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@aeroblossom
listen... it's either one post every two months or four thousand in the span of three minutes. take it or leave it.
i don't want to study for my exams so we're talking about neon genesis evangelion and canto 7
and in project moon in general
(this is a bit all over the place i'll probably edit it to be more easy to follow over time. spoilers for canto 7, 9, and like, all of evangelion. also NOT an organised or exhaustive list i'm genuinely just yapping about things as they come to mind)
it shouldn't come as any surprise that amongst many other inspirations ranging from literary works, philosophies and ideologies, pm takes a lot from neon genesis evangelion. it's amongst the chief bases for canto 7 alongside gurren lagann (besides the obvious carmilla and don quixote), but since i've personally only watched nge i'll be focusing on that here. that said i'm not the biggest scholar on the topic or anything, i'll just be mentioning my observations and interpretations because i just wanna talk about what i like
to start with, the eva references have existed in pm since lobotomy corporation in the form of the kabbalah, the tree of sephirot namely. obviously the reference could have been made for its own sake but it's pretty notable that franchises that use it as a basis are usually often inspired by the series (another example is genshin impact, honkai impact 3rd, really anything hoyoverse makes). the tree of life is seen every time you watch an episode of the show since you'll be seeing in the opening, a cruel angel's thesis.
the entire character of carmen is very reminiscent of yui ikari, a principle character very central to the narrative of the story in both cases. their death is a significant catalyst for a counterpart man at the helm of everything, distraught at the loss of them - gendou ikari and ayin. a kind, compassionate scientist with an unwavering faith in mankind and holding the belief that it is worth any sacrifice. they both become the "source" of the franchise's main technological constructs, carmen as the pool of consciousness through which all of lobotomy corp's abnormalities are extracted, yui becoming the first evangelion, unit-01.
both yui ikari and carmen have their deaths symbolically desecrated by gendou ikari and ayin, and in a desperate attempt to recreate their lost loves, both men try and create a replacement or recreation of them, but continue to fail to truly capture the original person - in the form of angela and rei ayanami.
(the hair colour resemblance in both cases is also notable i would say).
in the canto 7 arcs, one of the main things that stuck out to me as the use of the term first/second/third kindred; reminded me heavily of the first, second and third child(ren) terminology in evangelion. the former is a hierarchical classification of bloodfiend lineage, the latter is a bit more literal in that it is used to denote the characters meant to be evangelion pilots - who are always children. bloodfiends conceptually are a heavily codependent hivemind. they can be said to be a sort of collective unconscious (especially given how in the intervallo, sancho is able to hear the voices of every manchegan bloodfiend inside her head; she's carrying them within her very being). the collective unconscious has a physical depiction in evangelion as the sea of LCL - which is said to be where all life originates, as well as smells vaguely of blood (there is also a small implication that it resembles amniotic fluid; eva pilots submerge themselves in LCL to pilot the robots, symbolically a child within mother's womb).
abnormalities and distortions in the context of project moon especially reminds me of eva because carmen is the source from which the vast majority of existing abnormalities originate. abnormalities are said to be the purest form of mankind, and anything that fails to become an abnormality becomes a distortion. distortions, visually, are literal – the boundaries of the character’s self appear to erode, often large in size as if the very atoms of their being are beginning to scatter, expanding from the centre point; their body parts or sometimes their entire body is symbolically transformed into a mocking shell of what it represents for them (heathcliff turning into a wolf, hohenheim losing his head, kromer's lower abdomen turning into a gaping mouth, jia mu becoming a grotesquely overgrown being, kim's hands fusing into the hilt of his sword). distortion is also one way bloodfiends are born.
in evangelion, when the boundaries of one's physical and mental self are destroyed, they burst into LCL and become one with the collective unconscious. in pm, distortions and abnos are what remains of humanity when the physical self is broken down or entirely taken out of the equation. in either case, what remains behind is said to be the "true face" of mankind. in evangelion, once one assimilates into LCL with other people, "love" is finally attained - the loss of one's selfhood means all humanity is now one, and thus no friction and conflict can any longer exist. this is said to be the deepest and truest form of love. the principle sin of la manchaland is lust, exchangeable with love, and a central theme of don quixote's character. bloodfiends propagate for the purpose of having someone love and understand them - "sharing blood" as a method of connecting and bonding with others endlessly until all around them are part of their family and thus, by extension, part of themselves. family is an unbreakable bond not constrained by the fragility of non-familial bonds, since it is a physical fate, not a construct.
