Parse, Con, and Citizen Truth

While I was at PAX, I started thinking that Parse sure had fought a wide variety of creatures. She's directly fought Spite, Ambuscade, Miss Information, Numerous creatures, investigated the site of Skinwalker Gloomweaver's emergence, stood up to Iron Legacy, aided in the combat of Akash'Bhuta....

Thats a really wide variety!  Most hero decks don't have that range, and I can't think of any other hero that has come into direct contact with so many different villains!

So I decided to dig a bit deeper and look at Chrono-Ranger's bounties.  And sure enough, each one (with the exception of Plague rat) was a villain that Parse had either directly faced, or coordinated the fight against during the events of Vengeance. This led me to start thinking about CON, and to believe that Parse is a signficant component of that entity.  After all, who better to become an AI (or something close to) than someone who ALREADY has a brain like a computer, and has already merged/been altered by a piece of Omnitron?

And if you think about it, Parse already puts together data to try and predict outcomes and find weak points.  Who better to try and re-write history by moving around key components and altering key pieces of the timeline?

But wait!  Theres more!

Heres where it gets really interesting.

So, if you postulate that Parse is a part of Con, then each of the bounties is trying to accomplish some sort of goal.

This brings me to Citizen Truth.  and the fact that Con SPECIFICALLY instructs that there be no executions.  

now... go ahead and look at Critical Multiplier.  With the theory that Con/Parse is trying to keep Citizen Truth alive, maybe we've been looking at it all wrong.  Maybe her reference to "things adding up" ISN'T about Fanatic.  Maybe its about Citizen Truth being in the right place at the right time to BLOCK Fanatic!  What makes more sense?  Fanmatic breaking hewr sword somehow bringing about victory, or someone being saved by that sword being broken?

Heck, maybe Parse is accomplishing multiple objectives- maybe she is trying to send Fanatic a Wake-up call by putting her in a position to have her sword (on of the symbols of her faith) shattered, AND save someone in the process by using Citizen Truth to do it.

Now, this led me further down the rabbit hole.

Citizen Truth is NOT a primary target.  He's a defender. According to the bio from Tacics, He joined the Citizens to Prtotect his brother. Before that, he was cooperating with the guards and waiting for the moment to get free (before Dare fouled it up).

I think the BIG question here is "Who is Citizen Truth guarding?"  I asked Christopher, and in a rare gesture of giving an absolute statement, he said that Citizen Truth is ALWAYS protecting someone. 

there are a LOT of ways to protect someone.  Keeping secrets, for instance. 

Citizen Truth has a history of going along with the people in power, until he sees the right moment to break out. He has a history of playing his cards very close to his chest, and keeping secrets.

I'm wondering if he is protecting someone by keeping their existence secret.  Which would make his name even more interesting, wouldn't it.

I kind of wonder if Expatriette has a twin sister.  Being born into project Coccoon, Citizen Truth knows about being born for powers intimately.  Maybe he conspired with Expatriette's father to spirit away one of the girls... the one with power.

Of course, that is pure speculation, even for me.

But I'm dead certain that Parse knows something about it, and is trying to keep him alive and protecting.  

I like it, and it has a lot of merit to it.

Great theory, it all seems to fit together well enough that coincidence is unlikely.

Any thoughts on whether the name 'Con' itself has any relevance to this? I always figured it had to be short for something, perhaps "Controller" or "Connection \ Connector"? Both would fit, but the latter might fit better if we think of Parse as connecting and manipulating various threads to try and achieve a certain specific outcome.

I'm not so sure about the theory, but only because Christopher said we'd already met Con, and that was around the time that Shattered Timelines as out, Parse had yet to be introduced (I don't beleive she had been on any cards before then, the folders in Miss Information's deck don't count as there's no way to interpret that as "met".).

Well the question here is when Christopher says we already met Con, was he using the royal ‘We’

I like the idea personally and there’s been the theory that Con is multiple people, so maybe she’s tired in there with Fixer and Unity and the Adept or whoever is being lumps into the entity that is Con.

Christopher's exact words were "But you've all met Con before!", so no possibility of the royal we.

We know what Con is short for:

[quote=Chrono-Ranger's Online Bio]

 I am the Concordant Harmony Entity, version 4! But you can just call me Con.

