#promare meta

[satbiym]

Interested in Greek Mythology, Promare and meta???

of course you are, you funky lil nerd, I love that for you

I'm in Greece rn and I come to your virtual doorstep bearing gifts (hopefully you'll like them more than the last time greeks came bearing gifts)

3.6k of Promare meta written over 10 hours, at your service~

Read it on AO3

This piece was written for the @behindpromare zine, which was just an amazing experience. Thank you to everyone involved for showing me a great time <3

[ax100]

Ax’s Promare headcanons - Pre-World Blaze

Been writing a fic lately that is super heavy on worldbuilding and I was having a hard time with it because a lot of things in the film are left up to interpretation. So I decided that I needed to sit down and have the Biggest Think of my gosh darn life. All for a fic. Of course.

I’ll be posting my Promare headcanons in a series of posts, which will be long and rambly and not very well-written, because they’re just me parsing my thoughts in real time haha. I hope at least one person out there enjoys reading these either way. I’ll also be linking to my fic when it’s available!

(Just to be clear, this is just my interpretation, and I am in no way saying that this is actually what happened. I just really need some sort of foot to stand on for that fic, man skldfn;dslfk)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT (PRE-WORLD BLAZE)

30 years ago, Burnish manifestations were first treated as anomalies, freak medical conditions. Those who spontaneously combusted (due to anger, being upset, etc.) and unwittingly hurt people were arrested, but no one really knew how to convict them, given that they were essentially accidents. But victims and the families of victims wanted justice. As more and more Burnish started manifesting—most of them in violent ways—the government started to focus on containment. They didn’t really know what they were dealing with, some kind of disease?? Medical researchers were trying to figure out why people were just spontaneously combusting, the courts didn’t know how to judge them, the police didn’t know what else to do but arrest them, the politicians were at a loss, and the general public was growing increasingly paranoid.

In response, governments all over the world quickly established segregation policies and isolation protocols, brought about by a concern for more instances of spontaneous combustion and not knowing if the condition was contagious. When the hotlines opened up, they were flooded. People were being reported upon even mere suspicion of being Burnish, and were swiftly escorted by a party of government medical workers and police to be brought to isolation facilities. It served as both to segregate them from the rest of society in the interest of public safety, and for research purposes into the ‘Burnish disease’. Such facilities were tightly guarded and gave the impression of being high security prisons more than anything else.

At this point, the UN appointed Dr. Deus Prometh to lead the global research effort on the Burnish condition. While he did acknowledge that it was important to isolate the Burnish until the scientific community understood more about the condition, he publicly spoke out more than once about the dehumanizing treatment of the Burnish by law enforcement, and warned that the continued mistreatment of them would eventually prove to be detrimental.

It was within these circumstances that factions started to form—those who approved of the government response, and those who opposed it (mostly friends and family whose loved ones had been whisked away by the government to god-knows-where). There was a lot to it. Rather than the ‘Burnish disease’ being treated purely as a medical condition, politics had started coming into play. Were they patients or were they detainees? If the government truly viewed Burnish as victims of circumstance, then why were they being treated as criminals? Spurred by the increasingly political nature of Burnish detainments, the Burnish Independence Movement was born, the precursor to the group that would later be known as Mad Burnish.

People took to the streets—one side wanted to keep Burnish isolated because they were believed to be inherently violent. Another side wanted them isolated to get to the bottom of the disease and possibly find a cure. The Burnish Independence Movement insisted that there was nothing wrong with them, and that they should be allowed to live freely without being discriminated for their condition.

To add to the already growing tensions, a small subset of the Burnish Independence Movement decided that enough was enough, and that they needed to take things into their own hands. It was breaking news when a group attacked an isolation facility and freed the Burnish being kept inside. They called themselves the Mad Burnish, and said that if the government wasn’t going to help them, then they had no choice but to help themselves. In the months that followed this first attack, they routinely continued to hit isolation facilities and research centers, freeing Burnish and increasing their numbers. They called themselves activists; governments called them terrorists. No matter what people considered them as, one thing was certain: their presence fanned the flames of all sides of the conflict, exponentially so.

