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I had seen a disappointing anonymous confession from a Tales Of confession blog on my dash, and went to make a post about it. Originally, this post was small, ending after the /nopes line. Everything else was commentary in the tags. However, I started to post more and more tags, and grew anxious. Tumblr's notorious for cutting tags and erasing them. So, I moved it all under a readmore in the post proper. You can pretty much pinpoint where this transition was because I start looking like I know what I'm talking about and making good points.
I deeply love Tales of Symphonia- it's my favourite game, one of the best I've ever played, and definitely earned its spot as the Top RPG For The Nintendo Gamecube. It has such depth of character, perhaps a depth that can only be understood after replaying it nine times- and given that each playthrough can take anywhere from sixty to one-hundred-and-twenty hours, it can take up a huge chunk of one's life. I grew up with Tales of Symphonia. I've spent years with it. Analysing it, appreciating it, critiquing it. It's a part of me, as are the people in it.
I've not only played the game multiple times, and the laughable sequel, I've also seen the OVA. I've read the manga. I've read translations of Drama CD transcripts. I have done everything short of playing the Japanese-only Tales Of The World and Radiant Mythology games. I flatter myself to think that I understand the nuances of the story.... and of the party members that we so unerringly are treated to. I know them as I know myself. I deeply sympathise with them, their struggles, their joys, their journeys. I've gone through phases of favourites and most-derided, but each of them at least serves some purpose. They may not all be used to their fullest advantage emotionally, but they are there, and it does us little good to wish that they were not. Rather, it is our responsibility to find their purposes and guide them to those ends, by seeing them for the flawed and hopeful people that they are. I have intimated myself with many things about their lives, because it interests me to do so. I draw on many canon sources in order to present the fullest picture of the happenings of the game. So when I say something, I do hope that I have enough material to fully back it up.
The following is the entirety of my original rambling manifesto, including images and formatting. It is a defensive analysis of the party member Regal (major spoilers ensure) Bryant, and the views that some of the fandom has of it. I adore Regal. He has the most human struggle of the party members, and that's not a race statement. His story is purely personal and emotional; it could be anywhere and any time. Regal and Alicia's tragedy is not tied to the fantasy magitek world of the game, unlike everyone else's- the only indication of society is the class difference that matters so little to them. While I relate to or admire many of the characters for various reasons, Regal's ought to be the easiest to tap into. When people deride him or get him wrong, I take it exceedingly personally. I've always liked him, but it's just grown more and more in the years since I first picked up the game.
So, here; here is what I hope to be the first of many analytical pieces on Regal and the Symphonia cast. (I like writing about them, and drawing out aspects of their character occasionally passed over.)
For your perusal: In Defence of the Duke.
"Remember that post about feeling so sympathetic and defensive for a character that criticism of them makes you really irrationally emotional?
I just felt that feel. Not, as could be assumed, for Colette, but... for Regal.
.../nopes promptly off into the distance, trailing gibberish and spouting pained rhetoric at offending parties
Sorry, but this is a Regal Bryant appreciation blog.
A Regal Bryant appreciation lifestyle, in fact.
And I welcome an open dialogue on the matter, but just actually have criticism and points, okay?
Vague butthurt bashing makes me want to punt a brick through your window and into your asshole while openly weeping. So that's... not really okay with me.
I don't even think this is the Alicia muse talking right now, this is purely me. I JUST. CAN'T????? Somebody said that not having Regal would have made room for Kratos to rejoin the party and I just. NO NO NO NO NO KRATOS' ABSENCE WAS ENTIRELY PURPOSEFUL! THEY DIDN'T JUST MAKE REGAL TO FILL UP KRATOS' EMPTY SPACE OKAY???!!! FRICKIN'--
Regal's role in the story? Is showing how someone without direct ties to Cruxis can still have his life fucked up by them. It was to demonstrate the far-reaching effects of their actions.
He needed to be that one really emotional but very human character who isn't a big hero (well he does have big damn hero moments but) and in that very human and very detached capacity still be vengeful and anguished, because the perpetrators of the system are professional life-ruiners. They ruined people's lives.
Presea lost herself, her body and her time because of the crystal they implanted in her- but Regal's life had to go on after being shattered by their actions, and he had to be a broken and shattered human being learning to recover and pick up the pieces.
I'll admit that the game didn't handle that transition well (as they also mishandled the Kratos/Zelos ending nuances), and I won't excuse that. But don't just ignore everything because it suits your needs and because you personally didn't connect with him. Don't say that there was no significance just because it bored you.
Regal, being the last party member, didn't have as much time to develop in the ensemble as he may have needed. By the point we gained him, the plot itself was starting to swing pretty heavily. So it is entirely possible to avoid playing with him. But Gameplay and Story Segregation, people! There are a lot of hints that the battle and gameplay itself do not necessarily reflect the characters and story perfectly.
Despite not having a strong effect on the players, his character has a strong presence in the party. He's the other adult, who babysits the antics of the kids (teens) when they get argumentative or ridiculous. He moderates for Raine when she's involved too heavily, supports her when she needs to get the youths to sit up and buckle down, and offers her his frank cooperation when the going gets tough and danger looms. He pulls his weight with the group; he carries firewood, cooks, sits watch, and offers direction and advice. He mediates problems but doesn't make excuses for anyone; he avoids making trouble at all costs, even when it means bringing mutual information out into the open (see: Zelos). To Genis he humbles himself deeply, and they eventually begin to bond over their shared intellectualism, love of food, and mutual desire to protect Presea. For Presea he also humbles himself, desiring nothing more than to contribute any resource at his disposal to pay her back for her suffering. Regal even breaks into the life of our beloved hero, Lloyd Irving, who notably has the option to tell the esteemed and disgraced Duke that he sees him as another replacement father figure. (...Lloyd really racks those up.)
