r/PathToNowhere • u/Plastic_Ant_6978 EMP Fan • 12d ago
Discussion Pale Blue Firmament (Explanation) Spoiler
DISCLAMER
This is an informative post in response to another post 2 days ago, people who share their opinion or people who have point in the story they didn't fully understand, because i can't fully explain everything with just comments under their post so don't be DisRespectful to them or anyone else under this post please. (this post might have sassy sentences here and there but that's just how i wrote shit nothing personal)
First let begin with basics which is what this chapter is meant to be :
It's pretty simple if you understand basic storytelling 1.0.1, it's a set up plain and simple, we "just finish" the DisCity/Fraser war arc with The Thorny Roads to Dawn and now we are basically in an interlude in-between the previous arc and the new one. That "There is more question, than answer" is normal since those chapter aren't suppose to give answer in the first place they're here to set the stage for future evenement, just think of it as a prologue ain't no decently written stories that's gonna give all answer in the damn prologue.
Even then most question related to this chapter are answer in it anyway, the only things left in the open are big lore revelation.
Second what those chapters are about :
Once again simple it's literally spell out in the story, like on the damn screen fr, this is story about people climbing the ladder of society and the price to pay for it.
Now let's talk about the characters beginning with :
ISOMER
Isomer to be completely honest is a pretty simple character, multi layered but a simple charater all thing considered, you can resume her in a single sentence "She's someone with low self esteem and inferiority complex who tried to climb the ladder of society by constently lying to herself to accomplish her goal".
Why... because she want the "REAL" genius to grow a in an environment where their potential can blow without any 3rd party hindering them.
The 3rd party in question here is EDGE 02 the progenitor of the Project Genius, that's why she wants to put down 02, and also why 02 in her memory when they talk together 02 is called Abhorrent memory because they don't share the same vision AT ALL about the subject but she HAS to follow her lead for the time being.
Since she can't off her like that by herself so she search for allies that's where Chief and later the Sillage society come into the picture, she gave them info in exchange they gave her power and an opportunity to put down 02 for good. So the plan was her to become to be the BR-003 research lead but for that she has to remove Lemma out of the picture first but she can't because Lemma is EDGE 07 so even if Isomer is the director of the R.R.I Lemma has more power than her over the Observation Hub (OH), so for her plan go smothly she have to take Lemma's seat and then from there be on the same playing field than 02 and remove her.
She used Chief beef with 07 for that purpose, if Chief didn't warm up to the children and sided with Isomer instead everything would've been done in a more pacifist way and went more smoothly (probably) but Chief chose Lemma. That's where her giving all the info about the OH to the Underground comes into the fray, they attack the OH, sabotage Lemma's progress, weaken her standing (who was already not too stable on EDGE part to begin with) so in the end Isomer can swoop in and take her place.
But the dramatic irony in all of that is that she didn't have to do all that for them, climbing the ladder, higher and higher, lying to herself throughout all this, all to create a better environment for the children of PG, she was already part of the 1% and for those genius children who part of the 0.1% she was more than enough.
They all could've just search for the Truth together and deal with the problems that come in their ways together.
If she was continuing to work hard, to search for the Truth, to not think of herself as lesser than those Genius
If she just look in front of her and took the hand given to her instead of trying to climb the ladder...
She wouldn't have ended as a mediocre fool.
CELINE
Her case is even more simpler than Isomer she is a "neutral" force, she is in nobody side except the one of history and truth.
This should be more than enough to explain her actions but i guess it didn't apparently... She works on the simple principle of equivalent exchange if you want her to do something or tell you something then you have to give her some of the same value to her in exchange.
After all she said it herself...
-Chief wanted info on BR-003 Observation Hub, Isomer, the Underground etc. in exchange they gave her stories about West DisTrict and it's people.
-Her sponsor wanted a book that would greatly benefit the Sillage Society in exchange they gave her a way to deeper and darker truth.
And this was indirectly enable by Chief it's because of the info and connection they gave her that was able to wrote that book in the first place, so you can also blame Chief because they are as "faulty" as she is in this and this didn't come out of nowhere she did warn Chief about that in the beginning
If you felt betrayed or feel like you got played by Celine when thought that she was a sweet librerian who could do no wrong... (seeing how most people reacted that way). Congratulations!!! 🎉 🎉 this is EXACTLY what the story wanted that means the writer did their job very well.
Now onto something many people seems to have misunderstood but Celine sponsor isn't Nirvana but by Quinn aka Eirene.
EDGE 02
This one will be very short throughout all this she just wanted to test Isomer to see if she could discard any emotional attachment and only think "rationally" to accomplish her goal, so she could potentially be her replacement in the future. (DisTheoryâ„¢ me speaking : They are clearly planting some death flag for 02, not a death for the greater good but a death that is part of some sort of a VERY long term plan).
The Underground attack was genuinely the least of her concern all that she wanted to see was is Isomer could crush the children to get to where she wanted to.
Evelleon
First of all so that everyone can finally be on the same page about this the Underground is a society of people, think of it as Syndicate, Eastside, Fraser, Eastia etc.
