Aug 17
if faust hates hohenheimand zilu hates zigongand if zilu faust existtherfore, zigong hohenheim also exists
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if faust hates hohenheimand zilu hates zigongand if zilu faust existtherfore, zigong hohenheim also exists
Woaw pretty
didnt talk about this ID cause I couldnt find the motivation but it looks cool. Anyway kit above yap below the cut. I've had these posts be called analysis by some people and I appreciate it but I think thats very generous when im borderline incoherent sometimes lol
Dawn Office Fixer Sinclair [ID]/K Corp. Class 3 Excision Staff Hong Lu [ID] [Both Uptied]
Hong Lu and Emil Sinclair handholding edits
perhaps i was too generous in my assessment of cinq lu’s trailer
Lobotomy E.G.O::Red Sheet Sinclair [ID]/Fanghunt Office Fixer Hong Lu [ID]
i always thought hong lu was absolutely miserable in his base ego bc from a distance u cant see hes smiling
Hongyuan's hierarchical status
I did take my sweet time but here we are!
Well, well, hello everyone! Today, we are here to speak about Hongyuan as a whole! Indeed, we will speak about how Hongyuan worked, the different structures within the district that constitutes its whole system and how those above the society keeps their status and their position.
I should probably use a definition of Capitalism. Since it is an analysis that observes this exploitative system, I would say that Capitalism is a system where the means of production are privately owned, production is undertaken for a profit, the allocation and distribution of goods is determined by the market, and most people must sell their labor for a wage to earn the money necessary to buy the commodities necessary for survival.
In Hongyuan, I would say that there is 4 distinct hierarchical status:
■ Common folk
■ Daguanyuan (the 4 great pillars, Xue, Jia, Wang and Shi)
■ Family Hierarch
■ Elders
Of course, there are others levels for sure, at least between the average citizens and Daguanyuan (we can imagine the midder class or the petty bourgeoisie for example) but I will study what was shown and implied to us in Canto 8 and Intervallo VI.
But let's start before analyzing all 4 hierarchical status of Hongyuan, we have to start to understand the setting of Project Moon from a doylist view. Well, more about whose themes, Pm doesn't delve too much too.
To start with, we must ALWAYS remember, is that PM always adapts the original source to their setting and in what they want to show and transmit! Because the inequalities of men and women within the setting is not really illustrated that much, especially when we talk about the City where classicism and the hyper capitalist system that is the City is at the forefront of the setting, desensitizing almost everyone to the horrors and the violence of the City.
There is not to say that PM never treat about patriarchy which is inherently inseparable from capitalism as capitalism does uphold patriarchy as it benefits from it. From unpaid domestic works, gender inequality in lot of domains such as work, objectification of women etc..., characters such as Angela, Carmen, Sancho/Don Quixote, Dulcinea and recently Araya and Yoru do exist after all.
But it's clear that PM focuses on capitalism more rather than patriarchy who is another hierarchy that enforces capitalism more just like classicism.
And it's something that we can clearly see in Hongyuan, more than any districts seen from now. More than that, Hongyuan is deeply patriarchal and that's what we're going to see. Let's start with those at the bottom of society, the average citizens of Hongyuan.
■ Common folk
"The world's assembly shifts overnight"
"Yet those who toiled and toiled have naught to fear"
"Is it not joyous, to have a place to rest your feet tonight"
"To those who weren't availed of fortune, this is simply the reality to bear"
"Only choice is to retreat in silence, to accept your fate as one might"
"Await the coming month, ponder how one might save their skin"
"How many shall plummet today, and how many shall remain?"
"Hold on not to all things too tight"
"For you may lose sight of when to let go, and feign ignorance when you must take flight"
Indeed, let's begin with those who comes from below with nothing else but themselves... The Backstreets of Hongyuan is no different than the others where poverty, violence and hopelessness breeds constantly... At the lowest position of the social ladder, their lives are miserables.
"People hurrying through the streets as though they were being chased by something, people scowling and glaring at the ground with some sickness or discomfort... scenes all too common in every corner of the City"- Dante
In addition, the medicine that they take are variations of H Corp's Singularity, the Bolus, variations whch are dangerous.
Effectively, protrusions or nodules bulges from their skins or even worse where sometimes, the aftermath of the multiples visits to clinics can result to change one's behavior and attitude as if emptied out from their body.... Those people are named "regulars". This is simply side-effects of those variations.
But why would he they use those variations and clinics? Because they don't have the money necessary to afford secure medicines and so they only take what they can afford even if it will ruin their health and possibly their life. But when you have nothing, you Have to take what is necessary, right? It is cheaper than life insurance after all.
