Why Not Use These Opportunities To Keep Moving The Actual Convo To Fediverse/social Media Of Your Choice?

Once more, all makes (some) sense, just like that. You mentioned Burrowing Heaven hides the sky the sky with it's branches, but being Carmen, it's also the Light. To indulge in one's desires with no regards to reality/others -> to be Stuck in (one's) Heaven!! Plus, closing one's eyes (=ignoring reality, focusing on yourself) is what gives Carmen-looking tattoo (brand.. Mark, even.) but 'heaven through the eys of others' in this case would be the lack of self-awareness that comes from ignoring the external + because the exteral keeps intruding, it's not heaven from the PoV of the one stuck in it! Which would kind of take a shot at explaining why there is a hole in SiH: it ain't gonna be filled, and seems like it's the doing of not-burrowing, as opposed to grey dude. it looking like a branch (of the burrowing heaven), but also humanoid -> seeks to invade the heart (emotions/exploit immature outlook), not the eyes (reason/resignation to reality). And to look at it, is to look/give attention to the world around! …it's an abnormality about distortions, specifically this sort of mid-point between 'normie' and 'abnormality' seen in Leviathan (Spotty), and (maybe? haven't finished LoR yet kek) Reverbation Ensemble? It would also attempt explaining why the gift is Pride-coded. It lacks cute wordplay of Prejudice, and we're already operating on the assumption the game doesn't do any semblance of a color wheel, so: it is pride, because to close one's eyes in this context is to gain advantages from it (some kind of distortion/clarity of self-image), while ignoring drawbacks (some kind of distortion ;^) and also arresting one's development/growth by ignoring anything that would trigger it)

Face the Sin, Save the Ego: these stable distortions are not effloresced EGO (which btw, blooming flower imagery (awaiting pollination of external ideas?) vs light/distortions-as fruit of Carmen('s work))

this implies prodding Stuck in Heaven prompts us to theorize the plot to get the abno's deal. Let's go, and try not to rehash any other theory too much, lel. …what is the core Driving Question of Limbus Company? the nature of Dante, in small scale. In the grand scheme of things - the sudden mass death event. It hasn't been retconned out yet, right? can't seem to find a sauce.

The Golden Boughs (bough: large branch of a tree) are being gathered. A single one eases various coherent distortions to manifest (Kromer, possibly Dongrang), so a large enough amount of them would prompt whoever to have a stable distortion with minimal prompting. (thanks @lu-is-not-ok) …but that doesn't quite cover the novel threat of stable distortions having nonsense abno abilities (Pluto from LoR), combined with being clever in how they're using them - to play the long game. …or in a way that amplifies the heart of most issues presented by the social critique these games are (selfishness?).

bonus: something something all trailers and the 'opening' use the same part of "In Hell We Live, Lament" which i assume is the deal is similar to LoR, in that cherrypicked bits are of particular relevance to the plot. Had a theory coherency check mid-rant and failed kek.

tl;dr this implies we're sleeping on a lot of tree/growth imagery

once more, for the people in the background: Lu, how is your brain so wrinkly.

Stuck in Heaven (ego gift: Late-bloomer's Tattoo) has been grinding my gears for a while now. It has an idea - and a clear one at that - but i can't figure out what it *is*. Wiki has the event transcript. Pls send help

Alright, back to my proper analyses, and... *cracks knuckles* Oh this one's gonna be fun. I want to say that since this one won't need to get into E.G.O analysis, then this post will be a bit shorter than my other full-length analyses...

But. You know how it is with me. For all I know this one might end up ridiculously long anyway. Also, uh, spoilers for Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina ahead.

So, before we can talk about Stuck in Heaven, we need to talk about the other Abnormality it's directly related to - The Burrowing Heaven.

The Burrowing Heaven debuted in Lobotomy Corporation, but later made a return in Library of Ruina as one of the Abnormality Battles. For the sake of completion, I will be taking a look at both of its appearances in the series.

