Silver Eyes Burning Bright

[quantumphoenixblue]

"average guardian kills 2 gods per lifetime" factoid actualy just statistical error. average guardian kills 0 gods per lifetime. Young Wolf Georg, who was resurrected 11 years ago and has killed 8 gods and counting since, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[tidestrike]

primed melting point.

[galmaster47]

Help a struggling trans girl out!

Uh, hi. Local annoying girl here, a lot of bills have come due in this past month and stretched my finances a lot thinner than I'm able to really handle. And, thanks to a bunch of recent doctor's appointments thanks to an ongoing saga of "thanks to my cat, there is currently a piece of glass stuck in my foot in a way that makes it hard to extract and we're still trying to get it out", uh. I'm pretty sure a lot more are going to crop up and require addressing.

That, and since the prices of my meds have skyrocketed this year thanks to my work's insurance changing the policy to one with an absolutely absurd deductible (and I think becoming less trans friendly), I'm stretched way thinner than I ever was last year, and won't be able to afford all of my upcoming bills and do other things like feed myself and take care of my cat through the month of April.

If I could raise $1000, I'd probably be able to weather all of this stuff coming through at once and have enough breathing room to deal with a few other ongoing problems in my life like my computer starting to overheat itself to death.

Link to my venmo below

$20/$1000

Venmo is a digital wallet that lets you make and share payments with friends. You can easily split the bill, cab fare, or much more. Downloa

[galmaster47]

...

When it rains, it pours. The building management where I live want to up my rent by $150 come June 1st and I. I don't have any way to cover that kind of increase. Not now. Not any time soon. I barely manage to get by month to month as it is, amd there's just... nothing left to cut back on anymore to cover it.

I... if I could raise enough money to move out to somewhere cheaper, I could get myself into a better position, but... I really need the help even more now. Please.

$70/$1000

[galmaster47]

yeah so im flooded with medical bills and still kinda need a lot of money to cover them all... so gonna keep this going :(

Venmo is a digital wallet that lets you make and share payments with friends. You can easily split the bill, cab fare, or much more. Downloa

$120/$1000

[galmaster47]

Got fired. Still have medical bills. Everything is way more of a fucking problem right now. I... really need this help way more now.

$290/$1500

[reasonablyneurotic]

Tod und Leben

[crowkerus]

kira finally has someone to watch shows with!

[deepseasmetro]

help a vulnerable young woman avoid survival sex work!

a friend of mine on bluesky is helping raise funds for her friend Eve, who is currently at significant risk of ending up on the streets due to excessive medical bills from emergencies and health issues.

shes only 18, has no supportive family, and is having to decide between going homeless or returning to dangerous (for her) survival sex work.

her gofundme is half funded right now!

please consider a donation - even one as small as $5 will help! - or, at the very least, a signal boost!

$729/$1300 (6/9/26)

(you can also boost on bluesky here)

[kasarasun]

butterfly mourning its world

[levienjoyer]

some things i drew for hong lu’s birthday and 6/7 ^^ super happy with how they turned out! hong lu my sweetest girl ☺️

[antennas-to-heaven]

glassy sea / blooming warmth

[winonaparadise]

having VR sex and she's hitting my amazing digital cervix

[framentastic]

[Blood warning a bit]

A broken doll face of a first kindred.

[esthers-folly]

still a huge fan of bad end Ryoshu

[abadsmile]

Hong Lu's EGO Analysis N⁰8, Part 1 : Tears of the Tarnished Blood, Yinglong

Hello, everyone and today, we are here for the final (for now) analysis for Hong Lu's EGO!

I won't do a separate post for "To remain oneself" as it is mainly a collab EGO and that have no idea on what it represents for Hong Lu when I don't know much about Lin. From the title though, I can say it's about how one has to find the true self within oneself, how one's true nature must not be lost but affirmed...

Anyways, this is going to be a very long analysis concerning this EGO because there are lot of things to say and I'm not joking. I will possibly make another part if I consider it too long.

Anyway, this EGO has numerous themes like punishment, disgust over one's body, heaven, and much more.

But first, we will have to talk about the abnormality whose that EGO is extracted from!

■ Yinglong

Indeed, Tears of the Tarnished Blood is extracted from Yinglong, an big and enormous white-red dragon.

