#prob because while everything else is full of despairing

[fistfulls-of-basil]

i heard the basilbox was open

The strange rush of serotonin I felt upon receiving an ask from sony-official has myself truly understanding gimmick blog Tumblr culture methinks

(send me asks to give basil heart palpations [positive])

Anyway uhh here's the bivern (basil wyvern)

[deltaruiner]

Ok so, my favorites are:

(Lots of Sayaka themes in this)

Witch World #2 (the theme in the scene with Elsa Maria in the movies), i especislly liked the the repeat of the verse when Elsa Maria knocks Sayaka to the heavens, the change in the intensity really shows how Sayaka always forces herself to stay on the same path (verse) even when it sbsolutely brutalizes heri really love that scene!! Elsa Maria is also so far the only witch that felt like she is actually saying to herself "im gonna kill you" against the girls, the rest all felt somewhat either unaware of themselves or unthreatening tbh, and the music with Elsa's outburst really cements her as my favorite scene n song evah

also THE LOW STRINGS AAAAA the dissonance between decretum absolutely SCREAMING at high notes and the low ones feel like a desperate cry being supressed when the low instruments are playing their high notes, it really makes ot feel like a limit is being Pushed

My next favorite is Something, Everything, is Wrong along with all leitmotif songs of Mada Dame Yo, the song really gives me a vibe of cheerful yet hiding something in some versions, and twisted fairy tale vibes in others.

Mada Dame Yo itself is also a favorite, its a song that confidently "banishes" Nightmares, but also kind of comes out of nowhere in its style and the voice doesnt match any of the characters or previous songs, which makes it a lot like a witch theme (homura's!) despite being in a point where we dont even suspect witches

I loved Symposium Magarum, the repeating and loud orchestra hits really give me a "Sayaka isolating from the outside" or her saying "SHUT UP" vibes

lyric version of Sagitta Luminis just made me straight up cry, its so bittersweet and highlights just how wrong the situation is yet how wonderful what was done is and starts a new beginning and-

i dont think i need to explain why i like Decretum and Credens Justitiam

Magia really gives the vibe Homura lives by, aka, being incredibly metal yet still unable to push back despair and still being a "losing" theme despite being so hardcore and full ot determined lyrics

Connect, both the regular version and the show credits orchestra version, just make me wanna run forwards and never look back despite ANY obstacle, and just have sooooo much courage in themmmm

Same with the Holy Quintet theme from the group transformation in rebellion, it just captures all of them so well. ofc i especially love Sayaka's part bc im a sucker for my blue daughter and her and her stupid little heroic themes..... grah......

my heart cannot explain what She is a Witch does to me... it's such a burst of despair and you can't take it anymore so you curse everything around...

Human Bullet is just very unrelenting like Kyoukos personality

Confessio is very old in vibe and feels like an unapproachable monolith of a mindset formed many years ago

just like Kyoukos personality since the Incident! (i love her stubborn self)

And I'm Home just straight up killed me i will not start on this just see how i write about kyousaya

see above for Kimino Ginno Niwa but change to madohomu it just takes all of their journey and elegantly drop bombs it on you in a condensed package trimmed of everything else to maximise emotional grief like Yuki Kaijura composed it while possesed by the Incubator himself

And finally, Flame of despair...

the motifs of Oktavia's theme to show Homura finally understands what it's like to really lose it ALL... Fort/Da in the background of the scene because she simply Must pretend she is in control to simply EXIST.... the back and forth between the instruments giving ballet vibes and a ferling of chasing something which always will escape, doing so alone withe the lonely single instrument beats in between... im ILLLL

.

Anyway i like almost all songs and probs forgot a few i really like but yeah :D

watched madoka amvs and osts for 4 hours it is early morning and i have yet to sleep send rescue

[nonbinarybrainstorm]

I saw request are open! could u write about Rodimus being lavished ( preferably via valve) by his bot s/o after Mabye a hard day or Mabye he’s feeling down and believes his a failure as a captain and that S/o could do better with someone els? I think roddy is probs insecure and want his s/o to love him and show him that roddy is what they want. Keep up the good work!! It’s amazing and I love reading what you write!!

