That's not really any sort of idealism. Normal employees getting shafted while the higher ups getting golden parachutes/failing upwards is a long standing tradition in both corporations and governments alike.
I mean...like literally idealistic. Meur described N Corp has being obsessed with humanity and I'm liable to take him at his word. I fully expect their reason for everything to be creating their vision for a better world. The destruction of all mirror worlds is just as insane and impractical as Lobcorp attempting to harness The Seed of Light.
I'm expecting that N Corp is being built up as a counterpart to Lobcorp. Though much of the reasoning is beyond the scope of the thread. I do think there's enough in this update to suggest they might inhabit the role of both trying to upset the status quo and being hopelessly a product of it.
I can safely say that I was not expecting to actually feel bad for Dongrang by this point but God... Watching him go from a decent person who wanted to help other to a hollowed out shell, grasping for anything to prove his worth even though he knows the awards and accolades he earned are meaningless... The writing does a great job of showing that he's exactly as broken as Yi Sang, he's just better at hiding it.
Alfonso: "The tears don't have to be by noble means after all." Alfonso: "Everyone, I believe I've found the answer. To take the seat of the chief executive, there's only one simple thing to do: ensure the prosperity of K Corp."
All I can think of, whenever I see this, is SUFFICIENT GRIEF DESTROYS A SOUL. WARE LACRE. The tears of something ancient and incomprehensible having mutagenic and destructive properties in their raw forn, becoming able to heal or create life when refined correctly, is an interesting bit of convergent evolution.
Yi Sang: "Dongbaek... has remained oblivious to it. Thusly, she constantly harboured suspicion against us, knowing that it must have been one of us."
Dongbaek gets the honours of the first serious, uncensored curse in the game - and there was no more appropriate time for it.
Yi Sang: "The revelation is what coloured Dongbaek's dying eyes with wrath..." Yi Sang: "And caused the frail EGO to break and fall, snapping, scattering into petals." Dongrang: "... You know, Yi Sang?"
And yeah, the story contents of this update are why Dongrang is one of my favorite NPCs in Limbus Company. He's a bastard, yeah, but he became one as a defensive mechanism. Because he lost his dreams, piece by piece, and he could not survive as the person he used to be. And when that person peeks out, just a little - when he opens his shell, just a little - he breaks and distorts in horror at what he has become.
The City is a place that takes idealistic young people and destroys them, one way or another. At the end of the day, Canto IV is a story about three victims, split apart and tearing at one another, blaming each other for what the City has done to them.
What is the Head, you may ask? It's a conglomerate of Wings (A Corp, B Corp and C Corp to be specific) that acts as the closest thing to a government the City has - though at the scale the City is operating at, where each Wing's district might as well be its own city-state or small country, maybe it's closer to a version of the United Nations that ever does anything. There are few ironclad laws in the City but those that exist are enforced by the Head, the tiny modicum of order in the chaos of unrestricted nightmare capitalism. Naturally the Head is a rentseeking entity, officiating the collection of taxes and the Citywide patent office, but there are some few technologies even they won't countenance. AI was one (something covered in more detail back in Ruina), cloning another (ditto), and now third and more pressingly the matter of resurrection.
Something that's really quite ominous about the Head is that like, the City is such a capitalist nightmare where each Wing is trying to ratfuck as hard as possible to increase profits as much and as quickly as possible. Organisations like that wouldn't just blithely pay their taxes and abide by the rules that cut off avenues for profit unless they had an incentive to do so, and it's pretty obvious that it's a negative incentive given the state of the City.
That means that the Head needs to have such an incredible monopoly of force, in whatever manner that force takes, to compel every Wing and every other organisation within the City to abide by whatever rules it lays down. Given we've already seen some of the stuff that the lower levels of the Wings can pull out, the scale of what the Head is capable of must be fairly staggering.
The tears, and the entity that shed them, still have a role to play. Did Dongrang release the Brazen Bull on purpose after experimenting on it with the tears, or did he simply not give a shit when it inevitably broke free just as Dongbaek warned him? The distiction is kind of academic at this point. Limbus Company collided with it at full speed and suppressed it for him, he got to farm tears from the collateral the Bull caused, and he got to blame it all on Dongbaek in the aftermath. That's the kind of cost-cutting efficiency that gets a brilliant mind like him a promotion.
Dongrang: "Maybe Dongbaek might just come, Yi Sang. If Dongbaek got to this... space before she died... Haha, I'm not sure what I should call this." Dongrang: "Anyway, if the entrance opened while she was alive... her consciousness might have been wrapped up in this, as ours were." Yi Sang: "... For what reason did you stab Dongbaek?" Dongrang: "She hesitated a little too much... What, did you want this kind of eulogy from me?"
Dongrang: "No, it's really... You knew as well, Yi Sang. In that state, Dongbaek's death was imminent... Her life would've painfully scattered away if I let her be." Dongrang: "That's why you can't lash out at me, despite the anger boiling inside you. It wouldn't have made much of a difference."
The bulk of this analysis will wait until the postscript but man, Squirt already gave me an overview of The Wings and it is sending me how on an emotional level Dongrang maps most closely to the narrator's abusive, cheating wife whom he can't even bring himself to hate because he can't see a way for his anger to solve anything. Something as simple as 'why did you stab our lifelong friend in front of me like that' still gets Dongrang manipulate mansplain malewifing his way through it all.
Genuinely an extremely fun experience to barge into your DM's like "get a load of this shit you thought the narrator couldn't get sadder well just wait-" and get to watch you experience a brainblast as the pieces lock into place.
Meursault (Unknown League Member): "As everyone wished... We were free to continue our research here. Even though we had to yield the colours in them, making it so they didn't outwardly shine."
Oh, yes. That sepia tone? That's not a non-diagetic choice to convey that this is a world of memories. T Corp just looks like that. Even the flower, faintly visible beyond the window on the left, is totally monochrome.
Faust: "In T Corp's district, having colours is a kind of privilege." Sinclair: "They take away colours?" Ishmael: "Colours establish identity. There are few better ways to rob one of uniqueness than this. Isn't that right?" Faust: "For sure."
God, what an oddly casual response from Faust.
Heathcliff seems more sombre than usual talking about the way T Corp robs the world of colour. Wonder why that's the case? Probably nothing important!
A genuine moment of "what the absolute fuck" that slips by quickly in the midst of everything else but still deserves to be highlighted. The City is such a nightmare hellscape that one of its districts decided that colours were too great a source of joy for the poor people that lived there, so they enforced a sepia filter over everything unless you pay premiums for it. Genuinely just one of the more subtle but horrifying aspects to the whole situation.
Dongrang: "It was abandoned by its mother. Seeking warmth to lean on is an instinct all living beings have." Dongbaek: "Well, by now, I guess it... has offspring?" Dongrang: "Hm, probably not. That calf was male."
Another important thematic thread shows itself, hinting at hitherto unseen depths to Dongrang - it's no coincidence that the yellow calf is crying in this CG, when tears are a core motif for the entire Canto.
It's kind of fascinating comparing the way Dongrang treats the calf in his memories compared to how he treats Brazen Bull in the present. Obviously one's an animal and one's an Abnormality, but the fact that the younger Dongrang wanted to ease even an animal's pain for no other reason than because it was in pain at all and the older Dongrang is instead cruelly setting up situations where its pain and the pain of all those around it are maximised for profit is a deft bit of writing.
Yi Sang (VO): "Those who I have brushed past until now asked the same question." Yi Sang (VO): "However, as I did not possess the eloquence to utter a concise answer in words and the matter itself was too wearisome and perplexing to clearly summarize..." Yi Sang (VO): "I would substitute my answer with a figurative blank sheet of paper."
He is, and I cannot stress this enough, just like me fr.
Yi Sang (VO): "I would feel a desire to scatter into the winds in lush blue, sensing the sway of seeds plunging into my scrawling mind."
