Canto V: The Evil Defining.
After the events of Intervallo II, the Sinners have learned that another Golden Bough is somewhere on the Great Lake.
Ishmael seems to be terrified of this words.
She absolutely hates the Great Lake because of her past. She used to be part of the crew of a ship called the Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab.
The Pequod went hunting for an enormous creature known as the Pallid Whale.
Almost everyone aboard the Pequod disappeared.
Ishmael survived.
And she has spent years obsessed with finding the Pallid Whale and k*lling it.
So when Limbus Company needs to go onto the Great Lake, Ishmael is basically being forced back into the place where her entire life fell apart.
She initially refuses to cooperate normally unless she's explicitly ordered to.
This is important because Ishmael isn't simply "scared of the ocean."
The Great Lake represents the unresolved trauma of her past.
The Great Lake in the City isn't an ordinary lake.
It's enormous and extremely dangerous.
There are: Whales, Mermaids, strange ships pirates, enormous creatures capable of swallowing ships and buildings...
The Sinners have to learn the Laws of the Great Lake just to survive.
For example, they learn that encounters with Whales aren't something they can casually fight their way through.
The Lake operates almost like its own ecosystem with rules that people have learned to respect.
And Ishmael knows these rules because she was once a sailor.
During the journey, Dante discovers that their clock head has another ability.
They can see into people's minds.
Not perfectly, but they can experience fragments of memories, desires and thoughts.
This becomes extremely important because Ishmael's memories start leaking into the story.
Dante gradually realizes:
Ishmael isn't simply looking for a Golden Bough.
She has another goal.
She wants to find the Pallid Whale.
And more importantly...
she wants to k*ll Ahab.
The Sinners eventually reach Marlin Portship.
They are supposed to meet an LCCB agent there.
Instead, they discover that the agent has been kidnapped by the Twinhook Pirates.
The pirates are connected to The Middle, one of the major Syndicates in the City.
The Sinners go after them.
This is where Ishmael asks about Queequeg.
And this name immediately gets everyone's attention.
The pirates have information about Queequeg because The Middle has put a bounty on her.
This is one of the first big clues that Ishmael's past is not exactly what she remembers.
The Sinners fight their way through the pirates and eventually confront their leader, Smee.
Smee explains that the pirates are backed by The Middle.
This is terrifying because attacking a member of The Middle can result in a Big Brother being sent after you.
Ishmael doesn't really care.
She wants information.
Eventually the location of the kidnapped LCCB agent is revealed.
But Ishmael attempts to k*ll Smee.
Dante stops her.
And Dante actually takes the hit meant for Ishmael.
Ishmael is becoming increasingly consumed by revenge, slowly turning into OBSESSION.
The rescued LCCB agent is named Pilot.
He explains what happened to the LCCB team.
They had found the L Corp branch containing the Golden Bough.
But pirates controlled the area.
Then something much worse arrived:
The Pallid Whale.
The Whale approached and essentially destroyed everything around it.
The LCCB team was wiped out.
The pirates fled.
Pilot survived and was taken prisoner.
And now Limbus Company knows:
The Golden Bough is inside the territory of the Pallid Whale.
As the Sinners travel deeper into the Lake, Dante begins seeing Ishmael's memories.
We learn about:
The Pequod
The Pequod was the ship Ishmael served on.
Its captain was:
Captain Ahab
Ahab was an extraordinary leader.
At first, Ishmael admired her.
Ahab appeared fearless.
Determined.
Charismatic.
She had an absolute purpose:
K*ll the Pallid Whale.
And she convinced her crew that this was their mission too. But something was deeply wrong.
Ahab doesn't merely want to kill the Whale.
She believes the Whale isevil.
And because she has decided it is evil, hunting it becomes morally justified.
This becomes the central theme of Canto V.
Ahab basically creates a simple worldview:
Whale = is an beast where all evil spouts.
Get rid of Whale = good.
Anyone who helps me = my dear crewmates.
Anyone who gets in my way = enemy of great purpose.