incest is present in both media. canto 7 is heavy on incest with how suffocating the bonds of the manchegan family are, as well as the emotional dependency they have on one another. sancho sees alonso as every conceivable role in her life; whether that be parent, partner or friend. he is her reason to exist. she has an immense dependence on him and he on her. in eva, several characters fulfill the absences of their parents through friends and partners, craving deeply for a love that is unconditional, inherent and unmarred by anything. given the voids in their life are formed from a missing family member, they want a connection of total acceptance - something often believed to only be able to be received from family. in either case, love is attained through blurring the lines of social rules and propriety, emotionally or physically - a violation of personal boundaries. project moon literally starts with a daughter grieving how she cannot have her father's love, while said father looks for his lover in that daughter. rien does something similar with ryoshu, symbolically treating her both as his daughter and his bride (great trichiliocosm ego, ryoshu and shiomi's resemblance, shiomi being dressed as a bride).
sancho's lance reminds me vaguely of the lance of longinus - an artifact capable of piercing through any absolute terror field (which are physical manifestations of a person's psychological boundaries, a border containing their soul inside their body). the breaking of absolute terror fields in eva are often depicted as sexual assault-like in nature, invoking penetrative imagery. when someone's boundaries are violated or broken down, it is seen as an attack or an assault. incestuous relationships like sancho and don quixote, angela and ayin, rien and yoshihide, are similarly examples of the violation of societal and personal boundaries, and in two of those cases, the attempt to enmesh another's selfhood into one's own. when a lower kindred attempts to bite a higher kindred, it is a horrible taboo, seen as a form of assault, especially against someone who is superior to you in hierarchy. turning someone into a kindred is a psychosexual act (vampirism cannot be divorced from sexuality; bloodfiends seek to curb loneliness through emotional intimacy), biting a higher kindred would be like a young male animal trying to mate with its mother, it will be thrown off.
in evangelion, the crisis of people turning into LCL is avoided when the protagonist's selfhood is reassured and affirmed to him - that he can and will be loved without losing his whole self for it. that love can be attained even with all of his differences and flaws and the potential of hurting those he cares for. the blood of higher kindreds is said to be purer, stronger, so perhaps you could interpret that as higher kindreds having more powerful selfhoods; therefore, sancho required a sin affinity that allowed her to ignore the taboo, giving her the ability to break through don quixote's boundaries and ultimately defeat him, proving her sense of self stronger than his own, enough to give her independence from the tribe. she is able to find the courage once she is shown that she will be loved no matter what she does - she neither has to pretend to be someone else, nor sacrifice her individuality and live in eternal dependence.
and genshin version. dante is visionless. based on my personal interpretation of the elements
saw someone on twitter make an amphoreus coreflame version, so i wanted to try with my other interests too
i find these sorts of abnos so very fascinating. the fact it shows up in the very first canto as if some sort of prophecy. yi sang describes the whole world shatter into pieces, while sinclair has its ego, impending day...
i can't believe they turned bamboo hatted kim into an uke
limbus company au where everything is the exact same except gregor's mom hermann is replaced by kafka honkai star rail
i think i miss my meursault/n corp era
i feel sad whenever i think about my own interpretation and analysis skills because it really just takes a good moment to maximise the quality of my readings and unfortunately i spend most of those moments making threads on my private twitter account with 20k+ tweets that i have used for everything and every single thing ive been into since 2021 and since twitter is a steaming hot fucking pile of traffic right now the search tool will barely aid me when it comes to revisiting all my readings which i admittedly think are really good and are enhanced by the digestible twitter thread format and i could just. translate that into this little personal blog but holy fuck Elon musk kill elon musk kill musky kill him
aside from meursault being inherently appealing to me it was definitely his attribution to n corp and the impression that n corps appearance/characteristics throughout the pm series left on me which made me really infatuated with his aesthetics and character. during the time my pm fixation was kicking off i was trying to hard reset my media programming by reading 1984, brave new world, and the trial and other kafka works (fyi these actually interested me and i wasnt forcing myself to read classics or whatever) and Can You Guess which sinners were my favourite. and aside that i think at the time i just happened to also come across the chinese side of the limbus community that was really super duper big into meurgreg and made all kinds of content around them some of which happened to be. REALLY GOOD readings on n corp that literally shifted my worldview. although, it was less about the political nature of n corp and focused purely on philosophical merit and the themes derived from authors and philosophers, but i really wish to explore more of the former in the future!!! its always felt wrong obsessing after n corp while ignoring all the fascist/puritan culture elements of the faction like they dont come in play with those philosophical concepts as well... moving on; theres this one beloved cnetizen on twitter who makes the dreamiest meurgreg fan art as well as making threads attributing kafka novels/movie adaptations to n corps descriptions in lor and making connections between the two iterations to conclude that the two are directly correlated/that n corp was inspired by kafka's absurdism more than it was by camus'. i dont think ive ever been so affected by a fixation since then. i could not describe how badly it strengthened both my fixation on kafka and project moon lore it was actually destroying my physical health just how many hours i would spend up finding more threads and researching and fact checking and proof reading wikipedia just to support more connections between kafka's literature and N corp and for what!!!! i never even stated any of that publicly except for on my irrelevant former main account,... all of it was purely for my own enjoyment and i think that's beautiful. i will never achieve that kind of wonder and self indulgence ever again or at least for a long while i think.
