What was Grandma Ru’s plot? Initially, considering her run went absolutely nowhere—not even giving us the classic tournament arc genre schadenfreude of watching her stew in the misery of her competitive inadequacies—I’d determined as I’m sure most readers did that her story must’ve have been a cryptic pro-drug/pro-gambling advocacy parable.
—325: ‘Aha, so it was all another radical wisdom Public Service Announcement from The Cripple: quit toxic videogames with the lesser vices of drugs and organised gambling.’
My archetypal research has subsequently revealed that this interpretation, although not entirely wrong, missed the larger story in which drugs and gambling were only minor parts.
Grandma Ru, archetypally, is a ‘Has-Been’, a washed-up genius seeking to reclaim glory long after their prime. This is a less common archetype in myth, a youth-biased genre, and the only one I can identify is the Evil Queen of Snow White, but, in this myth, the Has-Been is, possibly, the most abundant archetype, if not the central archetype.
The first table below presents the characteristics shared across Grandma Ru and a non-exhaustive sample of her archetypal siblings. Not included are shared characteristics that are less relevant or correspond with overlapping archetypes, such as many of the siblings being foreigners or orphans. The second table, focusing on the grandma, shows the characteristics she uniquely has in common with each, the proximities that offer additional clues to an archetypal siblinghood, and their shared archetypal episodes. For brevity’s sake, I omit the hundreds of pages of commentary and quote references that might accompany these, but I am happy to provide any for later researchers on request.
The Has-Been Family
Archetypal Characteristics
Henry
Peaceloveharmony
Genocidelol
Grandma Ru
Mrtyu
Alex Wong
The Redeemer
Karnon
Kolonian Builder Worm Guy
Crippled
The Cripple
?
Mortal brain injuries
Millennial
?
?
Old and senile
?
Parasitic infection
Genius
Mental
?
Mental
?
Physical
?
Physical
Mental
?
Earthfriends
Y
Y
N
N
N
N
Inverse - monster that shapeshifts into a human
Y
?
Trashtalker
Y
?
?
Y
?
Y
?
Y
?
Tyrants
Y
?
Y
?
?
Y
Y
Inverse - Anti-Tyrant
?
Suicide
?
?
Building jump
Indirect - colleague
?
?
End of regime
Multiple suicide pranks
Insurance scam
Deep Lore
Saana II
Saana II
Saana II
Earlier Games
Saana II
Saana II
SIII Pre-History
SIII Pre-History
Crusades
Psychotic Try-Hard/Machiavellians
Over-training for tournament
?
Eye-raping Heavy-Fingers
Anti-Thousand Tools cheese
?
?
Coordinates global god-assassination
?
Insurance scam
Dead Mentors
Heavy-Fingers, Genocidelol
?
Is the dead mentor
?
Is a ‘dead’ mentor
?
?
Laughing Man
?
Crazy
Y
?
Y
?
?
?
Y
Y
?
Grandma Ru's Archetypal Intersections
Archetypal Siblings
Archetypal Characteristics
Mental Proximity
Physical Proximity
Archetypal Episodes
Henry
Trash Talk, Suicidal Colleagues, Retired, Crippled, Try-Hard Nerd, Amateur Tournament
Studying Art, Studying Writings
Over tea
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Past Glory, Nightmares, Becoming Earthfriend, Duelling, Scheming, A Second Chance Presents, Old Friendships, Turn to Mysticism, Betting, Suicide-Immortality, Drugs, Reconditioning, Soul Expansion, New Friends, Defeat, Have a Child/Protege, New Hobby
Peaceloveharmony
American, Earthfriend, Retired
?
?
Past Glory, Becoming Earthfriend, Old Friendships, New Friends, New Hobby
Genocidelol
Grandma Ru's suicidal friend
Indirect during conversation with Henry
?
Past Glory, Loss to Youngsters, Crippling Event, Old Friendships, Suicide-Immortality, Have a Kid/Protege
Mrtyu
A Thousand Tools, Retired
Indirect through Whitefrog, apprentice of Mrtyu
Briefly before Justinian duel
Past Glory, Loss to Youngsters, Duelling, Old Friendships, Suicide-Immortality, New Friends, Defeat, Have a Kid/Protege
Alex Wong
Chinese [different archetype of The Immigrant]
?
?
Past Glory, Negligent Parenting, A Second Chance Presents, Old Friendships, Betting, Have a Kid/Protege
The Redeemer
Old, Crippled
?
?
Past Glory, Loss to Youngsters, Duelling, Crippling Event, A Second Chance Presents, Turn to Mysticism, Suicide-Immortality, Defeat, Soul Expansion, Decapitation
Karnon
Earthfriend, Old
?