Hi! Sorry that it’s been forever! But here you go! Hope you like!

They knew something was wrong the moment they walked into the room. Rodimus lays on their berth while throwing a ball up into the air and catching it expertly over and over with that frown of his that he has whenever he feels like the world is slipping from him. Walking up to the berth, they lay down next to him, stretching out their tired joints after a very long shift and Rodimus stops his small game of catch but doesn’t look over. They sigh and turn on their side, bringing one hand up to gently stroke the side of Rodimus’ face so he finally looks at them, his optics dim.

“Did something happen?” they ask him while keeping a gentle, soothing rhythm against his faceplate.

Rodimus shakes his head and moves onto his side as he lets the ball roll away and onto the floor.

“Just thinking,” he murmurs, not meeting their optics.

“About what?” they let their hand fall to his shoulder as he just shakes his head, “Come on, Roddy. Please? What’s got you down?”

Rodimus thinks for a moment, letting his head loll back and he lets out a sharp vent of air. He looks at them sorrowfully, taking them in as he thinks.

“Just bad thoughts,” he confesses quietly. “That I’m not worthy,” he lets out a tired groan as he stretches his spinal strut, “You’re wonderful, you know. I don’t what I did to deserve you because I’m just such a failure. I mean… I can’t help but think that, that you would be happier with another.”

They feel their spark drop a little at Rodimus’ words and sit up just enough so they can plant a gentle kiss on his helm. Rodimus shutters his optics at the feeling and cups their face just to feel them, to assure himself of their nearness.

“Roddy,” they whisper and he opens his optics to look at them, “You have no idea how wonderful you are. You’re so determined, brave, heartfelt, and, above all, kind.”

His face turns to despair with desire burning in his eyes, a desire to believe them that’s so desperate it hurts.

“There’s no one else for me,” they kiss his cheek then his nasal ridge, “I love you so much.”

They dip their head down to kiss him, lips meshing with his sweetly and they feel his familiar warmth from his frame that’s all power and speed. They pull away slowly, the sensation lingering on their lips like a dream.

“You care so deeply for everyone,” they insist, tucking their helm in the crook of Rodimus’ neck to breath him in, steel and sweetly scented wax overcoming their senses, “A bad captain wouldn’t care and you care even more than those titled the best. You are everything and more that this ship needs.”

“I’ve made so many mistakes,” Rodimus’ hands tighten on their plating and his voice comes out almost too soft to hear.

“As have I just as everyone else has,” they kiss just under his jaw as they continue, “We can’t go through life without making mistakes. You’ve taken on responsibilities that no one else would have the courage to so your mistakes weigh on you more.”

“I…” Rodimus makes a choked off sound and curls around them, “I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe this is real: what I have with you.”

They hum thoughtfully then pull away to loom over him, balancing on their hands.

“Will you let me show you how much I want you? Maybe help reassure you a little,” their words come out heavy, all too affected by the sheer presence of Rodimus and they watch as color rises to Rodimus’ face as his optics brighten at their words.

Mutely, Rodimus gives a jerky nod and they kiss him eagerly, all heat and glossa as they taste him. They break the kiss to move down his chest with little swipes of their glossa in seams making Rodimus jerk and gasp as they trail their hands down his sides, plucking wires just between wider seams. Landing on his hips, they squeeze the more flexible plating there as they press their mouth against his modesty panel and he begins venting hard, cooling fans already on full blast from the attention from their well-practiced hands and glossa. They moan into the panel and Rodimus chokes off a vulnerable sound. Eager to continue, Rodimus lets his panel transform away revealing his valve that’s pulsing gently with red lights between the creamy orange mesh. They kiss his thigh and lick a slow line along the side of his valve earning a frustrated grown from Rodimus. They laugh a little, imagining the cute, little, accusatory glare they were surely getting then hum long and low on the plating where his thigh meets his codpiece and Rodimus’ hips twitch up. Continuing over, they swirl their glossa around Rodimus’ pulsing anterior node and grip his thighs as his pedes come curling up as his charge begins to heighten.

