It's.. interesting how much penacony keeps going back to the idea of striding further than before.
(also, I fucking hate boothil. I didn't hate him at first, and his design is nice, but he felt like such a FORCED addition to the plot and he's added N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Like, bitch, Acheron would go to the Express either way, and all that would change is that we'd have black swan infodump instead of him. Like. He's so edgy and it legit has just become annoying.)
So, back into topic, after getting this wall of negativity out of my heart,
When Acheron and Welt talk, they talk about Icarus and going further than your predecessors — it reveals plenty about Acheron and Welt, and ties in later to the universal notion of what, although I first interpreted as escapism, seems to be about power. People keep attempting to create places where power is not relevant once everyone is rendered powerless by a crushing reality, alas, that power still exists somewhere, and they cannot escape the reality of the difference.
See, let me phrase it better:
Power could be felt like temperature is! The absence of it is something pathetic, which would be cold; the presence of it is simply... Power.
You can only feel cold if your insides are still warmer than the outside, and you can only feel warm if the outside is warmer than you are.
When there is no difference, though your temperature might be objectively low or high, you cannot truly feel it.
That's how I interpreted Sunday's notion of self value and Robin's perception of it through the lenses of the sweet dream, at least.
Back to welt! He mentions people kept attempting to create that good world, and that they kept failing, for whatever reason that was. Mostly, it boils down to human nature — there can't be peace or a perfect world there.
That theme of reaching higher and higher comes again with Sunday and Robin. Stronger, even, I'd say; they talk in universal themes and make comprehension much more easier. Yes, there's a wounded bird, and this bird might never try — should it be given a cage in which it will live forever, forever contradicting its instincts or be allowed to die doing what is natural to it?
... It's a common question, but I feel although penacony tries to talk about it under so many ways. All of these criticize itself — consumerism, the "digital" life... How much have you lost, living the dream? How much have you lost, living what somebody else made for you instead of fighting your own?
And though this is never mentioned, how much do you trust those running the show? How long until they pull the plug?
It's.. agonizing. Harmony itself is agonizing, perhaps much more than abundance was. The loss of free will, I just,
I understand I must be stepping into headcanon territory by now, and that this is all confusing, but idk
And then they reach for, oh, a bird flew and now all others see the opportunity, too. Which is fun, and falls further into the idea of heat for selfvalue — it is also transmissible, in a way.
Alas, it's much more in the way that those to which it is transmitted are chosen, which only furthers the gap between those with high and low value; eventually, if an environment capable of accommodating those unable to fly isn't found, they'll die.
And in that way, I think... There's s very different way to interpret it when Welt says that after the first person did their thingmagig, others started doing it too, and when Sunday says that after the first bird flew, others started to do so. It's not as if the weak ever had a chance to turn the game, but rather that they became less noticable as a new strength spread through those who were already strong.
I... Don't know. I feel although I'm wrong for the game's point of view, but I think it makes the most sense.
