Character Development: Accurate does not mean Likable
Spoilers for Tales of the Abyss, majority of them up to Tower of Rem, but possibly some after as well, so be wary.
This has to do with the slight controversy around Luke's character development in the third part of the game.
From what I've seen on TvTropes, and experienced myself, Luke's character development after the Absorption Gate can be a mixed bag of feelings, especially during his depressive spells between Absorption Gate and Tower of Rem. Many people it's pretty much derailing said character development, and undoes everything he HAS achieved.
I have to disagree. At least on any claims about his character development being "derailment" or "unrealistic".
Yes, it's frustrating. Yes, Luke really needed some combination of a hug and a slap during those times. But if you take even some basics of psychology into consideration (and I don't consider myself an expert in psychology by any means, though I do have a friend who's studying it, has watched the anime and several relevant clips from the game, and he's agreed with me on these points), as well as the context of Luke's current situation... the way he's acting makes a very sad amount of sense.
First I'll point out Luke himself. Luke's projected age is seventeen, but his actual age really is that of a seven year-old. After Akzeriuth, he doesn't act anything like it - he frankly acts much more mature than even his projected age (not to mention Akzeriuth itself and its aftermath - with everyone blaming and abandoning him, and finding out that a huge part of his identity is nothing but a lie - are both signs of incredible mental resilience. Aforementioned friend who's studying psychology said outright that according to what he's read, things like Akzeriuth break people who aren't already sociopaths). However, there are some ways in which he is still seven and acts like it, and almost all of them have to do with wisdom and experience. This is why Luke isn't able to see some of the more subtle parts of Tear's kindness, as Guy mentions in Yulia City in the leadup to Eldrant. This is why words in particular and even the opinions of the uninformed masses still have a big impact on how he feels, especially about himself - he hasn't figured out that, sometimes, you need to ignore people who don't really understand the situation, and words only have as much power as you give them. In these ways, he is very much still the child he actually is.
Now, onto the game itself. Take Absorption Gate into consideration. After having a large sense of his identity and purpose crushed by his revelation as a replica, Luke's whole purpose has been split into two goals: stopping any more people from dying when the Outer Lands collapse, and to stop Van. After Absorption Gate, he's achieved those two goals, everything he felt like he needed to do (probably part of why he decided to ignore Lorelei's message when he couldn't understand it). The problem with that? That was what he was centering his life around up until that point. Now that that's gone, he has nothing to focus on, no real reason. Consider that, right after Van belittled him for "not being able to live unless you were born for some purpose". When Luke asked Van why he had been born, he was trying to FIND some purpose outside of stopping Van, only Van did not give him anything very encouraging: Luke was made to be thrown away. Useless. Worthless. When Luke asserted his own identity, Van called that assertion "meaningless babble." What with the power that words still have over Luke, and the high amount of respect that Luke still has for Van, these words probably had a lot more impact than they appeared, though he didn't think about it until after the battle was over.
After that, Luke spends one month at home, doing, frankly, what he did before the game started - nothing. Only this time, it bothers him in very different ways. Since he's achieved those goals he's centered his life around, and found nothing else to replace them, he has nothing to really sustain himself with. This leads him to question his identity and purpose: if he has nothing to do in life, why is he there? This is especially true because of the whole conflict between himself and Asch, not helped by the fact that Asch continually misplaces anger and blame about his life being "stolen" onto Luke.
This is where Luke's inferiority complex really takes root - he feels he has no real purpose, he's taking the guilt and the blame for "stealing" Asch's life, and he has no one there to try to talk him out of it, except Susanne and perhaps Pere a little bit. And while his status as a replica may have bothered him a little bit, frankly, staying at his home was a toxic atmosphere for him to try to overcome his doubts about it. If you talk to the NPCs around Fabre Manor, right after Absorption Gate, the picture they paint is actually very unnerving: Most of the White Knights remain loyal (proving once again that the White Knights are awesome), but there are still one or two who make dubious comments on Luke's status as a replica. The servants, meanwhile - especially those six maids by the doors - are much less accepting, hiding fear or outright disgust or disdain that "the replica" is here. So essentially - except for his parents (Susanne much more than the Duke) and Pere - Luke has spent a month surrounded by people who look down on him for being the replica, rather than the original.