In its original appearance, Burrowing Heaven takes on the form of a tree-like entity, made up of a fleshy material, with branches that seperate into wing-like shapes and many eyes.

Its main mechanics in Lobotomy Corporation is that the Abnormality needs to be on-screen to prevent it from breaching and teleporting away once it does breach. This mechanic is reflected in a lot of flavor text about it, most directly in the description of its E.G.O Gear, which includes the sentence "Just contain it in your sight."

Burrowing Heaven's story further expands on this idea. The Abnormality is repeatedly said to "live inside your eyes/gaze", to feed on the attention and focus others give it by looking at it. However, the moment one looks away for too long, it begins to stretch the stalks of its wings for two reasons - one, to gather corpses as food for the fruit it bears; two, to reach towards the sky and sun, as if to cover it up.

Religious imagery and symbolism is used all over for this Abnormality. From the act of stretching its limbs being compared to praying to an old-forgotten god, to its wings reaching the skies being compared to an angel, to the action of it growing its thorns and burrowing being described as for the purpose of "reaching heaven inside one's vision".

Now, there's a very interesting part of Burrowing Heaven's story in LobCorp that I want to point out. Usually, when those stories are said in first person, it's either through the use of "we" (to reflect the company/employees writing those down as a whole), or with the passage being specified as either some testimony or log or otherwise being quoted.

However... That's not the case here. For Burrowing Heaven, there is a whole section in its story written in first person, with no clear note of it being quoted from something else. Allow me to paste the segment in its entirety.

"That's what a gaze is. Attention. An invisible string that connects us.  Sole focus.  Do not come here, as there is no place for you to rest.  But you see, I could only bear fruit when I stood inside your sight. Is this what you wanted to see?  When your tears dry up at last, tell me your answer."

Interesting, isn't it?

However, we're not done yet. There is still the context of its appearance in Library of Ruina, so let's look at that, shall we?

In Library of Ruina, Burrowing Heaven's Abno Battle is placed on the Floor of Religion, aka Hokma's Floor, alongside Price of Silence, Blue Star, and WhiteNight.

Narratively, this Library Floor explores the faith and dedication that Carmen's group put into her and Ayin, especially from Hokma's perspective, who unconditionally put his trust into Ayin back when he was known as Benjamin. Thus, all of the Abnormalities fought on this symbolically represent Carmen's unwavering dedication to gathering like-minded people to make her dream come true, and the devotion those who followed felt towards her and her goals.

When it comes to the Burrowing Heaven, there is some more info we can gather from its Abno Battle in this game, starting off with its new appearance:

As you can see, the previously tree-like form has been replaced with one that very clearly represent a human's central nervous system, brain and spinal cord included. The bloody wings and eyes still remain though.

...Now. Those who have played Lobotomy Corporation might recognize what Burrowing Heaven is meant to represent in this form. And for those who haven't, allow me to show you something.

This is what became of Carmen after her death:

A disembodied central nervous system, with its nerves spread out in an almost wing-like fashion.

While most of the flavor text here repeats what we know about the Abno from LobCorp, there are a few unique pieces of text I want to shine a spotlight on right here.

"The desire for the unreachable will only grow bigger. And to pursue it… is to tread a path riddled with thorns."

"Basking in everyone’s gaze and attention… It will finally come to fruition and spread its wings."

"The one who spread their wings sacrificed everything they had, and yet…"

"Just close your eyes. That’s right, you’re doing good…"

"If we ever open our eyes again, will we get to see the fruit of our labor in that gaze?"

...In case you were wondering why I was being so scant on the interpretation part of this analysis, this is why. This connection is what changes Burrowing Heaven from a nebulous concept to a direct parallel.

Burrowing Heaven, at its core, is a reflection of Carmen. More specifically, Carmen's dream, and the way she and her followers acted to reach her goals. How, to pursue it, they had to single-mindedly focus on that goal, to make many sacrifices for the sake of reaching what seemed unreachable.

