>>64123678
Strelok has seen behind the curtain more so than any other character, he knows the c-consciousness is a crock of shit; so its bizarre to see him simping for it and eventually joining it.
Strider has spent the last decade running his alcoholics anonymous support group for monolithians, then he suddenly relapses, turns schizo and dies. Totally pointless.
Sidorovich, nimble, wolf, valerian, all did nothing like they were frozen in time. Which would be fine if it were the original trilogy where all the events take place in the space of a few months, but its supposed to have been at least 10 years since 2012, maybe longer.
Which also makes it strange what a glow-up many characters had. Wolf is now a youthful neckbeard and Hermann went from a typical pasty nerd to a handsome model that you'd see in ads for turtlenecks or spectacles.
I figure wolf and valerian are there as recognizable fanservice, but they're strange picks for that role because we see wolf leave the cordon in SoC (and die in a campfire), and valerians base was sanitized by the military; so its dubious either of them would be alive and certainly not doing the same shit.
Valerian in particular is sad, because he was actually in the zone long before the first emission; making him one of the most blooded and experienced stalkers around. Nope, just another washed up loser who not even Sidorovich respects enough to keep around.
Which is also true of major Degtyarev, a very experienced stalker relegated to essentially a gate guard. No influence on anything important, getting cucked out of that by Ward, the ISPF and Sircaa.
Duty and freedom are totally irrelevant, freedom not even being anarchist anymore. Myklukas dialog acts like duty are the dinosaurs who cant let go of the past, but freedom seem to have let go so hard that I don't even understand what they're doing or what their principles are; it seems less about open free zone and more pure self-enrichment; more of a trader or bandit faction.