Her beliefs become.... MY BELIEFS ARE ABSOLUTE... MY DEFENITION OF EVIL ARE CLEAR-CUT!
Ishmael's closest relationship on the Pequod was with Queequeg:
Queequeg was another member of the crew and a harpooner.
The two became extremely close.
They shared a room and imagined having a future together after the voyage.
This part is incredibly important.
Because Ishmael's life wasn't always:
"K*ll the Whale."
Ishmael had a future beyond Ahab's mission.
Ahab took that future away from her.
Eventually the Pequod finds the Pallid Whale.
The ship attacks it.
But things go horribly wrong.
The Whale destroys the ship and its crew.
Ishmael survives.
She believes everyone else is dead.
Especially Queequeg.
And that's where Ishmael's obsession begins.
She wants revenge.
This is one of the biggest reveals.
The crew didn't simply Perish.
The Pallid Whale swallowed them.
Inside the Whale, something called:
Pallidification occurs.
Unlike ordinary Whales, which transform things they consume, the Pallid Whale covers people in a strange pale membrane.
They retain aspects of themselves.
Their bodies and minds become corrupted, but they're still recognizable.
The survivors essentially become prisoners inside the Whale.
The Sinners eventually reach the remains of an L Corp facility that had been swallowed by the Pallid Whale.
The building is covered in the same strange pale substance.
This is called pallidification.
And inside the building they encounter another important character:
Rim
Rim was connected to Yi Sang's old group, the League of Nine Littérateurs.
Rim appears to have become a Distortion-like being.
The important revelation is that:
The Golden Bough and the Abnormalities inside the L Corp facility were swallowed by the Pallid Whale.
So the Golden Bough is now literally inside the Whale.
Then everything gets worse.
The Middle arrives.
And their representative is:
Ricardo
Ricardo is a Big Brother.
And he is absurdly powerful.
The Sinners have basically no chance against him.
The reason he's angry is partly because Heathcliff stole hair coupons from the Twin Hook Pirates.
Yes.
That sounds ridiculous.
But in the City, the Middle takes insults extremely seriously.
Ricardo completely he overpowers Sinners.
Almost everyone faints.
Then someone arrives who can actually challenge Ricardo:
The Indigo Elder
The Indigo Elder is a Color Fixer (color Fixer = op)
He's an old man who specializes in hunting the Great Lake's greatest monsters.
His personal goal is to k*ll the Five Calamities of the Great Lake.
The Pallid Whale is one of them.
The Elder saves the Sinners.
This is also where the story establishes just how enormous the difference between ordinary people and a Color Fixer can be.
The Sinners now realize something useful.
The Pallid Whale's pallidification affects normal people.
But the Sinners have an unusual advantage:
They can survive things that would kill ordinary people because Dante can revive them.
So Ishmael proposes something insane.
Instead of fighting the Whale from outside...
The Indigo Elder attacks the Whale from outside.
Meanwhile, the Sinners enter the creature.
Their moves:
1. Find the Golden Bough.
2. Reach the Whale's heart.
3. K*il the Whale.
4. Escape.
But Ishmael has another objective:
K*ll Ahab.
Inside the Whale, the Sinners are nearly digested.
But they're rescued by people who have survived inside the Whale.
And eventually...
Ishmael sees someone she thought was dead.
Queequeg.
Ishmael is shocked.
She genuinely believed Queequeg had died.
Queequeg explains that the survivors created a settlement inside the Whale:
Pequod Town.
And guess who is in charge?
None other than Captain Of the Pequod - Ahab.
Ahab survived the original encounter.
She has essentially built a society inside the Pallid Whale.
But it's not really a normal society.
The survivors are all under Ahab's influence.
Ahab's obsession continues.
She still wants to kill the Whale.
She still believes that killing it is the ultimate purpose.
Ahab knows Ishmael wants to kill her.
So she makes a deal.
She tells Ishmael:
Help me reach the Whale's heart.
And in exchange:
I'll let you k*ll me.
This is incredibly manipulative. Ahab nature it self makes one of the Great villains, i like ahab for that and prob why my choice at the time... to wear ahab back to the point:
Because Ahab understands exactly what Ishmael wants.
