View Single Post
Old 2012-10-24, 09:02   Link #30983
Renall
BUY MY BOOK!!!
 
 
Join Date: May 2009
Well the actual fact (huh, imagine that) is that we were specifically not told enough about gold text's actual operation at the time except that it's sometimes stronger than red and sometimes not stronger than red (a statement which may not even necessarily be true). I quite remember the theorizing about "how does this even work again?" lasting well into Requiem or so. There just wasn't enough information, in part because the gold statement came out of nowhere, was phrased in a way that made it appear to be identical to red (even though we were told it isn't, just not in what way), and seemed at the time to exist solely to pull Battler's bacon out of the fire.

And when we eventually found out more about it, the whole thing turned out to kinda not matter all that much to the climax of ep5. A hero escaping through a heretofore-unknown means is usually bad writing, but if we're swiftly shown the sequence of events that led up to this and perhaps have it shown that all the pieces were in place for this daring escape if we knew where to look for them, it can be salvaged. Even knowing what gold truth does, it... really doesn't bear on Battler's situation at all, nor was there ever any particularly meaningful indication that (1) knowing the truth would make Battler the Game Master with prerogative to use the gold right away in somebody else's game (a later interview and Dawn clarified this, but End did not), (2) the gold would be acceptable under the circumstances, and (3) the gold would even be useful in the face of Erika's blanket investigative reds.

Now you can argue that the whole gold thing was foreshadowed in ep3 with Beatrice telling Eva-Beatrice whatever she told her. But we don't know what she said, and neither did Battler, so even if Beatrice was indeed making use of gold truth there, we don't know how she was doing it. Furthermore, Beatrice was still basically the Game Master and creator of that board, so there's not necessarily any reason to assume Battler (who didn't create ep5's board) could do the same thing just because he happened to be qualified to be a GM all of a sudden.

Subsequent illumination of the nature and use of gold truth doesn't particularly help matters any. Ryukishi has said anybody who knows what's going on can use it, which is why Battler and Elder-Beato and such can use it. Okay... well that didn't really get mentioned before, but fine. Why was he allowed to introduce it? Before everybody was like "HURR DURR HUMAN SIDE GOTTA BACK THAT UP BRAH" but that all changes when he whips out an unsupported premise instead of a fact? Even though that fact had already been established to everyone involved in the games and was being conveniently ignored by Erika the whole time? The argument seems to be "it's true because being able to use it means Battler knows the truth, so if he says it then he must be right." That's basically a tautology; Battler is speaking the truth because Battler has just done something that only a person who knows the truth can do. Except this is the first time we've actually ever seen this, and Battler just suddenly does it. It completely destroys the tension of the climax, and it's not anywhere near as interesting or convincing as Battler's other arguments which just use red and blue.

Nothing that comes later in the text really suggests that the end of End was much more than an asspull. Even making the assumption that the whole gold truth thing was foreshadowed and intended, and works as described, Battler's sudden use of it and everyone's more or less immediate acceptance of it is not later revealed to have really been all that meaningful. In fact, it makes Battler's supplementary attacks and theories somehow less meaningful, because instead of having to actually come up with a counterattack under the unfair rules that are imposed upon him in the trial we now know he is a wizard possessed of esoteric knowledge who can just say things (and at the time of ep5, we aren't even sure entirely what the things he can say are limited by).

Why was this necessary at all? Battler could have extracted himself without it. It's like having Beato show up at the end of Dawn and just use a gold truth to punch Erika in the uterus. Instead she actually, you know... constructs a mystery that beats Erika at her own game, playing by the red and blue truths that have already been established. She is using a fundamental premise of the game to her advantage, but she's not just announcing it and declaring that she wins.

It just doesn't create a sense of mystery or wonderment. It's true that I did want to know what gold truth was, but more in the sense of "So what the hell was that, and why is it only coming up right now?" I was understandably pretty disappointed in its relative lack of prominence in Dawn (where we got one example, at least) and Requiem. He introduces a supposedly important thing at a critical juncture in ep5, uses it once as a near-throwaway which serves only to provide an additional hint as to what it even is in ep6, and more or less gives it almost no attention in ep7.
__________________
Redaction of the Golden Witch
I submit that a murder was committed in 1996.
This murder was a "copycat" crime inspired by our tales of 1986.
This story is a redacted confession.

Blog (VN DL) - YouTube Playlists
Battler Solves The Logic Error
Renall is offline   Reply With Quote