At 11:33 p.m. on October 12, 2021, I was eating in the cafeteria while listening to the fifth episode of the fifth season of the "Three-Body Problem" radio drama, and suddenly realized that the ladder plan and the wall plan were actually synchronized plans. Cheng Xin was next to her when the Wallfacers announced the list of Wallfacers and Luo Ji was shot out of the house, as she prepared with Vader for the final report of the Ladder Plan to the Planetary Council.
This means that Cheng Xin, Wei De, Yun Tianming and Luo Ji are people of the same era, and Cheng Xin and Luo Ji are almost the same age. Thinking back to the details of the handover of the sword bearer and the Pluto Museum, I always thought that Luo Ji was much older than Cheng Xin, and the layering caused by hibernation was too strong. Sure enough, he responded to that sentence: Life will eventually pass away, and only Cheng Xin will live forever.
I'm ashamed that I haven't noticed this detail, which means that Cheng Xin and Luo Ji, the second and third parts, are actually in a state of parallel world, and the mysterious feeling of inexplicable intertwined fates throbbs the cells of the whole body, and it is impossible to say that this is the first time that I have felt it from "Three-Body", which is very interesting.
Although I have written before About Ye Wenjie (she is the devil who opened the three-body exterminating box and the god who taught the spell of salvation), Luo Ji (who lived the most enough life in "The Three-Body Problem" but was led by the nose of an illusion all his life), Zhang Beihai (the fifth wallfacer is the first person in "Three-Body" and a landmark figure in the history of Chinese science fiction), Yun Tianming (he was a double-sided spy in "Three-Body" who was tricked by the vicious jokes of fate all his life), and Zhuang Yan (she was offered to the altar by humans in "Three-Body"). "Sable Cicada" and the ultimate ban on becoming a savior), and even wrote about Yang Dong (the mysterious Yang Dong in "The Three-Body Problem" is not only Ding Yi's fiancée, but also Luo Ji's ex-girlfriend), but never touches Cheng Xin and Vader.
The former is too complex, the latter is too simple.
But the radio drama successfully piqued my interest in Vader, so let's write about it.
Looking at the third part of "The Three-Body Problem", you will find that Thomas Vader's status is very important, but he is always the top male supporting actor of the third part, and in front of him are the two mountains of Cheng Xin and Luo Ji.
You can't even define him as a good guy or a bad guy, but there's no doubt that he's a psychopath who makes you despair.
He is the representative of the extreme rationality of human society, the Machiavellian, particularly tough, and unscrupulous in order to achieve the goal. The core of this man's spirit is the extreme coldness and madness brought about by extreme reason. His most famous quote is: Go ahead! advance! Move forward by any means!!
And the saying: Lose humanity, lose a lot; lose animality, lose everything.
The cute Ai Aa's words can reflect the characteristics of Vader: "He is right, you (Cheng Xin) do not have the ability to do this, this will completely ruin you!" But he can, this bastard, the devil, the murderer, the careerist, the political hooligan, the technocratic... He can do it, he has the mental strength and ability to do this, let him do it well, this is hell, let him jump into it. "
In fact, he is the most forceful character written by Da Liu in "The Three-Body Problem", and Vader is like a tight bow string, which is too full and loses the fun of discussion.
But Mikhail Vadim, director of PIA's Technical Planning Center and Vader's most important subordinate, was impressed by what the old boss said: Vader liked to see others despair, even if they were in despair. Appreciating the desperation of man was a pleasure for him.
Please note this comment, which is the basic foothold of this article's conclusion.
The most typical manifestation of this bad taste is that when Yun Tianming was preparing for the brain resection operation, Vader admired the pain of Cheng Xin outside the operating room for a few seconds, and then satisfactorily threw the deadliest blow to her:
"Oh, and one more surprise: he sent you that star."
Cheng Xin completely collapsed at that time, which became her heart demon for a lifetime. Vader, who caused all this, saw it as a huge sensory stimulus.
Isn't that perverted?
In the early stages, Vader is Cheng Xin's boss and her life mentor, and the two work together to send Yun Tianming's brain to the Trisolaran Civilization through the "Ladder Plan". From God's point of view, what really almost saved mankind was not the wall-facing plan, but the ladder plan. In other words, the Wallfacer Project cultivated Luo Ji, and the Ladder Plan ascended to The Cloud Tianming, and together they almost saved the earth.
Unlucky, they met Cheng Xin, and what was even more unfortunate was that what they encountered was the concept of "forward, forward, and unscrupulous progress" that was unconsciously and profoundly affected by The Concept of "Forward, Forward, and Unscrupulous Advancement" of Cheng Xin unconsciously, making this beautiful woman show extraordinary endurance in the later stage, so that she could make a mistake by any means.
In the middle of the period, he was Cheng Xin's opponent, and they competed for the position of sword bearer at the same time. When he was in a backward position, Vader did not hesitate to shoot Cheng Xin, and Cheng Xin survived two bullets in his body. Vader lost an arm and was arrested and sentenced to thirty years in prison for attempted murder. During this period, he is a bit like Captain Deng Taylor in Forrest Gump, who lost his legs, crippled and waiting for a comeback to shine again.
