A Few Questions About the Manpigs

[ThatCrazyShaman]

- Adding in a couple more things I thought of, as well as condensing this a bit, to keep things neat -

[Leaving this in for the hell of it lol] Do the Manpigs kill Mandus, or just knock him out?

Spoiler below!

This has been a question I've had ever since playing TDD, but I've never seen anyone bring it up anywhere, so I figured I'd do it, as I have the same question about AMFP.

In TDD, you'll notice that once a monster has dispatched Daniel [with the exception of the Kaernk, I believe?], he respawns a bit further back from where he was, usually in a moderately safer area. For instance, in the prison he respawns in that one room where the Grunt will spawn when the door is opened, and he hears Alexander questioning the Grunt, presumably, as to where Daniel is and if he's safe.

That was what got me to originally thinking that perhaps Alexander had told his servants to just knock Daniel out and move him to a safe area, in the hopes that he'd come to his senses and turn back.

Additionally, there's the fact that the Grunts could have just easily killed Daniel in the Chancel when they gang up on him, but after knocking him out, one of them locks him up in the cell area.

Quite obviously, Alexander doesn't want Daniel dead, whether it's to keep the Shadow from just coming after him, or because he genuinely likes Daniel [which he does seem to - he continues to call him his friend long after Daniel's made it clear that he wants to murder him].

Is the same true for AMFP, though? I don't know for sure as I haven't had the time to screw around with it just yet, and when I played I only died a few times.

I had read that there are at least a couple of instances involving the Wretch in which it sounded like they just knocked Mandus out and then moved him somewhere out of the way, as in TDD. The one time I allowed a Wretch to "kill" Mandus in the piston room, he respawned in a remote corner. I think I've also seen where he respawns behind some boxes around there.

I suppose it could be that the Wretches actually care about him to some extent [which would be a tad weird, considering]. After all, they do attack him rather half-heartedly [they take a while to do the total amount of damage needed to K.O. him - although that could just be because they're physically weak - and they pause between hits, as though they're purposly giving him the opportunity to run].

They also could have just killed him in the mansion, instead of running away all the time, This is part of the reason why I think that the Wretches [at least some of them] don't want Mandus to restart the machine [because they seem to try to drive him off while he endeavors to do so, but, with the exception of the one that gets electrocuted, they don't seem to be around all that much after he succeeds. Rather, he has to worry about Engineers and Teslas at that point, as he decides to disable it once again].

The Engineers and Teslas, on the other hand, don't really have a reason to be all that endeared to him, so they'd be far more likely to just flat out murder him. In the case of Teslas, they just seem to murder whatever crosses their path.

Thoughts?

Do Manpigs have pig or human brains?

Spoiler below!

I can see where this could go either way, although I’d have to think they have human brains. Namely because, while pigs are quite intelligent, I highly doubt you could ever teach a pig how to write or operate machinery [or drive a truck, for that matter]. Their ability to learn is less driven by complex reasoning and more by cues.

Mandus’ comment about humans being ‘rotten with sentimentality’, and allusions to forcing the hand of evolution, would seem to support the idea of them potentially retaining the pig brain, but, again, pigs aren’t quite that smart. And changing something’s body structure isn’t going to cause its brain capacity to evolve over night, either.

Not to mention, would you really lobotomize a pig for any reason, let alone so they don’t completely freak out when they see themselves in the mirror?

Yes, all mammals share the same set of emotions, but in non-ape species they seem to be less complex in that department. I grew up spending a lot of time around farm animals, and I can say that their emotions are a bit more straightforward, more black-and-white, than human emotions. I don’t really see why you would need to lobotomize them if they had pig brains – it’s not like it made them any less emotional, regardless.

If they did have human brains, this could, in theory, explain a little bit of their general behavior. Lobotomies were notorious for changing the personality of whomever they were performed on, and one of the known effects was that it could greatly diminish mental capacity. Another potential side effect [which they may or may not have been aware of in 1899] was that the patient would sometimes become fairly aggressive – and in a couple of cases, they actually sought-out and attacked the practitioner who lobotomized them.

Do the Manpigs have some method of communicating with Mandus, aside from writing? As in – and I use this term loosely here – some form of speaking?

Spoiler below!

This has bugged me every time I go back through the game. I know it sounds completely ridiculous, but the vague nature of the story’s timeline makes me question it, due to the loading screen mentioning the foreman. Also, the whole thing about them singing, although I suppose that really comes down to what one considers to be singing.

I figure that Mandus probably would have kept around at least a few members of his human workforce until close to when the game takes place [since I find the idea of orphans working alongside of Manpigs to be a little… bizarre]. The dates on the notes place the creation of the Manpigs before he mentions the orphan portion of the workforce at all, though, so they did in fact exist in that timeframe, at least.

It just gets me to questioning how Mandus would communicate with them, if at all [as working with individuals who have the ability to clearly communicate ideas is far easier, especially in an establishment in which any number of things could go horribly wrong].

If we assume that Manpigs have human brains, we could also assume that perhaps some of them were subject to having their pig vocal cords replaced with those of a human [although their squealing would clearly suggest otherwise]. That, or Mandus can interpret pig-speak.
It makes more sense to think that the Machine tells him anything important, and his interactions with the Manpigs are limited to him giving them orders and whatnot. Just thought I’d throw the question out there, though.