Also Boxer can communicate with Red most likely due the the information we are given by the end of the game when he is explaining stuff about the transistor you find a file of his that talks about his theory that if someone has a strong connection with a trace they may be able to actually talk with the individual. I also read on the reddit that Asher's name means happy or you could say it means gay (in the happy sense of coarse). Also another reason why the Camerata could have Sibyl part of them is because Sibyl was also friends with just about everyone which might mean she could communicate with all the traces in the transistor.
phoenixc4 Yupp, I actually missed that bit (was quite stressed out and tired and just wanted to get the video done, so I got a tad sloppy there I'm afraid ^^), so you are most likely right. Also, your point about Sibyl being able to communicate with all traces is a great observation! Hadn't even though of that! Thanks for sharing it! =)
Though this video was nothing more than theories and educated guesses, this definitely gave so much closure for me. I usually hate looking up the answers to interpretive stories like these, but when the game ended, there were so many questions I still had with the story and I could not come up with any answers on my own. I can see you put a lot of work into this, and it helped me out with a lot of the questions I had. Good luck to your channel man. It may be a grind getting views at first, but I'm sure if you keep putting work into your videos like you did here, you'll grow :]
+Jackal The main point is that the ending isn't as bitter as it first seems - because Cloudbanks is "just" a computer program. Cloudbank and everything and everyone in it are either real people hooked to a VR (the VR being the program that is Cloudbank) or just part of the autonomous simulation that is Cloudbank (it is often alluded that the system works in cycles without any output by Outsiders needed) - so "restoring" the city like it seems possible in the end doesn't really accomplish anything.
Great video, it deserves more views! I'd personally always felt that 'the country" was within the Transistor, since it seems like the Boxer is already there, and Red impales herself with the Transistor to apparently get there with him herself. My theory was that by the end of the game, the Transistor has absorbed so much data and so many people, it has become a whole new world in and of itself, OR it has sent all that data to a new system elsewhere, making it more like a gateway, or that its physical size within the world of Cloudbank was not indicative of its actual size in terms of memory. This theory doesn't necessarily work with the "virtual world with real people" theory quite so well as a "virtual world with simulated data people" one (though this can work with themes of transhumanism and the idea of uploaded consciousness). You also see people in storage within the Transistor during the final boss, which I feel must be significant in some way. I wonder if perhaps Cloudbank is just too far gone by the end, and that the actual purpose of the Transistor was collecting any remaining data it could and migrating it to a new system (the country, a blank slate not yet built up), since a Transistor is something that can send signals, and we saw that collecting data from people and absorbing the cells left by processes increased its power. But in the end, Transistor doesn't really give any concrete answers, so it's fun to speculate and hear other people's thoughts on the matter!
Kate Holden Thank you! =) Actually that theory could be applicable to the VR-theory as well. After all, there is nothing really stating that the place Red and the Boxer is The Country, at the very least not the same one that the other characters refer to. I am also under the impression that they end up in the Transistor, given how similar it looks to the area where Red battles Royce. Also, it does seem like more people know about The Country than know about the Transistor, so honestly the idea that a new virtual world has been born withing the Transistor is an appealing one indeed. =) Honestly, your comment got my mind racing again, so I'll probably be speculating about this for the rest of the week! =P Thank you, discussions like these really are so much fun! =)
So, I have my own speculations and will start with what I'm most "sure" of (it's still up for interpretations) and then go to stuff that is more and more speculative: 1. The world of Cloudbank is a computer "program" of some sort, either a VR or a simulation. This is not only shown by the many, *many* names alluding to this, but also by the ease and speed of the changes "voted" upon. 2. The "people" of Cloudbank are, because of my first point, either digital interpretations of real people hooked up to the VR or completely autonomous simulations - they are most likely the *latter* because the entire system/program of Cloudbank is *autonomous* aswell. 3. The system works in cycles, constantly changing, thus never allowing *true* (long-term) change. This is done to give the simulated "people" of Cloudbank the sense of a "living"/changing world without having to constantly program additional content. The purpose of this is unclear, it could be an experiment or simply a simulation for an *Outsider* (an actual human) to watch just like a movie. 4. The "voting" system is "rigged" in that it will always lead to the cyclical changes explained above, nothing ever stays the same for long so no meaningful change ever occurs. 5. The Camerata found out about this by studying the long-term "changes" (there were none) that occured (or rather didn't) in Cloudbank - thus their creed: "If everything changes, nothing does." 6. The Camerata wanted to change the entire system for good, only allowing a few true "visionaries" to decide on a select few permanent (or at least long-term) changes. They "sucked" the "essence" (the base programming) of those "people" (either sims or digital avatars of people hooked to the VR) into the Transistor to use the Transistor as a "brush" to "paint" those changes. 7. To do this, the Camerata wanted to use the Process to "wipe" small, selected parts of Cloudbank "clean" - an "open canvas" for the "brush" that the Transistor was to them - filled with all the brimming ideas of the visionaries "trapped" inside. 8. When they tried to get Red, "Blue" (or "Breach") intervened, saving her, but getting "sucked" inside the Transistor in her stead. 9. This caused the Camerata to lose control of the Process who proceeded to wipe everything (the entire "memory") clean. 10. (highly speculative): "Blue" actually was *the* Outsider (thus his function: "Breach"), most likely a programmer/hacker of the program that was Cloudbank (or maybe just a customer of the VR or, more likely, the autonomous simulation) - who fell in love with Red and managed to intervene. 11. (highly speculative): This actually lead to the Process going haywire because an Outsider getting stored inside the Transistor lead to a critical error.
