#the fact this isn’t nyx’s original harbinger

[floaties-for-arsene]

Oh no! He’s a little fucked up actually

Continuing with my Ryomina swap AU hehe.. instead of Ryoji being the Nyx Avatar here, Minato is the one to be taken over by Nyx 🥲

Fun fact! The blue eye is the only part of his form Minato can control and he’s constantly looking at Ryoji! 🥲🥲🥲🥲

[catherdrashepard]

Darrow is Not Going to Die at the End of the Series Part 3

The more I think about all this, the less fandoms I plan on talking about because otherwise there will be like 50 parts instead of 4. For this one, I’m still not done talking about video games. BUT THIS TIME, I will be focusing on Persona 3 and Persona 5 (I’m sorry Persona 4, your narrative doesn’t quite fit the argument.) Spoilers ahead for Persona 3, Persona 5, and Dark Age.

As you all know by now, or at least you should, I am a slut for Atlus. Any games they release I’m interested in and 9/10 I will want to play them. So, it only makes sense that I would bring it up in a post about Darrow not dying. Again though, I’d like to point out that creating an ending for a video game is going to be different due to the fact that it’s reliant on the player.

Anyway, Persona 3. The game focuses on a group of high school students who enter a secret time of night in between midnight and 12:01, called the Dark Hour. Their school transforms into a towering labyrinth that they have to fight through to find out more information about the Dark Hour. They also have to fight large monsters who represent the 12 Major Arcana and, when they all have been defeated, they then have to defeat Nyx. The player has two options before the final fight. If they kill Ryoji, who is the harbinger or Nyx, the end of the world (called The Fall in game) is postponed and everyone forgets everything that happened. We don’t get to see it, but it’s implied that The Fall will still happen, and everyone will die. They just won’t be aware that it’s a thing at all. This is the Bad Ending.

The Good Ending is if you choose to spare Ryoji and when he becomes Nyx, you fight her. Which, btw, is really long because she revive several times. After that, the protagonist has to face Nyx solo and is able to defeat her with the help of their party and all of the other social link the player established throughout the game. The way Nyx causes the end of the world is by combining with Erebus, and so the protagonist uses his own life force to seal Nyx away to prevent this. In the epilogue of the game, called The Answer, this is explained in more detail about why The Fall happens and what exactly the protagonist has done to protect everyone. You play as one of your former party members in this epilogue because at the end of the original story (called The Question), the protagonist is essentially dead, although I think the actual description is that he’s permanently in a coma.

This is where it relates to RR and Darrow. It’s a little different from Mass Effect because the player actually does get to witness what happens after the original game ends and the protagonist is dead. (The Answer takes place during a time loop though so we only get so see how the former party members are doing and not Japan as a whole). This is particularly interesting to me as there aren’t many games I can think of that shows the consequences of the main character dying (permanently) by giving you more playable content. In fact, Persona 3 is the ONLY game I can think of that does something like that. Also, to detour back to Mass Effect, Persona 3 (and 5) also have the same technology issue going on. No one can replicate the big bad so once it’s gone, that’s it. BUT, with the inclusion of the epilogue, it’s possible that there are still things that can be done in the Persona 3 universe, and the protagonist isn’t entirely necessary.

To play devil’s advocate for a second, if Pierce DID decide to kill Darrow, I think it would make the most sense for it to be something like what happened in Persona 3. Darrow would have to finish off the biggest threat (kind of up in the air who it will be by the 6th book), and give his life to do it. This would have to be done before the end of the 6th book, which would continue the story with someone else in Darrow’s circle. Or, if Pierce chooses to kill of Darrow at the end, there would need to be at least one more book detailing the recovery efforts of the rest of his group. I mean, he could do something like Hunger Games (goodness knows there’s plenty of comparisons) where there’s a short epilogue but the difference in that is that Katniss was alive in her epilogue. RR isn’t a video game, so some of the story elements don’t necessarily apply, but it feels wrong somehow to have Darrow just be dead. Especially because every death so far has had some kind of impact to the story.

To continue the Persona thoughts, I wanted to bring up Persona 5. This one is a little bit different because the main character doesn’t die in the end, but there is a considerable sacrifice. Also, I would say the plot of Persona 5 is more similar to RR than Mass Effect or Persona 3 are. In Persona 5, the main characters fight corrupt individuals inside their own minds and change distorted perceptions they have of themselves and the world around them. They usually do this by stealing a “treasure” which ends up being the source of the distorted perception. Now that I think about it, Lysander reminds me a bit of a Persona 5 villain.....which is probably something I’ll put in another Lysander post.

What makes me think of RR is that the main problem lies in the powers at be being corrupt and taking advantage of those they perceive as inferior in some way. This point is especially obvious during the last Palace in Persona 5 (not counting the extra semester in P5 Royal). BUT ALSO in Persona 5, the final boss is called Yaldabaoth, who is the God of Control. It’s another saving the world kind of deal, but your goal is to change the hearts of the general public. Based on the lead-up to this battle, I got the impression that you end up trying to restore the free-will of the people. But the cost ends up being your ability to summon Personas and continue making the same changes you had been. You sacrifice a part of yourself and make the changes the responsibility of the people who should have been responsible in the first place.

I suppose, again, I’m arguing for Darrow dying at the end but....I could see something like this being an end to RR. Where the defeat of the corrupt system requires a huge sacrifice by Darrow. Of course, his life could be considered for that, and I honestly wouldn’t have any idea of another sacrifice that could count, other than his loved ones. BUT, Darrow has already lost so much to this war he is fighting so it could be argued that he has already sacrificed enough to justify a Persona 5-esque ending. Just think of all the trauma, and all strained relationships, and the death of so many of his friends. Also, to bring back the technology argument, once the P5 protagonists defeat Yaldabaoth, that’s it. It’s implied that he can’t come back and cause the same problems. Whereas in RR, the Society has the possibility to return and cause conflict once again.

This last point in particular will be brought up again in Part 4 when I discuss Voltron: Legendary Defender, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.