Ergo Proxy - 10: Existence/Cytotropism

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Next:Episode 11:In the White Darkness/Anamnesis

Existence

Romdeau has begun to fall apart and the lessons considered in the past episodes are rising once more.
What is good for the individual is not necessarily the good for the whole. The reverse as well.
Romdeau is a machine. From every position in society, everyone must perform their roles. "Look at this beautiful world, in which everything has its purpose. We are all created as individual cogs for the betterment of this paradise. Permitted to exist only for the sake of fulfilling reasons that are given in advance."

And once someone loses their raison d'etre, they have no remaining personal will to go on. "You might say he is a broken cog."
Even Daedalus is susceptible to this, with all his intelligence and independence as a leader in the Health and Welfare Bureau. He cares too much for his Re-L. And so he lets her go once more, to pursue her own raison d'etre. ("Which is, of course, the proxy.") And in this selfless act, he begins to lose his sanity. For all he knows, he has sent her to her death, and he will never know when she has perished. He cares for her, more than he cares for himself, but he can do nothing except help her. "I'll always be on your side, Re-L." "This is all for you Re-L."

Re-L, in the town with no people, also notices the irony of purpose. "Maybe it's better here, without any people. ... Working, even though they've lost the very people who gave a reason for their existence. Maybe they didn't have a reason, to begin with."

Maybe it would be better not to think. Work with no reason or purpose. "Maybe it is the one who looks down on them, who is unnecessary" as she said once, long ago. The robots, mindless, are indifferent if there is a populace to serve or not. So can you really say that they ever had a purpose to begin with? And us too... if our purpose disappeared, would we just continue doing everything we always have? If we had no god and no destiny, would anything change? Would it be better if we could simply serve without cares or minds? Is the suffering of independence worth it? (Re-L Daedalus, Raul all serve as examples of the unhappiness it brings.)

"I was just wondering if - if I wasn't here, what would you do?" "How about you. What would you do if I wasn't here?"

In Romdeau autoreivs and humans serve each other equally to make paradise function smoothly. Could our purpose be to serve our own creations? Perhaps we serve the earth? Perhaps it is to find our own purpose?

"What am I here for? The purpose of the trip is to find an answer."

This likely refers to finding an answer to who Vincent Law is, and what exactly a Proxy is and why Romdeau needs one, but in this sentence it also means to find a purpose for why Re-L is. The irony is she was created for the purpose of finding the Proxy, and so is following her predetermined fate beautifully, and yet, perhaps there is something greater that drives her.

"What you seek might be something cruel. And you still want to go?" "Because the truth is in his hands."

...

"Questions are a burden upon others, answers are a burden upon yourself." This repeats the lessons of the last episode: namely that truths and answers, once found, have to be dealt with and it isn't always easy to do so. Whereas questions or ignorance can be dismissed much more easily.

Over and over again the series flirts with the idea of truth and the importance of it. Or rather, how it is just Important yet it has all of these burdens and troubles and fearful repercussions. Why not just be mindless? Look at all the suffering it causes. Look how it brings people to despair and frustration. And all the great minds, everyone who is truly independent, seeks it. "You see, I like answers." (Daedalus) "If I had just done my job and walked away from this mess, I'd still have my life. But I asked my questions. That's my trouble with questions, I still don't know how to take them back." (Re-L) "I think, therefore I am." (Raul) Why. Why is truth so important? No answer is posed by Ergo Proxy, and I can provide no answer either. So I will simply take it for granted that Truth is all-important, and that to seek it is a purpose in and of itself. One that is greater than any pre-determined purpose for a society.

Raul and Daedalus are fun to see interacting. They speak to one another in metaphors because both of them know how to serve both the collective and themselves at once they also know well how to deceive and speak with double-meanings.
"By lending you my toy." "Because it is a toy for adults?" "That's a good boy." Besides the sexual undertones, this is basically Raul saying that he is in control. ("My" toy.) And Daedalus is acquiescing. "A toy for adults." Raul accepts: "That's a good boy."

Raul has failed. The proxy is gone. But Raul has become an independent. "I think, therefore I am." He does not want to die.
"The wound you see is nothing." The physical body's harm is nothing compared to the mental anguish of existentialism.
"You'll probably take this the wrong way, but I'll say it anyhow: I want to save the world."
This is more or less Raul speaking directly to the audience. It is hard to believe, but more or less think he has good intentions at heart.

It was not Raul that attacked Re-L with the cogito virus. It was the Regent attacking his own granddaughter. (Not genetically, of course, but socially his granddaughter) Re-L was too defiant. He must serve his city (his raison d'etre) before he serves his personal interests and Re-L interfered too much with the smooth running of his city. Despite the fact that she was created for the very fact to bring a proxy back.