In the later period, he was a subordinate of Cheng Xin, who took the initiative to take over the Star Ring Company to build a light-speed spaceship, and successfully developed a curvature spacecraft in the bunker era, but was besieged by the Earth government at that time. Madonna cheng xin ordered Vader to immediately stop resisting and surrender the Star Ring City. Vader kept the promise ("Look, little girl, I kept my promise.) ”）。
In a subsequent trial in the Federal Court of the Solar System, Vader was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and violations of the prohibition of curvature-driven technology. Luo Ji then took over Vader's work. Later, due to Vader's death, humans did not build enough curvature to drive the spacecraft, resulting in the solar system humans except Cheng Xin and Ai Aaa being compressed into two dimensions by two-way foil.
Regarding Vader, the biggest point of debate lies in two parts, the first is whether Vader should be a sword bearer, or whether Vader is a better choice as a sword bearer; second, such a tough and unscrupulous Vader finally surrendered in front of Cheng Xin and voluntarily abandoned the right path. Let's explore these two aspects.
Not at all.
Although as a representative of the three-body, Ms. Tomoko said with some trembling: You know? In our personality analysis system, your (Cheng Xin's) deterrent degree fluctuates around ten percent, like a creeping little earthworm; Luo Ji's deterrent curve is like a ferocious cobra, fluctuating at ninety percent height; And Vader... He has no curve at all, and under all the parameters of the external environment, his deterrence is at the top of one hundred percent, that devil! If he becomes the bearer of the sword, none of this will happen, peace will continue, we have waited for sixty-two years, and we all have to wait any longer, perhaps another half a century or more. At that time, the trisolaran world could only fight or compromise with the Earth civilization, which was already equal in strength... But we know that people will definitely choose you.
But this is only the wishful thinking of the three-body world, which is only the result of a single dimension of deterrence.
But is human nature so easily measured?
It should be said that Vader was not selected as the sword bearer, which is a rare and correct decision made by human beings as a group. The reason is also very simple, returning to Vadim's pertinent evaluation of Vader, will a person who likes to watch others despair honestly stay in the underground bunker like Luo Ji's old scalper as a sword bearer?
Deterrence is a double-edged sword, his deterrence is 100% for Trisolarans, but what about the deterrent for humans? Still 100%.
If he becomes a sword bearer, he will undoubtedly force both worlds into a desperate situation by any means, so as to achieve his goals.
The dragon slayer becomes a dragon, and Vader is undoubtedly the one who fits this logic best.
He is really old, after so many years of ups and downs, toiling and running, he finally feels that he can't support it.
He suddenly fell into despair, surrounded by government troops on the outside, and inside was the decision of Cheng Xin, who he owed, had hurt, and had been bound by multiple layers, and he suddenly felt that everything he had done over the years was ridiculous, he wanted to save mankind, but was it worth saving mankind?
Have you ever had that moment of extreme frustration and just wanted to let go of everything, the rest, love drops?
Mourning is greater than heart death, perhaps the truest portrayal of Vader at that time.
But more importantly, you have to remember that Vader is a typical Westerner.
Therefore, seemingly uninhibited, he actually attaches importance to the most basic spirit of contract, which is also the most basic definition of the character of Vader.
Oh, yes, and a lot of people would attribute the chapter Oforne in the second Dark Forest to Vader in the third Part Freak of Eternal Life as the same type of person, cold, determined, and unscrupulous in order to achieve his goals.
But if you analyze the two of them carefully, it will be very interesting, and it can even be a model for analyzing the cultural differences between the East and the West.
This is a bit like Chinese medicine and Western medicine, Chinese medicine always makes people feel chaotic and unknowable, like looking at flowers in the fog, it looks at the human body as a system and a whole, emphasizes the harmony of yin and yang, and the same disease can have a variety of solutions; and Western medicine is standardized according to pathology, clear and clear, the right medicine, headache medicine, foot pain medicine.
This is the superiority of Zhang Beihai, in the eyes of outsiders, he is forever wrapped in a layer of black fog, unable to judge its purpose, there is no way to prevent, he also sees more thoroughly and farther, not from the perspective of human beings alone, but from the cosmic dimension to see the continuation of human civilization; and all of Vader's actions and motives are clear, he never hides or is unpretentious, he always goes straight to the subject, so he can always be a tiger with teeth and claws waiting to be hunted, and Zhang Beihai can become a hunter in animal skins.
And from the fact that Vader's compromise with Cheng Xin at the final moment led to the failure of all the efforts of the previous Star Ring Project, it can be seen that this elderly comrade did not finally get rid of the shackles of the Spirit of the Western Contract, he did not agree with her, but vowed to defend her right to speak; and she was hers, Vader was just the custodian of the company, you said to take it back, then return it to you.
It's not about right or wrong, it's about the contract.
This is also very different from Zhang Beihai's "Extraordinary Law of Extraordinary Time". In the scenario of Vader's compromise, if it was changed to Zhang Beihai, cheng xin would not be given such an opportunity at all.
One last word, I don't dare say who the prototype of Vader is in Liu's mind, but as soon as I see this character, I feel like a person:
Putin the Great.
The phrase "forward, forward, by any means" is like the domineering spirit when he said, "Russia is gone, what else do you want the world to do?"