acopytopy

aro/ace nonbinary // I draw fictional cats sometimes (and apparently do media theories/analysis now)

[ironunderstands]

Dr. Ratio and Lygus are brothers. Hear me out. Spoilers for 3.5 obviously

Shoutout to you. Thank you. You’re not even a Ratio fan and you understand him better than 90% of the community does.

Yes, Ratio would absolutely agree with Lygus’s feelings towards Nous and if you disagree with that you don’t understand him.

However, it’s his methods and the cruelty Lygus exhibits in attempting to free people from Nous’s imprisonment that Ratio absolutely would not fuck with (which again, this person gets YAY)…

…which is why I think Ratio is also a segment of Zander. And that at the end of Amphoreus, he’ll kill himself and the other segments while doing a big fuck you to Nous.

Hear me out.

Firstly, this shit

Ratio pookie bear why is the omega symbol there in your school notes. I can’t read Chinese and I’ve heard some people say it has something to do with Veritas Prime’s name but like… why is it there. Are you telling us he’s HSR’s best bred bottom or are you telling us his dislike of Nous goes beyond just wanting other people to not want to follow that Path (or any Path, for that matter).

We learn from Lygus (although I’m gonna be honest… looking back at the 2.6 Unknowable Domain Update, and the 3.4 As I’ve Written Update we’ve known this since then, he just says it explicitly in the main story) that Geniuses are all trapped by the Erudition due to the determinism set by Nous’s calculations, who’s Lygus’s/Zandar’s (although he’s just 1/9 segments) creation, which are literal Instants in the Universe, ones that can’t be avoided, thus Lygus wants to kill THEM to rid the world of a predetermined future and let knowledge be free again, to escape that cave which everyones trapped in, even if it means destroying the universe in the process..

..except it’s a little more complicated than that.

And there’s one sole character who challenges all of his assumptions + the path he’s walking down.

Patavia Adler Sommerville, aka a Member of the Council of Mundanites (and Polka Kakamonds #1 booty cal- *gets shot*), Dr. Ratio’s successor, and the Fucking Reason Amphoreus Exists In The First Place.

YEAH. You heard me right. Lygus hates her ass for it too. “Puny scholar” oh you’re furious she affected Nous more than you ever could.

Okay really- TLDR if you didn’t read Unknowable Domain’s first half (please do it’s some of HSR’s best writing), Patavia discovered the heart/core of the Scepter System (all while Polka was stalking her the whole time), got the opportunity to ask Nous about something new and thus crown herself as Rubert 3, however she hesitated due to self-doubt and instead asked to understand everything already known, Nous obliged, causing every Scepter to shove all the known knowledge of the universe into her brain, frying them all and shutting down the system for good, as well as dropping the iconic “Mundanites cannot become Geniuses” line which I will get to because it’s extremely important.

Now, this system shut down Patavia sparked is what caused Nous to stop giving commands to Scepters- thus allowing for Lygus to take over Amphoreus’s scepter, switch its calculations from Erudition, thus leading to the nightmare hellscape planet we all know and love.

A glorious butterfly effect, and you know who’s character is centered around that-

-Polka Kakamond! Who was also stalking Patavia for her whole life.

“Mundanites cannot become Geniuses” but Polka dedicates her time to murdering Genius Society members who step outside the circle of knowledge in a way that messes with Nous’s calculations, thus throwing off their predetermined path for the universe. Lygus likely knows this, hence why he Polka-proofed the planet as his improvements on Irontomb absolutely count towards that I’d imagine.

However, this raises the question… why was Polka watching Patavia her whole life then? If Mundanites cannot be Geniuses- if their actions cannot sway the fate of the universe- then why follow her?

Well, it’s because they CAN. Predeterminism is a prison Lygus trapped himself in. Not only did Patavia’s actions cause an unknown butterfly effect to lead us here, but that was her CHOICE as well. Her self doubt- her unwillingness to pursue Erudition to its very end- is what might cause the end of Nous itself.

And it’s because she cares about the other people “trapped in the cave.” She wanted to understand everything already known for the sake of the present rather than some distant starry future. There’s a text in game which I can’t find right now, but it compares Mundanites and Geniuses, stating that Geniuses’ intellect may be sharp, but a Mundanites is broad.

It made me realize that Patavia is far from the failure her fellow Intellegencia Guild members saw her as- she simply asked too difficult a question.

