Other tiblits
Some smaller details that we learned are, for example, that Hockney’s soul is somehow extremely lackluster. Almost like he had lost most of it or is using an artificial substitute. It could be that his “Real” soul is in the painting and he doesn’t care about the one he just gave away. Would be a way to explain why he as so nonchalant. The painting is already more important to him than his very soul. Either one is insanely important or the other is not important enough or both. Much to consider here.
We learn that Baam has altruistic qualities this chapter. Hilariously, this is, if I recall, only the 2nd time ever that Baam shows such a train. A completely selfless desire. He was willing to give up his soul, rather than giving up the souls that he had absorbed. By the way. The souls are still there. He did not absorb the souls into his “sun” There are 2 possibilities here that I can see. Either he had realized how he was “devouring” the suns by doing a disservice and that realization was enough for the plot side to work OR he had lost the 2nd rice pot battle to the demon in some way and we are only now starting to see the results that even GoG had failed to notice. He did say that “Something is different about him”. It’s quite a scary idea to consider that he might have lost that battle in some way, but I personally subscribe to the first part in that the sun was a full metaphor and he realized that he was doing a misdeed and so the souls stopped getting “absorbed” or stopped getting “used”.
The Thorn’s design has changed again. NOW it looks cool as shit. We can see the fragments breaking out into pieces and the core getting revealed. The flame is getting more and more intense. This is a key detail and shows how the Thorn is starting to transform entirely.
Baam’s Shinwonryu also looked different thing time. This could just be SIU trolling with the way he draws the Baang, bu there might be more to it. Maybe he is already evolving the technique as we speak. There is also the potential that he is currently undergoing massive growth passively from being on this floor that is so dense in Shinsoo at specific locations. We’ll see where this goes, difficult to add anything more.
There are a few more points that I didn’t touch upon, but they’re small details that I might come back to later. If someone noticed something very important, leave a comment and I’ll think about it more. One interesting consideration is how Garam saw the video feed of the eyes while stabbing em. Quite grotesque and interesting in how that even works. Also, the real FoD seems like a very, VERY cold place, but then again. We learned that Garam is from the North City. There might be climate changes between cities. Now just imagine that. Different ecosystems and weathers inside the same Guardian carcasss. Winter near his neck, Summer near his belly :P Something like that. Quite an insane possibility.
Conclusion
Massive chapter. Many probably are already noticing how I am not showing much surprise about Garam. As you might have guessed it, I got spoiled on her appearance a whole 3 weeks ago :/ It’s one of the reasons I am going to stop actively reading reddit for a while, or at least take a lot of steps to make sure no one can spoil me more points.
Regardless, this was a great chapter in telling us more about how the “AI’s” of the floor work and opening us up to an insane amount of potential possibilities. I personally really like the soul detachment – immortality idea. If SIU adds sufficient downsides and variables to making it possible, I can see it as being a very logical way to explain immortality. Also very fitting that Wangnan and Karaka make an appearance on this floor, given how they are supposedly both immortal… Intriguing.
Lastly, I didn't mention the Enryuu Creation theory this essay, but I feel like it is very applicable, however a lot of rethinking needs to be done. I will think on the chapter some more tommorow and then write out some ideas on what this new information can mean to many popular theories.
As always, if you enjoyed this essay, consider checking out this google doc page will all my past analysis/theory essays. Work on youtube videos is still ongoing, but very slowly, because I got busy with writing a paper My first one and I didn’t think it would be so difficult… ToG analysis is 10x easier. Maybe it’s just the perfectionism speaking...
Until next time~