The Improv Tour Trailer: "Beginner's Guide" added quite a bit of depth to Silver Wolf's personality and I want to talk about that so here I am!

"Life's just a trashy game" at the start into "Life really is a lousy game" at the end

This is the phrase that I believe describes Silver Wolf the best out of any other. At least the fundamental meaning which stays even at the end of the video ie. Life is just a bad game. I may be overinterpreting but I feel like the change from just to really shows a certain amount of growth in her personality, also representing an aspect of expansion. At the start of her life she was fully limited hence "just" but afterwards she gained a lot more freedom but also a lot more conviction and belief in herself hence "really". The change from trashy to lousy also represents her going from Punklorde (which seems to have a lot of trash, notably with the name "Mount Scrap") to the cosmos all while maintaining her natural belief in life being "bad way".

"Only strength counts. Tears don't matter"

This line is also pretty interesting since from what we've seen before Silver Wolf has never seemed to be particularly interested in strength. Personally, I see this line as representing her cynicism, especially in the face of her society. Punklorde is a society based purely on an objective and fixed measure of worth, so to her no matter what you say when it comes down to it only one thing matters "strength" (ie.levels). Silver Wolf seems to be motivated first and foremost by her desire to survive.

"Levelling up is everything"

Something I find interesting with this is that despite her society's treatment of her, Silver Wolf still embodies her society's main philosophy. However, unlike her society which seems to judge based on levels, her pursuit is a personal one, unrelated to any sort of judgment. Instead, her pursuit of levels is actually closer to a pursuit of Elation. In some ways she ressembles Aha in motivation. Simply put, her motivation is to go as far as possible, to never be "limited", in this way I think she also ressembles Herta quite a bit. While Herta wants to go beyond the limits of Erudition, Silver Wolf wants to go beyond those of Elation. She does so by constantly levelling up, hence embodying the game aspect of Elation all while constantly seeking out the possibilities that lay ahead.

"but you...whatever level you're born at will be your level at death".

This I believe refers to the Punklordians. While every outside of Punklorde can grow (for the most part at least) they cannot. To Punklord levelling up is their way of life, yet they can't do so. In some ways, I think this represent its complacency with its own beliefs. Silver Wolf by being able to level up ends up going against tradition and instead redefining her own meaning by branching out from the starting point of Punklodian tradition.

"45-1m46"

We can see Silver Wolf start gaining reputation yet she ignores people talking about her, then instantly afterwards we hear broadcasts talking about things happening all across the cosmos which we cans see as being due to her. This seems to interpret how unlike other Punklodians who are content with Punklorde she seems to want to go beyond it, instead focusing on the cosmos. Plus the mention of multiple different paths Finally at the very end, we can see her reaching level 99 and clenching her fist. By the end of the video we understand that lvl 99 is Puklorde's limit and at that point her limit too, as despite her status she is still Punklordian. We can see her anger at reaching her limit, once again showing pow obsessed she is with breaking through limits.

"So is this the end?"

Being invited to play a final game with Aha (or at least a prominent figure of Elation), you can kind of hear traces of melancholy in her tone (at least in EN) and her attitude doesn't seem to reflect someone who's happy to be at the end but instead someone disappointed by the fact there isn't more. I think we can see here that to Silver Wolf levelling up is everything. She's perpetually focused on growth and on going beyond and the numerical system allows us to say that she's focused on going higher and higher up. This perfectly reflects Aha's own journey where he sought to go higher and higher up until he reached the very top. Inherently Elation (along side Erudition and Trailblaze) is a path of possibility, meaning that the very path itself is always about having more. Elation is about having more possibilities (Erudition is about the possibilities themselves and Trailblaze about witnessing them), and to Silver Wolf that is only possible if she has more levels.

"2m03-2m41"

Silver Wolf meets an Elation like figure (probably either Aha or Nihilux, maybe both) who says the cartridge in nothing more than something thrown down on a whim by Aha. Silver Wolf however doesn't focus on that but instead on the fact that she said that she made the cartridge sprout and on the limits of the cartridge. We can see that Silver Wolf is once again not focused on the origin or on the cause of it but instead on what she personally can do with it. She's focused on the possibilities of the cartridge. In some ways, she doesn't even acknowledge divinity, favoring instead to focus on her own growth "strength" and not on "tears" (the fact her success was "just" due to Aha's whimsy).

"But it can't level up any further. I need power, even more power."  
"Why do you need it?"  
"Why do birds fly? Why do fish swim? Only the dying and overfed contemplate meaning. I don't intend to die nor do I have the luxury of excess."

