SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME!

I made this TEW1 vine compilation a few days ago and decided to share this here on Tumblr too. Doing my part for this fandom because this game deserves so much! <3

Let's talk about Ruvik fanon and the amount of unnecessary hate Jiménez receives

Tw: poor english lmao

Something that I have seen too much during the five years I have been in this unfortunately dead fandom is that some people believe Ruvik became purely evil due to the incident he suffered. In reality, it is not at all like that. It generates a certain rejection in me that he was seen as a poor victim who only wanted to get his sister back.

It is essential to recognize that Ruvik possessed an exceptional mind from an early age, exhibiting traits of psychopathy due to his lack of empathy towards the animals he killed. His intelligence, along with his ability to understand and manipulate complex concepts, distinguished him from the rest, as well as isolated him. From a young age, his intellectual brilliance not only allowed him to excel in various fields of knowledge but also pushed him into a state of loneliness and emotional distancing.

This emotional distancing is a characteristic feature of psychopathy, a condition that often manifests in childhood and worsens over time. Throughout his childhood, Ruvik demonstrated a lack of empathy towards others, even his own family. His reactions to the suffering of others were cold and indifferent, indicating a significant emotional disconnection. This disturbing behavior became evident in his cruelty towards animals and his inability to relate emotionally to other human beings, showing an early inclination towards manipulation and control.

He was aware of his actions even though he was a child. He grew up in an environment of high social status and traditional morality, where values and standards of conduct were instilled. His sensitivity allowed him to discern between good and evil, understanding the ethical implications of his actions from an early age. Although he was just a child, his psychopathic traits and formidable intellect made him an individual dangerously obsessed with control and experimentation, foreshadowing what he would eventually become

All of these characteristics are evident prior to the fire. It should be mentioned that Ruvik's traumas acted as catalysts that exacerbated his internal psychopathic tendencies. His childhood manifested signs of a disturbed mind where traumatic events served to trigger his complete instability and even push him to his full limit.

Marcelo Jiménez

It's not his fault that Ruvik is so fucked up lol

I would like to introduce this character because, in addition to being important, many solidify the distorted fanon vision of Ruvik due to the impact of Jiménez's actions on him and why he ends up unfairly being one of the most hated characters in the game.

The main game presents Jiménez from a perspective that highlights the dire consequences of his experiments, leading to a negative and superficial perception of his character. However, when explored further in the DLC, a more complex and empathetic dimension of Jiménez, often overlooked, is revealed.

Jiménez is constantly blamed for Ruvik's death and the theft of his research, but it is crucial to analyze what is truly behind this. The dilemma Jiménez faced was complex. On the one hand, he felt loyalty and respect toward Ruvik, his colleague and friend. On the other hand, there was immense pressure from Mobius. The decision to steal Ruvik's research was not a simple betrayal but a desperate act to save his career and maintain access to the resources necessary to continue the research. Although morally questionable, this action is best understood in the context of constant coercion and threat.

Mobius's threats were clear: if Jiménez did not provide more information and progress on the stem project, he would be replaced. This threat was not trivial. The loss of his position at Beacon Psychiatric Hospital involved more than just dismissal; it meant the end of his career and the loss of access to resources essential for his research. Furthermore, these threats suggested a potential risk to his life, given Mobius's power to remove obstacles from his path.

It is obviously not justified that he stole Ruvik's research without permission, but he had an understandable reason.

Regarding the murder of Ruvik, it is essential to underline a very important point: Jiménez did not kill him; Mobius did. Jiménez only intervened when Ruvik had managed to make the stem system work solely with his brain waves, and was gradually withdrawing from the project to the point of almost never visiting the laboratory.

In entry #201, Jiménez expresses his deep fear of what Mobius could do to Ruvik. This entry reflects Jiménez’s fear of possible reprisals from Mobius and his concern about the situation, considering both the threats and Ruvik's refusal to participate in the laboratory. Technically, it was Jiménez's only option to force him (without knowing that Mobius intended to kill him).

Clear proof of the remorse Jiménez feels is found in entry #209, where, in addition to expressing disbelief at having been part of such an atrocity, he shows a visible decline in his way of recounting it. Jiménez demonstrates respect for Ruvik's work rather than mere greed, while Mobius pursued his own goals with ruthless determination, focusing primarily on large-scale control and manipulation. The stem project, in which Ruvik was deeply involved, had immense potential for mind control and the creation of alternate realities, something Mobius viewed as a tool to consolidate his power. The organization did not value Ruvik's scientific discoveries and advances for their intrinsic merit but solely for how they could be exploited for its own purposes.

It remains to be mentioned that Jiménez integrated Ruvik into Mobius because they had found out about his existence, he wanted to provide him with better facilities along with support to avoid his morbid inclinations (entry #120)

Quite the synchronicity from life that both in my previous fandom and this one, I gravitated towards characters who not only went through a gross character assassination by how poorly canon introduces them, but are also treated unfairly by fandom in the worst faith possible to a point where people make a sport of it. They often treat their fans the same way and deem them subhuman because they like a pixel they don't.

Both of these characters require the player to dig a little deeper than the shallow puddle the canon presents at first glance, because it IS there, IN CANON, but not on the surface. And unfortunately most players will not do that with the exception of like 3 lore heads who also have minimal interest in characters like these.

I always thought how it was such an interesting thing to gravitate to traits like that, as in, their main trait being received unfairly by the public while I have childhood flashbacks exactly because of the same reason, and this is possibly the one thing I will not tolerate. When people are treated unfairly, it opens the knife in my pocket; be it real life people or fictional characters. I am even willing to go into whole-ass arguments over it, despite hating fights more than anyone, because both can induce a whole-ass psychological trigger in me that will result in days of dissociation due to some personal long-term events.

i just started to play the evil within again so..

lil bro thinks their on to something 🙏