#but also yesterday i was reading a book title the hegemony of psychopathy

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Finished Hortus of Escapismo and it really gave me a lot of thoughts.

Well, I feel others already talked about the tragedy of the event. Sure, the protagonists have deescalated the tensions and something worse was avoided. But the Sarkaz were rejected from the Laterano paradise and few Laterano citizens changed meaningfully their view of the Sarkaz; the problems that underlie Laterano society are still there and will emerge again eventually (and if they aren’t addressed, it’ll make groups like the Church of Deep more attractive to the ones excluded), converging with the rest of Terra’s problems.

One of the themes of Hortus of Escapismo is faith and despair. The abbot tried to manage a “paradise” for both Sarkaz and Sankta where they could live in peace. But, as the story shows, many Sankta didn’t internalize that, they just thought of the Sarkaz there as people just “there”, while the Sarkaz had to live in even worse conditions than the already bad ones of the monastery.

The abbot entered in despair and almost resorted to the Church of Deep’s methods to keep the “paradise” between Sankta and Sarkaz. But he was too kind, he loved them too much to give them the twisted view of paradise of the Church of Deep; it would violate what the individual wishes of his congregations would want. Thus, he teetered in the edge of the despair abyss but didn’t jump. But he will never be the same.

Meanwhile, Clement was also a kind person. Being an Elafia, he was likely mostly ignorant of the conflicts between Sarkaz and Sankta. He gave his life for the monastery, trying to plant flowers to give it a bit of color. But he succumbed to despair when the paradise was crumbling. He was a really unique boss: not a mass of mutated tentacles, not a near-invincible warrior, just a normal gardener. You don’t even really fight him, but the enemy units and the desire of civilians to fall in holes.

After being defeat, it does show how far he’s fallen into despair. It was a sad moment, to state the obvious. But I wonder how much Arturia had a hand on it. It seems her Arts is to amplify emotions. In my opinion, I honestly believe she’s more of an “evil woman (derogatory)” than “evil woman (affectionate)”, but she’s not really good and evil, in a sense. Like an analysis wrote, she’s more of a trickster, doing whatever she wants and to see what happens when people’s emotions are brought to their logical conclusion, making them act illogically – she’s disappointed that the abbot refused to turn the congregation, she surely was looking forward to that, and why Executor can deal with her bullshit, he’s immune to her Arts. But that’s what makes her a threat and that’s why she needs to be stopped (I’m reminded of Dario recognizing that the Seaborn also aren’t good and evil, but a threat that must be stopped). After her talking about how Clement will be remembered, I was like “you sure like your flowery language”; that made me realize some tragedies aren’t “beautiful” neither “cathartic” -- sometimes they’re just bullshit imposed by someone else.

Still, I hope to see more of her in future events to see how this will develop. Also, it seems the Church of Deep also has plans to expand. Will things get better? Not sure, but that won’t stop some trying to improve things and it won’t give easy solutions to the audience. Compassion was also a recurring theme – Hyman recovering her humanity when she saw her children (we’ll surely see her and Aulus again, but I wonder if they also have a different agenda from the Seaborn we’ve seen), the abbot’s compassion for the congregation and Executor essentially learning how to practice it.

#arknights #hortus de escapismo #see bobbile-blog and myceliagoblin posts on the event and arturia #but also yesterday i was reading a book title the hegemony of psychopathy #that talked about hegemony uses psychopathy to perpetuate itself #and the most important way to fight is with compassion with others #and i was thinking of that #when reflecting on the role of compassion in the event