He/him, 21 \ I like drawing whatever the hell. Very normal about Limbus Company. Professional killjoy and nerd emoji extraordinare. I'm very approachable, don't hesitate to reach out!
so you should totally buy art from me. Commissions Open!
I don't have a form or anything, maybe I'll make one later, but I really just have so many damn different ways I like to make art (and no consistent style) that I can't really make a sheet easily.
I will draw just about anything, but Project Moon-based comms would be super duper cool. I approve of that. You want me to draw battle sprites? Talk sprites? Distortion concept art? Cool busts? Something more abstract? Please god give me money. I like to make art. (NOTE: I will not draw any kind of ship art. I like drawing cool scary awesome things way more. Getting to design monsters would be so sick....)
My rates start with $20 per hour as a baseline, from which I then guesstimate how long it'll take me and go from there. I tend to be pretty fast, the longest pieces like design work or huge paintings taking maybe 5 hours. I am super open to haggling, I know it's insane to be buying art in a recession, trust me.
Please DM me here or at @/helodrome on discord if interested! Please also be aware that I tend to take a while as I am a full time caregiver. However I am also just so happy and filled with joy and will kiss you on the cheek. Art is just so cool.
okay so i haven't been able to work on that gregor essay at all actually, and i likely won't be able to for a long while (rocky family situation). i don't expect people to suddenly understand him better after the intervallo comes out though, there will just be new ways to mischaracterize him! so the essay will still be bangin when it arrives... Eventually...
A System For Thinking About Character Function feat. The Sinners
When I was talking with my friend @r0dotbin about our shared fanmade sinner roster, it came to me that looking at the functions of the canon sinners would be a good way to see just how exactly the roster is balanced, what the patterns are, and how we could change it. Here’s the system I came up with.
Yeah, I know, a graph that’s also a circle wasn’t a good idea. Basically, the light colors pointing towards the middle are the trait being expressed, while the dark colors behind the portrait are the trait being repressed or otherwise not present. From here on, I’ll call them “negative”. At its core, the characters are broken up into problem causers vs. problem solvers, with social being fairly self-explanatory (though I’ll detail it anyway).
Problem
Generally, problem means aggression or impulsivity in general, but also represents deeper issues, as in the latent ability to cause problems. Ishmael’s violent obsession, Rodya's issues under her chatty facade, and Sinclair’s repressed bloodthirst are all examples of “problem”. When high, like in Don and Heathcliff, characters become known for their tendency to cause problems for the people around them. I know the sizes of the bars is vague at best, so just take it at a general scale.
Negative problem is pretty much just the character not being one to start shit. Typically, if a character is practical (especially in high levels), they aren’t going to be causing issues. Ishmael is a notable exception, with her being very very capable, perceptive, and rational (most of the time), but also just going totally off the rails under certain conditions. She has the capacity to cause problems, but for the most part doesn’t.
Practical
Practical is way more than just intelligence, because there's WAY more to solving issues than being smart. Sometimes it's diffusing tension or being watchful or just paying attention to the things around you. They're all going to do it in different ways too, and just because someone has practical ability doesn't necessarily mean they WILL solve an issue (like ryoshu).
Negative practical is where it gets interesting, it’s really a case-by-case basis.
For Don especially, negative practical essentially translates to her meaning well when she impulsively decides to slaughter Ryoshu right at the start. Like yeah girl! Youuuu did it! Good job! That wasn't very good to do actually! This applies to most of her early behavior, just really recklessly charging ahead because she WANTS to help, she WANTS to solve issues, but the way she's doing it actively makes things worse.
Heathcliff is neg practical because he really isn't giving a fuck what happens because of his outbursts, nor does he really care about helping the team in any way beyond hitting things til they die.
Rodya is neg practical because she is so self absorbed and isn't really thinking about much else other than her guilt. It comes down to rationality, really. Would you trust Canto 1 Rodya to really take it to heart if you vented to her? No, it’d probably make her uncomfortable and she’d try to worm out of it because she’s not in a good place emotionally herself.
Social
Social is pretty easy to understand. It’s NOT a measure of a character’s social abilities, but a measure of how eager they are to socialize at all. This is why Outis has negative social despite being very good with people. In her case, her abilities to read and command others would go under practical, and she has neg social because she isn’t interested in speaking to the Sinners at all.
