given in the orlando furioso/innamorato orlando's whole thing is that he went completely fucking insane after a certain point and was totally unreasonable to deal with before he got out
I kinda agree with Roland here—while I'm pretty sure Carmen and Ayin's plan had more to it than "flooding the City with antidepressants," that high-minded ideal that the Sephirah are all focused on ignores the very real, material problems of the city that the light was supposed to help solve.
From what I understand of it, the light was also supposed to give each individual human the tools to fight back against the systems that lock them down.
The ability to defend yourself on every level is locked down behind money and controlled by organizations much, much larger than any individual citizen. From Offices giving protection to Wings distributing technologies that make weapons, the entire city is organized from the top-down that the only way to fight against the power structure of the City...
Is to integrate yourself into that power structure in some way, which makes it more difficult to fight it. Want to start a revolution? Good luck getting your hands on tools unless you join an Office for weapons, or throw money at a workshop, or, or, or... It's ingenious in a brutal, depressing way.
If the Distortion Phenomenon turns people into uncontrollable monsters thanks to the sudden interruption of the flow of light, it's reasonable to assume that if all 7 days were completed, what would've happened instead would've been something like giving everyone the ability to manifest their own E.G.O. and defend themselves.
by and large we're not depressed just because our brains are bad, it's because we have to grapple with the overwhelming horror of late-stage capitalism on a daily basis and the city is even worse in that aspect
And yeah, as far as I can tell the intent of the Seed of Light project was both to give people the hope needed to try changing things and the physical tools necessary to actually do so.
That's... a good point, actually. Arbiters are the HEAVIEST hitters the Head has access to, and back then LobCorp wasn't actually doing anything that would've gotten them such a high priority.
which makes me wonder, would the effects of the dark days have lessened if the sephirah didn't hold out? useless speculation anyways, but it's interesting to think about
no i think "YOU WERE PLANNING ON COMMITTING SUICIDE???" is the more grounded response here, the sephirot are just high on their own philosophical fumes
Hod and Roland: What does being a good person mean? Does it matter? Netzach and Roland: yooooooooo THIS BOOZE IS SICK want to talk about art, man i could talk about art ALL DAY
all the times that i've been the most suicidal i never mention it anywhere. i just calmly imagine ways to kill myself and maybe even get a few steps down the line before something gets me back into line
Like, no wonder he adapted so quickly to being Angela's servant- he probably finds being the right-hand man to a terrifying lady a familiar and comforting experience.
I mean, when you think about it, they have a lot in common with the Library- they eat people to make cloth, and the Library kills people to steal their clothing.
there's ANOTHER orlando furioso reference. argalia is a giant that astolfo vanquished iirc. anyways that's... the blue reverberation, the red mist, and the purple tear now
...that might actually be it. Guns might not be able to stop higher-tier Fixers, but they're sure as hell efficient at killing LOTS of people. It'd put a lot of Fixers and Syndicates out of a job!
Netzach and Roland: yooooooooo THIS BOOZE IS SICK want to talk about art, man i could talk about art ALL DAY