Hong Lu's EGO Analysis N⁰8, Part 2: Tears of the Tarnished Blood, Hong Lu
Here the second part of this analysis! If you haven't seen the first one, here's the link:
https://www.tumblr.com/abadsmile/818697658794475520/hong-lus-ego-analysis-n%E2%81%B08-part-1-tears-of-the?source=share
Anyway, as we have already explained the reason of its name, we have to see and understand how Yinglong is extremely similar to Hong Lu. As we can understand, Hong Lu forms an higher degree of connection with EGO. The same for Sinclair:
Both EGOs are WAW, showing Indeed that big connection between the EGO and them.
What is interesting here, are the sins for Hong Lu. Reserving gluttony, the skills here are gloom and envy.
Let's start with his envy. Envy is described as tied with jealousy in-game. I won't add the full quote as it is too long to be put here, simply the end of it:
"Now, do imagine—what sort of emotion would you feel for the fellow fan who received the final autograph, immediately before you were to receive yours, ere the chance was robbed?"
"Well, 'twould be quite the jealousy burning within mine heart, a painfully tingling sensation in my—ooh!?"
It is best understood as static shock according to Hohenheim.
From various other sources, envy can be seen as the sin of retribution.
One has to be provoked in some ways to act with envy and in contrary to wrath, envy is more controlled and focused. In other words, to be envious is also to be influenced by another person, whether it is because of jealousy and wanting to get even, of provocation, or even being ordered. One's identity became heavily tied and defined by someone else through that influence.
Hong Lu having envy is more difficult to explain but it might be tied to him wanting to be free from his circumstances, to flee them. I already spoke about this in my previous analysis, on Soda but it is still complicates to make that link with Hong Lu. Like Yinglong, he wanted to rise again and to not be influenced by his attachements.
Next, from what we understood from the abnormality and how similarly Yinglong is to Hong Lu, gloom is expected. Firstly, it is the sin of his base ego, showing how important that sin is to Hong Lu.
His gloominess can be understood through many facets. As explained by Hohenheim to be gloomy, is to sink in deep water, wrestling to try to rise up to the surface but at the end, all it remains is futility as that struggle only made one sinking further into the abyss.
"However… the deeper one sinks, the harder does it become to rise again. The pressure suffocates you from all directions—no matter how much you thrash around, desperately looking for something to grab onto, all you find is futility. Such is gloom."
It is fitting for Hong Lu as he did fight indirectly, through his own nature, against Jia Mu and the Elders. His kindness was his way to rise up to the surface, to not sink further.
His care for the people who couldn't be saved, his worries for those who underwent pain, his willingness to keep continuing those acts of goodness despite being at each time repressed by his own grandmother, Jia Mu.
The currents of the sea are embodied by Jia Mu and the Xianren who keep pressuring him, repressing any attempts of him showing kindness to someone, keeping him from being attached to the secular world.
They refuse him to let him rise up to the surface. Doesn't that make you remind of Yinglong and how it was forced to stay in earth? How it was punished and hurt with Flower-burying wedges piercing his torso?
Letting him drown, continuously until he gives up, surrendering to them. Hence, Hong Lu in burying his own emotions in his burial-mound of flowers, let himself be burried deep underground, never seeing the lights.
Like said previously, it is very similar to Yinglong, with the idea that he was tarnished for descending on earth and that because it descended, it couldn't ascend anymore, as if it was punished. It was sullied ans thus cursed.
It helped people with its kindness so as to fight against evil (Chiyou and Kuafu) but it was punished for it, tainted by it. Similarly, Hong Lu always wanted to help people and during his childhood, he tried to do so constantly, even if it was futile but it was repressed constantly by the "heavens" who are represented by Jia Mu and the Elders, people who are the top of the hierarchy of Hongyuan, deciding who deserves their pmace and those who are greedy.
It is reminiscent as to how heaven's wrath can represent their disdain for those they consider insolants and greedy, just like how Jia Mu thought of the Kong Family and thus punished them.
Talking about similarities, Yinglong and Hong Lu are very similar as they both must be understood from who they are. Dragons are considered as nobles, as royalty. The chinese dragon was for many dynasties considered as the symbol of the Chinese Emperor and therefore its blood is pure and noble, untainted by those beneath it.
And so, Hong Lu can be considered as a noble due his family, being the Jia, one of the great 4 family of Daguanyuan, especially with his grandmother occupying the role of the Family Hierarch. To be even more precise, he is seen as "the precious jade of Hongyuan", someone who is untouchable, noble from birth.
Hong Lu belongs to those who were above, and was considered as arrogant by those who would seen him from below, just like the dragon at the first.