I think "the country" is an ideal that the people of cloudbank hold as city dwellers and as such it serves as their idea of the heaven or the afterlife they hope for. The Boxer even uses the phrase when talking to a broken OVC. I think the Transistor may appear as the country because Red and the Boxer will it to be. I think Royce sees it differently, such as how he stated that it was like looking up into the sky when he peaked in. I'm not sure what to think about the location's lore. I think it is important to note that the Process has trouble interacting with water. Also the people there clearly eat and use bathrooms, or at least wash up. And I think people aren't really taking into account the information on Red and the other people in the transistor when they talk about Cloudbank. It is stated in Red's background that she went to a school focused on city planning but was the first to push for the arts there. Many of the other arts related characters in the transistor have mentions of angering the administrators or causing trouble. This indicates that the Camerata's belief that nothing is really changing may not be true. It is also mentioned that Red disappeared out of the public for a while because her music stirred controversy and caused a fight where the administrators had to get involved. This is described as "rare". So fights don't break out often I guess? People outvoted don't ever put up much of bother then? No riots? Odd. Maybe the society there is rooted in something more utilitarian, basic, and hive minded like the Process but has evolved to be more individualized and sentient, becoming more aware of their abilities to be used for expression rather than just utilitarian needs. This is starting to cause conflict as it disagrees with the way their society is built and was beginning to try to change when the Camerata messed up and rewrote it all. I think Grant's perception we read about has to be flawed. Maybe change was happening but not fast enough? Or maybe it wasn't the way he saw change needing to go? My theory is that the city is writing over its history just like it rewrites its buildings. Maybe it doesn't have space to do otherwise? Or maybe its deleted to be more efficient since not many others seem to care about their history. Or maybe even the people voted to delete the history at some point because they didn't like it.
I've only recently beaten this game, and I actually thought a lot of the same things that you have while I was playing after reading all the bios, but there are lot of things that I still just can't figure out, specifically the phrase "The Country" just keeps tripping me up. Especially because in Red's song "We All become" she actually expresses a desire to pack it all in and go to the country herself... Red is a strange one, lets not forget her music was allegedly the cause of a small riot, and she brought someone to the venue who'd been banned (was it the boxer?) But I'll lead with this idea. I think Red was in the Transistor at the start of the game. -"Red survived the incident, becoming separated from the Camerata due to these unforeseen events on their part. Although her trace data remains intact, partial transfer did occur, including transfer of ownership status of something the Camerata believed theirs."- When you see the flashback upon reaching the empty set, Red definitely "appears" from somewhere, not far away is the body of the Boxer with the Transistor and they are all of the OTHER side of the city from where they were just attacked. Very close to Fairview where Royce has hidden the cradle for the Transistor... I think what happened is both Red and the Boxer were processed, but because he stepped in front at the last minute she was able to escape because together they overloaded (!) it's memory. While using turn, little hints pop up at the top and one of them says functions with higher memory load with overload first. Red was pushed out of The Transistor as it glitched out and tried to return to the cradle, but it had already partially processed her voice when it overloaded. Trying to process the overloaded data, along with the Boxer's unusual trace profile caused most of the data to become corrupted and I think this is the reason why the Boxer is "free" inside the Transistor and able to speak to Red, rather than being stuck in one of those data stasis/storage cubes. Once the Transistor started functioning again (pardon the pun) it registered Red as the new user because it already had some of her trace data intact. on to "The Country". We already know that she and the Boxer wanted to leave town from comments he makes in game right at the start and at a few other points, and from reading into that from the song lyrics, so this could be interpreted as "The Country" being a real place outside of the city that she was already vaguely suicidal to begin with. But when I thought that, apart from just seeming wrong it lead me in yet another direction. In real life when you think of the countryside vs a city, one of the things that comes to mind is; less technology. With Cloudbank being so(oooo) technologically advanced, and the phrase being so wide spread, it really could just be a kind of slang way of referring to a place, or any places with less technology than Cloudbank. That, for me, would account for how the phrase seems to refer to so many different things at once, and blurs into becoming this reference to an afterlife. But personally I don't buy that it's -only- a reference to an afterlife because it wouldn't make sense for everyone in a supposed utopia to continually reference death like that. Back to the Boxer. I think the reason he doesn't have a trace is because he's not from Cloudbank. At the time I'm writing this I can't remember the exact quote but he says something to this effect the first time you examine his function. The text also practically gives it away in saying that almost no one *from* Cloudbank would decline to make a selection. He also mentions how much he hated parts of Cloudbank, High rise in particular until he found out that was where Red lived (this also leads me back to thinking he was the one who was banned from the venue of her previous gig, and was involved in or started the fight). I think that's significant because apart from Red and a few of the other "rebels" the Camerata were after, everyone else seems to love Cloudbank. Even the Camerata actually wanted to preserve the "current" Cloudbank. The "current" Cloudbank also leads me to agree with it being some kind of VR but I think it's more like the holo-deck in star trek that people can interact with in real time; just on the scale of a city rather than one room. Mainly because of the food and people but also because once the Process gets quite advanced in the game, you can actually see that parts of the city are made of computer components that are no longer projecting the same as the rest of the area (not the white Process blocks. You can see it most in the Archive just before finding Asher and Grant. some things look like part of the building and other things are basically giant CPU's). Also because when you use the Transistor you can actually see a virtual bit map of the surrounding area in what appears to be it's uncoded form. With all that said, I can't think why people would live in a city like this to begin with outside of the fact that you'd be able to change it. That seems to be the appeal of Cloudbank. And yet the Camerata don't want it to change anymore. It all just gets confusing the longer I think about it. (definitely need to play again a few more times) One last thing. The Historian Bailey Gilande. Gender X (everyone else is listed M or F so I doubt it's for chromosome) Come again? Was she a cyborg? I just don't know. Also (one more last thing), She was a Historian... A Historian! and apparently a really bloody good one. If Asher was looking for history on Cloudbank, why did the Camerata process her? seems as if she would have been the perfect person to ask. I'm personally getting unreliable narrator tingles. A lot of what the Camerata say they wanted to do, doesn't add up with what they were actually doing.
I also agree with Cloudbank being a virtual world or a computer because new game plus are both references to computers or at least a virtual world. Also I believe another reason why the User of the transistor was transifier was if I remember correctly the transistor actually switched the User to Boxer as he was killed by the transistor because if I remember correctly if you read Boxer's trace data the little we have it says somewhere that the User was changed and after when you get warped away from the set if believe the transistor says on it acquireing new user before you pick it up as Red
phoenixc4 As far as I can find, there is no mention of Boxer being the user in his data, but that info might be elsewhere. The reason it says acquiring new user could be because it had transferred to Red and was just waiting for her to grab it. Either that, or the ownership had been completely erased after the failed assassination. Just wild speculation on my part though. =)
This is a great video, definitely helped reinforce my reading of the game. One tiny tidbit that stands out to me though, which somehow I hadn't caught during my first dozen play-throughs, is Royce's voice overlaid with The Boxer's in the opening cutscene on a recursion run. Implying perhaps that the recursions are in fact canon, and that the events of the game are some sort of simulation in itself. Some WILD speculation here, but maybe Red was in fact assimilated into the transistor as planned from the beginning, and what we experience as players is merely the process of a trace coping with said assimilation. Upon a less than perfect melding however (IE not all functions being enabled/not yet being strong enough) the assimilation process is reset from the point of contact with the transistor to allow another chance at it; albeit with more strain being put on the trace (manifesting as the "enemies" being much more difficult). Obviously this falls apart when considering that there isn't some "true" ending to be unlocked from beating the game with everything maxed out, but I still think it's an interesting additional wrinkle worth pondering.
Great video, especially liked that you give certain theories and your interpretations of them, makes it possible to follow your own intepretations of those theories. Thank you!
I was super intrigued regarding your theories about the country. That was a MAJOR loose end for me in the game and no matter how hard I tried to interpret it I couldn't come up with an answer I liked. Thank you so much, subscribed and wishing you future luck on this channel :)
This is honestly more satisfying than finishing the game. I think I liked Transistor but the story is so vague about so many elements it's hard to be invested. I still don't feel like I have a solid grasp on any of it.
