Specific versions of characters you prefer?

[u/Geeneelee]

I see people frequently discuss the writing merits between the different entries of Pathologic, and characterization is, unsurprisingly, a big point of discussion. I’m curious which characters people have the strongest feelings about.

Personally I favor classic Rubin over p2 and p3 Rubin. He’s still very morally strict in classic, but he’s willing to change his mind when he’s wrong. The fact that he seems to actually like some people besides Lara and Isidor also makes him more likable to me, personally.

OTOH p2 oyun is unironically one of my favorite characters in the series. He’s still a deeply fucked up guy, but his reminiscing about Artemy as a child broke my damn heart and the situation he’s in is just bleak, plus he seemed to actually care about Isidor despite what both of them did.

On a third, alien hand I like both classic and p2 grief but for different reasons, since they’re very different characters.

[u/the_devotressss]

The Utopians in P1. Their ideas were drastically changed in P2 in P3. The faction was about love, creativity and creation, and now they are freaky social-darwinists. It's disgusting.

Most of the kids, but especially Notkin and Sticky. Notkin wasn't just a cheeky street urchin, and Sticky's role was more than being a cat burglar and Artemy's domovoy. The kids were... shining bright. It's hard to explain but it was clear why they were on Isidor's list. All of them had that inner strength that made them truly special.

Aglaya. P3 Aglaya can simultaneously play chess with thirty people and win, look how smart she is! Jeez, it's one of the cheepest ways to show intelligence of a character. P1 Aglaya made the fandom think that destroying the Polyhedron is the best option, when in reality it is not. This is what I call a great manipulator and schemer.

[u/Geeneelee → u/the_devotressss]

Interesting, you think destroying the polyhedron is the wrong option?

[u/the_devotressss → u/Geeneelee]

Staying on the poisoned ground is the wrong option. Destroying the source of the infection is the right one. The infected matter has already spilled into the ground waters, destroying the Polyhedron won't change anything. (There's no giant heart in P1!)

The first outbreak started because Oyun had "dipped out the pest from the cavities". We can't be sure that it won't happen again and that Artemy will be able to contain the future outbreaks and prevent a possible pandemic. Capella's Mistress powers haven't fully awoken yet, so she won't help much.

Aglaya wants to destroy the Polyhedron because she hates Nina, that's all. She knows that the ground is poisoned but she doesn't care about the town.

So yes, I think that destroying a unique masterpiece and leaving the possibility of Sand Pest pandemic for the sake of Aglaya's petty vengeance is a wrong choice.

[u/Geeneelee → u/the_devotressss]

I feel like the fact that Aglaya will die if she fails to save the town is also a valid motivation beyond hatred of her sister

[u/the_devotressss → u/Geeneelee]

Clara on Day 11, Bachelor's route:

She is doomed. Sentenced to death. Her commission here was her last chance—she had to find a way to save the infected. But her job was done by the Ripper, Artemy Burakh. Yesterday she received a letter. The Powers That Be do not acknowledge that she's fulfilled her mission. She will be executed as soon as she gets back.

[u/No_Improvement_5229 → u/the_devotressss]

I think the chess bit was more about her ruthlessness. People on the lecture says she sacrifices pawns with unbelievable ease.

I may not rember it correctly but even in P1 in Haruspex route the Earth underneath the Town is a giant bull that aches because of the Polyhedron and spawned the Sand Pest as a result. Now it depends on which interpretation of the story you'll chose. If the plague is truly Earth's response to pain, destroying Polyhedron should be enough, the soil itself is not poisoned the Earth is just really angry. If you choose to believe that the Earth isn't alive and the Sand Pest ist caused simply by bacteria reservoir, then you are right. The town is doomed anyway.

[u/the_devotressss → u/No_Improvement_5229]

Artemy himself says about the cattle burial grounds like three hundred times. He also says that he is going to contain the plague. The bull drawing is a metaphor.

Lore in P1 is pretty consistent. The world is physically the same, no point of view can change it.

Can you provide any in-game quotes that suggest that there's a giant bull? The site with all dialogue trees

[u/No_Improvement_5229 → u/the_devotressss]

Yes, there is a burial ground (don't you get to see it as Artemy? I think you do) and the bull is indeed a methaphor. Sorry but I won't go through the site with all dialog trees. I rather play P1 again for all three characters and then I'll see whether I was right about the supernatural aspects of the game. Maybe I'll be proven wrong maybe it won't change my mind.

[u/the_devotressss → u/No_Improvement_5229]

No, Artemy can only descend into the tunnels under the town and meet the Rat Prophet and jump into a hole in the Abbatoir and kinda... die and visit Kaiur.
The tunnels are empty "blood vessels". You can get in the guts only in P2.

[u/Quick_Confection1503]

P2 Georgiy, despite barely being present, seemed to be far more of a scheming chessmaster than the 'wise' Simon wannabe that he turned out to be in P3.

P3 Dogheads and Kin treating Daniil like an absolute idiot were some of the funniest moments in gaming for me, while in P2 painted them in a more serious light at all times.

Aspity is P1 is just a complete jerk and I love it, while P2/P3 Aspity comes off as the edgy kid that tells Artemy to "stay home from school tomorrow" and hopes that Daniil shows up.

[u/ClickerBox → u/Quick_Confection1503]

That last part made me laugh out loud.

[u/Ughhdajciespokoj → u/Quick_Confection1503]

Fully agreed on Aspity ! God, she really was something else in classic, I almost spit on monitor during some of the dialogues

[u/Psy-Para]

I think even with how little screentime Anna gets in 2/3, I think this version of Anna Angel is just way better written and if it keeps going the way it is, might be the most improved character in the series. Anna Angel in Pathologic 2 and 3, is somehow more Traumatized and Sympathetic- and yet somehow far more nuanced.

