More thoughts on The Arcana
Sep. 26th, 2020 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dinoblobSo I made time to not only blast through Julian's route, but also start Muriel's route which I was reluctant to at first. Muriel's ending hasn't been written yet so I'm stuck on the Sun, and my choices so far should have unlocked the upright ending, whenever that gets released. I also got Julian's upright ending (which was a lot campier than I thought it was going to be).
Since I managed to unlock some good endings so far, I felt a bit torn about going back to see the reverse endings. It's not like replaying Undertale by any measure, but the default name I had chosen for the Apprentice felt a bit too close for comfort to go back and replay for bad feels. I'm really thankful that you can change your name and pronouns, so I'm basically treating it like an AU changing my character's identity to get the bad ends (and eventually date Lucio, I GUESS).
So like I mentioned in my previous entry, Julian's route had the sort of pining I really wish was more present in Asra's route. On the other hand, I think Asra's route might actually works better as a secondary playthrough because so much of his vague dialogue and resentment of Julian make much more sense after Julian's route, for instance:
In Asra's first memory you get he's by the willow tree at the palace lamenting to Faust that the apprentice has gone to a place he can't follow (I was slow to the uptake the first time playing, I didn't understand the metaphor that the apprentice was hinted to be dead, and later the game never clarifies how much time passed between Asra and Julian finding out the apprentice's death). Asra is already a bit annoyed that Julian assumes that Asra likes him romantically (I only assume they had some flings), and this hurt makes So Much more sense with the background knowledge that after the apprentice and Asra had their argument about staying in Vesuvia, that the apprentice studies under Julian to understand the plague better, but still falls ill and dies.
What the apprentice and Julian were together at that time, might not have been anything romantic, but I would think Asra would blame Julian for not helping the apprentice sooner when he finds out about them knowing each other.
So Asra has so much regret built up, seemingly because while he and the apprentice have known each other for 9 years that he was still away? adventuring? a whole bunch even before their fall out. I think they could have played with that a lot more, but I suppose what we were supposed to get out of Asra's route was more of the "making up for lost time" fluffiness. I still felt it was jarring as a first route to play and it was still very sad to find Asra struggling with telling the apprentice the truth, especially as they were going into the Lazaret and he was already expecting the apprentice to go catatonic from the reveal again.
On a side note, with as quick as Julian was to assume feelings and jump into relationships headfirst I thought it was funny that the ending confrontation with the Devil was far more THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP than Asra's, how Asra's ending was more THE POWER OF LOVE (as a couple). Also, Portia just ready to fisticuffs the Devil upon meeting them in the magic realm, gURL PLEASE.
Anyways, some other things I was thinking about since I was able to play through multiple storylines now is more how each route was written to explore the characters and their relationship to their patron Arcana, and how much (or little) the story will pay tribute to the traditional Tarot.
I like how most nobody seems to understand what Scout is, and to me Scout is not the Fool's patron because the Fool traditionally is part of the major arcana, but also also outside of it as number 0 (I believe the World is also considered outside of the major arcana as the endcap, I don't remember why). Scout is just the dog that appears with the fool in the traditional Smith-Waite artwork, so a fitting guide since the fool will go where they will go, there may not really be such a thing as the Fool's patron unlike how we meet the Magician, the Star, the Devil, etc. We are the Fool, going through The Fool's Journey.
Faust being Asra's familiar at first seemed like an interesting choice because of how dang cute they made her, and how I feel most western perspectives of snakes tends to be negative, but then I was reading through A.E. Waite's pictorial guide to the tarot, and in the Magician's entry, it states that the belt is actually a snake that is biting it's own tail. Duh!
Contrast this to the Lovers and Devil card in the game, I suppose because Asra's parents also have snakes as familiars and they are supposed to be the human representations of the Lovers, that the Lovers card in game features a snake couple, which you can see as being bound in the Devil's card much like the original mirroring/contrast of the Lovers and Devil card artwork.
Something of a personal nitpick is how the in-game Devil artwork shows the chains being tight, which symbolically is incorrect, the chains are loose because they should represent how you have the power to shrug off and walk away from negative mental bonds like temptation, fear and self-doubt, the devil just makes you think they're inescapable.
This translates over into the game as the apprentice's deus es machina rainbow aura of magic that can break the Devil's chains in Asra's, Nadia's and Julian's routes. And since they also play with the chains being magical representations of the Courtiers making deals with the Devil, I do understand it makes for a more dramatic effect of the chains being tight bonds, I think it would just be more powerful to have them loose because in the case of the Courtiers, they knew and embrace what they signed up for. Maybe in Vulgora's case it works because the chains are practically keeping their demon form together, they've lost so much of their humanity.
In thinking about Asra's, Nadia's and Julian's routes, I didn't really feel they fit their arcana characteristics at first.
