Cascade

Leonard L. Church (alters noted by submitters: omega, beta, delta, eplison, gamma, theta, sigma, iota, eta)

they are all ai, and while they do/are seperate from a main "body" for the majority of the show, they are all still extremely interconnected to eachother and did come from the same host. also, the means of which they even all came to be is similar to did/osdd. the main ai, alpha, split the others in the first place as a trauma response to torture that was being done to them (which they were then ripped away from eachother bc of Evil White Man but thats besides the point)

Dr. Alto Clef (alters noted by submitters: francis wojciechowski + agent ukulele)

In Season 6 of Red vs Blue, we find out that Church is not a human being, but is in fact the Alpha AI created for Project Freelancer (a research program that aimed to study the effects of AI implantation in soldiers).

A reveal like this may not seem like a good basis for a system allegory, however the Alpha AI was based off of a human mind (namely, the mind of The Director, who led the project). This connection to the human psyche is important to Church's existence as a system-coded character within the Red vs Blue narrative.

During the grand reveal of Church's identity as the Alpha AI, he has a brief conversation with Agent Washington about the Alpha's treatment within the project. I screen-recorded and captioned a part of this conversation, which you can see in the unlisted YouTube link below (flash warning from 0:10 to 0:12 seconds).

Outdated language aside (this was released in 2008), the phrasing here is very specific and direct. The Director couldn't find a way to recreate a wholely artificial construct, so he intentionally tortured a copy of his own mind in order to create fragmentation. Because of this, I believe that Church is a very strong representation of 'programming', since he was abused and traumatised with the intention of creating new AIs (or alters).

After each cycle of torment, the Alpha AI splintered off a part of itself as a sort of coping mechanism and survival strategy. For example, when the Alpha rejected logic and understanding of why it was being tortured, that fragmentation created the Delta AI.

This is also the reason why Church never realised that he was the Alpha AI: during one particularly bad incident, he could no longer cope with the memories of his pain and suffering, so that part of him fragmented and became the Epsilon AI. This allowed him to later be transferred into a human host body and stationed in Blood Gulch, as one of the many simulation troops. Any understanding of his true nature was compartmentalised, hidden behind amnesiac barriers due to the fragmentation of those memories.

The AIs that formed from this process include (in no particular order):

• Delta - Logic

• Omega - Rage

• Gamma - Deceit

• Sigma - Ambition/Creativity

• Theta - Trust

• Iota - Happiness

• Eta - Fear

• Epsilon - Memories

• Beta - 'Failure' (I'll talk more about her later)

Despite all splitting from the same 'source' and being somewhat aware of the Alpha's role in their formation, each AI displays amnesia and varying degrees of individuality. They all take on a different vocal presentations and are recognisable by different colour schemes. The AIs also often call each other 'siblings', and the formation of an AI is often referred to as their 'birth'/'birthday', rather than using strict clinical language that one may associate with artificial intelligence.

Since most of the new AIs formed from the Alpha embodied a specific trait or emotion, you could argue that many of these AIs are closer to 'parts' than alters. However there are specific characters and narrative concepts that further support the idea of them representing system functionality.

1. 'Metastability' and final fusion

In Season 10, the phrase 'AI Rampancy' is used to describe the process in which an AI 'loses itself'. This was split into four stages: Melancholia, Anger, Jealousy and Metastability.

The Melancholia and Jealousy stages were mostly considered safe. Jealousy in particular inspired the AIs to seek information and knowledge, which could be compared to an attempt at rationalising their existence. The Anger stage came with unique presentations for each AI that would experience it, which could also be considered the first signs of 'individuality' that seperate them from plain computer coding.

However, the most important stage is Metastability. If an AI managed to reach this stage of Rampancy, they would, hypothetically, be considered human. I personally believe that the Delta AI got particularly close to achieving this, showing strong examples of independence and emotional reasoning, but the concept of Metastability itself was highly contested.

One AI, Sigma, believed that he could achieve Metastability by combining all of the AIs to 'recreate' the Alpha, unaware of Church's existence.

To me, this reads as a pretty strong allegory for final fusion, and the conflicts that may arise from the alienation of being a system. Some systems may feel that final fusion is their only choice in recovery, or may feel like they are treated as 'less than human' by society.

2. 'Epsilon' as an allegory for dormancy

Due to how the Epsilon AI was created, its inclusion in Project Freelancer caused some pretty serious consequences. Upon being implanted into Agent Washington to begin testing, the intense, painful memories that it held about Alpha's torment caused a mental breakdown. Agent Washington suffered psychological damage from witnessing Epsilon's collapse, and Epsilon was deemed to have deactivated itself in the aftermath.

Later on, Epsilon was recovered in a functional state, and I believe his existence as a character represents the process of dormancy caused by trauma and stress (especially when one is expected to hold all the traumatic memories for an entire system).

3. 'Theta' is a system Little

Existing as the Alpha's rejected trust (or, in other words, forming from the Alpha's severe distrust), the Theta AI takes on many childlike traits. He displays a range of playful and shy behaviours, and is overall very reminiscent of a Little alter in a system.

