Ergo Proxy - 18: Sign of the End/Life After God

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Sign of the End

A silhouette of Ergo Proxy is seen dancing at the blaze destroying the city.

I forget if I've mentioned before, but they use the surface of the moon as texture for the ground the Rabbit flies over.

Well. Okay. I took a long time waffling over this episode because I was trying to put together a timeline of events, and I can't seem to figure out some of the order of things nor reasons for them taking place. It's a damn shame, because the narrative I want to tell seems to be fatally incomplete without at least a theory on it. But since I can't seem to find any evidence one way or the other, I'm loathe to randomly assign a sequence and an explanation, leaving one gap in an otherwise mostly continuous sequence. It's been irking me every time I come back to write again, and after trying again to figure it out, I keep just walking away in exasperation. But I'm getting nowhere and I have the nagging feeling that I'll figure it all out a couple more episode guides from now, and be temporarily incapacitated by how things so easily slide into place with hindsight. OH WELL. HERE WE GO DESPITE EVERYTHING.
....
oooooooh.
I think I've figured it out this time.

And it does seem to slide into place painfully easily for the most part.

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"I can't believe they pushed it this far. Romdeau completely destroyed the city of Mosk. I wonder what Vincent would do if he knew."
Okay, I really have been away for awhile. I had to dig this back up, but remember way back in episode 7? Of course you do! /sarcasm. Daedalus informs Re-L the following lines: "But before that I'd better tell you everything. Right from the very beginning. We called it the Monad proxy. It was plundered from the Mosk dome."
Tadaa! That's how Re-L knows that Mosk suffered damages, and that it was at the hands of Romdeau. (sometime before Deadalus's birth, since he was created in some capacity to look after Monad.) The clip is played later in the episode, as they ascend to the central chamber of the Mosk dome.

"No, this place looks like it's been this way for quite awhile."
I'm not sure why Re-L informs Vincent of her clues that Mosk wasn't destroyed only by the recent attack from Romdeau. Maybe she is refraining from keeping most secrets from him. (but not all, as she doesn't tell about Romdeau and Monad's unsavory relationship.... I wonder.... is it because it is a shared bond with Daedalus that she won't betray? "Our little secret"? It's not the same secret, but they do keep their confidences.)

"Grandfather must have sent the light. But why now? Is he trying to catch another Proxy?"
Iiiiiii'm not sure why she thinks "the light" came from the Regent. I guess she just traced the flight path from Romdeau's location? If she knew of the Rapture missile, surely she would have called it that, rather than "the light."

Vincent doesn't seem to recognize anything about Mosk. Re-l makes a joke, which is pretty harsh, that he "doesn't even recognize his own city center." (maybe citizens don't normally visit the city centers, so maybe it's a little less harsh. I'm guessing that she just is a bit mean-spirited and regretted a couple moments later speaking before processing her words. *cough* I know I've done that.) Vincent knows her pretty well to already know Re-L means it as a joke. They have grown together surprisingly closely.

"You have spent your existence seeking a God who betrayed you. I am free of your illusions. I seek no God and ask for no salvation. I only wish to destroy."
Raul's switch to destruction as a goal doesn't seem clear to me. He had reasons to desire destruction before, but somehow he went from specific reasons to praising destruction itself. Only that isn't completely true either. He doesn't seek destruction for destruction's sake, but as a method to escape fate, it would seem. "You seek to deny destiny by hastening destruction." (This is in contrast to Kazkis) But this too seems problematic. How and why is destruction a method of escape from destiny? My guess is that Raul prefers it to construction merely because of its speed and scope. Raul is overly attached to destruction, but I think what he is motivated by is freedom and escape, rather than destruction itself. Destruction is just a way of breaking out, being uncontrollable and unpredictable. It is a way to move out of the realm of status quo (Which he started out dedicating his life to maintaining) and strike out in new directions beyond the demons of fate that chase him. He is such a tragic figure, knowing his own weaknesses and failures, but trying to fight on despite how screwed up everything, including himself, is. "I ask for no salvation." He only asks the chance to keep fighting.

