KILLER 7 PLOT ANALYSIS: Some assembly required by Aleks Zivanovic (only one Harman inside) Version 1.02 TABLE OF CONTENTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I - Intro II - Q&A III - Conclusions INTRO: ------------- The following is simply put, a bunch of thoughts i had to tie into something resembling a 'true' story behind this killer game that i had to write or else i would've exploded. Essentially, i'm just trying to make sense out of it for myself, and perhaps for some of you that are reading this. I've been writing for hours now, have read all the faqs, visited some wikias and seen most cutscenes again, just to put it all together, to make some sense, to be able to sleep. I apologize if this seems a bit amateurish, but it is my first FAQ-like .txt. Just bear with it, it might make some sense. Also, there are other great plot faqs and such, around too. You should read them all, just to see some different takes on the story, and then come to your own conclusions. It is a great story, but some assembly is required. Also, i doubt that i should have made a more detailed ToC (table of C) because anyone willing to read a game-related detailed plot FAQ - likes the game and likes to read, and will read through it all. To try to organize your thoughts for a game like this would feel unnatural. Like the game, take this FAQ as a mess of ideas that it is. 5 Harmans? (The Harmen) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Why were there three Harmans? (The demigod, the principal and the persona) What point would that serve? And what about the young Harman? 4 then? And what if you take into account the 'body absorbing Harman' from the Gamebook 'Hand in Killer 7', he seems different from the rest, 5? What if it was all just one plain old Harman Mastermind god-killer. Holy Trinity you say (Shockley_Haynes)? Then why are all the Harmen cripples? If there are three Harmans, one on a cosmic level, one as a human avatar and one in Garcian's head, why are they all represented as invalids in the game. Why not only the avatar Harman, whom Dan wounds, and his consequent representation inside Garcian's mind. And what about his young self? Why would a ressurecting demigod choose to remain immobile? Even 100y later? Is it to get demented chicks, or the elephant rifles? 2. Wasn't the guy next to Harman, when Garcian relearns he's Emir and goes back to the Union Hotel, Dmitri Nightmare and not J. Gagnon? J. Gagnon never made it to the hotel. 'Cause he got offed by the smiths. Whatever they were. 4. I read in a similar plot FAQ, but of greater depth, (by Shockley_Haynes) that Harman's current state was a result of Emir trying to put him into a safe and 'breaking' him in the process. It seems more plausible that he was assaulted back in 2000 when Dan got revived and got crazed for a period, that left him in his sad state, as the gamebook suggests. I think that the 'hand in killer 7' gamebook should not be totally neglected when analyzing the plot. Using only what the game itself shows and gives always leads into confusion. You must gather clues here and there and piece it for yourself, accept one story denounce another in favor of own sense of... well sense. The only other explanation of why Harman is in a wheelchair is to underline his weakness and dependence on Garcian (explained later). I thought it was to fool his enemies into underestimating him, but the dude packs an elephant, tank killing rifle on his 'chair. I mean, it's a hell of a giveaway. 9. Master Smith is Master to Garcian probably because subconsciously Garcian must remember the real Harman, which he offed as Emir or was it the other way around. Something from harman's RL authority as his Tutor, must have carried onto his new incarnation as Garcian's persona companion. If it was one and the same Harman Smith, or Deltahead, that was the school principal and a skilled assasin with multifoliate personae ability, and against Kun Lan, it can be assumed that Kun Lan used Emir, Harman's student, to off Harman, and Emir could've found out where the Union 7 meeting was held easily, because he held Harman's trust. He didn't need no Yoon-truemaskguy. 34. Why 100y later? Did it take them that much time to resurrect, if they ever were real? Why is Harman still in a wheelchair? Surely a semi-deity is not so easily crippled. Why doesn't he age at all, but he did, as shown by him once being the young Tommy-gun-tooting Harman. Is it really an Emir's crippled memory of the man, possessing a bit of Harman inside himself even now? 14. When Kun Lan and Harman Smith talk for the second time, while playing chess and say 'has another come to surface?' after someone opens the door to wherever they are, they might mean just one 'another', not the entire crew of K7 personae, in sequence, who i believe to never have existed in the first place. Time is warped there, and this was the second time Garcian interrupted them, presumably. The first time he interrupted them, he shot them full of lead. Or was it the second time? Time there is warped. 