#canto four spoilers

[manager-dante]

i need to flesh this out once i’ve mulled it over more but i adore how limbus company expands on the incredible world-building of project moon, because it is so goddamn realistic.

from the outset the player is presented with this incredibly bleak world in which corporations have become the state. the poor and the desperate bow their heads and toil at the altar of the free market. worth is measured by talent in exploitation. it’s a social darwinist’s wet dream. i also think the choice to base the cast off of literary figures was amazing, because it highlights very important connections to the past. i haven’t read all the books referenced, but the ones i have (the metamorphosis, don quixote de la mancha, & the odyssey so far) draw an unmistakable through-line from the suffering and exploitation depicted in those books to that which occurs in the city. the most horrifying parts of this game in my opinion aren’t the monsters or the machines — it’s the sheer enormity of human suffering which exists in the economic and political system the city operates under. and that’s the worst part, because in so many ways, the suffering and exploitation portrayed in the city is not a hypothetical fantasy — this is just capitalism working as intended. it’s not confined to the historical context of those books, nor the gritty sci-fi horror of the game.

but not only do we have this incredible setting that’s somehow both brutally realistic and fantastical at the same time, we also get to see how our main cast attempts to survive in that world — and ultimately how none of their attempts to change it succeeded at all.

in my mind, canto i portrays how neither kindness nor cold-heartedness will help you survive — especially through the dynamic between aya and hopkins. gregor has been both. he was a war hero in a meaningless war. after it ended, he was discarded as any tool which had outlived its usefulness would be. he can’t even control his arm from becoming a killing machine. and yet, gregor is still exceptionally personable, even going out of his way to be kind at times. but no matter whether he’s a tool for violence in the hands of war profiteers or simply a man doing his best to protect others, he still couldn’t save yuri — just as he couldn’t save his comrades — and this clearly haunts him. neither the war nor its end changed anything.

canto ii shows between rodya and sonya how both direct action and an “inevitable” revolution fail to quell the suffering of the vulnerable. sonya’s revolution is all bluster and no action. he does nothing to help the people in his community in favor of this grandiose revolution that must happen at the “right moment” — even if it means leaving his neighbors to starve in the meantime. rodya’s inspired yet short-sighted action to remove what she saw as the source of her community’s suffering only led to its destruction: the tax collector was a branch, not the root, of the problem, and killing one person did nothing to stop the system which upheld them.

canto iii is even more clear-cut in the ties between sinclair and kromer: neither violent zealotry nor blissful ignorance will save you in the city. kromer’s cult does not “purify” anything, but sinclair’s courage to stand up to her isn’t enough to beat her either. canto iii still doesn’t end in a victory. dante and the sinners barely survive. it’s only through demian (and k-corp’s) divine intervention that the sinners and kromer don’t destroy each other in the corpse pit.

in the most recent addition, canto iv appears to do the same thing. on one hand, you have the devotion to a principle shown through shrenne, samjo, and donbaek. their causes are different, but their devotion is the same. on the other, there is the cynicism, indifference, and escapism of yi sang and dongrang, both willingly complicit in the machine in different ways. and yet — none of them make any positive difference. whether they resisted or submitted, the machine grinds on around them — the only choices are to become a cog in it or be ground to bits by its gears.

to be clear, i do not think the game is arguing that none of these individual actions matter. even if gregor couldn’t rescue yuri, even if rodya couldn’t protect her neighbors, even if sinclair couldn’t defeat kromer and all that she stood for, even if the league of nine members each failed to realize their ideals — limbus argues that it matters they tried. it matters that they’re still trying. it may never be possible to oust the corporate overlords and make the city a better place, but the love still matters.

[layla-lynx]

I love this horrible old woman she’s so happy that she manipulated a defenseless civilian into giving her information 

[dearlystars]

all the people saying limbus canto iv got delayed bc shranne had to be there for pride month is funny bc like. happy pride month gays! we made one sapphic explode and then cut the other one in half!

[tibtew]

this image was always painful but now that we have more context on it, it's straight up just driving me insane

the fact that dongbaek and yi sang are at the front, but dongbaek is hiding her hands.... the fact that gubo is off to the side and looks anxious almost.... the fact that dongrang stands at the back (fully at the back, to me it looks like he's standing behind even the guy he's shoulder-to-shoulder to) and is the only one not looking at the camera, his heart not truly in it...