And talking about the Life Insurance, it's hard to buy it, as it is very costly. It allows someone to be brought to life.
But even then, that special insurance option as its issues as it can change the behavior of someone after one or two uses as said by Hong Lu:
Even that option is not reliable and so each option taken, whether it is those variations of the boluses or the life insurance, are "guaranteed" to have side-effects affecting the patients using it. Therefore, most inhabitants of the Backstreets of H Corp doesn't have access to a safe healthcare, no they are forced to buy qnd use bolus and medicines that can ruin their lives.
Their lives are in the complete mercy of the rich folk.
Thinking about this, what are their solution, to escape their poverty, their environment and miserables lives? To follow a candidate of the Family Hierarch Evaluation to their utmost support. To become allies with the rich.
And that is what we have seen in the Intervallo prior Canto 8, right? Qingtao is the perfect example of this. He followed Shi Yihua's orders not because he cared about Shi Yihua but about what he will obtain under his command, about how he will join the rich folk, escaping the Backstreets for a better life. The moment where everything began to went south for Shi Yihua, the servant immediately escaped but unfortunately, he was caught up by Jia Qiu.
Finally, the residents of Hongyuan has it worse than the others people from different districts because of the Singularity of the former H Corp... The Restructuring Day, causes building to shift on the current H Corp's restructuring standards. The consequences are horrible as those who don't possess enough space are...simply kicked out from their residence. To even LIVE in a residence, you have to be rich enough and we know that most Backstreets' residents don't have the ressources necessary to maintain their homes.
Even outside the nest of H Corp, the elites are still influencing the lower class, constantly bringing and oppressing them down to maintain their wealth and their social status. It is no wnoder that this old Singularity is still maintained by H Corp as it benefits well the bourgeoisie and Daguanyuan. Speaking about that place...
■ Daguanyuan
The Jia lie as easily as they breathe, and the Wang are bereft of even a small room to lie in. Even in years of great harvest, the Xue are blinded in their pursuit of gold, and not even a single engraving welcomes the Shi in ten steps. ~ Lord of Hongyuan Hong Lu
Daguanyuan is the colossal residence at the very top of H Corp where the elites and are concentrated in. It is composed of 4 great Family, the Jia, The Wang, The Xue and The Shi and minor houses. Of course, the director of H Corp, the leader of that said elites, the family hierach, have complete control over Hongyuan as a whole.
First of all, we can see the immediate differences between those elites and the common folk just by how Daguanyuan is positioned at the top of nest while the common folk lived outside of the nest and to the bottom of Hongyuan. That height seems to indicate a sort of superiority over the masses, how they are nothing but mere insects for the elites of Daguanyuan!
In addition, the means of production like in each districts, are held by the nest, so H Corp in this case in Daguanyuan, where the wealth of the district is concentrated in.
Like we said earlier, the old Singularity of an old H Corp is kept as traditions but those traditions contributes to the inequalities between the poor and the rich, stripping down more the few things that the common folk owns. Whereas those living in the nest, especially in Daguanyuan never lost rooms during the reconstructing day, in the contrary, they gain more space, more rooms each time.
Showing times and time again how capitalism contributes heavily to the rich getting richer and the poor being poorer with inequality growing and the common folk exploited for profits and the bourgeoisie...
Moreover, those living in Daguanyuan are the ELITES of the elites, they are at the top of the nest while there are other people living relatively well in the nest, which also feels like Daguanyuan is "mocking" even those living in the Nest as well. What's worse, is that to become the Family Hierarch, you must already be born within the bourgeoisie, the elites. Not only the wealth is concentrated in Daguanyuan but also its power given through inheritance though that inheritance is pretty brutal.
But if people living in the Daguanyuan certainly have it easier than most of the inhabitants of Hongyuan, suffering still breeds inside this immense residence, especially for the children.
Indeed, each children are raised to become candidates to the Family Hierarch Evaluation. Every candidates treat it a live-changing event, extremely important because they carry the hopes of their family, of their house.
To make an interesting parallel with the Dream of the Red Chamber, it is akin to the Imperial Exam which is very important in the novel. It determines which person will succeed to find a great job, an influential position in society and so their worth. Succeeding it means to make his family proud and to honor his ancestors. You will be seen as a filial son.
But if you fail, you will be see as a failure, seen as a worthless son.
It's also interesting to note some differences between the novel and the Canto with how women also participates in the Family Hierarch Evaluation contrary to the novel. It's there that we can see once again how PM's setting focuses more on capitalism or classicism rather than patriarchy.
Effectively, in Dream of the Red Chamber, it was only men that passed this exam, reasons being tied to the past and obviously to the patriarchal society of China, influenced with Confucian values (Confucianism being a system in which patriarchy is strongly upheld).
