Please stop me if this has been bandied about earlier.
What was behind Gash’s mask that freaked Edge? What was with Gash’s right hand that freaked me?
Might Gash have been a remnant of those “tribes of drones living in the borderlands?”
Could be that I just need more sleep…
i think it’s just that his face was torn up or he was missing an eye. but when he said “who would have thought they’d let someone like me be a leader” it made me wonder. i don’t think he’s a drone though…
Well, why do you think they call him, “Gash”?
Gash is a very determined man. One can only wonder what horrors shaped him into the leader he became.
If my face and arm were “gashed” by bio-monsters, I strive to exterminate every last one of them as well.
I always associated the expression “Shadow Eye” with the fact that probably Gash’s right eye was gone…
When I heard Lundi’s seeker name tho…
The fact that “Shadow Eye” is a title of authority among the Seekers and the fact that Gash (apparently) has an eye missing always struck me as quite a strange coincience. It occured to me that he may have lost his eye during some bizarre Seeker-leader initiation ceremony, although why a sensible group like the Seekers would want their leaders to have one functional eye and one “Shadow Eye” is beyond me.
Alternatively, the “Shadow Eye” title may have been added in translation, at least in Lundi’s (Endow’s) case. That would explain the “coincidence”, anyway - can anyone confirm if this is the case?
I’m also quite sure that “Gash” is just an English spelling of his original Japanese name (which seems to sound more like “Gush”). Presumably the Japanese name wouldn’t have the same connotations as the English one (i.e. that he had been “Gashed” or scarred, as he is), but that’s probably why the Western localisation team decided on that spelling.
OK, suggesting Gash was a drone masquerading as a human is far-fetched. I admitted as much straight away.
Still, it seems to me that Edge over-reacted to Gash’s little game of peek-a-boo. I mean, the kid was raised by mercenaries. He must have seen his fair share of scars, especially if any of them were prone to telling stories while in their cups (a time-honoured military tradition). “I got this one from a Meccania Liberation Front sniper back in 96.”
So if a scar is too mundane, and a drone is too funky, then what?
Maybe it’s easiest to chalk it all up to melodramatic over acting.
Hey, Lance: The “Shadow Eye” title has, I think, the feel of a good Panzerese-English translation. Skiad-Ops. Optical. The etymology of the word elements are clear enough.
Actually, Lance, while I’m not sure that it was the intention of the team when they named him, the word “Gash” can also carry the same connotation as english. It’s sort of an adopted word in the Japanese language.
Ah, I was completely unaware of that.
I agree, I only thought that it might have been added in translation in Lundi’s case. As far as I can remember the only place that Lundi is referred to as “Skiad Ops Endow” is in books, and realistically that “Skiad Ops” title could have been put in during the Japanese-English translation. Personally I doubt that it was, though.
Thinking about it, Gash does seem more maimed than literally scarred too, so I can see how Gash’s name could just be a slight coincidence.
Ahh, I see what you’re about, Lance. If only we had access to a Japanese Panzer fan…
I forget the guy’s name, but the recorder person’s spoken dialogue in the Seeker Village refers to their leader as “Skiad Ops” (if you listen, you can hear it), but the English translation at the bottom says “Shadow Eye.”
i’d like to submit that the word “shadow” has its roots in an old english word which is “sceadu”, which i guess is pronounced something like skay-aw-doo but that’s not all that far from skee-awd. i don’t know why i didn’t say that earlier, i figured it out for an essay i wrote a few years ago 
so… i’m not really sure what you guys have been trying to establish, but i see it as very probable that skiad-ops actually means shadow eye. are you guys trying to figure out why lundi was called skiad-ops when the title seems like it was made for gash?
i just watched the ending again and as i was observing gash, i developed a new idea. gash is not missing his right eye, his right eye is black.
A) he blinks. i don’t think people that are missing an eye blink.
B) why would someone expose their socket, but cover the rest of their face? that’s just asking for infection!
C) shadow-eye ties even more directly to the idea that his eye is black rather than gone.
maybe some people develop black eyes? perhaps it’s a disease brought one by extended exposure to living in the wilderness (those darn bacteria)? that could make it something worth admiring in the seeker culture…
can anyone confirm? you never get a good enough shot to tell if it is truly concave or convex, but the reasoning i gave above is enough to persuade me
If it was worth admiring he wouldn’t cover it now would he?
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he has a scar from some battle.He might have been cut and his eye injured…
Btw, what does Gash mean in english?
