Thinking about the Town's (lack of) education.
Such a big population but no schools. The Kains and the Olgimskys work together to keep the populace ignorant and stupid. But there are people who try to teach the children (like Artemy and some townsfolk). It's not just a massive oversight that there's no school or hospital, they never really cared about the people. If they did, The Kains would've spent money on them instead of their Theatre, Stillwater, Fancy mansions and definitely the Polyhedron. The Stone Yard Quarter represents everything wrong with the Kains and their "Utopia".
It made me think about the Doghead girl you help. She's clearly intelligent and willing to learn, but has no resources, she'll end up exploited like the rest of the townsfolk. Catchfly's shmowders are dangerous, but they did work. And she's clearly good at her work. She has the makings of a great Chemist, or Pharmacist, but she'll probably never get anyway. She doesn't seem to have any parents either, just Crowfoot who doesn't believe her.
Also about Emilia, she doesn't have any formal experience seemingly, and if the letter from the Academy is any proof, she didn't obtain her specimens by herself. But she's clearly talented in science, and her plants are thriving, she knows how to take care of them, she has the knowledge of Botany. But it doesn't end up going anywhere. When she does try to obtain her own samples, she catches a disease, that luckily prevents her immediate death of the plague, but won't stop it. In the end her death isn't the one she saw at the Atrium road, dying old and forgotten, her work devalued. She dies on a hospital bed, only 25 and with any attempts to enter the Academic world failed. Her only hope is that Daniil will publish her work.
The Utopians never really cared about the betterment of humanity, it was always about their own selfish gains. They claim to be oppressed by the Powers That Be, but they're just as bad as them. They never stop the Olgimskys, never try to make the Town better for the people, stop the awful working conditions of the Bull Enterprise, stop the exploitation of the Kin. Not only are they profiteering off of them, they steal their Culture, their ideas, their Philosophy. Colonialism in its more insidious form.
Andrey goes on about how they are oppressed intellectuals, but he's a privileged man, perhaps reviled for his unorthodox methodology but mostly for the fact he's an actual criminal and a terrible person. He builds a Pub, something which does help people, does bring the community together. But he delves into uses Twyre for his own gain, causing strife and economic problems for the Steppe, when it has much more useful uses, and when he could easily import Alcohol from elsewhere. But his pursuit of the "exotic" and unorthodox just ends up screwing over everyone. The Worms have good reason to want him dead. Eva isn't great either, appropriating Khatange culture, and spending all her time on a self-destructive lifestyle.
All the monuments they build are pretty and all, but they don't help anyone. The Polyhedron is probably the best example of this. It defies gravity and materialises the imagination of the Children, which just ends up isolating them from the rest of the Town. It also ends up causing the Sand Plague, damaging the Earth in the most direct way (piercing her heart). It's cool I suppose, but it's not any better than anything else the Kains could have built, and it doesn't justify the cost to make it. Not to mention using the children inside as a human shield/to discourage the army from shelling it.
That's why it feels so Cathartic in the Nocturnal Ending when the Non-Termites leave, unlike in the First Game. The Polyhedron isn't the source of the world's wonders, just a manifestation of it, stealing part of its power, and ultimately killing it if the Diurnal Ending is chosen. The Source has always been the Earth herself, so of course the Utopians can't comprehend it, it was never for them, it was never made by them. And even when "Utopia" is achieved, they turn away from it. It was never about Utopia, it was about trying to be important, about exerting power, and when they can't do it, they run away. As the player says in classic: Their "Philosophy" is all a pie in the sky.
The Mistresses are Mistresses because they come from powerful families, they do not hold status because of their powers. That's why in the Nocturnal Ending, the mistresses are not Maria, Capella, Katerina or even Clara. It's Murky, Taya and Grace. They don't come from rich and influential families, (Taya is the daughter of the Overseer but he's just a pawn in Big Vlad's schemes), their abilities sprung about without that. Taya speaks to Boddho, Grace speaks to the dead, Murky can speak to the herbs (is she a Menkhu?), even the Herb Brides, not possessing as much power as mistress can hear the Earth, speak to it, dance for it. But they are denied power. The Mistresses are just another way the leaders can keep their grip on the town, Victoria Olgimskaya was not the kind woman people say she was. She was uncharitable, cruel, did nothing to stop her husband and very likely abused her son. Capella idolises her but knows hardly anything of her. Ironically it's Vlad Jr who is more like her than Capella.
In the end, the Utopians have always been self-serving hypocrites who care only for their bunk idealism. It harkens back to another popular ideology at the time, unfounded by science, easy to pick apart by any with basic logic and falsely altruistic, based on bigotry, dehumanisation and cruelty. In other words, Eugenics, the Kains think only the "best" deserve to exist and will happily allow anyone else to die, just like in the Utopian Ending where they shell the town (I don't believe they evacuated it before the shelling, at least not entirely) building another town on stolen land once again, killing those they don't deem fit to live there (or live at all). The Cycle begins, and doesn't benefit anyone but themselves.
It's telling that the people who help the most aren't them. People like the children trying to protect each other, the Players healing the Plague, the Humbles helping others (Lara's shelter, Anna saving babies, the Governor's attempts to help the town, Rubin's research, etc.) or even regular townsfolk like Filat, Astrild or Yakov. Even the characters who help the town on a broader less personal scale (like Heron, Aglaya, and Daniil's decrees) are still doing way more than the Utopians, who do nothing but argue amongst themselves about a single man. The Humbles may be guilty of more intimate small scale crimes (like Oyun killing Isidor, Anna kidnapping children, Lara's attempt at assassinating Blok), but the Utopians and Olgimskys do much more harm on a wider scale (all of the Factory workers, the orphans), but they're just statistics, numbers not people, that's why people don't condemn them like they do the others. Even Eva, the person who has least burden of all of them is helpful, letting people stay at her house for free, protecting children, providing them with supplies, listening to their problems. The Rest are a perfect example of a semi-bourgeoise class more concern with perfection, hedonism, luxury and looking good, and being the best of society than actually trying to improve it.
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
origamiaround
areudirty
janainaart
prguitarman