Like Asra being a magician is a bit on the nose, but I don't feel that his upright and reverse storylines necessarily reflect say the upright and reverse meanings of the magician card, at least not all the way. If upright represents potential, self-confidence, being ready to act, I could see how the apprentice is able to bring out these positive characteristics in Asra during the upright route. I suppose the romantic element of the story telling is what muddies it a little for me in that to get the upright ending, you're pulling Asra closer to other people and their problems and also showing him that you can rely on yourself now and not have Asra baby you. Is that a fair way to show him he should have confidence in himself? Maybe.
Since Asra has a habit in the story of running away (to tamp down his feelings for the apprentice, to explore things despite things needing attention in Vesuvia), I get that making the choices to further isolate him would lead to the reverse ending, but I get that the Magician reversed symbolically may be more about greed and abuse of power. I might just have to unlock the reverse ending to see how much this lines up--I after looking at a walkthrough I was surprised that originally I had been making mostly Reverse ending choices by trying to cater to what I thought Asra would prefer, but I got the upright ending, so I figured that each route is more trying to guide each person to their best potential by steering them away from their negative habits.
This really contrasts to Julian who is a very painful example of self-sacrificing to a fault, though yes the Hanged Man is supposed to be about sacrifice, but Julian takes it too far somehow in the opposite meaning of both the upright and reverse meanings LOL. I guess the best I can relate the two is that Julian would jump too quickly into situations before thinking, which the card the Hanged Man would ask of one person, to slow down and self reflect while you've found yourself in a bad situation. On the other hand, he did take gaining new perspective to a dramatic level of trying to die and come back to life for answers, I suppose that would still count for the upright meaning. I did get the hint that when Julian was hesitant he was more in danger of being stuck hanging forever in that sense, but I'm getting the feeling that his reverse ending is more about needless self-sacrifice--we'll see.
Nadia's story I think weaved her intuition a bit more with her magical power in a way that made sense, but when I was reading through her initial misjudgement of her sisters and family issues I wasn't really getting that it was her intuition that she was ignoring? She seemed more hung up on the way she remembered her past interactions, and maybe the apprentice themselves were using their intuition rather than Nadia's biased memories to reach out to the sisters for help during those choices.
I have gotten up to the Sun book for Muriel, but I'm not sure I want to dive deep into that yet until the ending is out. Generally though I do get more of the on-the-nose representation similar to Asra being a literal magician, Muriel is the literal Hermit as well, but so much of his storyline is about fighting and taking up the fight I'm not sure I'm getting the kind of introspection the Hermit card would ask for... and then there's also that the apprentice is written as more goofy ("we're both disasters!") in this route that just seemed more self indulgent to exploring a teasing relationship with Muriel. IDK -shrug-
I think that's all I can really draw up from my memory at the moment, and I may revisit the themes again as I go through more routes and get the reverse endings.
Since I managed to unlock some good endings so far, I felt a bit torn about going back to see the reverse endings. It's not like replaying Undertale by any measure, but the default name I had chosen for the Apprentice felt a bit too close for comfort to go back and replay for bad feels. I'm really thankful that you can change your name and pronouns, so I'm basically treating it like an AU changing my character's identity to get the bad ends (and eventually date Lucio, I GUESS).
So like I mentioned in my previous entry, Julian's route had the sort of pining I really wish was more present in Asra's route. On the other hand, I think Asra's route might actually works better as a secondary playthrough because so much of his vague dialogue and resentment of Julian make much more sense after Julian's route, for instance:
In Asra's first memory you get he's by the willow tree at the palace lamenting to Faust that the apprentice has gone to a place he can't follow (I was slow to the uptake the first time playing, I didn't understand the metaphor that the apprentice was hinted to be dead, and later the game never clarifies how much time passed between Asra and Julian finding out the apprentice's death). Asra is already a bit annoyed that Julian assumes that Asra likes him romantically (I only assume they had some flings), and this hurt makes So Much more sense with the background knowledge that after the apprentice and Asra had their argument about staying in Vesuvia, that the apprentice studies under Julian to understand the plague better, but still falls ill and dies.
What the apprentice and Julian were together at that time, might not have been anything romantic, but I would think Asra would blame Julian for not helping the apprentice sooner when he finds out about them knowing each other.
So Asra has so much regret built up, seemingly because while he and the apprentice have known each other for 9 years that he was still away? adventuring? a whole bunch even before their fall out. I think they could have played with that a lot more, but I suppose what we were supposed to get out of Asra's route was more of the "making up for lost time" fluffiness. I still felt it was jarring as a first route to play and it was still very sad to find Asra struggling with telling the apprentice the truth, especially as they were going into the Lazaret and he was already expecting the apprentice to go catatonic from the reveal again.
On a side note, with as quick as Julian was to assume feelings and jump into relationships headfirst I thought it was funny that the ending confrontation with the Devil was far more THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP than Asra's, how Asra's ending was more THE POWER OF LOVE (as a couple). Also, Portia just ready to fisticuffs the Devil upon meeting them in the magic realm, gURL PLEASE.
