A lot of people are quick to point out how many similarities and parallels Angela has to Ayin within ruina, and how much she emulates the exact actions stemming from her fears and insecurities that he did, and how much she fears she'll turn out like him whilst trying to seperate herself from his image. And this is true, of course, but this also applies to Roland just as much. What makes it fascinating in Roland's case is that he didn't even know the guy.
Angela spends a good chunk of early library of ruina projecting Ayin's image onto Roland due to his appearance in a similar sense that Roland projects Angelica onto Angela just because of her name. In turn, Angela retaliates against Roland violently and verbally throughout the game in what's essentially torturing him for a good majority of the gameplay, almost like some kind of revenge she's acting out against the one who abandoned her. But more importantly than that, she also tries to reconcile with him and get close with him. She's simultaniously trying to get back at the man who wronged her and trying to earn the love from the same man that she desired the same respect from so much. Ayin was the man she hated with all of her heart, but the man she had a deep loving connection for that she wanted to be returned in spite of everything. And this is because Ayin is a man that no longer exists, really, so this whole thing with a man who vaguely resembles him is her best shot.
While Angela emulates her relationship with Ayin onto Roland, Roland decides to take advantage of this more than anything in a similar way Ayin did. He projects not only his wife onto her but also his unborn child and the life he never had with said child onto her in this weird infantilizing way that, frankly, abuses Angela in return. And on top of that, Roland has resentment for Angela and views her as a manifestation of everything that's gone wrong in his life, himself and his inability to be normal included, leading to him to fully rely on the very source of his suffering in this humiliating way. Angela being abused by a guy who's viewing her as both a lover and a relative at the same time, both of which she is not in reality and stemming from the person projecting a fragmented view of someone else(ie Ayin's inability to understand Carmen, Roland romanticizing his relationship with Angelica and living out experiences with a child that wasn't even born yet.) That sure sounds familiar. I wonder if Angela's been through this exact same experience before.
How their relationship evolves past that point is obviously a different story. An important aspect of library of ruina's story is the ways both Angela and Roland differ from Ayin, after all. But the way the repeatedly mentioned cycle is continuously challenged on whether it's going to break or continue relies on the two of them together rather than Angela simply deciding to release everyone. Roland has to make the effort to be different too. I know that seems fairly obvious and spelled out given the nature of the bad endings but it's genuinely really surprising to me just how much Angela is framed by fans as so much significantly worse than Roland in terms of mindset and how much Roland says that people don't seem to realize isn't supposed to be correct.
It's not until Angela and Roland see each other on an eye-to-eye friendship level rather than manifesting this artificial familial or romantic relationship that either of them supposedly need to feel whole again(or at least that's what the state of the city led them to believe) that the cycle actually breaks and the two of them manage to outgrow the city and leave together. Sometimes what you want in another person really is the more simple answer, yet it usually takes way more steps to reach it. Now doesn't that sound familiar?
While I think the way neither Roland nor Angela actually resemble Carmen is very textual and meaningful to not only Angela's character but also Carmen's, I think the way Roland and Angela took so long to articulate their feelings about each other is quite similar to how Ayin's greatest downfall came from being unable to conceptualize who Carmen is and what she believes in without putting her into different fictionalized forms that don't resemble a person who could logically exist and how this mindset resulted in so many things going wrong.
These feelings from both Ayin and Roland and the damage it ends up causing even came from a place of grief and the comfort they feel in their own misery in it's own oddly pathetic and beautiful way. What I'm getting at is that Binah figured this out from the very beginning.
I feel like posting like this is silly because it feels like I'm simply reiterating what the game has already made clear but I also think sometimes it's nice to say things you appreciate.