Indeed, Hong Lu is seen as arrogant by those who had to still fight, struggle, risk their life multiples times and that can be understood because of how Hong Lu is behaving. For them, he is beloved, protected and most importantly, doesn't have to struggle for most of his life at all.
He is not obligated to risk everything like them, so the fact that when he returned, he decides to pass the Family Hierarch Evaluation at the last minute as if it was simply more than a game, the fact that he is often forgetting the names of the other people are all acts that are seen as arrogants from the point of view of those below.
To all of those who have to passed the Evaluation, his presence is source of irritation and anger. He is the one privileged by everything while they are burdened to succeed in the Family Hierarch Evaluation, if not punishment have to come...
Continuing on the subject, about his resemblance to Yinglong, those similarities can be observed in how Hong Lu and Yinglong are kept, out of heaven, especially in Hong Lu base ego, where I already explained how the Tiekan temple can be seen as Heaven and how Hong Lu is trapped in their treasureship, as an object.
They both act as instruments of the Heaven, just like Yinglong is following the orders of Heaven, delivering its decree, Hong Lu by his very existence, exists as an instrument to that "heaven", as the Jade of Hongyuan. Hong Lu is forced to stay even if he doesn't truly want to.
But those similarities doesn't stop at this, we have to link them to Zàng Huā Yín
Indeed, the EGO is tied to that poem, especualky when observing its skills and the appearance of Hong Lu in that EGO:
His appearance is very similar to how Zàng Huā Yín, in its second strophe describes Hong Lu:
petals, tears, bloody petals and oloodstained tears are present. To be more exact. the lake of blood seen in the EGO represents those bloodstained tears. He is the garden's sorrow bearer.
And now that we have the boss fight of Yinglong, we can see that Yinglong is using "Flower-burying pin" to attacks the Sinners!
And as we can see there is a lot of emphasis on flowers and burial whether in the Zàng Huā Yin or even in the abnormality and that is normal considering how important those symbols are to understand how Hong Lu burried himself, figuratively, his true self, deep underground, grieving for his own burrial.
And those Flower-burying pins are interestingly not used in Hong Lu's EGO but in Sinclair's EGO!
It is a very important distinction because, it relates personally to each of them. In Hong Lu's EGO, what is used is the Flower-burying wedge, the one sent by Heaven itself. That's right, Hong Lu's EGO represents the Tarnished Blood of the dragon, its sacrificial nature and the acceptance of the punishment. It also represents more exactly, the willingness of the dragon but also of Hong Lu to follow orders from those above (Heaven for Yinglong, The Xianren and Jia Mu) even if at the end,they must get hurt, sacrificing themself to realize the decree of heaven...
And so, Hong Lu is forced to attack and to sacrifice himself, accepting it as he scarifices himself with the Flower-burying wedge whereas Sinclair is the one attacking with the Flower-burying pin which belongs to him and so Yinglong
Therefore, Hong Lu's EGO focus greatly, on the loss of autonomy that he is stripped off by heaven, so the Xianren and Jia Mu, losing his true self who was burried in a flower-mound. The Flower-burying wedge represents the grip of the Xianren and Jia Mu around Hong Lu, restraining him to simply following their orders.
He is limited to be the Jade of Hongyuan, the source of enjoyment and happiness that the Elders derived from. He is reduced, like Yinglong as an instrument to Heaven's will and decree. His tears being the creme for their entertainment...
The last strophe of Zàng Huā Yín spoke of heaven as well:
I'll be focusing on the three first part of that strophe, as they are the most interesting part for this analysis.
Those three first verses from the strophe expresses the will of Hong Lu to fly away, to chase those petals who are wilting and dissappear from this world. He wants to cease to exist, to not remain on this world.
Unfortunately for him, he can't. Like said previously, he is bound and restrained by that very heaven in which he can't find the flower-mound where he burried himself. That self is already lost in heaven, where only indifference and the loss of autonomy lie there.
To give more credence to that idea of Hong Lu being restrained, here how he appears when corroded:
Not only the Flower-burying wedge is piercing him but that sort of red-white cord which around him when not corroded, is strangling his neck, letting his guts completely open.
Compared to Sinclair or Yinglong, Hong Lu is seen as more restrained, hurt. He can't even control his own body part, showing how deprived he is.
And Considering that we have talked about how he wants to cease existing, it's time to talk about his suicidal behavior...
As we have seen quite often, Hong Lu tends to be suicidal. It is subtle, yes, but that behavior can be observed multiple times and that includes this EGO indeed.
His line when the EGO is used, shows us clearly those tendencies of Hong Lu.
