Arc 10 Notes - The Engineer

Arc Ten: The Engineer

Chapters 406 - 448

I'm sure a bunch of you figured out or simply guessed who the Benefactor was. Or at least, who the actual person was pulling the strings across the galaxy. Narcissistic, power hungry patriarchs are a running theme in the story after all.

One of the things I wanted to do was really push forward who these people are, and just how ubiquitous they are in our daily lives. Whether it's some bloated ego-driven manchild former President, or some bloated ego-driven manchild Billionaire, the effect is the same.

No matter where you look, they and their lasting influence is there. It doesn't matter how dumb or actually brilliant these people are - they are woven all throughout our neoliberal capitalist proto-fascist nation.

Worse, they're revered.

I, personally, find this uplifting of this kind of person completely abhorrent. IMO, we as a society need to be moving away from these highly toxic mindsets. Instead we find ourselves gravitated towards them.

It's really thanks to our popular fiction in general - superheroes and vengeance stories and power fantasies. The objectivist ubermensch protagonist is so deeply ingrained in our stories that it's tough to see powerful narcissists as anything but whatever they want to project about themselves.

Let's take Elon Musk for example. You know how so many people practically mirrored him to Iron Man? I mean, it doesn't help that the filmmakers of the first RDJ venture had Musk himself consult on what a "genius tech billionaire" was supposed to be like.

Super powered heroes themselves are, intrinsically, objectivist and fascistic in nature. That is, those with the most power rules over everyone else.

And if you look further into modern isekai, you'll find that objectivist fascism laid all throughout most main characters. Overlord is perhaps the most egregious example.

Even stories as progressive and inclusive as That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime has these tropes. Ravens of Eternity carries these tropes as well, make no mistake. The difference is that some attempt to subvert those themes, while others attempt to glorify them.

Attack on Titan (although not an isekai) is certainly heavy on the fascism. Very, very heavy.

And yet I'll bet you know many left-leaning people who certainly looooove Overlord and AoT. Many certainly love Iron Man and Batman, despite the fact that both are very much objectivist libertarian heroes. They've simply been dressed up to be appealing without really triggering any red flags.

Don't get me wrong - I definitely enjoy those characters too. There's a certain attractiveness to those power fantasies, and sinking into them can be fun. Just do be aware of what they're trying to say and what themes they're attempting to impart, as they likely run counter to the person that you are or want to be.

Anyway, because I wanted to write about these tropes and traits, most major antagonists are some variation of this power hungry narcissistic egomaniacal objectivist. Even a handful of 'positive' supporting characters have hints of these personality traits.

Take Retholis as an example. He's a right-leaning centrist war profiteer. But only the kind of warring that he and his friends like, of course. Because they believe that their way is the only way that works and is 'right'. It only so happens that their views run afoul of the obvious antagonists, and so he becomes an ally by default.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Etcetera.

Think of Retholis as Liz Cheney. The woman is a hard right neoconservative who hates anything and everything progressive. If you, a poor/LGBTQ/minority/impaired person, wants even a smidge of personal freedom, she will fight tooth and nail to take it away from you. Yet her fighting against Trump turned her into a revered ally. In fact, all the attention she got allowed her to try to call Mike Pence a fucking hero.

Make no mistake, her actions do not make her a good person. Her objectivist, proto-fascist views should not be held up.

Which means that Retholis' death is an overall good thing. As is Eris' death. Who, as I've mentioned before, is modeled after Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. I imagine that, given time, she would have taken the Engineer's place.

Her death is very, very good for the galaxy. And that sums up what I think about the people who serve as inspiration for the character.

Which leads us all to one interesting thought - Godeater isn't a narcissistic objectivist ego-driven fascist. So why is it an antagonist? I suppose we'll all explore it in the next arc. =)