OpyDoesStory Because of the high quality of the video I was sure your channel had at least 10k subs I was really surprised to find it is just in its infancy, so I guess you do something right! By the way where are you from, by the accent I'd guess Scandinavia?
Xx1454xX I tried to establish what I consider high quality from day one and not rush videos out, so it's great to hear you appreciate it! You are quite right, I'm from Sweden. Still struggling a bit with some pronunciations and language flow, but I hope my English is understandable enough. =)
Thanks for this video! I just finished playing through Transistor for the third time, just to get all the story beats, and really enjoy this analysis content.
In my opinion,the moment the Boxer was stabbed,before being absorbed into the Transistor he was had enough time to hack into the Transistor (Hence his ability Breach() ) and do 3 things. 1: Make himself the User of the Transistor 2: Teleport himself and Red away from the Camerata. 3: Turn the Transistor's "lock" off so that anyone wielding it would control it,explaining how Red suddenly without any knowledge of it managed to become its User. A thing of importance is that while the Transistor is stabbed in the Boxer waiting to be picked up by Red,it lists its User as "Signed off" not as non-existent. Aka it still has its User but he/she is signed off. Pretty sure Grant would still be signed on was he the actual User at the time. What i think happened is the Transistor still thinking its User is the Boxer basically said "User: Dead". I don't buy the "Since he didn't vote once the Transistor glitched out" seems kind of ah cheap reason without concrete evidence and a very convienient one as well. Another speculation about why the Transistor and Process got corrupted is that the Boxer was a hacker that hacked himself into the VR hence not having any data. A missingno inside the VR hence when the Transistor tried to absorb him Aka download his data,it downloaded basically random data,gibberish,trash. Which made it absolutely glitch out like the Pokemon games did once you had captured Missingno making the game LOAD gibberish data,corrupting the game.
The transistor was not coded to handle a user with zero trace, so it raised an exception, and the exception handler simply reset the state of the sword to "unattached" But yeah, hacker is definitely a probability.
From understanding the camerata actually wanted to make a republic which is why they are collecting various special individuals in the transistor so they could be the sole voters on how the city changes thus becoming a republic and since they were also influential people they would be able to represent various groups of people in the city
phoenixc4 Also highly possible! The only thing that leave me wondering is that it sounds rather like a "informed dictatorship" rather than a republic. But then again, Grant's profile hints at him getting delusions of grandeur, so it's highly possible this was his version of democracy.
The fantastic quality of your videos does not match the amount of views you are getting! Thank you for the best video of speculation I've found! :) Best of luck for your channel!
The whole idea of that "simulation" was quite interesting,and the closest to seem being truth,for me) Thanks for this vid,it heled pretty much and inspired to think of other theories)
Asher is of Hebrew origin. It means 'happy', which some would argue relates to he being gay. I believe that when Red mentions fire and coals in her music she is referencing ASHer.
I guess it's like the matrix. People hooked to a fake reality they believe is real. I really wanted to know more about the final fight area. Why so many transistors? What are those capsules? Is that the country? Why did they need to fight to get back? Red could have just let the other guy live to recreate it if she had no intent to do it.
The video was great but I kept getting distracted by the musicccc why must it be so gooooddd xdd I wish Transistors fanbase were bigger it's so damn good
What if Cloudbank is like the world inside computers like in the movie Tron? The Camerata figure out that there is an external world just like the characters in the movie Tron.
Your theories are definitely well thought out, but I still disagree with most of them. I believed that each trace was like the soul of person, and that each person was a function. Gaining functions outside of traces is not canon. You definitely made the simulation theory convincing, but I still don't believe that the citizens are people-people. There are some things I did notice you didn't mention, mostly on the Camerata. Mainly that Sybil Reisz joined the Camerata to get revenge against Red and Auden. She manipulated and lied to the Camerata, intentionally planning on killing Auden. I can speak more, but if you listen to In Circles things begin to clear up. The Country does mess with my head... It would be much easier to grasp if there weren't so many giant Transistors there. Oh, and I forgot to mention: Unknown/The Boxer's name is Auden.
Also Boxer can communicate with Red most likely due the the information we are given by the end of the game when he is explaining stuff about the transistor you find a file of his that talks about his theory that if someone has a strong connection with a trace they may be able to actually talk with the individual. I also read on the reddit that Asher's name means happy or you could say it means gay (in the happy sense of coarse). Also another reason why the Camerata could have Sibyl part of them is because Sibyl was also friends with just about everyone which might mean she could communicate with all the traces in the transistor.
phoenixc4 Yupp, I actually missed that bit (was quite stressed out and tired and just wanted to get the video done, so I got a tad sloppy there I'm afraid ^^), so you are most likely right. Also, your point about Sibyl being able to communicate with all traces is a great observation! Hadn't even though of that! Thanks for sharing it! =)
5:03 "The development of Cloudbank is just going in circles..." I see what you did there.