Let me put it like this; what’s harder?

Trying to discover a new species of butterfly (what a Genius would do), or understanding the intricacies of every single one currently known to man (what a Mundanite would).

You’d obviously pick the second one, and Patavia made the same choice, hence why she couldn’t comprehend all that information because no matter how intelligent you are, her human brain doesn’t possess the processing power for that shit. I think she could have become a Genius had she believed in herself, and chosen to ask something new (even if that would lead to Rubertville)

Don’t believe me?

Well then, I have one more question (trust me I’m going somewhere with this I just need to lay the foundation).

Why was Polka following her?

”You already asked that.” Kind of. I asked from the perspective of the viewers with the information we know now- that Patavia’s actions ultimately led to this shitshow.

Polka Kakamond likely didn’t know that- otherwise she’d probably be here by now. I will address the other conclusion which is that she does know and she in fact wanted Patavia to fail in order to free the universe of Nous- hence why she’s not here yet for some reason- in a minute.

From Polka’s perspective, it’s most likely that she was stopping another Rubert from coming into existence, as even if trapped by the Erudition, the calculations one can produce as Rubert can still discover things that push the boundaries of the Circle of Knowledge. Therefore, if it was truly impossible for Patavia to become a Genius, there would be no reason for Polka to follow her throughout her life, especially to the heart of the Scepter System (unless she’s got a crush or somethi- oh god spare me plea-).

Rather, again, it was Patavia’s CHOICE not to go down that path, aka the universe ISN’T predetermined- it’s just people like Geniuses… people like LYGUS, choose to operate within its framework.

Or, there’s the other possibility- she followed Patavia to ensure she did shut down the Scepter System to then lead to the creation of Amphoreus. This would kind of reframe everything we know about Polka- considering how she DESPISES butterfly effects and random chance- (which again goes against determinism, if this universe were truly trapped, Polka wouldn’t need to kill people), but I’m going to lay that down for now and get to the real conclusion of this baseline + self indulgent tangent-

-that being; Lygus does not hold a monopoly on how to free oneself from Nous.

A Mundanite cannot be a Genius- therefore they cannot be trapped by Nous’s pre-determinism, because the self-improvement they desire for themselves and others require so much knowledge and growth and delving into things other than the Erudition to the point where even the Scepter System- an extension of Nous’s thought itself, cannot provide it for even just one person and remain intact. Thus, the decisions of a person acting within what is already known are much harder to determine as they’re not searching for the same, new things Nous is- they’re trying to understand the meaning of what’s already there. Nous defines knowledge- but THEY cannot control what people choose to do with it.

So finally, FINALLY, we’re getting back to Dr. Ratio.

As Patavia’s successor, and the supposed “Genius” of the Council of Mundanites… a name which will become awfully suspicious in a short bit- he already has plenty of grounds to appear in this story (omg it’s almost dead horse beating time) since someone’s gotta deal with the consequences of Patavia’s actions- and the playable guy to inherit her position makes the most sense. This began with a Mundanite, so it should end with them, as stories usually go.

However, beyond fulfilling that typical arc, Ratio’s also got many other reasons to get involved with this- like his aforementioned dislike of the Erudtion in the first place. If we’re getting an arc where the main villain wants Nous dead and buried for how they mislead people… but we also have a playable character who, despite not being insane about it, shares similar sentiments… and they don’t show up? A missed opportunity would be an understatement for how stupid that would be.

And… it seems like the game agrees.

DEAD HORSE TIME AWWW YEAH.

This Cosmoddesy event is going to be my best man at my wedding with Castorice.

Anyways, this stupid glorious thing released in 2.1 (that I’ve been going insane over for more than an actual fucking year at this point) was gifted to us by Sparkle, who, supposedly, according to her hi3 collab can actually influence the way stories in these games develop. Fun!

This is also the first mention of Amphoreus in the story of HSR anywhere. Thanks Sparkle!

Here’s the things in this that have already happened.

