Knower is the biggest heroine of the story. Change my mind!

[uneven trellis]

One clarification up front: Act one is chapter [REDACTED] to chapter 5, i.e. where the game portrays Watcher as the protagonist, and act two is chapter 6 to epilogue, i.e. where the game portrays Blue as the protagonist.

When reflecting upon Knower’s actions during the game, I see some people arguing that Knower is part of the problem, an evil or at least morally questionable character, only interested in her own survival and thus somewhat self-serving, not worth keeping at the end, etc. I want to elaborate why I think Knower embodies in fact unmatched virtue within this story: She had the most to lose and the least to gain and still repeatedly risked everything to do what is right.

The above sentence might seem weird given how Knower tortures Watcher and takes her light, but in reality power always comes at a price. Even you, the player, are not free from this: You have the power to create a better society at the end of the game, however you need to use your power to kill Capital Red and the Red Guard. Otherwise, you end up like all absolute pacifists caught in a conflict with an opponent that is willing to use unrestricted force: oppressed or dead. But do you really think that all of the Red Guard are beyond redemption? Every single one? Do you truly believe that there is no single policeman in Hong Kong that is worthy of a chance at redemption? No CCP member? There are no good Russians? Every German, men, women, and children, after World War II was irredeemable? It’s an all or nothing deal, you don’t get to pick cherries with the Red Guard; and there is a good reason collective punishment is a breach of the Geneva Conventions. (1) The killing of any redeemable people within the Red Guard via collective punishment as a necessity to escape the cycle of violence is the burden you, the player, and Blue need to carry and the price you and Blue need to pay when using your power to create a better world.

Knower's price for her power is staying enough in Principal's, and to a certain degree Capital Red’s, good graces to not spontaneously combust into a pile of ashes. (2) That price entails imprisoning and drugging Watcher, trying to gaslight her into withholding Principal’s involvement in Iris’s murder, and ultimately blinding Watcher. There are two questions arising from this: 1) How is Knower using her power; and 2) is how she uses that power worth the price?

If you have ever been around people with real and near absolute power and especially if you directly worked for them, people like CEOs and other high-ranking executives of large corporations or senior officials of a government, then you know that you cannot deny their wishes unless you have incredibly hard to replace skills in the relevant area because they just get someone else to do it and your refusal thus barely changes the outcome. If you want to change the outcome, then you need to offer an alternative and convince them that your alternative is better or preferably make them think they thought of your better alternative.

Sadly, there likely was no better alternative to gaslighting, torturing, and, worst of all, blinding Watcher though; Knower tried to keep Watcher alive despite Principal wanting her dead. Principal has good reasons to want Watcher dead since she is a loose end because Watcher knows the truth about Iris’s death, Principal's complete misrepresentation of her dying words, and Principal’s identity as Youngest, and thus she is a threat to Principal’s life and power. Furthermore, the opposite makes no logical sense given Knower’s ultimate actions, i.e. Knower wanting Watcher hurt / dead, but Principal ignoring Watcher’s existence or even restraining Knower in her quest for violence.

Inferring from the limited information we have, I think it is quite likely that Knower had to convince Principal to keep Watcher alive by arguing that Watcher still had various uses, despite the direct threat to Principal’s power Watcher being alive represented. That Knower implanted the idea that a, very much coerced, admission of guilt would be perfect because it would deal with the threat of Watcher knowing the truth and Principal could paint herself as benevolent for forgiving Watcher. That taking Watcher’s eyes was a ‘better’ / more severe punishment for Watcher’s refusal to participate in the theatre of a broadcasted admission of guilt than outright killing her despite that not removing the threat from a combative Watcher.

Yes, Knower traumatized, tortured, and blinded Watcher, but that was the price Knower had to pay for her power. And she used her power to keep Watcher alive and free her, the opposite of what Principal, who gave Knower the power to do so, wanted. From a hyperrational viewpoint like Knower’s that was clearly a trade worth making, despite the pain and suffering Watcher had to endure. Not to mention that it is strongly implied that Watcher could have been freed sooner if Fixer and BB didn’t insist on a bloodless rescue.