Anyways, some other things I was thinking about since I was able to play through multiple storylines now is more how each route was written to explore the characters and their relationship to their patron Arcana, and how much (or little) the story will pay tribute to the traditional Tarot.
I like how most nobody seems to understand what Scout is, and to me Scout is not the Fool's patron because the Fool traditionally is part of the major arcana, but also also outside of it as number 0 (I believe the World is also considered outside of the major arcana as the endcap, I don't remember why). Scout is just the dog that appears with the fool in the traditional Smith-Waite artwork, so a fitting guide since the fool will go where they will go, there may not really be such a thing as the Fool's patron unlike how we meet the Magician, the Star, the Devil, etc. We are the Fool, going through The Fool's Journey.
Faust being Asra's familiar at first seemed like an interesting choice because of how dang cute they made her, and how I feel most western perspectives of snakes tends to be negative, but then I was reading through A.E. Waite's pictorial guide to the tarot, and in the Magician's entry, it states that the belt is actually a snake that is biting it's own tail. Duh!
Contrast this to the Lovers and Devil card in the game, I suppose because Asra's parents also have snakes as familiars and they are supposed to be the human representations of the Lovers, that the Lovers card in game features a snake couple, which you can see as being bound in the Devil's card much like the original mirroring/contrast of the Lovers and Devil card artwork.
Something of a personal nitpick is how the in-game Devil artwork shows the chains being tight, which symbolically is incorrect, the chains are loose because they should represent how you have the power to shrug off and walk away from negative mental bonds like temptation, fear and self-doubt, the devil just makes you think they're inescapable.
This translates over into the game as the apprentice's deus es machina rainbow aura of magic that can break the Devil's chains in Asra's, Nadia's and Julian's routes. And since they also play with the chains being magical representations of the Courtiers making deals with the Devil, I do understand it makes for a more dramatic effect of the chains being tight bonds, I think it would just be more powerful to have them loose because in the case of the Courtiers, they knew and embrace what they signed up for. Maybe in Vulgora's case it works because the chains are practically keeping their demon form together, they've lost so much of their humanity.
In thinking about Asra's, Nadia's and Julian's routes, I didn't really feel they fit their arcana characteristics at first.
Like Asra being a magician is a bit on the nose, but I don't feel that his upright and reverse storylines necessarily reflect say the upright and reverse meanings of the magician card, at least not all the way. If upright represents potential, self-confidence, being ready to act, I could see how the apprentice is able to bring out these positive characteristics in Asra during the upright route. I suppose the romantic element of the story telling is what muddies it a little for me in that to get the upright ending, you're pulling Asra closer to other people and their problems and also showing him that you can rely on yourself now and not have Asra baby you. Is that a fair way to show him he should have confidence in himself? Maybe.
Since Asra has a habit in the story of running away (to tamp down his feelings for the apprentice, to explore things despite things needing attention in Vesuvia), I get that making the choices to further isolate him would lead to the reverse ending, but I get that the Magician reversed symbolically may be more about greed and abuse of power. I might just have to unlock the reverse ending to see how much this lines up--I after looking at a walkthrough I was surprised that originally I had been making mostly Reverse ending choices by trying to cater to what I thought Asra would prefer, but I got the upright ending, so I figured that each route is more trying to guide each person to their best potential by steering them away from their negative habits.
This really contrasts to Julian who is a very painful example of self-sacrificing to a fault, though yes the Hanged Man is supposed to be about sacrifice, but Julian takes it too far somehow in the opposite meaning of both the upright and reverse meanings LOL. I guess the best I can relate the two is that Julian would jump too quickly into situations before thinking, which the card the Hanged Man would ask of one person, to slow down and self reflect while you've found yourself in a bad situation. On the other hand, he did take gaining new perspective to a dramatic level of trying to die and come back to life for answers, I suppose that would still count for the upright meaning. I did get the hint that when Julian was hesitant he was more in danger of being stuck hanging forever in that sense, but I'm getting the feeling that his reverse ending is more about needless self-sacrifice--we'll see.
Nadia's story I think weaved her intuition a bit more with her magical power in a way that made sense, but when I was reading through her initial misjudgement of her sisters and family issues I wasn't really getting that it was her intuition that she was ignoring? She seemed more hung up on the way she remembered her past interactions, and maybe the apprentice themselves were using their intuition rather than Nadia's biased memories to reach out to the sisters for help during those choices.
I have gotten up to the Sun book for Muriel, but I'm not sure I want to dive deep into that yet until the ending is out. Generally though I do get more of the on-the-nose representation similar to Asra being a literal magician, Muriel is the literal Hermit as well, but so much of his storyline is about fighting and taking up the fight I'm not sure I'm getting the kind of introspection the Hermit card would ask for... and then there's also that the apprentice is written as more goofy ("we're both disasters!") in this route that just seemed more self indulgent to exploring a teasing relationship with Muriel. IDK -shrug-
I think that's all I can really draw up from my memory at the moment, and I may revisit the themes again as I go through more routes and get the reverse endings.