It could also represent how Carmen's seeming demise and the following tragedies happened because nobody paid attention to the warning signs, nobody focused on Carmen when she was at her lowest. And yet, those very tragedies are what led to even more attention being put on making progress towards that goal, towards Carmen's wings spreading out and reaching ever closer towards the heaven she so desired.

The gaze being put on her may have put her deep underground, in the vat where her nervous system became a source of Cogito... but it also eventually led to the breathtaking sight that was the Light. And now that there is no more gaze left on her, her wings can spread everywhere, blocking out the sun with her own Light.

When you think about it, isn't that how Distortions take place under Carmen's influence? Just close your eyes and ignore the world around you. Let your desires guide you. Just like Carmen is encouraging you to do, patiently. That's right, you're doing good, following what she says.

...Okay that's all fine and good, but what the fuck does all this mean for Stuck in Heaven? Let's get to that.

From just a cursory look at its physical description, Stuck in Heaven appears to be the next step of progression in this Heaven line of Abnormalities. From the tree-like form of the LobCorp Burrowing Heaven, to the brainstem in Library of Ruina, to Stuck in Heaven taking the form of growths directly growing over a person.

Interestingly enough, the Mirror Dungeon event describes Stuck in Heaven as having "the appearance" of a branch, yet being human. Curious.

This is also where a difference is established between Stuck in Heaven and Burrowing Heaven, with the event text directly referencing the Abnormality that Stuck in Heaven is related to.

"Heaven sometimes burrows; other times, it makes a home in the heart. Once taken root, that heaven will only be visible through the eyes of others."

Immediately, this tells us one major thing - Stuck in Heaven does not burrow like Burrowing Heaven, it does not need to feed on the attention people give through vision. Rather, the thing it aims to take root in is the heart.

The text you get from taking the [Close your eyes.] option explains why Stuck in Heaven does that. When it takes root in one's heart, closing one's eyes is not enough to get it out of one's gaze, as the sight it sought out is that coming from the heart itself.

I believe this is also why actually trying to [Return the gaze.] with one's eyes does nothing. With Burrowing Heaven, which actively sought out one's eye vision, one can find many references to it being alive and actively watching its observer back. However, trying to do so with Stuck in Heaven results in it ignoring the observer. The heaven Stuck in Heaven is looking for is not in the eyes, but past them. "Behind me", as the text puts it.

Now... all of that might not have much meaning without further context. After all, what's all this looking with one's eyes and looking with one's heart stuff about?

And this. Is where we get to The Little Prince.

Yeah, remember how Demian seems to be representing the titular Little Prince himself, through him directly quoting the kid?

Yeah, that's not the only thing Limbus Company borrows from that book. In fact, from what I've gathered, The Little Prince might just be one of, if not the most important books when it comes to the themes Limbus Company is setting itself up to explore.

And the main theme that Limbus Company borrows from that book is the theme of seeing with the eyes vs seeing with the heart. It is all over this narrative. The constant focus on perception and what everyone is percieving through their senses. The equal focus on the heart, of how subjective reality is when looking at the reflections of one's heart, yet how one has to follow the heart to reach the unreachable. I mean, for fuck's sake, the word Limbus can refer to both a part of the eye and a part of the heart!

Most importantly, I think it's also the key to understanding Stuck in Heaven a bit better. In The Little Prince, a clear divide is established between the Little Prince, who uses his imagination to understand his reality, and "the grown-ups", who focus solely on the physical world.

Stuck in Heaven's E.G.O Gift is named Late-Bloomer's Tattoo. A late-bloomer is someone who takes a long time to develop one's skills or grow up. For Stuck in Heaven to be able to leave its mark (or Tattoo) on someone, to take root in their heart, one has to not be a grown-up yet, to still be able to see the world with one's heart rather than one's eyes.