Though this video was nothing more than theories and educated guesses, this definitely gave so much closure for me. I usually hate looking up the answers to interpretive stories like these, but when the game ended, there were so many questions I still had with the story and I could not come up with any answers on my own.
I can see you put a lot of work into this, and it helped me out with a lot of the questions I had. Good luck to your channel man. It may be a grind getting views at first, but I'm sure if you keep putting work into your videos like you did here, you'll grow :]
+Jackal The main point is that the ending isn't as bitter as it first seems - because Cloudbanks is "just" a computer program.
Cloudbank and everything and everyone in it are either real people hooked to a VR (the VR being the program that is Cloudbank) or just part of the autonomous simulation that is Cloudbank (it is often alluded that the system works in cycles without any output by Outsiders needed) - so "restoring" the city like it seems possible in the end doesn't really accomplish anything.
Something that I noticed was that the camerata's logo is similar to the shape of a transistor circuit
+Xx_LumberjackmikeFTW_xX Very true! And probably not a coincidence. =)
Great video, it deserves more views! I'd personally always felt that 'the country" was within the Transistor, since it seems like the Boxer is already there, and Red impales herself with the Transistor to apparently get there with him herself. My theory was that by the end of the game, the Transistor has absorbed so much data and so many people, it has become a whole new world in and of itself, OR it has sent all that data to a new system elsewhere, making it more like a gateway, or that its physical size within the world of Cloudbank was not indicative of its actual size in terms of memory. This theory doesn't necessarily work with the "virtual world with real people" theory quite so well as a "virtual world with simulated data people" one (though this can work with themes of transhumanism and the idea of uploaded consciousness). You also see people in storage within the Transistor during the final boss, which I feel must be significant in some way. I wonder if perhaps Cloudbank is just too far gone by the end, and that the actual purpose of the Transistor was collecting any remaining data it could and migrating it to a new system (the country, a blank slate not yet built up), since a Transistor is something that can send signals, and we saw that collecting data from people and absorbing the cells left by processes increased its power.
But in the end, Transistor doesn't really give any concrete answers, so it's fun to speculate and hear other people's thoughts on the matter!
Kate Holden Thank you! =) Actually that theory could be applicable to the VR-theory as well. After all, there is nothing really stating that the place Red and the Boxer is The Country, at the very least not the same one that the other characters refer to. I am also under the impression that they end up in the Transistor, given how similar it looks to the area where Red battles Royce. Also, it does seem like more people know about The Country than know about the Transistor, so honestly the idea that a new virtual world has been born withing the Transistor is an appealing one indeed. =)
Honestly, your comment got my mind racing again, so I'll probably be speculating about this for the rest of the week! =P Thank you, discussions like these really are so much fun! =)
So, I have my own speculations and will start with what I'm most "sure" of (it's still up for interpretations) and then go to stuff that is more and more speculative:
1. The world of Cloudbank is a computer "program" of some sort, either a VR or a simulation. This is not only shown by the many, *many* names alluding to this, but also by the ease and speed of the changes "voted" upon.
2. The "people" of Cloudbank are, because of my first point, either digital interpretations of real people hooked up to the VR or completely autonomous simulations - they are most likely the *latter* because the entire system/program of Cloudbank is *autonomous* aswell.
3. The system works in cycles, constantly changing, thus never allowing *true* (long-term) change. This is done to give the simulated "people" of Cloudbank the sense of a "living"/changing world without having to constantly program additional content. The purpose of this is unclear, it could be an experiment or simply a simulation for an *Outsider* (an actual human) to watch just like a movie.
4. The "voting" system is "rigged" in that it will always lead to the cyclical changes explained above, nothing ever stays the same for long so no meaningful change ever occurs.
5. The Camerata found out about this by studying the long-term "changes" (there were none) that occured (or rather didn't) in Cloudbank - thus their creed: "If everything changes, nothing does."
6. The Camerata wanted to change the entire system for good, only allowing a few true "visionaries" to decide on a select few permanent (or at least long-term) changes. They "sucked" the "essence" (the base programming) of those "people" (either sims or digital avatars of people hooked to the VR) into the Transistor to use the Transistor as a "brush" to "paint" those changes.
7. To do this, the Camerata wanted to use the Process to "wipe" small, selected parts of Cloudbank "clean" - an "open canvas" for the "brush" that the Transistor was to them - filled with all the brimming ideas of the visionaries "trapped" inside.
8. When they tried to get Red, "Blue" (or "Breach") intervened, saving her, but getting "sucked" inside the Transistor in her stead.
