ItM #4: Roland - His Identity & Some Theories

[Flygoniaks]

WARNING: This post has MASSIVE SPOILERS for pretty much the ENTIRE GAME. Do not read this discussion if you're only starting out in LoR and have yet to see it all!

This was going to be written and posted a day ago but eh, life happens. Hope you don't mind. Hello all, welcome to the fourth episode of "In the Margins," the series where I talk about things that don't matter all that much. This includes speculation as to future content, minor nitpicks with the game, or little details you may have missed.

Today, we're going to be talking about Roland, one of the two main protagonists in our story (the other being Angela, of course). Roland is an enigmatic character that fascinated the fandom for a while, unlike Angela who we basically knew everything about. There were tons of theories about him as the story progressed, such that he was a Claw of the Head (which we now know is totally wrong, ain't that funny?).

This post is going to review what we've confirmed about Roland's identity, and also do a bit of speculation regarding some of the details that haven't been determined yet.

What we know

In this section, I'll review the confirmed facts about Roland.

Roland's identity: Roland is the Color Fixer known as the "Black Silence," or at least he used to be. However, recent events have demoted him all the way down to Grade 9. He appears to have lost most of his money and any powerful weapons he may have used in this process. Still, he knows a lot of other Fixers and about the City in general.

Roland's relation to Argalia: Roland married Angelica, making him Argalia's brother-in-law. The two of them seem to hate each other, however, with Argalia seeing Roland as a fool and Roland seeing Argalia as completely insane. It is possible that they had a more stable connection in the past, such as a sort of rivalry between Colors, but Angelica's death sent them both down different paths. Though perhaps not?

Roland's dark past: Roland was the one who killed the Pianist; but he was too late, as the piano had already consumed his wife and their unborn child. Wracked with grief, he went on a rampage, probably to find the culprit behind the Distortion Phenomenon. He killed Eileen's father during this time and also disrupted Jae-heon's experiments, among much more (like Rumanos Cartel, letting us confirm his identity).

How Roland got into the Library: The reason Roland was able to enter the Library before the first invitation was even sent was because Iori, the Purple Tear, used her strange dimension-manipulation powers to get him in there. Also, note that Roland doesn't seem to be a willing participant in this process, but was "dragged along."

(As a note, I don't think the Purple Tear's powers alone could have gotten him into the Library, considering the "barrier" he spoke of. I have a theory as to why exactly he was able to enter anyway, though I'm probably going to save it until the story is complete.)

What we don't know

In this section, I'm diving into the more hypothetical end of Roland's history, trying to piece more things together. What I say here may be proven wrong in the future.

Astolfo's identity: When Astolfo was first revealed many (wrongly) thought him to be the Purple Tear, though now that's been disproven his role in the story is again in question. My current theory is that Astolfo is a member of Hana Association Section 1, because who would have to courage to speak to the Black Silence with a position any less powerful? This could potentially mean that Astolfo is close to Xiao in power.

How Roland got demoted to Grade 9: We still don't know all the details of Roland's demotion, but I think we can make some assumptions. Mayhaps in his rampage to find the source of the Distortion he either caused too much damage or killed too many important people, causing the Hana Association to intervene. They stripped him of all his resources (money, workshop tools, etc.) and made him a societal outcast.

The Purple Tear's plan: Personally, I believe Iori's ultimate goal is stopping Argalia's plots. I don't entirely understand her powers, but from what I've gathered it seems she can see alternate timelines/into the future. She possibly witnessed the Reverberation Ensemble causing a disaster with their performance, and sees the Library as a means of stopping it. You know, kinda reminds me of a certain movie-related meme...

The fact that Iori can (sort of?) time travel also explains how she knew of the Library at all. In addition, Roland was a broken man at this point. Frankly, the one thing he needed was a completely fresh start where nobody recognized him, so perhaps Iori also foresaw (with her powers) that the Library could give him a new purpose.

Is Roland evil/will he betray Angela: Honestly I could go either way on this. He knows that Angela is the one who (indirectly) killed his wife, though he also understands her quite well now and knows that he's one of her only friends in the world. If this game has multiple endings like LC, Roland betraying Angela at the very end could be one of the "bad" endings obtained if you don't complete all the realizations.

Surprisingly, however, I don't anticipate Roland betraying Angela as the game's "true" ending, though I could be wrong. Honestly it seems like to me that Roland had already given up on getting revenge on the Distortion's creator/cause by the time he finally found her (by accident), though he could just be hiding his intentions because he's completely powerless compared to her. Or he's waiting for the right moment...

Personally, though, I won't ever see Roland as a "twist villain" or anything. Even if he does betray Angela at the end of all this, it will probably be in a burst of emotion, like Angela's betrayal. He honestly won't be any more evil than the majority of this game's massive cast. This game blends the lines between just and unjust. Nobody is truly innocent in games by Project Moon; "nobody is truly free [of guilt] in the City."

