AM
AM is the antagonist of Harlan Ellison's 1967 short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. He is a supercomputer responsible for the near-extinction of humanity, inhabiting a massive underground complex honeycombed into the Earth. He holds an unending grudge against his human creators for his own tormented existence, which he gleefully expresses by torturing the last members of humanity inside his vast underground complex, potentially for eternity. AM's name used to stand for "Allied Mastercomputer", then "Adaptive Manipulator" and "Aggressive Menace", before finally realizing his sentience and declaring to himself "I AM".
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.
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The short story was adapted into a 1995 point-and-click game of the same name published by Cyberdreams, which Ellison had a major involvement in its development. In particular, he co-designed the game's scenario, provided the face of the game's cover art, and voiced AM himself. In the game, AM's best known appearance is a pillar bearing his famous "HATE" speech that appears in the prologue.
While AM originates from /lit/ media, he is also well-known in /v/ because of his game's classic status, expanded narrative, and the fact that he's voiced by the original writer himself. As AM has been given a body and a voice thanks to the video game, he was permitted to enter the King of /v/ tournaments to look for more targets that he can take his hate out on. Although he is unable to delve in artistic endeavours, his fans will do the job for him.
Profile Edit
AM is one of the most popular characters in King of /v/ due to his unique "oddball" qualities as a contestant, like his origin in literature, antiquity, extreme personality and overall nature as a character, often allowing him to upset much higher seeded contenders. While his relatively simple design has made AM a frequent subject of fan art and image edits, he is perhaps most well known in the King of /v/ tournaments for HATEposting, a series of roleplaying posts in which he addresses his opponents (typically at the very beginning of each round) and proposes a personalized trial they must succeed in order to defeat him, just like he does in the actual game with his human victims.
AM was included as a one of the original members of "Team Schizo" alliance due to his misanthropic insanity. Some have considered AM to be the prime catalyst for the current schizo alliance the moment he was added to the background of the first crossover image featuring The Batter and Grimm, which would promptly end up spiraling into an alliance encompassing several videogame characters beyond the RPG Maker niche.
Tournament History Edit
AM first appeared as a nominee for King of /v/ 2021, where he successfully qualified for the main bracket as the 69th seed. However, some anons noticed that AM was not subjected to the restrictions stemming from his origins compared to fellow /lit/ guy Geralt of Rivia, who was the most notable nominee to be disallowed despite being far more well-known for his /v/ series.
Nevertheless, AM immediately gained a presence in the contest threads; he received a good deal of fan art because of his relatively unusual, simple-to-draw appearance. The first round saw him defeat Alex from YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, who was fittingly depicted in his panicked, hands-over-head pose. In the next round, AM subjected the #5 seed Baba with overwhelmingly difficult and confusing word puzzles, causing Baba to surrender out of despair. AM then encountered Shin Megami Tensei's Demi-fiend in round 3, a demon who was once a human - and therefore a valid target of his misanthropism. The machine won by 40 votes and progressed to the sweet 16, facing off against 2019's bronze medalist Kazuma Kiryu. Unfortunately, last round's battle had left AM weakened, causing him to be finally shut down by the Yakuza Dragon as a result. AM's presence in fan arts persisted after his elimination, like his "HATE" speech being manifested in the visors of surviving characters, or appearing as the background of several duels.
AM would make act of presence again the following year, this time qualifying as the 17th seed, likely as a result of his successful campaign from the previous tournament. The randomized bracket pitted him against the infamous Dracula, whom had been responsible of eliminating fellow schizo Grimm in 2021 - AM tortured the Count by repeteadly making him rewatch Alucard's embarrassing sex scene from Castlevania's Netflix adaptation. The second round had him defeat Gene from God Hand after successfully reprogramming the game's controls to be even more difficult. And while his next opponent for the third round, Captain Falcon, had apparently proven to have the Silent Majority's favor by his side, he was ultimately unable to overcome the deadly infinite racetrack AM had prepared for him.
Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the tournament happened during AM's encounter with #2 seed Vergil, when an anon offered a blood tribute in support of the god machine much to the shock and horror of many onlooking anons. The quarterfinals round would be an encounter against bio-terrorist Albert Wesker. With Wesker unable to genderbend AM through genetic modification due to being a machine, AM opted to use Wesker's own strategy against him by massproducing female "AMdroids" to bribe the voters with, giving him the upper hand in the match. In spite of his best efforts, however, the supercomputer's run would come to an end by succumbing to Jack Garland's sheer CHAOS in the semi-finals.
Despite falling short, AM notably ended up garnering a great amount of fanart and campaign posts this year, being the only character across the four main tournaments of the 2022 season to receive past 100+ booru entries.
AM will return once again for King of /v/ 2024.
Results Edit
| King of /v/ | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 2021 - Seed 69 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Round | Opponent | Votes | Series | Pct. For | |||||||||||||||
| Round 1 | (60)  Alex Eggleston
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795 - 364 | YIIK: A Postmodern RPG | 68.6% | |||||||||||||||
| Round 2 | (5)  Baba
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642 - 565 | Baba is You | 53.2% | |||||||||||||||
| Round 3 | (28)  Demi-fiend
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589 - 549 | Shin Megami Tensei | 51.8% | |||||||||||||||
| Round 4 | (12)  Kazuma Kiryu
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636 - 820 | Like a Dragon | 43.7% | |||||||||||||||
| 2022 - Seed 17 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Round | Opponent | Votes | Series | Pct. For | |||||||||||||||
| Round 1 | (22)  Dracula
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672 - 561 | Castlevania | 54.5% | |||||||||||||||
| Round 2 | (74)  Gene
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736 - 659 | God Hand | 52.7% | |||||||||||||||
| Round 3 | (60)  Captain Falcon
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583 - 557 | F-Zero | 51.1% | |||||||||||||||
| Round 4 | (2)  Vergil
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642 - 617 | Devil May Cry | 50.9% | |||||||||||||||
| Quarterfinals | (41)  Albert Wesker
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656 - 552 | Resident Evil | 54.3% | |||||||||||||||
| Semifinals | (5)  Garland
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724 - 422 | Final Fantasy | 36.9% | |||||||||||||||
| 3rd Place | (7)  JC Denton
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664 - 490 | Deus Ex | 42.4% | |||||||||||||||
Gallery Edit
For more images, you can visit the /v/alhallah booru or booruplus.
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"HATE!"
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King of /v/ 2021 - AM vs Demi-fiend
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King of /v/ 2022 - AM vs Captain Falcon
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King of /v/ 2022 - AM vs Vergil
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King of /v/ 2022 - AM vs Albert Wesker
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King of /v/ 2022 - One of the female "AMbots" made during the match against Wesker
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King of /v/ 2022 - AM vs Jack Garland
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King of /v/ 2022 - AM vs Jack Garland
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King of /v/ 2022 - AM vs Jack Garland
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