9. This caused the Camerata to lose control of the Process who proceeded to wipe everything (the entire "memory") clean.
10. (highly speculative): "Blue" actually was *the* Outsider (thus his function: "Breach"), most likely a programmer/hacker of the program that was Cloudbank (or maybe just a customer of the VR or, more likely, the autonomous simulation) - who fell in love with Red and managed to intervene.
11. (highly speculative): This actually lead to the Process going haywire because an Outsider getting stored inside the Transistor lead to a critical error.
I think "the country" is an ideal that the people of cloudbank hold as city dwellers and as such it serves as their idea of the heaven or the afterlife they hope for. The Boxer even uses the phrase when talking to a broken OVC. I think the Transistor may appear as the country because Red and the Boxer will it to be. I think Royce sees it differently, such as how he stated that it was like looking up into the sky when he peaked in.
I'm not sure what to think about the location's lore. I think it is important to note that the Process has trouble interacting with water. Also the people there clearly eat and use bathrooms, or at least wash up. And I think people aren't really taking into account the information on Red and the other people in the transistor when they talk about Cloudbank.
It is stated in Red's background that she went to a school focused on city planning but was the first to push for the arts there. Many of the other arts related characters in the transistor have mentions of angering the administrators or causing trouble. This indicates that the Camerata's belief that nothing is really changing may not be true. It is also mentioned that Red disappeared out of the public for a while because her music stirred controversy and caused a fight where the administrators had to get involved. This is described as "rare". So fights don't break out often I guess? People outvoted don't ever put up much of bother then? No riots? Odd.
Maybe the society there is rooted in something more utilitarian, basic, and hive minded like the Process but has evolved to be more individualized and sentient, becoming more aware of their abilities to be used for expression rather than just utilitarian needs. This is starting to cause conflict as it disagrees with the way their society is built and was beginning to try to change when the Camerata messed up and rewrote it all.
I think Grant's perception we read about has to be flawed. Maybe change was happening but not fast enough? Or maybe it wasn't the way he saw change needing to go?
My theory is that the city is writing over its history just like it rewrites its buildings. Maybe it doesn't have space to do otherwise? Or maybe its deleted to be more efficient since not many others seem to care about their history. Or maybe even the people voted to delete the history at some point because they didn't like it.
I've only recently beaten this game, and I actually thought a lot of the same things that you have while I was playing after reading all the bios, but there are lot of things that I still just can't figure out, specifically the phrase "The Country" just keeps tripping me up. Especially because in Red's song "We All become" she actually expresses a desire to pack it all in and go to the country herself...
Red is a strange one, lets not forget her music was allegedly the cause of a small riot, and she brought someone to the venue who'd been banned (was it the boxer?) But I'll lead with this idea. I think Red was in the Transistor at the start of the game.
-"Red survived the incident, becoming separated from the Camerata due to these unforeseen events on their part. Although her trace data remains intact, partial transfer did occur, including transfer of ownership status of something the Camerata believed theirs."-
When you see the flashback upon reaching the empty set, Red definitely "appears" from somewhere, not far away is the body of the Boxer with the Transistor and they are all of the OTHER side of the city from where they were just attacked. Very close to Fairview where Royce has hidden the cradle for the Transistor... I think what happened is both Red and the Boxer were processed, but because he stepped in front at the last minute she was able to escape because together they overloaded (!) it's memory. While using turn, little hints pop up at the top and one of them says functions with higher memory load with overload first.
Red was pushed out of The Transistor as it glitched out and tried to return to the cradle, but it had already partially processed her voice when it overloaded. Trying to process the overloaded data, along with the Boxer's unusual trace profile caused most of the data to become corrupted and I think this is the reason why the Boxer is "free" inside the Transistor and able to speak to Red, rather than being stuck in one of those data stasis/storage cubes. Once the Transistor started functioning again (pardon the pun) it registered Red as the new user because it already had some of her trace data intact.
on to "The Country". We already know that she and the Boxer wanted to leave town from comments he makes in game right at the start and at a few other points, and from reading into that from the song lyrics, so this could be interpreted as "The Country" being a real place outside of the city that she was already vaguely suicidal to begin with.
But when I thought that, apart from just seeming wrong it lead me in yet another direction. In real life when you think of the countryside vs a city, one of the things that comes to mind is; less technology. With Cloudbank being so(oooo) technologically advanced, and the phrase being so wide spread, it really could just be a kind of slang way of referring to a place, or any places with less technology than Cloudbank. That, for me, would account for how the phrase seems to refer to so many different things at once, and blurs into becoming this reference to an afterlife. But personally I don't buy that it's -only- a reference to an afterlife because it wouldn't make sense for everyone in a supposed utopia to continually reference death like that.