So... What does it all mean?

I'll be honest, I don't fucking know! I don't even know if Stuck in Heaven even still has connections to Carmen the way Burrowing Heaven does!

What I can say however, is that Stuck in Heaven is likely extremely interconnected with the main plot and themes of Limbus Company, the same way Burrowing Heaven was for Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina.

Does it represent the goals of Limbus Company itself? Faust? The Golden Boughs? The fucking Mark of Cain?

The reality of it all is... we just aren't far enough along in the story yet to be sure. The way it connects to one of the bigger themes of Limbus Company, alongside it being directly related to the Abnormality that was so directly paralleling the end-game reveals about Carmen in LobCorp, means that we likely just don't have enough of the puzzle pieces yet to see the full picture of what Stuck in Heaven truly represents.

I'm sure as we head closer towards Limbus Company's endgame, the true meaning of Stuck in Heaven will become much, much clearer to us. But, until then, all we can do is wait and see what comes next. It's definitely a subject I'll want to revisit later on, once we get a better grasp on the overarching plot and will be able to start properly connecting the pieces.

Sorry that I couldn't give a more definite answer as to what Stuck in Heaven's exact meaning is, but from all the analysis I've done I genuinely think this is the best answer I can give. That it's a direct parallel to something within the main plot of Limbus Company that we have yet to learn, similarly to how Burrowing Heaven is a direct parallel to Carmen and the path taken to reach her goals.

nikolai and strong wind -> there is a helicopter outside (and well he's outside too) pleased into displeased -> didn't know the world is ending? YOSANO WHO CAN GAME THE GAME? dostoy way too amused, and talking to someone -> sigma, letting him go? which would match with nikolai being pleased sigma didn't die/has real intel, but also: that he's joining ADA? ALSO ALSO ALSO HE HAS ANSWERSSSSSS (wait i forgot. did fukuchi seriously break apart the most OP combo on the board? instead of having the superior other fuku die to exsanguination?)

season 5 ep 11 preview is out ohmygoddd Fukuzawa is aliveee guyss!!! But they haven't shown anything related to soukoku...? WTH?? there's not even a glimpse of either chuuya or Dazai or what is gonna happen to them....well Nikolai is back so ig Sigma is saved...?

BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR SOUKOKU!???!!!!? THEY CAN'T DO THIS, WE'VE BEEN SUFFERING FOR A ENTIRE WEEK, THEY CAN'T JUST NOT SHOW ANYTHING REGARDING SOUKOKU AND LEAVE US ON A CLIFFHANGER TO SUFFER MOREE!!!

omg please atleast just show that Dazai is alive, god please!!

@lu-is-not-ok

A VERY DISORGANIZED AND WEIRD MESS OF THOUGHTS THAT ARE ALL RELATED TO THE SODA EGO SOMEHOW

So wellcheer’s story is like, this employee getting drugged and taken aboard a ship, and eventually coming to enjoy his work there, finding it better than working in the city. In general this reads to me as the escapist fantasy of the employees, wanting something that’s more fulfilling, more satisfying, hoping for a change. While I think Hong Lu having it is somewhat self explanatory, I think we need to consider Ryoushuu as well, since both can provide context for one another. I will also bring up the fact that someone pointed out they could correlate to the types of work that give grape wellcheers, those being attachment(being kind and friendly) and repression(denying the abnormality in some way)- which I didn’t quite agree with at first, but I think I understand better now that yes, it’s likely. With that out of the way~! Let’s talk about Hong Lu, since he’s the one we understand the most about! These are not clean sections by the way. They’re ramblings of a mad man.

Keep reading

Natsume and Dazai in Fifteen

Bungou stray dogs spoilers maybe!

I am rewatching bsd and I have just noticed. We know that Natsume sensei during Dark Era is in Bar Lupin in cat form, hanging around Dazai, Oda and Ango. And now he is Haruno's pet Mii-chan, so he is close to the ADA.