All of this is not easy for Knower. It is rationally the right choice, but it is an immense emotional sacrifice. She does not want to hurt Watcher, she has to because Principal forces her hand since the alternative is most likely a dead Watcher. It takes immense emotional strength to again and again pay the price of hurting Watcher with her own hands to stay the otherwise inevitable execution at Principal’s hand. Even if Knower does not show it, we know that she can hurt emotionally from the time after the previous Watcher Knower was close to committed suicide. And Knower is perfectly aware of how cruel her path is, best seen in her scene with Bartender in chapter 10 during which Knower solemnly reminisces about Watcher and orders an extra strong Dark ‘n Sinful because that is “all [she] deserve[s].” Even merged Secretary points out that Knower “will do what must be done in order to survive, regardless of the soul.” Yes, all the other revolutionaries get hunted and oppressed, while Knower lives comfortably as High Minister. But Knower sells her soul piece by piece for the revolution, a price probably only BB, Kris, and Candy-Jiao have to pay in a similar, though still much smaller, extent.

Another important aspect are the ministers. As High Minister, it seems likely that Knower has significant influence, if not absolute control, over the choice of ministers. I personally found the ministers to be surprisingly benevolent after the rampant abuse experienced by the Red Guard in Old Town. Are the ministers aloof? Yes. Trapped in an abusive system? Most likely. Could they do more to change that abusive system? Perhaps. Abusive themselves? No. The explicit abuse comes from factions within the Red Guard and the Red Guard reports to Principal, who delegates to Knower and/or Jiao Prime to a certain extent, but the ministers don’t seem to be involved with the Red Guard at all. I can’t stress enough how important this point is. (Knower’s relationship with the Red Guard will be discussed further down.)

In fact, I felt bad about blowing up the ministers, but I can see how the characters enacting it saw it as a necessary sacrifice to get to Principal. There is a reason the ministers were Fixer’s plan to peacefully overthrow the ‘provisional’ government. Fixer also strongly implies that the ministers were chosen / placed because the Shapen Sisters believed that they would create a better society if given the chance. (To be incredibly honest, if even upon reflection, you truly think the ministers are irredeemable and thus deserved to die for their own actions instead of just being collateral damage, I hope you never wield real power.)

So, Knower is doing good things within a bad system, but why does that make her the most virtuous character? One of the best ways to illustrate this point is to use the contrast the game itself offers up at the end of chapter 10: Kris & Athena and Knower. Kris & Athena are pushed to action due to their mistreatment and have comparatively very little to lose given the fact that they are only at the upper end of the bottom section of the food chain in the society of act two. However, they still try to risk as little as possible by opportunistically enabling an emotionally vulnerable Blue in a traumatic situation to sacrifice herself with as little involvement as possible for Kris & Athena.

Holy crap, what a shitty move by them!

They sacrifice a distressed Blue incapable of making decisions with a clear mind at the moment so that they have contributed to the killing of the ‘provisional’ government and thus a reason to sit at the table with the other revolutionaries when the spoils of war are distributed. From what we see, Kris & Athena are not benevolent with the power they have, i.e. the emotional manipulation of Blue or feeding the addiction of Viyeca / Hungry Shell. Them getting abused pushed them to fight for their freedom and they are willing to walk over the corpses of not only their enemies but also their allies and even friends to get there.

All the other revolutionaries are pushed to action through oppression as well: Blue, the Shapen Sisters, the Jiaos, the Old Sisters, and Other-Iris and her followers. Well, all but Capital Red; I have too much to say about Capital Red’s motivations and hence thought my musings would disrupt the flow of this piece. At the same time, she has an inherent importance, given her closeness to Knower, so the compromise is that Capital Red and my interpretation of her get to live in a footnote. (3)

In opposition to the other revolutionaries, Knower has what Kris & Athena as well as the other revolutionaries desire in abundance, status and power. While she is trapped in a malevolent system, she tries to use her power for good by picking benevolent ministers to replace the current ‘provisional’ government and working around Principal to save Watcher. It is important to note that she does not start acting when the shit has already hit the fan and the revolution is already in full swing, quite the opposite, she enables the revolution by being instrumental in freeing Watcher (and keeping her alive until then). If Knower truly valued self-preservation over everything else, all Knower had to do was to corrupt her morals by, among other things, killing Watcher and then living a cushy life as High Minister; instead, she risked everything by choosing to kickstart the revolution.

Even if she just wanted to sit on the sidelines playing both sides to see who is winning, helping to free Watcher was not the play. A revolution always increases volatility and thus is bad for people in power, such as Knower, since they have the most to lose. And she does this not only once but a second time by sounding the alarm and sending the Red Guard away from the orchard and the platform at the beginning of chapter 10 instead of laying an ambush for the Shapen Sisters. If Knower really only cared about self-preservation, the safe thing certainly was to at least attempt to stop the mass communion and not enable it in quite a crucial way. Without Knower’s actions throughout the story, there nearly certainly would not have been a mass communion.

