts between models is possible and that its down to personal preference rather that capability?
I also just realized that this could all possibly be confirmed or not if there was a way to translate the clickwise on page 10, if that is Betty maybe she heard Regal and assumed Carl was with him, attempting to communicate the only way she had left. I figure overall Peal had been secretly taking out Johns whilst hiding out with Betty as a cover and hoping the foundry would catch most of the blame (which they mostly were). But when Betty asked Carl and Regal to look into it, the jig was up and Peal had to make a new plan, one that wouldn't kill Betty (not right away) but would allow her to get away...
1. Faceplates can be switched out for same model bots
2. Eye color reflects the bot's mind state.
If we think of these as informative building blocks to some kind of meaningful reveal at the end, it makes sense that Betty's faceplate can be stolen and worn stolen by Pearl, and Betty's eyes shattered to cover the switch. Note the blue AND red "tears" coming out of the bot's eye sockets on page 10 - blue for Betty's sentient state, and also red to show her state of extreme duress at having been recently attacked and mutilated. Pearl assuming Betty's identity is theoretically as easy as stealing her faceplate and clothes. The green eyes are the giveaway at the end. If eye color indeed reflects the mind state, then there's no way that is Betty at the end.
Unless she was flashed for some reason... which probably isn't easy to do for regular bots or people. Gotta be a senator or someone in power for that shit.
Also page 8 plainly states Carl could use another arm, but that it wouldn't be his.
I think the implication is that Pearl took Betty's face, but it is still frustratingly ambiguous and inconclusive. I want more!
More, why was she attacking him? It was established that Pearl, unsupported, kind of goes super nuts upside dude's heads
It's been suggested that Pearl damaged Betty's "mouth" as well. In page 9 you can see the mouth speaker looks sort of busted. So maybe with her mouth destroyed Betty can't communicate in English, but Clickwise is produced by some other part?
Maybe she's not attacking Regal as she's just staggering around blinded and he perceives it as an attack when she reaches out for him, or maybe the trauma of the attack has made her go on the fritz.
Now you can take his last line on that page as addressing Pearl even though she's not there, but the preceding dialogue seems to indicate the opposite
A blue-eyed unit getting factory reset causes serious god damn problems.
But the eyes aren't indicative of a state of being, they're indicative of a particular manufacturing procedure. By swapping out their blue eyes for green, a blue would be able to pass for docile and undangerous very, very easily.
Only blues seem to be capable of shifting to red in the first place. It requires memory, the building of of memetic patterns that spiral outward and become something else, something dangerous, something lethal. This is something that was gone over a bit in the first Automata story. Lights on a Christmas tree.
Simple fact is this: it can't be Pearl at the end. Pearl can't make new memories. She probably can't even speak English at this point. There's no way for her to go red.
The fact of it is simpler, and more gruesome: Betty got Pearl's trust, and then blinded her and used her eyes to kill people.
Edit: The really interesting part of this is that Betty is never actually named. Regal calls her Betty because that's her model, like Carl is Swangee.
Compare the design of Betty and Pearl's heads in the earlier comics. I mean the actual head structure, not faceplates. They're clearly different. Betty and Pearl are very similar but NOT the same model, at least not exactly.
Best place to compare is page 5, panel 5. Betty's head is obscured by her faceplate here obviously but you can still get a pretty good look at the shape/panel lines behind it. Betty's head has two curved lines visible above her faceplate, on either side of the faceplate's middle peak, almost like additional eyebrows.
Pearl's head doesn't have these, there's a single large semi-circle all the way across her forehead that connects to the panel lines around her eyes.
Now look at the head of the robot in Page 10. It's obviously a Pearl-style head and not Betty's. Single large forehead semi-circle.
The only way that's actually Betty in page 10 is if Pearl completely swapped heads with her, and I can't believe that's something Automata can do. We've already seen a gunshot to the head kills them or at least puts them out of commission. I don't see any way a 'bot manages to pop its own head off and pop on one stolen from another 'bot.
So that's Pearl in page 10. Which leaves us to assume it's Betty out turning tricks/possibly about to murder a human john in page 11...?
I'm not sure I'd agree with this method of deciphering who is who, whilst a good idea the main problem is I've seen plenty of images of Carl where the lines on his head design slightly change shape or perspective showing an alternate design or lines that can't be seen from that perspective, page 1 is a good example of this by looking at his eye area
More specifically though in that same page 5, you can see Betty's lines on either side of her face mask at the top like you say, but then by panel 5 on that page she has one big curve above her face mask very similar to Pearl standing next to her.
Gary Whitta's "Blood and Oil" establishes that there are Automata prostitutes and human johns. The Senator who is outspoken against the regulation is found murdered with a destroyed Automata; but additional evidence leads Regal to believe that there was another Automata present, who killed one or both.
In this series, "Silverside", it's established that Senator Cordin, who pushed the law into effect, had an Automata prostitute on the side, specifically Pearl. Cordin then 'flashed' Pearl, wiping her memory so she couldn't embarrass him any further.
Betty won't go to the Foundry; because they don't like that she has artificial female genitalia and what she does with it. I thin kthe incident where Regal is jumped is just a Red Herring, meant to throw us off a bit.
I always assumed that Swangee Men was the brand name for Automata; that all Automata were invented or made by Swangee. There's different models, but just one producer.
What I don't understand is why Betty would try to hire Carl (KRL) and Regal to investigate the murder of some human johns in Silverside, if she was the murderer? Actually, we don't know WHY Betty was talking to Carl and Regal in the first place. Just that Betty called Carl for some help, and Carl, in turn, called Regal for assistance.
I wonder just what Regal wanted to know in Page 9: Was it who is killing the Johns? Or was it whether Pearl had any knowledge of the other Senator's murder (from Blood and Oil) and the Automata involved in that?
I think, that although Pearl was flashed and she went green, that she has some bugs in her programming that brings out a homicidal urge as revenge for the treatment she received by Cordin. Pearl destroyed Betty's eyes and vocalizer so Betty couldn't tell Regal or anyone else what happened.
I'm not going to place too much emphasis on the differences in head structure by Mike's artwork as evidence of Betty or Pearl in page 5 vs pages 10/11. He's a great artist, but he's not always that consistent with details and his proportions are off quite often.
Think I may have caused confusion. Panel 6 is the one you really want to look at. I counted the two panels with the lamp falling as one. Look at the panel where Betty is holding Pearl saying she doesn't take to strangers and compare them. That is the best one to compare because Betty and Pearl are standing side by side both looking pretty much directly at the "camera."
There is a bigger semi-circle on Betty's head yes, but if you look at the perspective this is farther back on her skull, almost a "hairline" divider. This is different from the bigger arch on Pearl... it's lower down, distinctly on her forehead.
I agree there are details that vary from page to page and panel to panel depending on how much detail Mike puts in. The "eyebrow" semi-circles on Betty aren't in panel 5 (the real panel 5, where Betty tells Pearl it's okay). The lines on Betty's neck are another thing I looked at and dismissed because they aren't consistent. But the forehead lines seem pretty consistent and diagnostic for Betty and Pearl to me: Betty usually has the two smaller "eyebrow" or "eye socket" markings, Pearl never does, while Pearl has the big forehead arch and Betty doesn't.
Nah, there aren't many Swangee men left, after the war.