Women were excluded from it exceot one exception during the 1850s, in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a rebel regime opposed to the Qing. Women were allowed to take exams.
Anyway, to come back to the main subject, we have clear examples as to how those children are used and exploited to the profits of their own relatives. In clear, even inside Daguanyuan, children, sons, daughters are exploited completely.
This was when one of the candidates failed and thus died in the first round of the Hierarch Family Evaluation. That is how their parents treated them.
There are others examples such as Shi Yihua. While being a arrogant moron, he did everything up to betray Jia Qiu, in order to give advantages to the Shi and himself. Though, he doesn't have the even merit of being loyal as soon as his life was in immediate danger he almost revealed the association of the Shi with the Thumb and Lei Heng before being killed...
Another thing, that is, I think important to speak of, is the juxtaposition between the Canto and the novel once again.
Because Daguanyuan, in the novel, is the interior garden in which Jia Baoyu and all the young women that he knew lived during their teenage years. It was initially the site of Jia Yuanchun, the older sister of Jia Baoyu but when she left, it became the home to her brothers, half-sisters and sisters in law.
This garden symbolized a sort of garden of Eden, where things were great, perfect. For Jia Boayu, this home symbolized a time when everything was great, when everyone was together without any major problems. It's not to say that this place was without of violence or not, but it was the good times.
So, inside this place, the different clan existed within through the teenage girls and boys, the Jia, owner of the place, The Shi, The Xue and Wang.
Contrasting this with the Daguanyuan of Limbus Company, it is totally opposite. Daguanyuan in Limbus Company, is where elites lived, similar to the garden in a way with how those 4 great families exist within the place. However, it is filled with violence, blood, exploitation, war and corruption.
If Daguanyuan was, in the novel, the place in which reality and thus the Confucian society didn't exist, in which women were able to do things that were considered as men things such as poems, the Daguanyuan of Hongyuan is brutal, where society still instills its influence. Any sort of hierarchies is upheld and any sort of means is good in order to acclaim more control and more power.
In fact, Hongyuan's, like we have seen, uphold many hierarchies but also traditions such as the filial piety.
It's an important value which enables hierarchy status within the family itself. It plays a huge role in how it can enhance further the constant abuse that one undergoes. People are being forced to obey orders to constantly submit to hierarchical authorities, so one's parents, for example, lose your own autonomy.
There is that notion of self-sacrifice in some extreme cases, but those extreme cases are something regular in Hongyuan where candidates of the Hierach evaluation do everything to succeed even at the cost of their life because they fear the consequences of their failures.
Obviously, the prime example is Jia Mu herself, who is completely lobotomized to fulfill her role as a filial daughter and reveres the Elders. Or each candidates participating in Family Hierarch Evaluation who wants to fulfill their role for the wellbeing of their family. We already seen the consequences of failure with parents treating their own child, who had died, as useless... But once someone succeeds in becoming the Family Hierarch, to be the leader of Hongyuan, they succeeded to become someone of worth!
However, being the Family Hierarch comes with responsibility.
■ Family Hierarch
you need only do as you are told.For that is the Hierarch's destiny.~ Jia Mu
The Family Hierarch. The leader of a wing, wielding the full might of Hongyuan, as the chief executive of H Corp. It is the idealized position, prized by many. Being at the highest status possible, the Family Hierach, you have succeeded to lift the influence and power of your family, exploiting many to keep the wealth of Hongyuan and thus your wealth.
The Family Hierarch Evaluation itself exploits the numerous candidates, each time bringing, wealth with the Family Hierarch acclaiming all of those ressources and if considered not enough or not, their usefulness stops and they are forced to die.
But before becoming the Family Hierarch, the victorious candidate must reach the Tiekan Temple to pay respects to the Xianren. During this period of time, the candidate is still NOT the Family Hierarch and so the true war begins. Between betrayals, emergence of others parties, the Family Hierach Evaluation is only finished in name.
But that's the official story. We know what truly happen in the Tiekan Temple, right?
The future Family Hierarch must receive an Anamnaworm from the previous Hierarch who carried it.
"This Anamnaworm, the Xianhuang Worm, or Anamnaworm of the Immortal Emperor, is a metamorphized form of the founding Hierarch of Daguanyuan, that carries the will and the accumulated knowledge of all the previous Hierarchs" ~ the wiki
That event is an indoctrination as it shakes one's psyche to connect with the reasons of all former Hierarch, essentially brainwashing the future Family Hierarch as they now become obsessed with the pursuit of immortality. Within a certain amount of time, far in the future, they will be able to join the Xianren...