It all came to a head when the Burnish finally got sick of it all. It started as a joke—“Let’s just set the world on fire”—something that was mumbled in half-joking jest between disgruntled Burnish, until the idea started becoming more and more appealing. When the first Burnish-initiated volcanic eruption happened with one of the volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire—only a little more than a year after the first Burnish started manifesting—it started off a chain reaction that would change the world forever.

The Great World Blaze is the collective name used to refer to a series of Burnish-initiated, extended volcanic eruptions around the world that lasted for weeks. During this time, volcanoes all around the world erupted violently everyday, spewing lava that leveled forests and fields, belching ash that buried entire cities. They were often preceded by strong earthquakes that caused multiple landslides and tsunamis, on top of the damage they wrought to property and infrastructure. Aside from triggering natural calamities, the Burnish resistance also instigated blazes wherever they could. When the last fires had finally been put out, countless lives had lost, leaving what was left of society on the brink of collapse, and an Earth charred beyond the point of recovery.

(I know a lot of this is stuff that viewers already know; I just needed a more precise timeline/sequence of events and a little more flavor for my fic!)

NEXT UP: Historical Context (Post-World Blaze)

[blackblood1872]

When they find him, Galo is wreathed in flame, magenta and teal and isolated. The rubble around him is cool, even before the flames die down to a flicker in his palm.

He calls them Lio’s flames, but she’s never seen a Burnish flame that responds to another’s will like this. Never once it’s separate from the Burnish who created it. Even if Lio was the one to start this fire, Galo is the one to cultivate it, to change its shape and draw it over his skin like a favored coat.

Aina has seen Burnish awakenings that are violent, explosions of power that tore through the space around them, but that is not the only way. Like the different types of fire, some Burnish are infernos. Some are candles, quiet and unassuming.

She’s never thought of Galo as either of those things, but his awakening is. In a way, she thinks, it suits him. He’s so over-the-top in the rest of his personality, and the easy warmth of this fire is the exact sort of balance he needs.

[ax100]

Ax’s Promare headcanons - Post-World Blaze (pt 1)

Hello! I’m back again! and 15 pages deep into my headcanons doc! It’s getting a bit out of hand!

This is the second in a series of posts I’m doing to help me figure out the cultural and historical milieu that Promare is set in, because there is a lot left up to interpretation. Which can be a headache when you have a penchant for wanting to be canon-compliant when writing fic!!! (Related: Click here to read the first post on my Historical Context (Pre-World Blaze) thoughts!)

But again: all of this is just my own personal interpretation, and I am in no way saying that this is the gospel truth. This holds true only insofar as my fic (coming soon!) goes. Fair warning that this is long and rambly and not that well-written LOL this is just me sharing my thoughts.

Enjoy!

HISTORICAL CONTEXT (POST-WORLD BLAZE: THE FIRST 10 YEARS)

Simply put, the world was in shambles after the Great World Blaze. Half the world population had been wiped out. Almost all the arable land on Earth had been torched, no longer usable. Clean water was now rare, as all the water sources were now saturated with ash, which also choked the aquatic wildlife. For a time, it seemed like mankind was on the road to extinction.

The next few years were difficult. There were many who survived the Blaze, only to perish in the aftermath. At this point, everyone in the world had just one goal: survival. There’s nothing quite like the threat of extinction to band everyone in the world together. World peace and all that. Slowly, society rebuilt itself. The concept of the nation-state was lost, and mankind reorganized itself into city-states, scattered throughout the barren landscape.

