The Bioelectrical Network

What she says about the wheel flower interests me the most, when it comes to distrusting her extend of believing in the spiritual (not that she completely disregards it, mind you, only a fool would in her place in such a world)

Something about the use of the word "hallucinogenic" ticks an alarm off. There are definitely words that would better describe what the wheel flower does for a regular organic creature. Like transcendence. Hallucinogenic- and in connection hallucination- carries the air of "it's not actually real. they were just wigging out". Yet we know well that the flowers have special spiritual properties

Or this

How does she define "starving" oneself? Why does she essentially mock/disdain it? (At least that's how I'm reading it.) Is it anything less than a perfect diet? Fasting and dietary restrictions are typical for religions. As a giant metal brick biorobot in the sky she isn't exactly in the position to judge this stuff outside of science. As for the gravel part we have no idea what the Ancients ate. The shopping lists/recipes mentioned in the white pearls contain some weird things. Maybe they were completely fine with a filterfeeder-esque/scavenger-esque diet, not necessarily needing fruits or meaty meals

It's fun to think of the two siblings in this light- Moon the sceptical analytical one, if she can't see it or it isn't written in a scientific research paper there's always a good chance that it isn't real, while Pebbles is here entertaining the integrity and nature of reality like a rubics cube

(he's so amazing for giving questions like that too. the last line is fun to ponder, because the definition of death for them is so vastly different from ours. keeping that in mind, all the "Pebbles is so edgy he wants to kill himself" takes within the fandom lose or change their meaning. death isn't the end. crossing out isn't supposed to be a type of suicide. death is an actual gateway for the creatures of this world without delusions born of despair [though delusions born of despair definitely happened to the Ancients just in a different place])

Moon's greatest fault is sticking to conrete reality and rules and refusing to branch out with her thinking while Pebbles' greatest fault is getting too caught up in thoughts, theories, inner spiritual workings of reality to the point that it results in a near-death of a dear friend(/sister) of his because of the resulting ignorance

And these things continue to show in other aspects of them, too! Like their relationship to the Ancients

While thinking about *that* one needs to keep in mind that Moon has been alive and with the Ancients for thousands of years while Pebbles... not all that much

Moon sticks to the rules, to what the Ancients pre-set as the Correct ways of interaction in a society and relationships, from the beginning to past their end. They influenced her to hell and back, exactly like parents influence their children's worldviews. An ideology can begin as pure and good, yet at some point it will rot away into something worse- most often after the death of the original creator, because the following ones understand the world differently. And they can't help it but put their perceptions and understandings into what they work with. Or they might even be malicious with it. Moon is either incapable or unwilling to recognize that what she's sticking to has gone rotten. The thing that mostly speaks this to me is the parasite line

The Ancients, by the end of their existence, turned into society with a rigid polite system. Tip-toeing around any slightly uncomfortable topic, hardly getting anything communicated right. They talk and talk, hiding the point under useless letters out of fear of being Rude and Disrespectful. And so does Moon!

She has the *right* to call them like that, not miss them, be angry at them the same as Pebbles. What good are parents that see their child as an obligation. Who leave them behind, trapped in one place, knowing they *can't* escape that cage because the parents specifically taught and limited them just so

I don't believe the Ancients were all scum their entire existence. They found joy in the smallest damn pieces of the world. They loved and they created beauty. But by the end the saturation of the bad became too strong. All that is left after they all committed mass suicide (wether willingly or not doesn't matter in the long run of the Iterators) is the bad. What good stayed eventually rotted away leaving the Iterators only with the pain created by rules and taboos and a broken world

Pebbles knows this negative most intimately. He wasn't there for their better times. Moon was and so her perspective is wider, but she doesn't set any personal boundary because of the afermentioned lack of willingness of recognition where the society ended up going

Politeness is *not* kindness. Politeness can be manipulative. It can become a barrier between a person and the truth they need to hear

She was closer to them, Pebbles never calls them his parents. She is So attached, feeling guilty, feels the need to respect them, even though deep down where she is true she thinks of them lower than dirt. Even though she admits her and most Iterators don't miss populated cities, she can't bring herself to completely cut herself off from them

Moon *absolutely* thinks of the Ancients as parasites. That sentence came from the heart. Then the mind kicked in and what she was taught by their society came in and she apologized because That Was Not Polite. Heavens Forbid We Speak Our Hearts If It *Offends* Anyone

Pebbles doesn't have an issue with that! Pebbles doesn't give a Shit! Because *they* didn't give a shit

Pebbles' best characterization moments are his talk with the Survivor, the Hunter and the Sky Island pearl obtaining his and Suns' conversation. The last is the greatest

Because the pearl reveals that he is righteously angry about the Iterators' predicament. Not only his but *everyones*. He hates that they suffer, that their effort is really for nothing, that they die slowly and painfully. This is Unacceptable. They don't deserve it (and elder Suns waves it off, not caring for the suffering. The end justifies the means- let everyone but one die, because there *surely* is no way at least the one of them won't figure out the answer in the end)

Pebbles understands justice, his worth and is active, but also recognizes the seeming futility of this research especially in these constricting straightjackets their creators put them in. He'll snarl, claw and tear to get to the bottom of this and spare everyone the slow deaths they are all inevitably hurling to. And in the process, by unfortunate development... he hurls himself into an early agonizing death instead. A case of a tragic anti-hero

He speaks brutal truth. He isn't being egoistic/narcissistic when he calls himself "god-like in comparison". In comparison to rats, humans are also god-like. Just the fact that he says god-*like* and not godly also speaks for itself. He is only an imitation of a divine truly godly being, he knows. Just because he doesn't tear himself and his worth down doesn't mean he's full of himself

He calls the old rituals "silly", because what good is a ritual really. Isn't it better to focus inwards, explore yourself than dance for someone else? He gives the Survivor the *option* of this salvation he'd desire for himself. You can take it, or not. But really Survivor's story is about making peace with being lonely, letting go of the need of relationships- she is on the way to the enlightment. She might as well listen to him and words shared in kind

He says, "Not that it solves anyone's problem but yours." because goddammit so many horrible things have happened. He's so tired, but can't stop. Can't save anyone even though that is his very purpose. Then he wishes her luck, or asks for her to go a way less uncomfortable for him

He warns an animal (one that he knows can explicitly understand him) twice before using force. What's so bad about enforcing his boundaries? (Moon could never enforce her own until she was already dying.) Even the way he dispatches a lingering slugcat; it's quick and painless (I once heard someone say that Pebbles would take joy in suffering of little creatures and dear stars tthat is so far from truth. he doesn't *enjoy* that). And still keep in mind that death is very different for them than for us. It isn't the end. It's more like a knockout without a lasting damage when you think about it

Pebbles is really cool for taking responsibility for the near-murder too. And idk how anyone else is reading his Hunter dialogue but this man has such kindness to him, honestly

TLDR; Pebs is a very cool dude who just doesn't take shit actually, not only a little without-a-reason pissed off man hiding some sort of self-worth issues and Moon's a mess that would benefit from taking some notes from him sometimes (just as he would from listening to her some)