Don is highly social because she’s chatty and exuberant and wants to ramble, Greg and Rodya both have it as their highest because they’re both eager to mingle as well, you get the idea. Negative social represents any kind of unwillingness to socialize.
Outliers and Other Observations
Honglu is weird as hell. Every other character is at least problem- or practical-type in a way that makes sense, but he isn’t either. He’s just social. He’s not like Yisang, who functionally does not exist in the early game. I made Yisang have all negatives because he’s just too apathetic to do anything at all at the start, and that makes sense, yeah. But Honglu?
At first I had him all negative too, but that didn’t feel right. Sure, he’s not exactly going out of his way to socialize, but he is present and curious. I think Honglu is the only way you could write a purely social character, actually. He’s not going to start shit, but he’s not fixing shit, either. If you vent to him he’ll listen but he’s not going to care, he’s too 💖💖✨😊for that.
Generally, it seems like characters who are low in all of the stats (like Greg and Sinclair) end up being more meek or laid back. They most certainly have the capability to be an issue, though, don’t forget.
And there sure were a lot of practical characters, huh? Relative to those who outwardly cause issues, especially. I remember early Limbus feeling like a circus, when it was really only a few of them actually screwing things up. In that way, it’s probably a good rule of thumb to not overwhelm your cast with characters who do whatever the hell they want. You only need a few for things to spiral, since the whole rest of the cast has to deal with the fallout.
Okay, that's all I got. Hope it helped. I love thinking about the mechanics of storytelling...
HOOUUH OKAY I FINISHED CANTO 9. and you know what? the next essay im gonna write...
is gonna be about gregor LMFAOOO COME ON!!!! you KNOW the next intervallo is gonna be all on him, this is the absolute last chance I have to do a deep dive on him before things get crazy. And you know I be thinking about that guy...
i will write something about the canto itself eventually, but I probably want to wait for more stuff to come out (ryoshu bad end ID + the railway) and i think it would be better served with more time in the oven since it's a retrospective and not a speculative analysis. Gregor though? oh man. Oh boy. oh man. Hehee. Yay!
been forever since i posted art huh? well No More! in between all of my ryoshuposting, there is some men.
been doing profile studies for a couple days and knew i needed to test if i learned anything by drawing some sinners. i wanna start getting down ways to draw them all, too, for my Evil Secret Art Project. there's gonna be a version of this with some of the girls in a week or so too <3
do you plan to make the sinner oc creation guide you put a poll up for anytime soon?
deadass that's like. a way way more intense project than any of the essays i already plan on doing so it probably won't be soon </3
I've gotta finish reading the novel, think really hard about the novel, write out everything i plan on changing, create a canto (a rough outline at the very least), a base ID, base EGO, multiple other IDs and assigning other EGOs, talk about the function of the character in the narrative in general, talk about the thought process behind each step and how it can work as a loose formula to be used for others, etc...
it might come out sometime in the next millennia if i weren't such a tryhard </3 gahhhh arghh i think i need to hire a video editor or something. i just know that if i turned all of my projects into videos, they'd spread farther, but i don't know anything about editing myself
in the meantime hopefully the analyses and other writing-related thoughts i put up in here are still of some use!! i do love my questions after all...
^^this bit from the end of the second part of my essay seems to be coming true and im so hype
they're already going real hard on the whole cycle of abuse theming with ryoshu and the nursefathers, there is zero reason to believe that PM is just gonna suddenly drop all of that when it comes to ryoshu's relationship to araya.
im HEAVILY doubting all of the information shown in ryoshu's memories now that it's been shown that she wasn't able to properly remember what she did to dihui. now, i'm not saying "oh yeah this means the cute scene with ryoshu chatting with araya is a total lie she was actually just abusive" like no way lol.
right now it seems like they're going the "i was messed up really bad by my parents, so i need to do better by my child (accidentally messed up the kid in a brand new way)" route with it.
look at how totally busted up to hell the inside of the safe was. even before that, just the IDEA of hiding a child away in a safe that was stated to only just be large enough for one is questionable on its own. but when she opens it, it's all covered in scratches. whatever was in there did Not want to be there, or at the very least grew to not want it.
