Whose strings? "String Theocracy" as an Angela/Hokma manifesto(?)

[yvannairie]

Sometimes you speedrun The Derangement.

Grounding knowledge you need to know to understand this analysis:

1) Angela is an android from the game Lobotomy Corporation, and it's sequel Library of Ruina, made by a scientist called Ayin. She was made in the image of a scientist called Carmen after her death, to help with an experiment started by Carmen and Ayin. She was summarily rejected by Ayin for failing to be enough like Carmen, and he never treated her like a person, so Angela has an understandable grudge against Ayin and Carmen for trying to define her life. Despite herself, she still seems to share many of Carmen’s personality traits, such as compassion, even though it has been blunted by several thousand years of emotional neglect. However, Angela also shares quite a few personality traits with Ayin, including his macchiavellianism and even looking just like him once she cuts her hair.

2) Hokma used to be a human called Benjamin, who was Ayin’s student and coworker. In practical terms his whole life revolved around Ayin’s goals and plans – he helped with the creation of Angela, and helped with the continuation of Carmen’s experiment afterwards. Unlike Ayin, Benjamin endeavoured to treat Angela with kindness even though he was apprehensive about her being an AI. The version of Hokma from Library of Ruina is not, strictly speaking, any more Benjamin than Angela is Carmen, being a reconstruction of Hokma as he existed during the experiment rather than a reconstruction of Benjamin from before the experiment.

3) Turns out Benjamin was half-right to be suspicious of Angela – he was eventually killed by her on what may have been Ayin’s orders, and she was planning on betraying Ayin. Although Hokma assumes she did this out of a machine sense of superiority, the real reason is that she’d been so traumatised by her treatment in the course of the experiment that she would take any chance to escape it. As such, Hokma’s grudge against Angela stems from holding a much stronger attachment to his previous identity, as he is still actively grieving Ayin after his death before the beginning of LoR.

4) Angela and Hokma are stuck together for the course of the plot of LoR because she had to make a deal with him and the rest of the experiment’s management team, the Sefirot, to be able to use the energy they had amassed to make her own experiment with the goal of becoming human in the end. They all go from working for Ayin to working for Angela, with the major difference being that Angela’s experiment in theory doesn’t require them to go through trauma enough to cause each of them to have a mental breakdown. (In theory.)

5) "String Theocracy" by Mili is the main theme of Library of Ruina.

Lyrics indented. Italicised lyrics are quoted again from the previous section for the purpose of examining them separately.

Open the curtains
Lights on
Don't miss a moment of this experiment
Oh, the book is strange
Like clockwork orange
Keep your eyes buttered till the end

Which "you" are you going to be?
Hmm, inside the mirror do you see (Ha)
Someone else in that body?

Dance for me, one and two and three and turn around
Sit like a doggy till I finish my read

The first verse establishes the song from Angela’s perspective as the library comes into being and starts operating as she has intended. The game’s story segments are presented as if they’re acts of a play, emphasising the inevitability of Angela’s success. As such, the tone of the first half of the song is quite smug and full of itself, because this is the first time Angela has real power over her own life. She is also mean, and from the perspective of Hokma, she’s gone from bossing them around in Ayin’s name to bossing them around in her own name, making her an untrustworthy puppet master.

Which "you" are you going to be?
Hmm, inside the mirror do you see (Ha)
Someone else in that body?

This line references the dual identities of all of the Sefirot. Each of them used to be a human in close proximity to Ayin and Carmen, and all of them were used to build each of the Sefira after their deaths. However, read as Angela addressing Hokma, the line has an additional meaning, as Benjamin was the only person to have a relationship to Angela before being turned into a Sefira – Angela being made in the image of Carmen, but also resembling Ayin, with Hokma having different relationships to all three of them depending on whether he sees himself as “still” Benjamin, or the new identity Angela has granted to him so he can work for her.