[gottagetgogottagetattahere]

I feel like a good litmus test about limbus company is that part in Canto IV where you see the infinite chicken hack and your first reaction was:

A) horrified about the animal cruelty (u are sinclair)

B) morbidly amused by the horrific logical conclusion k-corp came up with the healing ampules

C) disgust/depressed about how this could feed so many people but is instead used for profit

D) ...But does it taste good?

[elizkras]

he's not :(

[tictoxic]

CANTO 4 SPOILERS

Is this anything

[endergirldragon]

reposting some old stuff

[smolselfshippingaxcycat]

iM NOT FUCKIGN OKAY AFTER CANTO 4 SOBBIGn

tHE THE THING THIGN ADN THE DISTORTY HGNRHGgh

OSbbs

[circuit3301]

Canto 4 Spoilers

hey bro... you feeling ok? all seriousness this is a fun fight, not to hard but good, its so nice to hear a new mili song hitting it out of the park yet again. 

also Dante proving once again they are the best character ever written. and i love how faust is quite literally their filter

and AHHHHHHHHHHHH

MY BOY MAKES AN EMOTION!!!

loved this chapter, a mili song, holy shit the last fights ending, HE SMILED, and the implications of Dante remembering what they saw makes this an amazing chapter, well done PM

bonus: my favorite section of the ED: Dante being Dante, and Charon probably running over a family of 5

nevermind, that's not the end of this post

you little shit what are you doing here. actual child jumpscare

hi Dante what's up? just gonna tick huh? that's fine, no underlining meaning here

[mossy-paws]

Rodya found the yaoi :( (Limbus company)

The shitpost comic I’ve been working on has. Been taking much longer then expected I know I originally wasn’t planning on drawing anything limbus comp related until I got other important things done but I couldn’t get this out of my head so I had too 😔

OG image also! I got a ton of stuff cooking atm so HOPEFULLY I’ll have actually good art soon, I’ve just been very very busy with final exams and school

[korronotsoshiny]

If there’s one thing I miss about listening to Hero, it’s the fact that-

I can’t listen to the second part without La Don’s laughter as he staggers and wipes out half my sinners. It really compliments the mutual mental breakdown we have together. /hj

I kid you not, I was crying when he landed his unbreakable coins non-stop until I reached his third phase. Then I cried more at the cutscene.

[myreputatioooon]

the way carmen cgs flashed....has healthcliff been going through a years long distortion process this entire time...???

[tibtew]

disjointed yi sang ramble (canto iv spoilers kind of):

okay I know chapter 4 isn't over yet BUT I can't stop thinking about how the big 000 ids for gregor and sinclair in their chapters (and tbh I think this can be applied to rime shank rodya as well) have them conforming to what people expect of/want from them while yi sang just. Becomes Dongbaek because he no longer has a place in her world and she has no place in his... all they have is the sweet-smelling sense of nostalgia...

it reminds me a lot of this passage from the wings:

additionally, while I think the entire league embodies the wife character to some extent, the direct moments of conflict where she lashes out feel the most. dongbaek to me. also interesting to note that she's the only league member he's been able to properly Fight so far.

also, since this rant was inspired by his new id: "once all these flowers have been stained red only then will "I" bloom as well" to me reads as him trying to destroy his past in an effort to regain his sense of self. hm.

also also I find the fragrance aspect of the bloom ego so interesting when you consider that the protag in the wings sniffs his wife's perfume to remember her....

[melonisopod]

Lifetime Stew is so much darker in hindsight.

Sinclair and Don Quixote both get it, and it’s specifically *Lust*, not *Gluttony*, despite being food-themed. (Although Gluttony in Limbus terms is basically Greed, and Lust very broadly refers to “desire” for things that aren’t material).

So, Lifetime Stew is based on the fable of Stone Soup, wherein a man managed to feed his whole village by bringing each together with a different ingredient, to make a soup that would last forever. He just kept telling each person in the town square, “All it needs is one more ingredient,” and everyone just kept adding to it. Is the gist of it.

Sinclair and Don have voice lines that more or less imply the same thing - the Abnormality (Basilisoup) just wants everyone to try its delicious soup! Cute, silly concept, right?

So what do Sinclair and Don Quixote have in common?

(SPOILERS beyond this point! You’ve been warned)

In Canto 3, Sinclair recalls that once his mother, father, and sister all received full-body prosthetics, they no longer had a need to eat. The table was set and food was placed only for him. It’s one of the things he found so especially heartbreaking, that he was the only one left in his family who could still eat food. It’s such a core memory that it’s plastered on the window-wall of his cell for his base E.G.O., four roboticized humans sitting at the table, with no food present.