ryoshu obviously loves her daughter very much, but she was raised by incredibly cruel people and was never socialized properly, to say the least. the only way she would know to care for her daughter is to Not Do That (physical and verbal abuse) right? that doesn't automatically mean that the solutions she lands on, though guided by love, will do her daughter well.
also, this point is a bit more out there but if it ends up being right im gonna hit you with an even bigger I Told You So. i think there's a good chance that ryoshu is misremembering her daughter's name, and that it will be revealed that her name IS actually yuzuki.
again, we're already seeing how unreliable ryoshu's memory is. who's to say she actually remembers her daughter's name properly? why is the only scene of araya they keep returning to that of pointing out the Yoshihide/Ryoshu thing? like come on man!!! this would go perfectly with everything i'm seeing!! AGH!!!
there's also the fact that this just seems like the natural evolution of the story when put in PM's hands. hellscreen is all about yoshihide loving his daughter so so much that it winds up getting her killed (his repeated begging for the emperor to release her from her status as a lady in waiting so she can come back home to her father is what led to the emperor setting the daughter's execution in the burning carriage up). on its face, it's already kind of a PM-like story isn't it? which is exactly why they're changing and adding so many elements in this one, i think.
they want to change the human element, and that would be the parent-child relationship. well, since the original was about an overbearing love damning the daughter... why not make it about an overbearing love turning the daughter away? at least when she died in the original, she died loving her father. but here? will it be the same? is it not worse than death to see your loved ones look at you like a pitiful stranger?
it took me a while to warm up to the canto but i can say that they're cooking now. just you wait.... just wait and see...
The Pre-Canto 9 Ryoshu Analysis Masterpost (Part 2)
Here’s the second part of the essay. If you haven’t read the first, please do! Same spoiler warnings apply.
First, let me detail the sins they’ve given her identities. They’re just as important for characterization as anything else. Ryoshu’s sin affinity distribution is as follows: 14 lust, 11 gluttony, 7 pride, 4 wrath, 4 sloth, 3 envy, and 1 gloom.
Lust and gluttony being so high make sense. She deals in violent arts and is fascinated with the human form, which makes lust a no-brainer. Gluttony could be read as her bottomless desire to both create and witness this art, maybe. Gloom being so low is something I want you to keep in mind. Only one of her identities has a gloom skill, and she has a single gloom EGO on top of that.
Now for a few of her identities. Most of hers are unremarkable simply because she just loves being able to kill. As long as she’s allowed to do that, she’s content to rattle off a few one-liners and get to it. The ones that break this mold are Chief Butler and Red Eyes and Penitence - both identities where she leads instead of follows.
They’re likening leadership to motherhood with these. I know I said it in the first half, but it’s important! If you take away anything from this, it should be that.
Let’s do Chief Butler first. This identity mirrors Nelly, but I don’t think that has any bearing on her now. The overarching theme of her uptie is how she’s trying her best to prepare the other butlers for the appearance of Wild Hunt Heathcliff.
The empathetic Ryoshu has been right in front of you the whole time! I wouldn’t be so quick as to apply this style of behavior to Ryoshu in the story (especially since we’ve seen what it looks like when she’s looking out for others), but then again… the stakes haven’t been like this, either. She’s taking the well-being of her subordinates very seriously here, and when Heathcliff shows up, she instantly dismisses them all to handle him herself. Not only is she adept at handling the butlers, she’s shown to be selfless, which is something she’s never gotten close to displaying in the main story.
Now, this is the interesting part.
Never has Ryoshu ever been afraid of dying or being injured, so that can be ruled out immediately. No, it’s regret. I know, I know she’s not the one with the gloom skill, hold on! The whole reason she has wrath instead of gloom is that here, she’s quick enough to squash her momentary weakness and turn it into the fury she needs to go against Heathcliff. Despite Heath not being her biological child, she still was responsible for raising him in this universe. If it were her child, though? No way it wouldn’t be gloom instead.
Both of these aspects, from the way she’s trying to save all of the other butlers to her regret when facing Heathcliff, makes the maternal reading pretty simple. In fact, I think it’s possible that this might be a microcosm of what coming face to face with her child in her canto will be like. Maybe it’s a stretch, but… it’s not too outlandish for me to rule out.
Now for Red Eyes and Penitence. Here’s that gloom skill!! Since lust is a staple for Ryoshu identities, we can ignore it. It’s her envy and gloom that’s interesting. This ID is special because she’s using EGO gear here, which are known to heighten the emotions of the users.