[/quote]

I was totally ready to drinks Braith's Koolaid on this one before you reminded me of this quote haha.

BUT. Braith, regardless of who CON is, I think there is a lot of merit to your stuff on Truth and No Executions. Maybe not the "little sister secrets part". But look at it this way:

We still have The Host to deal with, and my money is on that thing/group/whatever being the ultimate big bad of the final expansion. The shattering of Absolution is critical for Fanatics story. Not only does it "center" her temper and focus her resolve, but its another step closer in her search for "who" she is. Or…"what" she is. If Absolution never shatters, she may never have come to grasp the full extent of her powers or been able to accept a different idea of what and who she really is. And I strongly believe this will be a key component of the battle against The Host (I think her PW art shows her in front of the Host's home). Truth needs to be kept alive in order to help Fanatic reach this point. 

If we need proof that Fanatic is a lot more than she seems, look no further than in the art of Tactics. Ra's Flame Spike. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH HER FACE?! She looks almost identical to those creatures they are fighting. Glowing lines of power streaking across her face, the plate visor gone completely. This is certainly a part of the transformation she will undergo by the end of SotM.

Alternativly (but way less cool): Regardless of Fanatic, Truth might need to be kept alive just so Dare doesn't go full ApeSh*t mode and kill everybody. If Truth is ALWAYS protecting somebody, maybe he is always protecting everyone from the true potential of Dare?

I don't think the backgrounds on the PW promos are actually places, more representations fo their powers or places they draw them from. Fanatic on the promos looks more like she's using Absolution to cover up an injury, (perhaps one inflicted by Absolution shattering) and I think the fact that Absolution is still broken in T:Flame Spike and that the same areas covered in the "Absolution armour" are glowing on that card are no coincidence, I think she has absorbed the power of Absolution into herself, possibly unintentionally.

Also, given Christopher's recent comment "It's Truth OR Dare not Truth AND Dare", I can't really see Dare going loco over Truth's death.

Not all backgrounds are places. But a lot of backgrounds in Adams art is incredibly important and go overlooked. And a lot of them are actual places. Look at Bunker (any of them), DWFixer, DW Expat, KNYFE, ect.  

Fanatics almost certainly is a place. There is a clear archway and architechture there. It looks like a church. If that wasn't important, it would just be a plain background like PW Hakas card. 

I do not consider PW Haka a plain background (unless we're talking plains/land)

Fair. The two suns/stars look familiar. I think we see similar suns (a lower blue one and a higher brighter one) on Shifters Strength in Naturalists deck as he's being blasted at by a green Captain Cosmic looking guy. Both backgrounds could be on the Thorathian homeworld?

Point still stands that backgrounds are pretty important and are not just throwaway pictures/places

I did not say I dismissed them, just that I don't think they are real places in this instance.

Has anyone ever seen both Citizen Truth and Citizen Dare in the same place at the same time?

Tactics Comics?

If you put the cards for the various citizen sets next to each other from Dawn's deck, you can see that each set is part of the same picture.

Its most apparent with Citizens Blood, Sweat, and Tears (in that order), but it works for each one.

 So for Truth and Dare, they look like they are standing next to each other- Truth is talking to Dare about discipline...and Dare is listening, but also thinking about killing Truth.

They really don't get along.

Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde or Smeagol/Gollum type of relationship?

Two brothers sharing one physical manifestation. Maybe that's why it's so important to keep Truth alive... if he dies it'll be all Citizen Dare all the time. 

Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde or Smeagol/Gollum type of relationship?

Two brothers sharing one physical manifestation. Maybe that's why it's so important to keep Truth alive... if he dies it'll be all Citizen Dare all the time.

I remembered seeing the backgrounds matching up for the Citizen teams before, so I checked the cards just as a quick memory jog, and realized that Truth and Dare can't be present together -- when one enters play, the other does some damage and then is destroyed. I think that fact, along with Christopher's comment "Truth OR Dare," supports this theory quite strongly. Plus the fact that body-sharing is a not uncommon comic book trope.

I doubt the body sharing scenario, as in tactics, Dare attacks multiple targets and if truth is in play, he must be targeted.  So with that, and the fact that truth and dare can be in the field  at the same time definately puts a wrinkle in that theory

They are so super fast, even faster than Tachyon, that they can make the switch back and forth without ever losing cohesion in either form. Sadly, it takes all their speed energy to do that, so they can't zip around the field.