15. There is nothing to suggest that Master Harman persona took control over Emir, during the 2nd encounter with Harman Smith (the other one but the same one) and Kun Lan chess-match, and shot the two. Garcian doesn't even have a tommy gun in his suitcase. I think it just meant that Emir discarded another part of his delusions, Harman Smith and Kun Lan, which were also a part of his madness, so like all the other personae, he destroyed them too. 37. Harman has the ability to laugh. 19. Why did Matsuken turn on Kun Lan during 'Lion'? Could it be that he didn't even know by whom he was marked? And what the hell is a Harman doing there just lying on the floor? Who leaves decrepit immobile old men lying on the floors of secret abandoned bases anyway. This body, which i presume dead, might mean only that Harman left his avatar body because the game was over, and then Emir shoots Kun Lan's avatar, who was reluctant to end the game, and that's that. Time to sleep for a hundred. See you next resurrection. If we do accept Shockley_Haynes's explanation of a chess play occurring between Kun an Harm, and as Matsuken and Emir being their pieces, respectively, then we can assume that the reason Matsuken gives Emir a chance to decide what course of action is to be taken - is black waiting for white's play. The problem here is that Harm lost his chess game to Kun this time, but his pawn Emir won and killed the smiles. If Harman is the white player and for the good, and Kun is the black player, for the bad, that won the game, why is it that his smiles lost? And the option of whether to destroy Japan or not is left to Harm's Emir, that is, to us the player? If Kun won, and the smiles are treated as a sacrifice game-wise (chess), the canon ending would seem to be the destruction of Japan. Or are their roles, Kun's and Harm's actually reversed? 23. Where is Harman's gun in that 1st scene Garcian enters the Forbidden Room? Why is he so stirred after seeing Garcian? Kun Lan finds not Harman's gasping and screeching funny, but the fact that Garcian was there. Also, he entered half-way into the story, after the stabby part. He didn't hear everything. In the next scene he says to Mills, 'the master is gone'. Could it be that the second time he enters the forbidden room is just a flashback of what he did the first time? Time has no meaning in memory inside one's mind, everything else in the U7 hotel in 'Smile' was a flashback. Could it be that the first scene is what Garcian remembered, but the second what actually happened? Time has no meaning there, the two might have been discussing the slaying of that woman and the new arrival at the same time. The weird spasm that Harman pulls and Lan's laughter remind me strongly of how their bodies danced when shot in the 2nd chess scene. Since time has no bearing there, it might have occurred simultaneously, and left Emir Harmanless. It wasn't Master Harman or young Harman they saw, with a Tommy gun that did them in, it was Emir. Only it was in a warped place, inside his mind. And there is only one damn Harman. Emir Parkreiner -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Problem, how could have Garcian driven all the way to Coburn with a corpse in tow, when he offed himself on the Union Hotel Rooftop, where he was found by Harman Smith, some version of him? And what is the significance of putting a dead Harman inside his vault? Why didn't he leave him where he shot him? It is never said where he shot him. 6. And who gave Garcian the ring? Wasn't he clairvoyant from the start, the third eye and all? No he wasn't, it signified his link to Harman. On the rooftop, he either assimilated Harman, after killing him, or Harman absorbed him. It's Harman that's clairvoyant. When Garcian shoots the third eye near the end of the game he severs his link with Harman completely, and is Emir again. Presumably still 13yo in his mind. 10. Why would a young Harman be partnered with Gagnon in that flashback scene at U7 hotel? Makes no sense. I thought of Gagnon as Garcian's own self-inquiry into who he really is. His internal thought process. In the end, when he is at the rooftop, opening his suitcase and seeing all the weapons of his K7 unit, he appears distraught and seems like he didn't know that all the Personae were him, not bewildered that he was alone, but surprised at what was there. His inflection and voice tone changes to an adolescent's, like he's 13 again. And it seems as if he didn't know what he was carrying this whole time, a lot of guns for all occasions. There were no Personae, other than him. All of it, all, was his madness. He was a trained and conditioned assassin that got triggered every time, from his base in battleship island, and went to do a gig in one of those Ulmeyda rocket cars. Yeah, i know, we don't see him driving that model until Mills bites it, but we don't see what he's driving most of the time. Nor do we know what amount of time it takes to go from Japan, using that expressway thingy, to the States. It might be pretty fast, and it sounds that way too. Then we have the RL coliseum, and the vinculum coliseum, the steps leading out, when he's passing through the vinculum, deja vu, it's all to similar to the ones presented in 'lion' to be simply written off. I think that Mills activated him every time with that same phone call, gave him the data, and Garcie would be off, carrying his tools in his suitcase, thinking that he was a multitude, with who knows what playing in loop inside his mind. But what about the basement Harman of 3y later? 