To have a more a concise and precise description, here's the one from the wiki:

"Yinglong possesses a quadrupedal white-scaled dragon-like form, with a coiling neck longer than its torso, long whiskers, a beard and a tail that appears to have been severed some distance from its tip. It has a pair of small antler-like horns with similar protrusions on its neck , as well as what appear to be gills. "

"Many of its scales appear to be peeling from its skin, while numerous open wounds are present on its body, similar to the fleshy parts of the Abnormality's nonfunctional wings, and the recessed area around its white eyes."

"Its torso appears to be impaled by multiple red double-headed pins. It's hind legs appear to be four-toed, though its front legs are three-toed."

So, from that description, we can observe multiples things, things who will be important to remember. First and foremost to note is its appearance. Often, Chinese dragons are associate with the divine, as a sort of benevolent protector or deity and Yinglong's appearance gives that impression of divinity.

The wings but primarily the color white, establish that sensation of a divine being. As we know, the color white is often associated, whether it be in western mythology or eastern mythology, with purity, innocence. We can also linked yhe color white to that idea of upper class and nobility (classicism) from the Chinese culture as well. But this color mainly represents mourning, death, in contrary to western culture though it doesn't matter much for us now.

Anyway, as we said, the color white is very present in its appearance as it is the color of its skin and eyes. But there is also another color and it's the color red, well more exactly blood. As seen and explained by the description of the wiki, its scales are being peeled from his skin and there are numerous wounds on his body.

Ans it's intentional! Rather than looking like a divine, mythical dragon, he appears more beast like. The blood makes it, tainted, tarnished as if it was stripped of its purity and nobility. The dragon is no more divine but simply an animal.

That vision is reinforced by the multiples red double-headed pins, piercing its torso, reinforcing that idea of it being stripped off of his nobility and divinity, as if it was persecuted, punished for some actions or act that it committed. Even the tail seems to be severed from its tips.

But that is the Yinglong who have undergone, Heaven's degree, Yinglong's state in the phase 3 of section 2 of RR6!

His original appearance is more divine, with it not being tainted in blood nor being pierced by those red double-headed pins:

As we can see, it is originally mostly white with its scales being white, in contrary to his state in phase 3 where it seems that it is in great pain...

So from what we can gather from the abnormality's description, are sensations of divinity with color of white, showing the nobility and a sense arrogance from looking down from above. But in its other phase, its appearance appears more monstrous than divine with his purity and so divinity being tainted by blood, with his skin peeling and wounds revealing everywhere on his skin.

There is also that idea being punished, to undergo punishment and suffering with the double red double-headed pins piercing its torso.

So those two ideas, "punishment" and the idea of being "tarnished", "tainted" are mainly expressed through that abnormality but let's see in more details our confrontation against the dragon. It should give us more details about it and its story.

■ Yinglong's fight

Rather than the fight itself, what interests me more are his sins as they reflect the meaning behind his behavior but also his feelings as well!

So let's begin with the least important one, the one who appears one time, Pride

So, Yinglong having pride as a sin is interesting because as we know, the sin of pride is described in-game as:

"Wheels. Symbol of technology and the vector of humanity's ultimate pursuit. The wheel, in its boundless pride, rolls on and on in search of the perfect circle, something unconquered even by nature."

"Yet... it remains uncaring for the flesh it rends nor the grass it tramples in its path."

"One might even say that pride is but another name for overconfidence. ltoft claims trailblazers or those who have never tasted failure."

Pride can also be considered as the ignorance of the consequences of one's actions or the act of burdening everything by itself but for Yinglong, it seems more akin to overconfidence but not in himself but in Heaven, in Heaven's degree.

At first, a form of arrogance is observed by most sinners. As the abnormality is looking down on them from above As if it was loathing them. According to Hong Lu, it seemed to be the case.

"Thinking back, maybe the Dragon thought we were bad people because we kept refusing to accept its divine punishment."

"In every story I know, the dragons on high always seem to loathe the wicked."

As remarked once again by Hong Lu, in the observation log,

"Every so often, the Dragon would let out a great roar and lift its head high toward the sky."

"And when that happens, red stakes would come falling down from the sky, almost as if heavenly retribution were raining down on us..."

And Dante later in the observation log when Hong Lu asked about the wedge,

"When we'd been outside before we were swallowed, the Dragon didn't have any huge stakes driven into its body."

"So I asked Dante, who'd remained outside the whole time without getting swallowed along with us."