They lick up between his folds, feeling the give of the plush mesh, stopping at his node to suck on it gently as they grip his thighs tighter, kneading between the seams with careful strokes. Rodimus makes a soft, broken sound and his hands come to the sides of their helm and tug them towards him. They get the memo and delve their glossa in further to lick around his entrance, tasting the lubricant that’s starting to coat his valve and feeling his thighs twitch in their hands. He’s as impatient as ever, wanting every piece of contact he can get with their glossa as they lick over nodes before coming back up to lave his anterior node, feeling get hotter and hotter in their mouth. They hum low over his array getting him to whine and out of the corner of their optic they watch his hand tighten on the edge of the berth. As they continue to mercilessly suck and lick his node, they look up to watch his face, his optics screwed shut and mouth agape in heady pants that are time with each lick.

Suddenly, they’re pulled away from his valve as Rodimus sits up and curls down to kiss them messily, tasting himself on their tongue and sending them into a dizzy spiral. Then he breaks the kiss, leaving them breathless and heavily venting in air, their fans buzzing with the speed at which they’re spinning.

“I want you inside me,” his voice is breathy and low as each word rolls off his glossa.

They push themself up and gently nudge Rodimus back onto the berth, “Anything for you, darling.”

Their pressurized spike slides easily between Rodimus’ slick folds and over his anterior node as they rock their hips.

“You’re so beautiful,” they say in a hush as they continue to cover their spike in his lubricant, enjoying each gasp he makes whenever one of the ridges on their spike rubs against his node. 

Rodimus gives a throaty moan and reaches out a hand that they take and intertwine their fingers before giving it a kiss.

“You said you wonder how you could deserve me? There is nothing more you could do. You’re everything,” they gasp over his hands as they lose themself in the feeling of Rodimus under them, “What more could I ask for? You smile despite the odds as you lead us through trials that lesser mechs would falter at. You have so much love in your spark it’s an absolute wonder and more than worthy of the matrix and more. You forgive that which others could never begin to let go. You are my Prime, my spark, my love, and my life.”

Rodimus writhes beneath them and hides his face in the bend of his free arm, his face glowing bright with the energon flooding to his cheeks. They lift up one of his thighs and hook it over their hip as they line up their spike to his entrance before beginning to push in slowly. His hand tightens around their own as a throaty moan draws from him, deep and low in his chest.

“You are the bravest mech I have ever known,” they gasp as they push further in, feeling Rodimus’ valve squeeze around their spike at the praise, “You’ve faced horrors that would make other mechs go mad and came out singing. You’re a legend and I can’t believe out of all the mechs in the universe it got to be me, here, with you.”

Rodimus gasps and pulls them closer, wrapping both of his legs around them. They push in all the way to the hilt and rock their hips against him, panting and moaning, and they feel like they could melt in the blissful heat of Rodimus’ valve. Rodimus looks up at them out from the safety of his arm, his optics ablaze and lip caught between his denta as he tries to fruitlessly hold back the deep moans in his intake.

Rodimus vents in shakily and almost too quietly to hear, says, “Frag me.”

They swallow over the lump in their intake, struck by the very appealing of a completely undone Rodimus right in front of them. Not one to disappoint the love of their life, they release his hand to settle both of their hands on his hips and slowly drags their spike out to push it back in just a slowly. Rodimus’ hands come to tighten on theirs a quiet whimper breaking the air. They pull out just as slowly as before but shove their spike in roughly making Rodimus throw his helm back in a wordless shout and keeps it there as they continue their slow but rough pace, shaking his frame with each thrust in. Gradually, they speed up, their thrusts remaining rough. Eventually, Rodimus looks back up to them, too lost in the heady charge building between them to form words as they continue to thrust into his slick valve, stretching him over and over. Wanting to taste those lips again, they slow just enough so that they can lean over Rodimus, one of his hands in theirs. They kiss him slow and sweetly, mapping every part of his mouth with their glossa before breaking the kiss with a gasp. Tucking their helm in the crook of his neck, they murmur words like “wonderful”, “beautiful”, and “divine”. It becomes all too much for Rodimus and he clutches their helm as he overloads around their spike drawing them along with him so they’re spilling hot transfluid into his valve with every thrust.

