With the Elktaur, the idea of a role reversal is functionally nonsensical. It's pretty clear that yeah, they have the exact same memories since they're literally the same being split in two, so you reverse it...and nothing at all changes because there has been no change. It's sorta like the coin toss from Soma. The General "won" and the Elk "lost", but they're both the same person right up until the moment of separation and which is which is an academic question with no material impact.
The fact of the matter is that both of them are the villain because the General abused the Elk and then decided to drag out the war as long as possible because he didn't want to die, damn the consequences, and the Elk got corrupted by the magic while trying to create a family (apparently) and decided to destroy everything the General had. The Elktaur had incredibly bad judgement, jumped to conclusions and was prone to really stupid and harmful decisions beforehand (like sawing off his antlers, for example) without ever bothering to check if that's what the Princess wanted. Hell, the Princess was really damn obvious about actually liking his antlers and the result is that he totally ignored her and charged ahead with his own preconceptions. And that trait carried over to both the General and the Elk. The General seemed to have no plan for how to actually deal with the Nowhere King and the Nowhere King never had an endgame.
Edited by Zendervai on Dec 17th 2021 at 8:45:59 AM
Megan Nicole Dong referenced both
The Prestige and Soma as influences so likely a similar principle applies. There is no “real Elktaur and clone Elktaur”. They’re both the Elktaur.
Oh no. Was it the same for the rutabagataur that was briefly split in Elktaur’s experiment? Was the rutabaga half horrified but unable to show that with no face? If someone took a bite out of it would the baby have died?
The whole coin toss analogy sounds funny to me because it's not exactly correct? It's not like crossing the doors that might or might not kill you. There is no 50%, it's 100%. Elktaur wasn't gambling, his failure and success were both assured. It's more like there is coin toss but...only retroactively? After the deed is done? If that makes any sense.
That's the point in Soma too, but Centaurworld changes it up a little bit. In Soma, the consciousness transfer "coin toss" doesn't actually happen. The person who initiated the transfer is awake the whole time and there's no point at which they could feel any ambiguity, and the other version also feels like there was no ambiguity. Centaurworld has a gap in consciousness because the process knocks the Elktaur out. But yeah, the coin toss as a metaphor is a purposefully bad one that doesn't actually address the reality of the situation at all. There's no actual probability chance involved at all, the result is simply two copies of the same consciousness in two different bodies, so the idea that the Elk is the "good part" and the General is the "bad part" is nonsensical, since they started out from exactly the same position.
I also feel like if the Elktaur had actually tested it on a different centaur that wasn't half an inanimate object with an unintelligible language and that could actually communicate after the fact what the experience was like, he might have avoided the whole problem, because then the thing about like "yes, you will be able to be with the princess...but you will also be doomed to never be with her and you will experience both outcomes" might have gotten him to at least stop and think or at least ask her.
Edited by Zendervai on Dec 17th 2021 at 2:16:07 PM
I was actually thinking about that for the longest time. Ruminating like I do how I would stop the dramatics from happening at tipping points of high stakes. I considered telling the Elktaur, "Hey man, why don't you try a little more testing on something with a little more personality. Ask one of your friends if they would mind being split so you could see if this machine will do what you want." But then I came to a realization when flashing back on the Elktaur's memories of working on the Rift. I don't think the Elktaur had any friends. Similar to what was said earlier.
But there is no one who acts as the best friend/wingman to the Elktaur so he has no one he could ask to test it on. Guskin the Gophertaur would possibly be the closest to someone he could have asked since he was the only other character in the flashback we know of. But I think Guskin was more like the Elktaur's boss than friend as I said earlier. If you know what I mean, please tell me anyone else the Elktaur could have asked to split before he split himself.
Yeah, he likely had some associates but no one close that would be willing to go with the experiment. After all, it looks like no one was looking for him after the split.
Ironically, I wouldn't be surprised if he believed in good and bad part. He probably assumed that he - The Real He - will be human and Elf will be some leftovers. This is why Elk was so freaked out and I bet General took plenty comfort in that belief.
I recently experienced a Parody Displacement: when I made a reference to a group of tabaxis (cat folk) doing a singing-dancing contest to pick the one who enters Cat Heaven in my D&D group, a 18-year-old member thought I was making a reference to Centaurworld.
Just watched this series and I really liked it. Though I wonder what the deal with the minotaurs are. We see them being made, but they also kinda retain some personality? But the Nowhere King controls them?
My AO3
I got that, just kinda weird at the fact that the Nowhere King controls them, but as we see they also have personality and are able to be people- like with Phillip J Bonecrunch and those at the end. Especially that minotaur monster made from a bird that clearly retained some personality
It's possible that the Nowhere King acts as magical command unit that the minotaurs automatically follow when in his range. The Minotaurs were mindless monsters without the Nowhere King in the human world which has no magic, but the Bayden Minotaur had little bits of Bayden's magic and Bayden's mind so that's why it could still talk. Fusing people with animals to create new life tended to result in the savage nature of the animals having more mental control, but by adding something as powerful as a Centaur that has both animal and person may have resulted in Minotaurs that aren't completely savage if the Nowhere King isn't around giving commands. Stabby was able to get their mind because of Centaurworld's magic that causes toonification to what is being influenced by Centaurworld. Like if a horde of brain eating zombies spent enough time in Centaurworld, they would probably become like Soos during the zombie episode of Gravity Falls as an example.
Edited by Matchingbone on Jan 21st 2022 at 8:20:54 AM

One thing I've seen floating around that I don't particularly agree with is this idea some fans have that the Elk contained the Elktaur's "goodness" or something, while the General contained his more selfish impulses. Maybe I'm wrong and I missed something, but my read was that the Elk and the General were the exact same person with the same exact memories, the only difference being that one had a human body and the other an elk body. The Elk was screwed over by the General, but he probably would've done the exact same thing had their roles been reversed. Circumstances were all that separated them. Plus, we never get to see inside the General's head. There's probably some ghostly version of whatever goodness lies inside him the same way there is for the Elk. Horse just never visits it.
I dunno, I just feel like I'm just seeing a lot of Ron The Death Eatering towards a character who's already supposed to be pretty villainous.
Edited by GNinja on Dec 17th 2021 at 1:21:00 PM
Kaze ni Nare!