They could have made me better. They made me me.

Hi! First of all, my normal spoiler warning. I will be using information from up to Welcome to the Horizon's season 2, episode 10. If you have not gotten that far, and would rather not risk spoilers, please click off this post.

Anyways.

First, let's define system, as its being used. A system is the most commonly used term for a collection of alters who exist within the same body. Alters, by definition, refer to the disassociated selves that a person can have.

Now, let's get onto the actual post.

Midnight Burger episode 22 is the first episode I would like to bring up. Within the episode, Leif says this quote:

" I kind of went through the wringer while you were gone. Got confronted with a lot of old shit, old versions of myself. I decided, rather than deny it, or leave it behind, I would merge it all into one person, bringing the best of all worlds into one dude. I’m Leif the cook, Leif the engineer, Leif the criminal, all in one guy."

Now, there are probably many ways to read this quote. The most obvious is that Leif is growing as a person from his past. But, the way i would like to interpret it is as follows: Leif started to confront himself, and during that time he realized that he was not the same, that Leif the space pirate and Leif the diner cook were different alters. Of course, he likely wouldn't have the correct language to describe himself, considering he left earth in the 80s, and the triad does not have good mental health care (see Welcome to the horizon 2.7), so he puts it in a way that makes sense to himself. He's just taking from his past, that's all.

I would like to jump to episode 32 next.

"Saving the ship... Saving the ship... What do I have to save the ship? What have I got?... Stable power source... Stable power source that I cannot interact with because there’s no navigation system. Can I make a navigation system? Do I have the processing power? Yes. Do I have the time? No. There’s no one to fly the ship so it would have to be full automation. Full automation to where? Not only is the ship at dead stick, it has no planned destination. Maybe they did at one point but who knows now? Even if it did the coordinates are wiped out with everything else. They’ve got nowhere to go and no way of getting there... What would the old man say?... (Impersonating Even Older Leif.) “No easy ways out of this one, kid. But you started climbing up the walls before you took a look around.” (Leif’s voice.) Right... The darkness... I need to have a look around."

This is taken from the transcript, but Leif does swap to speaking with Even older Leif (and in a later scene, Old Leif)'s voice and intonation.

"Caspar:

(In earpiece.) Leif, were you doing an Even Older Leif impression a second ago?

Leif:

Shut up, it helps me think!"

This isn't just something in his head, Leif actively takes on the mannerisms of these versions of himself that were extremely influential to his growth as a person within the first two seasons.

While I'm not going to speculate too much on what Leif's potential system looks like, Old Leif and Even older Leif from this moment on do read to me as separate alters, in the same way that the 'Leifs' mentioned earlier also read to me as potential alters. This scene makes me think of the concept of being Co-conscious, where multiple alters will share the "front" at the same time. It's also not unheard of for alters to communicate vocally with each other either, like what's happening in these scenes with Leif.

Even older Leif does show up two more times. First within episode 45, the builder, and then later in welcome to the horizon 2.10.

"Leif:

Well why the hell are you here?

Even Older Leif:

... I’m not, Leif... It’s just you..."