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View Poll Results: Did you feel any sorry for Blaine?

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Thread: Blaine - and your feelings about it

  1. #101
    妖怪 ola is on a distinguished road ola's Avatar

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    I also saw little Blaine as a part that had segmented itself from the crazy Big Blaine part, like the tiny sane part of a brain that may metaphorically brick itself into a safe niche from the insanity raging through the rest of the brain.
    Yeah. Blaine was crazy from being super intelligent and having nothing to do for centuries...but I don't think he had a dissociative identity disorder. Little Blaine was more Blaine than Detta was Odetta. It was a voice in his head, not another personality entirely, and it manifested itself as a separate part of the same entity. Just like how he used a lot of different voices to talk.

  2. #102
    Citizen of Gilead pixiedark76 will become famous soon enough pixiedark76 will become famous soon enough pixiedark76's Avatar

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    I felt sorry for Blaine because he reminds me of a spoiled 3 year old! He seemed like a very smart, but very immature person. (Kind of like my son!) Blaine also seemed very lonely and scared. He was neglected and alone for thousands of years! Being lonely can definitely make a person go insane! I have always thought that if the Ka-tet would have tried to understand Blaine better and tried to make friends with him, Blaine would have acted differently.

  3. #103
    妖怪 ola is on a distinguished road ola's Avatar

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    I have always thought that if the Ka-tet would have tried to understand Blaine better and tried to make friends with him, Blaine would have acted differently.
    I think that Blaine was beyond making friends by the point they encountered him. He'd decided that he wanted to die, and there wasn't anything they could have offered him to look forward to by 'living' - maybe if he was a really old human instead of a really really old robot, they could have shown him some sort of meaning in life with their friendship. But being an ancient, bored machine without a purpose, he was beyond finding even other smart machines interesting to talk to. Otherwise he wouldn't have killed Patricia.

  4. #104
    damned and saved Letti will become famous soon enough Letti will become famous soon enough Letti's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by pixiedark76 View Post
    I felt sorry for Blaine because he reminds me of a spoiled 3 year old! He seemed like a very smart, but very immature person. (Kind of like my son!) Blaine also seemed very lonely and scared. He was neglected and alone for thousands of years! Being lonely can definitely make a person go insane! I have always thought that if the Ka-tet would have tried to understand Blaine better and tried to make friends with him, Blaine would have acted differently.
    What a positive attitude but I couldn't disagree more. I feel Blaine didn't want any understanding but revenge. Bloody revenge.

    Roland would have understood.

  5. #105
    The Thermals cody44 is on a distinguished road cody44's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Letti View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by pixiedark76 View Post
    I felt sorry for Blaine because he reminds me of a spoiled 3 year old! He seemed like a very smart, but very immature person. (Kind of like my son!) Blaine also seemed very lonely and scared. He was neglected and alone for thousands of years! Being lonely can definitely make a person go insane! I have always thought that if the Ka-tet would have tried to understand Blaine better and tried to make friends with him, Blaine would have acted differently.
    What a positive attitude but I couldn't disagree more. I feel Blaine didn't want any understanding but revenge. Bloody revenge.
    I agree with Letti, I don't think Blaine would have been able to make friends. He was very unstable, and wanted nothing more than to kill as many people as he could.

    And I don't think you could be understanding to a insane train who wants nothing more that to kill himself, the citizens of Lud, and the Ka-tet.


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  6. #106
    Traveler The Dancing Clown is on a distinguished road

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    I liked the concept of a character like Blain, not Blain himself (he's a pain).

    The only thing I didn't like about him was "Little Blain". Just felt a bit tack-on and I think the character would've been more interesting if King hadn't, like many other writers, tried to humanize an AI.

  7. #107
    Public enemy number 1 Sickrose is on a distinguished road Sickrose's Avatar

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    I didnt have sympathy for Blaine - he is an example of the mahciens the Old people made going wrong or bad.

    I think little Blaine was Blaine messing with the Ka-tet - another part of his degenerative state of mind. A great character and totally suspensful part of the book!

    What did he do what he had done with the people in Lud?
    I think the poeple of Liud were like the people in Mejis - ready to resort to superstition and,therefore, worship the God-drums.

    Was he lonely? Was he insane? Can a robot be insane at all? Have feelings?
    He did seem to have feelings maybe especially anger and spite! I think he had evolved to some point but the environment he was in made him spiteful and horrible!

