A reading of Disco Elysium, adapted from a discussion of its ending. Spoilers follow.
Dros is what happens when someone believes they are approaching something perfect only to lose it. Which is really what the entire game is about, moving past utopianism to the dread of slowly building a better world. Harry's utopia was Dora (symbolized by the accusedly perfect Innocence Dolores Dei).
Instead of Dros accepting that the communist revolution of Revachol failed but that very left wing forces still needed support, he calcified. As did Harry in losing Dora, as did the monarchists, fascists, moralists, etc.
The main characters in Disco Elysium are not actively taking practical measures to improve their world, they are either stagnant or regressing.
Dros is a perfect final boss because he is the culmination of believing that "The historic opportunity for a revolution has passed. It will not come back anymore. However hard I try, whatever I do."
Nothing Harry does will rewind the clock and bring Dora back to him. Nothing Dros does will bring back the revolution.
This is contrasted with the phasmid, a very Sufi or taoist figure who is "weightless." When it loses a limb, it tears it off and regrows it.
"You are a violent and irrepressible miracle. The vaccum of cosmos and the stars burning in it are afraid of you. Given enough time you would wipe us all out and replace us with nothing – just by accident."
The phasmid then tells you to turn away from the ruin (the relationship with Dora) and do it for the working class.
I am astounded at the amount of pain that must have informed the ending of Disco Elysium, between the dream of Dolores Dei and Iosef Dros the Deserter. It's the pain of profound earthshattering heartbreak and decimated political ambition and lost hope. But the conversation with the phasmid is so beautiful and profound, demonstrating that it is the way of nature to suffer such grievances yet evolve and thrive.
This began as a comment I wrote on Reddit. Read it in context here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DiscoElysium/comments/1vknc7u/yeah_id_say_that_pretty_accurate/p34jlcq/