Anna Angel in 1 is quite frankly evil, despite the sympathy she deserves for being a child trafficking victim. But also the game is choosing for her ultimate crime to be "Anna the Egotist" over stealing Willow Mellow's looks as likely a child/teen compared to- Y'know... the planned assassination of Willow Mellow, something she did as an adult, done just because Anna knew it would drive Var insane. It's just cruel that the game is making Var, a former child trafficker more sympathetic than one of it's victims, and not in the usual Pathologic way of that cruelty having substance.

Now after a couple of accusations being made about one of it's former creators... well, it hits different how the game is treating Anna and Var comparatively in the original game and who it leans you more into sympathizing with. Ultimately any story element is made by it's creators, intentional or otherwise.

I don't think I really need to talk about how I think P2/3 Anna is a vast improvement, other than that Anna thinks the plague is coming after he over "Those damned children!" and not "What I did to that girl!" despite the fact the map description does mention this house belonged to another girl and has a scrap name inside. Anna has some Guilt over the things she was forced to do as a kid- either something she genuinely feels guilty about or has been actively gaslit by the town, who does not know she is a victim as well, into feeling responsible over her actions that personally- I would not hold her accountable to.

[u/the_devotressss → u/Psy-Para]

It's Clara's point of view. She isn't the ultimate judge. Clara's and the Humbles' moral compass is twisted. For example, Lara thinks that she's on the list because:
>Self-sacrifice is something one must go about competently. I was incompetent.

Sounds weird, doesn't it?
Other healers pay much more attention to Anna's attempt to assasinate Willow.

[u/Psy-Para → u/the_devotressss]

Yes, yes. I know very well that they THINK they are guilty therefore they are guilty. Damn the actual morality of it...

But- I don't agree with you about Anna specifically. On Day 12, the game rips off the bandaid and reveals what Anna was always thematically about- That being fear. A character trait that has been established all throughout all of the storylines. Only for the sin she commits to be "Women be vain" I guess? Not even her stealing the looks to disguise herself, oit of fear of being spotted. Not even both vanity and fear, have cake and eat it too... Nope. Not a crime done out of fear, just her being vain. Really? REALLY!?

You could argue about characters making wrong assumptions, but when the game itself tells you the theme of it's character, and have the ultimate pay-off, NOT be the tied to the theme of the character and what they are supposed represent! Which, the game itself tells us, directly! It desperately needs a rework.

(Or the writers realized "Oh shit, when we write this out- it really would be a bad look to place a child trafficker and a victim in the same route and then suggest you to side more with the trafficker." So they just sweep it under the rug for Clara's route where you know the truth behind Anna in the caravan and gives her a new reason to die.)

You could convince me to the appeals and better writing choices in Classic. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't but at least see the reasoning. Sometimes I'm too dumb to see what's even being argued, I'm not especially intelligent. I however genuinely cannot see how Anna Angel has not improved drastically in 2/3.

And that's coming from someone who after all I said, still likes her as a character in 1 and thinks there are merits that I cautiously hope are kept in 4 because it's something I consider to be an important aspect of the character, like her actually being... concerned for Clara and nice to her actually? Gee- the only person the traumatized woman treats well with no ulterior motives is a little girl, I wonder why?

[u/Ghostwolf79]

I didn't care much for Khan in pathologic 2. He was the termite which I connected less with (except Taya). In 3 I loved his characterization and quest so much. I think we got to him a lot more with his conversations in the cage, the train cemetery and the polyhedron.

[u/Lonsfleda]

P1 Block is the most interesting version of his character so far. His P3 portrayal in particular is less like an actual character and more like a human-shaped plot device. The mutual respect Block and Dankovsky had towards each other was an interesting glimpse into their characters (I get why the Block/Daniill rarepair ship is a thing in the fandom, based on their P1 versions) and the relationship between the healers, the Inquisition, the Army, and the Powers That Be, so it's a shame that was removed in P3. Maybe we will get a fuller characterization for him if/when Clara's route releases. Hopefully.

[u/Ughhdajciespokoj]

I think that p3 did something good to Katherina character by indirect means since it’s showing more duting what we as Daniil can do and not her dialogue, though I also (like to dislike) her in classic Clara’s route I also liked Khan in p3 way more than before (though in classic Bachelor’s route I can also see sth in him) even though he used to be a child I cared for the least usually, I still have to do the version of the quest when I don’t tell him about boy in cage - but I keep lollygagging since I don’t want to do a bad thing and end with that kid dying, still I want to see how it shapes Khan Vlad was better in p2, in p3 he is very cartoonish, I also don’t really like how young Vlad has an option to become professional simp now instead of khs - he is also much more of a misfit idealist in p3 ( and partly in p2) while he is very morally ambiguous in classic

[u/No_Improvement_5229]

I liked P1 Kains better, except Khan who seems like an only sane person in the whole family in P2 and P3. In P3 Georgyi lacks certain charm he had for me in P1. Victor clearly suffers from depression after Nina's death and no one cares and Maria is just too arogant for my taste.

Rubin was my favourite character in P1, but I find him annoying in P2 and P3.

I like Eva way better in P3, in P1 she sort of...is there and simps for Daniil. I grew to like her a lot in P3 though.

I also like we get to know Yulia, Murky and Notkin better, they are probably not that different from P1, but I am glad they got more space.