"This is what 2 minutes and 17 seconds gets you! This amount should be more than enough."

Those are called FP rounds, and they, as shown, kill Amrita cells. Re-L was sent two, as also shown. "The only thing left, is to load it." It is nice that the series shows this information, though you need only wait a few episodes for it to tell you it directly and clearly.

"Emergency stop code acknowledged. Emergency use phase, sequence start. Confirmed." Kristeva being an autoreiv loses contact with the central collective once the power outage begins, and so initiates an autonomous state at that point.

In case there is any question, this dome is different from Romdeau Dome -

There is a possible allusion to a science fiction work. Tarry's convenience store is probably a reference to "For a Breath, I Tarry;" A story about a world where humankind has died off, leaving a world only inhabited by robots and artificial intelligence. I am also reminded of Ray Bradbury's "For There will Come Soft Rains." This is another science fiction, a short story about a family's house which is maintained carefully be years by robotic automation, however things finally go haywire and the house withers and is ruined. I also accidentally came across a screenplay and tv series called "The Starlost" which appears to fundamentally resemble Ergo Proxy. Starlost's plot according to wikipedia: "Foreseeing the destruction of the Earth, humanity builds a multi-generational starship called Earthship Ark .... The ship contains dozens of biospheres, each kilometres across and housing people of different cultures; their goal is to find and seed a new world of a distant star. More than one hundred years into the voyage, an unexplained accident occurs, and the ship goes into emergency mode, whereby each biosphere is sealed off from the others.... Considered an outcast because of his questioning of the way things are .... Devon finds the Cypress Corners elders have been deliberately manipulating the local computer terminal, which they call "The Voice of The Creator""

[VIEW SPOILERS]

Cytotropism

Raison D'etre, raison d'etre, raison d'etre. You think you are sick of hearing those words, but the entire episode is more or less about the paradox of being given a raison d'etre.

The Regent's given raison d'etre is to maintain the city through law and order but he also seeks to see Proxy One again.
Re-L's given raison d'etre is to find and return Ergo Proxy, as well as to be the 124c41+ but she seeks the truth and to find her own purpose.
Daedalus's is to protect Re-L, serve Romdeau, and maintain Monad. He adds a purpose to create a god and embrace destruction.
Raul begins by serving Romdeau's order and maintaining the city's security through law, but begins to try to find a better way. One which permits independence, emotion, and evolution.


As such, the Regent seeks to kill Re-L, Daedalus to protect her.
Raul "wants to save the world" by introducing a new world order, and using Daedalus's research.
Re-L is pushed to leave home despite her fears.
And Daedalus continues to research, but slowly loses his sanity.

This anime is about religion and god. Both the paradox of being all powerful and the paradox of a paradise. Religion promises these comfort, and is one of the reasons that so many people believe they cannot live without religion. Ergo Proxy argues that both of these are nightmares.

Being all powerful leads to madness. Either you are mindless, or you begin to realize your own few limitations - you do not know your own desires and cannot know them perfectly. Even if you are a perfect being, you live in an imperfect world. Every pleasure loses its appeal. Every attempt at perfection cannot be achieved. Every project must eventually fall apart. Every purpose fades. And even if there is a given purpose, you are a slave to it. This too is a promise of religion - that there is a divine plan that we are a part of. And what a sadness that would be. Either we are slaves and mindless automatons, or we are slaves and begin to feel the yoke around our necks. We begin to love and hate, or simply wish for independence. This is presumably our great "flaw." We cannot be controlled, and we seek to exceed our boundaries. This is why we cannot have a paradise. As soon as we had one, we'd have to either be mindless and soulless or else we are doomed to strain at our bounds and defy our limits. Similarly, our god-given purposes would choke us and drive us to despair.

"Why does the Regent look away? Why?" The Regent killed Re-L. And too, he is losing his raison detre. The city is falling apart and he can do nothing. He hopes to see Proxy One again, but there is nothing he can do. He, as the proxies have, is grieving over his fate and the fate of his raison detre. "It's the wailing of someone who's suddenly lost the person they love the most." - It is not Re-L referred to here. Instead it is Proxy One, though Raul does not know it.

Daedalus woke up the Monad Proxy because he had "reached a dead end in his research" and wanted to conceal the second proxy. (According to Raul) Daedalus certainly has a drive to conduct research. First Re-L, then healing her with Amrita cells, then FP shells, the project to allow sexual reproduction, and finally creating a god. He is the perfect scientist. "I like answers," and he may be too driven for the good of the city. His research initiative may very well have caused him to awaken Monad.