A) A ‘Divine Mecha’ and member of the Genius Society ✅ This is most likely referring to Lygus, its most definitely about Zandar, however it’s what comes after it that makes it complicated

B) During Amphoreus’s ‘Aeonic Age’ ⁉️

Well, we haven’t heard of that. However, Lygus implies that in 3.6 and 3.7, the different paths aka Aeons are going to start fighting over things… therefore I believe this “Aeonic Age” will be mentioned in the next patch or two; and will refer to this

C) “immersive theatrical show” ✅ + ⁉️

We’ve experienced an immersive theater already! (Lygus sending us to go through Phainon’s memories), and it also seems like he refers to the story of Amphoreus itself in that. However, this mysterious “specific location” and the events of the show itself (which you’ll see) haven’t happened yet, at least not in the way the Cosmoddesy tells us. Phainon’s does not play out like how this does.

D) Our “Divine Mecha” sends a “woman adorned with a strange plaster cast head” to help us. ⁉️⁉️

HMM. I wonder who that could be.

Who in this game wears a plaster cast head. It’s a mystery.

Anyways, definitely not a stand in for Dr. Ratio lady then proceeds to teach the Trailblazer how to act. Definitely not like a certain professor. And if we fuck up and aren’t genuine about the Choices We Make

E) Definitely not a stand in for Dr. Ratio lady says his follow up attack voicelines twice

Piss her off well enough and she even throws the head at you.

However, if you succeed, and IMPROVISE…

F) she gifts you a “mutually assured destruction” button.

One of these bad boys.

“Seemingly triggering the complete annihilation of the other button holder, along with the entire Penacony”

Hey. Dr. Ratio. The “Penacony” in this situation is obvious… but who’s the other button Holder?

Could it be him, perhaps?

Could Ratio possibly be another one of Zandar’s nine segments? And that the ending to Amphoreus- how we truly defeat Lygus- is Ratio sacrificing himself to kill Lygus and the other remaining segments (hence why I was wondering if the ‘Divine Mecha’ is Lygus specifically, or another Zandarling).

Yes, Ratio gives it to us, the player- but why does he even have it in the first place. Moreover, in this event, Lady Greenday (mysterious plaster head Dr. Ratio stand in woman) is a masked fool just like Sparkle, and a subordinate to her screenwriterness as a playwright. They’re KIN.

Continually, this would fill so many gaps in Ratio’s backstory- like how we don’t even know if he has parents, or what planet he’s from, or like.. anything to do with his culture. His lack of connections would make sense if he was never originally his own person, and instead a segment of Zandar. Interestingly, this could also mean Nous never gazed at him, not just because he doesn’t stride the path of Erudition- but because he was technically ALREADY a Genius by being part of Zandar. That “self-deprecating” laughter he let out could have been at the fact that he’d never escape the fuss of being stuck within Nous’s calculations- within Zandar’s legacy.

Well, until he gave up on that and became a Mundanite. Stepping out of the cave he and Lygus both despise.

Ratio’s done the one thing Lygus’s arrogant ass has refused to do this whole time- TALK TO THE OTHER PRISONERS. Learn how the cave itself works rather than yearning to understand the world outside of it. Freeing himself from that hunger Lygus has inflicted upon himself, uncaring of whether the one who creates the shadows cares about it or not. A predetermined future will not impact or prevent him from making choices to better his and others lives… therefore the cave isn’t a prison to begin with.

He acknowledges everyone’s worth and is not willing to throw away their lives for a future universe they’ll never get to see- one that might even end up the same way. Lygus is no different from Nous in the way that he traps the Chrysos Heirs in their own predetermined fates, and I wholly expect Ratio to call out this hypocrisy of his if this does happen. How can Lygus expect a future universe to not fall to the same fate if the vehicle that creates it is based off the very same thing he’s trying to prevent in the first place?

Ratio also desires a world without paths, and I believe he wouldn’t be opposed to Nous’s fall- just the consequences that would be brought about if it happens, hence the strange relationship displayed in that Cosmodyessy event.

Either way, they have some sort of connection, and I can’t wait for that to be explored.

I hope this made some semblance of sense… my rants are understandable to me but probably pure insanity to anyone not in my brain. Thanks for reading/hearing me out anyways!

[acopytopy]

Ratio being a segment of Zandar could make this story more relevant as well:

Ratio creates a machine, then seems to regret creating it due to the harm it causes. A direct parallel to Zandar creating Nous.

Things Zandar has created: Nous, the Genius Society, Imaginary Tree Theory, defining the Primum Mobile “with incorrect logic”, Amphoreus and its residents, and the 9 Zandar segments. Seeing as how he regrets making at least half that list, I’d be willing to bet regretting his creations is an ongoing theme of his.

