lunar1an

[lunar1an]

Ghost as Phos: An Analysis

Now that HnK is done it's fascinating to go back and comb through the story beats and try to tie them together. In particular there's a really interesting pattern to notice in all of Phos's partners, or rather, a pattern break.

For the purpose of this post I'm considering Antarc, Ghost Quartz, Cairngorm, Padparadscha, and on a symbolic level Cinnabar* as partners. For the most part, they fill the following functions: they tutor or discipline Phos in some aspect, they're stabilizing forces that rein them in, and they all have some degree of care and love for Phos. Cinnabar repeatedly gives Phos advice, urging them to think through things more. Antarc genuinely believes in Phos's ability to do better, urging them to rise above their defeatist nature. Cairngorm, despite what Cairngorm says, seems to have genuinely wanted to protect the idiot who lost Ghost but gave them their first non-Ghost name. Padpa regards Phos like a little sibling they have to babysit, but still goes to great lengths to help them.

And then there's Ghost Quartz. Ghost is in a weird, kind of liminal place in the narrative. Ghost comes about at a time when Phos is arguably at their second lowest point -- without knowledge or a way forward, breaking down under the weight of isolation and their conspiracy. Ghost doesn't last long. In fact, they partner up with Phos for less than a day before sacrificing themself for them, leaving Cairngorm behind. But hey, a lot of these other partnerships don't last long either. Padpa only had one raid and then one rescue mission, and wasn't even an "official" partner so much as the one who took on the Phos babysitting responsibility.

But either way, Ghost was still a partner. I'd probably put the start of Ghost trying to fill that role after they thought Phos was trying to reach out to help them, up until their sacrifice. So. What do they do, as Phos's partner? How do they stabilize them?

Pictured: Ghost and Phos soon to start the worst mutual rebound in gem history

They try to get Phos to allow them to help, immediately, almost forcing the partnership onto them. They latch onto a false idea that Phos was trying to save them and say Phos reminds them of Lapis. They commiserate over feeling stupid and express a desire to change.

If anything, Ghost was a more passive, enabling personality. When Phos says they're researching Lunarian communication, Ghost tries to help, and later on doesn't stop them from investigating a large group of Lunarians.

In Ghost's mind, Phos seems to be placed as the competent, smart figure, who reached out to them and showed the bare minimum care for them.

Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?

The context is different, but there's more parallels elsewhere.

Ghost is a gem who hadn't appeared at all in the story, up until a mention in volume 4. They're seemingly absent from the daily social life of most gems. They aren't even present around Euclase or Lex when they deal with paperwork. The library, when we visit it, is a lonely, dark space. The convalescent chamber just has a bunch of inactive gems sitting in boxes. They confess to Phos that both of their jobs -- the library and the convalescent chamber -- are barely jobs at all.

There are two other gems we see with similar roles. The first is Phos themself at the beginning, who didn't have any job. The second is Cinnabar, who runs a pointless night patrol. Both of these gems are outcasts, and unsuited for gem society -- Phos is too brittle and weak, and Cinnabar is overflowing with mercury that forces them to isolate themself. Antarc is pushed to the sidelines as well, being liquid outside of winter, but they at least found a useful role and place in the world.

We know what makes Ghost "unusual", of course. There's a Gorm in there.

As Ghost's inner layer, they're troublesome and said to do surprising things, such as climbing on top of the concealed Lunarian to check for Lapis. Even before going to the moon Cairngorm had a notably rougher, bolder personality than Ghost.

So imagine how that plays out for every other gem, before Lapis. Imagine if Ghost is out on patrol, and they see a Lunarian. Cairngorm rushes in when they aren't supposed to, and someone gets hurt or taken because of it. You could draw parallels to how Phos, even after getting powerful legs, froze up when the Amethyst twins were captured instead of going to get Sensei.