For the universe of Ergo Proxy, the question arises how and why Re-L, Daedalus, and Raul are managing to defy their given created reasons. The answer I believe, is that they are the heads of the Bureaus. Raul for Security, Daedalus for Health and Welfare. Re-L is not a head of the Intelligence bureau, but she wasn't entirely engineered for the sake of existing in the Romdeau system either. They each have a position of leader, and thus must have some kind of independence and initiative to perform their job. However they also then are doomed to fail at it. Re-L to ask too many questions, Daedalus to try too many experiments, and Raul to seek to control and improve too much. This is in inherent problem of leaders. As leaders, they perform their job too well, and begin to try to exceed it. Call it power, or simple independence, it seems to be a common characteristic. So even if an entire society were created in mindless service to a greater good, the balance would be lost eventually due to the sheer necessity of a few leaders who possess a little independence. If they were mindless too, they would not be able to perform their jobs. They could not question protocol or improve society. Such concepts would be impossible. But if they have independence, even a little spread between many leaders, they still will eventually fail at their jobs because of seeking to improve the status quo.
Already the signs and ground work have been laid in this and previous episodes, but these are reflections based on knowledge of their eventual fates and endeavors. So I will keep this information as "spoilers" as I did not see or understand it until later.


Every major character is a leader who must learn to deal with the troubles of being independent entities. Raul, Daedalus, Re-L, Vincent, the Regent, each proxy, Real, Proxy 1, Hoody. Even Iggy and Pino and Kristeva as autoreivs.
And each learns to deal with their fate in different ways. Raul with power and vision. Daedalus with science and vision. Re-L with truth and struggle. Vincent with truth and caring. The Regent with acceptance of quiet death. Each proxy with madness. Real with fate. Proxy 1 with vengeance. Hoody with as sort of Don Quixote complex.

All Episodes: Ergo Proxy Companion Viewing Guide
Previous: Episode 9:Shards of Brilliance/Angel's Share
Next:Episode 11:In the White Darkness/Anamnesis

Ergo Proxy - 9: Shards of Brilliance/Angel's Share

All Episodes: Ergo Proxy Companion Viewing Guide
Previous: Episode 8:Light Beam/Shining Sign
Next:Episode 10:Existence/Cytotropism

Shards of Brilliance

I began writing by once again going through and attempting to discuss each part that seemed interesting or relevant. However that led to me typing up nearly the entire script and furthermore my comments were more or less banal. I essentially finished the episode guide, but it was so poor compared to my real opinion of this episode that I decided to begin from scratch and try again, this time hopefully to capture a little of the real message I think this episode contains.

To me, Kazkis is the real center of this episode.

He is a figure of paradoxes. Agent of Light, with an ever-present smile, a beautiful tower and as many bottles of wine as he could desire. He is the very figure of a king.

But he is also a dark individual. Fermenting in his own despair, flickering out of sanity, and lord of a destroyed land, there is nothing left for Kazkis.

This episode is about war and destruction, love and loneliness, revelry and madness.



It contains many little details which are thrown in to help re-enforce the themes --- Kazkis throws more and more violently the glasses and bottles of wine throughout the episode. First drinking, then tossing the bottle, then breaking a glass, then breaking a bottle, and finally destroying rooms at a time.


The chandeliers are lit candles, and nearly every room has a burning fireplace.


The display of Asura and Charos flickers right after the first time Vincent gazes up on it.


--- But for me, the real good of the episode comes from Kazkis dialogue and philosophic ravings.

"War is pointless.
But being destroyed is not."

This sentiment resonates deeply with me. I too believe that war is pointless. Winning and losing I do not think there is much value in. Instead I believe it is in the effort and intention that meaning arises. Thus, despite the futility and worthlessness of destruction, I see being destroyed as one of the purest sources of truth there is. When someone finds a truth, a passion, an ideal that they are willing to sacrifice everything else for, the act itself is transient and brims to overflow with meaning.
And yet.
Such beauty may never come to be expressed if there were not great wrong to inspire it... as such, could it be partially Kazkis desire, as a mad artist, to create such great beauty through great destruction?

"Is that why you killed them?"
"You're joking.
They were left behind. And during the long sleep they tried to find their meaning. But they shied away from the fact that they had been abandoned and only found a way to live through mutual destruction."

War, I find, is always like this. No wars for real morals and real good are ever fought. Instead they are petty squabbles of devastating effect between groups of people believing that somehow winning will make them right. How can anyone find meaning from attempting to harm another? And yet... the human race claims to and does it over and over again. Admittedly they convince themselves they are doing it in a defense of what is true and right... but this too is always merged with delusion.