11. The common explanation for how the k7 compilation got detached from Garcian, after Smile op, after gymnasium, did not sit well with me. This explanation is that the others just up and left, or no explanation is given at all. I beg your pardon? I think that, as Garcian was coming to terms that he might be the E, his own subconsciousness, his craze, got loose inside him, and as a result we were treated to a gunfight between ghosts, his personae and the invincible smiles at the gymnasium. The death of all the personae by the Invincibles is him knowing that he is once again Emir, and that the madness (thinking that he was a multitude K7) has passed. It was all an internal self-defense mechanism, a mind cleansing itself of false data. 12. The 'forbidden room' itself is a part of Garcian's Psyche that was locked from himself, by himself. 37. And what about the television set? It is missing when he comes back to the island in his living/waiting room/prison? Does it symbolize that all control over him was broken? 16. Also, i think that Garcian, when it came to sense of self and reality, and common sense, was limited by his conditioning from the government. He didn't know what 'a president' was, and what was its role. Iwazaru was probably his inner smile, so to speak, being locked in the basement of the same building Garcian had awaited every Mills' activation phone call. Most of the events of the game were probably in his own head, and not real, or not as they actually occurred. Everything up until his second game visit to U7 hotel was probably false or inaccurate crazed memory. The heaven smiles were probably real, but i doubt that they were all monsters as portrayed in the game. Most were probably just folks, targets and collateral, that seemed as monsters to Garcie, because of his conditioning. Not only did he have the ability to see smiles, he saw them everywhere. 18. I believe Garcie just sat there, in what appeared to be his home, but was in fact a waiting room of sort, at that island, waiting for Mills' activation call. He was always brunching away, during activations, which is awful curious. Like a set of instructions always given the same way in order to further a conditioning. 20. Battleship island is the place where Garcian's room was, and where he was kept, as an antidote for Smiles, which were created there as well. The vinculum is the route he always took when going on a hit, so it is always the same in his skewed conditioned memory. Garcian would always start his mission from there. It is possible that he never offed Harman the principal, and that he was always with him on the island, or that Harman's room Harman was just a remnant illusion. 24. The rooftop scene with Emir and young Emir. Why is Garcian so bewildered by this realization that he is Emir resurrected. I mean, he is a 'professional' in his own words. He played Russian Roulette with a loaded pistol. And he resurrected lots before, so it's not new. Why would he break down and act as a child. Is it because the madness finally looses its grip and he realizes there were never any other personae but him, and that he was a tool, conditioned and used by two governments? And after offing that memory he was disgusted with what he has killed while under control of some government's agency? Also notice no Tommy gun in his suitcase. Everything else is there. Emir Parkreiner's conditioning started when he was young, it is possible that he never had any control over his actions whatsoever. And also, he cannot be the 'quarterback' from Kun Lan's story during the first chess scene, simply because he was too young. It could've been Harman though. 25. If it was Harman that Emir killed as the leader of U7, how did it come to pass that Harman 'took Emir in' as he says during a flashback, on the roof after the killings? Could it be that the gamebook was half-way true, that Emir killed himself, that Harman went up and absorbed him, and then faked his own death? Then, as years passed and both got older, one of Garcian's personae, which were all madness, harmed Harman badly enough to make him bound to a wheelchair? And from then on Garcian was the main persona, between the two. 26. Who set up the Gymnasium? It was Garcian's mind's self-defense mechanism, the whole thing, offing his madness. Everything after Matsuken leaving is madness. In light of fresh data regarding his identity, Garcian's mind unravels and his own mechanisms destroy his alter egos, which were never real in the first place, except for Harman, with whom he shared the Multifoliate Personae Phenomenon, and a body, after he 'took him in' at the roof. The only surviving persona was the real persona, Emir. The link between Harman/Emir might have degraded after Garcian injuring Harman while under the influence of one of his fake personae, Dan, so he rejected Harman the cripple and left him in his own physical body, while remaining a different Harman Smith/Garcian, much like the original Harman melded with Dmitri, but then rejected him and became something else but the same. We don't know who killed Greg Nightmare, it could've been Keane, but we don't know. And why was Keane so bitter about women anyway? 