Whereas majority of the research prior to the Great World Blaze was focused on ‘Why is this happening?’ the research that took place after focused on ‘How do we survive this?’ and ‘How do we prevent this from happening again?’ Researchers worldwide focused on developing the technology needed for indoor farming, fast-growing GMOs for food production, water purification, and air filtration. Prometh himself focused his research on two prongs: still, on understanding the nature of the Burnish condition, while developing technology to help defend against Burnish fire and the threat of another Blaze possibly happening. His technology was never meant to be used as a tool for oppression; rather, he intended it as protective, a means for people to defend themselves and stop fires where they may start. (ofc, we all know what happened to that)

It took somewhere between 5 to 10 years after the Blaze for the world to get back on its feet and for some sense of normalcy to finally return, depending on where you were. After a long struggle—the losses from the Blaze and its aftermath—society was finally starting to flourish once more. Humankind recovered surprisingly fast, all things considered. With city-state populations being smaller than nation-states ever had been, things got done more quickly. Less people, less red tape, and everyone operated with a greater sense of urgency. Not only did society recover (as best as it could, at least), but it was developing even faster than before. The city-states quickly established themselves, and with the life-supporting technologies coming into place, people started to move on from surviving, to thriving once more. Still, in most of these settlements, it became markedly clear: Burnish were not welcome.

Even though the collective world population had focused on trying to make it through those rough years, that didn’t mean that they had forgotten their outrage at what had happened. Hatred for the Burnish was at a high more than ever. It didn’t help that most of the survivors from the Blaze were Burnish, being able to withstand fire and all. They were barred from rejoining society, if not chased out—or worse, killed on account of being Burnish. Many of them eventually died out in the wastelands either from starvation or disease. Mad Burnish, considerably weakened in what was essentially a post-apocalyptic world, did what it could to provide aid, but it was never enough.

Once society got itself back on its feet, now came the next question: What to do with the Burnish? There were very strong opinions. There were multiple instances when scientists and politicians almost came into blows in the meeting rooms; there were some instances they actually did. People on the street cried for justice in all forms. Some called for the complete extermination of the Burnish. Some called for segregation. A very, very small movement called for peace, to let Burnish back into society. Most were fine with just leaving them out to rot in the Wastelands, as they had come to be called; let the elements claim them with no skin off their backs.

Although talks on what to do about civilian Burnish went on for a long time, there was one thing all the city-state representatives agreed upon: that Mad Burnish was a threat, and if the world didn’t want another Blaze to raze the planet to the ground again, they had to be eradicated. Thus, the International Counter-Terrorism Federation was formed. It mandated the establishment of a counter-terrorism unit in each of its member city-states, and made it possible to have a coordinated global front against the threat of terrorism—mostly that which was instigated by Mad Burnish. In the city of Promepolis, this special unit was colloquially known as Freeze Force.

NEXT UP: Historical Context (Post-World Blaze: Years 11-20, Loosening Grudges)

[ax100]

Ax’s Promare headcanons - Post-World Blaze (pt2)

Hello I’m back again with more headcanons! I decided to go for post-World Blaze stuff first instead of my write-ups on the city-states. Fair warning, this part is particularly word vomit-y, because this is the murkiest part of the timeline to me. Mfffhhh sorry;;;;

Anyway! If you are unfamiliar with this, I’m doing a series of posts on my Promare headcanons! They’re long and rambly and not that well-written because this is me just trying to figure my way through the first 5 minutes of the movie lel. This is post #3 and you can find the first two here: Pre-World Blaze Post-World Blaze (the first 10 years)

Enjoy!

HISTORICAL CONTEXT (POST-WORLD BLAZE: YEARS 11-20, LOOSENING GRUDGES)