"Dante said it was an enormous wedge that came down from the layer of the heavens even higher than the one the Dragon had been floating in."

Those wedges called "Flower-burying pin" seemed to be attacks used by Yinglong

Considering that this attack appears only when the "The Descending Pin" is not countered successfully, it's fair to assume that all of his arrogance and pride can be understood through the success of the heavens' will and decree, showing in one way, it's superiority and authority.

But because this attack appears only once, and is the only attack who has pride has a sin, I consider it as mostly superficial to understanding Yinglong. Those attacks are still from it, so that arrogance is also its.

His arrogance, overconfidence is the first thing that can be seen or observed at first glance from seeing the dragon. But it does not allow us to understand him well enough. So let's go the next sin and attacks.

▪︎ wrath

Here is the images its skills which had wrath has a skill (click on the phrase like for pride)

"Peccatula Irae'—red Peccatulum of Wrath."

"The nature of fire is to burn and burn until there is nothing left to be burned."

Well, not a lot is said about what is wrath except this in-game, but wrath can also be seen as a act of self-righteousness. It is the act of bringing justice by himself for himself for things that we deem as unjust for us.

But there is also an interesting meaning of wrath, as how the wrath of God is seen as rightful compared to humans' wrath, as not sinful.

So, we have to distinct of all of those different meanings for each attacks. To be more exact, there is one meaning for two attack and another meaning for the,last two wrathful attacks.

Let's start with attacks concerning the "inverted scales". First and foremost we must describe what is the inverted scales and how important it is for a dragon.

Well, its origins is tied to a Chinese philosopher, Han Feizi, which talks about the difficulty of convincing or advising leaders. It describes dragons as friendly creatures that are easy to approach when they are relaxed. "would even let people ride on their backs." At the dragon's throat, there is a scale that points downward. Anyone who touches this scale will face immediate anger and a quick death, with no exceptions.

Originally, it worked as a metaphor, to imagine one's boss as a dragon.

But nowadays, in several medias including dragons that metaphor became literal! So touching causes inevitably the wrath of the dragon, the wrath of Yinglong.

I would say that this is corresponding to the first definition, the in-game one, where one is wrathful when they are literally burning with rage, outraged, burning everything to ashes. It is also the second one that we gave, as the sin of wrath can be seen as the expression of self-righteousness, the belief that one has been wronged and refused to stay back, bringing justice by oneself.

So, from that point of view, that is the personal wrath of Yinglong. It was touched on a part considered as sensible and fight back directly, hence the counter in the first place. As said by Ishmael in the observation log,

"Well... There was this scale on its neck, pointing upside down. Figured it might be a weak point, so I took a swing at it." (Ishmael)

"And when I did, every stake that'd been floating up in the sky just started coming down at us like a loose cannon..." (Ishmael)

It is clearly the case here. In the contrary, the other wrathful attacks, "Gathering rain" or "The Descending Pin", aren't the personal wrath of Yinglong. When attackong with those skills it is using the Flower-burying pin are things but those things can also be used by Heaven itself. To be more exact, the Flower-burying wedges are used by Heaven and the pins' by Yinglong.

So, those things clearly comes from Heaven, with Yinglong able to use it.

Thus, I suggest that the reason as to why those attacks are considered wrathful, comes from Heaven's wrath itself and the wrath expressed in those skills are more impersonal and not really tied to Yinglong itself, as he is used as the instrument to bring divine punishment to those below.

In the observation log, this idea of bringing divine punishment is brought by Hong Lu, thinking at first that it is the dragon that wants to bring that divine punishment,

"Thinking back, maybe the Dragon thought we were bad people because we kept refusing to accept its divine punishment."

"In every story I know, the dragons on high always seem to loathe the wicked."

But we have already seen how Yinglong is not absolve from Heaven's wrath or more exactly its decree.

"Dante said it was an enormous wedge that came down from the layer of the heavens even higher than the one the Dragon had been floating in."

[...]

"Perhaps the Dragon isn't even allowed to die even if it wanted to."

"At least not before Heaven's decree is canceled... not before the wedge is removed"

Therefore, Yinglong like said previously, works as the instrument of that wrath, inflicting divine punishment, representing heavens' wrath.

And so it does correspond to the idea of the wrath of god, a wrath who is seemingly more rightful and just than humans' wrath. The punishment is a divine nor a mortal one, hence just.

