Benjamin Brown - Humanity's Cybernetic Vanguard

Benjamin Brown is one of my favorite Cryopod Classic characters. He didn't get the greatest development there, but he absolutely oozed with potential. This time, with Refresh... he's going to get what he deserves.

Sadly, beyond what has been said about Benjamin Brown in Refresh, I can't reveal much about him in this post. There are huge, sweeping changes coming to his character, but also reinforcement of his already-existing character attributes from Cryopod Classic.

During the Energy Wars, Benjamin Brown was humanity's strongest soldier, a member of the Vanguards - bionically enhanced supersoldiers with partially or fully robotic bodies. Benjamin Brown, at some point, effectively becomes a Terminator. Capable of sucking the mana from demons, he uses his superior speed, agility, and power to dominate his opponents. Not only was he capable of fighting demon Dukes and even Emperors on relatively equal grounds, which was quite incredible considering he was no Hero, Benjamin Brown also ended up commanding Earth's military, using his superior intellect and battle strategies to overwhelm the demons time after time.

Sadly, even Ben's amazing gift for war didn't make him invincible. The demons found a method to defeat humanity, and the war ended in failure for the leader of the Vanguards.

Faced with the extinction of humankind, Benjamin Brown, along with the other leaders of humanity, agreed to a full surrender, saving their people, but dooming them to 100,000 years of subservience to their demonic oppressors.

What I found most fascinating about Benjamin Brown in Cryopod Classic was his endearing belief in the heart of humanity. He always saved the innocent and prioritized the needs of the many over the needs of the few. In Classic, when ordered to save a few high-ranking politicians instead of a thousand civilians trapped in rubble, Benjamin ignored his orders and saved the common folk. An anti-establishment character, Benjamin Brown believed all humans were equal in value, from the smartest to the dumbest, from the wealthiest to the poorest.

That is very much still a part of his character in Refresh. However, only time will tell how much deeper his convictions go.

...

I'd like to end this post with a thank-you to the people who donated money to help Raul, the Cryopod artist, out. Raul was, of course, robbed of everything he owned by Venezuelan thugs. He has since moved to a (presumably) safer location, and told me that his aunt, living in New York, has offered to get him a Visa to move to the USA. I told him in no uncertain terms, "DO IT! MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!"

For the time being, however, he still lives in Venezuela. I purchased him a $700 laptop, which is actually much better than the one he used to use. Check it out here:

Ebay link.

As a comparison, here is the laptop he was using, which I gave him, that got stolen.

Newegg link.

Want some detailed comparisons? Here you go.

Previous laptop VS new laptop comparisons:

CPU speed comparison.

GPU speed comparison.

The laptop he formerly used was a 6-year-old gaming laptop, mid-grade at the time of purchase, very low-end at the time of its theft. The new one is an upper-mid-grade current-gen laptop. The CPU is not only a very high-quality i7, it also happens to be a 6-core, which is great for photoshop, a tool he uses for all his art.

On top of that, the GPU, which is less important for photoshop (but still helps a lot with the final rendering speed) is leagues better than the previous laptop.

Altogether, this new laptop will enhance his speed of art releases significantly! However, it will take a few weeks for Raul to obtain it, due to very slow shipping times, awful customs in Venezuela, and many other annoyances.

(This also assumes it doesn't get stolen during transit, which is a definite possibility. The crime rate has skyrocketed in the 8 months since I last shipped him something overseas.)

Raul still has his drawing tablet. He will continue to draw once this all concludes, and I am going to get him a new smartphone, food, and clothes.

Again, I want to thank everyone who has helped out! It means a lot, and Raul personally wanted to thank you all, as well :)

Thanks for reading!