And since the party has split, and there's no one really there to keep him from brooding.
Then, things start heating up again, and Luke finds out that everything he thought was taken care of is not - that he failed to actually achieve anything. Not only that, but he misunderstood Lorelei's message and failed to get the Jewel - earning a great deal of contempt from Asch. All of these are blows to what self-confidence he still has, and feed the growing inferiority complex. The rest of the newly reunited party don't exactly deal with it in the best of ways: except for Guy, they aren't very encouraging - at least not openly. They do get onto Luke for putting himself down, but with Luke's self-confidence as low as it is, this probably has the opposite effect of what they're hoping to achieve by that. Not only that, but so far as the Jewel is concerned, while they don't blame Luke for not getting it, they still talk constantly about how important it is for defeating Van and how it needs to be found soon, a reminder to Luke that the problem would have been so much simpler had he gotten it in the first place (made all the more tragic when you realize he DID have it the whole time).
This point is more conjecture, but I believe Ion's death also probably had some impact as well. When Ion was alive, any of Luke's self-deprecating comments on his status as a replica would have reflected on Ion as well, so Luke may have kept quiet more out of respect for his friend.
However, then we get to the big points: The miasma returning and large-scale replication.
Large-scale replication is the one that feeds Luke's inferiority complex the most: He sees people treating replicas cruelly, abusing them, calling them freaks and monsters and "human things". He even hears from King Ingobert how these replicas are "such a headache" - a rather tactless comment with Luke standing right there in front of him. All of this reinforces the treatment he got during his month home. Yes, the party and several others make it clear that they don't view him like that, but this is where Luke's seven year-old mindset comes into play. In one of my health classes, a video discussed how one of the problems with trying to get children to eat healthy is contrasting messages: parents get maybe five or six chances a day to impress healthy eating habits onto their children; meanwhile, junk food ads are everywhere: TV commercials, magazines, billboards, the internet... If a child is exposed to five to six positive votes for healthy foods but hundreds of votes for junk food in any given day, which side are they most likely to listen to? The much more prevalent message. It's the same case here. Luke's getting (relatively) positive messages from his party and family, and the world leaders he's dealt with, but in the end, there are a lot more people out there shrieking about the "human things" causing problems and having no place in this world. Luke's seven year-old mindset doesn't have the wisdom yet to realize that he should give less weight to the words of uninformed bystanders than to the words of his friends who know and care about him.
Not to mention Luke's already figured out that the hyperresonance plan is the only effective plan they have for neutralizing the miasma. This is the culmination of his inferiority complex: What with al these negative messages, his knowledge of his own recent shortcomings and his guilt over his past failings - Akzeriuth and "stealing" Asch's life, though the latter isn't his fault - he's already acknowledged on some level that if someone were to die to neutralize the miasma, then it should be him. So he - perhaps subconsciously, perhaps not - starts going out of his way to give himself less attachments to his life, such as reintroducing Asch to his parents, both fearing and hoping that they'll tell him he's no longer needed. In some sad way, this neutralizing the miasma could be seen as Luke trying to give himself a purpose again, the purpose he lost after Absorption Gate, one he could unquestionably achieve this time. It makes sense - he centered himself around those goals, thought he had fulfilled them, only to find out he'd failed them in almost every possible way.
It's only when faced with the truth of neutralizing the miasma, the knowledge of his own mortality, that Luke finds the bit of confidence he still has, and realizes that maybe he does have a different purpose, after all: to live, for his own sake, and no one else's. One cannot desire to live if one does not think they have any worth.
It's tragic though, that Luke was only able to figure that out when he did.
All in all, yes it's frustrating. Yes I wanted to slap Luke myself near the end when he started actively giving himself reasons to die. It's aggravating, to the party and the player, because we know Luke has worth, and yet for all of our words and actions he refuses to see it. But unrealistic? I don't think so.
Which just goes to show, that reality is not a happy thing.
--------------------
Sometimes I feel like I think too much about stuff like this. But yeah, anyway. I haven't seen anything huge on the arguments for either side, but I still felt like standing up for the way the game is.
