shengyoushengyin is here to YELL ABOUT HOW SAD THIS FIC IS WHEN YOU GET TO THE END

LIKE YOU THINK NEIL RAGING AND TRYING HIS BEST TO UNDERSTAND THE HYPOCRISES AMONG OTHER THINGS TIERIA TALKS ABOUT IS NOT SAD ENOUGH THEN THE END GOT ME WANTING TO CRY AGAIN BECAUSE NEIL IS HONESTLY SO BROKEN THAT I WILL ALWAYS CRY OVER HIS ENTIRE ARC AND PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AND WHATNOT AND EVERYTHING AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Another great fic to scour AO3 for and bookmark so that whenever i need a dosage of Neil/Tieria angst I can come here :)

I love this.
I mean, I hate it, because it slaps me with Tieria and Lockon feels, but I love it. I love it so so much.
Because Tieria, knowing and paying close attention to collateral damages done by their missions, because he's frustrated himself at the lack of a perfect mission ever truly existing. Tieria frustrated and knowing that what happened was the ideal, not the perfect, that they're always going to be operating on the base of seeking the least amount of lives impacted by one of their missions.
And Lockon. God, Lockon. He's so full of rage, still the young child who lost his entire family, but he tries not to let that rage at the world, that hatred of the world, consume him. He tries so hard, because at the very least he can take on this suffering and accept his punishment for his sins upon his death if it means that he can purify the world he's so angry at of its own sins. He will shoulder this evil if it means that the evil goes with him into death and doesn't remain in this world. That's just... so brilliant, and heartbreaking, and so very deeply irish catholic that I am in awe here.
This... this is beyond incredible.

/Nice./ The contradiction of Celestial Being's existence, and this particular contradiction in Lockon's character, are some of the most thematically interesting things to me in the series, and I think your exploration of it really hit all the key points. Especially the civilian casualties - I always felt that it should have been brought up in the show, thank you for addressing it! This subject in general is a really difficult thing to write about, so kudos on a job well done!

Well that was horrifically painful. I love the brilliant deconstruction of Neil's morality, though, and how in-character Tieria is as he does it. It's honestly pitch-perfect, and the tension it creates in the scene is excellent. Tieria's logic is sound, too, and it's challenging to the reader-we can root for Celestial Being all we like, but we have to be careful not to forget to acknowledge what they do in the series. Those last few paragraphs are especially painful, though, especially since I know what that last line is referencing and doing that there is evil (but in the best, most author-ly way, naturally). This was wonderful.