I feel like a lot of these posts is me pointing at stuff and going "i recognise that that's the wings that's the wings!!!" but I sincerely can't emphasise enough the sheer bleakness of the narrator's lack of will or energy or effort to actually feel things about his life, to actually change anything. They captured that aspect absolutely perfectly with Yi Sang here.
It's left to implication in this scene, but Young-ji as the inventor of the Window is a reference to the real Jeong Ji-yong's poem Yurichang/Windowpane, believed in the critical sphere to have been influenced by the deaths of his children shortly before publication.
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "... that's... how you see it, Dongbaek..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "I'd like to know what you think as well, Yi Sang." Yi Sang: "... as Dongrang rightfully assessed, this is nothing short of a great first discovery. Alas..." Yi Sang: "If frost were to form on the glass window... It will blur the reflected image all the same. As such, the frame of this glass window... will need to be made firmer and straighter." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Yi Sang, you managed to see through its essence from just a single glance. But personally... I can't seem to think of a way, so how about this instead?" Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Yi Sang, try creating it in your own way." Yi Sang: "My own way..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "That's right. By the next conference." Yi Sang: "Is it... truly okay for me... to handle a technology as valuable as the glass window?" Hong Lu (Young-ji): "You got it wrong. I'm making this suggestion because it's valuable."
Yi Sang's mention of frost forming on the window is another reference to the poem Yurichang, the narrator's own breath condensing on the glass in the form of 'frozen wings' doubtless the inspiration for Young-ji's windowpane appearing to resurrect an ethereal white butterfly in the CG. Yi Sang's hesitance to do as Young-ji suggests is likely inspired in part by the fact that Jeong Ji-yong was the eldest of the real-life Guinhoe, as evidenced by the Young-ji of Limbus Company constantly being referred to as 'Brother' (hyeong, connotations of seniority and hierarchy, similar to the Japanese aniki).
Genuinely super fascinating to see how they're using the real life League of Nine's relationships as inspiration here, beyond just the inspirations that come from their works.
Dongrang: "Now that intrigues me. What is it, Sang-heo?' Outis (Sang-heo): "This invention. Wasn't this your work for the League of Nine, Gap-ryong?" Heathcliff (Gap-ryong): "It... is. But, I mean... there's no need to scour the markets and all that, right? It, it's trust and faith that binds us together, isn't it?"
Heathcliff is noticeably the worst at delivering his lines at first, which may be equal parts shyness about performing (much like Outis showed) and genuine difficulty sight-reading his lines, but either way it's a very endearing character flourish.
Outis (Sangh-heo): "You must have forgotten the League's nine laws." Ryoshu: "(L.N.L. Pft. Fascinating.)" Sinclair: "(Ryoshu! You aren't supposed to say things that aren't in the script!)" Heathcliff (Gap-ryong): "Tsk... I know. They made me memorise every word of it, you think I'll forget? No technology made within the league shall be distributed outside. Be particularly careful not to be tainted with the smell of money. But... we've been told that all our property will be seized if we don't pay the rent for the laboratory within the next six days. What are we supposed to do?" Heathcliff (Gap-ryong): "We've got to do something about it. The money we earn at the factory can only barely keep us fed. We got here from S Corp's district, taking nothing but passion for research with us! Tell me how else we're gonna pay the rent." Meursault (Unknown League Member): "That's a valid point. Taxes are heavier on us because we migrated from another district. They are demanding a fee we cannot afford to pay regularly." Yi Sang: "... I can pay that. So I suggest we put this matter to rest."
Outis (Sang-heo): "I understand that you're upset, but be mindful of what you say to Brother Young-ji, Dongbaek." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "I'm fine, Sang-heo. Dongbaek, I was planning to tell you once it had been dealt with. I figured you'd be the first to get furious about matters concerning the League. And Yi Sang, while I sincerely appreciate your offer, I couldn't possibly take it." Yi Sang: "It bothers me not, for accumulating wealth has no meaning to me. I urge you to spend it for the League's sake."
And of course, it's no surprise that the first cracks in the League come from taxation. The League are arbitrarily taxed at a higher rate than the others because they came from a different district, and the factory jobs that the majority have gotten to support themselves simply aren't enough. The temptation to sell their technology grows, despite their attempts to commit to the ideals of the League, and without any active thought or planning the machinations of capitalism have begun to grind them down and squeeze them for all the creativity and innovation they're worth.
Yi Sang (VO): "And, I happened to catch a signal while turning out numerous noises and shatterings." Yi Sang (VO): "In Yeonsim, I met you at last."
Yi Sang: "It's a pleasure to meet you. I am..." Sang Yi: "Yi Sang, isn't it. What a peculiar experience this is. And that mirror you're holding..." Yi Sang: "It's what I call Yeonsim."
Check it out, Sang Yi even has reversed colours for his nameplate.
Yi Sang: "This is a product of grinding something... scraping even the mind to polish it." Sang Yi: "I see. I suppose all versions of Yi Sang were dedicated to research. " Yi Sang: "You have wings on your back, if my eyes aren't being deceitful." Sang Yi: "... what do you think of them?" Yi Sang: "... Resplendant." Yi Sang: "They look quite warm... and free." Yi Sang (VO): "We looked into and ahead of each other."
As an aside, the narrator's wife in The Wings is named Yon-sim. Unfortunately I don't know Korean, so I'm not sure if this is a pun (in fairness they pun so hard with Yi Sang sometimes it makes me suspicious) or just a coinkidink.
Can you imagine how fucked this feels to Yi Sang and Dongrang? They're not learning as they go like the other Sinners or perception filtering out the oddities like the reminisced Dongbaek, they're consciously reliving the story of their mutual downfall and having to stare each other in the face while they do it.
Honestly in hindsight Kromer was coasting on Sinclair's past being viscerally, directly fucked up. This stageplay version of the past is so incredibly discomforting in comparison.
This is Fairy Gentleman, the source of the Sloshing EGO suits. He's also a Thread Luxcavation target so I could probably explain his mechanics in my sleep, so I'm gonna keep this short and reserve my brainpower for the rest of this long-ass dungeon.
you really have to wonder why Faust made these Abnormality observation reports blogposts anybody else on the bus can comment on unless she was shit-stirring on purpose (which is not impossible).
Unknown Boy: "But here..." Unknown Boy: "I can see lone stars looking down at us" Unknown Boy: "Since the city I can see from here is filled with cries of pain and despair..."
Faust doesn't even try to hide how this little digression in Yi Sang's story relates to Dante. She looks them dead in the... clock... and says "this is relevant to the star imagery that's followedf you ever since we started this journey, this is relevant to your past self's goal". The game is hardly playing coy with the parallels between Dante's blatantly supernatural ability to revive the Sinners and the Tears' regenerative properties, the suffering Dante must take on their own shoulders to save others and the suffering inflicted on the Tearful Thing to extract its healing tears. It's practically daring you to surmise that Dante is themself a Singularity or otherwise the same kind of entity, I think because it's more concerned with letting you think about what that means. I already compared and contrasted the clock to the ampules in previous updates, so it's just something for us to keep in mind as we delve deeper into the fathoms.
One of the things I genuinely love about Limbus Company is the tendency for the writing to highlight these things, wait a second for the player to go "oooooh that's probably related to this" and then just say it outright to make sure that you know it's not fucking with you. Worse written games would have the characters in-universe never make these simple leaps of logic so they could milk it, but Limbus actively pushes you to think and lets you know the characters are doing the same.
Yi Sang: "Once children are old enough to learn language, they are taken to factories." Yi Sang: "Among them are those I made... those factories whose architecture I designed with my hands." Hong Lu: "Yi Sang..." Yi Sang: "They were optimised for efficiently monitoring people. It made pressing labourers more convenient than ever." Yi Sang: "Perhaps the reason my income has been rather high is that the owners of those buildings run a profitable business."
Damn Heathcliff sure seems more pensive now that he knows Yi Sang moved to T Corp, wonder what's up with that!