Knower helping Watcher and the Shapen Sisters coming to light would surely end with her being dead. Yet, she still declared sides, admittedly in secret, before the situation forced her to. As I said at the start: Knower had the most to lose and the least to gain and still repeatedly risked everything to do what is right. And no one can rival that.

I will admit, there are a few question marks with this narrative though: The first and largest question mark is how much Knower is responsible for the Red Guard’s actions during the second act. On the one hand, the Red Guard reports to Principal, but Remy Siu confirmed that during her absence, [“Principal delegated [these responsibilities] to Knower.”](#1239796065331445781 message) We can see this because Knower had the power to sound the alarm and send the Red Guard away from the orchard and the platform in the beginning of chapter 10, paving the way for Blue’s mass communion.

On the other hand, despite how much of an antagonist the Red Guard is and how much focus is on Knower's role during that time, from in-game sources, we actually know very little hard truths other than the above because Knower is an unreliable narrator during Watcher’s interrogations due to Knower’s gaslighting attempts. Inferring from the information we have, it is possible to reasonably assume that Knower can't have particularly good control over a significant majority of the Red Guard, otherwise the Red Guard ending doesn't make sense, i.e. if Knower had strong control over the Red Guard, she would've stopped them from shooting Blue and the Shaped Sisters and at worst e.g. only imprisoned them or similar, especially in a version where both Capital Red and Principal are removed. In a similar vein, should Knower have solid control over the Red Guard, it makes little sense that Capital Red is able to kill Knower as foretold by merged Secretary if, in addition to both of them, the Red Guard is left alive as well, while Principal is not. (4) Admittedly, a lot of this could just be the case because of scope and budget restrictions though.

Much more importantly however, Knower probably could've stopped Bartender's murder or at least had the power to thoroughly investigate it if she had a reasonably significant amount of control over the Red Guard. She seemed to be on rather friendly terms with Bartender after all. In addition to this, the Red Guard knows that Bartender is a friend of Knower, but still threatens and ultimately kills Bartender at the start of chapter 6, i.e. when the Red Guard says to Bartender “You think just because you’ve got friend in high places… You’ll be hearing from us.”

While Knower seems to have some form of control over the Red Guard, it seems quite clear that there are large factions within the Red Guard that act independently of Knower’s directives and even contrary to her personal wishes.

A further complication is the implication that an unknown amount of the cruelty in the second act comes from Jiao Prime who is enacting it on behalf of Principal while Principal has removed herself from society and her ‘duties’. This is most clearly shown at the start of chapter 10, when Jiao Prime tells a wounded Principal that the revolutionaries will be incinerated, and that Principal should leave it to Jiao Prime because she will take care of everything like she always does. This would certainly involve the Red Guard as well.

The bottom line for me is: If Knower had at least partial unimpeded agency to enforce a change for the better within the Red Guard, then why didn’t she do so? Not doing so seems diametrically opposed to the moral values displayed through her other actions. Or was the Red Guard much worse before Knower gained partial control over it? There is just so much we don’t know and as a result it seems impossible to come to a solid conclusion. (Audaciously pinging @flint jacinth in case he wants to comment or clarify. #1)

The second, somewhat smaller, question mark, is Knower ordering Observant Shell / Capital Red to burn down the library during the Occupant event of chapter 4. One obvious interpretation is that Knower came to the conclusion that Allmother’s knowledge is toxic since it is the basis for a malevolent theocratic dictatorship, hence burning down the library was a way of starting with a clean slate. Probably since only burning Allmother specific knowledge would have been suspicious and maybe even impossible given the time sensitivity of the task happening during an, admittedly fake, though unlikely Knower was clued in, Occupant attack, everything had to go, once again no cherry picking.

There is a lot of ambiguity here since Knower likely expected that she will have a major role in the restoration efforts and thus have the ability to rewrite history according to her view. Though, it seems unlikely that the library was burned down in anticipation of the Allmother’s death. However, I am wondering if this was done on Principal’s behest, despite not knowing Principal ultimate intentions. The major complication is that Knower gave the order to burn down the library before her communion with Watcher regarding the Occupants’ nature and role as well as their relationship with Iris. It makes it incredibly hard, at least for me, to cast any judgment on this action. (Audaciously pinging @flint jacinth in case he wants to comment or clarify. #2)

Having said that, I am still convinced that the only person who ever comes close to Knower in terms of pure virtue is Father, though he arguably has less to lose and more to gain and he similarly chooses self-preservation over self-sacrifice. Furthermore, Father is never really tested in the same way if he can not only endure but also stomach doing the inhumane things which are sometimes necessary for justice to prevail when things get incredibly ugly. One other thing that could be held against Knower, and the final question mark, is that Knower is not very supportive of Unlucky Shell during act one. But she was so unlucky, it was probably statistically unlikely to be that unlucky. Knower might have thought she’s a slacker, or coming up with excuses, given all her stories. In the end, she didn’t prevent Unlucky Shell / Vanissa from becoming Minister of Education though. Hence, once again a bit hard to evaluate.