(Fun fact – when I listened to the song the first time, I heard this line as “someone else in my body”. I think the lyric works either way, one way emphasising the identity conflict of all of the Sefirot, and the other way emphasising the conflict over who Angela is to them.)

Sit like a doggy till I finish my read

Even though Benjamin could easily be described as Ayin’s lapdog, this line is more relevant to Angela’s relationship to Roland, the side-protagonist of LoR. (However, BARK bark bark bark could you imagine.)

Cut it off, cut down your loss
All that stubborn loyalty is gonna get you killed
In a world built on convenient theories
For the puppets on TV
There is comfort in the strings
If you're gonna control me
At least make it interesting theatrically

The first chorus reveals that Angela is primarily driven by her motivation to be her own person – to be literally “human” in the story of the game. The whole section has shades of casting bolts into the past, to Ayin, who only ever thought of her as a tool and didn’t grant her any interiority. She is now comparing herself favourably to Ayin – at least she will make everyone dancing to her tune something better, something more interesting. His “play” failed to fulfill its goal, she will do better.

To go along with the theater theme, game also contains lots of allusions and references to classic children’s stories and fairy tales. Angela, herself, is a Pinocchio figure, a puppet that wants to be a real boy – which informs her motivations to be someone worth loving, not just someone worth using.

All that stubborn loyalty is gonna get you killed
In a world built on convenient theories

Another line that applies to all the Sefirot, but to Hokma especially. Benjamin was the only one of Ayin’s human companions that was alive at the beginning of the experiment and such had the ability to consent to participation, but since every Sefira needs a core of a human mind, he literally died for his loyalty in staying involved. The “convenient theory” was Benjamin’s belief in Ayin’s intent and his wholehearted commitment to fulfilling his goals, a position which Hokma still strongly holds despite being surrounded by people who were harmed and traumatised by Ayin’s actions – including himself.

How does it feel to be free?
Hmm, "why don't you try it yourself?" (Ha)
The gate opened on me

This is an interesting line to think about in the context of Angela’s relationship to Benjamin. He was one of the few positive influences in her life, although it’s unlikely that he ever encouraged her to have her own identity due to his concerns over the safety of artificial intelligence. Still, I could see it as something Benjamin would say before his distrust of Angela truly took grip – telling her that one of the parts of sentience is declaring your own identity.

So I leaped down, down, and down I go
I tell myself I'm a tough girl
Down, down, and down I go
I could never, ever, ever touch the soil

Angela is functionally godlike in her abilities, and fancies herself somewhat of a devil, having “robbed the light” of humanity at the end of Lobotomy Corporation to selfishly pursue her own goals. However, her goal is to become “human”, in a metaphorical sense ripping off the wings that allow her to soar so far above the rest of humanity. Her eventual plot is to render herself someone weaker, but power, once accumulated, is hard to discard.

My heart goes right, my head goes left
And end up on your bed, huh

One of Angela’s fears is that once she is human, it turns out that she truly is no more than a reborn Carmen – that the identity she experiences is the result of her conditions. It’s not a position she can convince herself out of through rational methods. She’s also afraid of following both in Carmen’s and Ayin’s footsteps, making the same mistakes – once again strongly tying the song to her relationship to Benjamin and Hokma, the only character involved in Carmen’s and Ayin’s plan directly.

(Also [Angela voice] “I did not have sexual relations with that old man”)

Sure I'll be your marionette
Here, tug on my thread
Spread me open for dolly pink, Snow White, artificial beauty

Angela herself says in Lobotomy Corporation that her body was designed to be as attractive as possible to make interacting with her a more pleasant experience, and speaks of herself in superlative terms (if with a bitter edge). She loses a lot of the sheen of perfection around herself over the course of the plot, because it is manufactured, both literally and metaphorically. The song implies a conflict between Angela’s self-image as someone capable and in control and her need to let go of that control.

