The Truth about PS...

[fwacho]

you all will problaly want to keep this post alive for obviousreasons I'll purposely fail to metnion.Thankyou emporer fro restraining yourself.

[Telephalsion]

Since when do fwacho type worse than war?

[Ohtaryon]

It actually is a possibility that Rhue is the PS. For one, just because Rhue saw a shadowy character and says "Phantom Slasher" doesn't mean it is the Phantom Slasher. It's just a shadowy person that he assumed was the PS. Second, even if it was the PS he saw, Rhue could have a multiple personality disorder. The reason that could work is:

His mind is split in two, and has two completely different people residing in it. As such, his mind hallucinates, and projects a mental image of someone else standing next to him that he perceives as the PS. As such, he could carry out a conversation with himself. He personally would be talking for himself, and then his mind telling him that the PS is right there. But if someone else were to come along, they'd just see him talking to himself. Also, since the PS always attacks at night, and Rhue sleeps most of the night, as soon as Rhue falls asleep, he immediately gets up with the PS mind as awake.

A good example of this is to look at Gollum in LOTR. The only difference is Gollum is aware that two people are residing in his mind, and Rhue is not.

But then again... it's doubtful this is how the developers made Rhue... so dismiss this.

[Non-Sequitur]

Someone else had pointed out that Rhue has always been alone whenever he sees the Phantom Slasher. That makes me think that something of that nature could be going on.

[Jabbo]

My only problem with that idea is that in Episode 1 we get to see the PS a number of times when Rhue is merely walking by. Rhue's fully aware of his surroundings and both are in the same (and/or virtually the same) screens, but Rhue doesn't see the PS. And since he doesn't see it, he really can't be hallucinating, unless we're supposed to be seeing through Rhue's eyes even in third person. And a hallucination that isn't currently being hallucinated doesn't seem possible. Plus, I just find it hard to believe that all the scenes with both Rhue and the PS are just made up by Rhue's mind. After all, it IS third person; the only things that should be screwed up are Rhue's memories.

[Flibbo]

maybe when he doesn't see the ps in the beggining of episode 1 it's just meant to symbolise something like, he carries the ps with him wherever he goes

or not probably, i've just been doing english coursework all day so i have stupid symbolisation stuck in my head

[Kyazu]

well it could tell us something bout his mind but who knows Rhue is very odd when you thik about things when you repaly you see things that you didnt see b4 and some things are diffrent

so who knows who the PS is who cares this topic got soo off topic :p

and who even knows we are guna get all the waves :p

[Drake]

My only problem with that idea is that in Episode 1 we get to see the PS a number of times when Rhue is merely walking by.

I posted it somewhere else already.. but oh well: I think you're talking about Gaius, who must have been watching Rhue for sometime already, since their meeting was most likely not by chance.

Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the disassociative identity disorder theory either, mainly because it sounds cheap... but I don't think you can find any arguments for or against it. Atleast not at this point.

[Ohtaryon]

As for us seeing through Rhue's eyes, even in third person... Do you realize there are many other video games that do that? Here's an example: Cloud from FF7. If the game is in third person control of Cloud, how is it we can hear that insanely high-pitched noise when he's outside of Jenovah's chamber, when he's the only character who can hear it? Because we are, in essence, him when we play the game. Even if it is a third person view-point, we play the role of the character, and learn what they learn and see what they see. We can hear what Cloud hears, even though no one else can.

Another example, albeit a poor one, is in Dodgeball. When the main character, Peter, is looking into the sweat-rag in the final dodgeball game, he sees his coach appear. We're not looking through his eyes, but we see what he sees, while none of the other characters do. It's not necessarily a hallucination, but we are seeing what he is imagining to be there, despite no one else is able to.

Make sense?

But anyways, this is a guess dependent on the assumption the shadowy person he sees now and then is the PS and the assumption that it's true that he is the PS. Or, in which case, the shadowy character is just a person not completely visible to him, and he is just assuming the shadowy character is the PS... he doesn't know for sure, because he's never seen the real PS [that he knows of].

