Yess So Much Space For Deep Ideas. How About… Akutagawa Is Fine, Because He Was Ordered To Prep Himself

They are already selling data to midjourney, and it's very likely your work is already being used to train their models because you have to OPT OUT of this, not opt in. Very scummy of them to roll this out unannounced.

worse, actually - it would be from Fyodor's perspective, thus would include opinions

(his general concept also extends to Ango, if you think about it - at some point he had to learn to control/use Discourse on Decadence, which could mean learning what people did on furniture)

remember how sigma said he wanted to know all of fyodor’s secrets? this means that when he wakes up he’s also going to know so many unserious secrets about fyodor.

he will wake up and the first memory he will have is that fyodor cut someone in line at mcdonald’s when he was 12.

he will wake up knowing that fyodor was scared of the dark until he was 16.

he will wake up knowing fyodor sprained his ankle after failing to do a cartwheel a year ago.

he will have to sort through countless useless secrets before getting to the important stuff and that’s so funny to me.

@raytyger thank you! real insight into cardgames = gained!

ahaha assumed magic, too has "increase" != "becomes". But it turns out it doesn't have truly wild rulings on lingering statchanges xD

everyone has those authors that you would be so unhinged about if they were introduced in bsd right?

mine are: emily dickinson (it might be too late for her but I’m in denial), franz kafka, and any german author but especially goethe (c’mon asagiri give us the rest of the transcendents) and schiller. I’m not able to describe how unhinged I would be if any of them get introduced

see also:

Hannibal also skipped all of Roman navy and most ground troops by crossing Alps, north of Rome. From northern Africa (then Carthage).

Salamis aka Bottleneck Good

Marathon: similar to Cannae, but wikipedia makes it seem like a combination of other causes

inflatable tanks!

Calais: "hi come in" middle ages edition. Please note a bribing attempt that enabled this.

honorable mention: SO. MANY. SHENANIGANS. in preparation for Normandy landing

re: anime: well, Asagiri has been on board so everything that was added does provide extra data points.

re: Nikolai: ha, out respective brainrots got in the way. the focus on Nikolai w/ hand imo kind of signals the author gets a free setup to rewrite him into basically anything.

upside: dialogue (and the way the main panel is... "shot", hiding the mask) implies that now he has no reason for murderclown routine. alternatively: he's completely written out of the plot, either in Alcott-esque fashion (as pure satellite character), or permamently, as an used up plot device. Either way we forget.

downside: orrrr because it's not as upfront as Odasaku pulling Dazais bandages off, he can just double down on the mask. alternatively: the monkey paw curls and the genuine side is not to your taste.(or what happens is a synthesis of his face and mask, so to speak.)

So at this point i'm kind of afraid to ask: what result would you consider return to (better) form? keeping in mind that whatever research Asagiri did it pales in comparison to yours

re: re: scheduled Dostoy pivot: nonsense trust speech -> adapts strats and THIS being the rough CnP pivot (as opposed to Sigma :|)

can we form a coup against asagiri and make you the writer instead? genuinely... I am not taking the Fyodor immortal information well.. please help............................ ( ´，_ゝ` )

Oh, I would absolutely not do BSD well either. I just wish Asagiri had stuck to his roots more. He was a great comedy writer, and the beginning of the story was great for it. It's the action and Death Note stuff he can't seem to get mastery of. But for the immortal part: I'm not entirely sold that Fyodor's immortal, yet. It seems like yet another twists that will twist to reveal oh, shocker, he faked his memories to confuse Sigma/the ADA... or something. Could very well be immortal, but not 100% guaranteed.

#everything is a fucking lie from both sides at this point

No it isn't. The product defends itself.

So is everyone gonna just ignore the fact that the leaked Document that PM sent over to the Union states that Vellmori was the one to resign herself and was the one who didn't want the info being spread around?

Like, I'm not saying PM handled this shit well, because they absolutely didn't, but the whole thing of her being fired is apparently just a straight up fucking lie.

And, if the Document PM sent to the Union is to be trusted (which, if they lied about that, I imagine that would be even more legal trouble than is worth for them with all this shit going on), that means that everyone being mad at PM for not saying anything more is being mad at them for Following Vellmori's Wishes.

Again, I'm not saying that PM handled Any of this well. They absolutely should have made sure that Vellmori didn't feel so threatened that she felt the need to resign. They absolutely fucked up in that department.

But the main thing people focused on, Vellmori's firing, allegedly just wasn't even real.

What the fuck is even going on anymore.

//Btw, here's the source for the translation of the Certificate of Contents that PM sent to the Union and which was later leaked.

re: Nikolai: nah i get what you mean by earning. There is no clear A->B->C that would course-correct early any assumptions readers may get from one appearance to another. Given having to hash out losing sleep over how legit is anything he says is, on every installment readers run the chance of reasoning their way into a perfectly valid read - only for the author to slap it down with a different conclusion. And yeah, mismanagement of expectations happens 100% because of lack of screentime, but doesn't this sort of look… anthropic principle-esque? i mean, when the reader peeks into the plot, Nikolai can only pop up if he's relevant to it. And for the character to be relevant, they do have to move it forward somehow (= plot device), or do things with the core themes and ideas (which tbh is a blind spot to me, but the vibe i'm getting is: he's only tangentially related, hence short screentime).

