So many things about Herrah are recontextualized in hindsight as "I'm not gonna fuck you up the way that we got fucked up" or wanting to break the cycle of abuse in a way that's very powerful.
Especially in contrast to many of her sisters end up sort of unconsciously repeating the same pattern of what was done to them. (with Hornet or Eva, or how they treated the commonners)
She's GMS' opposite not just as a mother, but as a ruler - Herrah's subjects call her by name & seem to have loved her, & we're told her absence "cost them dearly". (plus she also gave herself up to protect them or purchase a possible future)
vs. how GMS is this remote ruler who considers her subjects beneath her/her possessions
Herrah ran her group differently enough that when Hornet meets Widow she has a WTF reaction, finding her "twisted in purpose" & to be "misusing" their powers, but to Shakra & co. Widow is exactly what they've come to expect from the weavers.
#also i just think lace's fuckass hips and head look like that bc theyre the shape of gms's abdomen & hair silhouette.
I'm pretty certain those are poofy pants (or meant to evoke them), not her hips. She's supposed to be a 'fencer' / have a shakeaspearian/musketeer era aristocratic look.
Other than that though. yes. She even got the little shoulder pad-looking thingies.
GMS' thing is kinda that she wants her kids to be obedient mini-mes & won't let them have their own identities, & that's expressed as visual metaphors -
Widow, the one who's still under GMS' thumb in her old age, has her face/ "identity" literally ripped off;
One wonders if Herrah experienced the same, but wasn't broken by it, rather reforing her identity on her own terms (doesn't have the standard big round mask, but a veil/ artificial mask - she's also shown wearing the colors of her 'adopted' home in Deepnest, not the traditional white long gowns we see on Pharloom's Weavers - though ultimately she was constrained by circumstance & duty, the dreamer mask/ bluish/black outfit she dies in - having to subordinate her own wishes to the needs of desperate times.)
Phantom is trying to hold onto their broken mask that won't even fit properly anymore, just as they're trying to go out on their own terms/ die with dignity, trying to hold onto their identity in a hopeless situation.
& then there's Lace, the final attempt / cummulation of GMS taking all the wrong lessons from the consequences of her actions, who just straight up looks like GMS shrank in the wash, she's "pure", made of her substance only, but weakened & sickly for it, like an inbred dog that's weak & sick to be exactly what the breeders want.
GMS made her that way but also sees her as less than, a consolation prize, "better than none". (It's common for abusive parents to hate & blame you for things that are the product of their abuse)
On the one hand she's "still young" (at least mentally, frozen in time like everything else in the citadel) & doesn't have a differentiated identity yet, but she's also seen that having your own identity/ being anything less than what Mommy wants gets you horribly punished. Parent's approval feels like life & death for children, & that feeling is made rational & literal for Lace as she needs her mother to sustain her.
She doesn't have her own separate identity yet, her mom's approval is everything. She'll murder for it, she'll suffer for it ("see me cut, see me serve!") she torments Hornet cause she sees her as possibly taking it away from her... & when she realizes she'll never get her mother's love, she just... implodes & pulls what's basically a murder-suicide that threatens to destroy all of Pharloom - very nihilistic at this point: "Pharloom & her bugs will be crushed to dust... rejoice and let it all come down" - she has zero self-worth, completely internalized her mother's view of her as broken & pathetic.
She's in a very End-Of_evangelion like mindset in act 3: "No one needs me so they can all just die"
However, one main difference between GMS and Lace tho is that Lace is drawn with eyes. The standard animated-construct eyes, like the glowy white eyes of the kingsmoulds, but eyes nonetheless.
The difference between them in Lace has minimal self-awareness. She's been failed in every way - no morals, no good copes, no self-esteem... but she can't help but have some self-awareness for reasons best explained by Hegel's Master/Slave dynamic. The Master can impose their view of the world & obliterate/ ignore any opposition, but the Slave has to know what the master thinks & therefore know views other than their own.
Lace knows being "crude and cruel" is kinda a negative thing because she's not just a perpetrator but a victim as well, on the receiving end from GMS. At present it just makes her hate herself, but it's probably why she can be saved/redeemed/rehabilitated, cause she sees that they way things are is not ok.
GMS blames everything on others: The Weaver's weren't "pure" enough, the constructs are "too weak".
She wants to nap Hornet/ is obsessed with her cause she's strong & tough ("...our strength... our nature") but she's tough cause Herrah raised her to be by doing everything opposite to GMS & ensuring Vespa would continue this in her absence.
GMS' problem is quintessentially this:
Those who are strong won't obey her (like Hornet, Herrah and First Sinner), & those who obey her (like Widow) won't be strong.
Lace tried so hard to be what she wanted, loyal obedient soldier, but she just got ignored- in the end, she felt trampled for so long that she's willing to let all of Pharloom be destroyed just to trample GMS right back. (much like the Weavers set up the citadel/ deceived the pilgrms to get back at her, & mistreated their own descendants like Eva & Hornet)
Thankfully though she gets spared in the end & will presumably have the chance to be/know something else
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