▪︎ Gloom

(Gloom attack skill)

But from suffering the heaven's decree and so its punishment, the abnormality isn't allowed to die as said earlier by Hong Lu in the observation log of the abnormality. It is forced to enforce the rules and order of heaven until its decree is done and finished or canceled.

So, the relationship between heaven and Yinglong is interesting as it occurs that the heavens holds the power in the dynamic, being able to order, submit and forced Yinglong to do thing, it inherently does not want to do.

He is punished, pierced by red double-headed pins to continue.

So it makes sense for the abnormality to feel gloomy, right? As explained in-game, to be gloomy is to be unable to rise up to the surface, unable to rise against the currents of the sea,

"Have you ever immersed yourselves in deep waters? Quite easy to sink to the depths, no?"

"However… the deeper one sinks, the harder does it become to rise again. The pressure suffocates you from all directions—no matter how much you thrash around, desperately looking for something to grab onto, all you find is futility. Such is gloom."

And I do think it is a great definition that fits Yinglong's situation. What is most important though, is how he accepts the Heaven's decree even if it hurts it, that punishment is received.

Hong Lu once again, gives us more context as he said that "when the Dragon directs its gaze up toward the heavens, it may seem angry at first glance, but look a little closer and you can tell its eyes are actually really, really sad."

Showing how Yinglong does not resent the one who punishes it. Interestingly, once it is able to fly away when all the stakes are smashed, it does not continue to fight or imposing its wrath, showing that it does not feel wrath against the sinners, those below.

"Mhm! Soon as we smashed all the stakes, it went away just like that~ Didn't even look back. No regrets, nothing clingy, just went fwoosh~" (Hong Lu)

Though it is hard to understand why heaven attacks Yinglong. It is because he is failing to realize Heaven's decree? Because Hongyu, the crimson jade inside him has been broken? Nevertheless, what remains important is that Yinglong is punished and so forced to go through Heaven's decree, not allowed to die... Though one sin remains and one question remains. Gluttony and why does it follows so closely Heaven's decree even at the cost of itself?

▪︎ Gluttony

(Gluttony attack skills)

To understand that question, we must understand what is gluttony. I'll use what I already said in one of my previous analysis on this subject.

In Limbus Company, gluttony is seen as such:

"Roots of plants dig through the dirt in search of nutrients. What distinguishes them is, however, that they are not satisfied with satiation alone; the roots continue to grow, seeking increasingly greater supply of nutrients."

But we have to be more precise, as people might conflate with greed. In reality, gluttony is the sheer inability to let go once possessed by an overpowering desire for something, even when that something loses its objective value, as in perishable food.

It might looks like greed but greed is more akin to an intense selfish desire for more power, material gain and for an higher social stauts. It is looking at what one doesn't have, to see what the others possess and so, one starts to crave to have more and more...

While gluttony is “desire” in indulgence.

Gluttony is an insatiable appetite or attitude. We do not merely want more and more, we also want to keep "eating" again and again, even if we throw out.

So it is best understood as an impulsive overindulgence in something which is otherwise normal or necessary.

Because it is hard to follow the definition given to us by Hohenheim, I will use the other one asa complement.

As we know, every Heishous including Lordlu possess gluttony skills. Heishous follows the orders of the one holding their leash until the very end, even if they can be hurt or punished. It is definitely seen more with the Mao branch but still. They even protect him if there is an unopposed attack:

Though Heishous also possess gluttony skills based on other factors like Youcliff being a bloodthirsty maniac, always wanting to fight and fight endlessly, burning in rage, isn't that similar to Yinglong following earnestly the orders of its superiors even at the cost of its own self?

Whether he is punished or not, it keeps enforcing the heaven's decree. I mean, even its defense skill who appeared in his last phase, is a gluttonous skill and has a link to the Flower-burying wedges that we said are possesed by heaven in contrary to the Flower-burying pin, possess by Yinglong.

It is that overindulgence in following Heaven's decree no matter what, that is gluttonous.

To conclude, basically, its pride and arrogance is superficial only appearing at first glance because that is the impression that the dragon gives to the owe who sees it above the sky. We can push it further in saying that its feeling of overconfidence comes once its Flower-burying pins aren't countered, assuring Heaven's will.

Next, is its wrath which can be said to be either personal with touching its inverted scales, infuriating the dragon as it directly counterattacks but also impersonal, more like divine punishment. Though Yinglong attacks with its Flower-burying pins, it feels less personal, just using its power to follow and enforce the wrath of heaven.