...themes of the story... ...endless pursuit of freedom... ...has flawor but it's bad... …trash opinions but poorly writt--

CONDEMNED TO BE FREE

-Jean Paul Satre super rough TL;DR: having any preference at all <=> making a decision. +If the only question in philosophy that matters is suicide (- Camus!!!), then continuing to exist is already a made decision +If one is not free, they would be unable to make decisions. but see above. +as a bonus not making a decision is a decision in an of itself ("living in bad faith")

if one assumes BSD is blasting us with absurdism/theme of "meaning/purpose of one's life" - as many wonderful tumblr analysts point out, of course Nikolai would be [vague hand gestures]! Existentialism is a completely different branch of philosophy/cluster of attitudes, of course he's jobbing! of course it comes off weird; freedom if basically already solved, as a concept! He just circles and circles and circles never reaching this point! And… now that "perfunctory fact check" lead me to good ol' Wisecrack, they bring up an interesting point: "MUH FREEDOM" at it's rawest conflicts very hard with social reality (and thus, goes against the grain of whatever social commentary Asagiri is going for, by the virtue of not giving a shit about any of that; the underdog is the character who disagrees with the author).

…where were we? ah yes, funni comic book about writer twinksonas. As for characters relegated to plot progression units: there is only a limited amount of screentime to be had; if the manga's flavor is unbreakable plot armors, instead of getting killed off characters will be shuffled to the side; it's not plotted too thoroughly (see also: nary a Fukuchi poster in any of the earlier chapters), so naturally the author will flip thru a rolodex for setups and resolutions that don't have to be properly introduced again. For sake of the core idea, why is plotdevicification bad? I haven't actually read Bleach, but didn't Tite Kubo like the characters introduced in anime fillers so much they occasionally popped up in canon later? When you put it this way, the writing style does have that energy. But without the meme/gossip of "the cure to writers block is new characters".

rephrase of previous query: what would be the in-canon proof that Asagiri Gets the essence of Gogol and is in dialogue with it? (and what would be the absolute worst you can imagine him do?) re: roots: On one hand: so what you liked is the introduction/comedy part of a comic before jokes run out and Cerberus Syndrome Serious Businesses-up the narrative. On the other: doesn't it kind of fit the in-story events? up to Cannibalism you could place arbitrary windows of unknown time between most of events. Even between Fitzgerald arriving and Moby Dick infiltration you could stretch it out a bit, as negotiations continue to break down, plans are made to capture Q etc. But with DoA, what ADA interfaces with is the tail end of the plan, where all the rapid, loud plays are backloaded to. As such, pace of the plot mirrors the hurried scramble of the focus characters. This is why demon duo were relegated to the comedy interlude: they're the only ones of the main characters/monster of the week faction for whom time passes like molasses. If played out properly, post-climax of DoA should give space for cleanup of loose threads (being detailed would slow down the perception of speed; i've seen a piece of writing advice that went for slow moments, use long, verbose, descriptive phrasing. high stress is short. fast. punchy.) or to decompress - if only because it wouldn't make sense for the characters to go brr at full speed for this long.

Also i've noticed that the manga gets unpleasant when one tracks details i.e. characters chapter to chapter to chapter. It is best when one vibes with (≠ focuses on) what's happening in the moment within the chapter. As for clusterfucks: doesn't this mean that his initial setups are delicious, but as more details are added all the flaws become more apparent? the mystery of 'what's in the box'; whatever the answer is, it's never as satisfying as the possibility space of all the ways the wave function can collapse, so to speak?

Asagiri researches everything for BSD. You obsess over Gogol alone. this skews perspectives

can we form a coup against asagiri and make you the writer instead? genuinely... I am not taking the Fyodor immortal information well.. please help............................ ( ´，_ゝ` )

Oh, I would absolutely not do BSD well either. I just wish Asagiri had stuck to his roots more. He was a great comedy writer, and the beginning of the story was great for it. It's the action and Death Note stuff he can't seem to get mastery of. But for the immortal part: I'm not entirely sold that Fyodor's immortal, yet. It seems like yet another twists that will twist to reveal oh, shocker, he faked his memories to confuse Sigma/the ADA... or something. Could very well be immortal, but not 100% guaranteed.

Spoilers for the ending of the Mersault arc in Bungou stray dogs season 5.

3

2.

1.

.

Going back and reading the Mersault arc again.

My favourite little detail foreshadowing the twist at the end...is Chuuya's hands.

No I'm not kidding.

Chuuya's outfit has changed from what it usually is.

He's not wearing his gloves.

For most of the arc he's in, his hands remain in his pockets.

When fighting Rimbaud years ago Chuuya said to him:

"Wanna know why I've been keeping both my hands tucked away this whole time? It helps me stay rooted when I'm afraid I'm gonna lose myself."