27. Garcian lacks the vision ring because it was Harman that could see the smiles, not Emir, and when he regained his Emirness, his connection with Harman was lost. 28. The golden gun is Emir's, it's the gun Emir uses to off himself on the roof, it is the same gun Garcian uses after Gymnasium. It kills smiles in one shot. Why? Is gold to smiles as silver to werevolves? Assuming the gymnasium was all in his mind, where did he get the gun? Did he always have it? If so, why the other guns, this one is so effective. And it's Emir's. Perhaps that is why. Perhaps he willed it out of his mind, perhaps he found it someplace, maybe hidden in the gymnasium or on the way to Union Hotel. Did Matsuken or Lan plant it? Or perhaps it was with him all along, but he was blind to its presence. Notice how the dangling nightmare corpse is shown with the gun only after Matsuken leaves, not before. If he was actually a smile, what the hell was he doing with Emir's gun? 30. So, Emir was 2m tall at 13y of age? He looks that tall when he whacks Dan in the hotel, and he wears a suit too. All the murders were first person, even the Harman/Kun Lan scene, except Dan. Only there we see Garcian, but dressed as usual, and tall as usual. 32. When Matsuken says, 'you boys' to Emir, near the end of chapter Lion, i doubt that he means Emir and a multitude of other Personae inside him, i think that he means 'you assassins' as in other assassins. Emir and K7 weren't the only crew around, although they were the best. The solution to the suitcase, besides it being the laziness of the programmers could be that, even though Emir ceased being Garcian, he still retained his memories, and skills. And him actually being all of the K7, having all of their combat and weapon skills, he is able to use all of the weapons as the situation requires. Although he still prefers his old golden gun. 'K6' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. If all of the killed were killers themselves, why did Kaede act like a frightened little girl when the killer came for her? Besides Coyote and Dan, the rest were taken out without a fight. What sort of killers act so casually, when something big is about to go down? Also, Kaede is said to be killed elsewhere in the 'Hand in Killer 7', and that all of them were actualy 'Union 7' remnants. How can such a mixed group of people be all grouped behind something so Japanese. There's no chance that all of them recieved training at Coburn. 7. If Kevin never speaks, not even when harmed by an exploding dna terrorist, or shot to death, why did he choose to pose as a receptionist at the U. Hotel when he got himself Emired? Wouldn't it be hard for him not to speak with that cover? Where's the sense in that? 8. Emir shot everyone from the K7 right? But why does only Kaede show the bloodstains? Coyote was shot while he was wearing nothing but his underwear and all of them got bullet holes in them. So why just Kaede? Perhaps she was innocent? And Mask De Smith, how in the hell did he get to become a U7 hitman, when he was popular as a small-town wrestler about to go big? Of how many blind 14yo chinese boys that practice assasination have you heard? This seems like an unlikely rooster for a killer crew. Some of them might have been innocent. 35. The only K7 member that might have been a real persona, confirmed through a neutral's eyes (the comic book writing guy Pearlharbour), is Dan Smith. But whose persona was he? He might have been Harman's, going by what the gamebook says, but like the rest, he too got dissolved by those invincible smiles in Gymnasium. Was he then, too, a false memory, only stronger then the rest? 36. When K7 squares off against Handsomes, none of them show signs of emotion concerning each other's simultaneous presence. It could be that they do simultaneously exist inside Garcian, and that they find it no different then the real thing. It also should be noted that the 'real thing' in this case probably is just a scripted event in an online game written by Love. Not only does Love serve here as a 4th wall breaker, telling the K7 it's just a game played by players, namely us, but she tells them, him, that he's being played. Out of all K7+H only Garcian remains after Love breaks the scripted battle and the illusion of control of outcome. Why is only Garcian left? Remnant thoughts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17. The