Miriam and the deconstruction of Heroism
Jun 29, 2017 5:31:17 GMT -6
H, gunlord500, and 3 more like this
Post by Pure Miriam on Jun 29, 2017 5:31:17 GMT -6
This is a highly philosophical thing i thought after finishing a recent anime (Shūmatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?, whose short name is SukaSuka). I'm not going to discuss the anime, details about it are below, after the whole thread [1].
A trend that has been for some time at storytelling, is the idea of deconstruction. You get a plot that has a pretty straightfoward outcome and you twist it away completely, turning it into something highly unexpected, breaking the whole concept that your plot is built on. The hero tha fails on his quest or achieves just a minimal sucess. A overly cute moe-like anime that turns out to be a horror tragedy story and so on.
While thinking about that, i started to think that, while Igavanias were never truly strong, plot-wise, some of them had pretty interesting attempts of deconstruction. While you have Harmony of Dissonance, that has a really straightfoward plot with the chance of the hero (Juste) saving everyone in the end and defeating the villian, you have some games where things didn't ended like that. The best example i could come up with, is Order of Ecclesia.
You have been warned.
For those who don't know, Order of Ecclesia tells the tale of a time when the Belmont clan vanishes and organizations of power decided to work around to do something if Dracula showed up again. Ecclesia was the best of those organizations because their leader, Barlowe, discovered a new magic type called Glyph, the power to absorb magic from magical symbols that only those trained in the Glyph arts can see. With their ultimate Glyph, DOMINUS, they can stand against Dracula, if he shows up again. Shanoa will receive the Glyph because she is the most suitable, but Albus, another member, steals it and runs away. Stopping the DOMINUS ritual mid-way hinders Shanoa emotionless.
Order of Ecclesia has a bittersweet ending. Albus saved all villagers, descendants of the Belmont clan, by trapping them with a special Glyph, while Shanoa achieved nothing. She discovered that Dracula was sealed a long time ago, that DOMINUS was part of Dracula's power, that Barlowe actually wanted her to use Dominus to free Dracula and not kill him and that Dominus requires a sacrifice to work. Albus was trying to protect her and wanted to be him the one to use DOMINUS to kill Dracula. He knew about the seal but didn't knew that Barlowe actually wanted to free the Dark Lord. She had to kill Albus, her non-related-brother-almost-lover because he was controlled by Dracula, had to fight her own master and stepfather, Barlowe, (while listening to him screaming "how dare you, even forgetting who raised you! You...stupid disciple!") because he went mad and later on, when Shanoa is about to kill him for good, sacrifices himself to broke dracula's seal and in the end, she discovers that DOMINUS can, in fact, be used to kill Dracula and that Albus's soul is within her, he used his last strentgh to hide himself inside DOMINUS and that she only killed his body. And she is forced to use DOMINUS to destroy Dracula and Albus uses his soul as DOMINUS sacrifice. Shanoa's emotions only come back for her in time for her to cry for the death of her almost-brother-almost-lover Albus.
In the end, the game says that all her efforts were never revealed and all records about Ecclesia organization vanished. We get a sad shot of Shanoa walking away in the distance, with her master and stepfather dead, her almost-brother-lover dead, and with the destiny of her efforts never being recognized.
ORDER OF ECCLESIA SPOILERS END HERE
BLOODSTAINED: RITUAL OF THE NIGHT COMMENTARY STARTS HERE
Now, we reach Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The alchemist Guild was using kidnapped orphans and children to do experiments to summon demons. They wanted to use those children as beacons to attract demons, regardless of those children lives. Gebel was the original host for the magi-crystal curse, he survived, destroyed the guild and summoned the demon castle from hell to appear on the planet, to give Miriam, another victmin of the Magi-curse that survived, a place of her own. His reasoning deteriorated due to the curse and now he started to plot the downfall of men and wants to use Miriam to achieve his dark ambition.
Ritual of the Night's plot has the same potential to be a tragedy deconstruction of heroism. Although Miriam has what it needs to be a heroine (a desire to protect her loved ones, strong will, powers) she has a curse that robbed her friend (Gebel) from his reasoning to the point of wanting to "plot the downfall of men". We have a orphan that lost her parents (Anne), a exorcist from the Church (Dominique), a old member of the alchemist guild (Alfred) that summoned the Demon that killed Zangetsu's partner, that also has a tragedy history himself, loosing his best friend/partner, losing one arm and one eye and, apparently, devoting his last years to demon hunting.
What if Miriam doesn't achieve what she wants? She may have to kill her friends, even Johannes, whose plot is shrouded in mystery. He could be controlled, or he could be a potential villian-in-disguise. She may end up being forced to kill or hurt everyone.
The little we know about the plot, doesn't show that Miriam is fightning for humanity as a whole. She is fightning to protect and save her friends and loved ones.
Miriam may fail as a heroine. She may end up not saving anyone and walking away with the curse on her body and the weight of the death of her loved ones on her shoulders. This wouldn't be the first time something like that happens in a Igavania.
And, cannonically, she may reach the despair horizon of being completely engulfed in the curse, like this official artwork shows.
I just wanted to share my thoughts about the potential that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has to be another game on the tale of heroism deconstruction. The heroism deconstruction is a big plot-device with many parts. One of them is when the hero is not such a great hero and/or when things doesn't go as planned. And that is the potential i see in Bloodstained, specially because some Igavania games had that before.