I think this part is probably the most interesting one in the whole trailer. We can almost see Silver Wolf refusing to "contemplate meaning", however I don't think that's exactly the case. She says she needs more power and I think this is due to both her desire to survive but also her desire to break limits. She wants power to survive but also to be able to go even further beyond the limits of the cartridge. When asks why she needs it she answers with "Why do birds fly? Why do fish swim?", which could at first glance seem like a refusing to answer the question but I think it's actually more of an answer than nearly anything else she could have said. She's not given a direct answer but instead she's proving her meaning. She didn't say "I need it for X" but simply used the example of birds of fish which need to fly and swim for a very simple reason: to survive. A fish that stops swimming will die and a bird that can't fly will also die (in most cases), or at the very least they will lose something essential to making them them. That is Silver Wolf's answer to the question. She doesn't need power for any reason in particularly, she needs it simply to survive and be herself. She goes on the say that "Only the dying and overfed contemplate meaning. I don't intend to die nor do I have the luxury of excess." and I think this is particularly interesting because at first glance it seems to be a very anti-abstract way of thinking, however I think this is actually the exact opposite. She is saying that she doesn't contemplate meaning not because she doesn't want to but because she doesn't have the opportunity to. The first part where she says she doesn't intend to die is implying that she can't contemplate meaning because doing so would end up costing her life and in the second she says that she doesn't because she doesn't have the luxury of being able to make it so that doing so doesn't cost her life. The reason why the dying and overfed can contemplate meaning is because they do not have to worry about surviving. The dying knows they won't survive and the overfed knows they will. Silver Wolf is as such saying "I can't to contemplate meaning because I need to survive" yet she already gave her own "meaning" being "survival". Here I find her name of particular interest "Silver Wolf". Silver often has as symbolism wealth, clarity and power while wolfs tend to be associated with independence. So put together we have someone who is independent and powerful all while having a "clear goal" (survival) and wealth. The most interesting part is the wealth part, she says she doesn't have the luxury of excess but perhaps she already has the luxury of being able to one day reach excess, hence why she still has her own meaning.

"I see. You are simply afraid of your own weakness" + flashback

Silver Wolf doesn't deny it, deep down she is driven by fear. The fear of being powerless, the fear of being limited and the fear of simply not being able to "level up". By that I mean that she seems terrified of being limited and as such unable to do what she wants and pursue what she wants. Fundamentally, her fear is a fear of being unable to pursue what could be and instead of being trapped in what is. We can see in the flashback her empty eyes and her being beaten by people, so we understand exactly why she's scared of all that. Because she was born in a state where she had nothing and as such she never wants to return to this state of nothingness (Nihility) but instead to a state of plenty and possibility (Elation). I find it pretty neat how it parallels her in game path change.

"3m15-3m33"

She changes the subject from her fear back to the game, where the Elation figure uses their ability to stop her from being able to fight back, in some ways making her once again powerless as she was before. She also repeats "Can't handle losing?", though it seems directed to the figure, we could also interpret it as her own feelings coming out. One again we can see how deeply Elation she is.

"Just how a little girl should be. May you always stay this weak. You...pass."

This may seem condescending at first but I think it's actually the exact opposite. She's not criticizing her but instead happy that Silver Wolf still wants to grow. If we interpret this figure as Aha then we can see that THEIR happy that Silver Wolf still wants to fight back and grow, that she still longs to go higher, that she wants to break the limits of her own condition. This is why Silver Wolf passes. Because she perfectly embodies the spirit of Elation. She wants to pursue her own happiness, to go beyond and to go higher, to reach what could be and to reach the highest peaks, eternally searching to be unbound, in some ways that is true Elation. The figure wishes for her to stay this weak that is to say for her to stay in a position where she pushes herself to search for growth out of a need for survival, for her to never become complacent, for her to always pursue her own Elation.

Her laugh + "Can a god really do whatever they want like this, just on a passing whim..? Life really is a lousy game."

If we look carefully she's at the exact same place where it all began except this time she not fighting for survival but lying down peacefully and laughing. Silver Wolf understood what the figure meant and she also understood that she's gone beyond the limits of Punklorde ? She's not sad she was beaten but happy there's more, that she hasn't reached her limit yet. She finally turns to question herself on divinity, critiquing the injustice of it all in a light hearted manner. She doesn't seem hurt at all this, just slightly disappointed. Her reflection reflects the fact that she finally has the opportunity to no longer just focus on her survival but also on the gods. She can now look beyond herself and Punklorde to turn to the cosmos.

"The final screen" + "See you next time. I'll be waiting!"

We can finally see that she's left Punkorde and entered into the Cosmos and reached level 101. She's broken through a major limit, one that bound nearly every other Punklordian. She stepped into a new domain of infinite possibilities where she can truly play and truly pursue her own Elation. Finally she says she'll be waiting, showing that she's not downtrodden over her defeat but instead exciting for the fact there's more lying ahead.

Conclusion: Silver Wolf and her desire to explore

Finally we can conclude that Silver Wolf is beyond all else motivated by her desire for more and better, by her desire for a higher "level" mimicking Aha's ascention of the imaginary tree. Silver Wolf is driven by her desire for survival at the start but at a certain point her desire for survival turns into a desire for more. A desire to witness more and do more. She no longer focused on just surviving but she instead starting enjoying the process of survival itself. She constantly focus on what could be, on what more she could do and on the countless "levels" ahead of her. She's not limited to a single vision but instead she uses to Punklordian tradition to create her own path and bring about her own Elation.

Thank you for reading all of this. I'm curious to know what you think about this analysis? Do you agree or do you think I'm over/misinterpreting it? Either ways, I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it pushed you to consider Silver Wolf's complexity and that it brought you a little bit of Elation too.

May all of us find our own Elation.

An analysis of Silver Wolf's personality: "Beginner's Guide"