the storytelling in limbus company, from what we can tell before its official release, is heavily inspired by the classic literature referenced as inspiration for the characters themselves. we've already seen this sort of heavy inspiration with roland in library of ruina, who is based primarily on the poem orlando furioso and more loosely on the matter of france as a whole.
since emil sinclair is based on the character of the same name in hermann hesse's classic coming-of-age story demian, it stands to reason that even from just the trailer, one would be able to find similarities between the book's sinclair and the game's sinclair. i've decided to analyze these similarities to make connections between the two and predict the direction of the story before limbus' release. (i've in fact already been mentally picturing sinclair as his limbus iteration while reading the book itself. oops)
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before we get to the video, i'd like to start by pointing out some of the details in his official art!
the image is split into two halves, one in vibrant colour and the other in a stark black and white. this is a very obvious reference to the "two worlds" analogy mentioned early on and throughout demian, which compares sinclair's safe upbringing to the gritty outside world, outlining it as two worlds of light and darkness, parallel to each other. the quote in the image mentions this as well.
the background features a tree with a serpent wound around it facing a large apple, which is most likely intended to be the biblical tree of knowledge, which ties into the book's themes of biblical sin. sinclair's "original sin" in the book even parallels the biblical original sin, as he makes up a false story about stealing apples from a tree and has to evade punishment for it, which causes him to feel tainted and 'cast out' from the 'world of light'. notably, the light side of the background in the image is flipped upside down.
his halberd reads 'vogel', meaning 'bird', which indeed is a recurring theme in the original book. the image of a bird, or a bird hatching from an egg, repeatedly comes up in demian, beginning with a coat of arms early on and continuing into metaphor involving this coat of arms as a start for allegorical bird-related imagery. the bird comes to represent birth, coming into one's own, and the collision and intertwinement of the two worlds.
and here's the character preview itself!
one of the first details i noticed in the video is that he's juxtaposed with a symbol of an egg wrapped in vines. the egg is cracked on all sides, from the outside in. this connects to the aforementioned bird imagery, and calls to mind a partial quote from the book: "the bird is fighting its way out of the egg. the egg is the world. whoever wishes to be born must destroy a world."
sinclair talks to himself in the trailer, which is comparable to how the book itself is written in the first person, as he describes the events of his own life. he also mentions an unnamed "he", likely referring to the project moon iteration of max demian himself.
the e.g.o shown in the trailer shows him in a room split into two halves. he's bent over and facing the light side, but he's looking down at his own hands, perhaps in shame at what they've wrought. his back is to the dark side of the room, which covers most of his body. this could represent him sinking into darkness, and being broken out of his previous sheltered existence? his halberd, which has become the e.g.o "branch from the tree of knowledge", is sitting with its 'roots' in the light side but its blade in the dark side. it therefore looks like it's growing at an angle, starting in the light but quickly veering into the world of darkness. the blade is notably positioned in the same place that the fruit is positioned in the tree in his official art. though this may be coincidental, i like the imagery it evokes. the entirety of the e.g.o is tied into the same concept of original sin that permeates sinclair's character.
his violent statement at the end of the trailer is censored. project moon is no stranger to including harsh language in its media, which leads me to believe that this censorship is deliberate and symbolic, perhaps representing sinclair's relationship with his own thoughts.
notably, the limbus company official promotion video contains this shot, which i have reason to believe depicts project moon's version of max demian.
he has a mark on his forehead, a clear reference to the mark of cain, which is described in detail in chapter 2 of demian. max demian defends and ultimately aligns himself with cain, the biblical murderer, framing him as simply 'a strong man who killed a weak man' and claiming that the story of the 'mark' was just how other people justified their fear of his strength.
he also wears a thick blue scarf, which floats in the air as if it were alive. this happens to look an awful lot like the blue serpent snaking up the tree of life in sinclair's official art - perhaps the scarf represents the serpent, or perhaps the serpent itself is demian, slithering toward the fruit of knowledge of good and evil as if to take a bite of it. sinclair and demian's ideas of good and evil are at odds with each other at multiple points in the book, tying in to this idea of the tree of knowledge. notably, demian is wearing a vest, while sinclair doesn't wear the vest portion of his uniform.
so, where do i think project moon is going with emil sinclair?
well, i think it's obvious that he probably grew up in the nest. a lot of the plot of demian relates to sinclair's sheltered childhood, and hell, even the city's bird puns work well with the context of the original story. he likely lost his nest position somehow (perhaps he lived in l corp's nest?), or at least got involved with dealings in the backstreets - maybe he's indebted to some person or syndicate, like in the original book? the city itself is very much divided into two worlds, between the polished nests and the tarnished backstreets, so sinclair's character provides a great opening to explore that duality, as it already ties in very well with referencing his source material.
sinclair will likely experience a great disillusionment during the course of the story, or multiple, as he is exposed to the various sights and frights of his harrowing work at limbus company. his interactions with other sinners will probably drive him in interesting directions, and he'll have to learn to form and stand on his own values as opposed to those of others. his nervousness and overreliance in the trailer feels like an outer eggshell that he will inevitably have to break through. also, with all those tree of knowledge references, i'm sure he's going to be exposed to some piece of information that shakes his very conception of good and evil. :) oh i am looking forward to that!
and, though this isn't connected to the topic at hand, i'm looking forward to his interactions with the even-more-sheltered hong lu.
overall, i'm really looking forward to how project moon explores sinclair's character, and to find more connections to the book in the future as his character is fleshed out further.