[quote=“GehnTheBerserker”]
Btw, what does Gash mean in english?[/quote]
In my experience, a deep and painful cut.
I agree completely; the origins of the words are fairly clear, and the game does seem to confirm that this is true. I actually hadn’t noticed what Rune Lai pointed out (about Zadoc literally saying “Skiad Ops” when the English subtitles say “Shadow Eye”), and of course that would confirm it totally. Apart from that, we knew that Gash and Endow / Lundi (both Seeker leaders) both carried the title “Skiad Ops”, and that:
“Shadow Eye” is the title given to
the one who leads the village.
His potential and his identity are
always hidden.
That’s what I found mysterious; it does seem like a serious conincidence that the title of Seeker leadership literally relates to Gash’s physical state.
[quote=“Megatherium”]i just watched the ending again and as i was observing gash, i developed a new idea. gash is not missing his right eye, his right eye is black.
A) he blinks. i don’t think people that are missing an eye blink.[/quote]
As far as I remember Gash’s eyelids only partially close around the “shadow” eye, while they close around his good eye normally; that’s what makes me think that the eye is probably missing.
None of this seems to explain Edge’s shock at seeing Gash’s face “unmasked”, though (as presumably he could see the “shadow” eye through the mask anyway, as we did). My best guess is that Gash also had a hideously disfiguring scar of some kind under the mask.
Alternatively it could be seen as a sign of weakness and ineptitude, however. If it’s a title given to leaders, contracting a disease would probably be a pretty odd qualification, too. Stranger things have happened, but the Seekers always struck me as being very practical and down-to-earth; the kind of people who would choose their leader simply because he was a good leader.
Something that’s just struck me that could possibly be important: in what context did Gash actually remove his mask for Edge? They were definitely in the Seekers’ Stronghold, but I can’t recall what lines were said before and afterwards off the top of my head.
Before removing his mask, Gash revealed to Edge that he was the leader of the Seekers, and that no one would expect him to be capable of leading anything. “Deception is our way of life”. Who in their right mind would expect a one-eyed, one-armed man to lead the Seekers?
I hope the Seekers return in the next game led by someone as pleasantly surprising as Gash. The Seekers knew so much, yet revealed so little…
“We must protect it at all costs”.
Why Gash? Why? What makes Orta so damned special, or useful that you were left with no choice but to lock her away?
I don’t think Gash’s eye is missing Lance, why would his mask have an opening at all there if he wasn’t able to see from that side at all…
By the way some of you might have seen me say this before but I deffinitelly remember reading in PDS about someone that got half his face ripped apart while trying to save a boy from a coolia that went berserk or something along these lines. I believe it was reffering to Gash… I’m not entirely sure it reffered to him but I’m 99.999999% sure that the story exists even if it’s for someone else…
Can someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE confirm this? Does it ring a bell to anyone? Arcie? Some NPC says it I think… It’s been years since I played PDS so I can’t help more with it but it would be great if someone found out the truth about this for me… And I’m sorry in advance if it turns out to be something that doesn’t exist…
Edit: Perhaps someone can search through the dialogue files about anything that resembles this story?
That would make sense. Still, the Shadow Eye thing does seem to be a bit of a coincidence. This may be a slightly morbid suggestion, but maybe Gash voluntarily had his eye removed so that the Empire wouldn’t suspect that he was the Seekers’ leader if they ever caught him? As you say, most people would not suspect that an arguably crippled man like Gash was in such a position of active authority. Perhaps Gash and his fellow Seekers knew this, and they created this situation for him? It seems very odd, but it could also explain why Lundi had a similar “title”.
Many of the Seekers in PDS wore odd looking Ancient Age headdresses and helmets; presumably Gash’s headpiece would have had an eyehole in it as standard, like the headpieces worn by the others.
EDIT: Like this Seeker’s helmet (from lagi’s site) for example. Zadoc seems to have a similar thing going on too.
I can’t remember reading or hearing anything along those lines, but I’ll have a thorough check through the game text for you when I get the chance.
I’ve never given this much thought. Personally, I don’t think his wounds were self-inflicted or part of an initiation procedure. I also think he was chosen to be the leader of the Seekers partly due to the knowledge he inherited from his mentor, Lundi, and partly because of his own past experiences, which involved having his hand torn off. Something must’ve motivated Gash to become a Seeker and his wounds can serve as excellent clues.
I think “Shadow Eye” is only a descriptive title in that the real identity of the Seekers’ leader is shrouded in secrecy or concealment.