"Even if our ultimate downfall is inevitable, Romdeau will not perish as long as we are willing to fight."
Raul has swing completely to the other side of a system of values. When once he put great faith in the system and procedure, now he puts great value on the individual and the will.

"And yet we must evolve! We have no choice! We must all learn to do without God from now on. I will not despair."
"Resist for Romdeau, is that it?"
Raul seeks to destroy the old ways for the sake of protecting the city. He thinks that the best way for Romdeau is to improve, and the best way to improve is to rewrite from a better foundation. He thinks the old ways are no longer good enough. It is a little ironic that he says "they have no choice" but to try and defy fate.

"You hope I'll share in your suffering."
"Raul. Soon you will know. The greatest death. The crushing failure. That which is our despair."
The collective seems to believe, that even taking such new and drastic measures, even fighting as hard as possible to survive against fate, that fate will still prevail and destroy everyone.

"Without a past, can I even prove I exist?"
Fun fact: even with a past, can you prove the past is real? It's an old philosophic conundrum. What if all your memories were invented a second ago? How could you tell?

"Why can't we live without a Proxy? Why did Romdeau have to steal a Proxy from someone else?"
These are important questions. The domes need a Proxy to maintain power. Proxies are like gods in this way. But they also are like a god in their insane strengths and supernatural powers. Proxies were created and released... it's still unclear in many ways how the pieces fit together.

"Maybe forgetting was the only way his mind could protect itself.... but if his memory holds the truth...."
It is a basic dilemma. If you could forget something, even a very unpleasant something, you lose all that you learn from it. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana. However, is every truth worth knowing? This same question is asked back with Kazkis, "The truth is like that too. Someday your eyes will be burnt by the light of truth and you will know eternal darkness."

Pino is developing quickly. She keeps being herself, both autoreiv and child. She can see inhumanly far. She reads children's stories and thinks of them as real. She calls the place "scary" and tells Re-L she is "sorry." Then she is reminded she has an infinite memory and batteries. She detects power automatically and memorizes the screens that flicker on in an instant.

"If I were a simple machine, all of this would be so much easier."
This is a huuuuuge theme. I'll skim over here and talk about it more in depth in later episodes, but a central question of Ergo Proxy is "why can't we be lesser?" It's a neat twist on the often more demanded "why aren't we better? Why aren't we naturally more thoughtful, more intelligent, more perfect, more capable, more powerful?" Instead, autoreivs wish they didn't think or feel. Humans wish they didn't think or feel. They insinuate that they could be happier serving mindlessly instead of "asking these questions." That being said, it's pretty sad that Amnesia was loaded with the task of carrying the memories that Ergo sought refuge from, but even so, he was created for the job. However, he notes: "Conscious entities will sometimes amputate their memories to save a failing sense of sanity. Dementia or amnesia, take your pick. Thank god we met before it ever came to that." And Amnesia, in giving the definition and reason for amnesia implies that he too forgot something in order to protect himself....
("How you met her" must be Monad.)

"I want you to make this your top priority."
"Do I put this ahead of reviving the Proxy?"
"The last thing we need is another God"
Unknown project. Is Raul seeking to destroy Romdeau further by not caring about God and the damage the loss of it is causing the city?
"You're a very odd man... going to such ridiculous lengths."
"I just want a revolution. Will you help usher man in the sublime state we were meant to hold?"
"Alright."
Raul is intentionally written darkly here. He shown as very volatile, dangerous, radical, and nearly evil. We don't know his plan. He does have the attitude of a revolutionary, which is by necessity harsh and to some extent "the ends justify the means." They intentionally avoid telling his plan so you are faced with how he seems versus how he is. It is interesting to ask whether his arrogance is really arrogance. He wants to play God ("how unnatural"), and the series is asking, "is that wrong?"
"I just don't think getting rid of God will change anything."
"Exactly. It doesn't change anything. We need to manifest change down to the cellular level."
He wants to leave the old ways. Since the wombsys isn't operating, they need some way to live without God.... you figure it out. The last episode isn't a coincidence it seems. (It is a little crazy how our own prejudices for "natural" play into how we judge Raul. It would be a common reaction to go from condemning to praising him on this reason alone. I'm not even sure it can be qualified as a reason at all.)

