[Goober5000]

This is kind of a belated "first impressions" post, but in the spirit of temporal anomalies, bear with me.

One of the things that struck me when I first heard the monologues was that they were rather hard to follow.  They had so many complex sentences and archaic words strung together that I had to really concentrate to follow along.  Even then I had to play the cutscenes several times to get the whole thing, and I still didn't grasp the whole thing until I read the printed version.

I was just re-reading the monologues on karajorma's site and it occurred to me that they're rather like the Architect's monologue in Matrix II that way.  Complex sentences; fancy words; even a similar tone of voice.

Take a look at the first monologue, which is the worst of the lot.  "As they sifted the cremation of dust and bones"; "dismissing the warnings carved into the walls of the sepulchre", etc.  They're lovely phrases when written out, but they're rather hard to listen to.

[pyro-manic]

It's poetic, innit? Supposed to read like a piece of old literature from way back when, like a prophecy or a chronicle. They're read like someone preforming Shakespeare or Chaucer or something of the sort. It's very old-fashioned.

I kind of like it, actually - makes you think about things, which is pretty cool for an otherwise fairly brainless blaster of a game....

[phatosealpha]

I get the feeling the hard to follow nature of them is on purpose.  That level of complexity is neccessary for the Bosch character.  In his normal operations, he can't really show that, since the NTF is a front for a much grander scheme, so in his private monologues it comes out double.

[pyro-manic]

I agree. It shows he's not some jealous bigot who just got pissed at the Vasudans for doing better than the Terrans, but a very intelligent and calculating man...

[Knight Templar]

Originally posted by Goober5000
Take a look at the first monologue, which is the worst of the lot.  "As they sifted the cremation of dust and bones"; "dismissing the warnings carved into the walls of the sepulchre", etc.  They're lovely phrases when written out, but they're rather hard to listen to.

Sepulchre maybe, but it's not like you don't get the idea from the context.

[aldo_14]

{aside}
Why would you cremate dust?
{/aside}


Anyone else thinking 'Faust' here?

[pyro-manic]

I think the dust is the result of the cremation.

And yes, Faustian could be a way to describe it...

[Singh]

Bosch's monlogues intrigue me greatly. The general tone of voice and the words he uses, its far more different from what he seems to potray to the NTF and the GTVA.

There was a site hosting the audio files of the monologues itself....wonder where it went...

[Roanoke]

I thought the monologues were really good. Much better than the FS1 Ancients vids.

[Goober5000]

Oh I agree, I love the monologues.  Very interesting, very complex - stuff like that isn't written too often nowadays.  It's just that they threw me off guard when I first listened to them.

Originally posted by phatosealpha
I get the feeling the hard to follow nature of them is on purpose.  That level of complexity is neccessary for the Bosch character.  In his normal operations, he can't really show that, since the NTF is a front for a much grander scheme, so in his private monologues it comes out double.

That's an interesting take on it.

[Lynx]

I had the feeling of the monologues being overly theatralic and constructed, but maybe that's because I've only heard the german synchronization.

[Flipside]

The monoloque absolutely drips Gothic, the whole storyline does really, that is one of it's main appeals in my opinion, it doesn't even try to be nice with us, and the best 'victory' we ever had only lost us our home planet.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by phatosealpha
I get the feeling the hard to follow nature of them is on purpose.  That level of complexity is neccessary for the Bosch character.  In his normal operations, he can't really show that, since the NTF is a front for a much grander scheme, so in his private monologues it comes out double.

I think that Bosch is portrayed as a sort of quasi-facistic 'enemy leader-stroke-nemesis' ingame... all the briefings, techroom, etc paint him as that way... but the monologues, and to a degree the communications when you first encounter the Iceni, mean he's a lot more complex than that; you realise he has this hidden agenda, something which is so important he's willing to sacrifice millions of lives for.

And there's also a hint of McCarthy (er FS1, not the commie-hunting one) in him, too - saying his actions are for the greater good of the human race, delivering something (himself?  ETAK?)  to an alien race who humanity is at war with... but at the same time skewed (the apparent Shivan massacre of the Iceni crew).

[karajorma]

As you may have guessed I had to listen to Bosch's turn of phrase quite a few times to get it all down.

As has been said I think it's meant to show that Bosch isn't just some psychopath out to kill everyone. He regrets the deaths that the NTF rebellion has caused but he saw no other way to achieve his goal.

[Axem]

Originally posted by phatosealpha
I get the feeling the hard to follow nature of them is on purpose.  That level of complexity is neccessary for the Bosch character.  In his normal operations, he can't really show that, since the NTF is a front for a much grander scheme, so in his private monologues it comes out double.

Agreed.

The first time I ran through the campaign I had the SCP and no cutscenes, so I never saw them. After playing through the campaign, I thought Bosch was a lunatic off on his own little world trying to become ruler of the galaxy.

Then when I finally saw the monologues, it gave me a totally different look at Bosch. He wasn't a monster at all, he was human. It really made him seem like a 3-dimensional character...the Shivans. But their aura of mystery saves them from being extremly cheap.

[Vertigo1]

Yeah, Bosch wasn't really a bad guy.  He just happened to have a bunch of stupid cannon fodder that believed in what he said.  He felt his actions were justified, just like McArthur did when he tried to give the avenger prototype to the vasudans in FS1.  He wasn't really trying to be yet another incaration of the "hammer of light", he genuinely wanted to save us from the Shivans.  To do that, he had to open a line of communication, which no-one had previously been able to do.  We know that he eventually did, but unfortunately we will never really find out what happened afterward.

His monologues struck me as very Shakespearian in nature, which is a good thing kinda.  If you've read Macbeth then you'll kinda understand what Bosch is talking about.

[Carl]

It may be that he is both calm, calculating, and brilliant, but also insane. what could be worth the billions of deaths caused by his actions?

[Windrunner]

man i would give anything to just talk to one of the story writers for the FS2 campaign. Just to find out what were they thinking of having  in the third installation of the game. What role would bosch play in it and stuff like that.

[Singh]

Strangely....the thought occurs to me.....did Bosch give up more than just millions of lives under his charge? Did he have family for that matter?

I really want to see those cutscenes again. Unfortunately, I don't have the CDs anymore, or a CD writer for that matter

For that matter, where are the FS1 cutscenes? I wanna see those too!

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Carl
It may be that he is both calm, calculating, and brilliant, but also insane. what could be worth the billions of deaths caused by his actions?

Freespace 3?

Makes you wonder, what is Freespace 2 really about?  The Shivans?  The Knossos?  Capella?  Or Bosches crusade into the abyss?