At this point in time, the world was still shaky in its stability, but it was getting there. The International Counter-Terrorism Federation (ICTF) was there to protect people from Mad Burnish, so citizens were a bit more at ease, but their hatred and paranoia still burned as strongly as ever. The widely-held belief of the Burnish condition was that it either manifested in those who were evil, or it made you evil, like an insidious virus. Once you got it, it was all over. Being Burnish meant being destructive and hurting people. Never mind that you were a good person before it; it would only be a matter of time before you were itching to set things on fire. The world could not and would not risk another Blaze. Those who manifested were handed over to the police, where they would continue to be carted off to research facilities with their limbs bound in Freeze Rings. Those who were proven to have hidden knowledge of Burnish from the authorities were arrested as well, on grounds that they put public safety at risk. The more extreme citizens thought they’d do the world a favor and off any Burnish that manifested before they could get a handle on their powers—there were definitely vigilante justice groups who thought they were doing the right thing. Some of them did it for retribution. Others did it for the misguided sentiment that it would keep the world, as a whole, safe. In the eyes of the eyes of the law, however, it was still considered a crime; not because it went against human rights, but because civilians acting without proper training is still considered a threat to public safety. Leave it up to the professionals, they said, we’ll handle it.

It had been noted even before the Blaze that the condition seemed to manifest in times of great emotional distress—more often than not, when one was feeling anger, frustration, anguish, and other negative emotions. It was a very much incomplete hypothesis based more on loose correlation rather than causation, but the general public ate it up. It was a simple explanation, easily digestible in the midst of all other the other theories floating about. Occam’s razor won out in the end, and a home remedy ‘preventive measure’ that came about was the repression of negative emotions. (something something conceal don’t feel let it go) One can imagine just how well the repression of negative emotions went as a preventive measure for Burnish manifestation. (Hint: bottling up emotions -> larger probability of a meltdown)

Another widely-accepted belief to prevent the manifestation of the condition was that the presence of fire ‘influenced’ people to become Burnish. It was recommended, then, that one should eliminate all fire-related paraphernalia in one’s home. Because of this, the sales for gas stoves plummeted overnight, while induction cookers flew off the shelves and proceeded to become the norm for decades to come. Many other things in people’s daily lives changed because of this belief as well.

With the systems in place to protect the public from the Burnish threat (i.e. anti-terrorism campaigns by the IATF, systematic arrests of Burnish), the continuous research efforts led by Dr. Prometh, and the ‘preventive measures’ that were being practiced by the general public, the world was finally moving on into a new era, one where everyone could forget that Burnish even existed in their daily life. With all of them under lock and key, the world could go back to the way it was.

It would be another 10 years or so before Burnish hate finally started to ease up (this is around 20 years after the Blaze). Though there would always be those who would hold fast to their beliefs, there were a growing number of people who had started to grow weary of being angry, or maybe they had just become complacent. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. No Burnish in my neighborhood, and the IATF has those Mad Burnish hooligans on the run. All is well, nothing to see here.

With the easing of old grudges came a growing movement towards peace. Enough is enough. The Blaze is over, the world is still trying to rebuild itself. The Burnish manifesting now have nothing to do with the Blaze, so they shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of their predecessors—This was the rhetoric that was gaining traction, especially with the younger generation, those born after the Blaze, those who weren’t around to see the world burn. A distinction needs to be made between Burnish and Mad Burnish, they reasoned. The Burnish who started the Blaze were victims more than instigators, pushed to the brink by a society that shunned them, didn’t we learn anything from the last time?

It was controversial, to say the least, and neither side was specific to any particular demographic. There were older ones (the ones who had been there) who supported this move towards peace, tired of living in a world of conflict. There were younger ones who decried the move, calling for accountability (by whom, Mad Burnish? The Burnish as a whole? It was something that side of the fence could never seem to agree upon).

In the midst of all the debates, the growing sentiment of forgiveness over retribution, and politicians being pressured to decide which side of the argument they fell on, it came as a shock to both the scientific community and the world as a whole that Dr. Deus Prometh, leading researcher on the Burnish condition for the past 20 years, was found dead, murdered in his own laboratory.

Yay, you made it! And so did I, because that was hard to write!! The bit about people giving up their gas stoves for IH cookers was my favorite haha. I feel like a lot of things in their daily life would have had to change, either from necessity or whatever was the widely-held belief at that time.

NEXT UP: Post-World Blaze - Years 21-present (from the POV of the movie), the rise of Promepolis and Kray Foresight

(There will be a separate post for the Burnish POV of all this, don’t worry!)

