Some miscellaneous thoughts on Mir and AT...
One, writing The Ar Tonelico Whistleblower (which, if you're wondering, will indeed be continued in at least one form; I have a non-blog-format bit of accompanying fiction, set shortly after the current logs end, that should be ready for you soon, and I do plan to get some more logs up eventually. Plus I have a couple of other fics on the burner...) has caused something to strike me: if Mir was a kind and loving enough person to compose Harmonious even after seven years of cruelty and abandonment, what on earth might she have been like if she'd been given a more normal upbringing?
She only turns to uglier thoughts because humanity insists on systematically stripping away every possible target for her hope; if she were left to her own devices, it's easy to imagine that hope would get tangled up into everything, every facet of life something fascinating and wondrous to cling to, everything a source of beauty and inspiration. Mir would go from someone struggling to see the light against all odds to someone flooded with it, almost intoxicated.
I can see her as a Zen-like seer, a wise and gentle mystic, or equally, a slightly hyperactive fringe prophet delirious with her own spirituality, yet utterly sweet and friendly once you get to know her. This makes me want to write some altverse fic where Mir was turfed out or escaped before the worst of her treatment kicked in, ended up taking residence with some charming little family, and left home to preach goodness to the world at the age of eighteen, a tie-dye bandanna around her head and a guitar strapped to her back. It would be super-adorable, you have to admit.
I've also been daydreaming about what might have happened if Lyner and co. had gone the final step in helping Mir to recover and actually offered her the option of coming with them. It seems like so often, even when a game does go the "let's spare the bad guy" route, you subsequently end up abandoning them to their fate anyway; sure, they didn't kill Mir, but now she's been jolted out of her old worldview and is probably flailing to try and make sense of reality again, doesn't it seem a bit harsh to just walk off and leave her there without even trying to rehabilitate her?
If Lyner really wanted to drive home the point that humans aren't as bad as all that, he might have said something along the lines of "come with us; we'll take care of you and get you back on your feet, help you to understand the way things work and try and get back to a normal life. And if you can't manage that after all these years, since I know that's a bit of a high bar to leap for you now... well, we'll find someone willing to look after you and keep you safe". She might not have trusted him, but it was worth a try. If you're going to convert your villain through love and caring, you have to follow it through all the way. Otherwise, you risk leaving them more broken than when you started, having been dreaming of salvation and only getting a half-hearted solution.
More thoughts later, perhaps, when I am less blurry-headed. Still not quite over the post-sickness energy loss...
Letra - Eldharia ~Inori Saku Mori~
2 months ago
11 comments:
If she was brought up happily, I imagined her as girlier. And wearing a pretty, frilly dress. :> But your image of her is super cute.
Since AT's plot isn't the best thing out there, I personally can forgive him leaving her... But I agree that offering really would convince her more, instead of her thinking over everything herself.
Hope you get better from the aftermath of the war of blood cells and viruses :(
PS. I replied to your comments on Whistleblower :)
You're right, hippie Mir running off to preach to the world would be super-adorable. (And re: her possibly being very girly, what about long floaty skirts and flowers braided into her hair?)
About taking Mir through all the way and not leaving her half-redeemed: that's a good point. Especially in light of how many times it's said that you shouldn't get partway into someone's Cosmosphere and then not follow through and just walk out on them.
On the other hand, does Lyner really need yet another girl with whom to possibly go off, abandoning all the others? It seems like he already can't coordinate following up with all of the girls he promised to stay with; how's he going to handle a fourth? Relationship broken; add more Reyvateils?
Serrivalutiern: She probably kind of would be girly, actually. She seems to incline towards sensitive and fluffy; if there's any part of her that's tomboyish, it's sort of the harsher aspect that she's forced herself to take on, not her core self. She's really pretty floaty and wide-eyed and "yay little birds".
Hmm, true, it isn't the best plot. But I am unforgiving of bad plot in and of itself. ;) I guess I can always think of ways in which things can be improved.
And thanks, and yay, comment responses, respectively!
haounomiko: Awww, that is a cute image! That could be a good compromise. :)
Re: the Cosmosphere thing: exactly. It struck me as a lot like going "well, everything you know is wrong. Yes, I know that's kind of shocking... well, I guess that's all you need to know. So long!" It's like, "...well, sure, thanks, but how do I deal with this now?" I'm not really surprised she basically runs off to live somewhere isolated and natural; in the absence of any guidance, she probably just wants to be away from society and its confusion.
Relationship broken; add more Reyvateils?
XD. Oh, definitely not; and Lyner is so not the best person to be having a relationship like that with Mir anyway, given his track record of breaking Reyvateils' hearts. I was thinking of something more along the lines of him or the group basically adopting her, for at least a while so she can get back on her feet a bit, but that said, he's not really responsible enough, either. I wish someone would, though. Maybe Radolf, or something.
...Actually, thinking about it, for all that Mir really needs someone to care for her, with her having lived so much longer than most people and having had so very long to build up issues and barriers, I actually think being in a relationship with her would be a major challenge for anyone. Which is making me think of her being all "Am I unlovable?" now. :(
I guess AT2 will answer that question, but I'm really holding out for them not just handwaving the fact that she has a huge amount to overcome before she'll ever manage anything like a normal relationship, if she even can in that short space of time.
Well, as I have already said numerous times, the trip to Metafalss will likely clear up your questions (and change that perception that AT's general plot isn't very good for everyone).
BTW, after rereading your fic I noticed something that looks kind off to me:
That Mir was pale then, when she actually was more like she is in AT2. She was pale in AT1 because of her long time sealed in the Chronicle.
And I hope you get better from your convelescency! (Wee yea ra murfan yor near en crushue, Wee yea ra hymme hymmnos sos yor).
Thank you, and thanks for the hymn! ^___^
Hmm, you have a point that (at least given what I think I know, and what I'm sure you know) she wasn't pale then. I suppose, though, if she hadn't seen the sun for fifteen years, she might still have been pale at the point we're talking about?
I'm really looking forward to having my questions answered. Oh, bring us an airship, NISA, and bring it today! I gotta bust outta this one-horse town!
You're welcome!
And about that, I'm pretty sure that there would have been windows wherever she was locked up, even if it was only in the ceiling, so I don't think she was totally isolated from the sunlight.
Really? A lot of rooms in office buildings don't even have windows. A window was something she could have shattered to escape. I very much doubt she got light that wasn't artificial (and the Silver Horn didn't have windows).
It could sort of be like those prison windows. Where it's just a hole in the wall, maybe some form of bar(or decoration) that blocked anything from exiting/entering, if it was big enough for that.
Ayulsa's right about some office buildings not having windows-- and those people aren't even imprisoned. Mine doesn't have any windows in the area where I work. Maybe I should protest that it's cruelty to Reyvateils.
Maybe I should protest that it's cruelty to Reyvateils.
Awwww! It totally is. They should let you see the sun. :(
But yes, I figured if a lot of offices don't, and they consider that a humane condition to keep people in for eight hours a day, they're not exactly going to fuss over making sure Mir has sunlight. As long as she has some cue for when to wake up and when to sleep, why would they care?
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