Question about the Distortions and the Seed of Light (end game spoilers!)

[Wysteria]

It seems like based on the Violet Tear scene + PM's plans for the sequels, distortions continue to appear even after Angela released all the light. There are two conclusions from this
1. Because Roland pulled Angela out at the last moment, the slight incompleteness of the SoL is enough to cause the distortion problem to persist.
2. Distortions will continue to occur no matter how complete the SoL is
3. Unknown reason PM has yet to reveal

If the answer is #2, then that's interesting, because it means that the Pianist could have been created even if Angela did not steal the light
Therefore, it's possible Roland didn't need to blame Angela

Any thoughts?

[hurricanelily.j.a]

There is a possibility that even with the compleat SoL the distortions are still going to appear as they happen when people are overwhelmed with emotions and can't control themselves.

[Wysteria]

Originally posted by hurricanelily.j.a:

There is a possibility that even with the compleat SoL the distortions are still going to appear as they happen when people are overwhelmed with emotions and can't control themselves.

I am quite aware of that
This is what I want to point out though

Originally posted by hurricanelily.j.a:

There is a possibility that even with the compleat SoL the distortions are still going to appear

If distortions occur regardless of a complete SoL
Then that means the Pianist could have appeared even without Angela's actions
Therefore, it is not necessarily Angela's fault the Pianist came into existence and took Roland's wife away

[AritheReaper]

Seems like they were implying it was sort of #1. Regardless, if The Light could cause the distortion, I'd assume it could take it away - though you'd probably have to use the SoL specifically for that purpose, rather than just gathering it all. Hence why, if the process of doing so was incomplete, the distortion would continue to exist.

[Altidiya]

There is Number 4#: Any progress in SoL will cause Distorsions. This has some base in the voice that motivate people to become distorsions is Carmen. More complete = More distorsions even.

[Sebee]

Originally posted by hurricanelily.j.a:

compleat

how

[Brandi]

I was under the impression that distortions would've always been a thing but the amount of light skews the ratio more towards EGO.
Otherwise the full 100% light would've been something like indoctrination if people we never capable of despair and negativity again.

[ETDragoon]

The Distortions are the result of the White Nights and Dark Days, which was caused by Angela in the True end of LC. This time however, Angela releases the Light, reverting everything back to how it was at the start of LOR. Angela is still responsible for the creation of the Pianist, since the Pianist was from when she stole the Light. We have no concrete way of knowing if Distortions would still exist if she didn't steal the Light in LC, but I assume they would not exist if the light shined for all 7 days.

[Wysteria]

Originally posted by Altidiya:

There is Number 4#: Any progress in SoL will cause Distorsions. This has some base in the voice that motivate people to become distorsions is Carmen. More complete = More distorsions even.

Okay, that's #2 except I should have rephrased it as any % of the SoL instead of saying "completeness"

Originally posted by ETDragoon:

The Distortions are the result of the White Nights and Dark Days, which was caused by Angela in the True end of LC. This time however, Angela releases the Light, reverting everything back to how it was at the start of LOR. Angela is still responsible for the creation of the Pianist, since the Pianist was from when she stole the Light. We have no concrete way of knowing if Distortions would still exist if she didn't steal the Light in LC, but I assume they would not exist if the light shined for all 7 days.

That depends what exactly she released I guess. If she released everything she took, including those from the ending of LC, then she should have released almost all of the SoL (which I assumed she did since she doesn't have much use for the light anymore, besides making the Library comfy for everyone in it, which I imagine shouldn't be that much)
If she only released everything she took during the events of LOR, then that's a possibility

[JustACorpse]

Probably number 2 as long as the voice exists, maybe past that as well. However, everyone close to it did a lot of terrible things to make sure things went right with the plan. Meaning that they are not going to be very viable sources of information, due to basic human nature being at play there. Angela herself is not a viable source of information on it, either, because she was getting information from them and others who were doing these horrible things. That and it is breaking new ground in the setting, which is why Angela could be shocked by Pluto's shenanigans (even when she really shouldn't) due to no one really knowing what the limits were. Same with her not realizing the Library was her EGO.

[Zhantos]

Just my opnion BTW.

E.G.O existed before the SoL so me thinks that the distortion too, its just a matter of the light facilitating the process of E.G.Oing and distorting.

