CAN HAS ESSAY TIEM?
Right, I decided I wanted to write on the (Sera)/Serph/Heat relationship! I decided this while at work. And of course then I got home and dithered about actually doing it. And actually writing it took a weekend. SO INSTEAD OF HAVING MUCH OF A COHERENT PROPER ESSAY STYLE expect rambling because otherwise... it's not getting done lolz.
ALSO WARNINGS: SPOILERS. I thought about doing this essay without spoilers. I really did! And then I realized at least HALF THE POINTS require DDS2 knowledge, and a good chunk of those are stuff for the end of the game so, lol, no. This essay is full of spoilers. Read at your own risk. Since I can't talk about it without spoilers I'm going all out and just spoiling the fuck out of this baby. This is as spoiled as milk you forgot on the kitchen counter for like. A fucking month.
ONWARD!
I will leave that question unanswered while I set this up! Let's have some headers. I fucking love headers!
Let's break this OT3 baby down a notch
Seraph
A disclaimer before I start: occasionally I will refer to a "Seraph". This is not a pairing name. This is the name for the being that results when Serph and Sera's bodies meld into one, a hermaphrodite with Serph's appearance on one side of hir face and Sera's on the other and a bodytype between the two (tall, male-angled torso, breasts, penis, the whole nine yards. IT'S A SURPRISE TO THEM TOO). Sera does most of the talking as Seraph, for obvious reasons, but it is carefully designed so that Serph has the body language. It is also made absolutely blatantly clear, as explained by the enlightened being who clues them in to what's going on, that they're both there. They are a plural being in a singular form -- their minds haven't melded yet (though it's implied that over the course of eternity they'll accept that they're one with each other and end up melding fully). All the characters treat them as two people; even Johnny, an NPC, ends up stumbling up over "Listen up, boy... er, girl...", and whenever people refer to Seraph as "you", it's pretty clear that it's the plural"you". This will be important later, because I need to establish that when people say things to Seraph (or when Seraph says things to anyone else), it's not just to or from one half of Seraph, it's from two people in agreement or addressed to both people equally. OKAY THAT WAS BORING, onwards!
Serph/Sera
Serph/Sera IS the game's OTP. Hands down. No question. Sera loev Serph SO MUCH. Serph also loev Sera SO MUCH. I don't even know how to properly detail this in a canon way because it's like... in every of their interactions. It's not an uncomplicated love! It does come out that Sera ... you know, created him, is basically the mother of everything in the Junkyard, and that his "past life" self was a cruel bastard who had only ever used her, a fact that Serph mourned over when he found out. It also comes out that Sera is a loli of the tender age of seven. (Pubescent, yes -- lol scientific experiments + strain on her body = premature aging, but inside? Still seven). Thing is, none of these things ever actually ...comes between them! I'd say that they never actually consummate their relationship -- there's one point after the Airport but before the final dungeon where you can see the sexual tension and how close they are to kissing, but. They don't! -- but at the same time they uh. Moments later they meld into one, which, yeah.
Serph and Sera are an uncontested OTP because they are two halfs of a whole. There's no real issues in their relationship because the series is angling to equate the two; they're different parts of the same person and they're not literally the same person (until the end anyway), but they're the same type -- they both want to save everybody and would rather heap the world's suffering on themself. Their soul is the same, in a way -- in DDS2, they end up sharing an atma (essence of their true self). I'm literally trying to think of things to say here and can't -- because they're just too OTP to try to explain it. It's like feeling the need to essay on, I dunno, Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, you sort of hit this wall of "BECAUSE THEY...DO."
Short summary: Serph/Sera is the game's OTP. It's two-sided, very sweet and gentle, and while not overly sexualized or with anything resembling tension, it's constantly cute.
Heat/Sera
Heat/Sera is a one-sided thing -- at least, mostly. Not entirely! There are some hints that on a visceral level she views him sexually, but not that she, well, wants to.
Sera's pretty okay on both of them in a sort of |D way until one day, after sneaking her out of a trap they'd set up for the enemy (under Serph's orders) Heat carried Sera across the country to a new base and was then mostly alone with her for a while. At which point a bunch of his stewing issues came to a head and he confronted her about liking Serph, suggested that she like him instead becaues he's 'stronger'. That actually went over fairly well -- she wasn't upset or put on the spot, mostly ...frustrated and trying to explain that, well, Serph's got his own strength! Physical strength or always fighting isn't everything.
Then he grabbed her arms and she began to get a bit scared, the whole "Heat, you're hurting me!" thing. He was pretty much tuning out her words at that point (we get a close-up of her lips as she talks lol) and a few moments later he forced a kiss on her. She struggled at first, then sort of went limp into it and started to cry. FEELING LIKE AN ABSOLUTE HEEL, he let her go, where she ran off into a side room to recover.
He never told anyone about this, and neither did she -- when you (playing Serph) go up to her in that side room right after, she just tells Serph that she's all right. However, after that, we start getting hints that she's become sexualized to some extent -- especially as regards Heat. For example, I think I mentioned that the demons in DDS1 often confuse hunger and desire as basic wants -- right after the above scene, if you talk to Argilla just outside the new base, she comments that it's weird but "Sera's finally started to look hungry." In DDS2, as well, Serph etc (without Heat) fish her out of the EGG where she's buck naked. She isn't at all self-conscious about her nudity -- she hugs Serph, she looks around at all the others happily, and she doesn't mind at all that she's nude in front of Roland, a total stranger. However, Heat shows up in the door at the end of the corridor and the first, clearly instinctual response she has is to cover her chest. I wouldn't say she's happy about it, but she is clearly aware of Heat as a sexual being -- of Heat's desire for her, at the least, and I think the comment about Sera starting to look hungry (since there IS no other context for it -- she doesn't actually gain atma and begin cannibalising until halfway through the second game, so there's a huge break between the two events) indicates that whether or not she wants it, Heat's facemash and clear sexual desire for her has made her aware of her own budding sexual needs.
