Like Dr. Wernicke clinging to German folklore and Frankenstein as he experiments with the Morphogenic Engine, the Kress twins make reference to literature and mythology to find an answer to the question: Are they the monster, or are they the man?
Otto hears a noise and says a line from Shakespeareβs The Tempest, specifically said by the character Caliban. In some iterations, Caliban is a half-man, half-fish-beast. Caliban is decidedly not the hero of the play. Instead he's bullied and mocked, the comic relief, and presented both as a rapist, and also as a slave. A villain and a victim.
The Minotaur is also a half-man, half-beast. A monster that eats human flesh, but abandoned in a labyrinth and is ultimately killed by the hero. A villain and a victim.
If Otto is the man-half of something, what is he implying with the βmonsterβ-half? Is he himself both the man and the monster?
Possibly, with Leviathan explicitly being a sea monster (which connects back to Caliban). Of course, there's still a dual meaning to the figure of Leviathan, where it represents a symbol of chaos and of evil, but also showcases God's power over the world through creating and taming it.
So yes, the two "half-men" referenced here could all be Otto referring to himself. But he is still in a pair, with someone who sees herself as an ugly monster.
(Youβll notice the flaw that was present in the original question: Arora is not a man. And unfortunately the question being asked has only two answers.)
Arora references not a play, but one of Shakespeareβs sonnets, Sonnet 130. This poem is a parody of other love sonnets, depicting the mistress as "overwhelmingly ugly," but Shakespeareβs love for the mistress still true.
And as she finishes the line, Otto replies, βYou know me well, love.β Her reference seems less about her own possible love of Shakespeare, and more an appeal to her brotherβs interests. The choice of poem was still hers, though. And she similarly chose a character that is, in the text, considered ugly.
Despite how much Otto talks about how beautiful Arora is, how much power they wield, all that beauty does still seem to involve and center himself as the primary focus. Narcissus is, after all, another male figure. Two male figures if you count the reflection!
"I would drown in your beauty like Narcissus." "One cannot be guilty of incest against oneself." These two statements don't really seem to value Arora as her own separate person. The pair are both referred to as the Buffalo Minotaur, one entity, one male character.
(Funny when she says this about Coyle. And how Project Walrider fused a man to another man.)
And if Arora canβt be that, this other half to Otto, the same, she must be the monster, the parasite of the two. Like she canβt just be her own woman, like she can't just be his sister. (The answer to the original question for everyone involved has always been, "Monsters aren't real, you are all just terrible human beings.")
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