?
Past Glory, Becoming Earthfriend, Scheming, Betting, Soul Expansion, New Friends, Old Friends, Have a Kid/Protege
Kolonian Builder
Old, Crippled
?
?
Past Glory, Loss to Youngsters, Scheming, Crippling Event, Betting, Suicide-Immortality, Soul Expansion, Defeat
By ordering those shared episodes, and other episodes intersecting the other siblings, we can construct the pan-archetypal super drama. I’ll present that first, then show its application to Grandma Ru.
The Has-Been Super-Drama:
Pre-Drama and Introduction: The story starts, in the present timeline, with the pan-Has-Been hanging out with old friends, stuck reminiscing about a deep-lore, genius past when they were the best in the field before a tragic crippling event caused them to be superseded by younger competitors, whom they now bitterly trashtalk out of jealousy.
A Second Chance Appears: Suddenly, an opportunity manifests to reclaim glory, such as an international duelling tournament or, in the Redeemer’s case, a teenager holding a legendary item that you once possessed.
Scheme and Preparations: Despite being a washed-up cripple, the pan-Has-Been decides to take a shot, devises an elaborate scheme of redemption, and trains relentlessly.
Intrusive Tangents (Secret Cures): During this training, unrelated to the training and often interfering with the training much to the pan-Has-Been’s frustration, the archetype encounters a multiplicity of random techniques like getting in touch with nature [by becoming an Earthfriend - a friend of the earth], having kids/proteges to form a legacy, making new friends in new hobbies, and gambling as a substitute for lost thrills.
Climax: The pan-Has-Been, despite their valiant preparations, arrives upon the scene and loses to a younger, better competitor.
Post-Climax Ambiguity: The intrusive tangents, secretly various cures for the pan-Has-Been’s real affliction—setting off on hopeless quests past their expiration date—decides their fate after defeat. At certain times, the Has-Been assimilates and masters the cures, using them to progress to new adventures semi-happily, equipped and somewhat satisfied with whatever life lessons their old quest gifted them. Other times, the Has-Been fumbles the cures or lacks a critical cure, their fate being to return to dwelling in nostalgia and later repeating the cycle of striving for the past and failing. Other times, the Has-Been, exhausted, gives up and dies, perhaps by their own hand.
This super-drama appears, as we behold it, the nearest formulation of what might be the saga’s main plotline, encompassing the various themes of immortality, cycles, anti-climax, multiplicity, digression, and so on. But before we get carried away and begin to celebrate the mystery solved, my research into the Has-Beens has, repeatedly, given indications that this is not the main plot but a mere sub-phase of a larger, more obscure plot. Henry, for example, whose curative tangents correspond with his martial studies in their Jungian therapeutic function, appears to have concluded this plot in the final flying-crab scene examined by me on the restaurant napkins, yet Henry’s saga has—evidently—not concluded. A similar finding occurs with Miller. He, too, we’ll learn, is a Has-Been, yet it takes an additional archetype to accomplish his entire explanation. And even with Grandma Ru, who is 97% Has-Been by episode tally, there are tiny clues of something more.
Putting that larger plot aside—not temporarily but forever since my investigations into it have continuously flopped—the following table arranges Grandma Ru’s story according to the Has-Been super-drama. I include examples from the archetypal siblings to illustrate the parallels, and I omit the episodes that don’t include her. Grandma Ru, for examples of omission, does not go through the Has-Been’s phase of insanity by my recollection, nor does she employ the curative strategies of pranks or art therapy.
Archetypal Arc
Archetypal Episode
Grandma Ru
Sibling Examples
Pre-Drama and Introduction
Past Glory
Former pro-gamer
All of them
Crippling Event
Got old
Kolonian builder infected by worm
Loss to Youngsters
Surpassed by younger gamers
Genocidelol surpassed as tyrannical general by Henry
Old Friendships
Hanging out with ex-gamer friends
Karnon hangs with god buddies
A Second Chance Appears
The Second Chance
Hidden: New Meta-Game Favourability (framed as pointless entrance into Amateur Duelling Tournament)
Redeemer spots Henry's Ring of a Thousand Souls that activates his immortal cap
Scheme
Study A Thousand Tools
Karnon meddling everywhere
Reconditioning
Drills at New Suchi Arena
Henry training for two weeks
Intrusive Tangents (Secret Cures)
Becoming Earthfriend
Class selection
Peaceloveharmony the hippy
Turn to Mysticism
Reading Henry's Second Gate writings
Henry as The Second Gate
Betting
Henry's encouragement to gamble
Alex Wong gambling on tourney
Suicide-Immortality
Talk of dead Colleagues
Genocidelol suicide
Drugs
Gets drugged by Henry
Henry cooks ‘foods’ like teas and cookies that are covertly depression-lifting drugs
New Hobby
Duelling
PLH’s beet farm in Alaska
New Friends
Suchi's Rookies
Karnon becoming best friends with his protege
Have a Child
Daughter Cassie, pet dog
Alex Wong and Little Liu
Climax
Defeat
Grandma Ru's forfeit
Henry losing this tournament
Post-Climax Ambiguity
Soul Expansion Variation Ending
Drug hallucinations
Karnon's modus operandi
Grandma Ru is the saga’s most complete example of the Has-Been.