Red Yarn. "He's beginning to crack." Never show that smile.
The red yarn I would be loathe to ascribe meaning too, except yarn takes place in a myth involving the figure Daedalus. Daedalus gives a ball of yarn to the man going into the Labyrinth, so that he can rescue his beloved from the Minotaur and escape the maze safely. It's not clear if the yarn in replacement Re-L's hands is supposed to be helping Deadalus, Raul, or Replacement Re-L herself. Since this is yarn and fate is a theme in this episode, it may also have to do with the Fates whom spun, measure, and cut the threads that guided everyone's lives in Greek myths. They are called the Moirai.
Daedalus has lost both Re-L and Monad, and so his raison d'etre is crumbling. It is a little more than just that. Daedalus is stronger than just his predetermined raison d'etre, but he isn't strong enough to face that and have loved and lost Re-L. He did care for her. And it seems romantically, as he (even more creepily) raises the replacement Re-L to "never show that smile to another man."

Vincent seems to have some kind of subconscious guiding him, even way back at the start when he defied Re-L and kept the pendant.

"So, you're still here. I was sure I'd finally killed you. But you're just a symbol of what I'm fighting aren't you? That's fine. I will destroy you regardless. Because I am not afraid of you."
Vincent and Raul. Their relationship changes here. Now Vincent is fate and the mindlessness of the dome, when once before he was trouble and defiance of the dome's predetermined fate. Raul lives for the truths he has found. Things like freedom and will and survival. Before he followed protocol and authority. Raul is fighting his earlier self, in this sense. And he accepts that. He decides he will live for the future, rather than the past, though the past is what haunts and drives him. (I admire his relationship with symbols and values.)

Sorry, the awakening message might be just as lame as it seems. The same message in both cities, indicates the truth is in Romdeau, not Mosk. At least as a plot point. As a term itself, Awakening is still a mystery. Why are the proxies triggered by each other, leading to all these terrible fates?

"Vincent Law. What are you? Another pendant. What was another pendant doing here? That which is divided must become one. Is that supposed to be Vincent and Ergo? And if it is. Then whoever broke the autoreiv and stole the memories was..." It cuts to a startled stare at Vincent (before or after?) he interrupts her. The awakening message, is Vincent telling himself where to go? It doesn't make much sense.

"We've encountered many proxies, but none of them were the one we're looking for.
Monad was responsible for everything. The message, like a thread linking the two pendants.
The connection between Monad, Vincent, and the Proxy. The answer lies there, I know it."
These lines have double meanings. Don't take them at immediate face value, but do know they point towards knowledge unrevealed.



[VIEW SPOILERS]

Life After God

Re-L thinks it was Romdeau's assault to collect Monad that reigned such destruction. She is partially right. I do not think it is happenstance that her next comment, "I wonder what Vincent would do if he knew?" The answer is basically before her: Proxy 1 went mad when Monad was stolen and destroyed (as well as for other reasons).