He desperately misses getting to share meals with his family.

And in La ManchaLand, the Bloodfiends have been starved of blood for the past 200 years, barely sustaining themselves on hemobars that don’t satisfy them. They can *live* without subsisting on human blood, but they’re utterly miserable doing so. The only one of the First Kindred’s clan who escaped such a fate was of course, Sancho, though she’d long forgotten she is a Bloodfiend, Faust says she still craves blood. She’d been in effect, the only Bloodfiend allowed to sate her cravings, while the rest of her kin starved. Being the only Bloodfiend able to escape their fate was so traumatic for Sancho that she wanted to forget everything about herself.

In other words, Basilisoup/Lifetime Stew is about “the joy of sharing a meal with family,” something both Sinclair and Don Quixote desperately wish for.

KIM JIHOON WHEN I FUCKING GET YOU

[ashlynniis-bracketeers]

Woe, sequel to this be upon ye.

Seeing discussion about my post and possible Sinner/E.G.O combinations in regards to the Magical Girl E.G.Os, I ended up slapping this chart together, mainly of personal theorization.

I used the Sinner symbols for the Sinners, and Card Suits for the Abnos/E.G.O. For the Abnos, from left-to-right: Diamond for King of Greed/Magical Girl of Happiness (Gold Rush), Heart for Queen of Hatred/Magical Girl of Happiness (In the Name of Love and Hate), Spade for Knight of Despair/Magical Girl of Justice (the Sword Sharpened With Tears), Club for Servant of Wrath/Magical Girl of Courage (Unknown E.G.O name). I will be shortening their names to KoG (King of Greed), QoH (Queen of Hatred), KoD (Knight of Despair), and SoW (Servant of Wrath).

It was a massive pain in the ass lmao. There are twelve Sinners and four Magical Girls, so it would logically be a trio of Sinners for each E.G.O, but trying to cut them out so cleanly was... not possible with my skills and knowledge, to say the least lmao. Servant of Wrath fits for so many of the Sinners, it's unreal. Also, wtf do I do with Ryo, Hongler, and Outism rofl.

More detailed thoughts (and a blank version if any of you want to take a stab at it) under a cut. [Includes spoilers for Murder on the WARP Express (and things before it). You have been warned.]

Yi Sang - I'm not going to lie, I mainly just gave him Knight of Despair because... well, just look at him lmao. I put a tentative check for King of Greed because he simply desired to bring happiness for others, but was consumed... though by despair instead of greed/gluttony like the KoG.

Faust - Inside the Limbus fandom, people tend to forget that Gloom is normally replaced by Greed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins in real life, but Greed has been swallowed up and assimilated into Gluttony within the City. We don't know much about "Our" Faust, disconnected from the Gesellschaft, but something that we see between both of them is this: Curiosity. An all-consuming curiosity, a hunger for knowledge. I put a tentative check for Servant of Wrath because of the possibility of her turning against the Gesellschaft at some point in the future, making it her "Hermit of the Azure Forest" figure. This is entirely theorization, hence the tentativeness.

Don Quixote - Both the QoH and KoD seem to fit her quite well. She's made of two drastically-different sides, after all, and could both work depending on what her future is in her Canto and beyond. Someone desperate for purpose and usefulness, their manic personality possibly falling into hysteria and twisting themselves into a monster... or a monster twisting themselves into a human, in this case. And the Knight of Despair was originally the Magical Girl of Justice, after all. I put a tentative check for KoG because of the possibility of her being consumed by her desires, trying to seek happiness through serving others in something that could be seen as selfish means.

Ryoshu - I honestly wasn't sure what to do for her. Ended up just slapping on the King of Greed because her... art tastes, combined with her love of making this "art", can be seen as a selfish pursuit of happiness. A tentative KoD check because... Well, she might have already gone through her original "despair arc" before joining the company, if you understand what I mean (something related to her original literary inspiration).