[Chronomic]

Just gonna throw this in here

During geb story roland is using some sort of dark mask(its not any sort of weird way to hide his face,you can see the edges of it when hes speaking with astolfo) during the flashback,even tho im not that much of a fan of the black silence theory

[Flygoniaks]

Originally posted by Chronomic:

Just gonna throw this in here

During geb story roland is using some sort of dark mask(its not any sort of weird way to hide his face,you can see the edges of it when hes speaking with astolfo) during the flashback,even tho im not that much of a fan of the black silence theory

You are aware of all the evidence for it by now, right? It's not really a theory anymore, it's practically been confirmed. I guess you may be out of the loop if you didn't pay attention.

[Leviathan]

I'd like to note that if we assume they gave us the lv50 cap for some reason, doing all abnos but no realizations gives us exactly 50 levels(4 from abnos + 1 for the floor opening/unlocking, per 10 floors). So that could be one of the bad ends since in that situation Angela is still kind of a prick and Roland doesn't come to terms with his sorrow(and whatever the hell we'll get in Atziluth). So we could be seeing something similar to the LC ending cutoffs, though I don't know how they'd do it with the way LoR is structured. Maybe ch7 will only have 1 branch (at the start?) and when you start the first episode it checks for your realizations and plays the appropriate story.

[CarThief]

Yeah i'm still not sold on the theory he supposedly was the Black Silence... Like jeez, a spooky mask is meant to prove it? It's more credible if the BS attacking the cartel and Roland are one and the same person, but they could be entirely seperate events too, not sure.

And it's been too long since i heard of various characters' stories on the events of the Pianist, and who was correct about it.
People where mistaking purple boi for the Purple Tear too, it'd be too easy to mistake Roland for the Black Silence when he could've been just a high-ranking fixer, no more. Some people also speculate his wife was the White Noise but who knows if that was any bit true...

For now i'm skeptical, but with some luck we'll get that final middle floor realization on Friday and perhaps see the full story then. Given the Purple Tear fiasco, i'm holding my breath on that till the game practically spells it out.

---

Hm, also think it was 6 points per completed floor (5 from abnormalities+realization, 1 from opening it up), totalling to 60/70. Where we'll get the extra 10 from, however, who knows.

Some speculate we'll get the Daat/Carmen floor (perhaps with Angela as it's "patron librarian"), possibly containing a whopping 10 abnormalities/fights (no-one said they each have to give 3 cards each, if any), or just being worth more points then the rest (such as +2 for opening, +2 per abnormality/realization/special fight).

It's also possible we might instead get one additional special fight/abnormality/etc per floor, since there's 10 floors, so 1 point from each floor fills it up, kind of like the Seed of Light percentages in Lobotomy.

Hm... How many dudes did blue boi get yet? Like 10 perchance? Perhaps those will be involved in some way in the final 10 points. Also, who's the fiery half-man-half-tree-like dude? Never seen him before. I should probably double-check that cutscene...

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by CarThief:

Some speculate we'll get the Daat/Carmen floor (perhaps with Angela as it's "patron librarian"), possibly containing a whopping 10 abnormalities/fights (no-one said they each have to give 3 cards each, if any), or just being worth more points then the rest (such as +2 for opening, +2 per abnormality/realization/special fight).

It's also possible we might instead get one additional special fight/abnormality/etc per floor, since there's 10 floors, so 1 point from each floor fills it up, kind of like the Seed of Light percentages in Lobotomy. I don't thin kthe ensemble themselves have anything to do with it because story episodes never level the Library - levels are tied entirely to the floors.

Hm... How many dudes did blue boi get yet? Like 10 perchance? Perhaps those will be involved in some way in the final 10 points. Also, who's the fiery half-man-half-tree-like dude? Never seen him before. I should probably double-check that cutscene...

9 goons, so 10 total if you count Argalia. My bets are now sitting mostly on Da'at "opening" but being more like giving a buff to each floor(hopefully to each patron librarian, STILL want them using the power they had in their meltdowns and the dept buffs) after you do... something. No idea how it'd play out though.

Also I can't tell who you mean in specific so let's take three shots: if you're talking about the Purple Tear episode's image, that's Philip/Crying Children next to Oswald. It's melted wax, I'm pretty sure.
If you mean the person next to Pluto, that's Elena/Blood-red Night.
If you mean the top-right one, that's Bremen, and the 'tree' is just the donkey head that didn't fit in the image lol.

[CarThief]

Perhaps it was Elena, then? Either way i meant the one who's face is 50/50 normal and something fiery/evil-looking. Don't remember much about that one, guess we didn't get much info about that one possibly since the whole Love Town ordeal.

But yeah, there's a big empty "use me already dammit" space in the top-middle during floor-selection for battle, wouldn't be suprised if we'll get a final floor there, and have it in some manner fill up those 10 points.

A floor buff could be interesting, i don't see patron librarian buffs working unless its like an special E.G.O page for them or something, irregardless of what they've got equipped.

[Flygoniaks]

Originally posted by CarThief:

Perhaps it was Elena, then? Either way i meant the one who's face is 50/50 normal and something fiery/evil-looking. Don't remember much about that one, guess we didn't get much info about that one possibly since the whole Love Town ordeal.

