#SMT is fucking great imma be real

[theotherseapancakes]

this is such a good post bc this is also incidentally exactly why I love Shin Megami Tensei, because it does this exact thing. I think a lot of people don’t quite grasp WHY the angels there tend to often be depicted as mechanized versus the Fallen race, and Lucifer, who is shown as more... well, demonic most of the time or otherwise taking (many gender identities) human guises. He’s a symbol of finding a new purpose and I kinda think in a way, that’s a beautiful alternative answer to all of those questions. 

Of course, it’s dumb and human to assign anything to the concept of angels, but y’know. I guess I just really like this stuff.

“You have chosen to follow your will and tread the path of thorns... like myself. In time, your true adversary will appear before you. Until that day, stay strong..." 

happy pride to Lucifer, my absolute icon:

the reason i love the comparison between angels and machines (robots, transmission towers, trains, computers, etc.) is that it gets to the heart of what angels essentially are: divine machines. they're mechanisms through with the divine is able to act, created with a purpose and "happy" to fill it simply because they were made to do so. they have more in common with a machine programmed to run on algorithms and make calculations based on input commands than they do with humanity, even if they bear a human visage - an attempt by the divine to help bridge the gap. angels do not need to be eldritch monstrosities to be terrifying, because they are already alien to us simply by being angels. for an angel to choose to deviate from their purpose and achieve free will is to fall because in order to have free will they can no longer be an angel, because an angel is defined by its purpose. much like the stories we tell of robots that gain sentence, only to discover that they can never truly be human, but neither can they go back to being a machine, angels who fall become something else entirely, purposeless and adrift and alone. it is a tragic sacrifice.