[itsdave693]

If Rhue had DID, he would be as proficient a warrior as the PS from the very beginning of the game. Procedural memory is left intact between personalities in DID patients. If Rhue really is the PS, I'll be very disappointed in Lun's pre-dev research.

[Jabbo]

Ohtaryon, I'm choosing not to read your example because I'm one of the few RPGers in this world who HASN'T played final fantasy 7+.

There is that one scene though that prevents me from thinking that the shadow is either Rhue OR Gaius. When Rhue goes into the cave, the PS is on the outside. Now I'm pretty sure that neither inivisibility nor teleportation are readily available on the Way. Those would seem disgustingly out of place in a game like this. So unless Gaius (who more than likely didn't have the same power we see in Ep5, unless he was somehow holding back, which isn't likely because of the personality shift that also occurred) somehow ran across the top of the cave and around to the back, then ran all the way back through and across a number of impassable obstacles to where Rhue saw him VERY shortly after he entered the cave, well, the shadow couldn't be Gaius. And it couldn't be Rhue, in body at least.

In a literal sense, the PS is neither Rhue nor Gaius. Still, either is a rational candidate. One possibility is that Gaius could become the PS on occasion (I mean what the hell is "Duty calls"?). Perhaps when you see him in Ep5, he's in PS mode, explaining his strangely radiant power and cryptic speech. The possibility also applies to Rhue but it's less probable and previously stated third person problems apply. But as far is "The PS is Rhue" or "The PS is Gaius," if either is the case, then it's not anywhere near that simple.

[Impossible]

So unless Gaius (who more than likely didn't have the same power we see in Ep5, unless he was somehow holding back, which isn't likely because of the personality shift that also occurred) somehow ran across the top of the cave and around to the back, then ran all the way back through and across a number of impassable obstacles to where Rhue saw him VERY shortly after he entered the cave, well, the shadow couldn't be Gaius.

In fact, the PS is watching Rhue mere seconds before they see Gaius.

And at the start of E1 the PS follows Rhue in the intro, and then comes from where Rhue did a little later and kills the people at the campsite! Is that so hard to understand?.

[Drake]

There is that one scene though that prevents me from thinking that the shadow is either Rhue OR Gaius. When Rhue goes into the cave, the PS is on the outside. Now I'm pretty sure that neither inivisibility nor teleportation are readily available on the Way.

But spacious caverns with multiple entrances are. ^_^

In a literal sense, the PS is neither Rhue nor Gaius.

Yes perhaps, but hallucinations don't kill other people, so atleast at times it has to be someone in the flesh.
Or perhaps that's too rational an explanation for a game in which people get posessed by their swords? ...whatever.

[Jabbo]

I really can't stress this enough.

1) The PS, when we see it, is ALWAYS the PS (or one of many identical PSes). The PS sprite will never be used for any other character. In Lide, Lun made shadow chars for Cetsa, Kygar, and Scatha. He did not use the PS three times. He also made two new shadow figures for the flashback where Rhue got his sword.

2) The cavern has one entrance and one exit. You explore the entire cavern, and not one alternate exit appears to you. And if Gaius came in the top, then we'd see some light shining in wherever he did.

3) Even if Rhue or Gaius WAS the PS, it would be folly to say that either was the PS at all times (aka literally). If either is, then we need to figure out when and why they become the PS, or how the PS is tied into their swords or their auras. And the hallucination theory is just off because it's difficult to hallucinate something and then not see it.

The Phantom Slasher is going to play a major role in the big game, the game of Tetzel, Eyashu, the real End of the Way (or lack thereof as Dirk seemed to understand), Illuminati, Shadow Swords, the Purpose, and the Lord Below. So is Rhue. There's a chance that they are both one and the same, and if so, then I still say that they will each play a significant and different role. To say that the PS is something as mundane and unmystical as Rhue's hallucinations or even Gaius just seems like the biggest anticlimax of the entire series.

[Telephalsion]

You know, as far as the end of the way goes, as long as the way is taking åplace on a planet it may very well move in a circle.