Plato's Sun

Wow! Now I'm curious! Although I can't seem to look up even the summary of it online, it looks like I have to buy the book first

What is the name of the book?

Thank you! I didn't realise it until you said that. Had it in philosophy class and now I can see the story in a whole new light. Awesomeヾ(☆▽☆)!

Just look up Plato on Wikipedia. You can find it there, though it's a bit hard to understand if you never been into philosophy.

I was curious and looked it up, and it seems Plato's analogies are definitely connected to the story.

Themes in the story of human perception (the cave analogy), the true reality (the Sun analogy), and the path to understanding truth (the divided line analogy) are all there.

The cave/flawed human perception and understanding are shown through Jesse. His missing memories and mental state are crucial to this idea. What's real? What's fake? Can one's own beliefs be accepted as reality, or are they just shadows cast by objects out of sight? So far, Law has been manipulating Jesse through the stages of the divided line, getting closer and closer to the Good, or the Sun. The true reality.

If ch.0 is part of the story in the future, we will eventually find out what that is. Jesse asks if the situation is real, and Law confirms that it is. In Plato's theories, the Sun is the core to truth and understanding. If we go even deeper into the symbolism of the book, Law could be seen as the Sun (the controller), while Jesse is a representation of the "shadows" in the cave (the controlled).

This might be going too far, but even their colors seem to support this. Law is blonde and light eyed, the Sun is yellow and bright. Jesse is dark haired and blue-eyed, the shadows and cave are dark.

Of course this is all just a theory. It seems plausible in my mind, but I could also just be sleep-deprived lol.

U should get nobel prizeeee for thisヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~

This is what exactly I was thinking!! I'm so happy that I'm not the only one who realized this

Except that it seems to be part of the past not the future.

Well, I would have thought Law would be the one with dark hair then because he's trying to KEEP Jesse in the 'cave'.

If the prelude is the future, though, why is it that Jesse keeps having flashbacks to the prelude in the main series, itself? I mean, no one has even mentioned a reason as to why these flashbacks might be happening if what we're reading is the present and the prelude is the future. So that's very confusing.

Ah I meant the prelude is the "future" as in we haven't reached the part in the story in which what actually happened is revealed yet. So the event occurred before the present we're reading now, but we haven't reached the reveal of that event yet. I also have another theory (which isn't exactly "my" theory because Law explains it) that our main characters have basically been stuck in a time loop for a while now. Law says that everything they're going through now has happened before (Jesse waking up, doubting Law, remembering things, the nightmares, and erasing his memories, starting all over). So going off the time loop/recurrence idea, maybe the events in the prelude could happen again in the future.

Also, Law says things in the story like "almost there", "almost over", etc. Almost where? What is his end goal? My theory is that each "cycle" of Jesse's is bringing them closer and closer to Law's ultimate objective. What that is though, I have no idea haha.

I hope that all made sense! (⌒▽⌒)

I'd have to disagree with you there. While Law is definitely the one controlling Jesse and hiding things from him, I think his ultimate goal is to bring Jesse to the "truth" or the Sun. Of course, the Sun in Plato's analogies represents enlightenment and understanding, but that doesn't mean that it is necessarily a good thing. Enlightenment and true reality are not always wonderful like Plato describes (though I haven't actually read the book, so I'm assuming he describes them as good things). I get the feeling that when Jesse fully emerges from the "cave" and sees the "Sun", it won't be happy sunshiny enlightenment, but some sort of very harsh true reality. We'll have to wait and find out though.