So Mili has released a new song and its finally a reasonable time to talk about this.
Many people, fans of the game(s) or characters, have been making reference to Project Moon in the comments of Mili's independant or unrelated songs/demo's, explicitly against the wishes of the band.
I want to clarify before I move on to my main point, I do think that it is good to respect the wishes of the band, and not to reduce them to the "Project Moon Music" people. In the worst case scenario, there may be enough cause for Mili to split with Project Moon for the unwanted interaction or mitigation of independent projects that they will receive. The most direct comparison is something akin to the split between Calamity Mod (Terraria) and the artist DM DOKURO, who received unwarrented harassment over releasing//creating more music specifically for the mod, and having large amounts of engagement on other projects be linking back to or asking about Calamity, eventually culminating in threats against DOKURO before his departure.
But I didn't want to speak about Mili, not with this. I want to talk about elitism and exclusion of groups within the Limbus (and wider Project Moon) community.
I have my grievances with people who boil down lore to extremes that can be summarised within a short paragraph, with the dilution or use of Project Moon's characters or story for projects, but at the end of the day, that's not something to be overly concerned about. At the end of the day, those people are still getting into the community, they are still learning about the lore and, if they enjoy the premise of the game's, or like certain characters, they will learn more and then move past the summarised form of the story.
But it seems that many people don't exactly love this idea. I've seen people talk a lot, about how Tik Tok and Roblox (especially the latter) has done nothing but harm for the community, how it's attracted only "tourists" and "hype riders", and those alone are the people that make the community look bad.
Why do people seem so intent on holding such high standards to any of these people, did they hold themselves to such? Did they understand the nuanced development of the city and its children from the moment they began?
People are allowed to make jokes, allowed to have references or memes, allowed to not understand a character "as well as you do", because I assure you, there are people out there with a better understanding than yourself, than myself, who writes essays on Project Moon. Everyone was a child once, everyone had to learn what they do now, and you can't consider yourself an outlier towards a greater trend.
I've been in this community for a bit over half of a decade now, and I can assure you, there have always been people you don't agree with, there have always been people who repeat the same simplified phrases and jokes, but demonising alone those who came after you, or after them? It's absurd.
Tribalism. I'm calling it what it is. Unity within the tribe is predicated upon exclusion. So long as people look outwards, to the "out group" for their problems in a community, to the new fans, or the so called "tourists", the facade of true cohesion within the community is maintained. So long as you project a problem upon another group, you don't need to see it within your own.
Spoilers, Backseating, poor jokes or phrases, common misunderstandings; the Project Moon community has always had a problem with the lot of these. So what if the newest fans share these problems, when they're being indicted by a community that is far from better.
If they are new, young to the community, it is the wider community's position to set an example. It is ok to fail, to fall into these same behaviours that fester the community, everyone does. So long as you can see yourself. See where you stand, and where you're going.
Call out your own behaviour. Call out the behaviour of others; but do not attribute it wholly to the "other" or the "new". See your community, your "self", as it is, and as your ideal, as you want it to be.
-- Carmen, of Literally's Illiteracy