Alright now that we have the context, what does it means for us to know that? Well it is important because the whole processus of events is incestuous but also very much sexual assault (I'll come back later to that).
For now, it is very clear that patriarchy is bleeding through the hierarchical society of Hongyuan. First of all, let's define what is Patriarchy:
A system of culture and governance where power, wealth, and influence is passed down father to son. Roval families and their kings are examples of this. God and Jesus is another example of this svstem manifest. But it also includes the disregard and marainalization towards women, and those who don't fit into the masculine binary set out for us by our forebears.
To add more details, men can also be impacted by this system though they still benefit and uphold this oppressive system but women can definitely uphold this system through the different traditional traits attributed to men and women.
Also, Patriarchy is different from Androarchy which can be translated to "the rule of men" while Patriarchy can be translated to "the rule of father". It is the male lead who has the power and oppresses men and women but women suffer much than men. It is an important distinction because it is exactly the case for the Family Hierarch. I will take for example Jia Mu.
Jia Mu is a clear example of this patriarchy and how through objectification, endorsement of multiple tradition such as mariage, filial piety, rape culture and incest only contributes to this "rule of father" even if the Family Hierarch is a woman.
Jia Mu, originally Shi Miyin, was a candidate of the Family Hierarch Evaluation. Wanting like every candidate to succeed and make her family great again, she struggled but gave everything she had to win the evaluation and at the end... She succeeded!
She finally won. I'm sure that Shi Miyin had her ambitions for Hongyuan whether it was to change Hongyuan or not, she was clearly not enthralled with the pursuit of immortality.
But at the end, she had to cofront the true processus of becoming a Family Hierarch, receiving the Anamnaworm.
As we know, Shi Miyin was as fearful as Xichun was. They both are parallels to each other as Jia Mu would be the future of Xichun if Hong Lu didn't save her while Xichun can be considered as the "past" that Jia Mu discarded by force.
Indeed, I did say that I'll come back on that, on the fact that this processus is incestuous and a sexual assault and I don't back down from that.
The Anamnaworm, the Xianhuang Worm, is after all, the ancestor of Daguanyuan and to accept the Xianhuang Worm is to accept the will of this ancestor, will that was forced on multiples Family Hierach now brainwashed to follow the will of Daguanyuan...
Isn't that constitute an incestuous and sexual assault? I think it is clearly the case here. In addition, it is patriarchal because at the end, both women and men are oppressed by this system which is still ruled by the Elders and the Anamnaworm whose will is wedged into the future Family Hierach.
And so Shi Miyin is no more, as Jia Mu emerged... Her last name shifts becoming Jia, showing once again the domination that men has over women, symbolizing in a way, the loss of Shi Miyin, the girl. Now following the orders of the Xianren, she has to carry the will of her ancestor...
Just look at her distortion:
She literally carries him in Palanquin, the Anamnaworm, showing clearly what we said earlier but more explicitly through visuals. She is on the ground while the Anamnaworm is at the top of her, showing his domination over Jia Mu and how he is defined as the Great Man...
Not only Hongyuan is a deeply patriarchal society but it is, of course, deeply misogynistic at his roots.
Thus, I do think it's important that a woman was chosen to be the Family Hierach as it shows PM's will to work on the themes of patriarchy more and more and how it impacts women in general but also how women can uphold this system as well.
But yeah, as a Family Hierarch, you aren't free at all, matter of fact, you are the tool that keeps continuing the suffering and the continuation of a system and traditions that only breeds more violence, domination, oppression, especially against women. Just like how presidents in our world, are heavily used as a tool to privilege the interests of a certain elite or a certain group of people...
■ Elders
That we refuse to return to the void of nonexistence, leaving behind all of our labors and accomplishments that has brought Hongyuan to its present glory! ~ Elders
Finally, we arrived at the end of this hierarchical society, with the Elders.
The Elders are former Family Hierarch who reached "immortality" and are the true elites behind Hongyuan, controlling it through the Family Hierarch.
They use their influence to dictate the Family Hierarch to prioritize their interest before all, before the interest of Hongyuan and its people whether it is the common folk or not.
They consider themselves as being who transcended the mortal realm, they are the illuminated ones!
"Hoho, be not agitated. That child, Ishmael, is a rebel by nature. Such recalcitrance is best allowed to slide as a puerile resistance of an immature thing."
"Their lives have been shaped by nothing but foolhardy, young, witless, and flawed choices."
They are those who are the most "savant", "wise", experimented and more competent than anyone so why would they listen to an "immature thing"
As such, like the elites of our world, they do not consider people as people and keeps observing and manipulating those people that they see as entertainment, amusement as if people other than them are toys to be played and observed as clowns...
