I agree with you on the Director's personality, his mental state, and his subconscious motives for torturing Alpha. Not sure what I think of the robot idea. Why the push to be on the top of the board, then? He seemed rather focused on human soldiers.
AIs like Lopez and Sheila seem to lack the initiative and flexible thinking of a fully sapient AI, making them unsuitable for independant action.
Except the part where they tried to start their own robot army....
I agree with you on the Director's personality, his mental state, and his subconscious motives for torturing Alpha. Not sure what I think of the robot idea. Why the push to be on the top of the board, then? He seemed rather focused on human soldiers.
Except the part where they tried to start their own robot army....
Church gave them that idea. Lopez also got subverted by Omega pretty easilly which is not something you want in a soldier.
Go over to the Season 10 thread or Ask Anything RvB thread and there will be plenty of people, happy to answer. There is too much discussion in this thread, it's going to get unwieldly.
I've got a theory. I posted this in the S10 thread, but I'll dump it here too.
Carolina is still following the Director's orders.
The last prequel scene was the Director, informing Carolina that she might have to do some things she disliked. And her swearing she would do anything.
We know she was given two AI, and that she did not function well. Could she keep such a promise while battling two other entities in her own mind? Or would the most distasteful of orders have been what pushed her over to insanity?
I think that when a certain amount of the project's failure came about, or he felt such an action would trigger successful results, the Director asked her to kill him. This, she could not do. Especially with two other minds driving her body. I think this is what caused her breakdown. She was locked up, but proclaimed dead. Hopefully to be found useful later. (As they managed with Wash as a Recovery Agent.)
But the Director's obsession with his lost love may have caused him to have one last wish. Find Alpha, and unlock the real, unchanged, unshadowed memories of Allison. Tex wasn't good enough. He wanted to relive that time in his life. Truly remember.
As time passed, Carolina's insanity brought her to a point where she was only too happy to follow his order. So he releases her to fetch Alpha, or Epsilon, as he discovered in S6 that Alpha's memory exists apart from itself. She finds those who can take her to the AI she seeks, and tells them it is so she can kill the Director. Totally true.
He is old. And tired. His career and purpose in shambles, Any piece of the woman he loved is gone. He is ready to die. All he awaits is Alpha or Epsilon, so he can unlock those memories before having Carolina end it.
But will the others go with this, when they realize what the Director's intent is? Maybe Wash would rather he be in jail than dead...
Or, to go along with the following orders idea, (this is from my cousin) Carolina is lying to the others to attempt to bring Epsilon to the Director. Once they reach him, Carolina may turn on the Blood Gulch crew and follow the Director. She calling Epsilon Alpha was just part of her cover to keep her real intentions secret. What Church's intentions are, I can't guess, but it's probably to preserve himself in some reason, because that's what people do. They use whatever means necessary to keep themselves running.
Now Donut is a member of Red team, of course, but Church likes him for some reason. He says this once in season 4 when telling blue Simmons about the members of Red Team. He says bad things about Grif and Simmons, says to watch out for Sarge, and that Donut is "pretty cool", I believe. Simmons tries to rebut that by implying that Donut is kind of creepy, and that his pink armor is proof of that. Church responds "No, it's more like a...lightish red." even though he has never once heard Donut say that. Then in season 5, when Grif and Simmons explain that the Falcon landed on top of Donut, Church says "Wait...The pink guy? I liked him!"
Wash explains in Season 6 that Church liked Delta because he thought just like him, because Church is the Alpha, and they are both of the same mind. Church liked Donut, probably more than anyone in the canyon, despite having less contact with him than any member of Red team, and Donut killing his Church's girlfriend. He also thinks Donut's armor is lightish red, even though no one has ever mentioned such a color to Church. They both think alike.
Plus, a sponsor cut of an episode in season 8 shows that Donut survived being killed by Wash. Almost like he was a ghost or robot or something...
The one thing that discredits this whole theory is that Donut complained upon being revived that blood got over his new shoes. Now unless said blood was oil, he is not an AI.
Church's first body also had buzzards swarming it a few hours after death, implying that it was organic. I always figured his first body was real to prevent suspicion, maybe some brain dead dude they uploaded Alpha into. The same could be for Donut.
In reply to emPtysp4ce, #164: Just because Church isn't human doesn't mean he was organic. In reply to bradleykins, #165: Church was antagonizing Simmons, but he was not lying when he said he liked Donut. he would not have continued the act in season 5. Plus, like I said, Church never heard anyone say "lightish red" was a color before.
I guess buzzards don't necessarily mean he wasn't a robot.
But, like you said, it could have been oil. It could even be Doc's blood from when Wash punched Doc in the face right over Donut's body.