However i will link the thread and the account i am talking about. i like to think that this works as an archive: ok actually this isn't the thread i was precisely looking out for, i think the original author deleted it :(((( however aolinyijiang is pretty much a good obelisk of all the amazing threads and readings meurgregors have made in their circle and their stuff is also many times as amazing; https://x.com/aolinyijiang/status/1971986201382211960
the original author has also posted a more recent thread about the divine comedy, major arcana and its correlation to the sinner numbers which i will also link below :333 https://x.com/sourbeans_0/status/2014290772582092876
i want to revisit this time and time again without having to revisit my rickity xitter private account to remember what user it was... pls look at aolinyijangs thread and their replies with the other user salmon its so so so good for anyone curious about N corp's brutalism and the literature it takes from. it is also a very articulate analysis on the trial and absurdism and it's cross comparison to l'etranger as well even if youre not looking for that. i still think this iteration of n corp is the strongest by far considering its arguably the most mysterious and enigmatic district in pm by nature (and guiltily i hope it stays that way forever even though we are entering that district in like. a week. i will be greatly disappointed. im actually very sad at how theyre treating n corp in the current state of the story which is what prompted this post to begin with as a form of remembrance but oh well dude who caaaareesss atleast meursault will get a conclusion marie is there gregor is there la la la...) but thats all i have to say. ive been brooding quietly even though im a major fanatic over these themes because dystopian settings and totalitarianism systems really do itch a tender region of my brain (it MIGHT just be due to the environment and family i grew up with.. i dont know😅) and im really happy i get to release all this through my gay niche tumblr blog. Please please please for the love of my life check out these guys they are so good at what they do they saved my life. they also improved my literacy level by 7 times by getting me into real literature instead of enabling my feedback loop webcomic slop rot. it could even happen to you. happy reading
canto 9 speaks very intensely of systemic misogyny and exploitation/commodity of women and is generally saturated with feminist themes but i have to admit i do get kind of irritated when people refer to rien as a misogynist and nothing more. not only is it dense, surface level, and barely sufficient or even meaningful enough of a label (considering who its coming from) to account for all that he's done it's nothing but redundant of his interactions with all 3 generations of the shiomi yoru bloodline. he treats all 3 of them very peculiarly and all they can derive from it is that he holds prejudice for women, which I'm not denying at all nor do i hold distaste for readings of rien having internalised prejudice, bigotry, and general discrimination against marginalised individuals because it is very much shown directly in the chapter that he does have some of that of sorts, but i feel it is necessary to whine about this because it spreads the idea that acts this way simply because it was his moral failing to do anything/own volition to harm them * because * they were women (and all the presumption that comes with it you get the gist) despite the four dimensional tensions between him and those 3 generations of women individually. riens actions towards shiomi, ryoshu, and araya all account for disastrously different things it's actually unthinkable for me to attribute it all to one single factor even if it's just something as abstract as underestimating/infantilising women because of misogyny. it's also not wrong to think that supports part of his actions, it just should be known that his commodification of shiomi, abuse + manipulation (as well as other specific transgressions) against ryoshu, and his contempt and exploitation of araya as a fodder or more accurately, deliberately planned out 'fetter' to complete the House of Spiders are all influenced by individuals within that very bloodline (i wish people had the balls to outright discuss why rien treats araya like that) and the internal battle between epistemology (the right to know) and duty (hermes) it's just all so broad and abstract in other words goes way beyond just the labelling of misogyny which is a perfectly fine interpretation it just starts to undermine both the subject of the reading and their relationships with other characters and thus those other characters as well. and considering we're in project moons fandom interpretations like these are unironically crucial to how the entire community perceives this character depending on what becomes popular (which often is just the most acceptable and digestible interpretation of a character)