Handsome men encounter, besides serving as a game that Kun Lan supposedly waged against K7 and Harman Smith and lost due to Love (or did he?) the gamer that abruptly ends the match, also serves as the game message that it is all just a game, and that it could end at any time and with no explanation as to what the hell. The explanation will be done justice in the authors own way. Understand? Which happened in the end. Most of us that played it said 'What the hell happened with this storyline?' I believe the game unfinished, which is supported by what the gamebook says concerning the background of the story. You couldn't guess half of it, if you just played through the game. 38. Since Iwazaruscof turned out to be a smile in RL, possibly even Kun Lan's avatar or some such, the question is, what are the other two from the trio? Kikazaru and Mizaru? Were they just different personae of a same creature? 21. Iwazaru is all red, this is a standard heroic color in japanese culture, while white is death. The screaming in the trailer, which really isn't in Seattle, is Iwazaru, that is Kun Lan's avatar body. I doubt that Matusken didn't know where this body was, being touched by Kun Lan after all. Kun Lan probably called it quits after the game was done, and decided the Smile master body served no purpose whatsoever anymore. Terrorism was done, the chess game done, and the smileys spent. Harman and Kun Lan take their games very seriously. 22. Who killed Samantha? Was she even real? When Garcian selects Harman from the TV, he doesn't speak to him physically, he gets inside his mind, becomes him, talks with himself then. I bet Garcie himself strangled the life out of her for abusing Harmie, that is himself, well, inside his head i presume. I presume she was never real, only a fragment of his madness. Or before a certain point - she was real. 29. Kun Lan and Harman are reminiscent of the Great Gesser and Zavulon, from the 'Nightwatch' universe. 31. Samantha Smith's Death. Yes her trousers are unbuttoned, and mouth wide open, but what else? What else shows she was raped/reaped? What rapist puts clothes back onto his victim, once he's done, and with her life on his soul? Although, perhaps, Harman mind-raped her, not physically, i doubt it happened at all. Maybe she tried to rape the old man once again, and it backfired. If she was there at all as a really real person. Perhaps she was some Emir flashback or some remnant broad from op 14 or something. Could be that she's Harman, when he's out of it. That would explain why, when Harman leaves for good, she is gone too. And why she's always around him. Or did he just recruit her by killing her? If so, where is she? 33. Dan Smith's death, and all the stories concerning K7 are rendered fiction within fiction, with the explanation above that it was all Emir baby. Only messed up in the head by government conditioning, held on the island awaiting activation. Harman and Kun Lan, might even be false too, Garcian could have come into contact with the imprisoned Kun Lan- alike in the basement, and Harman himself could have been just a meat puppet, and another conditioning trick. So Garcian just absorbed them into the story and gave them characteristics and lines. And the Lan and Harman from the ending - used as mere symbols for a never-ending fight, as we came to see them as conflicted opposites game-wise. Like if i waved a piece of paper and a glass of water in front of you all day saying that paper is thin and the glass is full of water and said that these were in opposition and then after a couple of days of such conditioning i'd simply put this glass over the paper and you'd see what i was meaning to say. Conclusions: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It must be said that, what the 'Hand in Killer 7' writes about, and what the game shows are really loosely connected. Who knows what had occurred, this is my version, based mostly on only playing the game. The problem here is that the storyline is a mess, and that everything is open to interpretation and not coherently connected. It's like a dozen stories spliced together, stories with similar characters and a main plot, but from different seasons and episodes. And it makes little sense. But even so, i think that the whole game was, excluding the lion chapter and the ending of 'Smile', seen through the minds of a broken, mad individual, namely Emir. Who knows what happened, or what he did. All we saw was his mad, conditioned interpretation of ops he carried out. We know almost nothing for sure, except: A: There are two very powerful, seemingly god-like creatures of opposing intentions and means. Kun Lan is linked to Smiles, Harman linked to Emir. Which one is good is debatable. (very probable) B: They spar, regularly, playing games that involve fates of nations and many many people. Currently they are involved in a mutual struggle. (true, if A is met) C: An exceptional assassin existed, called Emir, that killed 6 people, and got stuck with their personae. I doubt he killed Harman, because it is shown he killed himself on the roof, and i wager Harman absorbed him. 