It's why he takes his gloves off when he activates corruption.

But here Chuuya's hands are tucked away in his pockets, just like they were before he joined the Port Mafia.

He's still in there.

He hasn't lost himself.

The other thing I love is that while Chuuya's outfit has changed, he's still wearing his hat. The hat that Mori gave him when he joined.

It's a clear sign that he's still with the Port Mafia.

But Fyodor doesn't know Chuuya, he doesn't know the significance of his hat nor why keeping his hands tucked away mean.

Fyodor doesn't trust people.

That was his first mistake.

His second was thinking he could ever control Chuuya Nakahara.

these could be 'tumors' that spawn as byproducts of enkephalin box farming/spawned from careless storage thereof, as fitting bases that self-destruct - and else why would Carmen's anything be in LobCorp branches, but through all the looping in that game, they're never brought to attention in the main one?

…we know, as per Mephistopheles eating live/freshly dead people, that eveyone has a bit of cogito in them. What if people start producing golden boughts from themselves, instead of the usual pipeline? they would then make it easier for others to distort. …now how do you make it a chain/runaway reaction for maximum capacity for casualities…

False Apple has another, much less spicy angle to the 'it's deception on meta-layer'. It's a boss that has a second form distinct from the 1st one, including a namechange. Absolutely noone notices on the 1st go, because we're too genre savvy not to expect something with more teeth than "gimmick: boss with regen", even if the tutorial nature of it would overshadow that the regen doesn't have numbers big enough to have ever threatened the player. The 2nd form also sort of changes the bosses' strategy, such as it is: self-heal starts as passive healing+clash numbers so the player could be lured into doing 1-sideds into a clashed tile and hope they can out-attrition it… but the 2nd form has it's healing on it's attacks, and is simply more aggro with it's attrition aspect - instead of shields to stall it's bleed, to which we just don't have outs, nevermind on release.

do you see how easy it is to snowball with this shit???

that's why we love it, yes?

re: the forbidden fruit: it does come up in the theme tune, to the tune of this topic!

Stole from the tree’s hands A regretter’s friend — the forbidden fruit I bite off the skin Chewing on its tender flesh Quaff down its lukewarm pus

once more, flesh of an apple <=> flesh of a person. …which routes back to Burrowing Heaven and it's fruits. But then… why are the fruits forbidden? Surely we're not suddenly feeling shy about cannibalism? We have District 23 which is fine with it… because the city is fine with it… when flipped, it would make the fruit forbidden because it's made of people. When flipped, that would mean 'to not use people as means to an end, but as ends in an of themselves' aka. Kant's "Formula of Humanity". …a stable distortion as in 'one that paints the world in their own colors, ignoring the others' vs Effloresced EGO, which does not? Kali defending others, Vergilius wanting to raze the city, Dongrang wanting to kill the past?

tbh i think there would be some ground gained by splitting up comparing humans to plants, and to inanimate objects. Plants look inanimate, but are not. Have You Become Strong turns people into toy robots. My Form Empties covers/turns it's host into a statue. In both cases they're objectified, but most plant-like examples presented are mostly just vibing. It's the robots and the murti and the tourbot and the clay dolls that aggressively exist at you. (also, sidenote? in Canto 1 that ex-L corp employee pretended to be one to not die). Inquisitors seem somewhere inbetween, being both meaty and in your face - but also, wikia says the feral ones are turned Kleinhammers (and mechanically it takes a bit for them to 'wake up'), snake ones are (more brainwashed/fanatical) 'greater' Mittelhammers start aggro and then kind of… undulate with their Instinct stacks.

Everything There corrosions (lesser Mittelhammers) are somewhere between, starting with some Instinct that gets removed when they take damage (skillsets have no block/dodge). Like sure it gives them buffs, but then since player will read to focus-fire them why not just have them start at 0 Instincts + base stats up + lower trigger on behavior change + more buffs per instinct stack. …actually no that doesn't make for engaging gameplay, how do you keep getting past 'Because Good Game Design, That's Why'?! …so in a way, wouldn't some kind of objective of some party be 'to turn clay of the city into people'? re: Golden Boughs: specifically, even if the objective isn't replacing the current world with some other version, whoever (->Dante) we feed enough Boughs can become a God of the City? If rewriting reality is just what Boughs can be used for, isn't literally every objective that uses them also include destroying whatever they're overwriting? and thus, i'm not quite sure if old Dante getting beheaded (ha) is quite on par of with sinners having one continuous line between their past selves and their current selves. Even if we pull Alchemy of the Self motif on it and all that but… something about this just doesn't gel. The city still has influence over new Dante which flavor-wise makes sense to be less important than friendly interacting with Sinners on roughly equal ground, but also? that's not now we're solving either Gacha Eternity nor The City as a metaphor for South Korea. The goal will not succeed for meta reasons. But the goal was never new Dante's, and thus lessening/abandoning it will fit neatly into the above. …split the Bough's power between the sinners which dilutes the impact?

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.