To follow, the creature is also gloomy as observed by Hong Lu, it feels a deep sadness, looking at heaven who are forcing it, as if punishing it, to achieve its decree no matter what, causing him to be restrained and unable to die until heaven's decree is canceled or achieved. And what's more interesting is the fact that it is accepting but that acceptance can also be seen as gluttonous, as the creature is following it even at the cost of being unjustly hit and punished.

Talking about gluttony, the dragon can be seen as gluttonous because it is indulging excessively in following the orders of heaven, creating a dynamic where the dragon is extremely submissive to the heavens who are able to control and dictate to do things that he might not wants to. Nevertheless, that sacrifice is made by the dragon.

■ Origins

Finally, we arrive at the end, with its origins. There are many sources for this abnormality which complicates for us to pick which is the one took by pm. But we can guess!

But first all, let's talk about Yinglong. Yinglong, originally, is a winged dragon considered as a rain deity in ancient Chinese mythology. The name means responsive dragon, which could reinforce that idea thar the abnormality is responsive to heaven, following its will, even when that will is imposed on it.

Talking about myths, like said previously, they are numerous but one who is popular are myths of Yinglong helping the yellow Emperor.

"Chiyou made weapons to attack the Yellow Emperor; thus, the Yellow Emperor ordered Yinglong to attack him in the plains of Jizhou. Yinglong gathered water, and Chiyou summoned Fengbo and Yushi to unleash a great wind and rain. The Yellow Emperor then sent down from heaven a female deity named Ba. When the rain stopped, they proceeded to kill Chiyou."

(https://ctext.org/shan-hai-jing/da-huang-bei-jing/zh)

"In the northeast corner of the great wilderness there is hill named Xionglitu Qiu. Yinglong resides at the southernmost point, where it killed Chiyou and Kuafu, and could no longer ascend."

(https://ctext.org/shan-hai-jing/da-huang-dong-jing/zh)

From those myths, we might understand more about Yinglong being sullied and tarnished. From what I can understand, Yinglong descended on earth to help the yellow Emperor to kill Chiyou and Kuafu and when succeeding with the help of other people, he couldn't longer ascend, towards the heaven.

Isn't that reminding us, of something? It is similar as to how Yinglong, the abnormality, seemed unable to return in heaven. It seemed to be sullied. Perhaps, the abnormality descending on earth is what made him tarnished, to have sinned, meddling with the secular world, hence explaining why it is forced to endure punishment by the very heavens but also why his insides are filled with a pool of blood too. Instead of raining water, it is raining blood instead.

The parallels with Hong Lu's base EGO can be explained too. In its second phase, we enter its insides which are eerily similar to Hong Lu's EGO except for the blood filling and coloring the place and the vegetation.

Here's an image of Hong Lu's EGO:

If symbolically, the opening of the door, flooding the entirety of Hong Lu's EGO can be seen as his own tears, finally opening his true self to the true world after being burried for so long, we can do the same for Yinglong.

Those flood of blood, can represent his tears and so his sadness, being rejected by heaven and by being tainted by the secular world...

It makes blood raining instead of water. In his last attacks, it is also hitting us with its blood with his final attack, "Tides Born of Dragon's Tears" and as we already said just now, the blood represents his tears, falling from the sky...

Hence explaining why the EGO extracted from Yinglong is called "Tears of the Tarnished Blood".

let's talk about the EGO, now for the part 2.

[bwuego]

chesed and angela from the lobcorp cafe event

[plotyeast]

two hands, ten fingers pdid ryoshu playing on the western esoteric concept of left/right handed paths which itself pulls from buddhist traditions (as does 80 of modern western spiritual movements tbh)

the right-handed path, exposed to influence. Symbolically it represents adherence to tradition and following the path set forth for one. Thread on each finger tied towards parts that work to keep themselves in line and safe. Mostly persecutor or traumaholder parts unfortunately and theyre a handful to deal with. In terms of dissociative intrusions they mostly just yell, berate, and lecture Ryōshū or fuck with her emotional state

The left-hand path, protected by a glove. Symbolizing self deification and breaking from tradition. also taboos n stuff. Information vital to the self carved into the flesh. Thread on each finger connecting towards the fragmented parts that most identify with the sinner known as Ryōshū. Each nursefather required individual frames of mind to withstand their abuse. What angered one, calmed the other and so forth. Thus five alters on Ryōshū’s left hand born for survival take the lessons from their past and synthesize it into the philosophy the host follows today

Still considering whether the host is one of the left handed fingers or an eleventh alter formed after escaping the HOS. But if she was one of the original five I would probs make her the ring finger alter idk. Either way that part holds a lot of influence in how she behaves in LCB imo.