canto 9 speaks very intensely of systemic misogyny and exploitation/commodity of women and is generally saturated with feminist themes but i have to admit i do get kind of irritated when people refer to rien as a misogynist and nothing more. not only is it dense, surface level, and barely sufficient or even meaningful enough of a label (considering who its coming from) to account for all that he's done it's nothing but redundant of his interactions with all 3 generations of the shiomi yoru bloodline. he treats all 3 of them very peculiarly and all they can derive from it is that he holds prejudice for women, which I'm not denying at all nor do i hold distaste for readings of rien having internalised prejudice, bigotry, and general discrimination against marginalised individuals because it is very much shown directly in the chapter that he does have some of that of sorts, but i feel it is necessary to whine about this because it spreads the idea that acts this way simply because it was his moral failing to do anything/own volition to harm them * because * they were women (and all the presumption that comes with it you get the gist) despite the four dimensional tensions between him and those 3 generations of women individually. riens actions towards shiomi, ryoshu, and araya all account for disastrously different things it's actually unthinkable for me to attribute it all to one single factor even if it's just something as abstract as underestimating/infantilising women because of misogyny. it's also not wrong to think that supports part of his actions, it just should be known that his commodification of shiomi, abuse + manipulation (as well as other specific transgressions) against ryoshu, and his contempt and exploitation of araya as a fodder or more accurately, deliberately planned out 'fetter' to complete the House of Spiders are all influenced by individuals within that very bloodline (i wish people had the balls to outright discuss why rien treats araya like that) and the internal battle between epistemology (the right to know) and duty (hermes) it's just all so broad and abstract in other words goes way beyond just the labelling of misogyny which is a perfectly fine interpretation it just starts to undermine both the subject of the reading and their relationships with other characters and thus those other characters as well. and considering we're in project moons fandom interpretations like these are unironically crucial to how the entire community perceives this character depending on what becomes popular (which often is just the most acceptable and digestible interpretation of a character)
technically the roach emperor is gregor mpreg
making evil characters men is a way of capping them for safety reasons. if rien for example was a woman i don't think the world could survive it
given the appearance of the peccatula luxuriae, inclined to think kromer was originally destined to shatter into a mere peccatulum, but something gave her the push to be a full distortion
the city would make for such a good exploration rpg. maybe like a ds pokemon game, maybe 2.5d. each nest with its unique backstreets, in-game clock to signal timed events like night in the backstreets. nest specific exploration puzzles like avoiding being crushed in hongyuan on restructuring day, time and color puzzles in t corp, water exploration in u corp. could go on forever
something I think about a lot is how the sinners' base ego sin affinities suit them so well,
yi sang and gregor are the most self explanatory, but even beyond simple ideas of stagnation, they are both afraid of control being taken away from them again, both physically and mentally. yi sang is so trapped he ends up creating a version of himself that is free. gregor is disturbed by his own self and what could happen if he didn't keep himself tightly leashed. and in worlds where they let go of their agency and give in to sloth, surrendering to the will of another, giving up their minds to become another cog in the machine, they are their absolute worst selves; from violent and hostile to purely immoral. sloth often comes coupled with gloom, especially in yi sang's case. invokes a feeling of total helplessness and despair, like becoming immobile until all physical faculties stop, and death comes. but sometimes it can also come with the sin of pride, like hohenheim and valencina; has a more "comfortable where i am, clinging to what i am, you can't tell me i'm wrong" feeling to it
meursault, rodion and outis have all killed people. the reason is something along the lines of "it was the only thing I could do," whether rational or not. faust has likely blasphemed, taking creation into her own hands or something similar. pride sinners all believe what they did was right, necessary, and the only option—and they will defend their choice even as their reasoning crumbles. they are all also put on trial in one way or another, literally in the case of meursault, and in faust's case, divine judgement. superbia also shows itself in the sapling of light ability: sancho was able to kill don quixote because the sin of pride gave her the delusional belief in her own justice and righteousness she needed to overcome her psychological barriers. pride and lust often come together—commonly in faust's case. pride and lust are the sins of a lot of villains as well, depicting an unstoppable drive and self assured motive