Back to the Boxer. I think the reason he doesn't have a trace is because he's not from Cloudbank. At the time I'm writing this I can't remember the exact quote but he says something to this effect the first time you examine his function. The text also practically gives it away in saying that almost no one *from* Cloudbank would decline to make a selection. He also mentions how much he hated parts of Cloudbank, High rise in particular until he found out that was where Red lived (this also leads me back to thinking he was the one who was banned from the venue of her previous gig, and was involved in or started the fight). I think that's significant because apart from Red and a few of the other "rebels" the Camerata were after, everyone else seems to love Cloudbank. Even the Camerata actually wanted to preserve the "current" Cloudbank.
The "current" Cloudbank also leads me to agree with it being some kind of VR but I think it's more like the holo-deck in star trek that people can interact with in real time; just on the scale of a city rather than one room.
Mainly because of the food and people but also because once the Process gets quite advanced in the game, you can actually see that parts of the city are made of computer components that are no longer projecting the same as the rest of the area (not the white Process blocks. You can see it most in the Archive just before finding Asher and Grant. some things look like part of the building and other things are basically giant CPU's). Also because when you use the Transistor you can actually see a virtual bit map of the surrounding area in what appears to be it's uncoded form.
With all that said, I can't think why people would live in a city like this to begin with outside of the fact that you'd be able to change it. That seems to be the appeal of Cloudbank. And yet the Camerata don't want it to change anymore. It all just gets confusing the longer I think about it. (definitely need to play again a few more times)
One last thing. The Historian Bailey Gilande. Gender X (everyone else is listed M or F so I doubt it's for chromosome)
Come again? Was she a cyborg? I just don't know.
Also (one more last thing), She was a Historian... A Historian! and apparently a really bloody good one.
If Asher was looking for history on Cloudbank, why did the Camerata process her? seems as if she would have been the perfect person to ask. I'm personally getting unreliable narrator tingles. A lot of what the Camerata say they wanted to do, doesn't add up with what they were actually doing.
I also agree with Cloudbank being a virtual world or a computer because new game plus are both references to computers or at least a virtual world. Also I believe another reason why the User of the transistor was transifier was if I remember correctly the transistor actually switched the User to Boxer as he was killed by the transistor because if I remember correctly if you read Boxer's trace data the little we have it says somewhere that the User was changed and after when you get warped away from the set if believe the transistor says on it acquireing new user before you pick it up as Red
phoenixc4 As far as I can find, there is no mention of Boxer being the user in his data, but that info might be elsewhere. The reason it says acquiring new user could be because it had transferred to Red and was just waiting for her to grab it. Either that, or the ownership had been completely erased after the failed assassination. Just wild speculation on my part though. =)
This is a great video, definitely helped reinforce my reading of the game. One tiny tidbit that stands out to me though, which somehow I hadn't caught during my first dozen play-throughs, is Royce's voice overlaid with The Boxer's in the opening cutscene on a recursion run. Implying perhaps that the recursions are in fact canon, and that the events of the game are some sort of simulation in itself.
Some WILD speculation here, but maybe Red was in fact assimilated into the transistor as planned from the beginning, and what we experience as players is merely the process of a trace coping with said assimilation. Upon a less than perfect melding however (IE not all functions being enabled/not yet being strong enough) the assimilation process is reset from the point of contact with the transistor to allow another chance at it; albeit with more strain being put on the trace (manifesting as the "enemies" being much more difficult).
Obviously this falls apart when considering that there isn't some "true" ending to be unlocked from beating the game with everything maxed out, but I still think it's an interesting additional wrinkle worth pondering.
It's a bad idea to try and talk over the magnificent Transistor soundtrack mate xD my ears gravitate to listen to it involuntarily
i guess you'll be a hidden gem for a while. hopefully more in the future :)
tr1bute1 Thanks man, really appreciate it! Hope you enjoyed the video! =)
Great video, especially liked that you give certain theories and your interpretations of them, makes it possible to follow your own intepretations of those theories. Thank you!
Recycer Thank you for your kind words, it really means a lot! =)
I was super intrigued regarding your theories about the country. That was a MAJOR loose end for me in the game and no matter how hard I tried to interpret it I couldn't come up with an answer I liked. Thank you so much, subscribed and wishing you future luck on this channel :)
This is honestly more satisfying than finishing the game. I think I liked Transistor but the story is so vague about so many elements it's hard to be invested. I still don't feel like I have a solid grasp on any of it.
I love the idea of this channel, keep those quality videos coming regularly and I suspect you are going to get a lot of traffic, good luck!
