Tales from the Dawn #3: "A Question of Life" (Hermes)

[Cilia]

I liked it, but then again I like Hermes as a character unironically, which from what I can gather is a pretty rare thing.

[thegreatonemal]

I liked it, but then again I like Hermes as a character unironically, which from what I can gather is a pretty rare thing.

On this forum anyway. Man was desperately trying to find out he wasn't alone and the universe was like "No".

[tokinokanatae]

I think this story tells you all you need to know about Hermes when you read the scene where he watches his "daughter" die in his arms and she's the one that has to get up and console him about it afterwards.

[Brightamethyst]

To me some of it reads as, despite everything Hermes still considers all the creations as disposable and replaceable. All the talk about deeply feeling for everyone and everything mean nothing when he's keeps throwing creation after creation into the meat grinder for the sake of curiosity.

[SannaR]

I liked it. Again just like the last one I wasn't expecting to get a story from Herme's view. I'm glad that we got to see what he was feeling and thinking while waiting for us to climb Kitis. Along with that Meteion did get some peer-to-peer review. I do wonder if he actually told the others the actual question or if it was more of him saying he just wants to send a creation out into space to see if there's other life. It is interesting that she could also get destroyed by violent pockets of dynamis. This just again reiterates how being melancholy or having other less pleasant feelings or mindset wasn't socially acceptable. To me Hythlodaeus lamenting about the destruction of the creations inside Kitis was more from a "Oh damn that R&D project will be set back when it was in final testing." standpoint then an "Oh I wish we weren't killing all these poor animals." standpoint.

Even though there are others at Elpis who might share in Herme's woes or have similar thoughts I'm not sure socially it would be acceptable to go and tell your higher up that you need a day or two off due to the mindset the work has put them in. If anyone outside maybe an Azem those at Elpis would probably be the first to notice any kind of stagnation in creativity. Or society as a whole since realistically how many different creatures do you need to make that all do the same exact job but just look different.

[Cleretic]

I liked it, but then again I like Hermes as a character unironically, which from what I can gather is a pretty rare thing.

Hermes is a fantastically-written character, he's just a fantastically-written flawed character, in a way that I don't think a few people here like. All popularity polls consistently put him pretty decently high-up; he's not exactly cracking the 'Popular Hot Guys To Ship With' bloc of Emet/Zenos/Haurchefaunt/G'raha, but he's also nowhere near the 'joke/cult favorite submission' range that still votes for Ysayle and the Great Serpent of Ronka. The official forums are very much an outlier, no matter what some seem to think.

I think some people wanted to learn the truth about him and find a slick coolguy they can claim to be objectively right and possibly also their husband, and weren't happy to instead find out that he's a shy, probably-depressed man who's too deep in his own head to notice he made mistakes until it was too late, and while yes you could say he's your husband I think we're all aware that such a relationship would be generously considered 'high-maintenance'.

[Kozh]

Quite interesting story. My favorite parts are the confirmation of Hermes's coworkers helping him with designing Meteion's appearance and the bit part where we get a glimpse of Meteion's journey. We need more lore like this.

As for hermes himself, well, it's as I've predicted. Basically he is just a toxic, hypocrite, pathetic man. The type who lashed out when people around him are sympathizing with him and genuinely want to help him. It's sad that one of the main weaknesses of the Ancients society is that they are too nice. They can't say no to hermes, and indulge him instead.

[KageTokage]

It is a little ironic that the only thing that really differentiated Hermes from the other Ancients was that he felt remorse for the creations sacrificed in pursuit of his goals.

The fact that he willfully sent countless Meteia to their deaths in process of testing them instead of pursuing an avenue of creation less likely to result in suffering for the involved raises doubts about how kind of a person he truly was to me.

[Vyrerus]

I liked it, but then again I like Hermes as a character unironically, which from what I can gather is a pretty rare thing.

Visually and for a villain he's pretty great. The first scene where he doffs his mask was especially eye catching for me, because at the time my Highlander had black hair(and still has pale green eyes).



And I do actually like this story. It was the most interesting so far, by far.

I think like most of the Elpis arc though... he wasn't really properly fleshed out. It's all a little dreamy back then, but I had woken up. The dream was all over.

[Cleretic]

It is a little ironic that the only thing that really differentiated Hermes from the other Ancients was that he felt remorse for the creations sacrificed in pursuit of his goals.

The fact that he willfully sent countless Meteia to their deaths in process of testing them instead of pursuing an avenue of creation less likely to result in suffering for the involved raises doubts about how kind of a person he truly was to me.

It might be that this is a scene more demonstrating the reason he has that stance, rather than him already having that stance and willingly going against it. Sure, he's clearly a softie, but it might be that this is the point where he starts going 'wait, our method is horrifying'.

It's also possible that while he does feel that way already, he might just be stuck with this method because there aren't yet alternatives. The people who want to improve society aren't morally deficient for still living in it, and similarly Hermes might just straight-up not have other ways to do this.