We’re right up front with the themes of motherhood this time. The focus on Red Eyes in her uptie makes sense. It’s an abnormality all about defending and caring for its children. So, I think her envy skill represents Red Eyes (Spiderhead, the weapon, specifically). Envious of something whose family is so close at all times, so well cared for.
Not even an abnormality’s definition of family is good enough for her, it seems… That’s all from her story.
Before we continue, it should be noted that she treats her weapons like children to be taken care of as well.
Alright, so there’s all that, but what of Penitence? She would’ve worked perfectly fine with only Red Eyes, but no. That’s where the gloom skill comes in. Unlike the regret that was quickly subdued in Chief Butler, it’s front and center this time thanks to the heightened emotional connection to Penitence. Her gloom, her regret, has only surfaced when in contact with EGO or EGO gear (REaP, soda).
It’s hard to say just what it is that she regrets, but it’s clear that it’s something she’s buried deep down and tries her best not to acknowledge. There’s absolutely no way it isn’t about her kid. Just keep it in mind for the future.
Now, her EGO.
I’m so serious when I say her Soda EGO is deathly important. For one, it’s one of the TWO instances of gloom she has, ever. Plus, her corrosion is wildly different from Honglu’s Soda corrosion.
Ryoshu’s is on the left and Honglu’s is on the right. When he corrodes, Honglu turns into one of the shrimp working the boat, his human form gone completely. But Ryoshu’s gone and turned into a can of Wellcheers. They make extra sure to show that she’s NOT a shrimp like Honglu, with her shrimp hat still having its stitching and all. I was already concerned when I saw Soda was gloom for her, but seeing her corrosion makes it even more heavy-handed. It’s all about the kidnapping.
If you don’t know, this abnormality is based on a rumor that if you drank an already opened can of Welch’s, you’d get drugged and kidnapped and sold to work on a fishing boat. The fact that this is something that’s making her actually sad for once is alarming, especially with them going so hard on the kidnapping aspect of it for her.
There’s no way to know how this relates to her for sure right now, but it seems to imply that either her child was kidnapped, or she had a hand in kidnappings in her time in the Fingers. Right now, I’m leaning more towards it being her own child that was kidnapped, since from Lei Heng’s interactions with her it sounds like her kid is still alive somewhere. But then again, he didn’t seem to know. Here’s where he mentions it.
This EGO doesn’t have much else to say besides that, and is the only one to give a real hint as to what might be going on with her. Excited to find out just what it’s referencing.
THORACALGIA
I think that Thoracalgia, for her, might represent futility. For Faust, it’s freedom, but Ryoshu seems weighed down by guilt that she keeps deeply hidden. Regret is a recurring theme for her.
Her awakening line states that BOTH resentment and penance are futile. “I was only reaching out to grasp something, anything.” I think she might be lost for how to really approach her kid. Obviously, she has her whole giddy sadistic deal, but she’s not a lunatic. She cares for the people around her. She’s aware of her behavior, and she knows when it’s not appropriate. She’s SO on edge in current Limbus, not smoking and all that. I think it’s cause she’s lost on how to bridge this gap, an uncrossable distance, but she wants to. She wants to and doesn’t know how - perhaps already knows what’s going to happen.
Her corrosion line is “I breathe in and out, but it won’t stop hurting”, again, expressing futility. The one thing that puzzles me is that it’s a Pride EGO, and costs 1 wrath, 1 lust, and 5 pride to activate. Makes her weak to sloth and gluttony, too. As always, looking at the specific sin affinities used for each part of the EGO is important. They’re clues as to how the user is feeling in relation to the EGO.
If Thoracalgia represents a feeling of overwhelming confinement and suffering, of being haunted and trapped by an overgrown pain, a defensive reflex allowed to get out of hand… where’s the pride in that? She’s clearly feeling prideful more than anything else here. Assuming my angle about it being her regrets is true, then… Maybe the pride comes from continuing despite the pressure commanding you to stay still, perhaps despite knowing that resistance is futile.