'Took him in'. If he did kill H, that's 7, and he was stuck with them, for real or make-believe. (true) D: Harman uses a wheelchair, meaning he has come to some harm in the timespan between the time he absorbed Emir or E took him, and K7's op number 33. I presume Garcian, under the influence of Dan Smith persona, harmed him, as said in the gamebook. (true, but the Dan part is debatable) E: Matsuken is real, and his existence can't be doubted. (true) F: Ulmeyda shows himself as a remnant to his successor, showing that remnants do exist. But i don't know if Travis and Susie do. They might, i don't know. Because they are never seen from a neutral third party, only the K7, which i think are all non-existant, and all just Emir absorbed in Harman, or, because Harman was weakened, Harman in Garcian. G: The coliseum from op. Lion, and the vinculum coliseum, also the stairs of the vinculum entrance and exit are awfully similar and are probably one and the same, only distorted through Emir's skewed, conditioned memory. The gatekeeper may be some agent collecting data (presented as soul shells ingame) and checking whether Emir did his job right, if he did, he did the work, come back home Emir. The monster smiley in the middle of it is his actual mission goal. When he destroys it, his mission is done. This is how missions are encoded and compressed. (plausible, 50% or less) H: Emir, as Garcian, was always under somebody's surveillance. Even in his fantastic missions, with the cameras. If you accept that at least the cameras were real, you can assume that it was through switches like these Garcian's buttons were pushed into a desired behavior pattern, or a persona. (surveillance positively present, switches might be) I: The game is a mess, an intentional one at that. Like for instance, you intend to randomly throw socks of different color around your bedroom, but you can't know where each one will land, but there's a good backstory as to what occurred, but you kinda loose interest somewhere after 75% of it, and you desire to throw your boxers around and mix it up, a twist you see, and then you're out of time and must go to work and you leave it at that. And if someone else walks in, and sees this mess, he might think it's interesting, perhaps cool, but a mess still, with no explanation. Now, one could presume that this rampage of socks and undergarments has a deeper meaning, besides being fun and seemingly cool, and you can try to make sense of it all, but the point of the matter is that you just can't know for sure. The guy that made the mess is not there, he's at work, doing something else. So you could analyze this sock formation to death, and it might remind you of swans or robots or potatoes, but you'll never know what it meant to the creator of it. Only what it meant to you. Perhaps it meant nothing. The creator comes home and says after being asked about the underweargeddon 'Oh, it was pointless. I had an idea there, but it got lost. But it's cool, right?' Don't expect a sensible story here, but expect to be prompted into thinking, even though it may lead to nowhere. Enjoy the minute coolness of it, but remember that the socks have to be put back into the drawer eventually, and that it's another working day tomorrow. (amen) J: Curtis existed, as did all the targets. The question is how Garcian eliminated them all in truth. (yep, hmm) And that's what i make of it, if it's to have any sense. An odd thought, could Linda Vermillion be Harman Smith, separated from Garcian, in a skirt? The hat, the fact she finds herself known to Garcian, the fact she offed Mills just before he said a thing about Harman, ordering Garcie and calling herself a protector.... Mills got himself wasted the second he chose to speak about Harman. Final thoughts ---------------------------- I honestly think that the authors lucked out. Those guys put this complex but unfinished product out there, for whatever reason, and it just worked because it was mess, it was... art. Hah. It had everything, cars, gods, afros, politics, action, gore, sex, zombies, twists, good vs evil, punishing rangers, imagination. And it let you assemble the story, decide what made sense. No, it made you decide. A game that makes you think, go figure. Also i don't like number 13. Handsooome Beeeam! Thanks ---------------------------- To the makers of this artsy mess of a game that made me think'n'play. Other FAQ creators, on Gamefaqs and elsewhere, for their collected thoughts and data. Captain Planet, for being awesome, even with a mullet. Permissions -------------------------------------------- Gamefaqs Legal Stuff -------------------------------------------- Private use and all that right? Just kidding, my thoughts are yours. But are still mine! Contact ------------------------------------------- If you have a question or a thought or something like that concerning Killer 7 or the faq, write at hejbreovojemojmail@yahoo.com ((c))2010