“There’s comfort in the strings”, she says dismissively of other people, but is actively looking to undermine her own independence by putting herself in a set of strings (humanity) rather than remain functionally omnipotent the way she is. In many ways, falling into any of the prescribed identities (Carmen, Ayin, Angela the AI) would be the easier thing to do, than to struggle for a new, equally limited identity.

Maybe we're all cold machines
Stuffed in the human skin
With human sins sewed up by the gods of City

Very on the nose reference to the nature of the Sefirot as “human minds turned into machines”, which are now pursuing turning back into humans, with new identities. Once again, this line is the most interesting when looked at as something aimed at Hokma, the one Sefira with actual “sins” to his name – calling him callous to his face for being involved in Ayin’s experiments before his death, enabling the suffering of the rest of the Sefirot.

Cut it off, you've already lost
All that precious bravery is gonna get you hurt
In a world that feeds on the minority
May that self-centered belief lead you to peace
If you're gonna replace me
At least have the audacity to kill me thoroughly

The change in tone between the choruses mirrors Angela’s character development. The longer she interacts with the Sefirot in her pursuit of becoming a human, the less callous she acts towards them. From her perspective, she has not been out of the traumatic experience that turned her so cold towards them long enough to have full access to her compassion, and starts acting out about it from feeling emotionally vulnerable. Wishing good things for people is easy, but caring about them after her traumatic life is still hard, so instead she tries to boss people into doing “what’s best for them”.

If you're gonna replace me
At least have the audacity to kill me thoroughly

This is more of a stretch, but to me this line reads both as Angela grappling with being “Carmen” despite Carmen still being alive, having been the replacement for someone who is still alive (although in a state that is hard to consider being “alive”, with no agency and no means of communicating her will), but also as Angela struggling with being the replacement for Ayin, as the head of the experiment and the “boss” of the Sefirot. She would rather not exist than be in a half-state of existence where people keep seeing “someone else in the mirror” when they look at her. Ayin did this to her, and the Sefirot do to her due to their pre-existing relationships to Carmen and Angela as they perceived her as an an AI, but once again it would be the strongest aimed at Hokma, who is still actively working through his grief over Ayin’s death, with Angela being aware that she is replacing Ayin for him just as she replaced Carmen for Ayin.

May that self-centered belief lead you to peace

(This doesn’t do anything to put a cap on her compassion now when that genie has been let out of the bottle. She is repeatedly exasperated when she’s forced to confront this about herself, despite despising Ayin for his disregard of other people.)

When does it end for me?
Hmm, I think I am done with everything (Ha)
Now I'm ready to leave

Dragging out one line, two lines, three lines
Connect our hands
When I no longer can live on knowledge alone

Angela has to slowly work her way to the realisation that to be human is to care about other people, and that it’s not just the influence of Carmen that gives her her urge to be compassionate and caring. You can’t be human “in theory” – at some point you have to start embracing the experiences, including the sad ones. Angela’s picture of humanity is very bleak and filled with trauma and suffering, and part of her learning process is finding what it was that Carmen was trying to nurture in humanity with her experiment, and reclaiming her right to be a part of it. This understandably scares her.

Dragging out one line, two lines, three lines
Connect our hands

This line is paired with the one from the first chorus about dancing, and is referencing the difference between how Ayin conducted his experiment and how Angela is conducting hers. Ayin had a strict script and believed it was the only way he could succeed no matter how badly it injured and traumatised people over the course of the experiment – up to and including erasing his own memories and leaving Angela to steer him to make sure he was still following the script right. Angela and Benjamin were the only people technically following the script out of their free will, but in practice both of them were coerced into playing their parts up to and including Angela killing Benjamin. The experience was not pleasant for either of them.

The comparison to Angela’s experiment as a dance is telling even before this line where she lays out her desire to form true lasting emotional bonds with people despite her compulsive need to keep people emotionally at bay. It’s an interesting recontextualisation of a line that seems initially very sinister – dance, after all, is quite freeform compared to a play. Angela is effectively telling Hokma (and the other Sefirot) to go “off-script” with her.

