I Love This Post So Much. Her Dynamic With Connor Has Always Intrigued Me. The Character Amanda Herself

I love this post so much. Her dynamic with Connor has always intrigued me. The character Amanda herself has always intrigued me. Going to ramble right now about her.

Amanda is a handler that was intended specifically for RK800 models as far as we're aware since the other androids don't mention having Handlers. Most assume Kamski made Connor and that's why Amanda is his Handler. I however I disagree. Amanda only really mentions that Cyberlife made her and I know Kamski says he leaves an emergency exit thing in all his machines so that leaves one to assume he made Connor but I think Cyberlife is just reusing from Kamski's original android designs.

Anyway. So Cyberlife created Amanda to be a Handler for RK800s. But that's so... Silly to me!

Back to the topic of Kamski. As far as what we see in Kamski's home, he only has a painting from Carl in his pool room, picture of himself in the entrance room (living room?) and a picture of himself beside Amanda. Clearly Amanda is important to Kamski since he's choosing a photo of himself beside her over a photo of his family or something in his home. And as we know it's because she was a supportive Professor and role model in his life. She looks very sweet in the photo.

And Cyberlife obviously must have met her or heard of her to create a whole AI handler model with her voice (I assume).

And that's what's so silly to me! Imagine your favorite teacher/professor gets an AI model clone meant for a police robot!

I wonder what Professor Stern must've been like!

Edit: also I've found out she died around the time Kamski left Cyberlife. I wonder if her death impacted his decision.

some thoughts on connor and amanda because oh boy do they have one of the most compelling dynamics i’ve ever seen and amanda is just one of the most intriguing antagonists ever to me:

connor’s need for approval is such an intrinsic part of who he is as a person

the way he tries so hard to appeal to amanda in the deviant route (and the machine route but i’m mostly focusing on deviant connor) and at first he’s just following orders but as the game progresses he’s scrambling for some sense of her approval to assure himself he’s useful, that he has a purpose, and projecting his own personal sense of self value onto her.

so when she rejects him it rocks his sense of self to the core which is a central theme to connor’s character: identity and repression. who is he without approval? without an order to follow?

and the saddest part of it is that he still clings to her even when her thinly veiled apathy towards him turns into outward disdain. even when cyberlife tries to resume control of his program at the end of the deviant route it’s amanda he still calls out to: for answers? for her comfort?

which makes me wonder post game about the kind of trauma connor has to deal with after finally freeing himself from cyberlife and amanda, who he had once so desperately wanted to please.

i think its interesting when people explore this characteristic of his in post game fanworks. how does his previous relationship with amanda inform his relationships with others? with hank? with markus?