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Automaton
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| “ | T-Dolls have all the right to strive for beauty. If you want to be cold and unfeeling, you might as well be a Military automaton. Sure, they're mighty, but their existence only involves killing and being killed. Peace can only be possible if people yearn for goodness and beauty. — RF Carcano M1891Carcano M1891Carcano M1891[1]
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In the English translation of Girls' Frontline games (see translation notes), an automaton[2] or a droid[3][4] refers to any robot piloted by an AI less complex than a Neural Cloud, in opposition to a Doll.[5][6]
Since the definition is broad, many enemies in Girls' Frontline can be classified as automatons.
Appearance and behaviour
While originally the term “Doll” applied to humanoid military robots, the definition changed and now only designates androids that closely replicate the appearance and behavior of humans. Automatons have a unmistakably robotic appearances and a wide range of form factors (despite the alternate term “droid” being a shortened form of “android”, which implies a human shape), including animal and human-like shapes, and are used both for civilian and military applications.
Military and security droids have never been shown speaking or doing anything else than fight according to human orders. According to UranusUranus , before acquiring a civilian Neural Cloud, he held no other desire than battle. Military automatons only have crude sensory modules for hearing and perceiving airborne chemicals.[7]
Pavel, an old civilian railroad maintenance droid, is depicted as possessing a basic level of human intelligence and speech: he read books and became fascinated by The Little Prince. Another GIRTM collected raw gold nuggets found during their work seemingly as a hobby. Pavel could interact somewhat normally with a human child, although in a stiff manner. Droids of his model are however shown to have a rather weak ego, considering their own recycling for scraps to be a natural part of their existence and voluntarily submitting to it as long as they considered their work achieved.[8] While he considered protecting humans part of his function,[9] he could do so selectively and defended Rosita against other humans by attacking with his wrench.[10] He also broke a painfully loud malfunctioning alarm, demonstrating a will to break rules for the benefit of others as long as he knew they wouldn't be enforced.[11] His demonstration of his inability to drink by physically lifting a glass to his head unit and spilling it on himself could be interpreted as dry humor.[12]
Known models
This list excludes Paradeus mechanoids since it is unclear whether they are piloted by an AI or repurposed organic material like Strelets.
Humanoids
- Military
- Non-military combat units
- Civilian
- GIRTM
Non-humanoids
- Military
- Non-military combat units
- Civilian
Personal automatons
- Vixen: “Vixen Automatic, Next Gen A.I[sic] Robot”[16] a four-legged transport robot with a simple personality.[17]
- Maple Moon: RF TAC-50TAC-50TAC-50's drone. Based on her comments about it in the Notebook story for the costume Elven Demon Huntress, it is assumed that Maple Moon is semi-autonomous.
- Slo-Mo: CascadiaCascadia 's robotic companion, originally classified as a “mecha-hound”,[18] received a basic neural cloud but hasn't been further categorized.[19]
- Kulich: Nikketa's “robodog”.[20]
- Taryz: Springfield's bird-like drone.
- Pegaso: Liushih's horse automaton.
- Lumi: Machine-learning testbed.
- Ksenia's unnamed assistant worn on her shoulder (they can be seen interacting in the Refitting Room and Crew Deck animations).
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Taryz with Springfield. -
Lumi. -
Ksenia's unnamed assistant.
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Some robots assumed to be automatons appear in costumes in Girls' Frontline, but since they're never mentioned in story it can't be ascertained if they are canon. Drones are excluded from this list.
Translation notes
There is no distinction between “Doll” and “automaton/droid” in the original Chinese script of Girls' Frontline, where the characters 人形 (“puppet”, “doll”, lit. human-shape) are used for all humanoid machines.
In the translation of Girls' Frontline, “automaton” was first used to translate 人形 in an isolated instance in 4-1N. When the term 军用人形 was introduced in Chapter 8, it was simply translated “Military Doll”. It remained the standard translation throughout Chapter 9, Singularity and Continuum Turbulence. “Military Automaton” was first used to translate 军用人形 in Isomer and became the standard translation in the main story until Poincare Recurrence, introducing a unique distinction with “Autonomous Doll” (自律人形), “Tactical Doll” (战术人形) and “civilian Doll” (民用人形). The translation “Military Doll” still appeared in the translation of some Neural Upgrade stories. RO635's Neural Upgrade story was the only time the term 军队人形 appeared, alongside 军用人形, the translation continued to use “Military Doll” for the latter, but introduced "Military droid" for the former. A few months later, in The Waves Wrangler, 安保人形 was exclusively translated “droid” instead of “security Doll”. “Droid” was reused in Welrod MkII's Neural Upgrade story, but not as the translation of a specific term.