[ax100]

Ax’s Promare Headcanons (masterpost)

Hello! I’ve been posting some Promare headcanon posts lately, and I thought I’d put them all in a single post. This was mainly an exercise I did for a fic of mine, and these might prove relevant later on when I actually post said fic (fics? Oops).

Warning that these are long and rambly, and are prone to change. I’ll be peppering some less formal notes along the way, where applicable. Also, disclaimer: This is just my interpretation! In no way am I saying that these are actually reflective of what happened. I just really need some sort of foot to stand on for my fics, lol.

With that, I hope you enjoy!

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Pre-World Blaze

Post-World Blaze (the first 10 years)

Post-World Blaze (Years 11-20, Loosening Grudges)

Post-World Blaze (Years 21-present, the rise of Promepolis and Kray Foresight)

Burnish Perspective

SETTING NOTES

City-States

Promepolis

CHARACTER NOTES

Promepolis’ Council of Administrators

[ax100]

Ax’s Promare headcanons - Post-World Blaze (pt3)

Hello, I’m back again with more headcanons! I had fun writing this part because I ended up having to consult with an intellectual property lawyer in my family about how patents and royalties work lmao. What’s crazy is that this is not the first time I’ve had to consult a specialist for fic (I previously consulted with a friend of mine who has a degree in political science and another friend who’s a university professor for this same fic that these headcanons are for). The more you know!

If you are not familiar with what is happening, I’ve been writing a series of posts trying to figure out a more specific timeline / sequence of events before canon events in Promare. An expansion of the literal FIRST FIVE MINUTES of the film, if you will (check the timestamps in the movie, I’m not even kidding). This is the fourth post in the series, and you can read the others here!

Pre-World Blaze

Post-World Blaze (Years 1-10)

Post-World Blaze (Years 11-20, Loosening Grudges)

And here’s the masterpost, for easier access: Ax’s Promare Headcanons (masterpost)

This post zooms in on Promepolis and the rise of Kray Foresight into power. I have a few notes here and there on my interpretation of the character peppered throughout to help you guys understand why I wrote this part the way I did.

Do note that this is just my personal interpretation of things and I am in no way saying that this is actually what happened! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

HISTORICAL CONTEXT (POST-WORLD BLAZE: YEARS 21-PRESENT, PROMEPOLIS AND KRAY FORESIGHT)

The news of the renowned Dr. Prometh’s death shook the world. Murder. Gunshot, straight to the heart. No evidence had been left; even the CCTV footage had been wiped. To make it even worse, all the data banks of the lab had been purged too. Whatever the professor had been working on was lost to time; he’d been notoriously secretive about his work during his lifetime, and never shared his research with anyone. The culprit was never caught, but the widely-held belief was that it was Mad Burnish’s doing—who else would want the professor dead? The trail eventually went cold, and the case would remain unsolved for the decade to come.

It wasn’t long after Prometh’s death that a local news story gained traction in Promepolis, one of the numerous city-states that had cropped up after the Great World Blaze. A young man by the name of Kray Foresight had saved a young boy from a house fire, losing an arm in the process. What made the story even better was that Foresight was an undergraduate engineering student, working on anti-Burnish tech. The press ate the sweet irony up, and regurgitated the information till it was all Promepolitans could talk about. That Foresight was such a darling too, such a kind-hearted soul—when interviewed about his stance on the Burnish, he was of the opinion that, while they were dangerous, they were victims of circumstance. His research was on anti-Burnish tech, to protect humans from the threat of Burnish fire, but he wanted to find a cure for the Burnish condition too. And wasn’t that a more sustainable solution for everyone involved? The young ones his age celebrated him—this is the kind of face their movement needed (compassion over retribution)—while the older ones, those who hated the Burnish but were charmed by this promising young man, started to think a little more.

