Not a fan of Paenaemonium part 2

[Vyrerus]

On the one hand merging souls has to be very intimate experience, leaving those involved with feelings and desires that could irrevocably change a person. This would in theory necessitate extreme action if one really wanted to isolate and remove those influences, justifying Lahabreas decision.

On the other hand, the Eden raids showed a similar event happening with Gaia and Mitron, which was resolved without said splitting. While one could argue that Gaias memory problems protected her, she would in theory have the memories of the merger and thus still would have been impacted by Mitrons desires right? Yet her rejection of him, and embracing of Ryne, was enough to completely undue that, suggesting it isn’t as clear cut as Lahabrea made it seem. I think this suggests that there’s a more complicated picture unfolding here than simply Lahabrea vs Athena and he was a lot closer to becoming Hephaistos than he’d like to admit.

That's a lot murkier. For one thing, it was a very Sundered and highly damaged Mitron attempting to do that, and not long into the merger, we try to stop it. We don't succeed from him trying to delete some of her memories of Ryne, but we do stop the total destruction of Gaia's modern memory.

And in the end, she only rejected the present version of Mitron. She did not reject Mitron in total, because she is still in love with him. Promising once her life with Ryne is over, she'll come find him again.

Compared with Lahabrea, no one is there to assist him in breaking the merge. He had to break out of it completely alone. There is also no second love there for him, either.

[TheSuperior]

I was given the lore that Ancients can be genuinely terrible people, batty and where babies come from. I'm more than satisfied personally.

[Lyth]

It's hard to say how this 'merging of souls' relates to the Ascian Prime form. For example, what happened when Lahabrea and Igeyorhm merged? In Gaia's case there was a power difference between the individuals involved and Mitron merged with her soul against her will. You would have expected Igeyorhm to react in some way if she had been harboring suspicions about Athena's death, but perhaps it's possible to maintain the boundaries between the two souls in that form.

Perhaps there are differences in technique? We do know that when Elidibus left Zodiark, his memories started to fray and become fragmented, perhaps as a function of being merged with so many other souls. Likewise, the hemitheos that we encounter have all been altered from their former selves. Hesperos was reportedly gentle and kind before he merged souls.

[Cleretic]

Seriously, why? He's innocent at this point. You can't harass someone for something they're going to do but haven't yet.

If anything, you're going to cause a time-looping start to him being a nastier person.

I'm not gonna claim this is a positive desire, or even a big one. But the game's let us be snippy and mean to plenty of NPCs for far less reasons than 'we know that they do extremely terrible things in the future'.

If we were allowed to suggest to an innocent Ananta that we might just kill her god because we can, I see no reason why we can't at least scowl at Elidibus. But honestly, the fact that this mostly-joking demand is the only complaint I have about Abyssos (beyond 'these events should've happened earlier) is a good thing!

[EaraGrace]

That's a lot murkier. For one thing, it was a very Sundered and highly damaged Mitron attempting to do that, and not long into the merger, we try to stop it. We don't succeed from him trying to delete some of her memories of Ryne, but we do stop the total destruction of Gaia's modern memory.

And Gaia was even more Sundered given where she came from. The fact that Mitron needed to destroy her memory is even more evidence that merging isn’t the end all be all. Despite being just as strong as Athena, Lahabrea succumbed to her influence without any memories tampered with, suggesting that more effort was needed for Gaias merger.

And in the end, she only rejected the present version of Mitron. She did not reject Mitron in total, because she is still in love with him. Promising once her life with Ryne is over, she'll come find him again.

It was the reawakened memories of Loghrif that said that they may be reborn and find each other again. Gaia meanwhile immediately forgets his name and goes off stumbling in the dark until Ryne awakens her. Strip Gaia of those memories and suddenly the merger has no lasting effects.

To be more clear, merging seems a lot like hypnosis. It can’t convince you to do something that you don’t already somewhat want to do.

Compared with Lahabrea, no one is there to assist him in breaking the merge. He had to break out of it completely alone. There is also no second love there for him, either.

His son is right there. That’s a love worthy of breaking out for, and I’m sure Lahabrea would agree. He did after all kill his wife to protect him. Or maybe I’m giving him to much credit.

[Necrotica]

Definitely giving him too much credit.

Lahabrea was concerned about whether she loved Lahabrea. Kid did not matter. Him loving her did not matter. All that mattered was if she loved him.

Man is a psychopath.

[TheSuperior]

Definitely giving him too much credit.

Lahabrea was concerned about whether she loved Lahabrea. Kid did not matter. Him loving her did not matter. All that mattered was if she loved him.

Man is a psychopath.

I think it's totally fair to ask if your wife loves you in a shaky relationship.

I take it you came from a nuclear family.

[sidurgu-12]

I think it's totally fair to ask if your wife loves you in a shaky relationship.

I take it you came from a nuclear family.

that scene was just sad. he spent hundreds of years building a life, both personally and academically, with athena only to find out he was just another tool for her.

[Luizgazen]

I don't think Old Lahabrea sundering himself had any sinister intention, the fact that his personality is pretty much the ideal ancient philosphy, all duty and reason, and that he is shown to be a very no-nonsense guy with a tendency to go for extreme solutions first make it very on character for him to take such a drastic action right after letting his emotions take precedence, probably for the first time in his life, just to be betrayed and corrupted...

[TheSuperior]

that scene was just sad. he spent hundreds of years building a life, both personally and academically, with athena only to find out he was just another tool for her.

Great point. It's easy to forget that hundreds to thousands of years could be passing between anything. They could have been together for centuries on the small scale for all we knew.