But I haven't seen anybody mention that he appears in the Fifteen arc too! I didn't notice at all the first time I watched it but now I was like WAIT A SECOND!! He even appears during the second epidode opening. I had to check the markings of the cat and yes, I'm pretty sure it's the same cat.

This is just before Dazai meets Chuuya for the first time.

This is just before the final scene with Randou. The "party" was happening in the second floor that the cat is looking at, and later Chuuya and Randou would fall just where Natsume is standing after Chuuya came flying through the window. I'm sure he watched all the fight.

And now I'm wondering if all this was planned by Natsume, and Mori followed. Because it's strange, he was witnessing everything from the beggining. Mori even mentions Natsume's phrase "only a diamond can polish a diamond". It's too much of a coincidence. Maybe he is the one pulling the strings all the time, he could actually be the one that "created" Soukoku. Or it's just a coincidence and he is just watching...

Anyway, it's even more obvious now that Natsume is always keeping a close eye on Dazai and they wanted us sto know it.

i remember someone mentioning that a Sonia-like character would work to set up Dostoy for a redemption arc, but it couldn't be Sigma b/c they're wrapped around his finger. BUT NOW, their self-esteem should be improved via Dazai + they're being given all intel in a way that would prevent lying + apparently they're held in high esteem by Dostoy + being 3yo gives relatively biasless outlook.

bonus rephrasing: now Sigma has taken the offer to have their knowledge be equal to someone they percieve as having absolute control over everything.

or, you know, just flip them over and step on their trachea.

and NPR did a segment on Fritz Faber mentioned in other reblogs. That part alone starts at 28:23, but the entire ep is good

all demographics and time periods and geography taken fully into consideration, some people were just born to lose

carmen as nyarla with boobs: their function is roughly the same, tho in early Personas nyarlathotep targets specific people as part of their game with philemon, who would be… ayin? uh.

does that mean qliphoth deterrence works on personas

manifesting personas as weapons/suits

peccatulums ranking as cannon fodder oppositions in palaces distortion-spaces, does that mean that they can also manifest from thin air?

re: reloads; they don't really match to the 'embodiment of self/desires' so probably not. That said: then Head cracks down hard on them for unpatented/untaxed ammo production

negotiations, but steamlined into MD event setups. and to add to that - REMOVING SMT FROM PERSONA

shadow-possession (P1?/P2/P4) as a full-blown distortion

finally handling jungs "overpowered by their own persona" - with a distortion, naturally

pls elaborate about the sufficent velocity thing

Persona and Project Moon crossover things

because we need more persona project moon crossover stuff hot dang

the well and the sea of souls are like. if they aren't the same thing, they're right next to each other. joker has a fusion accident and ends up with mountain of smiling bodies instead of legion.

give me a plucky teenager who summons One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds as their starter persona.

NETZACH QUEST IN PERSONA 3 IT FITS SO MUCH DAMN (if you're a Sufficient Velocity person you know what i'm talking about)

Post Persona 5 bad ending AU where after getting absolutely wiped from existence, the PT wake up in The City. It's just the logical conclusion to that bad end, where no one is free and only thinks about surviving to the next day. No one hopes, no one dreams, no one believes in anything. The strong crush the weak, the weak gang up on the weaker, and the cycle goes on and on and on. Literally their worst case scenario nightmare.

On that note, Carmen and crew really saw the Fall of Humanity and went "I can fix them!" (they could not)

Considering The Library is made of Light, which is like, concentrated enlightenment and hope, I think Morgana would be drawn to it (and then they all get booked lmao)

Carmen's Palace. Just in general. If she even has one; it's not that her desires aren't distorted, it's that SHE IS THE DISTORTED/ING DESIRE INCARNATE-

Joker manages to capture an Abnormality as a Persona somehow. Shenanigans ensue.