Apart from maybe being about her relationship with her kid, it might also be referencing the completion of the Hellscreen… which, in this case, I think is her sword. For one, Ryoshu doesn’t make literal art like Yoshihide does, now substituted for violence. They’re putting a whole lot of attention on her sword, with how it’s never been unsheathed and is implied to have an extreme power if it were to be. The sword being the equivalent to the painting of hell is the only thing that makes sense. What with the Hellscreen in the story being Yoshihide’s greatest work, and also what takes the life of both him and his daughter in his arrogance (which he knew even prior to finishing it), well… I’d be surprised if this wasn’t what ends up being revealed.
Anyway, Thoracalgia. Yeah, it could be about her knowing deep down that what she’s doing is harmful, and continuing anyway. It’s a theme across her other EGO as it is. I’m not 100% confident on this, but it feels like this is the best I can get a handle on it before the canto comes out.
CONTEMPT, AWE
I think this one is meant to call back to story Yoshihide, specifically highlighting his extreme arrogance. Because, like, yeah, Ryoshu is arrogant. But it’s justified, she’s capable. And I wouldn’t say she’s, like, EXCESSIVELY arrogant in the story. Contemptshu though? 100%. This is a Ryoshu that’s a nasty unpleasant self-aggrandizing twat, going full throttle on the “I’m wayyyy better than you” angle. Here’s some of her lines.
Like, this is still recognizably Ryoshu’s speech, but turned up a notch. **NOTE: If I catch you writing regular Ryoshu like this, especially canto 5+ Ryoshu, I’m gonna tar and feather you. She does display some arrogance like this (not even to this level) towards the Sinners in the first chapters, but it’s not present anymore.
There’s an intentional parallel being drawn with Jia Huan here, and I understand why she was given both the EGO and the identity mimicking him. Jia Huan, in the story, became vicious, hateful, and arrogant after his little brother died, donning contempt. But all of the Contempt, Awe content in the game has emphasized how futile and phony this hateful attitude is. It looks intimidating and even divine, but it’s nothing more than flimsy gold in the end. Jia Huan acts like a holier than thou asshole but isn’t able to mask his care for Honglu completely, even being called out by his unique panic type called Soft Goldcasted Heart. This EGO is all about a rejection of empathy in favor of arrogance, while also showing that rejecting empathy is a weak and foolish choice. Contemptshu is a total loser, tldr.
BLIND OBSESSION
Alright, you ready for this? Blind Obsession is my favorite out of Ryoshu’s EGO, not only for what it says about her, but also what it’s saying on its own. There’s a whole other facet to the abnormality I don’t think gets acknowledged in favor of the literal “blind obsession”.
In the mirror dungeon event, it’s convincing you to sink because there’s salvation waiting at the depths. Right away, it looked like an allusion to the kind of twisted comfort you might feel in giving up, or in pursuing something you know will harm you. It really comes off to me as suicidal ideation to me, because of the tone, the comforting tone. “Chasing the light in the deep darkness” already has suicidal undertones to me, but there’s more. Siltcurrent is depicted underwater, and the thing about water in Limbus is that Kim Jihoon has said that the color and nature of the water, when coming from an abnormality or distortion, matters a lot.
And this isn’t just the ocean, it’s the ABYSS.
Just take a look at what Siltcurrent says when you fail one of its checks in the event.
This sounds exactly like someone who has made themselves comfortable with the idea of dying, and is gently reassuring the failed sinner.
So that’s awesome and all, but am I trying to say Ryoshu is secretly suicidal? Naw. You have to look at both halves: the idea of “blind obsession”, and the resigned ready-to-die tone. Reading Hellscreen makes it immediately obvious why this was chosen for Ryoshu. Yoshihide is characterized as someone who will go any length for art, and demands that he needs to see a recreation of the subjects he’s painting. This includes studying a corpse up close for hours, releasing dangerous animals on his apprentices, and the burning of his own daughter in the carriage, of course. Despite Ryoshu’s art being violence, she is no less enamored by bloodshed, and the same applies to her.
This EGO says that Ryoshu is pursuing something terrible to the ends of (presumably) completing the Hellscreen, in whatever form that’s going to take. It describes the chasing of even the faintest light (artistic inspiration) down willingly into the depths of hell, knowing it will kill you, and chasing it all the same. In a way, the singleminded focus she has that will surely fall on her child as well is suicidal. Her awakening quote, “Only I move in these waves”, is another nod to the self-aggrandizing attitude she and Yoshihide share.