Heathcliff (Gap-ryong?): "Well, even so... It's not like you spent that money to show off. You gave it all for the League." Ishmael (Yurang): "... Do you remember? The first thing I invented... after getting a job at T Corp." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "The identification tags, right?" Ishmael (Yurang): "Yeah, I made them to help lost kids. It's absurd, I know. Maybe I expected it to help more children reunite with their parents." Ishmael (Yurang): "But now... they're being used to monitor the workers' time spent on the job in every factory. Heck, I made those things, and even I'm not free from the obligation to wear one while working." Yi Sang: "Those were the kinds of achievements we accomplished in T Corp's district. Which is why... I became more engrossed in the mirror."
Yi Sang: "So that... I wouldn't have to take anything from anyone."
It's really fucking bleak, honestly, reading about how the League did things that were intended to help, but failed to consider that their technology could have other uses because they were good-hearted idealists and not black-hearted CEOs who looked at tools intended to help lost children and turned them into productivity maximisers. In one fell swoop, things intended to help became more chains around the necks of the common worker, and the League are left watching and knowing that their knowledge and love for inventing and creativity will always be perverted into something cruel and profitable.
And then having the note that it's always something they knew would have to happen at some point, because if you're not the one doing the exploitation, you're going to get exploited yourself.
Nothing too illuminating, pretty much just more translation of mechanics into behaviour the characters are diagetically observing in combat. It is a little amusing at least how Faust just felt compelled to chime in in the comments saying "uhm akshooally it didn't turn into firewood it turned into an egg like any other abnormality" and then she probably adjusted her glasses tipped her fedora and rode her heelies all the way to the back of the bus so she could go to her private room and return to her true passion of moderating Reddit.
Yi Sang (VO): "I saw no meaning in attempting to fathom the caprices of the weather." Yi Sang: "I would simply wait for things to calm, looking out for the day's arrival."
Yi Sang (VO): "I may have heard a faint sound at that moment. Yi Sang (VO): "It was the sound of a crack." Yi Sang (VO): "Knowing well what consequences a miniscule crack could bring about, I chose to look past it..." Yi Sang (VO): "Perhaps I wanted to pretend that I did not hear it..." Yi Sang (VO): "Alas, I was careless in my assumption that I could simply observe slantwise as it comes to pass until it has seeped..."
Okay look I'm not gonna say a lot on this but the narrator from The Wings does also respond to obvious signs of distress and something wrong by just blanking it out and ignoring it so that everything will go back to normal and god but it was soul-crushingly bleak there and it's soul-crushingly bleak here. There's a damn good reason why Yi Sang's primary sin affinity is Sloth.
Dongrang: "You're right, I thought wrong. What's the point in all this." Dongrang: "Wow... Look at that... It really does a good job at burning things. You think its creator was a researcher who had an ardour for genuine study like us?"
So Dongrang feeds his dreams into the fire, and once they burn there's nothing left of them. Not even memories.
I think Drifting Fox is a pretty smartly placed fight with a lot of resonance with the story around it - coming right on the heels of the cutscene we saw, it almost represents Dongrang as much as Dongbaek. Sometimes people can hurt you by trying to help, doubly so when they're going for 'tough love', and it's clear that Dongrang was deeply hurt by what Dongbaek said about his inventions. He used to be the kind of person who wanted to help anyone, anything he saw in his path, but Dongbaek told him to stop being so short-sighted because he believed the League was already doomed and she still wanted to fight for it. But he didn't take what she said to mean 'you need to focus on our problems that we're dealing with right now because it's not like you're going to save the world'. What he heard was that his dream, his passion and his life's work were pointless things worth consigning to the fire.
How do you think he feels about Yi Sang, knowing Dongbaek had nothing but praise for the Mirror? That his frivolous toy captured the imaginations of all who witnessed it save Gubo - Dongbaek included. But K Corp's miracle technology heals all wounds in seconds, so it's fine to ignore his pain.
For all that Dongrang has been an absolute rat bastard this Canto, it's really melancholic to see him like this, being the one to try and argue that they could hold onto things by compromising and then having to reckon with the fact of one of his closest friends telling him to throw his dreams into the fire because they're worthless.
It's definitely worth keeping in mind throughout the Canto that Dongrang really did used to be the kind of person who wanted to help save others, compared to the man who barely blinked when Samjo killed himself for the sake of Dongrang's honor.
Yi Sang: "Dongbaek... has remained oblivious to it. Thusly, she constantly harboured suspicion against us, knowing that it must have been one of us."
Dongbaek gets the honours of the first serious, uncensored curse in the game - and there was no more appropriate time for it.
Yi Sang: "The revelation is what coloured Dongbaek's dying eyes with wrath..." Yi Sang: "And caused the frail EGO to break and fall, snapping, scattering into petals." Dongrang: "... You know, Yi Sang?"
Dongrang: "I'm sure most of them were visited by the agency. It's an unforgettable experience. Yet it's one you couldn't have known since you must've been under T Corp's grace as a skilled architect." Dongrang: "The first visit tends to be sudden and quiet. Most are flustered by the unexpected arrival... but they still keep their pride and faith as a member of the League. The agency knows that as well. They also know that their visit instilled the fear that they might come again whenever they'd like." Dongrang: "The second visit is when things start to change. They now know where my time flows from and where it's headed." Dongrang: "They have my past, present, and future. The shapes of all my weaknesses and desires are in their hands." Dongrang: "What would have been your choice? Under the same circumstances, would you have chosen differently?" Dongrang: "And if so... can you say for sure that you would have?"
It's not an excuse for betrayal, but reading this as the culmination of the slow process of Dongrang's idealism dying as the ruthlessness needed for him to survive and thrive in K Corp was born does have a really sad vibe to it.
Alfonso: "The tears don't have to be by noble means after all." Alfonso: "Everyone, I believe I've found the answer. To take the seat of the chief executive, there's only one simple thing to do: ensure the prosperity of K Corp."
The exact details are left to implication, but I don't think it's a stretch to surmise that Alfonso simply turned around and killed every other person in the boardroom that day. After all, who would stop her? The Singularity's further tears of horror at the sight of her seizing control of Stephanette's company so brutally would only be proof to the shareholders that she has what it takes to lead the company to greater profits.
It didn't matter that Stephanette was one of the good ones. That she was kind and patient and selfless and without vanity. She created a monster that outlived her, and everyone gets to pay for it, because that's how it is in the City. That's that and this is this.
This is the first time we see actual higher ups, the C-Suite of a Wing, and it's really something. Compared to the people like Samjo who were earnest and loyal, the people like Shrenne who were underachievers who wanted to do the right thing, or even people like Dongrang who tempered and smothered their idealism in service of profit, all of the people in the running for the director are selfish and ruthless in the extreme, willing to murder at the drop of a hat to increase their personal power, and it's Alfonso's recognition of the fact that there's a far easier way to gather tears than reading sad stories that implicitly rockets them into the seat of director.
All it took was the willingness to look at a gentle, selfless creature that cried for the sake of everyone else, and figure out how to squeeze it hard enough to raise the quarterly profit report a few percentage points.
Faust: "Your pleas won't reach them. This one didn't come from Yi Sang... it's a fragmented scene concerning the tears." Dongrang: "Ah, in case you aren't familiar, that one Singularity has saved countless lives." Dongrang: "It was like someone fulfilled my old dream I couldn't make true." Rodion: "..." Dongrang: "If, say, I were in that vat... I would have gladly given up everything I had. Every single thing, with no exception." Dongrang: "So all we can do is just... look at it with gratitude and respect."
This really is something interesting to me, because I don't honestly think he's lying? He's long past it, but there has to be a level of admiration for the Tearful Thing, the creature that can do what Dongrang grew up wanting to do because that dream died. I genuinely believe that he does, on some level, truly admire it.