Speaking of shenanigans, considering the way the mind manifests in The City, I wonder if the PT's guns would do that thing they do in Royal where they automatically reload after a fight. On that note, I feel like that trick would fail against higher level humans since their augments likely let them see past the fakeness

JOKER 👏 AND 👏 AKECHI 👏 GONE 👏ANGELS 👏 ANI 👏MATIC👏 YOU 👏 COWARDS 👏👏👏/lh

add more if you like, i would love to discuss further

not even about Fitzgerald later popping back up again for Eyes of God, because EoG was introduced more-or-less just before being used vs Dostoy. But here's the thing: in that spot instead of Fitzgerald we could have introduced another character who is as dead-set on Agency's innocence (instead of him 'betting on the winning side') and the maneuvers wouldn't change. But because of Bungou Special there was a route to reuse a not-dead character. That Odasaku looms over the plot so hard is imo signaling how much impact a death should have. And i can't help but be reminded of an interview with the writer Harlan Ellison, in which he goes on at length how tv made violence palpable for mass consumption and death cheap - exhibit A: this thread.

Re: Incongruent details: the saddest thing is that all it took was some extra moves to get from point A to B, the same way fanfic writers can make characters do anything as long as the setup for them changing in the desired direction is there. Like okay, hand injury isn't there but in the anime shoulder injury looked like a graze, but in the manga it was sold harder. So instead of forcing it with a retcon which due to anime is even more obvious (fr we probably wouldn't even notice), roll with the punches and swipe theories go "actually the gunshot is more disabling"/"a wild Yosano (PM medic would also work but that would require preestablishing) appears!" and route to the same outcome.

Like, it's impossible to control one's heartbeat and i will never forget that one scanlation group did the math on "a chair dropped from the Sky Casino would be like a bomb" and proved Asagiri can't do physics. We're already past point of giving a shit to these inaccuracies - but on top of mentioned the results of retcons go against the themes of the story.

Not disagreeing. Commiserating. It's not that we're having a Boring Invincible Hero on our hands, it's that he gets to expouse absurdism and how everything is unpredictable and random happenstance. Dazai Eating Shit and recovering while Dostoy runs out of fallbacks because he never had any: works better. The canon wants to be this, but Dazai was waaaaaay to much zest to sell how he didn't do shit b/c he couldn't do shit. Behavior flip of Dostoy can be read both as 'this is how he's actually like' and 'absolutely tired and fed up with this shit'. That Dazai lacks anything similar makes things worse. ....at this rate we will, in fact, disassemble how this storytelling fails.

Like, imagine we're doing play-by-play from the anime, but instead of heli crash undoubtedly caused by Dostoy trying and failing to wrest the controls not matter how doomed, while we watch it happen from the outside directly after 'you need to control everything' bit... we're watching it happen from inside of the helicopter, POV'd as a One Desperate Vampirized Guard vs Global Terrorist, Demon of the North. Sure, the steel pike (while we're at it: why.) kind of throws a wrench in the framing, but. The result would look less like Dazai mindgaming Dostoy into anime outcome instead of waiting for the poison to off him something something controlling every variable; i did mention 'if they're even poisoned' but as characters, they should know. It would look more like the unpredictable action of an ally (Ranpo->Bram or just the guard themselves having to sit there and listen to this shitshow). Bonus points for both favoring relevancy of non-ability users and 'desperate people are the strongest' bit... because it ain't happening.

Side note on main(?): you mentioning the plan implies Nikolai would expect it to work; him not thinking that creates a cool foil as 200% improvisation guy - but that's limited by options at your disposal. Maybe it's just extra wriggle room in case two anime geniuses do something too ridiculous to predict. Maybe he even it's a fallback in case the ability is resurrection.

Or just 'why not' (also: the contrivance of him being in the right place at a right time implies he was told what would happen after his death): Dostoy's captured, Nikolai is considered dead, there is some time to grab the guy that produces fun reactions. ....in fact, Sigma would cover how Nikolai knows about everything in Meursault. yes yes Overcoat is OP but this does bolster the setup.