Not only there is that idea of deserved punishment that we have talked in part 1 about Yinglong, showing once again that gluttonous part from Hong Lu's following orders from one's above in overindulgence, at the cost of his own life, but there is that idea of sacrifice.
Hong Lu does not have those suicidal thoughts and tendencies but also a willingness to sacrifice himself for others.
Didn't you remark that each time he is willing to suicide himself, it is done to help others? It is done through others as well?
Sure, his suicidal ideation is first all a way for him to dissappear, to cease to be and to be finally free of all pain but also all of his attachments. It is his solution to finally fly away, chasing the parting blossoms high up in the sky like we have seen from the last strophe of Zàng Huā Yín.
But those thoughts, his suicidal ideation tends to artive when it is for the benefits of others. Let me show you examples:
In TKT, Hong Lu expresses his true feelings here. He accepts to die and to cease to exist so to finally be free from pain once again. But remember that here, Hong Lu is supposed to serve as a bait. It is only now as a bait that he expresses the will to die and when the Time Ripper is to rip his time, he is... disappointed, as he sees that he is still alive, still in that world, still roaming inside that impermanent world...
The other example is with Xichun where he uses himself as a sort of relief, wanting to let Xichun kills him if she wants to. Even when he already accepted that everything he does is in vain, that he already surrendered himself, there is still that one solution and it is to simply die.
It is likely that like Yinglong when pierced by The Flower-burying wedge, he can't die, or at least not by himself, like Yinglong, as he is forced to suffer and to keep continuing his role as the Jade of Hongyuan, as the heaven's instrument.
He was constantly watched by and observed by the Xianren and Jia Mu and when he was sent away to travel, he ended up being into a company where he cannot die.
That is why he asked or put himself in dire circumstances to maybe be allowed to die and to be free from roaming this earth.
And so that sadness and sorrow are what lies behind that apparent arrogance. Like Hong Lu said about Yinglong in the observation log,
"You know, when the Dragon directs its gaze up toward the heavens, it may seem angry at first glance, but look a little closer and you can tell its eyes are actually really, really sad."
He himself can be understood as such. Behind that image of a naive person, hides a person whose sadness and sorrow are deep and profound, deeply embedded in their personality...
Only when the Flower-burying wedge is destroyed that Yinglong is able to be free and fly away. But before we come to explain at last what that liberation is supposed to mean, we have to look to Hong Lu's own disgust at his own body that he considered as tainted, tarnished.
Indeed, Hong Lu does feel a sort of disgust at his own body. Someone on twitter spoke about it and I thought that it was interesting to speak about it. I will put their name just here:
That person have done wonderful analysis on many EGOs or sinners so don't hesitate to check them out if you can.
Anyway, that disgust can be seen in his voice lines from multiples EGOs
He describes his body or part inside of him when corroded. That disgust, hatred of his own body is lies deeply inside of him. It is unconscious and that disgust expressing in his EGOs is not hazardous but high likely intentional.
He is rejecting and erasing any values to his body except its usefulness to another people, the Xianren and Jia Mu.
EF corroded Hong Lu's voice lines is more explicit, highlighting how his body is filth, serving simply to be reborn under a new purpose, serving simply as a vessel for his jade eye, the part of his body which he gives more value than his own body, showing once again his lack of autonomy.
I would say, thanks to the post made by that @lcb676, that for the IDs, Callistolu is the prime example as to how he truly gives no value to his original body, saving only the eye. Callistolu affirms it in his uptie story, explaining that its values and importance and reasons as to why he didn't removed it.
"Yes, I would be remiss to abandon such an indispensable window upon which inspirations are reflected. However…"
"… I must be considerate of the gracious host of audience who, from just behind my eye, appreciate my life and artistic endeavors within."
There is only the jade eye that remains on his body. All others part has been removed...
But there is someone else who removed the part who doesn't belong to him, the part that was the symbol of the loss of autonomy over his own body and that LordLu. Contrary to Callistolu, LordLu completely cast away his jade eye,even at the cost of possibly dying afterwards.
In his uptie story, he is regaining his own autonomy, finally being free from the influence of the Xianren, finally free from their grip, even if it comes at his own mental space as he says this.
"All that has ever brought me happiness and joy… I buried them beyond the veil of oblivion, beside the horrid memories of that day. Why exhume it now, when I will find only a hollow grave there—an empty chasm, like my rotting, festering left eye socket?"
And something important to note, is his dynamic with Totb Hong Lu, where he refuses to die and ironically makes him "immortal".
Here's his dialogue about it:
"I refuse to kneel before this mere... tarnished blood..."