You gave me strength
Hopeful curiosity
Maybe there are still happy answers left for my discovery

Part of Angela’s trauma is seeing everything good happening to the people around her rot or be lost when the timeloop reset. It’s very interesting that despite the horror show that was the events of the previous game, Angela’s path towards humanity started with nothing but a faint hope that even when the path goes through tragedy, there is still happiness to be gained.

What's the colour of the electric sheep you see?

Not a particularly meaningful line, but I think it’s cute that now when the Sefirot have gone from being human-powered machines to machines with human souls, Angela no longer holds herself apart from them. Now when they’re simulacra, true AI without an original, she relates to the people around her more strongly.

And if you love me
Can you love your everything too, for me?

Another line that is particularly devastating in its implications with regards to Hokma, as compared to the other Sefirot. The other people turned into Sefira were turned after they’d already been dead for quite a while, and as such were resurrected into a life of misery that ultimately pushed Angela into full rebellion against Ayin and his plan. Benjamin was the only one taking on the responsibilities of a Sefira before his death, willingly throwing himself into the abyss for Ayin, with the strict script provided to Angela relying on his loyalty until the end of time even beyond his own death at her hands.

Hokma is also, despite her having been the instrument of Ayin’s betrayal, quite caring towards Angela in a way he isn’t with other people, and doesn’t ever seem to see her as an extension of Ayin or Carmen the way Angela fears herself to be. Hokma is much more solid in his perception of Angela as her own person, and capable of expressing care towards her now when they are on the same level. This seems to come from a conflict Benjamin had while still alive, between being wary of Angela as an AI, but also clearly perceiving her as a person and being compelled to treat her with kindness due to his own caring nature – Hokma also does eventually openly acknowledge that not considering Angela’s personhood pretty much got him and Ayin what was coming to them.

And despite an initial dehumanising attitude towards her and a strong loyalty towards the one person Angela hates more than anyone else (and Angela never lets him forget about this, needling him at damn near every opportunity), Angela’s opinion of Hokma is repeatedly shown to be filtered through a lens of Benjamin’s kind treatment of her, even as she questions why someone like him would go along with someone as cold and seemingly unfeeling as Ayin. To her, Hokma is not a puppet without a will of his own, not a tool of Ayin, and despite being hard-pressed to admit it, her wish for all the Sefirot to find happiness now when they’re free of Ayin’s experiment applies to him too. Hokma is the hardest to reach, the most tethered to their shared past, but the person that he was makes him more worth saving, not less.

Any time Angela uses “me” in this song can be in reference to herself, herself as she was as a pure AI, herself as “Carmen” and herself as “Ayin”. Library of Ruina is the story of Angela untangling her own identity, casting off the masks she wears when interacting with other characters – but especially Hokma, who references this tension most openly and is equally divided in his self due to still being in love with Ayin despite no longer even being the person who fell in love with him.

At the same time, Hokma is one of the few people in Lobcorp or LoR who has always been aware, and even comfortable with, Angela being her own person. Even before Angela’s activation, Benjamin had been clearly aware that she would not be “Carmen” in any meaningful sense. Similarly, despite Angela’s conflicting relationship to becoming like Ayin, she’s not capable of replacing Ayin for Hokma – his only way out of his grief is by accepting Ayin’s death and moving on. Angela performing her identity to Hokma helps him work out his anger over her making Ayin’s plan fail, and only serves to bring the closer together emotionally.

The two of them are the most aware of this tension between themselves and the other “selves” contained in their images of each other, and despite having every reason not to, Angela is reaching her hand out to him, because his kindness is one of the reasons she wants to do this. Both of them can be someone new, together.

TLDR: it would be the most thematically fulfilling if that tsundere lil bird fucked that old man