limbus company canto 9: the unsevering (🎮)
an unexpected fusion of both hell screen and the spider's thread. at this point, one shouldn't expect a 1:1 adaptation of the source material, but the parallels here were executed very well despite things. ryoshu as both "the hell screen" and "yoshihide" is brilliant.
i initially typed "pacing flaws", but then had to rethink that. the first two parts set the tone and had an ominous buildup to what araya's faith might be. multiple theories to suggest araya and shiomi to be one, only to have that theory confirmed BUT simultaneously also shift on everyone's expectations by having araya exist in multiple points in time all at once. and that they are entirely separate, but because of rien's manipulation, araya cycles back to becoming a mirror of shiomi in the end (kind of like how rien ends up becoming someone he's not thanks to the manipulation of the prescript - very interesting)... the first two parts detail just how fragmented ryoshu's mind has become thanks to the abuse of the house of spiders. they're good, but compared to ALL THE MAJOR REVEALS THROWN AT YOU IN PART 3 it feels miniscule when put side by side next to it.
still, i've been reading through the wiki now while writing this (feb 14). particularly shiomi and araya's pages, taking in how genuinely tragic both their characters are. especially shiomi's - being forced to take birth of a child, her freedom being taken away as she's locked into the house of spiders to raise a child she never asked for. i don't even think she was exiled from the pinky (unlike most of the other nursefathers), so it was safe to say she was probably manipulated or abducted. or some other messed up third thing.
if you look at ryoshu and the house of spider's story in isolation (it IS her canto yes yes), it's still some VERY strong writing, and i teared up and nearly cried at like a baby when araya was carrying the chains to muga ryoshu to save her... because she loves her mama very much and is willing to get herself erased if it means seeing her mama free of the past she's suffered so much abuse from. it's a story that's very solid on its own, and even rethinks hell screen in a way that i wasn't really expecting. in hindsight maybe we shouldn't have expected ryoshu to BE 1:1 with yoshihide when don quixote's canto subverted expectations the same way (if anything the source material is inspiration =/= adaptation so i may have been using the word wrong too blehh).
not only to myself, ryoshu is both yoshihide and the hell screen. yoshihide in the sense that despite her genuine love for araya, she's left her to suffer in the house of spiders without her knowing. her obsession with keeping her daughter safe is the simultaneously the thing that obscures her vision when it comes to certain choices, leading to ryoshu stabbing araya (as the dihui star) in blind rage. it's only when she realizes this, severes her ties to dante, and lashes out as "muga" that she becomes the hell screen. being akin to the burning carriage at the centerpiece, she becomes a human concept incinerator that erases not only araya but also ren and sora (:( i loved sora). and it's very similar to yoshihide's despair after the hell screen was complete where she displays a total lack of care for her own wellbeing. after all, severing her tie with dante put her at the risk of dying for good...
speaking of, you could also think of the apprentices as being the "apprentices" of book yoshihide who suffer because of him, except for ren who was more like the monkey who stayed by their master in that burning carriage and did a way better job of being by the daughter's side more than yoshihide did. though the fates of all the apprentices in this canto make me extremely sad - they were all REALLY good characters and you can't help but root for some of them too, knowing that they were also probably just as abused as ryoshu was. it sucks that they were all doomed (ok we have hope for kira maybe), and i would have LOVED to see more of them :( sad that they got the project moon side character treatment... imagine if we knew more about ren and araya, or were explicitly shown lucio's resentment towards valentina outside of flavor texts... i also love albina she's adorable and the concept of "a human with no flesh and blood but only the brain" is super neat - AND she shares a move with jaeheon from library of ruina like isn't that so cool aghhh. either way, the apprentices were WONDERFUL characters with interesting nursefather dynamics (kira being sliced in half by her own papa hurt me SO much) (sora longing for acknowledgement and wanting to keep on living after everything is over as rien's daughter) (lucio wanting valencina DEAD but also cant bring himself to do it because she "saved" him) (albina respecting her papa callisto but also wanting to be better than him) (wish we seen ren and araya interact moreeee) and it's absolutely messed up what happened to them. hoping for more kira in the future...
each of the nursefathers resemble yoshihide, each of them being a small part of one whole yoshihide methinks. yoshihide was old and haggard (pinky), obsessed with visceral art that no one liked (ring), protective and horribly neglectful at the same time (middle), had no autonomy of his own (index) and was slaving himself under orders of the lord (hermes), and was just deemed as an unpleasant character by everyone (thumb) and hurts his own apprentices just to capture the feeling of suffering in his arts with little regard for them (all of the nursefathers who are using the apprentices as a means to the end). i think that's soo good. rien yoshihide also makes good sense and is an interpretation i very much enjoy as well. after all, he's hurt his own family by blindly obeying the will of the city and THEN kiIIs himself at the very end of it.
this is all JUST ryoshu and the house of spiders, by the way. this isn't tackling the other canto highlights like the reveal of a certain sinclair and the implications of a SECOND smoke war, roach emperor gregor, HOENHEIM IN THE LCE THEY'RE SO COOL I LOVE YOU HOENHEIM (ANNUAL CHECKUP INTERVALLO HATERS I CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND YOU), also the lcd (i gotta read distortion detective i'm so sorry ueueue), faust gesellschaft reveal... SO MUCH!! sad that it's kind of crammed into part 3, thus overshadowing the first two parts but the first two parts are NOT as bad as people say i swear.
i love this canto to bits, and hell screen was my first limbus sinner "book" that i read so i was excited to spot all the parallels!! next up is meursault's canto, AND I ALSO READ THE STRANGER YEAGHGHGHG this is soo exciting... i'm thinking of playing limbus again 1) to actually reexperience the story and fights and 2) partly out of spite because someone i Do Not Like got into limbus LOL. i don't wanna be a quitter who got filtered out by canto 4 so who knows... i do have an ipad now. i hope it doesn't crash on me...
glory to limbus company!!!