(In the interest of keeping this post at least somewhat short, I'm not going to add all the GIFs that I wish to share. Theta is just one of my favourite AIs. I highly recommend watching this YouTube video for more clips to understand his personality, as well as hearing his childlike voice).

4. 'Beta', the introject

The Director was a very troubled man, and this was mostly due to the loss of his wife, Allison. He was haunted by her death, and these feelings carried over with the creation of the Alpha AI.

One day, the Alpha splintered off an AI byproduct: the Beta AI...formed from The Director's memories of his wife, and a manifestation of his 'failure'. This spontaneous event is what inspired The Director to create more AIs from the Alpha, and although no external torture was required for the creation of Beta, you could argue that the sheer emotional trauma from the grief and memories would be enough to cause the formation of an alter.

Beta is later given the codename Agent Texas, fitted into a robotic body and trained as a freelancer agent (which parallels how the Alpha was later shipped to Blood Gulch as a sim troop, under the identity of Church). Since Beta/Tex was created from the memories of her human counterpart, she truly believed to be human herself and lacked any knowledge of her 'birth' as an AI.

It's easy to compare Beta to a factive/introject, but what particularly rings home for me is how she *isn't* a one-for-one copy of Allison. She has traits that are unique and do not seem to be similar to the brief footage we see of Allison, many of which are directly influenced by the bias of The Director's grief. Beta isn't a copy of Allison's mind like how Alpha is based on The Director, she starts as an interpretation of Allison that is trained to become something stronger, but what makes her case so sad is that she can't escape the preconceived notions of 'failure'.

To overcomplicated things, Epsilon later creates a new version of Beta/Texas, formed from his own memories of her. This AI is often referred to as Epsilon-Tex or Tex 2.0, and despite being similar to the first Beta/Tex she still displays her own personality traits that seperate her from both Beta and Allison. I think this represents how one concept can result in multiple introjects that have their own unique features, depending on a variety of factors that influence the formation.

In conclusion:

Leonard Church helped me, a DID system, to understand my symptoms and process my trauma. His experience as the Alpha AI and the formation of the other AI fragments is surprisingly familiar to system dynamics. I wrote this post alongside the help of my partner system, who experienced ritutalistic abuse + mind programming as a child, and he agrees that the themes present within Red vs Blue make a strong allegory for those experiences.

Church may not seem like system rep to everyone, but I hope this post made you appreciate his inclusion in the system-coded bracket. Thank you for reading my propaganda!!

Leonard L. Church (alters noted by submitters: omega, beta, delta, eplison, gamma, theta, sigma, iota, eta)

they are all ai, and while they do/are seperate from a main "body" for the majority of the show, they are all still extremely interconnected to eachother and did come from the same host. also, the means of which they even all came to be is similar to did/osdd. the main ai, alpha, split the others in the first place as a trauma response to torture that was being done to them (which they were then ripped away from eachother bc of Evil White Man but thats besides the point)

Dr. Alto Clef (alters noted by submitters: francis wojciechowski + agent ukulele)

In Season 6 of Red vs Blue, we find out that Church is not a human being, but is in fact the Alpha AI created for Project Freelancer (a research program that aimed to study the effects of AI implantation in soldiers).

A reveal like this may not seem like a good basis for a system allegory, however the Alpha AI was based off of a human mind (namely, the mind of The Director, who led the project). This connection to the human psyche is important to Church's existence as a system-coded character within the Red vs Blue narrative.

During the grand reveal of Church's identity as the Alpha AI, he has a brief conversation with Agent Washington about the Alpha's treatment within the project. I screen-recorded and captioned a part of this conversation, which you can see in the unlisted YouTube link below (flash warning from 0:10 to 0:12 seconds).

Outdated language aside (this was released in 2008), the phrasing here is very specific and direct. The Director couldn't find a way to recreate a wholely artificial construct, so he intentionally tortured a copy of his own mind in order to create fragmentation. Because of this, I believe that Church is a very strong representation of 'programming', since he was abused and traumatised with the intention of creating new AIs (or alters).

After each cycle of torment, the Alpha AI splintered off a part of itself as a sort of coping mechanism and survival strategy. For example, when the Alpha rejected logic and understanding of why it was being tortured, that fragmentation created the Delta AI.

This is also the reason why Church never realised that he was the Alpha AI: during one particularly bad incident, he could no longer cope with the memories of his pain and suffering, so that part of him fragmented and became the Epsilon AI. This allowed him to later be transferred into a human host body and stationed in Blood Gulch, as one of the many simulation troops. Any understanding of his true nature was compartmentalised, hidden behind amnesiac barriers due to the fragmentation of those memories.

