echo-from-the-void:

I think that a good chunk of us have some sort of routine in our lives. Do this one thing at that specif time, and this other thing at another time. Routines and having something familiar to do is a good way to keep life organized, and in order. However, if you just repeat the same things over and over again from day to day, you will likely get bored. You might crave a some change in you`r daily routine, something to make things more exciting. 

Roma is something of an extreme case of this. When she was old enough to realize her surroundings, she found out that she was alone and had no parents. So she just wandered the streets, killing when she wanted to. Roma´s life from the early days seems to be just this. Wandering the streets, and killing humans and ghouls alike when she needed to. Her life was surrounded by death. That became her routine, and maybe that was all she had in the beginning. However, as I rambled about in the more daily example above, doing the same things over and over again will make you bored out of you`r mind in the end. And that is what happened to Roma, she got bored. 

But then she discovered humans from the”society”, those weak, ugly, enjoyable things. Like small pathetic toys. Roma calls them “bread and circus”, give to her by the Gods. As a good chunk of you know, that phrase was created by Roman satirical poet Juvenal. I´ll quote a few lines to open up the term:

“Bread and circuses” (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace,^[1] as an offered “palliative”. Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns.^[2][3][4] The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.

something, as extravagant entertainment, offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.

The points I am going to focus on when it comes to this term are “diverting attention from a source of grievance” and “superficial means of appeasement”. I find these the most fitting in this scenario, since I think the weak, self centered and fragile humans were indeed a manner of “distraction” for Roma. Something fun and stimulating that diverted her gaze from the boredom she felt. The important word is superficial, since while a constant stimulus indeed keeps you occupied and makes things fun, it does not the cure the “core problem”. I think Roma was very hollow and empty. That is because she had no one in her youth, and all she knew was killing and death. Because of this she probably did not develop any sort care or attachment to the surrounding world. Maybe when Roma has nothing to do but just the boredom, this hollowness crept into her mind. As she says to Urie, when boredom takes over you start to question what is the point of even living.

So the foolish human were bread and circus, a superficial distraction from a empty and meaningless life which only knew death and loneliness.  

This is also the core difference between Roma and Eto. While both had an rough youth, are very strong and etc…, in the end they are rather different. You see, Eto lost her parents but that was trough an act of injustice. This memory and the diary of her mother gave her an direction in life, and objective. To not be a coward and run like Kuzen did, but to change this warped birdcage. She lived in the violent 24th Ward, likely witnessing and going trough the struggles ghouls go trough when they live in a society that hunts them. 

Roma had nothing like this. She had not drive, no objective, nothing. Everything around her was just death, so she likely never developed any sort of attachment or drive to change the world. 

So while Eto, an revolutionary fueled by hatred seeks to change the world, Roma who´s life was devoid of meaning, seeks only stimulus that distracts her from meaningless world. A life without conflict and drama would be very boring in Roma´s eyes, so she does not want to change it. Instead she wants to be the audience who sits on the benches while watching a grand tragedy being played on the stage of life. And since she likely never learnt to care about the surrounding world to her, why Roma would want to want to change something in it.

Viewing the world as circus keeps you going in a world that has no meaning to you. Fun and stimulus distracts you from the emptiness of life, which has no purpose. 

@echo-from-the-void 

You know I love your post because, even though Roma founded an organization  (one of the few still going strong in the series so far btw) for the reasons you pointed out, it’s just very interesting to me how the other Clowns were hinted to be different from her despite all sharing the same motto:

This really makes me wonder how different all their backstories are going to be: Roma was “Gypsy”, and as the founder she had precise reasons to create such a gang, so I love how the union between the remaining Clowns is still that notion of “seeking fun” that Roma thought of to make her boredom disappear. 

The other Clowns probably didn’t feel hollow (or didn’t have the same reasons as Roma to feel hollow if they also did), but still, despite their probably different backstories, what remains is the notion of seeking the fun hidden within their respective goals. It’s like Roma’s personal touch as the founder, even if she never led them. 

I don’t know, for me it’s part of the Clowns’ complexity as characters: they’re a weird group but that’s why I love them all. 😀