Essay, End-Game
I am currently SKIPPING OVER the during-game essay I had planned to do because 1) I am too lazy to canon review and 2) Aviy is being a whore and making me essay. FAIR WARNING, SPOILERS FOR END OF GAME and I just depressed myself with certain horrible gaidens and cutscenes so incoherency and bias warnings apply as well.
... okay no aviy don't kill me.
But. The truth of the matter is that Asch still does not even remotely like Luke by the end of the game. One of Asch's last actions before his own death is to fight Luke and they're still doing the "I'm my own person" "prove your worth replica" song and dance even then. After the fight, it's still pretty clear that Asch STILL can't separate Luke from being HIS replica ("Damn it... The original lost to the replica...") and before any attempts at understanding each other could have been made (one thing you can learn from videogames is that it's okay to delay the saving of the world to do inane little things like play minigames or discuss your feelings) could occur, they're forced apart! Soldiers break into the room to attack, Asch throws his only weapon to Luke, the Key of Lorelei, helps Luke escape from the trap room while locking himself in, and essentially. Accepts his death. He KNOWS he's been dying since early on in the game and that he's in a situation where he's pretty boned and. That he kind of has fulfilled his purpose by giving the replica what he needs to defeat Van so it is okay if he fails at staying alive. REMEMBER THAT THING I SAID ABOUT ASCH NEEDING PURPOSE IN LIFE? It's. It's been completed here and he's dying anyways so might as well take a couple dozen NPCs with him hurrah. BUT the line he says just before engaging in a fight is kind of really important.
"Your fight is with me, Asch-- no, Luke fon Fabre!"
SEE. Throughout the game, Asch has made it very clear that he never had plans to "go back" to his old life. He'd repeatedly told various people throughout the game not to call him Luke and disregards a lot of the comments made about how he used to be in the past. He refers to the person he used to be as dead, and that the person he is now is just the "ashes left behind" la la drama. It's pretty clear that he's also done a lot to try and keep the past from catching up to him. He's managed to avoid his mother and father ever since his kidnapping, which I imagine is a pretty difficult feat when you're a well-known God General but SOMEHOW he's managed to. Keep the fact that he looks v. v. much like the son of Duke Fabre on the downlow for seven years. Even after being tricked into seeing his parents, Asch vowed never to return to the manor again. TO PUT IT BRIEFLY Asch claims to have put that past behind him, has done a lot to KEEP the past behind him, and is never looking back yada yada except. He's a lying mcliar face.
Asch still very clearly remembers all the details about his past, like the pinky-swear promise he made with Natalia years ago and other things from his life spent in the manor. It's also kind of obvious that he doesn't really want to forget all those little things. He thinks and talks about them all the time to people (Natalia takes up 60% of his brain functions, canon fact) and from all this it's kind of very obvious that Asch has a hell of a problem with letting go of the past. He's the type to remember everything and forget nothing, despite any and all attempts at self-conviction to do otherwise. Especially things that are dear to him.
So after spending years and years of denial about wanting to go back, Asch. Gives in a little to that secret desire of his to be Luke fon Fabre again. Because despite everything he's claimed, done, and fangbladed people in the face for, Luke fon Fabre is who he is. Asch is this fabricated lie of a persona that he's been fed since replication and for years has continued to feed himself. As for WHY, I believe that it's because he didn't want people to know just how MUCH being replaced bothered him. Despite how plainly bitter he is over the whole thing, letting people know how much it screwed over his life was the last thing he wanted getting out. (I WILL EXPAND ON THIS AT SOME OTHER TIME, BUT LET IT BE KNOWN THAT ASCH IS VERY PRIDEFUL.) The only people to really get a sense of how much it bothered him were Master Van, who was there when it all happened, and Luke, who he kinda yelled at a lot in their final fight.
BUT GOING BACK TO ASCH'S ROOTS, it's really the very fact that he STILL refers to himself as The Original, even just before his death, that shows that he can't think of himself as anything other than the real Luke fon Fabre. But at the same time, he's the real Luke fon Fabre who failed at everything ever, as far as he can believe, and can't let go of that so in. One last little blaze of glory, lets himself fall back into the Luke fon Fabre he was, whose last actions would not include horrible fail by sitting back and letting himself get killed, but to stand and fight against terrible odds and maybe pull off another little miracle of survival.
Then he dies. Asch dies a horrible death by NPCs locked up in a room he couldn't escape from and CAN YOU TELL I AM UNSATISFIED WITH ASCH'S SUCKY DEATH BY NPCs? But. This death scene in itself kind of summarizes Asch's life decently. Throughout the game, he's been the guy behind the scenes, pulling just the right strings to help the party along. Several times he's posed as Luke (l-lol) to get something done to HELP Luke. He holds off random soldiers with lines like "Are these guys important? No! So get moving!" because they. Really aren't important to the Big Picture. And Luke is. Y-Yeah, if you get what I'm implying here, go with it, because this is something I want to cover in the during-game essay BUT IN ESSENCE Luke is Important. Which kind of contradicts everything Asch says ever but we already know Asch sucks at telling himself the truth.
That's about where we're at with the end of the game. Asch died with his issues still very much intact, no resolution in sight, and there really was nothing that anybody could do to stop it. The party had to keep moving on, he had known this was coming and. J-Just yeah.
SO WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED KIDDIES?
1) Asch's life was still sucking hard to the very end.
2) Asch liked to lie to himself. A lot.
3) Asch also liked to contradict himself a lot.
4) Asch can't let anything go. Ever. Good memories or bad, Asch stores them all away in himself and never lets go.
