RustyVanBurace (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rustyvanburace) wrote2023-12-19 01:42 pm
rustyvanburace) wrote2023-12-19 01:42 pm
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(SMT1) Law Hero and Chaos Hero's Throwbacks
(Originally posted on my Tumblr on November 21, 2022; this is a slightly expanded revision)
Others have already pointed this out before, but I still want to share my own take on this. Something that I really like about Law Hero and Chaos Hero's deaths in SMT1's Neutral route are how they throwback to the game's intro dream sequence.
When the Law Hero is first introduced, he is called the “soul who was sacrificed by God” or some other variance of that depending on the translation. Then much later, when he is fought and defeated, Law Hero struggles with his second death to mean that he was not actually God's chosen Messiah as he was led to believe. But he also comes around to cope with his grief by concluding that he is being made as an offering and his death is not actually in vain. He remains firmly devoted to God.
I would even say that this is a hopeful outlook -- Law Hero may not have been the one to usher in God's Thousand Year Kingdom, but there is hope that another one still can and that Law Hero's death will only encourage another to step up in his place. And he is not wrong either when you consider the Messiah Project in SMT2 many years later (regardless of how successful it was).
Whereas with Chaos Hero, when he is first met during the dream sequence, he chastises the protagonist for waking him from a “good dream”. In his later final words, he laments over his failure to surpass all and wonders if this is a nightmare. But then he reaffirms that everything up to that point has been a good dream.
Although Chaos Hero could not grow strong enough to surpass every one of his adversaries, he was nonetheless still able to live the free, victorious life that he had long coveted and can now die contentedly. In a way then, Chaos Hero still wins in the end anyway by having achieved what he always wanted. At the very least, this is a far better outcome then his fate in the Chaos route lmao.
They're both small details, but all the same ones that add some depth to these characters and their goals.
Others have already pointed this out before, but I still want to share my own take on this. Something that I really like about Law Hero and Chaos Hero's deaths in SMT1's Neutral route are how they throwback to the game's intro dream sequence.
When the Law Hero is first introduced, he is called the “soul who was sacrificed by God” or some other variance of that depending on the translation. Then much later, when he is fought and defeated, Law Hero struggles with his second death to mean that he was not actually God's chosen Messiah as he was led to believe. But he also comes around to cope with his grief by concluding that he is being made as an offering and his death is not actually in vain. He remains firmly devoted to God.
I would even say that this is a hopeful outlook -- Law Hero may not have been the one to usher in God's Thousand Year Kingdom, but there is hope that another one still can and that Law Hero's death will only encourage another to step up in his place. And he is not wrong either when you consider the Messiah Project in SMT2 many years later (regardless of how successful it was).
Whereas with Chaos Hero, when he is first met during the dream sequence, he chastises the protagonist for waking him from a “good dream”. In his later final words, he laments over his failure to surpass all and wonders if this is a nightmare. But then he reaffirms that everything up to that point has been a good dream.
Although Chaos Hero could not grow strong enough to surpass every one of his adversaries, he was nonetheless still able to live the free, victorious life that he had long coveted and can now die contentedly. In a way then, Chaos Hero still wins in the end anyway by having achieved what he always wanted. At the very least, this is a far better outcome then his fate in the Chaos route lmao.
They're both small details, but all the same ones that add some depth to these characters and their goals.