Everything slows to halt and all there is is the sound of cooling fans and heavy vents as their frames cool down after their intense shared overload. They pepper lazy kisses over Rodimus’ intake, cheek, and helm, their spike still seated in his valve, reveling in the warmth of his frame. As they begin to extract themself, Rodimus quickly tightens his legs around their hips and wraps his arms around them in a tight hold.

“Just one moment,” Rodimus says into the crook of their pauldron, “Just one moment, I need you here.”

They smile as they let out an endeared sigh and kiss the top of his helm, “Anything for you, Rodimus.”

[nozomijoestar]

Instead of following this meme as a list of ask prompts I love the idea so much I want to do everything in one go myself

The Bowl of Embers - What would be the title of your trial listed as in the duty-finder?

The Endless Dunes  - named this because of the fight location being in a secluded area deep in the Sagolii Desert at night; significant since thats where she was born and raised

Thok ast Thok - Write a brief flavor-text about your trial one would find as a listed description in the duty-finder

At the end of your winding road awaits a figure shrouded in the sands. Life has ceased to be in this barren land; there is but one path forward. The figure meets your gaze unshaken and expectant. The night winds howl in rage. Silence the Warrior of Light. 

Cape Westwind - What is the setting of the battle? Where will it take place?

Deep within the Sagolii Desert in Southern Thanalan, past her birthplace of Forgotten Springs. She used her power in anger to raise earth into a platform surrounded only by towering dunes and some of the locale’s rocky sand filled ravines. Its extremely difficult to enter and life threatening to leave if you aren’t careful. 

The Howling Eye - Write a description of the opening cut-scene preceding the fight

The questline leading up to this fight would involve the player discovering the WoL has gone rogue and wants to renounce the world and herself as Hydaelyn’s instrument. She’s been driven to her breaking point and despairs over the future and freedoms she feels were robbed from her when she was given Echo without consent; thereby made to endure pain and suffering she never asked for. 

Because at this stage she’s been unable to find a cure to get rid of Echo, all her hidden negative emotions have made her snap into a mass of destruction. The  player must fight her to make her come to her senses, which involves killing her multiple times only for her to be revived more pissed than before (due to Hydaelyn continuing to reconstruct her body to reinsert her soul upon any events that would kill her physically- this is my personal explanation for how the Echo buff in gameplay would work lorewise)

---

Player(s) enters the battle area at midnight and looks around to find only the stars and dunes they can’t see past. The entire land is swept by an unnaturally strong wind and sandstorm they shield their face from and as it ends the compact platform in front of them has Vaste standing with her back turned. She’s staring at the sky as you approach and unarmed, then closes her eyes hearing you. She’s known you, or something like you, was coming. When you reach almost halfway she sighs before opening her eyes and reaching her right hand out beside her. In a flash of energy that looks and sounds like lightening and thunder her spear is summoned. The player stops in their tracks, shocked. Slowly she turns appearing furious and assumes battle stance. Cue the traditional FF pan out then zoom in as the frame blurs white.

Thornmarch - What would be your character’s opening dialogue(s) upon the start of the battle?

Approaching party: “You should’ve let me stay gone.”

As players initiate their openers: “There is nothing here but your grave.”

The Chrysalis - What would be your character’s final words upon defeat?

As she falls to the ground: “I see it clear...a world of light.”