And I know Donut has mentioned taking the torso of his armor off, but he sat in the Warthog were no one could see. And was it specifically mentioned that his armor was off for Officer Hotpants? I know it sounds stupid, but it's always possible the hot pants were on over the armor.
I forgot about Church inhabiting Donut, maybe that could explain the lightish red thing, assuming the dominant Donut mind mentioned it, but it Church may have not even gone in his mind, just controlled it. There is clearly a difference between the two based off what Church does over the course of the series.
Still doesn't explain Church's favorite being his girlfriend's killer and "Red team's Caboose", considering how much Church hates Caboose.
It makes sence when you consider that everyone else in the group are Tucker, Simmons, Sarge and Grif. Really, being stuck with them for a few years would make Caboose and Donut seem like good company, IMO.
In reply to CorbanG, #172: "Eh! I am dead!" is my favorite line in the series, that's also my favorite episode, so i remember that well.
Maybe he didn't hate him then, but after a little over a year of thinking, he changed his mind. Remember season 6? He tries to kill Caboose twice. Once when he shows up a Church's base and once when Caboose gets knocked out by the Meta.
I think it's a love hate relationship with Church and Caboose. Church loves Caboose like a little brohter, but Caboose has done so much bad stuff to him that it's hard for Church to fully love him.
But something on Wyoming definitely time traveled him back to season 3. If it's possible, I'm sure Gamma actually did it. it's the simplest explanation.
I agree. I'm unaware of Burnie stating unequivocally that no time travel took place. I made a post about why and how I thought the time travel (of Church, not the other guys 'cause they definitely didn't travel into the future) had happened and why it wasn't happening anymore. If I can find it, I'll post a link to it.
Actually I haven't figured out how to link to a forum post yet....sigh....so here is the post I made on the Ask Anything RVB related forum:
I accept the fact that the Blood Gulch gang did not travel into the future and that Church didn't actually travel 1000 years into the past (although both were retconned after the season, not during the season.)
The "time travel" event in season 3 doesn't begin to be retconned until most of the way through season 4 when in episode 71 Wyoming shows up and Church contacts Blue command (when he really didn't expect to be able to do so).
Then the season ends with the arrival of Sister so the retcon is moving full steam ahead.
I have no problem with retcons required when the series started moving from a strictly comedy series to a dramedy based slightly more in reality.
However, when previous actions continue to have tangible results in the current storyline it's just not possible to say those actions "didn't happen". I think one of the reasons this series is so popular is that it treats us (usually) like intelligent viewers. Therefore, when the writers are going to retcon something I 'd prefer a more well thought out explanation as to why what we were told originally happened, when looked at with this new information they're giving us, was actually something else.
So for my attempt at a better time travel retcon explanation- The time travel technology has a limited maximum use capacity. Gamma and Omega's over use of the long period time travel technology in their continued "torture" of Church (repeating the same time period loops over and over) "used up" much of the actual time traveling ability of the time warper.
When Wyoming used it later on, it could only loop for a much shorter period of time and now it can no longer loop at all, only alter time perception of the wearer.
The Meta usually used it to freeze or slow down time so that the he could make a fast get away, but the equipment shorted out during the attack on Red Base and Doc (because he no longer had any AI) and instead his time perception speeded up (which made it look like he was moving in slow motion)
This explanation could be expanded to account for why none of the freelancer armor enhancements have been deployed to regular soliders-they all have limited use and/or reliability problems in addition to needing AI to operate at full effectiveness. This would also leave room for it to turn out that all these enhancements are actually based on not-completely-understood alien technology.
Plot problems if Church's time travel is a complete hoax: The "great prophecy" is ALSO a hoax (since it was Gary who provided all the information on the prophecy-and we all know what a liar he is) (scenario 3, remember) But Burnie has also said he wants to explore the story of the Great Prophecy in greater detail later on. So which is it?
If Church DIDN'T time travel, WHO let Church and Grif out of prison?
Church's knowledge of multiple Wyomings based on his own experience. I doubt that either Gamma or Omega could have come up with that idea. And as far as I know, no one is saying that the multiple Wyomings didn't happen.
Church's knowledge that Gary(Gamma) had transporter technology when Tex told him Wyoming just disappeared.
Seriously, doesn't it just make sense that Church himself was responsible for all the bad stuff he was trying to change? What better torture than to make sure he knew this? If he didn't time travel then none of it was his fault and Caboose is still a team-killing fucktard.
My personal opinion is that Church's bomb wouldn't have done anything expect kill them all. Church was sent into the past by Gamma, and everyone else was transported to a new place so they wouldn't die.
Because there is still the simple answer to one important question. How did a Ghost (covenant vehicle) shoot a missile at Tucker? It didn't. Church shot a missile at Tucker.