And Hong Lu is the ultimate case of this. Considered as the ultimate piece of entertainment of the Xianren, they "love" him and completely objectified him, forced him into seeing horrible and terrifying events as Hong Lu is a victim of non contact sexual assault as we know from the Kong Family massacre.
But the most blatant thing that they have done to Hong Lu was to strip him of his own autonomy, of his own choices through Jia Mu, forcing him into thinking that every actions he made, every gentle and empathetic acts he chose to do, were useless.
To use him as a "camera" for their hedonistic pleasures, constantly violating and intruding his own privacy and now, even his own body is not his.
His tears, despair and cries are only entertainment and amusement for the Elders, the Xianren who adord the Jade of Hongyuan for offering them divertissement to their boring life...
I can continue on forever with Hong Lu, just by his arranged marriage to Xue Baochai (once again an example of Hong Lu being stripped of his autonomy and agency), but Hong Lu IS the example of an oppressed person by this system and represents very well how women tend to be exploited, objectified, used while being oppressed by men despite being a man himself.
But it is very intentional, especially with his appearance leaning more on the feminine side just like the novel. For those who reads the book, I would say that is corresponding well with the novel.
Anyway, to be sure that they hold the power, they make sure to make the already corrupt force of authority, the Family Hierach in this case, to join them! After all, their immortality symbolizes how elites, the bourgeoisie, wants to keep the power over the people forever, for eternity. Their greed and lust for power are infinite and without limits, keeping the wealth for themselves while crippling the rest again and again.
That's why, like I said numerous time now, that the old Singularity of an old H Corp, the Restructuring Day, serves as a way to keep the common folk oppressed while still giving more power and wealth to those already wealthy...
They represent everything wrong with Hongyuan and definitely serves as a criticism of the upholding of certain hurtful traditions such as filial piety. They also represent of course, the elites of our world with all the incestuous themes, being elites hidden from the world as if they "transcended" the mundane world.
Also, the Xianren makes sure to keep continuing this hierarchical patriarchal, capitalistic and misogynistic society to keep the power within their hands and doesn't hesitate to coerce or to submit others who don't follow their will for their interests (Hong Lu)
They are those that everyone must respect because they are the elderly people.
Indeed, but to see even more clearly for once and for all, how patriarchal Hongyuan is, you just have to look up to the titles given to each position.
Let's consider Hongyuan as a whole as a familial structure with his inhabitants being member of this vast family. Their roles is to simply follow the order of the father, the Family Hierach of Hongyuan. From the name itself, it indicates the role of the family leader, the one who rules over the family, it is the "rule of the father"(Patriarchy).
Everyone must respect his choices and follow his orders as he is the leader of this family, he is the patriarch. But beyond his authority lies a higher authority who is the Elders that even the patriarch must respect and follows the orders from. Again, the name Elders was chosen for a reason. It describes once again a higher familiar figure that control the entire family as they are often considered as the wise ones.
They are retreated from the power but still largely influence the one who holds the current power and therefore still carry a higher position in this familial structure.
PM could have very well used Ancestors as title for the Xianren but the name "Elders" was chosen and it was chosen to illustrate that patriarchal structure, to illustrate the filial piety and how it negatively affects Hongyuan as a whole, deeply-rooted in its roots.
Finally, the position of the Family Hierarch is inherited whether it is from a woman or a man,the structure holding this whole system is still in place, relying strongly on the mind and figure of a "Great Man", the first Hierarch of Daguanyuan...
PS: Due to very clumsy and tactless words, I will explain myself considering this passage of this analysis. When I said this about Hong Lu, I more or like conflated his writing with the one from the novel who reflects the struggle of both gender in the Confucian society. Of course, Hong Lu does also represent and is a man oppressed by women as well, well with all the system surrounding Hong Lu, Jia Miu etc... I think I should have added more details as that duality is important but not as much highlighted compared to the novel as PM focused more of his worldview ending and subverted to their setting and themes.
Anyway, though the themes arrounding marriage was not as much developed on Limbus Company, I think it is still very much interesting on how PM decided to show us that Hong Lu was in a arranged marriage with Xue Baochai organized by Jia Mu and so the Elders who have saw Hong Lu more as an object of their desires and for those who have read the novel knows how much themes of marriage is important to the themes of the novel who criticizes this institution. But yeah, I wanted to clarify this passage as it can lead to confusion and express meaning that I never wanted to express as SA is not feminine and of course, Hong Lu absolutely represents both how a man and female can be sexually assaulted by either men or women. That duality is very much important to the character and I forgot to mention it, so please excuse me.