And now that I've spent so much time on that, I need to go get back to studying. WHEE.
This has to do with the slight controversy around Luke's character development in the third part of the game.
From what I've seen on TvTropes, and experienced myself, Luke's character development after the Absorption Gate can be a mixed bag of feelings, especially during his depressive spells between Absorption Gate and Tower of Rem. Many people it's pretty much derailing said character development, and undoes everything he HAS achieved.
I have to disagree. At least on any claims about his character development being "derailment" or "unrealistic".
Yes, it's frustrating. Yes, Luke really needed some combination of a hug and a slap during those times. But if you take even some basics of psychology into consideration (and I don't consider myself an expert in psychology by any means, though I do have a friend who's studying it, has watched the anime and several relevant clips from the game, and he's agreed with me on these points), as well as the context of Luke's current situation... the way he's acting makes a very sad amount of sense.
First I'll point out Luke himself. Luke's projected age is seventeen, but his actual age really is that of a seven year-old. After Akzeriuth, he doesn't act anything like it - he frankly acts much more mature than even his projected age (not to mention Akzeriuth itself and its aftermath - with everyone blaming and abandoning him, and finding out that a huge part of his identity is nothing but a lie - are both signs of incredible mental resilience. Aforementioned friend who's studying psychology said outright that according to what he's read, things like Akzeriuth break people who aren't already sociopaths). However, there are some ways in which he is still seven and acts like it, and almost all of them have to do with wisdom and experience. This is why Luke isn't able to see some of the more subtle parts of Tear's kindness, as Guy mentions in Yulia City in the leadup to Eldrant. This is why words in particular and even the opinions of the uninformed masses still have a big impact on how he feels, especially about himself - he hasn't figured out that, sometimes, you need to ignore people who don't really understand the situation, and words only have as much power as you give them. In these ways, he is very much still the child he actually is.
Now, onto the game itself. Take Absorption Gate into consideration. After having a large sense of his identity and purpose crushed by his revelation as a replica, Luke's whole purpose has been split into two goals: stopping any more people from dying when the Outer Lands collapse, and to stop Van. After Absorption Gate, he's achieved those two goals, everything he felt like he needed to do (probably part of why he decided to ignore Lorelei's message when he couldn't understand it). The problem with that? That was what he was centering his life around up until that point. Now that that's gone, he has nothing to focus on, no real reason. Consider that, right after Van belittled him for "not being able to live unless you were born for some purpose". When Luke asked Van why he had been born, he was trying to FIND some purpose outside of stopping Van, only Van did not give him anything very encouraging: Luke was made to be thrown away. Useless. Worthless. When Luke asserted his own identity, Van called that assertion "meaningless babble." What with the power that words still have over Luke, and the high amount of respect that Luke still has for Van, these words probably had a lot more impact than they appeared, though he didn't think about it until after the battle was over.
After that, Luke spends one month at home, doing, frankly, what he did before the game started - nothing. Only this time, it bothers him in very different ways. Since he's achieved those goals he's centered his life around, and found nothing else to replace them, he has nothing to really sustain himself with. This leads him to question his identity and purpose: if he has nothing to do in life, why is he there? This is especially true because of the whole conflict between himself and Asch, not helped by the fact that Asch continually misplaces anger and blame about his life being "stolen" onto Luke.
This is where Luke's inferiority complex really takes root - he feels he has no real purpose, he's taking the guilt and the blame for "stealing" Asch's life, and he has no one there to try to talk him out of it, except Susanne and perhaps Pere a little bit. And while his status as a replica may have bothered him a little bit, frankly, staying at his home was a toxic atmosphere for him to try to overcome his doubts about it. If you talk to the NPCs around Fabre Manor, right after Absorption Gate, the picture they paint is actually very unnerving: Most of the White Knights remain loyal (proving once again that the White Knights are awesome), but there are still one or two who make dubious comments on Luke's status as a replica. The servants, meanwhile - especially those six maids by the doors - are much less accepting, hiding fear or outright disgust or disdain that "the replica" is here. So essentially - except for his parents (Susanne much more than the Duke) and Pere - Luke has spent a month surrounded by people who look down on him for being the replica, rather than the original.
