#btw i can’t believe that spotify shuffled me neon genesis evangelion opening when i was typing all of this

[chaldeanu]

i’ve been rambling the whole sunday about sunday to a friend of my friend, so i decided to copy and rewrite it into this post. there’s a bit about gopher wood, sunday (of course) and the dominicus.

is there a chance that i’m just excusing an authoritarian antagonist in text below? yes. am i reaching too deep to prove that he’s “not as bad” (lmao)? yes. my thoughts there are not complex, i don’t intend to dive into every reference to goethe’s faust or the bible (i wish i could) ଘ(*. .)

gopher wood (heavily inspired by catholic priests) groomed sunday from the youngest years to play a certain role, i doubt it’s even debatable (the parallels to the environment me and my friends were raised in hit hard btw but it’s irrelevant, just a fun fact lol). it wasn’t a relationship of father and son (though it sounds now accurate given the religious symbolism) — it was purely transactional and for gopher’s benefit to succeed. sunday just has a heart too big for his own good and took all this manipulation to another level, thus he almost ascended to aeonhood out of his own pure nature despite gopher’s intentions being not pure at all.

sunday did nothing wrong (like every angel-themed soft-spoken antagonist in any series before, right /j). plot-wise, we had to have a ‘targetable’ antagonist and gopher (merged into the dreamscape) put sunday in his place to be a martyr in his world domination plan. on the contrary, sunday’s intentions were honest, and that’s admirable that he could turn a “somewhat brainwashing controlling type of thing” into something out of good nature — it was still “somewhat brainwashing controlling type of thing” but, if we were to choose between him and gopher (or anyone else tbh because no one has a conviction as strong as sunday), under his rule it would be benevolent. thus, philosophy. he added his own understanding of the role he’s forced to play either way. of course, it still wasn’t good, but at least sunday had good intentions, unlike the family’s initial aim for control (power).

does it technically change anything? honestly, no. we still judge sunday for his actions and he outright said things considered authoritarian and pessimistic. he used to be a hopeful child that wanted to believe in people, but oh well…

gopher couldn’t even sacrifice himself to his own grand plan, so he used sunday — and sunday was more than willing to become the only one person unable to achieve the absolute happiness, even if this whole idea wasn’t coming from his own mind. he’s utterly devoted to the cause because of his little sister (the real family). everything he’s doing was out of literal love (for robin) and extending it to embrace the humanity, too, because he doesn’t hate humans — he pities them. to the point where he almost ascended, despite not wanting to revive a dead aeon or become one himself.

embryo of philosophy — now, that’s the question. would he be reborn as a completely new aeon of philosophy? or was it just a temporary name? something between order and hamony, his own thoughts filling the void in between. where his heart is too kind for order, but too broken for harmony. i wonder if him becoming an aeon would break him out of gopher’s initial motives? at the cost of his own freedom. perhaps either this or robin rescuing him…

because he genuinely believed that the ends justify the means, but he didn’t like what he was doing, constantly struggling between choices. is there no other way? but corruption is so deep-rooted in others that he’s willing to take the burden if it means bringing the ultimate peace…

the thing with characters in fiction like him is that, depending on which ‘side’ will you put them, the same exact goal sound either as the best idea ever or the worst idea ever, without changing a single word.

was he our ally plot-wise, his goals would still be better than the current state of penacony, and we probably would support him. but he was placed on the opposing side as our target, manipulated by gopher and working in his stead. so, heroes focused on the part that he plans to take away their freedom and decided to stop him. valid. also that’s the whole idea of catholic paradise, but i’ll leave the topic before even starting it (but if you get me, then you get me).