Now, this could just be a parallel between 2 separate characters. But damnit OP I think you’re onto something.

[prokopetz]

Ralsei having a big messy breakdown in Chapter 4 about how he doesn't mean to be secretive hits a little different when you've been paying enough attention to know he's full of shit because you caught him manipulating cutscene triggers to have private conversations with Kris without the player overhearing as far back as Chapter 1.

[prokopetz]

"But he only feels guilty about keeping secrets from Kris and Susie, not from the player" sure, but even there he's playing games. However genuine his guilt may be, he contrives to make it sound like he's just making things up as he goes, and that much of his secretiveness is accidental because he simply doesn't know what information is and is not significant, and that's demonstrably untrue – and moreover, Kris almost certainly knows it's untrue, thanks to those same private conversations. It's a performance for Susie's benefit alone, and if Toby Fox is half the writer we think he is, that's definitely going to come to a head at some point.

[prokopetz]

I keep coming back to Susie's gesture of forgiveness. Her blood is quite literally upon him, and I suspect that's going to become more than literal as events unfold!

[prokopetz]

I feel really weird about Deltarune because on the one hand it is A Game rmthat Exists and therefore is to be played, but it also explicitly tells you that it doesn't want you to play it.

I think the fact that a video game criticising its own audience is perceived as bizarre and outside normal boundaries points to the fundamental immaturity of video games as a medium. (n.b.: "immature" in the sense of "undeveloped", not "childish".) It would rightly be regarded as absurd to be having this conversation about literally any other artistic medium.

[0player]

Well, video games are also uniquely participatory as a genre (there are participatory works in other genres, sure), but I imagine that adds to the uncanniness.

[prokopetz]

All engagement with art is participatory.

[0player]

Maybe I could've chosen better words here, but if you claim to not understand what could be meant by "uniquely participatory" when we're discussing Deltarune of all things, I'd be inclined to call you willfully obtuse. I'm addressing the feeling here, not the nature of it.

[prokopetz]

I don't disagree that video games have affordances for artist-audience interaction which other mediums (typically) do not. I just don't see the use of creating a special carve-out for those affordances – it's a difference of degree, not a difference of kind. All art has ways of engaging for which the artist has prepared a response, and ways of engaging for which the artist has not. The nature of video games allows some ways of engaging which would normally go in the second category to go in the first category instead, but there's nothing ground-breaking in this; the same can be said of all mediums.

[prokopetz]

(I mean, hell, even if we restrict our consideration to works which engage with their audience specifically on the level of how the work is physically interacted with, The Monster at the End of This Book escalates from Grover begging the reader not to turn the page, to attempting to physically prevent the pages from being turned, and this is a children's book from 1971. "You are responsible for what happens to me in this book because you chose to physically keep turning the pages" is a piece of metatextual fuckery even a first-grader is expected to be able to grasp!)

[globalincident]

I mean... is The Monster at the End of This Book not bizarre and outside normal boundaries? I realise it's played for laughs, but it's only able to be funny because of how clearly bizarre it is.

[prokopetz]

No, it isn't. There are whole genres of children's lit that do similar metatextual stuff, much of it dating back roughly as far – a lot of Edward Packard's Choose Your Own Adventure novels, to cite an example that springs readily to mind. Like, to bring this back around to my point about the immaturity of video games as a medium, I need to emphasise that the kind of metatexual horseshit that's being treated as revolutionary in video games is in literature regarded as so entry level that it's largely relegated to books for primary-school children.

[vaskemire]

Theory time

There are 5 characters who we know have side effects from trust: Nice, Lin Ling, Moon, Firm Man, Ghostblade

4 of them are in Treeman

I wouldn't be surprised if fear was used to assist with every Treeman hero image (we know it was used with Nice's)

So what if the side effects are only present if you mix fear in? We know that fear can twist your powers (as seen with Shindiq)

And the fact that Ghostblade became physically unable to speak happened recently, so already after the discovery of fear. And I also wouldn't be surprised if Rock started to experiment too.