4th MATCH FLAME
4th Match Flame stumped me for a bit. It’s simple on its surface, but it felt like there had to be something more. At least this is another she shares with other Sinners. Looking at how it differs for them can give clues as to the intent behind it all.
Okay, think about Rodya and Yisang’s real quick, especially their corrosions. The theme of destitution and suffering ties in to both of those. Rodya was herself a poor starving girl once, desperate for the comforting matchlight in a cold world (which may be why she’s the one fully aflame). Yisang is totally smouldered, barely an ember left - no bright dream could hold him anymore. The fire consumed him, its empty promise of warmth stripping the flesh from his bones. Alright, yeah, that was simple.
Then, Ryoshu… Here, I want you to see hers.
She’s burning yet unlike Yisang, but not as brightly as Rodya, her face covered in flame and her bones visible. She’s also in the same upright posture as her Awakening sprite. Disillusion, maybe? The dream is crumbling but still she walks. It hurts her yet, but clouds her vision even now. The fire covers her eyes - wrath, a blind rage, needing revenge despite the physical toll? Pride keeps her upright, walking her path of destruction despite being a dead man. She isn’t done until she says she’s done.
Being a Wrath EGO, this is likely referencing how bad she wants to kill those who took her child away (presumably). Just look at how pissed she got when Lei Heng showed up. She was going for that sword instantly, and Faust had to stop her. Literal blind rage. For this one, I think I need to not overthink it. The fire and wrath is tied to her general all-consuming rage, while also showing that it’s killing her (yet she stands proud, unwilling to fall).
Hey, it’s almost like that’s what Blind Obsession was talking about. Hmm. Also note that she attacks with her odachi in this one.
SPIDER BUD
There should be something real important about all of her Red Eyes connections, right? Two whole EGO and an identity. Thankfully, Spider Bud is extremely straightforward.
It only comes down if its babies are hurt. Like. That’s it. Just a fierce, protective mother. Easy. It really seems like there should be more here, but Spider Bud is just one of those abnos with not a whole lot of characterization. Either the deeper meaning for this is hidden in her canto or it’s as simple as it looks. She’s been likened to spiders multiple times, there’s spider’s house Lei Heng mentions, etc…
FOREST FOR THE FLAMES
Alright, maybe this is a bit disappointing for some of you, but I have just about no leads on her base EGO. Since it’s not tied to any abnormality, it’s a lot tougher to piece together what’s going on in these. The most I can say is that it supports my sword = hellscreen theory. Just look at the way she’s cuddling it, almost looking like she’s about to draw it, kinda. Plus, the sword itself is wrapped in red bandages, perhaps seals? The Fingers are visible in the background, which isn’t anything new. Yeah. Sorry, thought it’d be better to end on a fizzle.
Finally, with everything we’ve discussed behind us…
I really think now that canto 9 will be of the pain of seeing your child disown you, of your child growing twisted in your absence, of harboring this deep love for them that cannot ever be expressed because they do not want to be around you. I think that Ryoshu’s kid might’ve been separated from her and has been trained as a highly skilled syndicate member in the meantime. But when we get there, I think her child will have no words for her. And I think Ryoshu knows this. She’s avoiding her regret as much as humanly possible, but it IS within her.
It could be that the funny carriage times already happened in her backstory, but I really doubt it. There’s no way she’d be acting like that if her kid was already dead. Either way, she’s awful apphrensive about SOMETHING right now, either finding out the truth or not knowing how to bridge that gap.
Plus, would they want a Canto 6 rerun? We already went through “ohh I finally get to see this person I care about again, just kidding they’re actually dead” like no way we’re doing that again. Her kid’s gonna be alive and it might actually be the worse outcome for Ryoshu. At least when someone’s dead, you can cope and say that there’s no way to know now. It would be so easy to be furious about it, wouldn’t it? Easier to want revenge for their killer instead of finding a way across such a divide.
That’s not to say I don’t think they’re going to work in the overarching theme of “excessive arrogance only hurts you and the ones you love” from Hellscreen, but, y’know. It’s Limbus, it’s not gonna be that simple. With how hard they’re drilling the maternal aspect of Ryoshu, I think we’re gonna get to know her kid for a bit before… evil happens.