Moved by these sentiments and impressed by his research, private and public entities alike lined up to invest in his tech. Almost overnight, Kray Foresight had become a billionaire. His research grew by leaps and bounds with the new lifeblood of steady funds, more money than a college student knew what to do with. Many companies tried to recruit him into their labs; others tried to buy the research from him. But he was steadfast in his refusal. The patents would not go to a corporation; of that, he had been adamant. Instead, a year later, right after his graduation (which had been publicized), he founded the Foresight Foundation, which became the holding entity for the patents of a slew of anti-Burnish tech that would soon become standard issue in all police forces and Counter-Terrorism Units around the world. The royalties from his inventions ensured a steady and impressive flow of funds, big portions of which were generously donated to the Promepolis City Government to fund their projects, while the Foundation worked on setting up its own network of schools, clinics, and social support programs for the citizens of Promepolis. All throughout this, the press kept reminding the public of what he had done in the past—the young man who had saved a boy from a fire, losing his arm in the process, was actively making the world a better place. He was poised for great things, and all eyes were on him for what he’d do next. They didn’t need to wait long. Only a little less than two years after the Foundation’s founding, Foresight made an unprecedented statement: he was going to run as Governor in the upcoming city elections.

There were concerns on Foresight’s intentions to run as Governor—one, he hadn’t served in public office previously, though he did have experience running a large foundation with a wide reach, which had also worked with the City Government closely in the past; and two, he was so damn young. His platform came heavily tinged with wide-eyed idealism, reflective of the new wave of thinking characteristic of the younger generation—“We in Promepolis protect our own, Burnish and human alike. The world has moved past the need for grudges; we must let go of the past and think of the future. At this point, we must strive, more than ever, to maintain peace,” he’d said in a campaign rally. No Promepolitan left behind was his battle cry; Burnish needed help, not anymore punishment, and he promised the establishment of a Burnish rehabilitation program, the first of the world would ever see. To all the Burnish in Promepolis, he’d promised, don’t worry, we’ll make sure you never hurt anyone ever again. And of Mad Burnish, which had largely lost its influence but still remained a thorn in everyone’s side, he promised that they would see their end during his term as Governor.

It made international news when Kray Foresight won as Governor of Promepolis by a landslide; even other city-states had a stake in it, after all. Promepolis was the first to establish a Burnish rehabilitation program in partnership with the Foresight Foundation, with many of the forward-thinking city-states investing huge amounts of money into the program as well. If proven to be a success, if the Foundation could really find a way to rid the world of the Burnish problem once and for all, they were all too happy to throw their money into the project.

(As viewers, ofc we all know this is a front. If Kray had the Parnassus Project in mind since the start, I don’t believe it would have been in his best interest to drive all the Burnish out of the city. So he pushed for a narrative that yes, the Burnish condition does make you violent and a threat to those around you, but we in Promepolis protect our own. We will help you, we will cure you. Many people voluntarily entered themselves or their family members into the program, even though Foresight said it could take years before they would be able to be released. This was fine, as long as they didn’t hurt anyone again. Many of them died, the lucky ones were busted out by Mad Burnish.)

(Any Burnish caught not submitting themselves to the rehabilitation program would be arrested on grounds of being a threat to public safety, and immediately put into the program. Those found complicit in the act of hiding the Burnish would also be arrested and subjected to appropriate jail time or conscripted community service.)

(The money that was being invested in the rehabilitation program was being used to fund the Parnassus, alongside the crazy big money the Foresight Foundation was making off the patents for anti-Burnish tech. The Financial Director of the Foresight Foundation was also the Administrator of the Department of Commerce, Industry, and Trade at the time—more on this in another post)

Kray Foresight was a firebrand of a politician. Promepolis’ Governors before him had largely been passive, but Foresight was a visionary. Though they had been few, being the darling of Promepolis and all, Foresight had shut the naysayers up quite swiftly. He not only proved to be competent in the role, but extraordinary, open to change and innovation in a way the previous Governors had not. With him and his appointed Council of Administrators, Promepolis began to change, developing in a way it could only hope to achieve previously. People attributed it to his age—maybe injecting youth into the politics of this city had been the right decision after all—and he proved to be popular with his constituents again and again, across all demographics. He would remain in his position for the better part of a decade, winning another term before his fall from grace. At his prime, he was seen as benevolent and compassionate, but capable of making hard decisions all the same.