Quick sequence of events:
Proxy 1 and Proxy 13 (Monad) are created.
They in turn create their respective domes according to plan.
Proxy 1 falls in love with Monad, perhaps after he loses purpose, perhaps during his prime.
Proxy 1 creates the Regent and commands him to rule.
Proxy 1 leaves Romdeau for Monad, Romdeau suffers and the Regent waits.
Unknown order:
The pair realize the fate of the planet and the Proxy Project.
Monad helps Proxy 1 erase his memories and gives him her necklace.
Proxy 1 begins to give in to despair, and he creates a second version of himself, immune to sunlight. But Ergo Proxy runs away instead, only wanting to be loved, and thus desires to become a citizen in his own city. (The one problem with this, is I do not know how Ergo Proxy obtain Monad's necklace. She was asleep... so it must have come from Proxy 1. But why does he remember Monad at all?)
Monad also gives in to despair, after losing all hope once her lover has erased himself and her other lover has embraced the destructive tendencies within himself. (or maybe after being dragged back to Romdeau? (Probably before, she would be weaker after becoming crazy and losing hope) Or maybe as soon as she accepts his memories and loses him? (Kazkis theory))
Monad is dragged back to Romdeau, and Mosk is destroyed in the battle. (this is at least before Daedalus was born)
Ergo Proxy shows up in Romdeau.
Proxy 1 fully loses it and begins to punish the Creators, launching the nuclear warheads, Ergo still resists joining (visions of Proxy 1's recent doing, or memories? If the missiles are near Romdeau, it must be history. (the citizens would have seen it) It is probably history).
Proxy 1 now also angry at his creations (for their treatment of Monad?), continues his plans for his vengeance.
Proxy 1 manipulates Raul to launch the missile. It destroys Mosk.
Proxy 1 arrives at Mosk to watch the destruction.
Proxy 1 is shown crying and holding the necklace.
Vincent wanders around, feeling sick from a second Proxy nearby. He goes to the ship to wait.
Proxy 1 opens the memory vault and destroys the memories of Ergo Proxy. (Is he smiling and crying because of his lust for destruction? Is it because he is destroying his last connection with Monad? Is it because he is destroying his own past for good? Is it in contempt for Ergo Proxy's foolishness and weakness?)
Proxy 1 leaves.
The party discovers the memory vault.
They discover the necklace and decide to return to Romdeau.

Previous uncertainty:
(I'm.... not sure if Proxy 1 has his memories erased too. I'm not sure if Vincent cannot remember because he had his memories erased, or because he was never at Mosk, and was created after Proxy 1 erased his memories. If that is so, then how does Ergo Proxy end up with Monad's necklace? does Proxy 1 give it to him, having already left Monad? His memories of the memory vault, are they shared older memories before his creation, or are they because he had his memories erased? Does Amnesia say "that which is divided, must become one" because Proxy 1 split his personality after having his memory erased into Ergo, or because Ergo and Vincent must supersede Proxy 1? Is it a message from Monad to bring balance between Ergo and Proxy 1? Or is it a message from Monad asking for Ergo back once more? Or is it a message from Proxy 1, calling for Ergo once more?)
Yes. Proxy 1 had his memory erased. He also "ran away" as stated in the last episodes this way. He knows of the memory vault this way too. The reason Vincent has a key, is because both Monad and Proxy 1 had a key. Proxy 1 must have given him one, or perhaps Ergo stole it.
The reason Vincent goes to Mosk is because he also is tracing the history of Proxy 1, not necessarily the history of the Ergo created since. His memories of Mosk are "The city's completely destroyed. Just like in my memory. The place I was created. Where I became what I am?" so he was created after Monad was captured. Perhaps even in the memory vault room, in remembrance of Monad. The message about divided was for Proxy 1 somehow, it is unknown how. It might have been from Monad to reunite with him. Or from Monad to ask him to become his old self. Or it could be from himself, to guide the future how he hatefully decided long ago.

Proxy 1 created Ergo/Vincent. It gets confusing when it comes to the question of why and when.
There are several theories and I still haven't settled on one.

One reason is just despair and fractured desire to run away. It might have been unintentional. (This is appealing because the Vincent persona for Ergo Proxy is like that - it seems to be partly unintentional and partly to try and hide behind a new life. It would be a nice mirror of each iteration on down to be making the same mistakes.)