Others siblings tend to lack key episodes or hide their episodes as background stories. Henry’s hippy-friend peaceloveharmony and Alex Wong, for example, are practically unrecognisable without patternistic analyses. PLH no longer offers episodes due to a semi-happy ‘Diocletian Humble Farmer’ ending, which I’ve named after the Roman Emperor who voluntarily abdicated from the stress of politics to grow produce. Alex Wong is—currently—in a phase of successfully reconstituted glory, the only vestiges of his decline period being Henry’s reminiscences on the events between Saana II, his bets with Henry analysed at their core motives, the occasional comment (2: ‘Alex puckered his face in disgust at this nonsense. “No, guys like us never retire…”’), and Little Liu as a coping device during the decline that Alex has since abandoned after re-assuming stardom.
Grandma Ru in comparison to these two flaunts almost the full drama. The main episode missing from her version of the story—and the omission that does lend it some obscurity—is that she continuously downplays her archetypal Second Chance, i.e. a belief that she might be able to return to pro-gaming through A Thousand Tool’s new duelling meta.
She obscures that goal perhaps out of self-denial or perhaps out of a genuine failure to self-examine the repressed motive. Initially, her transfer to Suchi is framed as a silly request for duelling pointers from Henry.
—227: ‘Excited by the footage of the weapon-juggling whippersnapper, Ruru and her friends had hoped to seek advice from him in person on how to play this virtual game.’
Later, she insists that she’s only participating in the amateur tournament for fun or that she wants to prove herself against the whippersnapper gamers. Any greater aspirations than this are dismissed as preposterous, Grandma Ru ignoring that the tournament’s designed function is to accelerate recruits through The Company’s pro-gaming pipeline, access to which—old or not—she’s already succeeded in gaining just by qualifying for the finals. Her subliminal motives do, however, slip through on occasion.
—323: ‘“Let’s pretend I’ve been in hibernation until I glimpsed a Druid dodge a hundred cuts while pew-pewing a Warrior to tears and I thought, ‘Oh shit, pillar-humping’s back in meta. My time is now, again.’”
Pretend? There’s nothing pretend here - that’s the delusional motivation of her washed-up archetype. Another instance of accidental confession is her rebuttal when Henry threatens to eliminate one of her avenues back to pro-gaming.
—324: ‘Henry: “I think your path to More exists within Saana, although not as, your inner doom forecasts, in duelling, nor, as you’ve already decided, in my guild.” He referred there to an earlier chat, where Ruru’d boasted that she’d only signed up to the recruitment tournament to cane the master. “That was...also a joke,” the grandma interjected, not wanting to eliminate the option.’
The Grandma, from the underlined, is suggested to have been meditating on a scale beyond mere tournament fun, calculating the various career options after.
And this tendency of hers—refusing to present the entirety of the motive—is, of course, archetypal. Has-Been Henry mirrors this habit during the entire first volume and his cryptic quest for immortality, i.e. the ultimate comeback [from death]. We might interpret that, for the Has-Been, the mission to reclaim glory is a little embarrassing and, conscientious of their poor chances, they would rather it not be known so that, if—and usually when—they lose, they can walk away unnoticed. The archetype’s self-censorship, we’ll see in Miller’s analysis, has an additional, more strategical interpretation.
But as an archetypal Has-Been, Grandma Ru’s tale is thus neither about signing up for an amateur duelling tournament and forfeiting pointlessly, nor is it the pro-drug and gambling agenda that we all subsequently mistook it for. Drugs and gambling are merely sub-selections of the archetype’s curative techniques. These and other techniques are spammed by Henry at her during their conversation while he simultaneously stonewalls her—just when it seems she’s actually going to fulfil her originally stated goal ‘to seek advice from him in person on how to play this virtual game’—from any duelling advice. Synchronically, additional curative techniques have been attempted by the grandma before their meeting, like having a kid and turning to mysticism via Henry’s Second Gate writings, Ruru’s bizarre attraction to which suddenly gains an explanation on these archetypal grounds, the Has-Been in her resonating with the Has-Been in Henry meditating on the topic of defeat and victory and turning to mysticism as a religious coping mechanism for the archetype’s diminishing prestige.