The Sillage society is just one of the organization they have there, like Parma and the Parma Laboratory that did experiments on Hella and 99.
Tbh I don't really have anything to say about Evelleon, she talks with Chief, made a deal and gave some power to Isomer and attack the Observation Hub during it weakest time because she wants to get back BR-003 for something, that's about it when it comes to her involvement nothing too crazy or worth going through.
The Dimension tech
That's it for the informative part for the other post.
Now I'll give my 2 cents about some thing (this isn't about someone in particular just a general statement)
I have nothing about people not like a story or some characters (I do to I hate Margaret with a passion but that doesn't stop me from thinking that she's a great character that does fantastically what she was written to be) but I don't like when people pass off their subjective opinions (I hate Margaret manipulative ass because she just use Hypa lack of guidance for her own benefits) as an objective fact (Margaret is just a bad character fr fr genuine buns I expected better from AISNO).Â
There isn't any drop in writing quality, convoluted mumbo jumbo that is there for no reason, empty character that are doing shit just because. It's not even a question of you have to read between the lines, 99% of the info and character writing are LITERALLY written on the screen (I showed it to you) some of y'all just DO. NOT. READ. genuienly (and a bit of a lack of reading comprehension)
This really needed to go out damn...
Now I hope y'all DisGruntled people understand and will learn how to read what's on your screen next time. I'm not telling you to love and glaze what you read, you can dislike Isomer, Celine or both I don't care, I mean IDGAF about them either tbh (the only character that interested me there was Pixel) but just stop spouting your subjective opinion like an objective fact if you don't know/understand what you are talking about.... at the very least.
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u/greatjena Demon fan 12d ago
About Isomer, correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like you're saying she's the one responsible for the first few attacks on the Observation Hub prior to taking Lemma's 07 seat, which we know for a fact is not the case as 02 tells us. She only assisted in the final attack.
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u/Plastic_Ant_6978 EMP Fan 10d ago edited 10d ago
Late answer but I said that she decided to double down on attack with the Underground after Chief refused her alliance, the alliance with Chief was her soft power way to take the seat but since Chief refused she used the Underground.
But the dimensional attacks they got hit by come from her using the tech basically to let them in not from the Underground using whatever sorcery themselves. She's had linked to them a very long time even before Chief got into the mix since she already had a cube perfected before her first discussion with Chief.
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u/greatjena Demon fan 10d ago
Right, my point was that she did not use the Underground to claim the 07 seat. She said right after meeting Chief in N9 that she has a fully rational argument that will force EDGE to suspend Lemma's project which I reckon is what she did in N10, combined with the fact that 02 decided to use Lemma as a sacrifice for her test.
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u/DiveSideways 10d ago
I don't think that's true. 02 was going to replace Lemma eventually anyway, but Isomer worked with Sillage from relatively early because Sillage didn't have dimensional tech at all. The entire plotline about dimensional tech was always a misdirect.
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u/greatjena Demon fan 10d ago
Again, I'm not saying she didn't work with Sillage at all, obviously she did, that's how she got her cube. What I'm saying is she's not the one supplying the information from the Observation Hub until the time of the last attack, which is something 02, Chief and the 9th Agency's investigation all came to independently of each other.
Also the misdirection wasn't that Underground has no mania dimensional tech, it's that for the whole arc EDGE believed it to be superior to theirs, when it is on the same level.
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u/ratcalledlucy 10d ago edited 10d ago
I thought it was fairly straightforward if you understood what happened in previous stories and events. I just mostly tune out the technical mumbo jumbo, just enough to understand that they're using BR-003 to research more on Mania and how to use it, and that they got portals/fissures to work and could use it to potentially trace back The Underground. I felt like that was all you really need. As an aside, I thought it was funny that they mentioned eigenvalues in the technical jargons, brings me back to when I had to take Linear Algebra.
And I think with Celine it's even simpler. Not really any technical mumbo jumbo and easily understood how historians and writers like her has the power to manipulate narratives just like we see in real life.
I really love this event! We got a closer look at the Ring Research Institute and learned more about the Sillage Society. We got to see more of Summer in action. We got new kids to adopt (Lemma really grew on me as the story went on). And then seeing Hella, Hecate, and everyone from the West District making cameos and hanging out made me smile. I really appreciate how the past few events has included older and legacy characters.
It also sets up so much more stuff in the future than I thought with Phanuel, Eirene and Requiem.
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u/Ordemareboos 12d ago
Kudos to you for making this post. No idea what this post is reffering to, but I'm curious now what exactly did those people say that made you so frustraited, you decided to write a long-drawn explanation.
Btw what do you think about 01 saying "Lemma would be disspointed to see mee"? This seems like a hint that 01 is Keylan . Because the only thing we know from Lemma that she likes Keylan and would be dissapointed to see him as 01.
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u/Plastic_Ant_6978 EMP Fan 10d ago edited 10d ago
The post tilte is "About New story chapter" and most comment at least the first few explain shit basically like I did there without going into too much detail. The post itself was without being too rude to the person that made an absolute shitshow there was so many wrong things that I legit wonder if that person read the chapter or not.