Their nature makes them unsuited to fighting. It makes them troublesome to their fellow gems. Is it any surprise they were given the convalescent chamber job, which has little to no chance of Ghost's inner layer acting out and causing serious harm or inconvenience?

Lapis was the exception -- someone who didn't see their nature as a burden, who their inner layer actually listened to. And then Lapis was taken, leaving Ghost blaming their own nature for their incompetence.

Similarly, Antarc refused to let Phos blame their hardness for all of their woes, having a low hardness themself, and they did have a successful Winter partnership for a while. When Antarc gets taken away, Phos blames their own body and uncooperative arms for their inability to rescue them.

As an aside, this is all rough for Cairngorm too. Being stuck inside another gem, with that gem being the only one everyone else sees? Wanting different things and only really being able to express that through acting out? Only being known as something 'troublesome inside Ghost'?

It's fucked. Sensei and every other gem could have done better, to make sure Cairngorm's personhood was recognized. Instead, Ghost is left feeling shame and hate towards their inner layer, and Cairngorm ends up with an identity complex and feels haunted in a way that Aechmea later exploits.

Anyway. If you could say that Phos's partners parallel Antarc in role and behavior, Ghost turns it around. Ghost parallels Phos. They want Phos to be an Antarc/Lapis for them, because now that Phos is useful and strong, they're someone who can give Ghost a sense of being loved.

And at this time, Phos is very much trying to be an Antarc and not a Phos. Phos has a shorter haircut to better resemble Antarc, they take their lessons to heart and farther, overworking themself in an effort to be disciplined and useful.

This inversion is unsustainable. Phos isn't an Antarc or a Lapis. Antarc did all of that because of their love for Sensei and Phos. Well, not exactly love in Phos's case but there's a definite care and desire to protect them.

Phos acts like Antarc out of grief and suspicion. They go after the Lunarians relentlessly to get Antarc back. They continue acting "courageous" and overworking themself so they can find out what the connection between Sensei and the Lunarians is. They're given multiple warning signs that this search could harm those around them -- Padparadscha warns them about the truth, and Cinnabar practically goes "hey phos this sensei thing isn't fun i just want to spend time with you". Hell, Phos stops helping Ghost in order to see what Sensei will do.

(boy i sure hope phos learns from this experience and does not continue to neglect the gems around them while furthering the lunarians' goals)

It all comes to a head when Phos gets distracted and gets shot. Ghost has to jump in and save them, sacrificing themself in the process.

When Phos lost Antarc, there was some level of...lack of agency, I suppose? Phos was in the role of the mentee or younger sibling. They did something reckless, with their arms being lost as a result, but a lot of what happened was out of control. They couldn't have predicted the Lunarians emerging that day or trapping Sensei. They couldn't have predicted the metal would attach to them, and furthermore imprison them while Antarc was being taken. They were still "the useless one".

But now Phos is the Antarc. Ghost is supposed to be a gem they protect, like they protected the Amethyst twins by easily dispatching a Lunarian. They had every possible red flag telling them that messing with these Lunarians was a bad idea. But they didn't. They couldn't have predicted their alloy would stop working, but their negligence did lead to them being shot in the first place, and Ghost getting taken.

It's interesting in that while losing Ghost is a breaking point that leads to Phos's complete mental break shortly after (forcing Cairngorm into the Alloy Box), followed by them mellowing out at least a little bit (up until they lose their head protecting Cairngorm in a much more suitably 'Antarc' move), the harm Phos does to the gems only escalates.

As the useless child, a gem who chose to look after them gets lost. As the competent fighter, a gem they had a responsibility to look out for gets lost. As a wiser, older figure with Lapis's head (no longer the youngest gem, deliberately framed as a mentor for the younger Morga and Goshe), they have Cairngorm attack and send them to the moon, reigniting god knows how many traumas in Cairngorm, and making all the gems believe they're dead. As an important figurehead in the community, who's the only gem they know who came back from the moon, they shatter that community. And eventually, as the savior of gems dusted and alive from the Lunarians, their actions lead to the ultimate extinction of gems as a species.