And just as a bonus, I think Ryoshu’s seasonal ID will have lust, gloom, and wrath skills. Maybe sloth defense, but probably not. As long as she has any gloom at all, I’m gonna lose my mind. Okay, essay over. Thank you for your time.
The Pre-Canto 9 Ryoshu Analysis Masterpost (Part 1)
This essay assumes you are fully caught up with Limbus Company and have read Hellscreen (it’s not required reading for this, though). If you haven’t read Hellscreen, it’s free on Google and very short (and a great short story, regardless). If you’re not caught up with the game, good luck. In this first half of the essay, I will be detailing the aspects of Ryoshu’s character as present in the game’s text.
Ryoshu is aware of her behavior and relishes in it
It’s important to realize that she is an edgy little shit, to the point where she gets a kick out of dropping “epic” cliche one-liners on purpose. It’s wrong to portray her as maximally cruel all the time. She is goofy. The goofiness is part of her performance, it does not diminish her cruelty.
Look at what she chooses to say. Rarely does her SANGRIA include real swears, even when it seems like it should.
This is the single best example of this and serves to characterize both Ryoshu and Sinclair at the same time. Here, Sinclair’s more aggressive side comes out, taking her acronym and interpreting it to be as harsh as possible. This is one of the few times he misunderstands her and shows that he doesn’t have a perfect Ryoshu-sense like he seems to. Ryoshu then explains that what she intended was less harsh and more silly, although still an insult.
Ryoshu won’t shy away from making her acronyms silly in nature. Think of OOF and WOWWIE. There’s got to be a more threatening way to convey the same information, but she decides not to.
Christ’s sake, she has a straight up “while you were partying, I was studying the blade” line in her Liu identity. Do I even have to mention the Dimensional Demon Edge? I’m sorry, but in real life, Ryoshu would be a mall ninja. She’s edgy as hell in a way that she knows isn’t very cool, but she loves it, and is genuine throughout.
This confirms that she’s performing. She’s being a little shit and she’s getting a huge kick out of it. From the outside, there wouldn’t be much of a way to tell what she’s actually thinking when she says these things, but this makes it clear.
Try looking at her Ryoshuisms now with this in mind.
It’s one thing to notice them, but noticing their absence will also be important. We aren’t there yet, but it’s something to look out for when Canto IX comes out.
Ryoshu is highly critical of other’s concepts of family (It’s unclear how she defines it, as no mention of the term gets a positive reception from her)
Check these out.
As you can see, it’s always Ryoshu who has something to say whenever anyone mentions “family”, and it’s never positive. It reads as defensive to me. The only time she doesn’t immediately shoot it down is when Heathcliff says it, but they do draw attention to Ryoshu’s silence (possibly uncomfortable silence).
Ryoshu is capable of leading others when necessary, and cares for her teammates
At a surface level, Ryoshu seems like one of the worst people you could ask to be a leader. She only seems to care when there’s bloodshed, right? Our perception is skewed because there’s no way she’s leading anything in the main story, and most of her identities show her in a subordinate role. It’s true, she’s perfectly content to be a lackey as long as it means she gets to fight, but when necessary, she can lead surprisingly well.
It’s only present in her Chief Butler and Red Eyes and Penitence IDs, both of which I think are her most important identities for the purpose of understanding her better. I’ll be talking about both of them more in the second half of the essay, but the thread between both of them is that they’re likening leadership to motherhood.
If you were already tuned in to this, you wouldn’t have found her performance in the Spring Cultivation intervallo surprising. Of course she’s a boss at handling kids. Despite her edgy, slightly self-serious behavior, it’s just one aspect of her that she can pull herself out of when she needs to.
Caring for her teammates, though, may be more surprising. I knew she cared, but I didn’t know how much. She’s creating distance on purpose through her behavior, making it easier to mask what she’s thinking a lot of the time. Check this out, it’s the end of TKT where Rodya is all on the fritz after the Time Ripper scoped her ass.
(Long face). I’m so serious when I say this is the only instance in the game thus far of Ryoshu stopping and giving another sinner actual encouragement. You could maybe consider the conversation she has with Don after they survive the Sweepers, but I’m kinda eh on that one. This one’s irrefutable, though. Looking back on it, it may also be that the only reason Ryoshu chose to hold her tongue when Heath was calling them all family (despite her clearly wanting to say something). She knows him and knows where he’s coming from.
