red
how does it start
we're not gonna get away with this, are we?
how did *she* start
music?
the music is part of it but not where it starts.
her music?
She's a popular musical and recording artist — one of the most popular in Cloudbank. But there's more.
where?
Red is not just a musician - she studied at Traverson Hall.
"Traverson Hall"?
Known specifically for graduating "the city's most ambitious civic planners."
"not just"?
A reformer, for the arts.
words?
She chose not to be interviewed on the topic. This was long enough ago, before the Process came to Cloudbank.
Process?
The villains of the piece. Little white, black and red robots, it seems like. They're processing the city.
the city?
Cloudbank.
the city?
juxtaposed with out in the Country.
came to?
That's what you'd think - what red thinks. but secretly? the Process have actually been here a long time. Behind the scenes, if you will. New on the scene only in the visible sense. just like the Transistor.
transistor?
transistor
Cloudbank?
the City. Our environs, where we lay our scene.
the city?
Juxtaposed with out in the Country.
how did this start
events
The Camerata had a plan. Sybil had an ego, and a desire. She told them Red would be alone, when they came for her.
Sybil?
circumstance
Red wasn't alone like Sybil said.
place
Just near the bridge to Fairview.
persons
Red wasn't alone. [ _ ]
[ _ ]
boy,
we could do much more together
we're not gonna get away with this, are we?
WHO?
The guy who was with Red that pivotal night.
why care
Well, you see... he's in the Transistor.
so?
Not just in the Transistor. He
is the transistor, as we know it. The beginning of the story. The one who speaks when Red cannot.
cannot?
Ah. All the time, I'm afraid.
transistor?
Transistor (transistor), yes, but it's... what if a sword was a tomb. An artifact. A priceless thing, more beautiful to behold. Like the chrysalis of a star.
"And you've been dragging it like that. On the ground."
We get to know his voice right away,
before we know it's coming from the sword.
name
To you and me? He's called the Boxer.
the Boxer?
Hands wrapped like that, you'd have to think so.
Hands?
Well, his body's hands, now.
[ _ ]
A bad joke told by no one. A box, you see? This isn't true, but it's funny. That's what a joke is.
not a name
Well, here we run into a problem.
The Boxer matches 0% of census data within all of Cloudbank.
0%?
A peculiar number, writ absolute. Zero.
It's not that he doesn't exist...
so much as, either his data is corrupted
(The transistor finds this unlikely)
or something funny is going on.
funny?
That's why it's not "answers about the Boxer".
theories?
dismissive:
Everything that happens in Transistor is coded in a language that first suggests
a city
named Cloudbank
and second suggests
a computer
The city's named
Cloudbank, after all.
Red's weapon and her opposition seem to be computer parts, running programs. Her attacks are functions that can be nested; her enemy is a Process that wants to complete.
It's easy then to say
'oh,
Transistor, it's a game where the surprise twist is that the whole thing is about inside of a computer.'
but what about The Boxer
perhaps
a function, but a corrupted one? An error? A line of code inserted by
some outside force? But if all the metaphysical creation, commission,
reconstruction, if all those lives are just computer code, what even is
The Boxer?
perhaps
the "box" in which the computer itself rests? the material structure on which the Cloud is woven?
perhaps
a dismissive idea dismisses itself. It doesn't tell us anything, and doesn't solve the mystery. It's merely convenient.
dreams made flesh:
the boxer represents the combined dreams and will of the Camerata.
his love for Red
(Sybil)
his nostalgia for the city
(Grant)
his tendency towards moping
(Asher)
his tendency towards quipping
(Royce)
why what exactly?
this also helps us understand, counter to the text as it's implied in
the opening moments of the game and the media res flashback with Sybil,
why he's here.
no not here, why he's
still here.
after each recursion, you'd expect something different.
but Red always finds him.
the river always finds the sea
so helplessly
like you find me
something
else:
maybe you're looking for someone to blame?
else:
nothing. There was no Boxer. The transistor speaks, yes, but...
else:
You know better than I. Why? Why him? Where does he come from? Why does he come back?
else:
solve for "this" and "we" to know:
"hey red. we're not gonna get away with this, are we?"