So maybe Ghost was the first warning sign, on a lot of levels. A stand-in for Phos themself, or someone a lot like them. Like the story was practically screaming at Phos "hi, there's someone who understands your loss, another outcast who you can confide in, two of them even"!

But Phos let them be harmed in pursuit of their goals, goals they eventually lose sight of until it was too late.

Or alternatively Ichikawa just killed Ghost off because if they got attached to Actual Phos and not the Lapis 2 they projected onto them god knows where this series would have gone. This is the fucker who spends 10,000 years on the moon preserving every trace of the past/Lapis's legacy and Not Letting Go Of Their Attachment, from what Party at the End implies. If I were Aechmea I'd be terrified.

* = never officially a partner, but had the same function and role in Phos's life in the background, and is grouped with Phos's partners in the narrative (hangs with Antarc and Cairngorm on the moon, later seen on the same side of Sensei as Ghost and Antarc when being prayed away). I suppose in that regard Padpa isn't an official partner either really but they definitely acted as one.

#houseki no kuni #this ended up longer than expected #in truth i wanted my first analysis post in the tag to be abt more general themes but no. ghost time

[lunar1an]

oh yeah new url i decided to change my theme for better readability and went all out lol. read houseki no kuni its good serial fiction

[lunar1an]

something i think is interesting to examine in pale is the fact that a lot of the trio's ability to do good in the magical world is allowed and enabled by wealth/privilege.

in the first place they did sort of luck into being kennet's practitioners, with boatloads of power at their fingertips. kennet is also allowed to be, essentially, a gated, warded community because of the wards charles set up back when he was a successful practitioner, and its collapse begins when those wards die.

later on, the trio start gaining power more from their role as kennet's protectors, and the fact that kennet itself grows immensely. but even then it's very...

there's a scene where avery and her mom negotiate with a bunch of lesser (but rich) practitioners, and her mom is able to give her a good cover story because she's a wealthy woman with a successful job and able to negotiate a mundane business agreement with one of the practitioners present.

verona can fritter away power on her ethical peddler deal, only gaining scraps of knowledge and skill in turn, and have that be a net benefit for her, unlike, say, that girl from the EM who was forced to make cursed items as a part of her enslavement, or probably even the gnarling who owned her. her books are also gained from kennet found, which was only able to be founded because they stole a battery of soul clippings from thea who'd gathered them over the years.

i think there's a lot to be said about the benefits of community -- that all the Others came together to empower these girls, that lucy was able to learn from so many varied mentors to make her own unique fighting style, that verona could only get an easy trip to the deep ruins for her peddler boons in the first place because of alpy.

there's also something to be said for how on the flipside, the girls are all marginalized and lack that privilege in mundane life. verona's a neurodivergent-coded abuse victim, lucy is black, avery is a lesbian. a lot of pale is about them finding empowerment and fulfillment through magic, and so the magical world becomes the means by which they get power, get to have fun, and get to actually change things.

but at the same time, some of that community is also "know the right people who have wealth/power/influence". some of their empowerment is just power begetting more opportunities and power which begets even more.

this isn't like a. "the girls are actually bad and suck" post. i want to try and get a coherent point out of these observations but they're not coming to me sadly. what is coming to me is more. i wonder how the story would be different if the girls did not have the same resources.

if avery's family wasn't wealthy enough to make those deals, or if the Others backing the girls weren't able to dole out power as often. would they have the same insistence that anyone can and should do what they did? would they be able to better understand the people they go up against who accomplished their goals through drastic means, because that was the only option that gave them power, and the path that made them better people didn't help their situations?

food for thought, pretty much.