But he also says this, though not much different than the one before:
"Tarnished may his blood become, but the Lord shall not perish."
What is important is how he refuses to die from that EGO, from the tarnished blood, considering how this EGO is mainly about the loss of autonomy and the acceptance of loss autonomy, sacrificing oneself while being used by someone, it is fitting to see Lordlu refusing that sacrifice, refusing to submit to that tarnished blood!
And so we come at the end of this analysis. One last question remains and it's to explain the meaning of Yinglong escaping, flying away once the Flower-burying wedge is destroyed.
■ The Flower-burying wedge
The Flower-burying wedge as we can understand from now has a lot of meaning. But it mainly represents Heaven's decree and will, that forces Yinglong to finish its decree, not allowing the abnormality to rest but simply suffer until it finishes its role.
We have also seen that wedge as a sort of punishment that came directly from heaven, punishing Yinglong for descending in that secular world, making it tainted, tarnished, similar as to how Hong Lu was punished multiple times when he tried to help people, when he shown his kindness.
But another view, into this, another facet of the Flower-burying wedge could be, that it is indeed the thing that is tarnishing, tainting Hong Lu!
But how? Simple. If we view that wedge as representing heaven's will and decree and that heaven is supposed to be the Xianren and Jia Mu, then that wedge is representing the will of the Elders imposed on Hong Lu, all the pain that they inflicted on him.
To push further, it embodies the sexual abuse that Hong Lu underwent. As we know, Hong Lu was abused sexually not physically but visually, through the Kong's family massacre, where he has seen things that a child mustn't seen.
He was forced to witness, Cuckoospawns raping humans, forcing their eggs inside of those human... It is explained by Lordlu in his uptie story in a more explicit ways,
"Black-feathered cuckoos pecking humans apart, seizing their nests, forcing their eggs inside… and newborns, tearing their way out to the world through their stomachs, and… and the people…"
"What abominable cycle, what terrible screams, what awful sights…"
Which correlates with the definition of non contact csa (child sexual abuse):
"Non-contact abuse is when a child is abused without being touched by the abuser. This can be in person or online and includes:
• Exposing a child to sexual acts.
• Making them masturbate.
• Forcing a child to make, view or share child abuse images or videos.
• Making, viewing or distributing child abuse images or videos.
• Forcing a child to take part in sexual activities or conversations online or through a smartphone.
And it's such an impacting trauma, that it can be seen in multiples EGOs such as Dimension Shredder, Rose Hunter, Tear of the Tarnished Blood obviously, And Carnevous Wailing. That is a suffering that doesn't disappear and that can't disappear as its impact on Hong Lu's psyche is far too big.
Not only that, his jade itself is a violation of privacy as the Elders can see through everything experienced privately...
All of that suffering is embodied by that wedge, which is tainting, tarnishing him. In a way, he literally lost his own purity and innocence, just like how Yinglong in his last phase, is tainted in blood and pierced by those red double-headed pins, by those wedges.
One example that is similar to what I wrote is the case of Karaba from the movie Kirikou and the witch.
As most people know, the witch has a poisonous thorn behind her back that made her change her behavior completely.
It is often theorized that Karaba was victim of violence by a group of violent men and that the thorn is a representation of that violence pushed into her. That violence being... rape.
Indeed, she is blaming men for what happened to her, she can't see them as the same way she did before as if she was hurt by them
Moreover, Karaba surround herself of men transformed into fetishes that she can control, she wants to feel control after what happened to her and wants to make sure that what happened to her never happen again. So she became more violent, more mean as a way to protect herself.
The creator of the film, Michel Ocelot explains on his site this:
"The thorn poisoned in Karaba's back is a symbol, representing the harm men do to women. And a suffering yes does not disappear."
Supporting this theory once again. It is only when,the thorn is removed by Kirikou, all the pain goes away. Once removed, she becomes free from that suffering but also the influence of that suffering that for a longtime pained her. She isn't mean anymore and is thankful to Kiriko for removing the thorn.
So, if we follow that example, Yinglong being free from the wedge, represents how it is finally not under the heaven's will and decree, how it is free from its influence.
"Mhm! Soon as we smashed all the stakes, it went away just like that~ Didn't even look back. No regrets, nothing clingy, just went fwoosh~" (Hong Lu)
So metaphorically, Hong Lu has been pierced by those, long ago, when he surrendered to the Elders and Jia Mu, soon after the Kong's family massacre but those wedges have been removed one by one, during Canto 8 until he becomes finally free from the influence of the Elders, finally free from their grip. It does not mean that the suffering went away but that for once, he finally regains his autonomy, just like Yinglong.