She uses that desire as bait.
And this is one of the core ideas of Canto V:
Ahab controls people by giving them purpose.
She tells people:
I was their lighthouse in this world of tempest… I gave them an unambiguous path to follow !!
I gave your worthless lives a reason to go on. And on the Pequod, you sailed with conviction.
That's how she gains followers.
Queequeg joins Ishmael and the Sinners because she knows how to navigate inside the Whale.
She and Ishmael finally get a chance to talk.
And we learn something heartbreaking.
Queequeg had essentially tried to bury her memories of Ishmael.
Not because she hated her.
But because remembering the outside world made survival harder.
She had to keep moving.
She had to survive.
She tells Ishmael that she wants to see the sunset again.
That's her dream.
Not k*lling the Whale.
Not serving Ahab.
Not becoming stronger.
Just to see the sunset again.
This causes Ishmael to remember something.
Before everything went wrong, she and Queequeg imagined their future.
They just wanted to live.
Ishmael realizes that Ahab's mission had replaced their actual dreams.
Inside the Whale, the Sinners encounter the Mermaids.
These are people who have been heavily affected by the Pallid Whale.
They gradually lose themselves.
They scream.
They attack others.
Eventually their bodies melt away.
Queequeg explains:
This is what will happen to everyone if they don't escape.
The Mermaids are basically a warning.
They represent what happens when someone completely loses themselves.
The Sinners continue deeper into the Whale.
Dante's powers keep showing fragments of Ishmael's memories.
And the more they see, the more disturbing the truth becomes.
Ahab wasn't simply a captain who happened to be obsessed.
She had effectively consumed the entire crew's identities.
She made their lives revolve around her purpose.
This is where Heathcliff understands something important.
He explains that Ahab has an ability to identify people's deepest desires.
She finds what someone desperately wants.
Then she gives them a path toward it.
And NO MATTER WHICH PATH YOU TAKE. THE CAPTAIN WILL ALWAYS FIND YOU.
And once they follow her...
They become part of her mission.
Eventually everyone reaches the Whale's heart.
But something is wrong.
Ahab's group is missing.
Then the truth is revealed.
Ahab sacrificed them.
She used her own crew as expendable resources to get closer to the heart.
This is the ultimate proof that Ahab's "crew" never truly mattered to her.
They were tools.
Ahab reveals another problem.
The Pallid Whale's effects prevent her from properly attacking it.
But Dante has something she needs.
Inside Dante's head is part of the Golden Bough.
Ahab wants Dante's head.
If she gets it, she can use its power to overcome the Whale's defenses.
So the deal was never really:
"Help me k*ll the Whale and I'll let Ishmael k*ll me."
It was manipulation from the beginning.
Ahab gives one of the most important speeches in the while story.
I am the only one who matters. What matters is that I have declared this beast evil—and that is my commandment, my belief, my religion, and my creed.
The Pallid Whale is evil because Ahab has defined it as evil.
Her mission is righteous because she has defined it as righteous.
She believes her own convictions are absolute.
And therefore she believes nothing can break her.
This is why the title is:
The Evil Defining
Ahab doesn't simply fight evil.
She defines evil.
And once she defines something as evil, she believes she has the absolute right to destroy it.
Then Ahab reaches her breaking point.
She awakens her E.G.O:
GasHarpoon
And this is one of the darkest moments of the Canto.
Ahab's E.G.O effectively consumes her remaining crew:
Harpooner Queequeg
First mate Starbuck
Crewmate Pip
She turns them into fuel/ammunition for herself.
Think about the symbolism.
Ahab spent the entire canto promising bright future...
But when she needs power...
She literally consumes the people whose lives supposedly mattered to her.
The Sinners fight Ahab.
She's incredibly powerful. (Ofc the efflourosed E.G.O - ego is Extermination of Geometrical Organ this case ahab manifested her obsession into physical form menti9ned before Gasharpoon)
Her obsession has basically become her entire identity.
WHEN I K*LL WHALE, I HAVE NOTHING TO WISH FOR IN MY LIFE.