(using a lot more clinical language for describing ryoshus system because there isnt really a level of familiarity between alters in the system if that makes sense. Funnily enough despite having one of the less dissociated CDDs she is the most disordered/disabled by her system amongst the sinners in terms of mutual antagonism. Given i also hc her with ASPD and schizoid pd so the comorbidity here is definitely not helping)

[microknifeyuri]

what memory did you cut down this time?

[calcaclysm]

I don’t post my analyses on tumblr very often, I prefer the comfort of my friends’ dms and servers for them, but I need to sort out my thoughts on rien limbus company in a more public setting

I feel like a lot of people are drawn to him and his story as though it’s a tragedy, and I agree, there’s something inherently tragic about a lot of the index

the flaw in this judgment though, is that it justifies all of his actions by saying ‘there’s nothing he could have done, the prescripts made him do it!’ which is exactly what he thinks, and that’s the problem

his tragedy starts from a fundamental internal belief that fate is written, and there is nothing for him to do about it… after all, the game spells it out for us: there are few people in the index who actually follow the prescripts out of pure faith, sora being one of the few who really believe in them. rien follows the prescripts because he believes nothing he could do otherwise matters.

the death of his wife and child is tragic, but we need to remember that he chose not to do anything to save them, because the prescripts told him not to and according to his belief, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had tried anyways. saying that he couldn’t do anything would be an assumption we can’t prove, especially because we know even if had disobeyed the prescripts to protect them, he was likely competent enough to protect himself and them from the consequences if he had tried. but he wouldn’t try, because he’s given into that hopelessness.

a lot of what people attempt to see in rien I think is what they should be seeing in yan, who — in case you aren’t familiar — was an index messenger from library of ruina. yan actually goes through the effort of trying to defy the prescripts, only for that to be revealed to be part of their design as well. rien on the other hand makes no attempt at rebelling against them until the very end of the canto where we see him killing index proselytes. even then, however, he gives himself in to the death that the prescripts would dictate for him. yan rebels against the principle of ‘fate’ because he has not yet given into helplessness upon his introduction, rien however gave into it a long time before the game even started.

in this sense, rien’s ‘tragedy’ is a fault of his own mindset: he cannot believe that anything he would do of his own volition would matter, so he gives in to the will of the prescripts. is there a sadness in him for it? yes, but ultimately it cannot be ignored that he plays a part in his own tragedy, and is ideologically prevented from doing anything more than feeding into that cycle

did he love his wife and daughter? maybe, but it cannot be ignored that he could have saved them. and explaining away this fact with the argument that the prescripts made him stand by and watch gives in to the very mentality he shared that prevented him from saving them.

we don’t yet know everything about the flow and the prescripts, but I think that a lot of characterizations of rien I see online forget that the prescripts at the end of the day are just orders, and saying he could do nothing in the face of them is attempting to justify his actions by saying he was ‘just following orders.’

the wind simply made the waves destroy the sandcastles that they built, they have no right to be sad — his own words. are the waves saddened anyways? of course they are. but there was nothing they could do. that’s what he believes at least, and so he let’s himself be pushed by the wind. he perpetuates his own ‘tragedy.’

this is also the guy who kept a murder basement under the house he had with his first family. like let’s not forget about the murder basement and all. the prescripts were always his first priority, no matter how much he may have cared about his family. he only had the family for the prescripts, and he’d leave them for dead for them too. it’s probable he only took sora under his wing because of the prescripts as well, and his care for her only extended as far as the prescripts demanded that it extend. he was apathetic to sending her to her death. he still reveled in araya’s death as it meant ryōshū had become what the house of spiders had set out to make her.

he is not a moral paragon nor is his story a tragedy beyond his control, he’s just a hopeless man feeding into a corrupt system. and he is just as guilty for it.

tldr: people tend to remove culpability from rien for his actions, saying that the prescripts ‘made him do it,’ but this argument is pretty ignorant because it gives in to the very mentality that prevents rien from stopping his own tragedy