The Final Steps of Faith - How would some of the mechanics of the fight operate? Include as many as you want and specify whether it is for hard-mode or extreme (if applicable)

I’ll describe only the EX version but any lower difficulties would roughly the same just not as intensive

Initial phase she’ll hit the MT with enhanced damage Fang and Claw and Wheeling Thrust combos combined with the Heavy Thrust and Blood for Blood buffs; a special version of the Wheeling Thrust combo called Dragon’s Spin is a tankbuster with massive crit because it has Life Surge effect applied to its damage on final hit, this will come after 20% of total health bar is gone, due to LS 10% of her HP is restored from her damage dealt

As the MT activates their mitigation two cone AoEs will appear behind her diagonally shooting out Geirskogul attacks before alternating position to be two cones facing front of her and repeating the attack, finally the cones will become a pair of rectangles from her sides, she will then perform a centered circle AoE with Dragonfire Dive

The next mechanic sees her use Mirage Dive to chase the party around the arena with rapid small circle AoEs that fan out in position from the center to the edge of the platform before returning to neutral battle stance and using a platform wide AoE that starts at the center and which players will have to run to either the southeast or northwest corners of the arena to take the least damage, this is Dragonsong Dive

From here the arena is shattered and there’s an Active Time Maneuver to get yourself on a stable piece of debris as everyone is tossed into the sky, as the pieces crash back down they form a massive crater that hits down to the rock beneath the sands and the entire area is surrounded by a massive sandstorm 

All party members will gain a Buffeted debuff that does 150 damage constantly until the end of battle due to the environment and can be healed through to deal with but not Esuna’d away

She will land and target the MT with Spinshatter Dive, at this point she’ll buff herself with Battle Litany and enter red Blood of the Dragon to charge Nastrond

As she charges the attack adds will appear called Fragments of Agony that must be destroyed or they will charge her Agony gauge and the Nastrond will instant wipe everyone when it goes off, if everyone successfully kills the Fragments the Nastrond won’t wipe but deal massive damage

There is a brief resting period as she becomes untargetable and creates shades of Yugiri, Estinien, Lyse, Y’shtola, and Haurchefant from memory using leftover charge from her Agony gauge when it was prevented from being filled, players will then have to prioritize all adds in a dps check as they shield her and each has their own AoEs to look out for

After all adds are down she will rejoin the fight with Jump as a large centered AoE, then repeat her initial mechanics before the phase change until brought to 0%

Urth’s Fount - Would there be any mechanics that when ignored would result in an instant wipe?

Failing to stop the Agony gauge from reaching full or failing the dps check will be instant TPKs

The Royal Menagerie - Describe your OC’s techniques or special attacks that the party will have to avoid or be cautious dealing with

Players will need to be on the lookout for Geirskogul, Mirage Dive, Dragonfire and Dragonsong Dive whenever they appear as they’ll hit fast and hard, the entire first phase will also have her in Blood of the Dragon which will increase her attack potency

The Singularity Reactor - Will your character summon adds and companions throughout the encounter, or would it be a single-target fight?

The second phase will have shade memories of her closest NPC friends as adds

Akh Afah Amphitheater - Will your trial be a single-phase fight or will there be different segments to the encounter?

Two phases

Battle on the Big Bridge - What would the battle theme sound like? Will the music shift when the second phase of the fight begins?

The opening music for phase one will be something in the same vein and tone as Ramuh’s Rolling Thunder theme while the second phase shift goes into something closer to Shiva’s Oblivion theme; in both halves of the theme theres an undercurrent beat akin to Revenge Twofold

The Navel - How easy would it be for a DRG to fall off the edge of the stage in your trial?

Since she’s a DRG herself, pretty hard for another to fly off the side since there’s a lot of room just for her attacks to go off well

Castrum Fluminis - Would your OC drop any loot at the end of the fight? If so, describe them (tokens, tomes, weapons, crafting reagents, mounts, etc.)

Her completion reward is two chests with orchestrion rolls for both fight phases respectively, a minion of herself, and rarer a copy of Alba her chocobo mount alongside whatever gear is the current standard ilevel and 50 tomes of the current highest grade

Emanation - Name someone else’s OC you would like to see as a trial boss. Be sure to tag them

@uss-edsall @m14-mod3 and @aethernoise ! You guys don’t have to or you can just rb the meme list up top if you don’t want to do everything at once like I did

Ultima’s Bane - On a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being the most extreme, how would you rate the difficulty of your trial?