The AIs that formed from this process include (in no particular order):

• Delta - Logic

• Omega - Rage

• Gamma - Deceit

• Sigma - Ambition/Creativity

• Theta - Trust

• Iota - Happiness

• Eta - Fear

• Epsilon - Memories

• Beta - 'Failure' (I'll talk more about her later)

Despite all splitting from the same 'source' and being somewhat aware of the Alpha's role in their formation, each AI displays amnesia and varying degrees of individuality. They all take on a different vocal presentations and are recognisable by different colour schemes. The AIs also often call each other 'siblings', and the formation of an AI is often referred to as their 'birth'/'birthday', rather than using strict clinical language that one may associate with artificial intelligence.

Since most of the new AIs formed from the Alpha embodied a specific trait or emotion, you could argue that many of these AIs are closer to 'parts' than alters. However there are specific characters and narrative concepts that further support the idea of them representing system functionality.

1. 'Metastability' and final fusion

In Season 10, the phrase 'AI Rampancy' is used to describe the process in which an AI 'loses itself'. This was split into four stages: Melancholia, Anger, Jealousy and Metastability.

The Melancholia and Jealousy stages were mostly considered safe. Jealousy in particular inspired the AIs to seek information and knowledge, which could be compared to an attempt at rationalising their existence. The Anger stage came with unique presentations for each AI that would experience it, which could also be considered the first signs of 'individuality' that seperate them from plain computer coding.

However, the most important stage is Metastability. If an AI managed to reach this stage of Rampancy, they would, hypothetically, be considered human. I personally believe that the Delta AI got particularly close to achieving this, showing strong examples of independence and emotional reasoning, but the concept of Metastability itself was highly contested.

One AI, Sigma, believed that he could achieve Metastability by combining all of the AIs to 'recreate' the Alpha, unaware of Church's existence.

To me, this reads as a pretty strong allegory for final fusion, and the conflicts that may arise from the alienation of being a system. Some systems may feel that final fusion is their only choice in recovery, or may feel like they are treated as 'less than human' by society.

2. 'Epsilon' as an allegory for dormancy

Due to how the Epsilon AI was created, its inclusion in Project Freelancer caused some pretty serious consequences. Upon being implanted into Agent Washington to begin testing, the intense, painful memories that it held about Alpha's torment caused a mental breakdown. Agent Washington suffered psychological damage from witnessing Epsilon's collapse, and Epsilon was deemed to have deactivated itself in the aftermath.

Later on, Epsilon was recovered in a functional state, and I believe his existence as a character represents the process of dormancy caused by trauma and stress (especially when one is expected to hold all the traumatic memories for an entire system).

3. 'Theta' is a system Little

Existing as the Alpha's rejected trust (or, in other words, forming from the Alpha's severe distrust), the Theta AI takes on many childlike traits. He displays a range of playful and shy behaviours, and is overall very reminiscent of a Little alter in a system.

(In the interest of keeping this post at least somewhat short, I'm not going to add all the GIFs that I wish to share. Theta is just one of my favourite AIs. I highly recommend watching this YouTube video for more clips to understand his personality, as well as hearing his childlike voice).

4. 'Beta', the introject

The Director was a very troubled man, and this was mostly due to the loss of his wife, Allison. He was haunted by her death, and these feelings carried over with the creation of the Alpha AI.

One day, the Alpha splintered off an AI byproduct: the Beta AI...formed from The Director's memories of his wife, and a manifestation of his 'failure'. This spontaneous event is what inspired The Director to create more AIs from the Alpha, and although no external torture was required for the creation of Beta, you could argue that the sheer emotional trauma from the grief and memories would be enough to cause the formation of an alter.

Beta is later given the codename Agent Texas, fitted into a robotic body and trained as a freelancer agent (which parallels how the Alpha was later shipped to Blood Gulch as a sim troop, under the identity of Church). Since Beta/Tex was created from the memories of her human counterpart, she truly believed to be human herself and lacked any knowledge of her 'birth' as an AI.

It's easy to compare Beta to a factive/introject, but what particularly rings home for me is how she *isn't* a one-for-one copy of Allison. She has traits that are unique and do not seem to be similar to the brief footage we see of Allison, many of which are directly influenced by the bias of The Director's grief. Beta isn't a copy of Allison's mind like how Alpha is based on The Director, she starts as an interpretation of Allison that is trained to become something stronger, but what makes her case so sad is that she can't escape the preconceived notions of 'failure'.

To overcomplicated things, Epsilon later creates a new version of Beta/Texas, formed from his own memories of her. This AI is often referred to as Epsilon-Tex or Tex 2.0, and despite being similar to the first Beta/Tex she still displays her own personality traits that seperate her from both Beta and Allison. I think this represents how one concept can result in multiple introjects that have their own unique features, depending on a variety of factors that influence the formation.

In conclusion:

Leonard Church helped me, a DID system, to understand my symptoms and process my trauma. His experience as the Alpha AI and the formation of the other AI fragments is surprisingly familiar to system dynamics. I wrote this post alongside the help of my partner system, who experienced ritutalistic abuse + mind programming as a child, and he agrees that the themes present within Red vs Blue make a strong allegory for those experiences.

Church may not seem like system rep to everyone, but I hope this post made you appreciate his inclusion in the system-coded bracket. Thank you for reading my propaganda!!