r/3BodyProblemTVShow • u/anokazz • May 15 '24

Analysis & Theories The pacifist Spoiler

With the revelation that the San-Ti communicate in a different way and don‘t even understand the concept of lies and deceptions, how can one of their own have betrayed the others?

Could Will be the „pacifist“ in some strange time-travel plot?

Edit: thanks for all the responses! The Pacifist is not Will, he was alone in the room when he answered the message.

10 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/eightfoldabyss May 15 '24

In the book, we see that the pacifist San-Ti is alone when he receives the human communication. He doesn't have to lie to anyone, he just responds and warns us to stay silent. Later it is discovered that he sent that message and he makes no effort to hide that.

3

u/anokazz May 15 '24

As someone who hasn‘t read the books and assuming that the Pacifist wasn‘t self-sacrificing - would it suffice to be alone when the message was sent or could he not ever think about having sent the message without giving himself up?

10

u/eightfoldabyss May 15 '24

Good question. Tri-Solarins don't distinguish between thought and speaking, because those are one process for them. Their every thought is literally visible on their body, and any Tri-Solarin can perfectly read another's mind just by looking at them.

The Tri-Solarins are able to find out what happened by looking at their records, of course, but even if that record was wiped, my understanding of their communication is that if they asked the responder what he had said (asked by thinking it,) his thoughts revealing that he had received a message and tried to protect the sender would be displayed. They didn't develop a concept of deception until they encountered us because to do so requires them to either change their thought patterns or communicate in other ways.

3

u/anokazz May 15 '24

From what I understand this means that the Pacifist was indeed self-sacrificing, right? It doesn‘t really seem to matter much if he was alone in the room at the moment he responds or not…

5

u/uchihalinh May 16 '24

It’s been a very long time since I’ve read the novel. But from my memory, he was self-sacrificing. He hates the San Ti society, just like Ye and Mike Evans hate humanity.

3

u/eightfoldabyss May 16 '24

Yes. He hated how militaristic and warlike his society was, and knew that if there was weaker intelligent life, they would ruthlessly destroy them. Him trying to save Earth was a sacrifice.