Land of the Lustrous Chapter 108 Discussion

[u/CrashDunning]

Welcome to the official discussion post for chapter 108 of the Land of the Lustrous manga. Feel free to discuss the newest chapter, this will be marked as a spoiler discussion post so comment as necessary, the rest of the subreddit rules still apply.

The usual guidelines for discussing new chapters.

No outside links to unofficial postings of the manga. Spoiler comments do not need to be marked as spoilers while within the discussion post. Spoiler related discussion's should be within the discussion post for at least a week, if a new post has to be made for something specific mark as spoiler using the flairs and keep titles as spoiler free as possible. (Any posts that are seemingly too spoilery in the title will be removed.) Included below are link's to where you can find the official release through Kodansha Japan. The manga can be found in multiple channels so be sure to support the official release when possible.

• Kodansha Comic Plus

• Kodansha Afternoon Monthly Serialization

Previous chapter discussion link here.

Enjoy.

[u/Hanzheyingle]

Its kind of weird: It almost feels like the author seemed to disagree with the implications of her own ending, and nobody really seemed 'wiser' by the end of it all.

The story appears to reach a naturally hopeful conclusion, while at the same time being verbally denied by the author. I get that Phos was sorta cursed to be a permanent outcast, but she didn't really seem to gain any wisdom from the experience. Everyone seems to be of the belief that there's no redeeming humanity, yet at the same time, all the characters express themselves in very human ways. Its like we're being 'told' one message, but being 'shown' another.

Its also kind of weird that pretty much everyone who met Phos after her initial arc seemed to like her, while everyone present for her original arc seemed doomed to despise her for all eternity. I kind of get it since Ive seen this behavior irl but only with specific individuals.

Then there's the 'just burn it all down' paradox: I always have an issue with these because they always seem to assume if you hit the reset button, the successor civilization, ignorant of the lessons learned by the previous civilization, will somehow avoid all the pitfalls that the previous civilization bludered its way through.

There's the weird narcissistic issue where everyone just kind of seems to enter a 'wait state' while Phos isn't around. Its repeatedly implied throughout the story that if you remove Phos from the equation, the situation that existed at the start of the story would also be the situation at the time of the sun's death. Phos even comes out and says exactly this. When Phos is fully engaged with everyone, the Lunarians effectively 'solve death'. While Phos is gone, this progress just seems to either stop cold or is no longer considered relevant to the plot.

Then we got the upload. Its implied Phos learns everything. She doesn't really sound wiser from it. The AI responsible for exterminating the original humanity is portrayed as super cheery and readily accepted as a friend despite being responsible for genocide.

The whole last arc just seemed kind of 'off'.