ishmael and hong lu both find themselves in a helpless situation they could not change no matter how they tried, like an overwhelming tsunami crashing down on them, literal and metaphorical; and tying gloom the closest to its physical concept, water. in ishmael's case, the symbolism is much more direct. u corp's singularity being fusion to create a greater mass is akin to being swallowed up by something larger. this is both the pallid whale and ahab—both physically larger in stature, towering over her, threatening to consume her. ishmael fights as a lone speck under a tidal wave, knowing she will be consumed. please correct me if I'm remembering this wrong, but there is an abnormality event where you must talk about what you command: life, death, and neither of those. choosing life will present a lust and gluttony check, choosing death will present wrath and gloom (it might have been sloth, i don't recall, and i can't remember which event this is at the moment). the juxtaposition of gluttony with life is particularly fascinating in the context of canto 8. the xianren are obsessed with long life, and everything in canto 8, even h corp's singularity, evokes this feeling of grotesque growth—whether chasing after immortality, the experimentation, or life insurance as a concept. gloom is corroborated to death. hong lu has lost desire—hong lu has lost gluttony, he has gained gloom and the spectre of death over him. despite wading through this despair for so long, he does not immediately turn around and tell himself life is suddenly what he wants, that death is wrong. at least for the xianren, in a way, death would be peace. he displays buddhist virtues of non-attachment and non-desire, which naturally places him at a greater position of enlightenment than the elders who claim themselves wise. death is not the answer, but neither is unending life. life is precious precisely because death will come, and to prolong it so only leads to a fate worse than death
sinclair is the only gluttony sinner. i'm not totally sure of everything this implies for him, but the first thing I think of in this regard is how eve ate the fruit of knowledge (the ego is named "branch of knowledge") and marred mankind with sin. sinclair is a character marked by his continuous growth, his continuous acquirement of knowledge and wisdom. he grows from the image of a child, a chick inside an egg, to a wise and grown man, a splendiforous bird. this is a very gnostic portrayal of the acquisition of wisdom if I'm not wrong. even with the bibical allusions aside, he lived a very sheltered life, protected from the cruelties of the city for most of it; now he has experienced a lot of it, and has hardened into a mature young man. a certain sinclair is a wisened fellow, he has seen and experienced terrible things, but still he continues to go on. knowledge hurt him terribly, but he did not give in. gluttony is the sin that craves more, more, more—sinclair clings to life, fights to learn, to grow, irrespective of the pains it brings
like sinclair, heathcliff is the only envy sinner. envy is a prickly, jittery, nasty anger. heathcliff is markedly... alone. both in his sin and in that cathy is gone. the envious find themselves alone. the envious are the rejected, the left out, the left behind, the unchosen. the envious are those who feel... unworthy, ashamed of themselves. peccatula invidiae take the form of identities. they copy and resemble and pretend, they have no self. heathcliff was half catherine and catherine was half heathcliff; one simply could not be without the other. with their most beloved reflection gone, with the only person in the world that is as low and sinful as them gone, neither is anything. an empty, lonely imitation. i frankly haven't meditated as much on this as I have the rest, so please feel free to add
don quixote and ryoshu's lives are intimately intertwined with love and belonging. despite not having ever received it, they both want to give out love into the world, want to spread their affection to those around them. i might honestly make a whole separate post on lust and lust sinners alone. don quixote's ideals, ryoshu's art—their ways of characteristic 'propagation' lust is known for, beyond the obvious. lust has a similar quality to gloom where the individual self is annihilated; assimilated into a greater collective (bloodfiend hivemind) or destroying higher selfhood altogether (muga, nonself). this destruction of individuality is a reflection of their assumed or apparent incapacity for independence—emotional incest from a parent is a commonality in both cantos. said parent, alonso and rien, struggle to be without the object of their codependency: sancho and yoshihide. the bloodfiends suffer an innate and terrible loneliness; rien seeks to make yoshihide as lonely as he is. all other bonds are rendered null, the father makes himself fulfill every role in the daughter's life—parent, partner, confidant, everything. ryoshu is a carbon copy of shiomi; shiomi is only seen dressed as a bride. all bloodfiends sired seen on screen are female, by a male (sancho and alonso, sasha and cassetti); a wife is also your family, after all. (this is but one allegory that lust takes the form of—as it is desire and love itself, that love can take every form imaginable: romantic, familial, sexual, platonic, aesthetic). again, i could go on about this one forever, just mentioning the aspects that come to mind immediately. ryoshu and don quixote choose not to denounce nor break away from love, though. they choose to channel it through their ideals and perspectives, sharing a part of themselves with the world, with those around them; with friends and family, and friends that are family. only this time, this love does not cost their individuality, and thus they know they can be truly loved and love, once and for all
i wonder whose ego wrath will be. probably dante. tell me what you think