[Nocturnal Pie]

I believe when she's releasing the light at the end of LOR she's simply releasing all of her victims and allowing them to continue living instead of being killed for her own goal. This would be as if the Library had never invited them, but at the same time it wouldn't affect what she had already caused.

Thanks to the White Nights and Dark Days I'm pretty sure Distortions and E.G.O. manifestation are here to stay.

[Hoopla]

For starters the FULL light wasn't given back, Roland pulled Angela out at the last second so her own part of it is still with her, and since the first shining was severely shortned, it may be that the incomplete seed planted on everyone's minds is now forever like that, the current light is only going to raise the odds of people not distorting, but the option is still there.

Plus the possibility that this was still something that could happen if the light had fully worked the first time, considering Carmen is for some reason pushing people to distort, and the formation of the light is in a sense born out of distortions being pushed back through Sephirot meltdowns.

[Wysteria]

Originally posted by zhantos:

Just my opnion BTW.

E.G.O existed before the SoL so me thinks that the distortion too, its just a matter of the light facilitating the process of E.G.Oing and distorting.

If I recall correctly, Lob Corp's singularity was something like the manifestation of the mind and emotion (someone confirm?)
I think manifesting EGO prior to the White Nights and Dark Days was impossible (?) outside Lob Corp

Originally posted by Nocturnal Pie:

I believe when she's releasing the light at the end of LOR she's simply releasing all of her victims and allowing them to continue living instead of being killed for her own goal. This would be as if the Library had never invited them, but at the same time it wouldn't affect what she had already caused.

Thanks to the White Nights and Dark Days I'm pretty sure Distortions and E.G.O. manifestation are here to stay.

That's what I noted in a previous reply, I didn't consider the possibility that she only released her victims and not all the light (Because I thought she abandoned her goal to collect the light). I guess if we consider that option, then yeah, the SoL isn't complete because Angela never released everything to begin with

Originally posted by Hoopla:

For starters the FULL light wasn't given back, Roland pulled Angela out at the last second so her own part of it is still with her

I kind of noted that possibility at the beginning already...

Originally posted by Wysteria:

1. Because Roland pulled Angela out at the last moment, the slight incompleteness of the SoL is enough to cause the distortion problem to persist.

[Infolane]

They did say that if the light had shined for 7 days, the distortion would not exist. People would have probably lost the ability to manifest the light if it was going to cause them to distort (I recall some lines about EGOs of different power and some people losing it somewhere but I can't remember where I read it ingame).

It is likely a case of #1. Distortions appear in every case that the light isn't complete, including now that Angela is still holding a small fraction of it, but not if it manages to shine for the full seven days.

Unfortunately, Carmen herself wound up getting in her own way. Angela was hearing Carmen, after all, and it culminated in her own manifestation of EGO in the form of the library. I do believe that if the ciscunstances had been different, Angela might have straight up distorted at that point. But the distortion didn't exist back then, and afterwards, she had All This Light available to avoid distorting.

At this point... Carmen, as the Light, probably cannot be assigned any meaningful moral alignment. She just goads people toward EGO/distortion in an antagonistic fashion. Oswald put Phillip on the Carmen line, Xiao dialed right into it, same for Argalia...

Even if the light was complete, people would still have their full range of emotions lul they just wouldn't turn to literal monsters over it.

[NuclearFire]

I'm of the opinion that ending C implied taht Angela decided against both re-releasing SoL and usurping the SoL leading to releasing the light carrying guests. Which means SoL project is mostly dead in water. So Distortion will continue to manifest with slim chance of those determined enough to instead grasp EGO.

Originally posted by Wysteria:

If I recall correctly, Lob Corp's singularity was something like the manifestation of the mind and emotion (someone confirm?)
I think manifesting EGO prior to the White Nights and Dark Days was impossible (?) outside Lob Corp

Yes. The L singularity cover story is making energy dense green soda out of monsters pulled from the human mind. In reality the green soda is mere byproduct with true goal of getting enough understanding of human psyche both in traumatizing events and recovering from it to form virtues (aka suffering and subsequent suppressing of Sephirah) then using Seed of Light to enlighten the city with those learning. i think, pretty sure. like 98% sure.