And yeah, lh0 told us about there always being side effects to trust, but I find it weird how rarely we actually see them, cause lh0 would 100% just lie to us

[kitsquared]

Nice "the perfect embodiment of what a hero should be like"

Vs

Loli "Appearances shouldn't define me, I'll be the hero I want to be"

Nice whose identity was created through trust and fear, and Loli who can negate both trust and fear with the armor she made

------

Ghostblade, "I won't question who I'm told to assassinate," protecting his target Little Johnny

Vs

E-Soul/Yang Cheng, "I need to uphold the people's trust and bring justice to the wrong," going after Little Johnny and Ghostblade

Both did not doubt killing a former Hero and X (Og E-Soul, Sheng), but Ghostblade goes against orders to protect little Johnny, and E-Soul doesn't doubt the need to kill them both

[acopytopy]

https://www.tumblr.com/acopytopy/784357085219602432/you-know-what-im-doubling-down-on-my-theory-that?source=share

Do you still think of this theory as plausible after what was revealed in episode 19 and 20?

Probably not anymore lmao 😂

I can’t deny I wasn’t expecting them to go so morally black with Yang Cheng. He seemingly only cares about being #1 now, to the point of willing murder, which is quite a huge change from the more justifiable revenge motive.

But Yang Cheng is still my goat even if he doesn’t beat the allegations. He just straight up kills people now and I love that for him

[strayknight]

[enqvpnyqerrzheef]

the best part bar none about kris being involved with the antagonist is that they are so fucking dogshit at being evil. "throw this fight it's a scripted loss" okay. "your teammates are down it's good as over why are you hitting me harder now" my friands..,.,.. "you need to keep the guitar away from susie" okay. "what the fuck do you mean you lost a brawl with your own soul and she took it out of your own fucking hands" you don't understaaaaaaand,,,.

[morganmnemonic]

I'm thinking of kris repeating berdly's name in shock when you try to tell ralsei that you are going to the festival with berdly of all people. Thinking about the conversations we only get to hear half of, where kris presumably tells ralsei and susie that ralsei and asriel don't look that much alike. Thinking about all the times where kris changes the prompt we give them into something that they'd prefer to say.

Kris talks. They chatter, even, but we as the player don't get to hear it. They don't get a text box. We only ever know that they spoke at all from the reactions of other characters, and even then, we rarely know exactly what was said.

And part of this is that whoever the deltarune narrator is seems intent to pretending like kris doesn't exist. You check the mirror, and it says, "it's only you". Kris plays the piano and it says, "your hands begin moving on their own." If kris speaks without your permission, the narration doesn't acknowledge it at all, committed to the lie that kris doesn't exist beyond their role as our vessel. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about how it's entirely possible that kris has tried to talk to us when no one else is around. They could have tried to tell us their plan, or begged us not to make certain decisions, or explained that we don't actually need to steal asriel's 5 dollars because they have a piggy bank buried in the front yard. Kris could be asking us questions, or asking us not to look for the bunker password because they have a plan and we should trust them, or asking us to let them sleep a bit longer, and we the soul just carry on the same regardless, their one-sided monologue falling on deaf ears. We would never even know, because of how thoroughly the narrative of deltarune has denied kris a voice.

[acopytopy]

Kris is THE nonbinary character ever.

They’re human in a town of monsters, an allegory for being nonbinary. They’re not Frisk or Chara but a secret 3rd thing. They’re a walking commentary on how nonbinary game protagonists get treated as “self-inserts”. They’re weird and it’s portrayed as a good thing. They have a secret life their parents can’t understand. They’re working for the enemy (literally playing both sides). They have a kickass storyline and personality.

Their life is a prison. Their body is a prison. Their gender plays into the overarching theme of the game, that being determinism. The struggle to choose who you are when God and religion already chose for you.

Well, player? Which do you choose?

[acopytopy]

This is gonna be a Deltarune blog for now, sorry. Got obsessed over the past couple weeks

[torums]

Og E-Soul and Zero >:D (I am in stupid mode fkfmngkd)

Being a faceless hero has its implications. Not only for you but also for your poor coworkers

[niceplsflashme]

yang cheng got so much trauma he started working out because he needed bigger tits to protect his fragile heart

[acopytopy]

OK can someone tell me if this theory holds water or if it’s just batshit insane

So this is probably X here meeting Cyan before she joins the top 10. It can’t be a coincidence that this encouraged her to play her guitar in public to make money. And we can also link the animation changes in Lin Ling’s and Yang Cheng’s arcs to X due to the snapping sounds.

—Is X personally choosing/supporting heroes to join the top 10? If that’s the case, it would make sense as to why none of the top 10 we’ve seen so far have been evil/corrupt, but rather innocent and kind.