But like...think about what he does to it. He's in charge of the new setup, the mirrors and the massacres that extract the maximum amount of tears. Dongrang looks at this creature that's everything he wanted to be, and in the same breath as he offers it praise, he tortures it mercilessly. Self-hatred? Self-delusion? Or both?
Yi Sang (VO): There was no one left to gaze at the mirror and enjoy its sight, and it ceased to be a tool of amusement... yet I still held on to it, for a reason...
Sang Yi: "After around three days of doing so... you'll start seeing things you couldn't before. When that day comes, you will have two options." Sang Yi: "The first is to chew up all the supplements you've gathered. It will put you into a deep sleep. But when you wake, everything wil lreturn to normalcy. You'll spend your days wholly dedicated to the mirror technology like this, chatting with me from time to time. The status quo will be preserved." Sang Yi: "The second... is to leave this place." Yi Sang: "I lack the wings to do so. How will I accomplish that?" Sang Yi: "A chicken may not be able to fly, but that doesn't stop it from flapping its wings." Sang Yi: "It struggles... endlessly." Yi Sang: "You perplex me. At this point in time... where must I even go? I have neither a hometown nor an awaiter to return to." Sang Yi: "Be straightforward. If there is no hometown, you can walk ceaselessly until your feet decide to stop, and make that your new home."
Yi Sang (VO): The room I was in was not closed. It has always been open, and I had the freedom to go anywhere. Walking through the long and narrow hallway, I saw how my mirror was being used. Yi Sang (VO): Then, a sudden wave of lassitude began to surge. If I took the supplements and fell asleep, everything would have stayed alright. And I wished to believe that there must have been a misunderstanding between Gubo and me.
A major turning point in The Wings is the narrator's wife giving him tablets she claims are aspirin for a cold he has after he walks in on her doing something he shouldn't have seen, implicitly cheating on him with another man (he got the cold because she told him to stay out late, it started raining so he came home early, and ended up opening the door to her room before he was supposed to). As time passes he recovers from his cold, but she continues to feed him tablets. When he investigates her room, he finds a bottle of adalin instead, which is a sedative. He takes multiple tablets and storms off to the hill, wondering why his wife is drugging him and if she's trying to kill him, before taking six adalin and passing out.
After a whole 24 hours he wakes up, and despite the evidence screaming at him right in his face, he starts to rationalise it as having simply taken the incorrect bottle of pills that his wife uses to get to sleep and feels regretful for ever having doubted her, sure that it's simply a misunderstanding.
Heathcliff: "You think we don't know that? You saved the poor creature right before it got crushed to death 'cause you felt like it. I remember when we took turns feeding it milk." Dongrang: "I believed it would be okay to save lives without a price back then." Dongrang: "I guess it wasn't just my work... that burned away in the incinerator that day." Dongrang: "My mind's garden I had been tending to burned down with it." Yi Sang: "Taking a backward glance at our trails... all of us have been suffering great losses."
Yi Sang: "Allow me to apologise. For casting only slantwise glances." Yi Sang: "We were all falling into ruin all the same, and you were no different... I did not realise it then." Dongrang: "..."
Outis: "I'm sure of it. He'll be waiting for you, even if you won't go back." Dongrang: "I don't think... it'll recognise me..." Dongrang: "I've changed too much from who I was in the past." Dongrang: "Yeah, you're right. All the trophies and awards on my desk praising my excellence are empty husks."
Dongrang: "That's why I liked photographs. They... contain my image in all its honesty."
You know, I honestly don't think it's an accident that Dongrang's Distortion began right after Yi Sang actually stood up and apologised to him for his passivity and the role it had in the League's downfall.
Dongrang has spent so long being a heartless corporate pawn, but there is still some of his old self in there, and the stageplay dragged it up enough that it could be horrified at what he'd become. So horrified, in fact, that he begins Distorting immediately upon the conclusion of the tale—but I think the key trigger, the thing that did it more than anything else, was Yi Sang truly apologising to him specifically for not noticing his pain earlier, even after everything he's said and done to him and Dongbaek this Canto.
I've always wondered if the Concept Incinerator did more than just remove the memories of the thing that was burnt in it. Because to me, it always felt as if the Concept Incinerator also removed/suppresses the motivations and memories associated with the person creating the thing that was incinerated. Eunbong's Owner forgot that he created his chicken shop, and by proxy we assume the recipe as well, because of what he perceived to love and self-sacrifice on behalf of his mother.
Maybe that's part of the reason why Dongbaek and Dongrang spiralled so badly, each trying to fill a figurative void that was burnt into them with the destruction of the inventions they each poured their heart and soul into.
I just realized that even Sang Yi--Yi Sang's idealized self crush--goes with 'yeah you either fuck someone over or get fucked by someone here, them's the breaks'.
Capitalist Realism so strong it works on alternate realities that are the best version of your life.
I just realized that even Sang Yi--Yi Sang's idealized self crush--goes with 'yeah you either fuck someone over or get fucked by someone here, them's the breaks'.
Capitalist Realism so strong it works on alternate realities that are the best version of your life.
I'm basically convinced that we're going to fight and surpass Sang Yi for the culmination of Yi Sang's arc, because dude is sus af. He is the peak of Yi Sang's love for the Mirror... Which is quite literally named after Yi Sang's wife.
Oh, and Ishmael, an outside observer of their relationship, explicitly notes that it seems like Sang Yi wanted Yi Sang to stay in the room. Just like the wife.
But, Lazy, you might be saying now. Isn't Gubo Yi Sang's wife? Well. Yi Sang is the City's wettest and most pathetic little kitty cat. I'm sure he can have multiple wives.
These are the two points of evidence I find the most convincing about Sang Yi's deep and fundamental susness, but there's more. I'd link the Tumblr post which really turned me into a Sang Yi truther, but it's got minor spoilers for something in Canto IV we haven't gotten to yet. Alas... I'm incredibly excited for the fight with Dongrang and the conclusion of Canto IV.
We come to our climactic battle with the Distorted form of Yi Sang's long-lost friend: Dongrang, Who Denies All.
Dongrang Who Denies All, or simply Distorted Dongrang as I will refer to him now, has few weaknesses but mercifully few strengths to go with it - he has full resistance to Lust but is weak to pierce, Gloom and Envy. Our team is predominantly blunt and slash, but that's fine by me given the kind of fight that Distorted Dongrang is. He opens with a full set of decently-rolling Gloom skills inflicting a smattering of Rupture, but more importantly the unique skill You're Empty As Well. The recipient of this skill will receive the Empty Mark status for the following two turns, causing them to become the focus of Dongrang's ire: 2 Bind, +50% damage received, and targeted by every one of his skills.
It's like the duel with Dongbaek - who else could it be?
Distorted Dongrang begins mixing in his Wrath skill Thinning, which deals a further 50% bonus damage to the recipient of his Hollow Mark as well as causing him to gain 1 Attack Power Up next turn (up to twice per skill) on hit. It was dangerous to make Yi Sang his target, as he doesn't roll fantastically nor does he currently have the SP to back it up, but fortunately Distorted Dongrang is incredibly slow with only a 1-3 speed range. I (probably wrongly) worry more about Destruction, his high Attack Weight Gloom skill that he's also firing, as I'd prefer nobody but Yi Sang get slapped around this turn. I clash it with To Pathos Mathos, as getting that passive online on only turn 2 means Outis will be dealing 30% more damage basically for the rest of the battle, and I would very much like Backslash to be dealing 50% more damage to this slow-ass boss. I threw Crow's Eye View at a clash too, forgetting that the teamwide Haste would be wasted on such a slow boss, and that the same-turn Attack Power Down really wants Yi Sang to go first for that to matter.
Worse, when he uses the same rotation the next turn, Distorted Dongrang is able to overcome Yi Sang and deal a decisive Thinning to him. Fortunately Yi Sang is neutral to Wrath thanks to Crow's Eye View and his Dieci ID is both naturally tough and neutral to Slash, so it ultimately doesn't come to much.