Comics!

It'll be like Fight Club, halfway through the scenario you'll realize he was punching himself. 

I always assumed CON was the last Omnitron.  I mean, does Chrono Ranger ever hunt any Omni-bots?

I've seen arguments for Unity or Tachyon.  I could go with either. 

I mean, "Concordant Harmony Entity Version Four" has all the letters for Omnitron, Unity, and Tachyon, though I doubt it's a full anagram for those three.  Well, I tried to figure out if it was an anagram, but the best I could come up with was "Omnitron Unity Tachyon on cards forever" and decided that it was getting silly.

Anyway, I think Con is Omnitron.  We already know its versions don't look alike, there's a precedent for time travel, and it gets switched to good at some point. 

The bios for Truth and Dare in Tactics seem to indicate that they are two distinct people, who can coexist on the field at the same time. They just really dislike each other. Or at least Dare really dislikes Truth, it's hard to tell if the feeling is mutual. 

i think it is quite plausible that Omnitron is a component of Con. Parse's mind was first awakened when she was exposed to a fragment of Cosmitron's code, so maybe Con is an amalgam of Parse and Omnitron.

Con is Hippocalypse and Cosmonautilus combined.

I think Con is the eel on Aquatic Correspondance.

It's a conger eel.

Since we are throwing out wild speculation, I will say that Con is Wraith's hairdryer with Imbued Vitality.  We've seen it since the first set, it came to life in the second expansion and since it is a machine, I don't think it will die.  Plus what monster would think to mess with a hairdryer?

I'm still all for Con being the eel that appears on Reclaim from the Deep. This would also make Con the center of the universe.

Omnitron, Tachyon, and Unity rocs forever

I can confirm that Omnitron, Tachyon, and Unity are indeed eternally large, mythical birds. (This does not constitute actual confirmation.)

So, I don't know if this is true of anyone else, but I had always thought of CON as the entire building. It occurred to me that since we have a card called CON's Bunker, maybe CON is just something inside the building. This probably has little impact on any of the competing theories, but I started wondering what the building might be (or have been) and whether or not that is relevant to CON's identity.

This. This is what I'd love to see, so you should get on that Adam.

If Con is someone we've met before, maybe Con is actually a fellow forumite? Has anyone ever met Pydro in real life?

Yes. Or maybe CON is an amalgam of everyone who has ever sold a copy of Sentinels. We've all met that guy!

Maybe CON is made out of the remenants of Omnitron four?

Con is the Sentinels Kickstarter page?

I've met Pydro. I can confirm that he is, indeed, a large mythical bird.

Also, what is going on on Parse's incap side? Is she shut down by some lines of code…? Or is she simply petrified by the info she's seeing on the screen?

i cannot not be the only one that initially thought of the Legendary Trio (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres) when I first read this.

Her overflow buffer crashed.

Well there was me, for a start.

Absolute Zero, Tempest and Ra would be a better fit, but as soon as anyone says "mythical birds" that's exactly what I think of.

I won't argue that they would be an easier fit but I enjoy trying to work with what is presented.

Golem Unity is a form of rebirth, like the Phoenix which Moltres draws heavily from. Tachyon is lightning fast. And Omnitron lacks empathy, making him cold, ice cold… And um, he's also blue.

Have we actually seen what Con looks like currently in the cards?   We have quotes but I'm not sure there is a card directly showing him talking with Chrono Ranger. 

We only have Con's Bunker as a picture.

Hmmm, suddenly looks at ' as a contraction rather than a possessive.

I feel like this contraction has been brought up before. Can't remember where.

Probably, there's nothing new under the (fading, desiccated-at-the-end-of-time) sun.

Yeah, the suggestion that it's actually saying "Con is Bunker" has come up before, though there doesn't seem to have been much evidence that that might actually be the case.

Except that the words say it right in front of us.

I think that is enough to sustain a theory.

Definitely been mentioned before.

My play group makes that joke literally everytime that card hits the table.

This is officially enough for me and is what I believe now.

Boxwood has posted in a thread where the subect line has the name Con in it, boxwood must be Con. It's conclusive proof!

That’s enough for me. This is my new theory.

Wait, so that means boxwood is The Hippo!

We finally know who it is behind that impenetrable disguise!