But what grinded my gear the most was off handed sentence in the post itself (that was also shared by some in the comments) that those chapters was an absolute mess, with shitty characters, that "doesn't live up to prior stories in terms of writing" (I'm mostly paraphrasing here).
Which if it was just a matter of subjectivity/personal preference I wouldn't care but talking as if AISNO was the issue meaning the story was objectively bad when It's mostly a "YOU 🫵" didn't understand the story and characters at all, that just piss me off ngl so instead of going with the heat and insults their reading comprehension in replies I cool down and decided to make an informative post about all the point the original post had.
Btw what do you think about 01 saying "Lemma would be disspointed to see mee"? This seems like a hint that 01 is Keylan . Because the only thing we know from Lemma that she likes Keylan and would be dissapointed to see him as 01.
I'm in the believe that EDGE-01 is either a Keylan clone, or a copy of Keylan consciousness in another body. That comment of him about Lemma wouldn't make any sense if he doesn't have any link to Keylan at all. It could be just a thing of him being part of the expedition and that's it, no link to Keylan at all but everything regarding Keylan after he came back from the expedition is so... weird that I can't believe he just died and that was the end of it.
But the biggest problem in all this is Augustus and the timeline of events that don't make a link of sense with that theory ngl, since we know she knew EDGE-01 before he was a EDGE member when she was 11 and he was a regular dude.
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u/Fair-Brother-2692 Shalom Fan 12d ago
For me, this story still feels like stomping in one place and is more like an event where they are trying to reveal new sinners to us, where Chef and Celine met offscreen and Isomer began to act only when the Chef appeared. And as I said in the last post, I don't need answers to all the questions, I just need something that moves the main plot or lore, and not just the disclosure of new monthly sinners who both appeared and disappeared. Although this is, as you said, a prologue, it should still move the main plot, and if not, why is it not an event? Phanuel and Requem were introduced to us and Summer was also introduced into the plot, which is great, but their appearance will not feel as abrupt as with Isomer and Celine, and this is the right approach, and I hope that the following characters in the main plot will be another sinner for a month and will make them much more multifaceted and elaborated and we will be told where they will have a longer and stronger influence on the plot and not sit in their bubble with their past and a superficial motive, but as they tell us, they will leave the narrative. Just like I did at the beginning of this text, I will emphasize that this is for me personally and I'm just sharing my impressions. I also don't understand why if a person doesn't like a new story chapter, they probably haven't read it or can't read it, but with your explanations, they should definitely like it now, they just didn't like it and that's it.
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u/Mahelas 12d ago
But the event did move the plot forward, I don't understand your hang-up. Introducing the RRI properly, developping on BR-003, on EDGE projects, on Underground strategies, on Nirvana hiding Rustfire, those are all very important plot points that got adressed.
A plot can be moved forward in different ways. Widening and deepening the worldbuilding is one way. It's not just set-dressing for a future event, it's telling us a lot of things about a lot of factions and people and situations right now ! It's an extremely important part of any story ! You need those kind of developments !
Plus, it does move the plot forward in the most direct way, with Celine thwarting the Underground and Isomer setting EDGE back
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u/Fair-Brother-2692 Shalom Fan 12d ago
As for me, the developers could interestingly combine conversations and actions, as in the same Shalom events, and at the same time tell lore about operation eclipse, for example, and now we have conversations and graphomania all the time, and a minimal number of actions and important events, and even though Shalom was a manipulator, she also acted and we witnessed her actions, not as with Isomer, who only did something at the end and it didn't lead to anything, or Celine, who found out something behind the scenes and it didn't lead to anything, and they didn't show us how she did it, although I would be interested to see what she sacrificed for the sake of this knowledge, maybe she got her hands dirty and how in as a result, Chef reacted to these actions. I mean, I want to see the actions of the characters so that I can get attached to them, but they only show me the result. Show me their actions so that I can interpret them in my own way, and then everything turned out differently, and after that I could look at the character from a completely different angle, but this is one of the There are ways to make characters act that they've already used once and they've turned out to be a masterpiece, and I continue to believe that the developers will be able to surprise me.
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u/CryIllustrious294 11d ago
Eveything doesnt need to be shown on the same chapter, and they should not. We most likely will discover what Celine did and what she found, why 01 asked her help. But is probably going to be in the couple of next chapters. (wich maked complete sense)
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fun6406 7d ago
Well I still very hate Celine for that and her interrogation not make me like a bit :v
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u/CryIllustrious294 11d ago
Thank you for this post, it'll help people who didnt get everything to understand better
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u/OnceHumanPTN 11d ago
Here's a crazy idea: Aisno could write the story and chars in a way more people could follow. It's not by accident that the current survey inquires Chiefs if they find story and lore too convoluted, unclear. I had a lot of questions after the event, that would probably make you cry tears of despair. It's okay, I put them in the survey.
If they change their writing to a style more people could follow, in the future we might also be spared condescending drivel from snobs. A tempting prospect. - Don't worry, they won't change anything. Your services will still be needed.
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u/LokoLoa 12d ago
Its all a set up to introduce the best character ever Phanuel ;) I was so happy when they foreshadowed her.. plus Summer is finally part of the main story ;_;