(By the Second Great World Blaze, Kray would have been Governor of Promepolis for 7-8 years already.)

I personally headcanon Kray as someone who pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. Competent people who are also nice enjoy an almost privileged position in with the general public, and I think he would have capitalized on that. Which means that, in a world where the Burnish are demonized, he would have used it to his advantage by playing the nice guy. Even to the people funding the Parnassus Project, I think he would have kept up that front-- “It is unfortunate, but we have no choice but to do this,” even if inwardly he was just. Really fuckin racist haha. A saint till the end, that Kray Foresight. Or so he would have wanted people to believe. (Support for this: it is apparently so far removed from his public image that he would do bad things to the Burnish that Galo’s immediate reaction to Lio telling him the truth was, “That’s a lie, the Governor would never do that.”)

Anyway, thanks for reading until the end of this post!

(Btw, I have an AO3 account! All these headcanons are going to be put to good use, eventually, in a fic, but I hope you check out what I have so far!)

NEXT UP: ???

[cantfreezeus]

a close look at shapes in promare

one of the first things we see in the opening credits is this. a series of rectangles pushing from the outside onto an equilateral triangle, crushing and bending it out of shape but never making it a rectangle. it’s violent.

and its made pretty clear from the start that the triangle is used to represent the burnish,

it is used by their oppressors on their signs, but worn primarily as a symbol of burnish independence. worn proudly in protest

which brings us to the obvious rectangles.

promepolis. everything is made up of rectangles, any triangle you’ll find is a right angle triangle, fitting perfectly into a square or rectangle without problem.

it’s no question that promepolis is a hostile environment toward the burnish, you’ve seen the movie. but the shapes used reflect this as well as the script.

krays (and by extension, promepolis') whole thing is being Exclusively rectangular-- anything else and you know for certain, immediately, that that person is "other,” in this case, burnish. life in promepolis is so rigidly rectangular for the express purpose of singling those who never will be perfectly rectangular out.

on top of being a figurative anti-burnish symbol, the rectangle is also used in freeze force’s anti-burnish restraints and all ice based technology. it is a physical symbol of the way burnish are treated if found. and because of the way promepolis is built and run, being found is not hard.

the whole city, from how many fire hydrants there are on a block to the perfect 90 degree angles everywhere, is designed to be unsafe for burnish people, and to remind them constantly of how unsafe it is. but I don’t need to tell you that.

however, that’s not where the rectangles and triangles stop, because we can’t go into shapes symbolism in this movie without talking about the lens flares.

the square lens flares are hard to miss, and easy to dismiss as a stylistic choice. but they’re not the only lens flares here.

the square lens flares are most prominent throughout the movie because they represent kray’s influence. he affects the light under which people see each other.

“If I did something wrong, they'd think I'm abusing our connection and misusing his authority.”

take this scene. even outside of the city, alone with aina on that frozen lake, kray is holding power over galo’s actions. and this is reflected in the visuals.

as mentioned before, thats not the only shape the lens flares take. in moments of burnish empowerment, they are triangular, the shape representing the burnish.

and I’m sure some of you have heard this much already, so I won’t drag that on too much longer.

what stands out to me is the introduction of a new motif: the circle

this is first seen in prometh’s lab, and then the deus x machina, and it shows us something quite different from the rest of the movie. a shape that, if we were to mirror the bit from the opening credits with, fits all rectangles and triangles and any other shape inside it without damaging/bending any of them.

and at the end, the lens flares are circles. for the first time, totally normal lens flares. at the end, the burnish are free from the fight for their rights, as there aren’t any promare anymore. non burnish in promepolis and beyond it are separated from krays ideals. kray himself is disgraced.

and theres room for the triangles in the circles, without a need to change.