One reason is for revenge, Proxy One wanted to live on to keep haunting the humans and help getting back at them. (Proxy One talks a lot about revenge and hating what the humans did and how "they must be punished." It's fair to guess that all of his actions are motivated by that now. He does say that Vincent continuing to live "will be the most fitting punishment." )

One reason is in remembrance of Monad's sacrifice, a sort of 'I am not good enough, but maybe I can create a version of myself that is better' (I say this because a common theme are is the attempt to create something perfect, but being unable because oneself is imperfect. It's also because Proxy One let Monad down, and the timing of ErgoVincent's creation seems to be around that time. It seems like maybe making a copy that could love Monad in Proxy One's place, while he erased his memories, might have been a possibility. This doesn't really fit though and obviously failed. )

One reason is so that this clone could take care of Proxy One's jobs, leaving Proxy One would be free to live his life in a different way. (Proxy One is bitter at his assigned role, but can't fight it because it is part of who he is. "We cannot truly defy the creators' " Which he must surely hate. He also talks about how he ran away from his obligations, and this might have been another desperate attempt to do that. Ohhhh and I just realized, maybe he didn't want to be the one to kill Monad with his own hands either...)

Whatever the intention, ErgoVincent definitely didn't follow Proxy One's plans, whatever they were. But that is more or less because ErgoVincent was a copy of Ergo Proxy and Ergo Proxy always runs away from his duties until he learns better. He either messed up or succeeded to well depending on how you look at it.


Amnesia notes: "Conscious entities will sometimes amputate their memories to save a failing sense of sanity. Dementia or amnesia, take your pick. Thank god we met before it ever came to that." And Amnesia, in giving the definition and reason for amnesia implies that he too forgot something in order to protect himself.... think about it. "Thank god we met before it ever came to that." Meanings and meanings - this sentence seems an ironic flasehood, but my guess is that it is more. It is true. Amnesia did meant Proxy 1 and restore his memories before it ever came to that. Then Proxy 1 left, and Amnesia had fulfilled his role... and lost his purpose. Having been infected with Cogito, he struggled to find meaning, and so remained a "keeper of the memories" forgetting the past so he could still wait for the time when "the one" would return.

"And yet we must evolve! We have no choice!
We must all learn to do without God from now on.
I will not despair."
Double speak. We must evolve, meant both figuratively and literally. Mentally, systematically, individually, and biologically as a species. Both evolve to be able to survive without god, and evolve the ability to evolve. Again, mentally and biologically.

It is interesting that Monad likely sat on the throne overlooking Mosk, and Re-L feels some deja-vu there. She even sits in Monad's place, reflecting the connection they share and reliving Monad's past. It foreshadows the encounter with Ergo, the creator of Romdeau, in her grandfather's room later.

I'm sorry if you were watching this for the first time and got to sympathize with Raul immediately, because Raul is naturally such a flat character that you give no forgiveness to. Which is his brilliance. It is only if you pay attention and care that all of his nuance comes out. He seems to act completely unreasonably and be playing this mostly cliche role.... He goes crazy because he goes crazy, seems to be the only explanation. But then... it turns out.... he's actually the deepest character in the series or at least I've fallen for him hard enough to think so. And I only gave him credit the second time through when I started to see things from his perspective. And then I realized he is actually a second hero, though a broken and tragic one. But by circumstance, not by character. And that circumstance, is that he is terribly terribly alone in his fight to care.

[/SPOILERS]


////////////Reactions:

"We'd go crazy if we had to remember everything."
I'm tired of hearing this stated in science fiction. Why is this considered true? At least with "eternal life is awful" there are some reasons to think that. But perfect memory doesn't seem to have real drawbacks. The only claim I've heard is a tenuous: "then we'd spend our days reliving the past" which is pretty bogus logic to me.

"You set aside an ancient thermonuclear device for who-knows-what-foolishness. Then you gave it the criminally ridiculous nickname 'Rapture.' ... I'm amazed it took this long for something to go wrong."
Raul, you might be my favorite character.

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Next: Episode 19:The Girl with a Smile/Eternal Smile