I genuinely don't know what happened here. I could find no elaboration in his passives or on the wikis otherwise, there just appears to be some special interaction where after the two turns trying to kill his Hollow Marked target Distorted Dongrang staggers himself. He has no natural stagger thresholds in this form, nor was his body anywhere near breaking, but I take what I can get and pour everything I've got down on him. Hongler and Meursault are at 3 Insight just when I want them to, Outis is starting to scale, Sinclair is going insane, and- oh hey it's that thing I said I've never had the chance to use! Yi Sang got hit by Distorted Dongrang last turn, so he's going to deal 20% more damage to him with a damage type he's weak to - in this case, because he's staggered, that's Everything.
But that was just the appetiser. Distorted Dongrang's body breaks to reveal his second phase, and the truth behind the ragged farmer's smock haphazardly draped over him to hide his true ugliness. He's little more than a pseudo Gluttony Peccatulum, a parasite rooted in the body of a bloodied, starved cow. Only his hat remains, perched atop an inhuman, slavering, ever-hungry maw.
He's also brought friends. The Trees of Vanity will give Distorted Dongrang 1 Protection and Attack Power Up each turn they exist through the green Radiant Vanity buff that they have there, stacking of course, and this turn of their first arrival is the only grace period we'll get. The golden buff they have, Earnest Accomplishment, ensures that the Trees cannot be destroyed by the Sinners' attacks, and if Dongrang is able to devour them he'll both heal and massively buff himself next turn. So what do we do?
Break them anyway, because fuck Dongrang.
Still Not Enough... and Must Fill... apply a bunch of Bleed, which is of no use to him when attacking the Trees of Vanity since they never take action. The damage forecasts on his skills come in very handy, as they let you know how much leeway you have for the damage he'll deal, and reassure you it's impossible for him to eliminate a Tree on the first turn even if he doubles them.
What's the point of attacking them? If the Sinners reduce a Tree of Vanity to 1hp, they reveal Dongrang's accomplishments for the hollow platitudes that they are. The Earnest Honour buff is replaced by Empty Honour, the golden statuette icon chipped and spoiled, and now if Dongrang consumes the tree...
... the promised fruit of 'his' labour turns to ash in his mouth.
This is the perfect turn to score some free damage on him despite the Protection stacks, but that 2 Attack Power makes it a dangerous gamble to try and clash with him. Fortunately Sinclair is going first, and the only positive status he has to absorb is Fanatic, which is completely useless to Dongrang. I let him take the fall, and Distorted Dongrang consumes the final two idols to his sham of a life.
Once he accumulates 4 Emptiness stacks from consuming broken Trees of Vanity, Distorted Dongrang is force-staggered. More free damage.
With every Tree of Vanity gone, once he recovers he has only these pitiful 5+1 skills left to oppose us. We mean to clash them all for some easy SP, but the body has so little hp left that only Yi Sang and Hong Lu are able to win clashes before Dongrang is staggered yet again at a flawless 1000 health. We're in the home stretch now.
And... ah, let's see what Yi Sang has to say about all this, shall we?
Yi Sang (Observation Report): He didn't change after we moved to T Corp's territory. He readily picked up starving animals from the streets to raise them. I thought that he was perhaps reminded of the calf he left in his hometown, although I did not say it out loud. However, as the technologies in the League began to be evaluated for material value, he changed little by little. While Brother Young-ji's glass window attracted the attention of people in higher echelons and the public, and I presented my mirror... The worth of Dongrang's works wasn't regarded as highly. It must have disheartened the fellow. Yi Sang (Observation Report): When T Corp. came to us for our technology, Dongrang's invention was thrown into the concept incinerator as a means to deceive the greedy guests... I can only think that the fire scorched his heart more ferociously at that moment. After the League scattered apart, Dongrang became a researcher working in an enviable position, dealing with matters of life as he had always wished. Alas... I no longer see the innocent gaze toward life in his eyes. In consequence, as he unearths memories of the calf he left behind, buried under the thoughts of his technology falling behind... Yi Sang (Observation Report): ...I fear that he may have lost track of where to go.
No longer adorned even with the wide-brim hat and ersatz fur collar, the grotesque parasite puppeting the cow's carcass is laid bare. There's nothing but mindless want left, every skill targeting indiscriminately, draining 2% of his max health with every skill used from his Self Destruction passive as his own boundless hunger consumes him from within. There is no more vain pursuit of recognition, only trees heavy with the fruit of Dongrang's resentment for the League of Nine. The entity that destroys a Resentful Tree gains 1 Haste and Attack Power Up next turn on top of healing 5% of its max HP, benefits that we do not want to allow Distorted Dongrang to exploit. His mass attack, It's All Burned Up, may not be able to oneshot the Resentful Trees but it heals him by 10% of the damage dealt unconditionally (with the passive Self Salvation doubling that healing potency), on top of inflicting 2 Fragile, 5 Bleed and 5 Rupture, so we absolutely don't want him to fire that either way.
Fortunately Hong Lu is here, and he'd like to show off his base EGO.
Remember how I said the damage type mismatch didn't matter so much because of 'the type of fight' this is? That's because Distorted Dongrang wants you to be able to efficiently destroy his adds more than anything, and with a 1.5x weakness to Blunt Hongler's base EGO is able to oneshot two of the trees on top of cancelling It's All Burned Up. The rest of the team efficiently dispatch every single remaining Resentful Tree in the span of a single round, denying Dongrang anything else to even attack.
Every turn he'll ensure there's a minimum of at least 2 Resentful Trees on the field. This is the final sprint for the finish, either Dongrang wins the war of attrition by feeding on the fruit or you starve him and bleed him dry in turn.
Until this LP, I'd only ever refought Dongrang Who Denies All through Mirror Dungeon, and by the time you get to a floor with that card pack available you're going to be strong enough to utterly fucking demolish him. I was grateful for the chance to redo this fight on-par, and reexperience just how it feels to watch him flail madly at you again and again, slowly starving and withering away, listening to the impeccable work of Studio EIM until the time at last comes to deal the final blow.
And who else could mark his end than Yi Sang?
The battle is won, and we receive the dungeon's final EGO Gift. Exactly the thing to shore up Yi Sang's subpar numbers.
The final floor map is a square within a square within a square much like Yi Sang described his mirror. We've defeated Distorted Dongrang, but one final rest stop - and the centre of the spiral - remain.
The point of no return.
In his final moments Dongrang sees the yellow calf he loved so much approach him in the fields of his hometown.
And it passes him by.
Dongrang: "I'm almost there. Soon... I'll make my own technology to fill myself up."
In the darkness there is the sound of a blade slicing through flesh, and a spray of blood.
Dongrang: "Ah, sorry for the delay. I was reminded of something I left in my hometown..." Dongrang: "But I've realised that now is the time to be thinking about what I'll gain from now on instead of what I left behind." Alfonso: "Anyone can have a moment of foolishness."
In this memory, Dongrang lays out his master plan, the reason he was raised so high in K Corp's hierarchy - this business of torturing and curing, torturing and curing, expending the very same tears they're harvesting to regenerate those they mutilate, it's so inefficient isn't it? Alfonso has already started importing snuff footage from Wings and Syndicates the City over to supplement the company's needs, but they're beginning to get wise to the demand and raising their prices.
Thus, Brother Young-ji's Window, which he created to show a world in which a dying butterfly could still fly.
We will talk about Carmen later, believe you me.
Dongrang isn't turning away from the ugliness he sees in the mirror any more. Dongrang doesn't want to hide from the emptiness inside him any longer. He's not just cured like Eunbong's owner. Far, far from it.
Yi Sang: "Dongrang... after coming such a long way 'round... have you at last returned to this path?" Dongrang, Who Denies All: "When I look into the eye... I don't feel the sympathy I used to feel any more. Instead... Do you see that? A pale imitation of the League's renowed glass window, made by leeching off it... It's now become the flag that raised the esteem of K Corp's Singularity high." Yi Sang: "... Yes, I can see it well." Dongrang, Who Denies All: "Brother Young-ji has left, Dongbaek has returned to the bed of flowers..."