[1] Side note: Shūmatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?, or simply SukaSuka is a light novel that ended with 5 volumes. The first three had an anime adaptation this year, that ended this week, with a lot of unanswered questions and a tragedy ending. I don't know if they will continue and decided to read the spoilers of the rest of the light novel, something i almost never do, and it is indeed a very dramatic tragedy of a plot, leaning towards the same theme of heroism deconstruction.
Nowadays, there is a sequel / spin-off of sorts, called "Sukamuka".
That's all folks!
A trend that has been for some time at storytelling, is the idea of deconstruction. You get a plot that has a pretty straightfoward outcome and you twist it away completely, turning it into something highly unexpected, breaking the whole concept that your plot is built on. The hero tha fails on his quest or achieves just a minimal sucess. A overly cute moe-like anime that turns out to be a horror tragedy story and so on.
While thinking about that, i started to think that, while Igavanias were never truly strong, plot-wise, some of them had pretty interesting attempts of deconstruction. While you have Harmony of Dissonance, that has a really straightfoward plot with the chance of the hero (Juste) saving everyone in the end and defeating the villian, you have some games where things didn't ended like that. The best example i could come up with, is Order of Ecclesia.
ORDER OF ECCLESIA SPOILERS STARTS HERE (select the text to properly read it)
You have been warned.
For those who don't know, Order of Ecclesia tells the tale of a time when the Belmont clan vanishes and organizations of power decided to work around to do something if Dracula showed up again. Ecclesia was the best of those organizations because their leader, Barlowe, discovered a new magic type called Glyph, the power to absorb magic from magical symbols that only those trained in the Glyph arts can see. With their ultimate Glyph, DOMINUS, they can stand against Dracula, if he shows up again. Shanoa will receive the Glyph because she is the most suitable, but Albus, another member, steals it and runs away. Stopping the DOMINUS ritual mid-way hinders Shanoa emotionless.
Order of Ecclesia has a bittersweet ending. Albus saved all villagers, descendants of the Belmont clan, by trapping them with a special Glyph, while Shanoa achieved nothing. She discovered that Dracula was sealed a long time ago, that DOMINUS was part of Dracula's power, that Barlowe actually wanted her to use Dominus to free Dracula and not kill him and that Dominus requires a sacrifice to work. Albus was trying to protect her and wanted to be him the one to use DOMINUS to kill Dracula. He knew about the seal but didn't knew that Barlowe actually wanted to free the Dark Lord. She had to kill Albus, her non-related-brother-almost-lover because he was controlled by Dracula, had to fight her own master and stepfather, Barlowe, (while listening to him screaming "how dare you, even forgetting who raised you! You...stupid disciple!") because he went mad and later on, when Shanoa is about to kill him for good, sacrifices himself to broke dracula's seal and in the end, she discovers that DOMINUS can, in fact, be used to kill Dracula and that Albus's soul is within her, he used his last strentgh to hide himself inside DOMINUS and that she only killed his body. And she is forced to use DOMINUS to destroy Dracula and Albus uses his soul as DOMINUS sacrifice. Shanoa's emotions only come back for her in time for her to cry for the death of her almost-brother-almost-lover Albus.
In the end, the game says that all her efforts were never revealed and all records about Ecclesia organization vanished. We get a sad shot of Shanoa walking away in the distance, with her master and stepfather dead, her almost-brother-lover dead, and with the destiny of her efforts never being recognized.
ORDER OF ECCLESIA SPOILERS END HERE
BLOODSTAINED: RITUAL OF THE NIGHT COMMENTARY STARTS HERE
Now, we reach Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The alchemist Guild was using kidnapped orphans and children to do experiments to summon demons. They wanted to use those children as beacons to attract demons, regardless of those children lives. Gebel was the original host for the magi-crystal curse, he survived, destroyed the guild and summoned the demon castle from hell to appear on the planet, to give Miriam, another victmin of the Magi-curse that survived, a place of her own. His reasoning deteriorated due to the curse and now he started to plot the downfall of men and wants to use Miriam to achieve his dark ambition.
Ritual of the Night's plot has the same potential to be a tragedy deconstruction of heroism. Although Miriam has what it needs to be a heroine (a desire to protect her loved ones, strong will, powers) she has a curse that robbed her friend (Gebel) from his reasoning to the point of wanting to "plot the downfall of men". We have a orphan that lost her parents (Anne), a exorcist from the Church (Dominique), a old member of the alchemist guild (Alfred) that summoned the Demon that killed Zangetsu's partner, that also has a tragedy history himself, loosing his best friend/partner, losing one arm and one eye and, apparently, devoting his last years to demon hunting.
What if Miriam doesn't achieve what she wants? She may have to kill her friends, even Johannes, whose plot is shrouded in mystery. He could be controlled, or he could be a potential villian-in-disguise. She may end up being forced to kill or hurt everyone.
The little we know about the plot, doesn't show that Miriam is fightning for humanity as a whole. She is fightning to protect and save her friends and loved ones.
Miriam may fail as a heroine. She may end up not saving anyone and walking away with the curse on her body and the weight of the death of her loved ones on her shoulders. This wouldn't be the first time something like that happens in a Igavania.
And, cannonically, she may reach the despair horizon of being completely engulfed in the curse, like this official artwork shows.
[1] Side note: Shūmatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?, or simply SukaSuka is a light novel that ended with 5 volumes. The first three had an anime adaptation this year, that ended this week, with a lot of unanswered questions and a tragedy ending. I don't know if they will continue and decided to read the spoilers of the rest of the light novel, something i almost never do, and it is indeed a very dramatic tragedy of a plot, leaning towards the same theme of heroism deconstruction.
Nowadays, there is a sequel / spin-off of sorts, called "Sukamuka".
That's all folks!
yey