Their conversation over tea continues this exchange of Has-Been techniques and itself epitomises a Has-Been technique, talk therapy. In Henry’s refusal and his strat spam, we might interpret him as recognising their archetypal siblinghood, predicting the Has-Been’s doomed climax for her, and blasting his sister with fixes to nullify the consequences, thereby giving her a soft landing and averting, perhaps, the suicidal ending of their Has-Been brothers Genocidelol and an unnamed suicide colleague of Grandma Ru’s, both hovering in the background of their conversation like ghost of glories dead.
And the moral lesson?
On these archetypal grounds, the meaning of Grandma Ru’s drugged-out ending continued to elude me until very recently. After a short Vipassana retreat introduced me to the basics of Buddhist philosophy, I’ve re-categorised her conclusion—based on her hallucinatory size-distortion descriptions—as an episode of ‘Soul Expansion’.
Most Soul Expansion endings are negative, the episode taken from Karnon’s motives in his murderpranks and the other NPC Has-Beens like Kolonian Worm-Guy and The Redeemer who, after their own failed comebacks, float into the sky as sparkling souls.
For Grandma Ru in contrast to these others, I derive a positive variation from the fact that ‘Soul Expansion’, interpreted literally, is a synonym for ‘spiritual growth’, plus a novel synthesis of Saana’s post-death lore about cycles with real-world Indian myths about cycles, which I was studying while grieving the loss of my research notes. The dramatic flight of NPC souls, re-interpreted according to Eastern views of mortality, has a dualistic meaning, being not only a moment of grief but a moment of metaphorical liberation as the soul is lifted away from the world and its tormenting cycles of striving and suffering. Grandma’s Ru Soul Expansion seems to enact this same drama minus the morbidity as she, collapsing to the tea served by brother Henry and assisted back to her feet by him, undergoes only a partial death. As she seizures on the ground, all the cures encountered during her training and spammed at her by Henry may have combined into one drug-accelerated demise of her doomed gaming-career aspirations, which Ruru then—still remembering but no longer bound to—stands up from, misinterprets their alleviating psychic weight as a bodily sensation of growing taller and expanding, and walks away from in a transcendent freedom.
Another interpretation, based on the drug-like properties of the tea, is that she is enacting the 'Ego Death' some people describe after consuming hallucinogens, which may or may not be the same phenomenon. I offer that possibility without any confidence. Personally, I've never taken such drugs and most users that I've met have not appeared even remotely close to nirvana.
Either way, the moral lesson, if we contrast Grandma Ru against the juxtaposed dead siblings, seems to be the saga’s presentation of an alternative to suicide, a hypothesis that the relief some seek in killing themselves is as simple—and challenging—as instead killing one’s unhappy attachments through a multi-frontal, multi-technique assault. Grandma Ru’s tale, integrating several other themes within this message, thus turns out to be a radical anti-suicide PSA, the saga proclaiming that no one’s too old to start their life anew and rediscover happiness by, paradoxically, discarding the goal they believe is needed for happiness but is in fact, due to its impossibility, the root of their suffering.
We could re-cast—and now explain—her forfeiture to Emerson Miller on these same terms. Even if her loss synchronically precedes the drugs, Grandma Ru, stewing on the conversation, stewing on her duelling journey, may have demonstrated a marginal progress against the Has-Been issue of cyclical gaming when she forfeited very slightly earlier. She chooses in this act, archetypo-symbolically, to lose but not to die, or, in Buddhist terms, to lose one's attachments and to thereby gain eternal peace.
Her choice, although meaningless to others, for the pan-Has-Been marks one critical step of mastery through self-denial at the very peak of the obsession. Grandma Ru’s achievement of this elevates her amongst the ranks of her archetypal siblings, the old woman pushing beyond the suicide Has-Beens but not reaching Has-Been Supreme peaceloveharmony, safe from the cycle as he harvests beets in sun-bathed Alaska.
At least she hasn’t reached PLH yet. The same Diocletian Humble Farmer ending was forecast for her by Henry, perhaps ruminating on their hippy brother, himself as a cyborg farmer in the Overdream, and his real-life self hiding from the media on a pony farm.
—324, Henry to the grandma: ‘“In two years, you’ll be kiting a whale-sized demon goat away from your mountain farm and you’ll be remembering nostalgically this episode that spawned your ten-trillion-IQ crop-saving routine…”’
And that, in a synchronic nutshell, has been, and maybe will be, the story of a has-been grandma.