The rationale for using two translations for 人形 was most likely based on the differences between the Dolls controlled by the player, who look and act more like humans, and enemy Dolls, which exclusively looked and acted like robots at that point in the story. This choice proved problematic in later chapters.
In G36C's Neural Upgrade story, a definition of “Doll” was given as “人形，或者说，具有心智的战斗机械”. This was translated as “T-Dolls—in other words, combat droids equipped with neural clouds”, marking the first use of the term “droid” to translate the generic word 机械 (“machine”). In Kar98k's Neural Upgrade story, and later The Summer Garden of Forking Paths and Zero Charge, both “Military Doll” or “droid” were used interchangeably for military Dolls who don't act like robots. In Longitudinal Strain, “droid” was used wholesale to translate various terms, such as 机器人 (a generic term usually translated “robot” or “android”), 军方人形, 军用人形, 机甲 and 看守人形. Critically, every instance of the term 人形, usually translated as “Doll”, was instead translated as “droid” when in relation to Pavel, who looked like a robot but acted closer to a human, artificially excluding him from the classification of Doll. When Gray Zone Exploration was introduced, it added Incident Node “Wandering Droids” which mentions “droids with neural clouds”, contradicting the translation of G36C's Neural Upgrade story. “Automaton” was used to translate the new term “机械人形” in Type 79's Neural Upgrade story, but it would later be translated as “android” in Cartesian Theater. Finally, in Angular Gyrus and Isolation Forest, playable Dolls Mk.18 and SCAR-L were described as 军用人形, translated exclusively as “Military Doll”.
Project Neural Cloud nearly exclusively uses the term “military Doll”, only translating 军用人形 by “military droid” in Svarog Heavy Industries's faction description and translating 机器人 as “automatons” to describe NPCs in Netherblade Gleam.
Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium uses all terms interchangeably:
- 军用人形 is translated “Military Doll” in 2-1 and Klukai's Record 1, where she's described as such.
- 机器人 is translated droid in Mayling's Journal to designate the dummy Jiuzhang, and automaton in Silvered Whispers to designate Lumi.
- 人形 is translated android in several Dusty Journals and Peritya's Wishing Well letter, though this is probably a remnant of machine translation.
- In this game, the term 机械 is used more often to designate enemies from primarily mechanical factions, such as PMCs, URNC and Marley Thermal Power Plant, regardless of their form. “Automaton” tends to be used more, but “droid” is also in use (especially visible in Aphelion).
- The new term 傀儡人形, used to describe Neobrutes, is translated "Marionette Doll".
References
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, HG MakarovMakarovMakarov's A Certain Unscientific Sunflower costume story
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Isomer, Beyond the Border II, also Polarized Light Reflector I and Polishing, RF SV-98SV-98SV-98 Neural Upgrade story 3, SG M1897M1897M1897 Neural Upgrade story.
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Longitudinal Strain, 2
- ↑ Project Neural Cloud, Worldview - Svarog heavy Industries
- ↑ Project Neural Cloud, Uranus' profile
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, SMG G36CG36CG36C Neural Upgrade story 4
- ↑ Project Neural Cloud, Netherblade Gleam Stage 2-1
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Longitudinal Strain, 35-P1
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Longitudinal Strain, 8
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Longitudinal Strain, 35-P4
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Longitudinal Strain, 2
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Longitudinal Strain, 4
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, SG M1897M1897M1897 Neural Upgrade story 2
- ↑ Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium, Corposant AA-1-8
- ↑ Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium, Deep Oblivion LA-1-2
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Notebook/Florentine's Gift, MG HK21HK21HK21's memento
- ↑ Girls' Frontline, Notebook/Florentine's Gift, MG HK21HK21HK21 Vixen's Platform 1/9's costume story
- ↑ Project Neural Cloud, Crisis Rescue Part 2
- ↑ Project Neural Cloud, CascadiaCascadia Profile 4
- ↑ Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium, Ex Umbra NA-1-2
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