Dongrang, Who Denies All: "My shoddy copy of the glass, which didn't manage to be anything. What use is technology that can't change the world?"
I know you are still with me
All I need is a nudge to get me started
Dongrang's EGO has effloresced, blooming to its ideal form as the Farmwatch. To be specific, according to the wiki this is a translation of the Korean term mareum, historically used for a kind of gofer between a landowner and the farmer who works his fields - a position of fleeting temporal power, able to exploit those under them while remaining utterly replaceable to those above them. Dongrang manifested his innermost self in its ideal state against the weight of Distortion, and being a middle-manager again was the highest he could dream. Even so, natural-born EGO is no joke, and this man who loved to chatter about how useless he'd be in a fight now stands against seven Sinners as a peer opponent.
Yi Sang (Observation Report): After being cast adrift, it would seem that he now has a clearly set path ahead. I no longer see the Dongrang who concealed shaky eyes with his usual smile. I now see a man striding forward and straight... toward claiming his glory and power.
Farmwatch Dongrang has shuffled his affinities slightly, gaining minor resistances to blunt, Envy and Gloom (formerly weak to the latter two) while gaining weaknesses to Gluttony and Pride (formerly neutral). Having regained his senses he now possesses SP too, with the bog-standard clauses of 'gain SP from winning clashes and killing people, lose SP from the death of an ally'. We may not be a full Sinking team but the Dieci IDs do inflict some, further enhanced by the spicebush branch EGO gift, and that's going to come in real handy for us soon, as like Dongbaek's EGO form Dongrang is packing a lot of skills with extremely high base power to try and win a swift advantage with all of us starting at 0 SP. To make matters worse, he summons adds which apply stacking buffs to him every turn they survive just like his Distorted form, albeit this time they only give him Damage Up instead of Attack Power Up. This lets us manage clashing with him more effectively, but now the trees get their own attacks, and they don't let up. In contrast to Dongbaek's Blooming status, his attacks and those of his adds inflict Seeds, a kind of dummy debuff that decays by 1 per turn so there's really no negative effects so long as you make sure they don't reach 5 or more.
Fly, broken wings
To somwhere we can be free
And something of note about the Mili song currently playing, certain words simply don't show up on the background text that otherwise acts as subtitles for the lyrics. These specific words, rendered in quotation marks in the official lyrics, are those which are homophones in Korean: that's right, it's 'yisang' puns again. The missing word in the screenshot above is, what else, "ideal".
Yi Sang (Observation Report): He would have pondered a long time for this. Between a life of the mind's fruitfulness borne out of tending to living beings, and a life of gluttony where he may escape the shadows of the League and find recognition for his own work. Dongrang seems to have chosen the latter. Doing so, he must have faced the yellow calf that had been weighing his heart down in his mind... and killed it.
Though I've made it a kind of 'soft restriction' to avoid using Fluid Sac as a crutch, I immediately cease fucking around and pop both Land of Illusion and Representation Emitter. Dongrang might've started resisting blunt but his trees sure haven't and Land of Illusion is able to cripple the front two, setting them up to be swept away by Meursault and Yi Sang (which was total overkill because I targeted them with Sloth skills and the trees are Fatal to that but shhh). I don't even lose anything from popping his base EGO so early as Land of Illusion replenishes the 15 SP cost of firing it after executing the attack, making it SP-free to execute just like every base EGO was at launch as if in a nod to just how common SP heals are on Hong Lu IDs. Even better, he'll be healing SP based on resonance every turn for the rest of the battle. Representations Emitter gets fucked by arcane back-of-the-box Attack Weight calculations and only manages to hit Dongrang himself, but spreading 10 SP around is its own reward.
8 hostile action slots - 7 Sinners = 1 unopposed attack still slipping through, so I decide to ignore the one headed for Yi Sang's face because as previously discussed taking large amounts of pierce damage is truly Ideal for him.
The plan worked perfectly. The gang's SP is rising fast - er, perhaps too fast in NClair's case - and with two trees gone in the first turn action economy has swung in our direction. We especially want to watch out for that Envy skill he keeps throwing on one of his action slots, Cultivate - it inflicts up to 2 Bind and Paralyse next turn on heads hit, and we don't want to be dealing with Paralyse on top of everything else. He'll otherwise use the Gluttony skills to inflict debuffs like Bind and Fragile while stacking Seeds, with the goal to reach 5+ and convert them into the Nutrient Drain status. Nutrient Drain causes Dongrang to heal 10hp at the end of the turn - presumably stacking for each Sinner so afflicted but I can't say for sure because I've never let him get 5 Seeds on me.
Yi Sang (Observation Report): Since he abandoned his hometown and the calf, he appeared hungry at all times. Hunger for recognition, constant weighing of what he left behind and what he has now, and the infinitesimal weight of his share. Dongrang... has found a way to lead himself onward through the barley hump, ending this period of famine and swiping what few grains of rice that remain for him to chew on.
Oh, and another unique thing about this song - it doesn't loop. That first verse plays twice, and then it fades into the instrumental until the end of this phase.
That +2 Final Power from the Piece of a Broken Bond status Yi Sang is packing puts in the work, and we knock Dongrang's lights out into the phase transition.
Narration: Even if his technology isn't recognised... even when he thinks of the yellow calf in his hometown... he isn't sad any more. Dongrang: "The past is all useless. I'll burn it all. And Yi Sang, I'd like you gone as well."
Dongrang rushes at Yi Sang, and there's no choice but to stand in his way.
Yi Sang is powerless to defend himself. He hasn't the will to stand up to Dongrang in this idealised form, not when all he's done is observe silent and numb from the sidelines as everything they cherished fell apart.
But Yi Sang isn't alone today, and where he has a crippling -10 modifier to the skill check every other Sinner has a +5 that makes it all too easy to blindside Dongrang and pass the check.
Hong Lu gains 1 Attack Power for his heroic intervention, and Dongrang gains 2 Fragile to offset the Protection stacking from his adds.
Yi Sang (Observation Report): And now, he seems intent on killing me as his very first move. Removing the closest shade of the past before his eyes. Dongrang walks toward me, one step at a time... Yi Sang (Observation Report): And each time his foot touches the ground, sceneries of all things falling ill and being sacrificed hover before my eyes.
Teary-eyed
I watched as you rotted away
The mirror says
That I still remember hope
Dongrang summons two replacement Trees of Desire as phase 2 opens, and begins using his third Gluttony skill, Overgrowth. This rather insidious one-coin skill actually heals the target by 15hp on hit. That's because it also inflicts Seeds and his third unique status effect Overheal, which tracks the total amount of healing that Dongrang has caused. Once it reaches 50, the victim takes the count as Gluttony damage and it is converted into 5 Fragile for good measure. Needless to say we don't want that on us, and with a ceiling of only 11 it's not too hard to repel each time.
Another Land of Illusion finally sweeps the board of all Trees of Desire, leaving Dongrang alone and rather badly sapped of SP thanks to the steady Sinking application we've been chipping away at him with.
This triggers his Low Morale effect, granting him Damage Up in exchange for 2 stacks of Fragile. We appreciate any source of bonus damage we can get, as Farmwatch Dongrang is impossible to stagger save for a specific scripted trigger you'll only hit by really dragging out the fight. Otherwise it's a straight slugfest, him and us until somebody blinks first. He now starts spamming his Pride skill Time of Harvest, rolling a rather fantastic 7+(6x2) that would be a lot tougher to handle if it weren't for his awful SP situation. He would use this to exploit the Nutrient Drain status on anybody, healing another 20hp and gaining a fat 2 Attack Power Up next turn each time he does it, but we've denied him that particular pleasure.
