History Headscratchers / PerfectDark

* Why does the mission briefing use the term, "Skedar fanatics", when apparently all Skedar are fanatics?

*** I think Joanne knew exactly who Johnathan was and what he looked like. His facial features stayed the same and the dialogue is very indicative of their familiarity. The camera hides him from view until his reveal but it can be assumed he was just out of view because of the guard he had to shoot. The dialogue from Joanne: "There you are. I was beginning to wonder if you'd been discovered yet. (after John has shot the enemy) And frankly, if this is how you work I'm surprised you lasted longer than five minutes."

** The hologram simulation technology runs more than just "skin deep"; it perfectly replicates the human physiology with all of it's strengths, limitations and vulnerabilities. YourMindMakesItReal and the shocks that a Skedar could shake off are lethal when they're impersonating an Earthling. So Blondes (unlike Terminators or Agents from ''Film/TheMatrix'') are constrained to run at the normal speed of a human being, have the same strength and are as vulnerable to bullets and fists as an ordinary person (or elite Nordic bodybuilder, take your pick). Why didn't the Skedar make them more durable you might ask? Either the technology was constrained to having to simulate exactly, or [[IdiotBall they just didn't take it into account]].

** Easy enough. The hologram tech is capable of "displaced projection". So the Skedar stands in front of the chair and the rear part of the field cloaks him to be invisible just like any other cloaking device shown in the game. The Blonde disguise is the displaced projection, and the Skedar mimes sitting to make the human guise do likewise ''on'' the chair. As Blonde stands up, he and the Skedar merge to share similar tactile coordinates as is expected during ordinary operation of the technology.

** It might be assumed that the Skedar can scarcely afford to use many of their soldiers as undercover operatives on Earth. And considering they probably don't trust the human conspirators to loan out the hologram tech to their mooks, perhaps its just ''THE'' Mr. Blonde who we see in cutscenes (and who we play as in abonus mission ) which is really a Skedar under the disguise. The rest might be advanced hard-light holograms with nothing actually there (but maybe as remote control drones) capable of interacting with the environment, firearms etc. If that's too far fetched even in this universe for you, we can go with fully functional android soldiers, whether disguised by hologram or by conventional techniques.

** What bugs me more is that, if I recall correctly, they stay in their Blonde disguises when you kill them in the Crash Site mission. Avoiding spoilers, sure, but unless their disguises aren't lifeforce dependent ...

** She didn't mean that she literally went into hiding, but she was entrenched in dataDyne HQ with her female bodyguard private army, a DualWielding captain and [[EliteMooks specially trained male guards]] equipped with [[HandCannon magnum handguns]] and N-Bombs. She didn't think even the Skedar would be able to penetrate those defences, at least not without her being able to pull a hasty getaway. Joanna claims that the Institute "found no trace of her", so perhaps she was actually hiding very well but decided to return to HQ that night to retrieve something with her army. Unfortunately for her, Skedar military intelligence was just too good.

** Same sort of justification as the battle droids in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' being able to penetrate the shield, but not their energy weapons. Lasers and bullets travel at supersonic speeds, so the energy shield is specially tuned to be able to cancel out the damage they impart, at a cost of a fraction of it's own energy supply. But a crossbow bolt is long and is fired at subsonic speeds, so the shield isn't designed to be able to stop it and if it's lethal, it will still hit the person and execute them. On the other hand, the lethal injection overdose of drugs depends on delivery mechanism-skin contact and the shield isn't able to prevent people and other macroscopic objects to come into contact. It makes sense; if the President wore one, fine he's protected but the shield still has to let him shake hands with other politicians and go about his daily life with as little inconvenience as possible.

** The hologram simulation technology runs more than just "skin deep"; it perfectly replicates the Human physiology with all of it's strengths, limitations and vulnerabilities. YourMindMakesItReal and the shocks that a Skedar could shake off are lethal when they're impersonating an Earthling. So Blondes (unlike Terminators or Agents from ''Film/TheMatrix'') are constrained to run at the normal speed of a human being, and are as vulnerable to bullets and fists as an ordinary person. Why didn't the Skedar make them more durable you might ask? Either the technology was constrained to having to simulate exactly, or [[IdiotBall they just didn't take it into account]].

* It bugs me that [[WhatMeasureIsAMook you can kill Datadyne and Area 51 guards with impunity]], but not NSA agents. It makes sense that the NSA guys would be spared because they don't know what Easton is up to and thus are innocents who are just doing their jobs. Fine. Except that I doubt the Datadyne guards know all about their company's evil deeds; most likely, [[PunchClockVillain they just think it's involved in making robots or something, have no idea that Cassandra wants to take over the world, and are just keeping criminals from stealing valuable technology]]. Similarly, the Area 51 guards are government employees working to prevent foreign operatives, spies, and terrorists from stealing information and technology that could potentially bring down America.