Ryoshu is one of the most perceptive people on the team
This has got to be the point with the most evidence. I feel like we (extrapolating my experience onto all of you) just kinda glazed over Ryoshu whenever she pops up in the story. She never talked that much to start with, and when she did, it was usually just expressing interest in bloodshed. Easy to tune out, right? But going through all of her text in the game made me realize how omnipresent she is where it matters.
Ryoshu reacts faster than anyone else, sometimes literally,
sometimes figuratively.
And the thing is, she’s always right. There’s never been a Ryoshu hunch that ended up being wrong. She was suspicious of Dongrang super early, and clocked the kehzan guy right away. Just look at all of Timekilling Time. They would NOT have figured that shit out without her. She did so much heavy lifting there, it’s insane.
Her edgy, hard-to-understand nature makes for a good smokescreen for just how damn smart and keen she is. It also helps to justify her behavior. After all, an ineffective edgelord is just pathetic, but she’s managed to wrap it all the way around to being cool by virtue of being genuinely awesome.
Like here, she’s the only one to catch the wording in Erlking’s speech, with Faust throwing out the “dude shut up you’re gonna spoil it” ellipses of doom.
That about covers it for her character. The real analysis is in the second half. It’s important to have gone over this first, though, because she can be real easy to misremember and mischaracterize. Now we’re on the same page!
Black Dragon Ryoshu EGO.... WAW? ALEPH?
HEHE YAYYY I FINISHED IT!! You know I'm having a Ryoshuful December, and I love Monster Hunter very much, and just thinking about Fatalis for 5 seconds made me go "wow, Fatalis is so Ryoshu coded" and then I knew what I had to do. Y'know...
All-consuming hatred for living things, fire, the general desire to burn everything to the ground forever, Fire, the way the Fatalis armor subsumes the wearer into a Fatalis because its hatred is just that strong... Yeah, sounds like a good Ryoshu EGO.
I'm obviously very proud of this and I think I did a killer job. I really need to make big awesome things like this more often... And I'm not done, either! I'm making sprites for her Awakening and Corrosion also. The Corrosion design is super sick and I can't wait to finish it.
If your still taking sketch requests, What about something involved Ricardo or the Priest? Both are pretty cool characters
i DIDN'T forget about these. i just take a really long time to do everything. im so excited to kill ricardo in canto 9.... ouuuuh its so close i can't wait.......
because i am secretly kim jihoon's wife (he doesn't know it yet), i get new ryoshu first pull. of course. Of course. yes girl i see how blatant and important you are but i need to you move Please. there's a giant man
Now that we finally have more Heathcliff IDs, I’m glad to see they’re keeping up with the theming they’ve set him up with post canto 6. I remember a short while after KK Heath came out, I thought something like “man, they’re totally gonna typecast cathyless heath as a syndicate bigshot forever” and while I was thankfully wrong about that, they’re still basically doing the same thing in spirit! Yay!
You Adept Heath is really obvious. Of course they’re going to turn the guy who struggles with being seen as a brainless violent brute into the top dog of being a brainless violent brute. It’s WARP Heath I found pretty interesting. I happen to like charge and the WARP identities in general quite a lot, so seeing him get an ID for it had me excited. How were they going to pull this off, seeing as it’s not anything overtly violent (syndicate coded) like Kurokumo and You Adept?
They made him bestial. Of course that was gonna be how they were gonna make it work. It’d be different if we’d gotten somebody else in the CCA gear before him, but nah. It’s for him. Post-Canto 6 Heathcliff IDs fundamentally can’t say anything new about him, because only LCB Heathcliff has the knowledge and the development to showcase change. All of his identities have to center around the one thing he has left, the only thing (even now) he thinks he has going for him: raw strength.
Giving him a funny electric bat isn’t gonna cut it, they need him to mow shit down in a fuckin exosuit, man, cause it’s badass AND thematic. He can fight like a monster, as a treat.
i am THIS CLOSE to roleplaying as honglu on where winds meet. never played an mmo before (scared of people) and only picked it up since it was free. having a lot of fun so far!! you know my dumb ass just had to make my dude honglu because my brain only fires one way. and if healing requires me to interact with people... then....
this is a good excuse to take a better look at honglu so i can get a handle on how he talks so i can play him accurately LMFAO