Phase 2 ends shortly after, and Dongrang takes another run at Yi Sang.
Dongrang: "In other words, I will have no business left with you once Yi Sang is gone." Narration: Dongrang frowned, seeming quite displeased. Dongrang: "And yet... Why do you keep interrupting?" Narration: Dongrang seems to be preparing for a powerful attack. Maybe this gap could be exploited.
The Sinners have no particular reason to take Dongrang at his word after everything else they've seen but the fact remains that Dongrang is effectively offering to let the rest of the LCB division walk away unscathed, maybe even with the Bough, in exchange for Yi Sang. When you really think about it, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by letting Dongrang have what he wants.
And Dongrang receives a sucker-punch from the largest Frenchman alive for his trouble.
Dongrang: "Kgh..." Narration: It looks like the attack was successful. The move Dongrang was preparing didn't come through. Dongrang: "I see where you stand... then I'll just get rid of you all along with Yi Sang and his ideal."
Meursault gains 1 Attack Power Up for the intervention just like Hong Lu did, Dongrang takes a whopping 4 Fragile, and the entire team gains 5 Protection for good measure.
Please Be My Nutrient is his big 'nuke' skill, but it doesn't have shit on Magnificent Spring Breeze. 3 Seeds means nothing to us, 10hp healed means nothing to him, and he's completely bottomed out his SP (gaining 2 Damage Up and another 5 Fragile on top of the 4 he already got from the skill check) so he's definitely gonna hit tails and deals 0 fucking damage. But...
God did I want to use this EGO right here and now, and wouldn't you know it even the lucky 5% heads-flip can't save Dongrang from it.
Mantling the power of the Abnormality that connects him, Dongrang and Dongbaek, Yi Sang shields his comrades from the icy rain with a phalanx of umbrellas, and gazes up at the sky hopefully as the sun breaks through the clouds.
Yi Sang's Sunshower is insanely strong. So strong that it was retroactively upgraded in risk ranking from HE to WAW (ironically making it weaker than other WAWs as it has less favourable sin affinities leftover from its HE days). Project Moon were even kind enough to warn everybody a week or two before the switch so people could Threadspin it to 4 before the risk upgrade made that more expensive, and naturally I partook. So, technically, this is too strong to be LP legal here and now.
But god, it's lowkey my favourite EGO. The vibe is immaculate. No matter how strong and flashy and cool future EGO get, they'll have a hard time beating this image for me.
You're doing what you love Isn't that enough? Isn't that enough?
A genius perfect job
Isn't that enough? Isn't that enough?
The board has been swept, Dongrang snapped back from Panic with 2 Protection to show for it, but thanks to Sunshower my whole party still has 3 Protection too. This comes in real handy as I once again try to lower NClair's sanity via Branch of Knowledge and he absolutely beefs a clash with Dongrang.
Again and again, you locked me down, I locked me down
We staked me to the ground
The soil gave me warmth
It's kind of a shame that Dongrang's Effloresced EGO is ultimately kind of underwhelming. How much of this is down to other factors - game knowledge, team composition, access to IDs released after Season 2, the possibility that Dongrang was intended to be weaker than Dongbaek - I have no way of really knowing. But what I can tell you is that the vibe of fighting Dongrang like this, this placid black-hearted researcher turned coldly determined warrior in the golden wheat field of his heart's desire, the rising sun in the distance blackened by the smog of T Corp's smokestacks, the field littered with rotting cow carcasses riddled with K Corp regeneration ampules... it's something else.
Outis finishes it neatly, precisely, but Dongrang clings to life.
Narration: Coming to a sudden realisation, Dongrang stopped in place. He looked at the ceiling as though he was looking up at the stars in the sky. Dongrang: "At this very moment... I'm losing out for each second it spends without crying. The opportunities and time to change the world... are scattering." Narration: Dongrang then glared with bloodshot eyes. Dongrang: "Yi Sang... It's you, you're the only one who needs to go for this to be over!"
We go to stand in his way, but...
Yi Sang walks ahead first.
He is the only one selectable for the check now.
And with a +20 modifier, it is impossible for him to fail.
Dongrang: "Yi Sang..." Yi Sang: "I plead you, end this now... Dongrang." Dongrang: "Haha... how can I? In the end, someone... has to... cry tears, isn't that right?" Yi Sang: "...!" Dongrang: "Let's end it this way... Yi Sang..."
Dongrang rushes the party with a flourishing, leaping slash.
Leaving us to slowly zoom in on Yi Sang, reality giving way in favour of his innermost thoughts and feelings.
Yi Sang (VO): Though I was certain that I had left...
Yi Sang (VO): At this point, all things have been reduced to mere dots to me, utterly incapable of stimulation or inspiration. Will I follow this meaningless walk, wandering my whole life? Yi Sang (VO): We're only chickens whose wings are clipped perpetually...
Somewhere offscreen, at a remove from Yi Sang but able to perceive his internal conflict, Sinclair worries for him. But it is Hong Lu that speaks up.
Hong Lu: "Dante. Even though I only delivered Young-ji's words with my tongue... it does give me a thought." Hong Lu: "Maybe, these letters that Yi Sang wrote... weren't just meant for the Yi Sang in the mirror alone." Hong Lu: "To all the people he had ties with in the past, those he knows in the present, and those he might meet in the future." Dante: <You mean, including us...>
Dante: <Yi Sang... what was on your mind just before you left N Corp?>
Yi Sang (VO): The stars lost their shine and let darkness fill the air, and I felt as though I were crippled.
Yi Sang (VO): The thread of hope couldn't be thinner, but I held onto that faint possibility.
And thinking of the day he first created the Mirror, in this place where thoughts and emotion dictate reality, who should he see but...
Dongbaek: That's why they seemed so far, and that's why I could only look. It's why I had to settle for this reality. Like how I dreamed of stars as I watched fireworks. But the mirror..." Dongbaek: "What it shows are possibilities. So... do you see what I'm getting at? You don't have to envy the mirrored images. What you saw... were the possibilities you held." Dongbaek: "You've had them all along. The wings to make your possibility a reality." Dongbaek: "... that's what I wanted to tell you." Yi Sang: "..."
Faust(?): "If you join Limbus Company... I promise that we'll help you recover your torn and broken wings. And..."
Yi Sang: "I..." Yi Sang: "I do not possess the talent to pick up shattered pieces. However, those sparkling eyes... they were not feigned." Sang Yi: "Our torturous path will circle around misery. What we thought were bonds will inevitably be lost, and precious things will shatter into shards that stab your soft heart." Yi Sang: "... I am well aware. It is for that reason all things would have no more worth than futile ephemerality."
And that's the million-dollar question. Why did he make the mirror? Why did he obsess over it so? What passion and hope did he instill in its creation that so captured the League's hearts? What did he see in the dead butterfly's seeming resurrection that made Young-ji sure that he could realise the Window's true potential?
Yi Sang: "I... never made technology to hold any value in them. I know well enough that I have no way to return to the past." Yi Sang: "Simply..." Sang Yi (Flashback): "That mirror you're holding..." Yi Sang (Flashback): "It's what I call Yeonsim."
Yi Sang (Flashback): "This is a product of grinding something... scraping even the mind to polish it." Sang Yi (Flashback): "I see. I suppose all versions of Yi Sang were dedicated to research."
He didn't just want to see the ideal. He wanted to reach it. He may have forgotten, maybe not even realised it himself at the time, but it was himself he wanted to grind and polish and hone into something radiant and flawless. Even back then, he wanted to be better.
Yi Sang: "But I believe I now know the mirror's true name."
Yi Sang: "It's a bridge that joins hearts together." Yi Sang: "I made the mirror because I wished to continue living and flapping and fluttering. I wished to soar into the air once more, even if I fell afterward." Yi Sang: "One day, despair will arrive for certain... It's for that reason... life must go on... as far as it can." Yi Sang: "Whether or not I had wings... mattered not." Sang Yi: "..."