[lunar1an]

99% of web serial authors quit before establishing an alternative to the criminal justice system that works in every single edge case and isn't horrifying

you can do it wb, you just have to press on one more time

[lunar1an]

the big worm at the end of worm

the big pact at the end of pact

the big twig at the end of twig

the big ward at the end of ward

the big pail at the end of pale

[lunar1an]

Me hopping to Hillsglade House: Yeah i’m a total otherpilled bogeycel. I’m basically going Drains mode and i’m giving vestigecore vibes

My 8 year old familiar Evan: Blake I think the Hyena should kill you

#pact

[lunar1an]

this is on a cat breeder’s website but i keep laughing at the phrase out of context 

#belanger circle

[lunar1an]

Sketch exploration of Naomi Cohen from Pass.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31345049

[lunar1an]

pale did have cool character ideas thou.

like the Tearaway -Kid who could transform into anything and the Girl riding a City Bird he was in Love with.

an when the Tearaway Kid transformed into a biblically accurate Angel to impress her.

" what can i say? she was a girl and i was a being of infinite glory"

i lived that bitch. he was great

#i rly liked the whole 'paper disguise that becomes extremely accurate' trick yeah #cool bit of Lost weirdness

[lunar1an]

Maricica

#her....

[lunar1an]

#reid

[lunar1an]

at least hydes actually use drugs!! (but yeah i defs get what you mean by exploring other angles) the ghouls and nosferatus are interesting to examine because it's like. they're dependent on an 'unnatural' substance (life/death spirits, blood, etc -- what a human wouldn't normally eat) to survive and the longer they go without it the more they deteriorate and eventually starve/die.

but the thing is we have like. a comparison for that. it's called being deprived of food and water. or being deprived some medication you need to Live. when we got chloe's interlude parallels could be drawn to a chronic medical condition where she didn't know how to get treatment and that made her spiral and get worse which made recovery even more difficult and so on. chloe's interlude is good!

it really feels like the drug addiction metaphor is tacked on to make it Even Worse And Scarier and to make the ghouls and nosferatus seem even more feral and down on their luck(tm)

so the thing that Gets Me about late pale abyss is like

we get hints of a truer-to-pact abyss in the form of cagerattler's story and one glimpse when the trio were in the snowy forest and got a denizen pointing a gun at them (killwagon also conforms to normal abyss expectations)

but the primary way it's seen in action is though maricica's cult and the red heron students.

and it's a fucking drugs metaphor.

you put abyss juice in you and feel great and strong and you do a bunch of harmful things while "under the influence". abyss power tempts you with an Ideal Cool Self you can be so you want to put abyss juice in you to get there apparently. and if you do too much of it then it breaks your mind and turns you into a violent monster who only cares about your next killing fix (kira-lynn). maricica's the dealer giving abyss juice and KL peer pressures the others into putting abyss juice in themselves with spirit surgery and it's like.

where's the abyss as trauma. where's the abyss as societal misery that grinds you down and only leaves the sharp edges. where's the abyss as the representation of the idea that Life Sucks sometimes and there's no quick fix or escape.

it's like a watered down version of that one dream blake had in the drains except so watered down it lacks the context of what material circumstances actually push people to take the abyss's offers in-setting and turns it into "they're stupid and/or evil kids"

it's not like an addiction metaphor is Unrealistic for the abyss. that can go to really dark places. but given the context of everything the abyss was in pact and the wider context of how drug use is portrayed in all of WB's works it's. a disappointing show i suppose.