I feel like I probs went a little overboard so a 7-8, if I were to actually run it she’d beat me into the ground lol, gl trying to kill her cuz she’s no pushover

[illegiblewords]

And after a full rewatch of Ergo Proxy point is yeah postmodernism is hell, tradition and connecting to dat collective unconscious is good, too many fucking clones holy shit.

Everything is fucking clones.

Also.

- I think the despair of Ergo Proxy might be that the artificially grown humans could never reproduce on their own despite his efforts, probably this ties to proxies themselves actually not being able to reproduce. The mimicked humans were based off of their DNA but not actually full-functional humans.

-Note to self and the interested, when I mention the pulse/pulse of the awakening this is a physical phenomenon in the show. It’s a biological timer placed in proxies by the humans who first made them, an instinct that recognizes the earth is habitable once more. The pulse signals to proxies that it is time to die upon exposure to natural sunlight. Proxies who feel the pulse usually go crazy because it means death is coming and sends them into intense fight or flight response.

- Apparently advanced aging is really weird tech so I actually need to look into this for real. Daedalus has the technology to do it, hence Monad being recreated as REAL, but it seems to be somewhat taboo and not generally utilized if Raul’s reaction is anything to go by. So if I’m going with that assumption, then timeline wise (seriously this is the most hellish point of the whole series it makes me so fucking upset, they put so much thought into so many things but the timeline holy shitfuck) is like this:

- Proxy One is made, realizes reason for proxies, gets fucking upset, clones himself to make Ergo Proxy. Ergo Proxy has a lot of Proxy One in himself, like a LOT to the point that when he kills the pulse in Proxy One it counts as negating the power of the pulse over him, but is not identical.

- Monad Proxy falls in love with Ergo Proxy. Monad is the proxy of Mosk. Ergo Proxy had tried real fucking hard to make a perfect city in Romdeau but 1) could not perfect it due to his own physical flaws/incomplete nature (humanity, while not strictly opposed to engineered humans or autoreives the way they were to proxies, saw them as more guinea pigs) 2) was having insane existential crises tied to his own knowledge that he was doomed to die for his success and was born with no purpose but to clean up someone else’s mess and die. Basically intense postmodernism headache that got so bad and was genetically ingrained, he literally ran away to Mosk to be with Monad--abandoning his own people because he saw himself as a failure of a god and them as failed creations.

- Romdeau got fucking pissed about losing their proxy and went to war with Mosk. I think during the war was when Ergo Proxy’s despair peaked, he’d brought shitloads of death to both peoples and had utterly failed not only at what he was trying to do but he was never an authentic proxy of humans to begin with so that only made it sting worse. He’s basically a postmodern abomination who should not exist in nature and he knows it and he thinks he’s cursed every genetic aspect of his being to destroy. So he asks Monad to take his memories, and leaves his memories with the autoreive Amnesia as a backup plan just in case before she does this. Before having his memories stripped Ergo Proxy also assumed the physical body of Vincent Law so essentially looked like just a dude and had the vulnerabilities of just a dude more or less.

- When Monad strips Ergo Proxy of his memories she takes them into her own mind and was basically going insane. I think it’s critical that first, Vincent had a huuuuuuuge period where he just has no memory. He full on cannot remember years of his life after Monad wiped his brain. I mean, chick removed thousands of years of info I think she actually damaged him a fair amount. The split personality bit is only part of it. But yeah he was probably in a ???? state for a long time while Mosk was at war.

- Insane!Monad was taken before war with Mosk ended. Mosk as a city under a true proxy I think was actually a little more stable than Romdeau without a proxy was, although it still would have died out eventually. Monad was taken at least nineteen years prior to the plot if not slightly longer. My personal theory is that Vincent was probably in a full coma for a lot of it (likely being attended by autoreives in a hospital or something), woke up toward the end of the Mosk-Romdeau war but was basically in a stupor on autopilot for that time and remembers very, very little of that period. Monad being taken nineteen years ago allowed for Re-L Mayer and, by connection, Daedalus to be born. It also meant that technically speaking some humans in Romdeau have full-proxy DNA happening--including Daedalus.