Oh wow…so the BSD anime ending wasn’t an anime-only original after all, because it looks like the manga just followed suit.

What a shame. The manga ending is just as terrible as the anime’s and we’re right back in the same place we were a couple months ago. I really can’t hide my negativity about this because this storytelling decision makes everything feel like a letdown anticlimax.

The cope has run out. Really I’m just super upset that Fyodor is still going to die in the most contrived and embarrassing way possible while Sigma lays dead on the floor and Dazai makes his obligatory “actually there was no danger or emotional stakes all along and I pulled this plan out of my ass” speech. Yet again, Dazai acts as a convenient narrative crutch for whenever Asagiri needs to get out of a corner and culminates an anticipated confrontation in the most typical way imaginable.

BSD really is full of so many twists and surprises! Every time I think the plot is going to culminate in something meaningful, I am let down by a barrage of contrived nonsense! Asagiri is truly a genius of storytelling! Who cares about emotions and relationships between characters when you can just say SIKE! And reveal that it was an elaborate ruse all along, ruining the tension and making the buildup to that moment effectively meaningless!

Hey, at least the manga has better art though. The story might’ve sucked, but at least all of the characters looked good while sucking.

write. your. own. if not now, when? if not you, who? i certainly started crying at code out of sheer lack of gameplay as good as ruina; and implore you to do the same. The other option is to just be miserable, with no end in sight.

...that said, seems like this fandom needs to learn of the existence of Wisecrack:

It hurts

After talking with people in discord for the week that this has been going on, I think my feelings on the Project Moon situation are just. Like, this was a company I felt was "safe". Obviously corporations are not your friends, but this was a studio that consistently pushed out games with progressive - and at times even radical - messaging. This was a studio that has consistently written solid characters with gender as an absolute afterthought. Emma is a boy! Harold is a girl! That's how little gender matters, which, ironically, is something that matters.

I can't think of another franchise I've engaged with that just... writes women as people. I've heard George R.R. Martin is like that, but I never engaged with the TV series that introduced the US to the concept of filler or the book series it was based on. I'm gonna gloss over Lobotomy Corporation a bit here because the story only has 13 characters, but 12 of them return for Library of Ruina. In Ruina you have Binah, Angela, Nikolai, and Elena as assertive women that take control of the situations they're in. You have passive uwu smol beans like Hod and Eileen! You have characters who are war criminals and that's not a mark of a villain, that's just a part of their backstory! Some of the women here have just Done Crimes! One of the women IS a crime! And men are treated the same! There are characters with traumas and behavioral disorders who act like real people would! Lesti saw the aftermath of Love Town and started talking about food! Beef intestine no less! Philip saw his colleagues get murdered and physically manifested a mental breakdown! Xiao saw her husband get murdered and physically manifested literal burning rage!

All of the writing has been good! All of it! And it has consistently written women in a way that is flat out rare, even in 2023. And Limbus has been doing the same! Outis is assertive! Ryoshu is assertive! Hermann is assertive! Don is an idiot and Faust refuses to talk half the time! Heathcliff is assertive! Meursault is assertive! Gubo is assertive! Hong Lu is an idiot and Sinclair is/was a pathetic sop! Across the board, the character writing is just GOOD. As Lobotomy Corporation progresses, Ayin's shitty behavior becomes more and more apparent! And that all culminates with Angela being tossed aside like garbage once she's no longer useful to him, as you hear her desperate wishes to just be seen!

All of that, or at least most of that, was Kim Ji-hoon. But Kim Ji-hoon is also the person who hastily fired VellMori at 11 PM, over the phone, while he was out of office in Japan, because some incels accused his company of being sympathetic to feminists in 2023.