And Ishmael finally fights her.
Eventually Ahab is defeated.
But then...
The Pallid Whale's membrane begins consuming Queequeg.
Ishmael desperately tries to save her.
But she can't.
Queequeg knows she's going to die.
And she tells Ishmael:
"Your name. Tell me. Once more."
This is one of the most important moments in the entire Canto.
Why?
Because Queequeg had spent years trying to bury her memories.
She wants to remember Ishmael one last time.
And Ishmael says:
"Call me Ishmael."
Queequeg then dies.
Her body disintegrates.
I think in the book opening Moby-Dick:
"Call me Ishmael."
But Limbus uses it differently.
In Moby-Dick, it introduces the narrator.
Here, it becomes a declaration of identity.
Ishmael is saying:
This is who I am.
Not Ahab's crewmate, Ahab's follower, the person who must kill Ahab, the person whose life exists only because of revenge
Just: Ishmael. It's her reclaiming herself.
Ahab is defeated.
Ishmael picks up her harpoon.
She has spent years imagining this moment.
She can finally k*ll Ahab.
But Dante stops her.
And Ishmael becomes angry.
She asks essentially:
Why do you keep stopping me?
Because Dante isn't just preventing her from k*lling Ahab.
Dante is trying to prevent Ishmael from becoming another Ahab.
This is it. The moment of truth. The moment of choice.
Ishmael looks at Ahab and realizes something.
Ahab's obsession destroyed everyone.
But Ishmael has been doing something similar.
Ishmael's entire life had become:
A blind chase obsession.
That's still allowing Ahab to control her life.
Even if Ishmael kills Ahab... (which happens in mirror world and Ishmael becomes new ahab)
Ahab wins in a way.
Because Ishmael's entire existence would still revolve around her.
This is probably the most important symbolic idea in Canto V.
Ahab has her Pallid Whale.
Ishmael has Ahab.
Both are obsessed.
Both have one target.
Both are willing to sacrifice everything to reach it.
Both believe that if their target perish, will finally give them peace.
That's why Ishmael is in on path of becoming another Ahab.
Instead of k*lling Ahab...
Ishmael decides to... redeem herself.
This changes everything.
She's finally breaking away from Ahab's definition of what her life should be.
She doesn't need to k*ll Ahab.
She can choose her own objective.
So Ishmael attacks the Whale's heart.
And she destroys it.
Ishmael tears into the Whale's heart.
The Golden Bough is retrieved.
The Pallid Whale finally no more.
And Ishmael achieves something Ahab couldn't.
Not because she was more obsessed.
But because she eventually stopped being controlled by obsession.
This is incredibly important.
Ishmael could k*ll Ahab.
Instead, she chooses to let her live.
She basically decides:
Ahab should live with what she did.
She wants Ahab to remain as a reminder.
A reminder of: obsession, manipulation,blind conviction, the destruction of other people's lives, what Ishmael herself could have become
So Ahab becomes Ishmael's warning.
The Pallid Whale collapses.
The Indigo Elder is waiting outside.
He throws a rope down into the Whale.
The Sinners use it to escape.
They return to the Mephistopheles.
And the journey is finally over.
Ishmael tells Dante that she intends to remain with Limbus Company for now.
But eventually she wants to leave.
And when she does, she wants to go on her own journey. Ishmael redeemed her self.
From: revenge, to obsession, to finally beeing free from the rope that strangled her.
There's a post-credit scene.
Ahab survived.
And she meets:
Hermann
Hermann offers Ahab a new purpose.
She promises Ahab that there are countless other worlds.
And therefore...
countless other Pallid Whales.
Ahab is given a new objective:
Hunt them all.
And Ahab accepts.
So while Ishmael breaks free from the cycle...
Ahab continues deeper into it.
im tired and afraid of collapsing this all thing I do in 1 go so not so many images, play limbus its free anyway.
im tired and afraid of collapsing this all thing I do in 1 go so not so many images, play limbus its free anyway.
- 12 views
Add new comment
Why is this so long
Could've been longer