But you know who that also sounds like? The orphanage dean.

He chose to turn kind-hearted children into heroes, but it cost them their happiness.

And look at the slicked-back hair, the glasses, the white clothes—is this guy trying to look like X or is this an intentional narrative parallel??

X is an antihero grooming the top 10 into sad heroes theory?

Look, if I had omnipotent power and had to choose a successor through a top 10 tournament, I wouldn’t be leaving that shit to chance, that’s all I’m saying—

[acopytopy]

I do want to mention that a key part of this theory is X having good intentions.

The orphanage dean also technically did, since he often mentioned how many people Cyan could save. So even if X is causing trauma and anguish for the top 10, it might be more of a “lesser evil” situation.

[acopytopy]

OK can someone tell me if this theory holds water or if it’s just batshit insane

So this is probably X here meeting Cyan before she joins the top 10. It can’t be a coincidence that this encouraged her to play her guitar in public to make money. And we can also link the animation changes in Lin Ling’s and Yang Cheng’s arcs to X due to the snapping sounds.

—Is X personally choosing/supporting heroes to join the top 10? If that’s the case, it would make sense as to why none of the top 10 we’ve seen so far have been evil/corrupt, but rather innocent and kind.

But you know who that also sounds like? The orphanage dean.

He chose to turn kind-hearted children into heroes, but it cost them their happiness.

And look at the slicked-back hair, the glasses, the white clothes—is this guy trying to look like X or is this an intentional narrative parallel??

X is an antihero grooming the top 10 into sad heroes theory?

Look, if I had omnipotent power and had to choose a successor through a top 10 tournament, I wouldn’t be leaving that shit to chance, that’s all I’m saying—

[acopytopy]

OK can someone tell me if this theory holds water or if it’s just batshit insane

So this is probably X here meeting Cyan before she joins the top 10. It can’t be a coincidence that this encouraged her to play her guitar in public to make money. And we can also link the animation changes in Lin Ling’s and Yang Cheng’s arcs to X due to the snapping sounds.

—Is X personally choosing/supporting heroes to join the top 10? If that’s the case, it would make sense as to why none of the top 10 we’ve seen so far have been evil/corrupt, but rather innocent and kind.

But you know who that also sounds like? The orphanage dean.

He chose to turn kind-hearted children into heroes, but it cost them their happiness.

And look at the slicked-back hair, the glasses, the white clothes—is this guy trying to look like X or is this an intentional narrative parallel??

X is an antihero grooming the top 10 into sad heroes theory?

Look, if I had omnipotent power and had to choose a successor through a top 10 tournament, I wouldn’t be leaving that shit to chance, that’s all I’m saying—

[just1kiana]

You cannot tell me to be hero X won't end where it started, Lin Ling was already going to kill himself if Nice didn't do it first and everything that happened after that only made it worse, him having to replace a dead man and watching people around him die and Moon literally gets shot in the head in front of him, I promise you the last episode is gonna be him being a top rank hero, stepping on the same rooftop where it all started as he sees another man looking like his age standing there about to jump and the last scene is gonna be him jumping as he says "good luck" knowing what will happen, The commoner didn't die that day, but Lin Ling did

[acopytopy]

Call me naive, but I genuinely don’t think it’ll end this way. Maybe there will be a scene where he considers it, but the show itself? I think it’ll at least end on a hopeful note.

I say this just based on what we’ve seen. There are the characters, their personalities and interactions. Look at Wreck’s love for Nice and Lin Ling’s love for Moon. Look at Cyan and Luo. Yes, these stories likely have tragic endings—but these relationships are important. Tragedy has no meaning on its own. Even scenes like Nice’s suicide practically invite the audience to wonder and care about Nice as a person. To understand that Nice was his own person; that he’s different from Lin Ling. The show wants us to hope.

There’s also the glaring fact that none of the top 10 we’ve seen so far are purely evil. In real life, I’d 100% believe people with that much power would be corrupt. But in TBHX, they’re not! They might make the wrong choices, but we can clearly see their goodwill and heroism underneath.

And of course, X exists. The everyman hero, tied to no corporation, not reliant on believers, who has everything and seems to have lost nothing. It can be done. Why would suicide be the answer for Lin Ling if there’s proof that he could be free?

So call me naive but I think TBHX has a hopeful and optimistic core. I don’t think it will end that way.