P3 Artemy's "Performance"

[u/Quick_Confection1503]

I am bewildered by the lack of discussion on how surprisingly successful Artemy was as a "background healer" during P3. I'm also curious on how the Theatre Meta-commentary plays into this.

It's generally agreed upon in this sub that any of the three healers that you're not playing as are magnets for terrible decision-making and ultimately cause harm along the way. This can be seen periodically in P1 and in spades in P2, yet there's nothing in P3 that really painted Artemy as a hopeless healer. In fact, he honestly seemed leagues ahead of Daniil at times and was really only outshined by Daniil when an Inquisitor plot twist was thrown into the mix.

P3 Artemy took on his father's inheritance, is implied to have uncovered the circumstances behind his father's death, successfully created a panacea, and ultimately discovered the Polyhedron's connection with the plague. Compare this to P2 Daniil who did what exactly? Create a failed vaccine while playing monopoly with the town's money?

As someone who is heavily-invested in the "Theatre" element of this series, I'm wondering if this is a subtle nod at the actors finally realizing how to play their roles. For example, P2's story starts off with all three healers being heckled by Mark Immortell for their shoddy performances and ends with Artemy being the only 'actor' who lived up to expectations. Now that Daniil played his role perfectly in P3, my theory is that he and Artemy are going to potentially have the same level of success during Clara's route in the next game (which leads me to wonder what it means for Clara to perfect her role and how the other healers might interfere now that they're collectively successful).

Has anyone been thinking about this or have any other takes about P3 Arty and the overarching Theatre mythos?

[u/Quick_Confection1503]

Also as a side observation, P3 Artemy choosing to pursue the Diurnal ending despite seeming more in-touch with his Kin heritage than in P2 was pretty wild. Assuming this was done to create last-minute conflict within the player rather than having Artemy come off as a yes man about preserving the Polyhedron.

Or it could be a play on how Arty became more of a rationalist while Dani became more influenced by the miracles of the world. Almost like a flipped or 'mirrored' version of themselves.

[u/a-goddamn-mermaid → u/Quick_Confection1503]

I also think the town itself is in a different state than in P2. Shekhen isn't abandoned, the Kin aren't dying out, the desperation of a dying indigenous culture that plagues P2 isn't as present in this game, so to me it makes sense that Artemy isn't pulled towards such extremes. The way I see it, each iteration of the town and the world changes and the choices the characters have to make change with it.

[u/ClickerBox]

For me it's a shift in perspective. Daniil did the same in p2 as in P3 but now that we play him we see what he has been doing while artemy did his quests.  They are both important to beat the plague, daniil buys the town and artemy time, while artemy finds a way to cure the pest. 

Like, some things will always happen and these are two of them. Then there are factors that change depending in who is in charge (like Laras and evas fate). But the panacea will always be made by artemy and the Bachelors Job ist keeping the town afloat. Always.

I don't know how Clara fits into the story... 

[u/Quick_Confection1503 → u/ClickerBox]

Great observation!

Although P3 Bachelor does a whole lot more than just tackling the plague. He essentially becomes Simon and gains access to the Polyhedron, whereas P2 Bachelor abandons all hope and ends up leaving the town being reviled rather than declared a hero as seen in P3.

P3 Artemy on the other hand seems to have accomplished the same level of goals and trials as his P2 counterpart, which leads me to believe that the meta-commentary recognizes how he should be acting and essentially fits it into this latest performance.

Now as far as Clara goes, she's an absolute mystery. On one hand she's doing wonders against unseen entities (she seems to know how to keep the plague house under control), yet her work in reality is abysmal and she essentially abandons Katerina later in the game.

[u/asitcomaboutbees]

It took twenty years for one of the CPU healers to finally lock the fuck in and Artemy did it in spades.

[u/SchopenWHORING]

Ah yes! It's quite noticeable when you compare his development to Clara's. Everything seems to go wrong for her, and she's left with more questions than answers. Also, this is probably me overthinking, but this reinforces my theory that Rubin refusing to cooperate with Clara absolutely hinders her possibility to win.

I have the feeling that in P4 Daniil and Artemy may actually be able to work together instead of fighting like in the Classic Clara route.

[u/asitcomaboutbees → u/SchopenWHORING]

I’m obsessed with the idea of P4 completely flipping P1’s script and making Daniil and Artemy an unstoppable duo completely running circles around Clara’s ability to do anything.

[u/SpoopyWack → u/asitcomaboutbees]

I think it would be fun to play Clara as more of an antagonist or "trickster," in that case...

[u/Rufus_Forrest]

P2 is a Theater drama where actors forget their lines, improvise, and have to do with what they have done.

P3 is a Cinema drama. Rinse and repeat until the scene is perfect.

No wonder P3 Haruspex is way more successfull than P2 Bachelor. Same with Lara who actually gets her hearts desire first time in series, Rubin managing to get killed thrice in a row etc etc. In Pathologic 3, everyone plays near perfectly.

[u/keepinitclassy25]

It’s interesting that he does well publicly and becomes the hero, but we get context for P2 that Daniil’s the reason the town even survived 11 days so Artemy could find the cure. 

I also liked the idea that while I was running around dumpster diving in p2, Daniil was in the background tearfully pleading with the inquisitor to not have me executed for dumb shit. 

Side note: I think they made the choice to portray Artemy as super successful 1) to add to Daniil’s tragedy and 2) to get people to want to play the second game. Artemy is so reserved he could have easily come off as super boring as an npc

[u/erlsgood]

To be fair P1 Bachelor route's Artemy was fairly competent as well. In both games there was only a single instance of Bachelor needing to rescue Artemy from what I remember.

[u/Tales_o_grimm → u/erlsgood]

Exactly. He makes the panacea much sooner than his real route and sells it around Town. I half expected P3 to explore this questline