You have no idea how much reading that warms the heart. Thank you!
OpyDoesStory Because of the high quality of the video I was sure your channel had at least 10k subs I was really surprised to find it is just in its infancy, so I guess you do something right!
By the way where are you from, by the accent I'd guess Scandinavia?
Xx1454xX I tried to establish what I consider high quality from day one and not rush videos out, so it's great to hear you appreciate it!
You are quite right, I'm from Sweden. Still struggling a bit with some pronunciations and language flow, but I hope my English is understandable enough. =)
Thanks for this video! I just finished playing through Transistor for the third time, just to get all the story beats, and really enjoy this analysis content.
In my opinion,the moment the Boxer was stabbed,before being absorbed into the Transistor he was had enough time to hack into the Transistor (Hence his ability Breach() ) and do 3 things.
1: Make himself the User of the Transistor
2: Teleport himself and Red away from the Camerata.
3: Turn the Transistor's "lock" off so that anyone wielding it would control it,explaining how Red suddenly without any knowledge of it managed to become its User.
A thing of importance is that while the Transistor is stabbed in the Boxer waiting to be picked up by Red,it lists its User as "Signed off" not as non-existent. Aka it still has its User but he/she is signed off. Pretty sure Grant would still be signed on was he the actual User at the time. What i think happened is the Transistor still thinking its User is the Boxer basically said "User: Dead".
I don't buy the "Since he didn't vote once the Transistor glitched out" seems kind of ah cheap reason without concrete evidence and a very convienient one as well.
Another speculation about why the Transistor and Process got corrupted is that the Boxer was a hacker that hacked himself into the VR hence not having any data. A missingno inside the VR hence when the Transistor tried to absorb him Aka download his data,it downloaded basically random data,gibberish,trash. Which made it absolutely glitch out like the Pokemon games did once you had captured Missingno making the game LOAD gibberish data,corrupting the game.
The transistor was not coded to handle a user with zero trace, so it raised an exception, and the exception handler simply reset the state of the sword to "unattached"
But yeah, hacker is definitely a probability.
From understanding the camerata actually wanted to make a republic which is why they are collecting various special individuals in the transistor so they could be the sole voters on how the city changes thus becoming a republic and since they were also influential people they would be able to represent various groups of people in the city
phoenixc4 Also highly possible! The only thing that leave me wondering is that it sounds rather like a "informed dictatorship" rather than a republic. But then again, Grant's profile hints at him getting delusions of grandeur, so it's highly possible this was his version of democracy.
The fantastic quality of your videos does not match the amount of views you are getting! Thank you for the best video of speculation I've found! :)
Best of luck for your channel!
0AirBlast Haha, you are too kind, thank you! =D
Unknown's (the Boxer's) name is Auden.
The whole idea of that "simulation" was quite interesting,and the closest to seem being truth,for me)
Thanks for this vid,it heled pretty much and inspired to think of other theories)
Asher is of Hebrew origin. It means 'happy', which some would argue relates to he being gay.
I believe that when Red mentions fire and coals in her music she is referencing ASHer.
I know I'm very late to this, but great video! What do you think about recursion mode though?
Cloudbank reminds me a lot of EDEN from Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and Digimon Story Hacker's Memory.
I guess it's like the matrix. People hooked to a fake reality they believe is real. I really wanted to know more about the final fight area.
Why so many transistors? What are those capsules? Is that the country? Why did they need to fight to get back? Red could have just let the other guy live to recreate it if she had no intent to do it.
The video was great but I kept getting distracted by the musicccc why must it be so gooooddd xdd I wish Transistors fanbase were bigger it's so damn good
What if Cloudbank is like the world inside computers like in the movie Tron? The Camerata figure out that there is an external world just like the characters in the movie Tron.
The 13th Floor is a more suitable movie 😉
@@PanduPoluan I haven't seen it.
@@Overonator Ooh, you should!
Transistor is just an expansion on the old Canadian cartoon show REBOOT.
Your theories are definitely well thought out, but I still disagree with most of them.
I believed that each trace was like the soul of person, and that each person was a function. Gaining functions outside of traces is not canon. You definitely made the simulation theory convincing, but I still don't believe that the citizens are people-people.
There are some things I did notice you didn't mention, mostly on the Camerata. Mainly that Sybil Reisz joined the Camerata to get revenge against Red and Auden. She manipulated and lied to the Camerata, intentionally planning on killing Auden. I can speak more, but if you listen to In Circles things begin to clear up.
The Country does mess with my head... It would be much easier to grasp if there weren't so many giant Transistors there.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Unknown/The Boxer's name is Auden.
The transistor is more like the flash drive.