[lunar1an]

so the thing that Gets Me about late pale abyss is like

we get hints of a truer-to-pact abyss in the form of cagerattler's story and one glimpse when the trio were in the snowy forest and got a denizen pointing a gun at them (killwagon also conforms to normal abyss expectations)

but the primary way it's seen in action is though maricica's cult and the red heron students.

and it's a fucking drugs metaphor.

you put abyss juice in you and feel great and strong and you do a bunch of harmful things while "under the influence". abyss power tempts you with an Ideal Cool Self you can be so you want to put abyss juice in you to get there apparently. and if you do too much of it then it breaks your mind and turns you into a violent monster who only cares about your next killing fix (kira-lynn). maricica's the dealer giving abyss juice and KL peer pressures the others into putting abyss juice in themselves with spirit surgery and it's like.

where's the abyss as trauma. where's the abyss as societal misery that grinds you down and only leaves the sharp edges. where's the abyss as the representation of the idea that Life Sucks sometimes and there's no quick fix or escape.

it's like a watered down version of that one dream blake had in the drains except so watered down it lacks the context of what material circumstances actually push people to take the abyss's offers in-setting and turns it into "they're stupid and/or evil kids"

it's not like an addiction metaphor is Unrealistic for the abyss. that can go to really dark places. but given the context of everything the abyss was in pact and the wider context of how drug use is portrayed in all of WB's works it's. a disappointing show i suppose.

[lunar1an]

#durocher

[lunar1an]

the way the narrative treats melissa is so heinous it was genuinely so insulting. free my girl

#they took melissas name cant have shit in kennet

[lunar1an]

verona's one of those cases where the fandom latched onto her for being #relatable and i think felt a personal investment in wanting her to succeed and thrive at any cost despite the narrative constantly making her life choices seem ambiguous and i do wonder if it influenced things

verona did not have a good time. therefore verona should be allowed to do whatever she wants forever and this will definitely be healthy for her and not have her fall into bad coping mechanisms and develop flawed character traits because of it. verona drops out of school and has 0 connection to mundane life and friends? totally fine despite jasmine outright saying she's worried about it. verona only surrounds herself with people who are less talented than her, stops interacting with Other as mentor figures, and gets annoyed whenever someone critiques her work? cute trait with no consequences, her friends don't influence her negatively actually. verona is constantly irreverent in serious situations? you see that's just Her and you need to be accommodating.

it's like. the narrative repeatedly brings up concerns about verona's life situation and seems to recognize she needs an adult there. but it never materializes as like. 'verona does something that hurts the trio or a friend of theirs and it has actual consequences because of her behavior'. she is just Fine and will Figure It Out.

i wonder if it's also bc like. in brett's house he criticized her and blamed her for so much shit despite verona being a very caring person and she internalized that belief she wasn't a good person. and for the narrative to go "yes verona you do need to change course" might have been seen as a Validation of brett by the audience or something, so the story didn't go there and focused on the optimism of her improving.

i dont even agree with verona being a good solo protagonist. she has potential but shes by far the worst pale protag due to how her purported story arc is handled. pale should've had two protagonists named avery and lucy and they should've siphoned verona's interesting/noteworthy traits and also they should've been gay instead of wildbow being like this lonely lesbian would never ever even consider the two girls that are filling the hole in her life as romantic prospects

[lunar1an]

previous rb'd post aside i do actually have an unabashed compliment for pale (early) in that it did do a very good job of creating a cast of genuinely enjoyable but distinctly inhuman Others in the form of the kennet crew

john stiles is made up of dead soldiers and while he's a chill guy his mindset is always on War. he's the kind man who isn't good at music just as much as he's the man who pulled a gun on three children entering his house without warning just because that's What He Is. lucy asks him for romantic advice and he has to cobble a response from his War-oriented memories and it's great

alpy is working a mundane 9-5 but that mundane 9-5 is weaving nightmares for people as karmic pushes to scare them into improving as people. maricica says she was considering going into child trafficking because that's just your Average Career Path for her sort of faerie and for a while she was the trio's cool older cousin who deals drugs but not to them. edith.

before pale tried to prove these Others are or can be Just Like Us(tm) and just ended up making them too human in the process it already succeeded at making readers understand they're individuals with lives worth respecting. but then it got too much in the weeds of trying to define Good Others vs Bad Others and then in late pale the trio mow down bogeymen and other 'evil Others' like they're video game mobs so