I WILL SOMEDAY GET TO THE DURING-GAME ESSAY AND AM CURRENTLY WORKING ON A POST-GAME/IN-CAMP ESSAY but here is some essay to satisfy you for the time being.
... okay no aviy don't kill me.
But. The truth of the matter is that Asch still does not even remotely like Luke by the end of the game. One of Asch's last actions before his own death is to fight Luke and they're still doing the "I'm my own person" "prove your worth replica" song and dance even then. After the fight, it's still pretty clear that Asch STILL can't separate Luke from being HIS replica ("Damn it... The original lost to the replica...") and before any attempts at understanding each other could have been made (one thing you can learn from videogames is that it's okay to delay the saving of the world to do inane little things like play minigames or discuss your feelings) could occur, they're forced apart! Soldiers break into the room to attack, Asch throws his only weapon to Luke, the Key of Lorelei, helps Luke escape from the trap room while locking himself in, and essentially. Accepts his death. He KNOWS he's been dying since early on in the game and that he's in a situation where he's pretty boned and. That he kind of has fulfilled his purpose by giving the replica what he needs to defeat Van so it is okay if he fails at staying alive. REMEMBER THAT THING I SAID ABOUT ASCH NEEDING PURPOSE IN LIFE? It's. It's been completed here and he's dying anyways so might as well take a couple dozen NPCs with him hurrah. BUT the line he says just before engaging in a fight is kind of really important.
"Your fight is with me, Asch-- no, Luke fon Fabre!"
SEE. Throughout the game, Asch has made it very clear that he never had plans to "go back" to his old life. He'd repeatedly told various people throughout the game not to call him Luke and disregards a lot of the comments made about how he used to be in the past. He refers to the person he used to be as dead, and that the person he is now is just the "ashes left behind" la la drama. It's pretty clear that he's also done a lot to try and keep the past from catching up to him. He's managed to avoid his mother and father ever since his kidnapping, which I imagine is a pretty difficult feat when you're a well-known God General but SOMEHOW he's managed to. Keep the fact that he looks v. v. much like the son of Duke Fabre on the downlow for seven years. Even after being tricked into seeing his parents, Asch vowed never to return to the manor again. TO PUT IT BRIEFLY Asch claims to have put that past behind him, has done a lot to KEEP the past behind him, and is never looking back yada yada except. He's a lying mcliar face.
Asch still very clearly remembers all the details about his past, like the pinky-swear promise he made with Natalia years ago and other things from his life spent in the manor. It's also kind of obvious that he doesn't really want to forget all those little things. He thinks and talks about them all the time to people (Natalia takes up 60% of his brain functions, canon fact) and from all this it's kind of very obvious that Asch has a hell of a problem with letting go of the past. He's the type to remember everything and forget nothing, despite any and all attempts at self-conviction to do otherwise. Especially things that are dear to him.
So after spending years and years of denial about wanting to go back, Asch. Gives in a little to that secret desire of his to be Luke fon Fabre again. Because despite everything he's claimed, done, and fangbladed people in the face for, Luke fon Fabre is who he is. Asch is this fabricated lie of a persona that he's been fed since replication and for years has continued to feed himself. As for WHY, I believe that it's because he didn't want people to know just how MUCH being replaced bothered him. Despite how plainly bitter he is over the whole thing, letting people know how much it screwed over his life was the last thing he wanted getting out. (I WILL EXPAND ON THIS AT SOME OTHER TIME, BUT LET IT BE KNOWN THAT ASCH IS VERY PRIDEFUL.) The only people to really get a sense of how much it bothered him were Master Van, who was there when it all happened, and Luke, who he kinda yelled at a lot in their final fight.
BUT GOING BACK TO ASCH'S ROOTS, it's really the very fact that he STILL refers to himself as The Original, even just before his death, that shows that he can't think of himself as anything other than the real Luke fon Fabre. But at the same time, he's the real Luke fon Fabre who failed at everything ever, as far as he can believe, and can't let go of that so in. One last little blaze of glory, lets himself fall back into the Luke fon Fabre he was, whose last actions would not include horrible fail by sitting back and letting himself get killed, but to stand and fight against terrible odds and maybe pull off another little miracle of survival.
Then he dies. Asch dies a horrible death by NPCs locked up in a room he couldn't escape from and CAN YOU TELL I AM UNSATISFIED WITH ASCH'S SUCKY DEATH BY NPCs? But. This death scene in itself kind of summarizes Asch's life decently. Throughout the game, he's been the guy behind the scenes, pulling just the right strings to help the party along. Several times he's posed as Luke (l-lol) to get something done to HELP Luke. He holds off random soldiers with lines like "Are these guys important? No! So get moving!" because they. Really aren't important to the Big Picture. And Luke is. Y-Yeah, if you get what I'm implying here, go with it, because this is something I want to cover in the during-game essay BUT IN ESSENCE Luke is Important. Which kind of contradicts everything Asch says ever but we already know Asch sucks at telling himself the truth.
That's about where we're at with the end of the game. Asch died with his issues still very much intact, no resolution in sight, and there really was nothing that anybody could do to stop it. The party had to keep moving on, he had known this was coming and. J-Just yeah.
SO WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED KIDDIES?
1) Asch's life was still sucking hard to the very end.
2) Asch liked to lie to himself. A lot.
3) Asch also liked to contradict himself a lot.
4) Asch can't let anything go. Ever. Good memories or bad, Asch stores them all away in himself and never lets go.
I WILL SOMEDAY GET TO THE DURING-GAME ESSAY AND AM CURRENTLY WORKING ON A POST-GAME/IN-CAMP ESSAY but here is some essay to satisfy you for the time being.