Meursault - See the post this is a sequel to for more info, but I may as well copy-paste a copy-paste from it: "QoH seems to define herself by “usefulness” or “purpose”. When there’s evil in the world, she has a purpose! She’s happy to serve, in the name of Love, when there’s a villain on the loose! But without evil, without a villain, she’s “useless”, and risks being… thrown away. QoH seeks Love (and technically Happiness, though that’s technically more King of Greed), while Meur has been attempting to seek happiness. QoH is eager to serve, until she is considered “useless” and goes ballistic, while Meur tends to obey without complaint and both has difficulty expressing his emotions and was probably taught to repress them heavily, and probably feels some bottled-up resentment over the idea of being discarded…" And on that note: QoH's "hysterical" state and monstrous transformation could also bring to mind his book counterpart emotionally blowing up at the end of the book. He has tentative checks in KoG and SoW. Starting with SoW: His "Hermit" figure could be many people/figures as he grows more independent and self-driven. For KoG: He's been trying to "seek happiness" for a long time. Who's to say that, as he grows more independent and self-driven, that his ways of seeking happiness don't become more selfish and/or possibly self-destructive? Just because a character is progressing doesn't mean it has to be entirely "positive", especially in The City.

Hong Lu - Oh, I have no clue what to do with him lmao. It's why he has no "certain" checkmarks. I have tentative checks in QoH and SoW. Starting with QoH: He simply wishes to selflessly make people happy, from just being nice to lying to try and soften the blow of a tragedy upon another. For SoW: He seems to have some form of both admiration for and resentment towards his family, members of which could act as his "Hermit" figure(s). The question mark for KoG is because of what his reasons could be for joining the Limbus Company in the first place, despite the high risk of death and people often treating him like garbage. Some kind of self-destructive attempt at freedom?

Heathcliff - KoD may seem like an odd pick... but he was originally seeking "justice" against Cathy for her (as he perceived it) rejection of him, and even know he seeks justice for Cathy and vows to bring her back. His Distortion is also caused by him falling into despair over the idea of never growing into more than a "violent beast". There are tentative checks for QoH and SoW. Starting with QoH: He is also heavily motivated by love, and his Distorted form is called "The Heartbroken". For SoW: His "Hermit" figure could be Nelly. The question mark in KoG is because, beyond everything, he just wanted to be happy for once.

Ishmael - She's definitely with SoW. Ahab is easily her "Hermit" figure. She has a tentative check in KoG because the entire reason she got involved with Ahab and the Pequod in the first place was because she desired more than just a soul-numbing Nest office job, and this desire for freedom and excitement ended up almost consuming her entirely. There's question marks for QoH and KoD. Starting with QoH: A lot of the danger outside of the Lake itself in Canto 5 all started because she mentioned Queequeg, who it was... well, you've seen how popular Ishmael/Queequeg is entirely because of stuff in-game, so you should get the picture. She also grew increasingly manic, violent, some would say hysterical throughout the Canto. For KoD: She genuinely believed that she was valued on the Pequod... at least, for a time. Then, well...

Rodion - She's definitely KoG, no contest. Her own selfishness and desire to be "special" is what led to much of her group being slaughtered, which she then tried to numb with attempts at mindless hedonism and gluttony. I put a question mark for QoH because I've heard many people interoperate the QoH as being representative of hypocrisy, which she has in spades... or hearts, in this case.

Sinclair - Yep, definitely SoW. Kromer is his "Hermit" figure, he's generally considered the youngest of the Sinners (like how the SoW is the youngest of the Magical Girls), and he tends to lash out with surprising, rage-filled murderous violence.

Outis - I had no clue what to do with you, either lmao. I put a check in KoG because she seems to desire happiness through seizing power. She's the resident notorious ass-kisser, and she is implied to have been a higher-ranking military rank, which is something she seems to desire the high of again. The KoG also seems to have been the leading Magical Girl, if some of QoH's breaching lines are any indication. I put a tentative check for KoD because of possible reasons why she's no longer a high-ranking military figure. Her information is heavily redacted and unknown, so that could mean one of two things: She was either forcefully expelled from her position and now has bad blood with her original work, or she left of her own volition for a reason. And she seems to genuinely care for her subordinates...

Gregor - He feels like he fits SoW to me, with Hermann acting as his "Hermit" figure. A child abused and manipulated, used as a tool of propaganda, turned into a monster, by his own mother... I put a tentative check for KoD based around the "originally bright-eyed and happy to help, but turned jaded and sorrowful by his military service" angle, which is more pronounced in his "G Corp. Manager Corporal Gregor" Identity. I put a question mark for QoH because of his possible desires to love and the "an upsurge of emotion or a sudden change of environment may cause parts or the whole of his body to transform into insectile (notably akin to a carapace, resembling that of the _) tissues" information from his introduction information possibly being a good analogue to QoH's Hysteria and Serpent states.

Here's the blank, go nuts.