I think a lot of people are upset by what a drama queen he seems to be. I was as well for years, but then it hit me: Regal makes a big deal about taking responsibility for Alicia because he's never done that before. Responsibility for Alicia was tied intrinsically to his taking responsibility for anyone else.
As el Presidante, privileged to the highest echelons of Tethe'allan nobility and holding dominion over all of the Lezereno Company's workers and properties, he has a great deal of responsibility over people's lives. But he had never actually paid attention to that before or taken it into account before Alicia. Various things in Drama CDs and other material describe his dictator of a father, and the way that Regal was meant to expand and carry on the company as his heir- and, in doing so, reveal information about a potential worker uprising due to poor treatment and other factors. Regal seeing Alicia as a person was a turning point in his emotional and his professional life, as it opened his eyes to the conflict surrounding his business and the people whose lives he had the capability to affect.
As we all know, the chance to affect social change and marry his sweetheart was denied to him. His right hand man, George, mistook his intentions for Alicia Combatir, and broke their relationship apart behind Regal's back. Alicia was given to the Exsphere trader Vharley, where her body was tested for the ability to raise the Cruxis Crystals that Presea took to so successfully. However, Alicia's body rejected the crystal. Just as Regal was learning of George's betrayal, Alicia's body was painfully transformed, and her mind lost. Regal, paralysed by his love for Alicia, struggled with her dying wish to be killed by his hand.
He struggled because, as stated in out-of-game material, she was the first person he felt a genuine emotional attachment to. She was the first servant who had acted out of her station and treated him as a person. He had at first seen that as an oddity, a curiosity, but so grew to enjoy her presence in his life that he could not bear the thought of living without her. It was a huge loss when she died- not only did he lose a trusted friend and lover, but he lost his FIRST friend and lover, the one person who had drastically changed his worldview. Imagine Zelos losing Lloyd, in a way, but different. Regal and Alicia shared YEARS together- and were beginning to realise that they could continue to share years together.
Regal wasn't just obsessed with Presea because she was the last tie to Alicia. Before Alicia's death, Regal had surprised her with a promise to take her to visit her family back in Ozette, a family she hadn't seen for six years or something. Regal was going to ask Steig if it would be permissible for him to marry Alicia and have her live with him permanently. (Since Alicia originally came to work for the Bryant household because she was sending money home to pay for Steig's healing, this trip served more purposes than just a dowry visit.) Alicia had begun telling Regal about her family, and about her sister Presea (who in at least one version had stopped writing letters which worried Alicia deeply. might have been the manga). Seeing Presea gave Regal the chance to fulfill his promise to Alicia, and reach fuller closure.
Closure and perspective are the keys to the gate of character development that our universally-beloved Kratos Aurion did not manage to catch. At the end of the game, Regal Bryant has sworn to remove the physical ties to his grief and has taken Presea Combatir's desires as his new mission in life. He is determined to put the lifestyle of wallowing in sorrow, regret, and self-hate behind him- and look to the future of the world, taking perspective and finding emotional self-purpose as Alicia would have wanted him to.
On the flipside? The fallen angel Kratos, even in the ending allotted for his characterisation, is still unable to come to terms with the loss of Anna and speak to his son. He is still running away from his emotions, shutting out how the tragedy affected him, which I personally think is worse than wallowing in his feelings. Kratos can't even say a proper goodbye or apology to Lloyd- he maintains contact with his old sometimes-enemy Yuan, but not with his own son. A son that can be called the father of the new world order and has earned his birth father's pride tenfold over.
I'm just saying that by the end of the game, Regal was in an emotional vantage point where if he had a son, he could handle it in a healthy manner. Not so with Kratos. So saying that Kratos had a better arc.... Are we even playing the same game? They're both redonkulously hot older men with angsty dead girlfriend backstories, so that can't be part of it. I wish I knew why there was a sudden fanbase rivalry. Whatever.
The other character arc comparison I want to briefly touch upon again here is Zelos. Regal and Zelos both deal with strong themes of responsibility, learning to develop intersocial affection and self-worth, and learning to use social clout positively while developing as individuals. They just happen to show this arc at different stages. Almost a sort of before and after, if that helps. I didn't realise how much they had in common until writing this, although it's obvious that they share social background and upbringing and are the most capable of speaking frankly with each other. (Also, as has been duly noted by others, they make for really hot smut.) So... yeah. I don't know how much writing has been done comparing them, but here's looking forward to more!
I just put this post into Microsoft Word for a lark, and I've got four pages and over sixteen-and-a-half-hundred words here.
. . .
I don't know either.
I just don't know.
My ask is always open, people."
This piece was relatively well-received on tumblr (twenty-three notes at the time of posting, with multiple approving responses), and I was asked to share it to my more abandoned blogging platforms- Dreamwidth and Livejournal. I may also branch out and crosspost the rest of my Symphonia analyses, though I can only think of a worthwhile handful of them atm.
Well, that's enough of me.