  8. #108
    Gunslinger Apprentice Delacroix is on a distinguished road Delacroix's Avatar

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    Blaine wasn't that mad. He knew. He knew what he was and where he was. He knew what had happened and what would come next. He had all the fact and the perfect logic to make the best choices. Suicide was his only option and I don't think he was glad about it. He also set the Lud dewellers free. They were in the same situation as he was, but they didn't know it and didn't know how to escape it.

    Of course he could have tried to make things better and build a new world...but he was a bit mad for that. Blaine is a pain and that is the truth, Blaine is wrong and that is the truth.

  9. #109
    Traveler l0rdhelmet223 is on a distinguished road

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    I don't really think blain was crazy at all... he just wanted to die, being left alone for thousands of years had made him bitter perhaps. but he wasn't crazy. he had the presence of mind to formulate a plan and gave the ka-tet a choice to follow with it or not, as I remember... it's been a while. As for what he had done to the people of Lud, with the GOD drums, I'm pretty sure that was just for his amusement, but as I said he was bitter and lonely... as for killing them all, looking back I see it as more of a release for them... The world had moved on, and the people of Lud were going mad as it was. Even tho blain may have been driven to the decisions he made I can't say I felt sorry for him... he was a pain and homicidal to boot........ not really even suicidal because if I remember right the banks of computers that was actually his brain or consciousness would continue to live on and just get more lonely and more bitter..... well shit... maybe he was crazy LOL.

  10. #110
    Traveler Charyou Tree is on a distinguished road

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    Quote Originally Posted by ola View Post
    I also saw little Blaine as a part that had segmented itself from the crazy Big Blaine part, like the tiny sane part of a brain that may metaphorically brick itself into a safe niche from the insanity raging through the rest of the brain.
    Yeah. Blaine was crazy from being super intelligent and having nothing to do for centuries...but I don't think he had a dissociative identity disorder. Little Blaine was more Blaine than Detta was Odetta. It was a voice in his head, not another personality entirely, and it manifested itself as a separate part of the same entity. Just like how he used a lot of different voices to talk.
    I like this. I agree with this 100%. That and the fact that Blaine was a pain....in the ass....if it do ya.

    Quote Originally Posted by l0rdhelmet223 View Post
    I don't really think blain was crazy at all... he just wanted to die, being left alone for thousands of years had made him bitter perhaps. but he wasn't crazy. he had the presence of mind to formulate a plan and gave the ka-tet a choice to follow with it or not, as I remember... it's been a while. As for what he had done to the people of Lud, with the GOD drums, I'm pretty sure that was just for his amusement, but as I said he was bitter and lonely... as for killing them all, looking back I see it as more of a release for them... The world had moved on, and the people of Lud were going mad as it was. Even tho blain may have been driven to the decisions he made I can't say I felt sorry for him... he was a pain and homicidal to boot........ not really even suicidal because if I remember right the banks of computers that was actually his brain or consciousness would continue to live on and just get more lonely and more bitter..... well shit... maybe he was crazy LOL.
    Yeah...he was. Remember, his mental state was wearing down. Curayyyyyzah!

  11. #111
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    Quote Originally Posted by l0rdhelmet223 View Post
    not really even suicidal because if I remember right the banks of computers that was actually his brain or consciousness would continue to live on and just get more lonely and more bitter..... well shit... maybe he was crazy LOL.
    I wondered about that too, but I think he probably transferred his consiousness (for want of a better word) to the train. Or copied it then deleted the original. Computers are nothing without the programs running on them and I think that is essentially what Blaine's personality was. A very advanced computer program. When the train died, so did Blaine. At least that's my take onit, but maybe you're right and he is still cackling away in the circuits of that city far away.... brrrr.

    And I do think he was crazy. He even had a dual personality thing going on with 'little Blaine'. An insane person can still scheme. Insanity takes different forms. It's not just someone running around gibbering like a gibbon and shouting "RHUBARB!" (Actually it's very rarely that, I'm obviously exaggerating, but I'm sure you get what I mean.)