** Initial Vector portrays him as a man at war against [=DataDyne=] and the {{MegaCorp}}s, and is fairly jaded, cynical and ruthless. Plus I might be mistaken, but those after Jo I believe were NSA agents with Trent and the snow guards and Presidential security are rank and file US employees. The guards won't go after you when you are face to face with the President, and they'll go off and fight the invading NSA if spared. Area 51 though, that is morally ambiguous.

** The guards are competent at point defence, but Joanna is the only agent to hand and in general, the only person skilled enough to both engage the enemy and activate the autoguns. In-universe, their computers might require a few commands

* Why is it that when the Skedar aren't disguised as Mr. Blondes, they are almost impossible to knock unconscious with your fists, but when they ''are'' disguised, they get knocked out just like any actual human?

** Initial Vector portrays him as a man at war against [=DataDyne=] and the {{MegaCorp}}s, and is fairly jaded, cynical and ruthless. Plus I might be mistaken, but those after Jo I believe were NSA agents with Trent and the snow guards and Presidential security are rank and file US employees. The guards won't go after you when you are face to face with the President, and they'll go off and fight the invading NSA if spared. Area 51 though, that is morally ambiguous.

** Initial Vector portrays him as a man at war against DataDyne and the MegaCorps, and is fairly jaded, cynical and ruthless. Plus I might be mistaken, but those after Jo I believe were NSA agents with Trent and the snow guards and Presidential security are rank and file US employees. The guards won't go after you when you are face to face with the President, and they'll go off and fight the invading NSA if spared. Area 51 though, that is morally ambiguous.

** "Blonde" is only feminine in French.

:: Carrington doesn't seem like such a swell guy when you think about it.

*** Well he doesn't ever look conformable in that suit does he.

** What bugs me more is that, if I recall correctly, they stay in their Blonde disguises when you kill them in the Crash Site mission. Avoiding spoilers, sure, but unless their disguises aren't lifeforce dependant ...
*** Why would they be life-dependant?

* It bugs me that you can kill Datadyne and Area 51 guards with impunity, but not NSA agents. It makes sense that the NSA guys would be spared because they don't know what Easton is up to and thus are innocents who are just doing their jobs. Fine. Except that I doubt the Datadyne guards know all about their company's evil deeds; most likely, they just think it's involved in making robots or something, have no idea that Cassandra wants to take over the world, and are just keeping criminals from stealing valuable technology. Similarly, the Area 51 guards are government employees working to prevent foreign operatives, spies, and terrorists from stealing information and technology that could potentially bring down America.

* Has anyone else noticed that this game, despite being better in several ways than Goldeneye, seems to get way less attention? I know the game was released late in the N64's life, but it seems like the game has far fewer fans than it's predecessor.
** That is true, I guess it's because when it came out, it's lack of James Bond-ness (less familiar main character), requirement for the ram expansion (people hated spending extra cash back then) and just the fact that it came second, kept it from being the runaway hit that Goldeneye was. Personally I believe this game is not only better than Goldeneye, but better than some FPS games today *coughhazeturokroguetroopercough*. While on the subject of great titles late in the N64's life, spare a thought for poor old Conker's BFD.
** My take is that people put on the rose colored glasses for the game and even if the Goldeneye were remade with the most insane graphics, full speech and proper guns fans would be all "oh I hate the graphics in the game, Pierce Brosnan ruined the Bond character from the old game, why do we have to use the P90 I want the RC-P90."
*** And then ''[[VideoGameRemake Goldeneye Wii]]'' came along.

** What bugs me more is that, if I recall correctly, they stay in their Blonde disguises when you kill them in the Crash Site mission. Avoiding spoilers, sure, but unless their disguises aren't lifeforce dependant ...

* I can understand that the Skedar are using holographic generators to make themselves appear to be a human under the name of Mr. Blond... but what I don't understand is how in the G5 building mission, Mr. Blond was sitting down in a chair, when a Skedar Warrior would be incapable of sitting in the chair.

* It bugs me that the RCP-120 can hold 120 bullets in what doesn't appear to be a very big clip. Still an awesome gun though.

*** And then ''[[VideoGameRemake Goldeneye Wii]]'' came along.

** My take is that people put on the rose colored glasses for the game and even if the Goldeneye were remade with the most insane graphics, full speech and proper guns fans would be all "oh I hate the graphics in the game, Pierce Brosnan ruined the Bond character from the old game, why do we have to use the P90 I want the RC-P90."