- Mosk continues fighting without a proxy of their own for a long time, falls within a few years of the plot beginning. Re-L was familiar with the fact that Romdeau bombed the hell out of them at her grandfather’s direction, and there was enough stigma about Mosk and immigrants that I don’t think it’s reasonable to believe Mosk fell more than a decade or even five years prior to the plot. Frankly it would more likely be between one and three years before the story starts. The population of Mosk, that said, would have had no children for that period and would have a significantly crippled population due to casualties. They literally would have been dependent on the mercy of Romdeau for their survival when it became clear they weren’t winning. Romdeau, for their part, kept fighting because they wanted Ergo Proxy specifically back and at that point Vincent was incapable of delivering. In the end Romdeau just accepted Ergo Proxy was lost.

- Important to note, Proxy One was in his own city that was not Mosk or Romdeau, but was pretty close to Mosk. Proxy One’s location was pointed out at the end of the game show episode and that was the location bombed by Raul. Raul meant to kill Vincent, he actually destroyed a random city out of nowhere and Proxy One had to scramble hard in the not-dying game. Basically, MCQ was a magnificent dickhead whose dying words were fuck you Proxy One and he deserves a moment of silence.

- Daedalus and Re-L were created around the same time while war with Mosk was ongoing, both aged naturally. Vincent did not enter the city until comparatively recently in their lives.

-Anyway, after Raul bombed the fuck out of Proxy One’s city Proxy One went to Mosk himself, killed Amnesia (a relatively recent occurrence to the point that he might have been there at the same time as the trio) and went back to Romdeau himself to continue playing puppet master. Note, Proxy One was in Romdeau at the story’s beginning as well and was fucking with Re-L and possibly lured both Monad and Ergo Proxy to Re-L’s house to begin with. Why? He was being a dickhead and trying to start fights between strangers to get them to fuck each other and their cities over more. Literally all of Proxy One’s actions come down to “I got screwed so Ima fuck things up for everyone else” at a certain point, he isn’t exactly anti-Vincent but he wanted Vincent to kill him so he would no longer be bound by the pulse so Vincent would serve as a fuck you to the original humans. And he also wanted to make sure Romdeau was destroyed, and probably would have destroyed his own dome at some point anyway if he didn’t make Raul blow it up on purpose.

- REAL is mostly a true proxy, the form she took in the last ep was more because she’d heard the pulse of the awakening although her skin being different probably she’d been made with some alterations. Also I mean Monad didn’t have wings. But yeah she just shifted because of having a human and proxy form. I think she had some if not all of Monad’s memories at death because of knowing about shit Daedalus most likely would not have told her, also behaving older than a one year old. But she still acted like a child with a string obsession so her copy was probably not complete either. Re-L was much less complete as a clone of the living Monad and basically turned out as a baby human with no memories and was adopted by her grandfather.

- Re-L thinks Ergo Proxy set himself-as-Vincent up to be an immigrant so he would be rejected upon trying to join Romdeau without memories, making him suffer horribly. She thinks every single thing he did was an exercise in the highest masochism to punish himself for leaving and being a failure. I think he probably didn’t think that far ahead and just wanted to pretend to be human in a similar way to how the two amigos wanted to be customers in Smile Land. He didn’t want the responsibility anymore and didn’t want to have to think about what he was made to be or how he would die.

- I think Raul actually deliberately unleashed cogito everywhere because he wanted to make humans more natural in Romdeau or something and because he was reasonably sure Romdeau would eventually die without a proxy. I’m still not positive here though. He did a dumb thing.

Some bonus points from a previous analysis that still seem fair game:

- Pino undergoes a wardrobe change after gaining sentience, and that in and of itself is nbd, but I was ??? about her hair going from brown to purple. She had a time gap and in an advanced world like the one she’s in lbr hair dye exists. That wasn’t a sentience-induced hair color change she prob just did it herself for rule of fun.

