Probably the biggest debate was which path to pick, Natah, Lotus or Margulis. Wanted to post my thoughts on the whole matter.
I kinda regret picking Margulis but the way I see it, the Lotus was created by the Orokin, a false persona and nothing would have been fixed by returning her to that state.
Natah was who she originally was, a sentient fighting against the Orokin and Tenno. But the thing is I dont think she could fully go back to that past, its long gone. Both by what Ballas and the Orokin did to her but also by her relationship with us the tenno.
Its why I picked Margulis. To me it’s kinda like a mix of who she was, and who she wants to be now. Margulis loved the tenno, but Lotus isn’t fully margulis she’s still her own person, just now takes the role and name of the tennos ‘mother’. Like the quest said, Margulis is only leading the other two personalities and over time I beleive they will meld into the person she truly is.
Anyways what are yalls thoughts on this?
I’m actually in awe of how well they handled this choice because each one of them has fantastic ironclad reasons why. I chose Lotus because I viewed her as wanting to “reclaim” that role for herself. She isn’t Margulis, she isn’t Natah anymore, she is the Lotus who protects and stabilizes the Origin system.
This was my thought process exactly. That’s her role, and she’s reclaiming it now. It helps that the appearance that she chose immediately after killing Ballas was her new Radiant Lotus skin, giving the perfect embodiment of her new, reclaimed identity.
I picked Natah.
If you believe the narrative that the Orokin forcibly modified Natah into being our caretaker then it feels wrong to do the same.
If you believe that Natah infiltrated the Orokin to become our ‘caretaker’ so she could kill us but then decided against that because she came to love us as her own, then she was always Natah.
I picked Natah, but I can see the argument that Lotus is the “best” choice, because it’s ultimately the result of Lotus individuating and making her own identity; from a place of being a fake Margulis, and the legacy of the Sentient’s alien wrath against the Origin system.
That said, I picked Natah for two reasons. First I like RPing as a Sun Tenno because I think Sun makes some interesting bad choices. On one hand it’s a heroic disposition, but it has the rough edges of wrath, recklessness and brashness. By my own personal morality for example, I think the Sun choice at the end of Glast Gambit is pretty monstrous, but a natural consequence of the flaw of impulsive wrath. From that, Natah is a natural extension of those flaws, albeit also with the Sun disposition’s incredible potential to do good in the Origin System.
I also picked Natah because a big theme of the story up to that point seemed to be getting the Lotus back, and restoring Natah specifically seemed to be restoring her to a state before anyone else had really meddled with her identity and personal narrative. On reflection though, there are definitely two Natahs, the first being the Sentient warrior during their first incursion, bearing the dreams and goals and culture of this Sentient vanguard; the second being an imposition by her grieving and wrathful family in Erra and Hunhow. Still, I personally view Natah as a return to an original state, shaped by family and culture, and this is really important to me as a diasporic person from a very family-oriented culture.
I also like the complete moral incoherence between Natah and the end of Glast Gambit, lol. Adds a lot of flavour to how messy the Sun disposition is, and adds to the slight hint that Sun is a bit of a classical tragic hero; within the constraints that the Tenno aren’t allowed to make catastrophically bad decisions.
I went with Natah for similar reasons for the other posts here, but after some time I probably would have gone with Lotus.
That said, yeah, it seems like a temporary leading role and it was well done. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Imma be honest, I didn’t really care about any of them all that much, I literally choose Margulis because boobs
I chose Natah. At the time I didn’t really have some big rationalization for it, I literally just chose it because I like the sentient look for her.
However, over the course of Archon Hunting and getting dialog about Pazuul and possessed-Erra’s Narmer it’s clear that she still cares, not just in the she’s the order-keeper of the System and Pazuul is a threat, about her original family.
To me it feels like she’s not/no-longer being forced to be someone she isn’t however simultaneously she’s not forced to be her old self either. She seemed to be aware of who she use to be from the Natah quest and just hiding it behind the name/appearance change. Seems like if the Orokin did originally do anything to her it was recontextualizing her thoughts/experiences rather than overwriting or erasing much/anything.
She doesn’t have to hide behind her mask now weather she made it herself or if it was forced on her. She can be herself but that doesn’t mean her time wearing the mask has to have had no/little effect on her. She’s grown over time like most people do.
Since it wasn’t clear to me at the time what impact this choice will have and if I’ll be able to change it, even through a skin, I picked Margulis because I wanted a fully human looking face to talk to me for a change from all the Cephalons, masks, and weirdos.
Natah, might as well let her be herself after all that.
It was easy Natah for me.
She was never Margulis. Lotus was manufactured false persona. Natah is who she was born to be.
Natah might also please grandaddy Hunhow.
I picked Natah. I feel like lotus would also have been an ok choice for þis, but: Margulis and lotus feel kinda imposed upon her, raþer þan being of her own choice. In þe quests, we learn þat she does actually want to help þe tenno, but I feel like she can do þat whilst still remaining her original self.
The way I saw it Natah is who she was born as, and was who she was at the start of the old war. Lotus is the shared dream of the tenno for her, dream not of what you are but of what you want to be and all that. Margulis I always viewed as being the falsest of the identities. IMO she was never truly Margulis, Margulis was just the base chosen for her recreation by the tenno.
I ended up picking Lotus, because I dont think going back to the Natah she once was would be true to who she is now, and I don’t thino she was ever really Margulis to begin with. Lotus is her present to me, it represents who she has become more than who she was before.
I went margulis because i didnt want to pay for the icon down the line. Unless i misunderstood how it works.