Everytime someone says the new sword Aeng-du (through Ishmael) mentions being given is probably Laevateinn i freak out a little harder
Laevateinn is the mythological weapon of Loki!! Famous trickster god! Aeng-du is so honourable that, when given a sword by a friend, she chose to let her arms be torn off at the shoulders before letting go of it!!!
she's the least trickster mother fucker what ever seen! Matthias wielded Laevateinn because he's infamously duplicitous and hides behind the Middle's face of loyalty to actually serve his own desires at the pain of death to his own family!!! He resembkled Loki in that regard!
it's not just character A gets a cool sword character B gets a cool sword! these things mean things!! these things mean things!!!!!
Hm... the teaser for the new Hong Lu Identity has really reminded me of how many Identities from known factions we've had for a while; in fact, I'm pretty sure the last time we had an Identity whose faction wasn't known for certain the moment their teaser dropped were the original Heishou Identities in Season 5. And yeah, sure, we're already quite confident that Hong Lu's gonna be an S Corp Taboo Hunter, but there's still that little bit of uncertainty (and also mystery surrounding what is faction is gonna be called) that it really brings back an aspect of Limbus Company speculation that I hadn't realized that I really miss.
Thinking about making a BariDante masterpost ... I feel like a lot of my textposts and evidence is a little slipshod at the moment. Would be a nice thing to pin and organize all pretty like...
what do you think donqui was doing when hong lu flooded the whole temple in canto 8 lol. i mean i was thinking she mightve been dead but it'd be funny to see how she'd react if she was actually present at that moment
I've seen and really enjoyed the "she climbs the other sinners like a cat tree and clings to them for life" approach to this problem but here's an alternative.
I think it would be fun of her IDs have varying levels of obliviousness. Cinq South Section 5 Director feels like it would be especially helpful for this kind of situation, yeah? (I slipped that headcanon into this story very briefly.)
(I sheepishly arrive to answer this like 6 months after it was asked, don't mind me...)
one of my main hopes for canto 10 is that dante and meursault have a more contentious relationship with the main conflict surrounding how dante treats meursault. i want there to be a fundamental misunderstanding of who meursault is from dante's point of view, where they keep holding him to these expectations of what he should do/feel without taking into account how he operates as a person. with canto 10 bound to go into n corp's scrutiny of what it means to be human, i can't help but want for dante to fumble a little trying to support meursault the same way they supported the other sinners and unconsciously hold him to the same standards of how to be "human" that n corp does.
(Kinda long. I don't have a massive thesis or anything this time I just think Identities are neat and wanted to talk about them)
(Spoilers up to Canto 9!)
I poke around in Limbus Company fanfic spaces, and something I've always been pretty struck by is how everyone seems to have a unique and personal interpretation of how Identities, like, work.
Not in terms of extracting or speaking to them-- that's something canon is actually pretty clear on-- but the exact mechanics of what it means to 'apply' an Identity to a working Sinner.
It clearly isn't like Library of Ruina's key pages. In Ruina, you could apply a departed guest's appearance and base abilities onto a librarian; but this did nothing to change the librarian's personality or sense of self.
In Limbus Company, applied Identities can dramatically change how a SInner perceives reality.
(Voicelines in battle are officially translated, but displayed through an unofficial mod.)
For example, WARP Clean Up Agent Heathcliff seems to believe he's at work.
He does not seem to have much conception of the fact that he is actually currently fighting a high ranking Thumb Capo.
Identities also near-universally meet death with fear and a sense of finality.
Definitely a far-cry from the LCB Sinner combat voicelines, where they react to their own deaths and the deaths of their friends with blithe comments and condolences to Dante for having to bear the pain of bringing them back.
So, at the very least, Identities have no idea that Dante can revive them.
It presents the question of why half of these Identities even listen to Dante in the first place! If, like in the case of WARP Heathcliff, they think they're in their usual environments, perhaps they automatically perceive Dante as a superior?
That's an assumption, and has some counter-evidence. For one, the new Ryōshū Identity plans to kill them!
Some Identities famously have bonus voicelines in battle where they react to opponents related to their stories. For example, Captain Ishmael tells Ahab that it isn't 'all her fault; it's all thanks to her!' and Wild Hunt Heathcliff feverishly calls out to Catherine if you deploy him at the end of the Heartbreaking.
...So, okay, they ARE aware of their surroundings, at least when it's important.
But how in control are the regular Sinners beneath their Identities? Apparently, quite a bit! The Lucio and Valencina fight is an excellent example of this.
Gregor and Heathcliff attempt to pacify Lucio.
GREGOR: Why don't you... yield? You're too injured to fight.
(...)
HEATHCLIFF: Bloody hell, she sure is a gasbag. Tell 'er to shut up, won't you?
We can see in the split-second that Lucio rushes Gregor that he's still wearing his Identity,
and it only cracks off when he sustains the physical trauma of Lucio's attack.
(Side note. Is this the first time this has happened in canon? I thought I remembered it happening to Sinclair in Canto 3 but his Identity just disappears between scenes.)
(This is a concept I really like that I saw in fan-works as pretty accepted fact of how Identities work even before Canto 9; that they can be broken off a Sinner with a strong enough blow. Obviously Identities break when a Sinner dies, but is this the first time we've seen it happen with a Sinner who lived???)
So like. What the fuck !
Gregor is wearing his Identity but also has enough presence of mind to have a conversation with Lucio but also his Allen-ass in-battle voicelines are still all "Trying to outrun the Purge... couldn't cheat death... in the end..." when he dies.
Which way, bug guy!? Which way!?
Also! Every single Sinner (except Gregor) chooses of their own volition to use their base E.G.O in Canto 9! While they have Identities on!
Heathcliff and Meursault do this too in Canto 6!!!
So the Sinner underneath can choose when to use E.G.O's, and understands that they have them at all. But Devyat Rodion still thinks she's delivering someone's DoorDash on pain of death!!!???
To be clear this literally does not matter. This isn't a criticism of the game's writing-- these concepts are hard to reconcile. To have this cleanly 'make sense' we would either have to renege on the cool battle lines and horrified death screams, or have the Sinners literally never have canonical lines during battle.
Either option would be lame. I really don't mind Project Moon slipping on the immersion here.
Devyat Rodion is one of my favourite Identities because she's so afraid of dying. I really enjoy her voicelines, and she wouldn't be nearly as interesting if she acted like normal Rodya.
I'm also certainly not asking for every Identity ever to have custom battle lines for every single fight you could bring them into. "Bloody hell, mate!" WARP Heathcliff says, "Ain't that bloke Lei Heng, Quarto Capo of the Thumb and also bearer of the Tiantui Star among the Pinky? Ee-yikes! I'd better catch a WARP train outta here, stat!"
Like no that's fine
It all just presents, for me, an interesting dilemma as a fanfic writer when considering how Sinners should act with Identities equipped.
I tend to fully lean into the option that they become the Identity, and only have as much context on what's going on as Dante chooses to give them. But there's options! And I really like, actually, how the vagueness of the mechanics of it all has given everyone a unique opportunity to explore this in their own way.
I don't think I've seen any two writers tackle the Identity dilemma the same way. And that's awesome. No matter what, it certainly gets the gears turning. Identities are an intensely interesting concept, and I'm very glad we have them.
it truly does continue to amaze me how lately yi sang ids are depraved freaktastic guys with torture dungeons and/or are strong as all fuck then our yi sang would do some shit like try to ride a bike and then make That face when he inevitably eats shit and is the reason Fingers Ryoshu and A Smoke War General were getting pummeled by nameless backstreet thugs