"This is my Asura as it really is. This is what you believed to have seen. Right?
It's just a monument. The citizens built it so that future generations would know just what Asura was like in the past. But it was a worthless effort."



What are monuments? They are to remind us of meaning, but how can they hope to do that? So often I go to see monuments and they hold no meaning for me. Nameless heroes astride great horses. Founders and trailblazers. War memorials stained with blood. And yet, unless I know the thing they are about, they are merely pretty statues. If I do know what they are about, then what purpose are they serving? I already know their meaning.
Pointedly included is the destruction of the last remnant of Asura - As Kazkis changes into proxy form, the display shatters.

"It was too much for anyone, but Monad still accepted those memories, in spite of the repercussions. Because Monad loved you.
But in this display of unrequited love. Monad completely lost you. No, not only Monad. You lost yourself as well. We are the sum of our memories. Erasing the memories etched into ones' own self is the same as losing oneself."

This too I strongly believe. To lose one's mind, one's personality, and one's life memories... is that not true death? Can anyone really claim that death is really only the churning of cells and the increase of entropy except in the strictest of definitions?
And what can a selfless love do, but seek the happiness of their love? Even if it means the destruction of that they love? Would it not be selfish to seek your own happiness over their own?

"Go ahead and suffer. All those who wander in the darkness seek the light. But when they reach the light they turn their eyes away from the blinding glare. You can even sense the pain. The truth is like that too. Someday your eyes will be burnt by the light of truth and you will know eternal darkness. That is the judgement that awaits."

This is one of my favorite lines from the series. It is a dire warning that to believe truth is always good or welcome is a folly. Not only must truth be discovered, but also accepted and faced. Which is not always so easy a task. And yet you are trapped. You must either burn yourself and live with the knowledge, or turn away and cast yourself away from truth. It is all too possible that there are many truths that make both options unacceptable.


--------------------


The rest I have so say are just mundane notes I wish to make - Pino says "ow" while she plays, when most likely she does not feel pain.

The greek statue that Pino looks up to right after falling seems to closest resemble Venus de Milo, and not Hestia/Vesta or Athena. This is surprising since Hestia is associated with the hearth and Athena with war. It isn't Bacchus or Apollo either, whom are associated with poetry, or light, or other relevant themes of the episode. It isn't even an exact portrayal of Venus de Milo, simply a similar piece. There are other such statues and artworks around the palace that seem to just be representing classical decor.

Asura has the symbols that Charos did, so it must be a sun and a moon symbol, not merely the phases of the moon.

[VIEW SPOILERS]

Angel's Share

The entire episode is a comment upon the despair of a Proxy's duty. Kazkis manages to find a way to accept it as a sort of glorious tragedy. He chooses to look upon it as a grand show of destruction and death as a kind of artistic beauty. He speaks reverently of fate, of how he found love out of grief, and how he was going to die with Senex in a final symbolic act.

Kazkis embodies the dark side of celebration - the moodiness and volatility of artists. The sadness of a king with no people to serve. The empty triumph of a warlord. The meaninglessness of power. The acceptance of fate.
So what is so bad about the Proxy's duties? They are asked to create a city and watch over it's people. The problem lies in attempting to succeed at such a thing. People are by their nature imperfect, and the proxies only weakness is that they cannot know their own true desires. They can do anything they wish, and it leads to happiness for awhile. Until the truth slowly creeps upon them.
The people they create inevitably fail or become unbalanced. Or else they are soulless puppets. There is no other way.
What purpose can the proxies have? They were happy to create kingdoms, but realized their own flaws - free to do anything they wished, they had nothing to strive for. Kazkis can drink and drink and drink with never a single sign of a hangover. And yet, what is the point of being a wine connoisseur if you can never be drunk? What is the point of having such power if there is nothing to try to achieve? There there is the fact that they are forever doomed to follow their orders. Finally there is the double blow of seeing the flaws of their creations and the knowledge that they must also be destroyed. This is a theme through almost every dome. For Kazkis, it is the sense of fate and the desire of a king and artist.
The people of Asura were most likely warlike and valued power as Kazkis seems to. Or perhaps they were partiers and artisans. Perhaps as a queen or goddess Senex always had lunacy lurking in her nature, or perhaps she was a kind and wonderful woman before she was faced with her own fate.
Whatever the case, Kazkis and Senex gave up and embraced insanity in their final moments. They rejected their lives and became overwhelmed with grief, turning to seek death and the final embrace of fate.

///Reactions:

I admit to a guilty pleasure of transformation scenes. As such, I also appreciate this episode for Vincent's first transition into proxy form.
But, in a more tasteful enjoyment, I love this episode dearly for its many implications about life, suffering, death, and truth. The poetry. The madness.

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