Sang Yi: "All Yi Sangs can see wings, but only one Yi Sang can fly." Yi Sang: "If such is the case..." Sang Yi: "The Yi Sang in the mirror must be the opposite of the Yi Sang outside... but they're quite alike, too." Sang Yi: "I mean the wings you say you saw... those radiant and magnificent wings." Sang Yi: "They're my wings, and they're yours in the reflection. If you saw wings on me, then they were on you as well... they would obviously belong to you."
He opens them again, and meets Dongrang's gaze head-on.
Dongrang: "They sparkled. As brightly... as your wings."
There is a sound like glass cracking and breaking. Dongrang slumps down, out of sight.
Dongrang: "I've... always yearned to... escape the shadows of the League..."
And there is darkness.
Unfortunately, the gang don't get to just grab the Bough and fuck off after all that. With Dongrang's death, so went the contract the LCB division had signed with him. As it is still K Corp property, the only way to get it now is by cutting a new deal with...
... her.
Alfonso: "Since the leader of the terrorists - Dongbaek was it? - has died, their organisation should collapse in no time. As for the remaining problems... I have a suggestion on how to handle them." Alfonso: "Everything that happened in K Corp today was single-handedly caused by a mentally unstable, rebellious employee named Dongrang... in his scheme to unfairly claim personal gains and power within the firm. Do you agree?" Ishmael: "Are you sure you're okay with that cover-up story? He may have opposed us... but he was your employee, wasn't he?" Alfonso: "Well... I did say my goodbyes with a phone call earlier. Some cheeky man he was." Alfonso: "And you're a manager at Limbus Company... Dante, right? You seemed somewhat unassertive for a manager." Alfonso: "If you want to be a leader, you'd best remember to nip any rising problem in its bud. The faster, the better."
Dante: <You also hired Shi Association assassins to silence Shrenne, didn't you?>
Alfonso: "... Hmph, I thought you were something of a half-wit, but I suppose you weren't put in charge for nothing."
God, it would objectively be terrible if Alfonso had heard that because you know she wouldn't stop at beatings and threats like Vergilius, but I only wish Dante had busted out a nice hearty <fuck you>. Unfortunately for a clock they're still a colossal square, so maybe in Canto VIII.
Of course it doesn't end there. The Sinners saw the Tearful Thing. You don't get to grab an eyeful (haha) of a Wing's Singularity and just walk away. Faust at least makes an effort to convince her that an NDA will be enough to keep their mouths shut, but Alfonso bulls right through her. After all, with the contract they signed with Dongrang just gone up in smoke, how're any of them supposed to trust some old bits of paper now? They're all getting their memories erased.
Just call her Luigi Mangione because she's about to make the world a better place.
She is so upset. Though why is Ryoshu so hostile at the prospect of her memories of the Tearful Thing being wiped? Enough to be the only one who bothers speaking out, compared to the likes of Don and Heathcliff keeping their traps shut. Is it purely for 'lol gore' reasons or do the events of this Canto have some small amount of personal meaning to her? It's hard to say, but it's fun to think about.
Alfonso: "Well, since you're about to forget it all, let me correct one thing... what you saw wasn't the actual tearful thing; it's a child entity. We couldn't leave such a precious asset in the hands of some researcher with no real credentials, now could we? It would sadden me if you believed that fiddling thing was the pride of our Wing." Alfonso: "... ah, not that you'd have a chance to think that."
Narration: As we left, Alfonso told us to look forward to how the tears will be used in the future... Narration: The Sinners had memories of seeing something in the laboratory, but none of them could recall what it was, how the tears were collected, or how the HP bullets were made.
Another victory, such as it is, and another Golden Bough retrieved. This time there wasn't even any need for outside intervention, unless you count the ambiguous influence of Sang Yi and the departed Dongbaek. In any case the Sinners can at last return to the bus to reconvene, recover, and set off on a new journey.
Dante: <Where did you want to fly?> Yi Sang: "I would have been content with the feelings it would give." Dante: <What about now?>
He's smiling!!!! Look!!!! Look at him!!!!! He smile!!!!!!
But there's one more, oh so ironic surprise in store. What nobody, not a one in K Corp or LCB noticed...
Dante wasn't mindwiped. They can't have their memories taken again, it seems, at least not by whatever method K Corp used in full confidence that it would work on someone with a prosthetic head. They start to wonder if maybe they can even recover the Sinners' own wiped memories, erasing the act like they do every other bodily consequence when they turn the clock. They're not sure how, if it's possible at all, and are doubtless aware it would be incredibly dangerous to doublecross Alfonso like that by doing so. But they do know that having memories worthy of wiping must be valuable, and elect to stay quiet and wait for the right opportunity to put this forbidden knowledge to use.
Yi Sang: "However, manager, I will say this much."
Yi Sang: "Those being the mistakes the League of Nine has left, and the tasks left for me. Thus, I would like to resist as much as I can if needed."
Yi Sang: "Rather than be slantwise and seep... I intend to walk where I plan to go. Will you aid me in my endeavours, Dante?" Dante: <...> Dante: <Of course.> Narration: That's right. Even if their memories are taken, it won't gnaw away at the determination that has firmly taken root in their hearts. Narration: Then, what is the determination that I have left? How much must I remember and witness?
Dante turns and looks at Vergilius, on the other side of the bus.
Dante: <You heard what I said?> Faust: "Dante asks if you heard what they said." Vergilius: "... I couldn't hear the usual ticks, so I have no way to know if you even said something."
YOU FRAUD YOU FRAUD YOU FUCKING FRAUD-
Have you been well?
Whenever I look at a mirror, I find myself greeting it.
It is said that a greeting is only natural when it is mutually exchanged...
But I do not mind the one-sidedness, as I believe it will be conveyed someday.
I have decided that from now on, I will no longer be stopped in place.
Even if all will ultimately remain unchanging...
I, too, shan't change, either.
You have no need to be overly concerned for me. I now have new companions by my side.
Though I cannot be sure what they will think of this... I intend to consider them as such.
To close off...
Allow me one final remark.
May you all keep company with peace throughout your lives.
Yours sincerely, Yi Sang.
We see the old photo of the League of Nine in their height once again, faces still hopeful for the future...
Yi Sang gazes down into the mirror that so captivated him and his comrades in days long past, full of vibrant colour and the hope for a better tomorrow.
Pass On (Yi Sang ver.) said:
The flower is unseen, the flower is fragrant.
The fragrance香氣 is in full bloom滿開；I dig a grave for myself there
Days of chasing shadows
All that remains are vain memories
Like a fire swept over me
All that's in my hands is ash-like dust
The fragrance is in full bloom滿開；I dig a grave for myself there
The grave is unseen; I take a seat in the invisible grave
I lie down
I've run without rest
The times that choked me
Will I miss them as well?
A long, long ways from now
When I look back on those memories
I sure hope I can smile
The fragrance is in full bloom
In forgetfulness, I dig another grave墓穴 in the place
The grave is unseen
Forgetting the flower, I enter the invisible grave
With however much time I have left
Now I must move forward
Burning myself up until I'm no more
Like a candle that burns itself up
Without a moment to breathe
I was thrown into turbulent days
I hope I can go my way
A long, long ways from now
When I look back on those memories
I sure wish that I can smile
I lie down for certain; the flower is yet again fragrant
Let me, let me fly so far away
So I can reach the stars like a bird upon the night sky
This night, this night will visit me again, I'm sure, but…
It's alright, since I can live on
This was my favourite ending of the canto. The fade on Yi Sang, the change, it's all so good.
That said, still bugging me, who is Mr Shadowface? League of Nine have a shadowface man? Who is he? He's center of the entire image and he goes completely uncommented on this entire time! Infuriating!
That said, still bugging me, who is Mr Shadowface? League of Nine have a shadowface man? Who is he? He's center of the entire image and he goes completely uncommented on this entire time! Infuriating!
