I swear I already had this readable, why is it saying I never collected it???
i got it :)
sometimes reddit can be good
I'm personally fascinated by the pervasive imagery of nature (and more specifically the "whale") being picked clean by the planet's inhabitants. I really hope it's about the leviathans and we get a clearer idea of humanity's relationship to them. Bc while these poems are obviously about the history of Planarcadia, I can't help but draw a connection to the wider universe. The whale dies (Dusk Wars?) and from it's body, it's "filthy blood," grows a tree that supports humanity's existence.
Also the comments mention that the four animals are likely metaphors for the 4 factions we have on Planarcadia: the Masked Fools (monkey), the Mourning Actors (frog), IPC (fox), and the Astral Express (rabbit). I mostly agree with this, but also think that the rabbit is a more personal metaphor for Himeko than the Express in general.
The fox in context of the IPC is super interesting tho, specifically bc of this line.
If we take the whale to symbolize the leviathans, this kind of implies that the early IPC had a hand in killing them? Which does fit with the skepticism surrounding the IPC's claim that the leviathans fell when Qilpoth ascended.
I also love this stanza
Ambergris comes from whale intestine and is used for luxury perfumes. Lanthanides are elements from the periodic table used in electronics. Actinides are radioactive elements used in nuclear weapons. Luxury, infrastructure, and weaponry: the IPC's bread and butter all across the cosmos.
I just collected the second chapters of drifting grease and with the context we have now with 4.1-4.2, I'm leaning more towards the frogs symbolizing the Xianzhou rather than the Mourning Actors. Or maybe Evanescia's Elixer Seekers.
yeah this is definitely the Xianzhou.
It's also fun looking back at the first rabbit poem with the context we have now
"Back then, the rabbits were still carnivores" I think referring to the prototype Starblazers of the past that Nameless used as weapons.
"as the blazing rain washed over the whale's bones" referring to the Cindearth age and Aha trapping the husk of Voracity in the depths of Planarcadia.
I'm still curious about "no one knows if in the distant past, the rabbits had eaten the moon in the sky" considering the thing that granted Mokoto's wish wasn't Aha. My own theory rn is that it's Finality shenanigans with the alternate Trailblazer. Or even our own Trailblazer.