And since the party has split, and there's no one really there to keep him from brooding.
Then, things start heating up again, and Luke finds out that everything he thought was taken care of is not - that he failed to actually achieve anything. Not only that, but he misunderstood Lorelei's message and failed to get the Jewel - earning a great deal of contempt from Asch. All of these are blows to what self-confidence he still has, and feed the growing inferiority complex. The rest of the newly reunited party don't exactly deal with it in the best of ways: except for Guy, they aren't very encouraging - at least not openly. They do get onto Luke for putting himself down, but with Luke's self-confidence as low as it is, this probably has the opposite effect of what they're hoping to achieve by that. Not only that, but so far as the Jewel is concerned, while they don't blame Luke for not getting it, they still talk constantly about how important it is for defeating Van and how it needs to be found soon, a reminder to Luke that the problem would have been so much simpler had he gotten it in the first place (made all the more tragic when you realize he DID have it the whole time).
This point is more conjecture, but I believe Ion's death also probably had some impact as well. When Ion was alive, any of Luke's self-deprecating comments on his status as a replica would have reflected on Ion as well, so Luke may have kept quiet more out of respect for his friend.
However, then we get to the big points: The miasma returning and large-scale replication.
Large-scale replication is the one that feeds Luke's inferiority complex the most: He sees people treating replicas cruelly, abusing them, calling them freaks and monsters and "human things". He even hears from King Ingobert how these replicas are "such a headache" - a rather tactless comment with Luke standing right there in front of him. All of this reinforces the treatment he got during his month home. Yes, the party and several others make it clear that they don't view him like that, but this is where Luke's seven year-old mindset comes into play. In one of my health classes, a video discussed how one of the problems with trying to get children to eat healthy is contrasting messages: parents get maybe five or six chances a day to impress healthy eating habits onto their children; meanwhile, junk food ads are everywhere: TV commercials, magazines, billboards, the internet... If a child is exposed to five to six positive votes for healthy foods but hundreds of votes for junk food in any given day, which side are they most likely to listen to? The much more prevalent message. It's the same case here. Luke's getting (relatively) positive messages from his party and family, and the world leaders he's dealt with, but in the end, there are a lot more people out there shrieking about the "human things" causing problems and having no place in this world. Luke's seven year-old mindset doesn't have the wisdom yet to realize that he should give less weight to the words of uninformed bystanders than to the words of his friends who know and care about him.
Not to mention Luke's already figured out that the hyperresonance plan is the only effective plan they have for neutralizing the miasma. This is the culmination of his inferiority complex: What with al these negative messages, his knowledge of his own recent shortcomings and his guilt over his past failings - Akzeriuth and "stealing" Asch's life, though the latter isn't his fault - he's already acknowledged on some level that if someone were to die to neutralize the miasma, then it should be him. So he - perhaps subconsciously, perhaps not - starts going out of his way to give himself less attachments to his life, such as reintroducing Asch to his parents, both fearing and hoping that they'll tell him he's no longer needed. In some sad way, this neutralizing the miasma could be seen as Luke trying to give himself a purpose again, the purpose he lost after Absorption Gate, one he could unquestionably achieve this time. It makes sense - he centered himself around those goals, thought he had fulfilled them, only to find out he'd failed them in almost every possible way.
It's only when faced with the truth of neutralizing the miasma, the knowledge of his own mortality, that Luke finds the bit of confidence he still has, and realizes that maybe he does have a different purpose, after all: to live, for his own sake, and no one else's. One cannot desire to live if one does not think they have any worth.
It's tragic though, that Luke was only able to figure that out when he did.
All in all, yes it's frustrating. Yes I wanted to slap Luke myself near the end when he started actively giving himself reasons to die. It's aggravating, to the party and the player, because we know Luke has worth, and yet for all of our words and actions he refuses to see it. But unrealistic? I don't think so.
Which just goes to show, that reality is not a happy thing.
--------------------
Sometimes I feel like I think too much about stuff like this. But yeah, anyway. I haven't seen anything huge on the arguments for either side, but I still felt like standing up for the way the game is.
And now that I've spent so much time on that, I need to go get back to studying. WHEE.