Some potentially worthwhile clarifications: I’m not saying that Knower is not hyperrational, that Knower is not ruthless. I am not denying that Knower’s actions during act two look morally reprehensible without context. In the name of the greater good, Knower does awful things in impossible situations because the alternatives have worse outcomes. I am not dismissing that there is a clear reason why Capital Red admires Knower, it is their motivation that is the key difference. (5) Knower had the most to lose and the least to gain and still repeatedly risked everything to do what is right. Change my mind!

Finally, to illustrate my point with someone else's words: (Medium spoiler for the end of season 1 of Star Wars: Andor — strong watch recommendation, one of the few really excellent Star Wars media and requires basically no Star Wars knowledge for enjoyment.) This is a Knower-like character in a different universe with slightly different choices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3RCme2zZRY (This also kind of serves as a tl;dr.)

(1) This is not meant as a thought-terminating cliché. If you feel like the world would generally be better with collective punishment, feel free to put your arguments forward.

(2) Oh, a footnote about Capital Red? That surely won’t become a pattern. Anyway, the fact that Knower has to appease Capital Red to an extent can be seen in merged Secretary revealing that Capital Red will most likely kill Knower if both (and only if both) are chosen to say alive at the end: “...that will see [Knower] pay for her crimes...”

(3) Capital Red wants a clean cut from an unjust past by eliminating everybody associated with it and everybody resisting her vision of a better future. The trouble is that this a vicious cycle of violence because on a holistic level nothing is ever perfect, not perfectly good or perfectly bad. There is always a better future to have and there are always people who will fight for the old ways or the alternative not chosen because not everything about it was bad. Then, some people will resist that pushback, it might get violent and could ultimately end up with combatants seeking revenge for their murdered family & friends and in the worst case spiraling into an endless cycle of violence. However, such nuances are lost on Capital Red, who seems to deal in absolutes and thus is unable to make compromises, which naturally attracts oppression and violence.

Capital Red’s ways and means are despicable, she is a malevolent dictator in the making and thus — funnily enough given her initial infatuation with Knower — one of if not the least virtuous character in the whole game. In fact, so much so, that I have trouble finding a single unqualifiedly good thing to say about her other than that she has a really cool voice. Because nobody is the villain in their own story, Capital Red herself thinks that she is doing what is necessary for the greater good, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, all were convinced that they were helping the common folk — whatever fell under their definitions of the proletariat, the German people, and the popular masses respectively. While Capital Red most likely hasn’t reached the relative death toll of any of those, and definitely not in absolute terms, her willingness to use violence as the primary response to opposition and thus her undeniable totalitarian streak is in good company with them. Capital Red wanting Knower dead by the end could be a sign of Knower’s virtue but doesn’t have to be — see the violent struggles in the political parties of the aforementioned dictators: plenty of awful people who killed or wanted to kill plenty of other awful people. Because of that, I thought Capital Red’s role in all of this doesn’t add anything critical to the discussion and hence this is a footnote instead of being part of the main text.

(4) Welcome back to another footnote about our dear friend Capital Red: Even if Knower has strong control over the Red Guard, the Capital Red ending can still make sense. Capital Red could’ve gotten to Blue and the Shapen Sister faster than Knower and hence have them killed before Knower could intervene. This is consistent with Blue and the Shapen Sisters seemingly getting shot in the Capital Red ending immediately after they landed, opposed to the Red Guard ending, where enough time has passed to organize a ‘proper’ execution and potentially even have a (sham) trial beforehand.

(5) Oh, Capital Red, the queen of footnotes! Important enough to be discussed, not important enough for the main body. Anyway, there are obviously other important distinctions between Capital Red and Knower besides their motivations. Most notably the nuanced world view of Knower for one. But also, Knower clearly seeing the use of deadly force as a last resort instead of a readily available response like Capital Red. And to name a third major one, Knower suffering from the cruelties the circumstances force her to commit, while they only seem to elicit apathy from Capital Red at best.

I am prone to editing and footnotes, so here is a placeholder.

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