u/Jibsthelord

dk what happened to the pics last time, but yea, this analysis is based solely on my interpretation of archon quest 7.0 act 1 and 2

The Rooster, Pulcinella, as stated by Sandrone, is known as the 'linchpin of the Veche. He represents "politics" itself' (Fig 1). (linchpin means lockpin, someone that holds all factions together in an organisation) I argue that by embodying the spirit of politics, the Rooster must be the one pulling the strings and acting out his double, contradictory roles of the mayor/speaker of the Veche (Rulling party) & the president of the Rokot (resistance). The most important reason for doing this is to empower the Rooster to maintain the status quo of the continuation of the Project Stuzha and Project Mistilteinn, while appeasing and reigning in the resistance with their small victories; "Everything involves him, so nothing can bypass him" (Fig 2) as Sandrone so aptly put it..

Fig 1: Sandrone's comment on Pulcinella as the embodiment of \"politics\"

Fig 2: Sandrone's comment on Pulcinella being involved in everything

The story of Odette (a member of the Fatui) being described into the shoes of Lelek (a member of the Rokot) led me down the rabit hole to draw further linkages with the Rooster (a Harbinger of the Fatui) and the resistance (The President of the Rokot). The trio of the Traveller, Childe and Sandrone discovered Lelek's true identity by means of elimination. They first eliminated based on the factor of Lelek's ability and skill as an assasin. The more interesting part is when they limit Lelek's identity based on motive. The assumption that being Fatui means that that person is not actively also working against said Fatui (Fig 3) is a fallacy that is questioned by Sandrone; "Her Fatui identity doesn't necessarily exonerate her. And when you think about it the Rokot would be precisely what she needs to conceal her identity." (Fig 4). This led me to draw a linkage between the Rooster, the Harbinger, and the President of the Rokot, as I'll explain in the next paragraph.

Fig 3: Childe's comment on being Fatui as an exonerating factor

Fig 4: Fatui identity as perfect cover

To eliminate the identity of the president of the Rokot based on ability, we must first define the Rokot as an organisation comprising of its modus operandi and its motives. The Rokot is a "civilian political organisation.... avoid the effects of status on their freedom to express their political opinions." (Fig 5). The Rokot is the result of both the voiceless common folk and the politically restricted rich and powerful wanting to make their voices heard with anonymity (Fig 6) and vent their frustations (Fig 7). The Rokot, and consequently its president, needs to have a clear understanding of politics and the Veche as a whole, so as to beable to skirt within the gray areas and prevent a crackdown (Fig 8).

Fig 5: Rokot definition in game

Fig 6: rich and powerful vs regular folk

Fig 7: vent frustrations of commoners

Fig 8: gray area in the Veche

Now let us size up the Rooster in terms of his abilities, and actions thus far. The Rooster has political capital within the Veche and has the ability to sway the outcome to serve both the people's needs and the Fatui's motives. He is able to unite (Fig 10) the many different parties (The fatui soldiers rep by Childe, Fiscal policy rep by Pantalone, researchers rep by Sandrone, royal guard Druzhna rep by Vesna and the npc Akvilina, etc) within parliament to come up with proposals that help the people, such as this policy to help improve treatment of fatui soldiers. The Rooster acts as an impartial figure in the determination of this policy by asking clarifying questions that look at the effectiveness of the policy rather than aimed at supporting one side or another (Fig 9). While the Rooster does have the Fatui and the Tsaritsa's interest at heart, he still has a broad view of the entire political landscape and is trying his best to manage relief kristall resource distribution all the way to the outskirt cities of Snezhnaya (Fig 11).

Fig 9: The Rooster as the linchpin (locking pin) holding together all the factions in the Veche

Fig 10: The Rooster questioning policy based on effectiveness

Fig 11: The Rooster's relief proposal

The Rooster's borader political goal is to maintain the status quo such that project Stuzha and Mistilteinn can continue, while ensuring that the people are content in this limbo of a forever war against the circumstances that be and do not attempt to overthrow the government. I quote the book 1984's famous political slogan "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength". The people will undoubtedly be dissatisfied with the current state of affairs; the people feel the need to fight back and the Rooster must hold together the Veche parliament with authority. To maintain a certain level of stability in Snezhnaya, all factions war against one another, distracting each other just enough to maintain social stability and 'peace'; the people fight against the lofty government (Fig 12), supplied with victories that teeter on the brink of almost overthrowing project Stuzha, but just not quite (Fig 13), while the Veche are constantly aware of the direness of the common folk via boogeymen spawning from the Rokot such as Lelek. Hence the Rooster is able to command the Veche to quash a common enemy, all while working together to create effective government policy.

Fig 12: People are disgruntled

Fig 13: Teetering a fine line in the Veche

While it can be said the Lelek's destruction of the parliamentry trust went abit overboard and may have been unintended, the outcome was that the harbingers/representatives of the Veche were focused on the name 'Lelek' and thus paid more respect to the issues of the Rokot/the people. However the most damning evidence I have to present is the IDENTICAL speach patterns between the President of the Rokot in his letter, and The Rooster's closing speech. In the president's letter, he mentions that Lelek had been too radical and was thus suspended (Fig 14). He also mentions that he somehow managed to waiver all penalties away from Lelek, a mighty display of political power (Fig 15). Using Lelek as an example, while claiming victory with the closure of project Stuzha, he tells the rest of the Rokot organisation to be more mindful of their methods, hence preventing new violent seeds like Lelek from sprouting in the resistance in the future (Fig 16). Right before the ending line, both the president and the Rooster share a reminder (Fig 16 and 19a).

And FINALLY, the most important line of all, only spoken directly by these 2 very important people in the entire archon quest thus far: "We act/debate only for the greater glory and solidarity of our nation. May the aurora shine ever on and the tundra always stand firm." (Fig 17, 18, 19b)

Thank you for reading this far! Hope you enjoyed my theory 😄

Fig 14: The President taming Lelek

Fig 15: The President working with authorities to waiver Lelek's penalties

Fig 16: The President reminding that motives and methods are both equally important

Fig 17: \"we only act for the greater glory...

Fig 18: \"we only act for the greater glory...

Fig 19a: may I remind us all

Fig 19b: \"we debate only for the greater glory...

*note, sources for the pictures are from Rednasyo's act 1 youtube playthrough and Branonline's act 2 youtube playthrough (no watermark pictures are all Brans)