And it fuckin hurts that the source of those stories, the stories that I just spent three paragraphs praising, the stories that are so important to me, could turn heel in half a second like that. As if he was writing completely different stories than the ones I've been reading. And I hate that? I hate that. Because there isn't a replacement! I don't get Grandma War Crimes and Dumbass Justice Enactor in other stories! Like, maybe some will come close, maybe some will have the same exact character somewhere, but never all of it together. Never written as amazingly as the City is.

So it hurts. And the silence is loud.

wouldn't say this limits teambuilding, tho; 3rd option: ignore uptie 4 (just like i keep ignoring uptie 3 on EGO b/c it's just bigger numbers*), then once you clean out shop start with U4 on units you have figured out why they're bad, and U4 fixes exactly that. This gives longevity to fresh toys, gaining design insight is good, builds hype for to prevent burnout from grinding. Example: if mariachi sinclair doesn't get gloom on block and/or jubilo hedonista requirement 3 gloom res -> 2 gloom res i'm just. not uptying him.

So about them Uptie 4 costs:

Brain fried like egg trying to math this so late at night. Despite my knee-jerk reaction when I first saw these prices, it doesn't actually seem too horrid. As long as you're not also trying to spark every new thing that comes out in an effort to avoid the gacha in the gacha game or trying to be a completionist and uptie everything to max without grinding or spending.

(Before we get into the rest of it, this isn't going to cover the grind that leads up to Uptie 4. Everything in the game currently is beatable with Uptie 3 units and whatever you can scrounge up for EGO, so Uptie 4 is optional as of time of writing. This is just going to cover getting from 3 to 4.)

Not accounting for resources you get from the gacha (random amounts of Egoshards from dupes and an amount of Thread when your Ideality expires), an endgame F2P can get:

18 - 27 Thread per day from Luxcavation with bonuses (18 is more sustainable for module usage, so we'll say 126 Thread per week)

1 Egoshard crate from daily missions, making it 7 per week

2 Egoshard crates from weekly missions

22.5 Egoshard crates from MD2 Hard with full bonuses (13.5 crates if it's three boosted Normal runs instead, then another 3 crates per extra run afterwards)

A crate can be 1-3 shards, so it comes out to 31-93 Egoshards out of 31 crates weekly, averaging at around 62 Egoshards per week. Excess shards can be made into Thread, if needed.

Assuming you're not trying to spark any units (and, again, not accounting for stuff from the gacha), an endgame F2P player can get about one 3-star unit that was T3 up to T4 per week, with a chance to have resources left over to uptie an extra unit every other week without too much extra grind. Similar situation for TETH EGOs at ~1/week but less so for HEs, which will need another day or three unless you grind more. If you're short on Thread as a F2P, Luxcavation is better than MD2 in terms of module cost.

If you bought the pass, multiply the number of crates you get by 3. So about 93 crates per week (with an extra 3 every other week), ranging from 93-279 Egoshards and averaging at 186. A player with a paid battle pass can get at least one 3-star up to T4 from T3 in a week comfortably, with potential range to extend to two in one week without extra grind. The EGO situation doesn't change much though. A bit over one TETH a week, but only about one HE a week due to the extra costs. If you need more Thread and have the time, your modules are more efficient at MD2 than Luxcavation. If you don't have the time, Luxcavation is still good as long as you have the bonus.

The only issue I can see with the costs for Uptie 4 is that it makes it harder to experiment outside of a team you're used to, at least right now anyway. If you have meta units, you're less likely to want to grind materials to upgrade your non-meta units when it takes about a week to grind resources for your existing team and more units are still coming out that will need even more resources to get up from T1. Then again, you do still get some upgrade materials from excess items from the gacha, so your resources aren't coming exclusively from grinding unless you want them to be.

Overall, this feels like a "Project Moon saw people at the end waiting for more content and remembered they're making a gacha game" type of move. I wouldn't be shocked if they dropped the prices due to complaints, but they may be better off giving us a Luxcavation with better rewards.