  12. #112
    Gunslinger Apprentice lowdown is on a distinguished road lowdown's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darkthoughts View Post
    And that is the truth!


    i voted for no remorse for blaine....

    but hell yea Blaine was a great character in the book

    but in the long run he was computer ....super computer but still a computer

    he was beat by human ridiculous bullshit .......courtesy of Eddie Dean

    weakness if you ask me

    I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go INSANE, and I'm not responsible for what I do

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  13. #113
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    I didn't feel sorry for him, but he was an awesome villain.

  14. #114
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    Same here - not a bit of pity, but it was very interesting to read about him (it?)
    Especially because I'm facinated by a combination of intelligence and craziness that he possesses. Nothing like a creative, merciless, 'omnipotent', mad machine to add a generous bit of suspence to the story.
    If you are going through hell - keep going

  15. #115
    Citizen of Gilead Roland of Gilead 33 will become famous soon enough Roland of Gilead 33's Avatar

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    i felt a little bit of sorry for him cause i think at one point he was prolly a LOT more friendly & as the years went on he i think became more human.

    & with the change in Roland's world it made him lose to put it best his sanity. after that he lost pretty much his mind. but he was i agree a great vililan. i always found it funny that he didn't notice "Little Blaine" still in him, or hear him talk to the gang. i realize he asked them once or twice if they said anything. but that was just once or twice.

  16. #116
    Traveler Versalina is on a distinguished road Versalina's Avatar

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    I loved Blaine! He's my favorite character, as strange as that sounds. I also like all the other robots/cyborgs, but he was just great!

  17. #117
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    about as bad as i did for andy. not at all

  18. #118
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    Quote Originally Posted by Versalina View Post
    I loved Blaine! He's my favorite character, as strange as that sounds. I also like all the other robots/cyborgs, but he was just great!
    he is definitely my favorite villain

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  19. #119
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    Just finished my Wastelands reread.

    Wow, Blaine is just as great as I remembered. Such a wonderful, menacing villain. The part where he tells Eddie that he voluntarily blew out the circuits that monitors whether or not his tracks are still intact just to 'make things interesting' .. amazing.

  20. #120
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    Does any one else feel that Blaine is misrepresented by all the reprint covers of the book? The first time I ever saw Wastelands was the viking edition so in my mind I have this classic old coal engine with Rose eyes and a skull face in my mind every time I hear his name and then you learn he is a pink mono... it was a little of a let down for me with everywhere you look you always see a train. Not sure if this is due to the publishers laziness to create a cover that represents the story or if they were trying to give you a different mental image. My thoughts are just because it is a train doesn't mean just put a train.

  21. #121
    Bastard Son of Cort stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin is loved more than Jesus stroppygoblin's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by jsmcmullen92 View Post
    Does any one else feel that Blaine is misrepresented by all the reprint covers of the book? The first time I ever saw Wastelands was the viking edition so in my mind I have this classic old coal engine with Rose eyes and a skull face in my mind every time I hear his name and then you learn he is a pink mono... it was a little of a let down for me with everywhere you look you always see a train. Not sure if this is due to the publishers laziness to create a cover that represents the story or if they were trying to give you a different mental image. My thoughts are just because it is a train doesn't mean just put a train.
    I never liked that image, it just doesnt fit the description of Blaine in the book - he's an ultra modern slick mono, not a steam billowing locomotive.

    My favourite is this by Darek Kocurek - love this piece of art.

    "A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King

  22. #122
    Gunslinger Apprentice Xerrand will become famous soon enough Xerrand's Avatar

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    How can you feel sorry for an insane mass murderer?!? also he wasn't even human. Great character though.

  23. #123
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    Blaine is a pain.

  24. #124
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    Quote Originally Posted by killjoy72 View Post
    Blaine is a pain.
    And THAT'S the truth!!!

  25. #125
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    Quote Originally Posted by stroppygoblin View Post

    I never liked that image, it just doesnt fit the description of Blaine in the book - he's an ultra modern slick mono, not a steam billowing locomotive.

    My favourite is this by Darek Kocurek - love this piece of art.

    Yes, fantastic artwork! And a much, much closer representation of how Blaine is described in the book.
    I never really "got" the steam locomotive cover - and just sort of pushed it out of my mind as irrelevant to the narrative.

    Incidentally, every time I ride the speed train from St.Petersburg (Russia) to Helsinki, I cannot help but think of Blaine. Not that I have to solve any riddles to board it - just come up with good reasons to justify making a day trip there
    If you are going through hell - keep going

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