- Immigrants happened in Romdeau after Mosk was defeated. My big question in the past was logistically what is the deal with immunity to the outside world vs susceptibility to disease etc. etc. and how did the immigrants happen at all. I think probably the whole immigrant population came from Mosk and also probably Ergo Proxy went into Mosk dome when he created his identity as Vincent. As Ergo Proxy, in that form, he would not have been vulnerable to the outside world but in Vincent form he is. So basically Vincent in his squishy human body had no immunity to shit. Also probably there was insane transporting of immigrants from Mosk to Romdeau after the war. EDIT: In Vincent’s flashback he shows himself and other immigrants walking outside but Vincent’s memory is shit so either there is stuff in Romdeau itself that causes poor reactions with the outside air through prolonged exposure or else Vincent’s brain is basically a collage of trying to fit forgotten things together. Going with the latter here because I think the former has consistency and motive problems.

- Daedalus confirmed he was created specifically to run the proxy project and watch over Re-L. I think he probably is the same age as her roughly for that reason. Vincent also saw Re-L when he entered Romdeau to get work. Therefore either it took a weird long time for Vincent to enter Romdeau, like almost two decades during which he did not age and was unaware of what was happening, or else Re-L and Daedalus had rapid aging. I personally lean toward natural aging partly because ages are listed in spots, partly because I think it’s more fun when characters have to learn from direct experience generally. Also this allows more time for emotional ties to happen between characters like Re-L and her grandfather and Re-L and Daedalus.

- The way Ergo Proxy is said in the last line makes grammatical sense and the whole thing being a tie to postmoderism also makes sense so this is acceptably not fancy garbage latin/english/greek/idek dudes. Also though postmodernism is spiritual death and doom and shit and Vincent is like postmodernism incarnate that just went fuck this I want to tap reality.

- Autoreives existing and being robots and all and having the ability to reach sentience and praying upon reaching sentience foreshadow that basically even things that become heavily derivative can still strive for truth and spirituality and reality and shit also I think there’s additional religious subtext in the whole “humans in image of god, robots and proxies in image of man, Vincent and Re-L in the image of proxies”. I think it might be showing that the ultimate connectivity and spirit of the divine still echoes through all of it if we’re getting religious here but I mean they got so much religious imagery in the show anyway so lbr.

- Also for new readers who might be tuning in, it’s common in both today’s western education and in a lot of media for people to assume that postmodernism (things being copies of things, critiques of critiques that grow increasingly distant from direct life experience) is the only truth and there is no reality at all, that failure to be wholly unconnected to others and unique is a tragedy. People who subscribe fully to postmodernism tend to believe that the alternative is being anti-progress or worthlessly derivative. However, looking into Jung in particular with concepts like the collective unconscious, the real alternative is tradition, community, instinct, and finding inspiration in the shared experiences life has to offer while simultaneously combining those experiences in unique ways. Two people in mourning doesn’t mean one is more important than the other, just that they both know what it is to mourn and can talk to each other and understand the feeling in some capacity. Ergo Proxy as a narrative shows a world where reality has been constructed on postmodern principles that ultimately fall apart because life itself by nature is a tradition, and Jung is shown to be right. Vincent and Re-L and Pino, although all copies of copies, are no less part of the tradition than the original humans would have been. Also, the original humans’ belief that proxies, clones, and autoreives have less worth than them for being copies is shown to be hugely unjust and incorrect through the narrative.

- I think there might also be some kind of Adam/Eve thing with how Vincent and Re-L work metaphysically but I’m not touching that right now and frankly it’s a scary analysis for a show full of scary analysis. Seriously I swear to god this concept must have been made by sadists or masochists or something holy shit this is like clone saga in spider-man if it was done by intelligent people on purpose to make a statement.

- Point of the story and all the Jung and shit is that this is a world that literally went through a postmodern apocalypse and a trio of the most postmodern bullshit copies of humans go out together and actually succeed in tapping into the primal collective unconscious and powerful storytelling/instinctive/psychological truths that had been so disregarded by the original humans. They manage to become real where the original humans had become fake.