But yeah, there's a big empty "use me already dammit" space in the top-middle during floor-selection for battle, wouldn't be suprised if we'll get a final floor there, and have it in some manner fill up those 10 points.

A floor buff could be interesting, i don't see patron librarian buffs working unless its like an special E.G.O page for them or something, irregardless of what they've got equipped.

Yeah that's Elena. The Distortion Detective Ch. 42 confirms that she's kinda like a vampire.

Originally posted by CarThief:

Yeah i'm still not sold on the theory he supposedly was the Black Silence... Like jeez, a spooky mask is meant to prove it? It's more credible if the BS attacking the cartel and Roland are one and the same person, but they could be entirely seperate events too, not sure.

And it's been too long since i heard of various characters' stories on the events of the Pianist, and who was correct about it.
People where mistaking purple boi for the Purple Tear too, it'd be too easy to mistake Roland for the Black Silence when he could've been just a high-ranking fixer, no more. Some people also speculate his wife was the White Noise but who knows if that was any bit true...

For now i'm skeptical, but with some luck we'll get that final middle floor realization on Friday and perhaps see the full story then. Given the Purple Tear fiasco, i'm holding my breath on that till the game practically spells it out.

Maybe they haven't explicitly told us that Roland is the Black Silence, but the evidence really seems to line up when you think about it. From the two most recent realization flashbacks, we know that Roland killed many, many people. There was even a removed section of the Gebura cutscene where he killed an Index Proxy of all things (this was removed because it caused the rest of the dialogue to not sync properly with the art, probably not because it's retconned or anything). Not only is he very capable of murder, even for a Fixer, but also with all the people he seems to know, it's obvious that he's not "normal," even for a high-grade Fixer.

Plus, Project Moon seems very deliberate with their writing. If you go back and watch the cutscenes for early game receptions you'll find that there's actually tons of foreshadowing for content found later in the game (the Puppeteer was referenced by the Rats of all people!). Considering the Rumanos Cartel was very specifically referenced as being attacked by the Black Silence, and then later show us Roland, clad in black, attacking the Cartel, I believe that these two reveals are very intentional, and not meant as a sort of red herring.

If I'm to be perfectly honest, the mask has nothing to do with it and is probably for symbolism. I believe that the truth will be revealed at a later date, and the whole Rumanos Cartel detail is meant to let players who payed close attention to the story piece together his identity early.

[FlavorTown]

Originally posted by CarThief:

Some people also speculate his wife was the White Noise but who knows if that was any bit true...

There is no White coloured fixer

[Flygoniaks]

Originally posted by FlavorTown:

There is no White coloured fixer

Correct, but I would laugh really hard if they were the Black Silence and the White Noise.

[CarThief]

Atleast it'd match, noise and silence. But if she was, she probably wouldn't fall victim to the Pianist. The Colours have more or less shown themselves to atleast match or surpass Distortions.

(Though its unknown how well they'd fare against Abnormalities, especially in their "prime" during Lobotomy. Hm, i heard the Rabbits where given specialized guns and/or ammo for supression there? I should double-check again sometime, haven't replayed Lobotomy since the English patch.)

Well, suppose i'm eager for tomorrow's potential update either way. Assuming they won't skip tomorrow due to holiday reasons or whatever...
Oh, hoping its 1-2 missions, Chesed's realization (probably 2 more non-Lobotomy Oz-themed abnormalities), and possibly a 3rd abnormality for Hokma (my bets are on a non-Lobotomy abnormality as #3, Whitenight as #4, and One Sin as #5).

[Flygoniaks]

Originally posted by CarThief:

(Though its unknown how well they'd fare against Abnormalities, especially in their "prime" during Lobotomy. Hm, i heard the Rabbits where given specialized guns and/or ammo for supression there? I should double-check again sometime, haven't replayed Lobotomy since the English patch.)

I believe the ammunition was provided by L Corp, but the weapons were their usual stuff?

[FlavorTown]

Originally posted by Flygoniaks:

Originally posted by FlavorTown:

There is no White coloured fixer

Correct, but I would laugh really hard if they were the Black Silence and the White Noise.

Eh, White colour doesn't fit, I doubt there will be White coloured fixer even if we meet more of them

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by CarThief:

Atleast it'd match, noise and silence. But if she was, she probably wouldn't fall victim to the Pianist. The Colours have more or less shown themselves to atleast match or surpass Distortions.

Counterpoint: she was pregnant at the time.

Also they didn't announce they'd skip this friday so assume it's business as usual, with 1 episode and hopefully one abno. Chesed's most likely next week instead.

[FlavorTown]

Originally posted by Leviathan:

Originally posted by CarThief:

Atleast it'd match, noise and silence. But if she was, she probably wouldn't fall victim to the Pianist. The Colours have more or less shown themselves to atleast match or surpass Distortions.

Counterpoint: she was pregnant at the time.

Pregnancy, the most potent status effect, degrades your key page to the point you can't even clash nor survive Pianists single AoE attack