(I say 'budding' there but there's a good chance she was sexualized much earlier,s adly, around the age of two -- we get a flashback five years when she had been physically (though not emotionally or anything) aged to around ...eight to eleven? Her body starting to change though still looking like a child's. Anyway, we see her acting out, in an AI world of her creation, basically her comfort fantasies and it does involve playing with friends, but it ALSO involves the young teen fantasy of 'there are two hot guys and both want me and the good guy and I are soinlove while the bad boy is jealous and lusts after me', which is a pretty good sign that she was reacihng some degree of ... sexual awareness, though a young one, quite a while ago. At any rate, I don't think she'd consciously associated sexual desire with Heat or Serph until that point, hence the 'budding'.)
Anyway, however you look at it, Sera ...feels bad about things with Heat! She realizes in DDS2 that it's because of her earlier programming, mixed with the ghosts of the original, that Heat is so desperate for her and so jealous of Serph (though, because she has a tendency to self-blame, she does neglect that it's also Sera's current actions and everything else that Heat does love now). She apologizes for this at least twice in DDS2, though neither times Heat is capable of really hearing it ("I'm sorry, Heat -- I know that I've made you suffer" and another variant on it where she apologizes to everyone in a very broad way for how her programming drove them). At the same time it's also clear that she's made very uncomfortable by the force of his want for her and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume, from Seraph's reactions at the end of game (more on that later!) that she sort of deep-down wishes that he'd go back to that stage where he shuts up and copes while supporting her.
On Heat's side? He loves her. Desperately, passionately, to the point where he can, will, and has harmed others because of his desire to protect her and, well, because of his desire for her. He's aware now that she's, um, seven, but it doesn't even occur to him as an issue -- technically he's younger (lol) and ...man I can't even comment on it because it just doesn't register to him any more than it registered, back in the Junkyard, that the fact she has black hair is also kind of weird -- he knows about it, but in the meantime, it's just Sera. The point I have him from since updating him is a strange place as relating to both Serph and Heat and Heat and Sera, in that it's right after he had the BIG CONFRONTATION that helped him work through his issues, but right before he... well, dies and goes to the afterlife where he's still very guilty and upset but has moved, as a RESULT of the big confrontation, to a point where he supports them wholeheartedly.
So the place I've got Heat from? He's still a bit mixed up about Serph. He's had to confront the fact that he still looks up to Serph, still would support him, still would make up for his past actions and 'be there for him', and, given what I'm gonna talk about in a minute, still loves him. At the same time he's jealous and angry and S-sera loves serph so much and Heat believes (because he's a smart guy -- rude and aggressive but smart and he is perfectly aware of Sera's nervous behavior towards him and what it means) that Sera doesn't love him the way Heat loves her. Instead, she loves Serph that way. And he hates that; he hates having it rubbed in his face but has come to a place where he (believes) he accepts that; he ships Serph and Sera. If you get the "bad" ending (rather, the 'less good' ending, where Heat doesn't end up with you and in your party), he just outright says, "You two were really meant to be, huh" and leaves it at that. However much he wants Sera for himself, he does reach a point by end of game where, whether you get his bad ending or his good one, he can say "hey, take care of her". In his dying scene he deliberately passes Sera over to Serph; he says that Serph'll have to take care of her now, and that he doesn't regret his choices. This is one of the reasons that, in camp, he's very ... however much he hates it, he wants Sera to be happy and he wants Serph to make her happy, and if it's even possible that she'll be intimidated by his 'thing' with Serph, he wants out so Serph can make her happy.
Heat/Serph -- HEY THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR RIGHT
Okay! I'm gonna say this up-front: Serph/Heat is canon.
Now, the disclaimer: It's not blatant canon. It's not face-sucking leg-humping sweet hot vore cannibalistic action! They don't kiss, like they've started doing in camp; that's a camp development and if people worry that it's OOC, by all means, talk to us about it. ♥ It isn't even outright stated "Heat and Serph love each other" canon; it is shown and in a lot of ways it is stated, but it's never made absolutely unquestionably flat-out written clear. However, I believe it to be canon that Heat at least finds Serph attractive, and here's why, in its flattest, easiest form:
If you get the good ending, where Heat has managed to accept his feelings, has come to terms with himself, and has (as Roland puts it) learned to be honest with himself, he tells Seraph that he finds both of them to be cute. Heat ranks his physical feelings for Serph on the same level that he does Sera. He admits to his jealousy in the same breath ("you two got closer than I'd wanted") but he tells them that he finds them both cute.
That is the number one thing, and why I wanted so badly to establish the plural nature of Seraph, to take away the "well couldn't he have been talking to just Sera at the end there?" Because they don't. They're both there; characters talk to both of them, and this one, in particular, is one where he addressed them both by name (like: "Sera, Serph..."). it is the closest we get to a canon confession, which, given that Heat hates so much to talk about his feelings, isn't nothing.
That said, it's not the only thing. And from here on assume the rest of the essay is about Serph/Heat so LET'S HAVE SOME MORE FUCKING HEADERS!!
DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA: THE DATING SIM
So there is a popular style of video game, particularly in Japan. This is known as the Dating Sim, or (if done with girls) a Bishoujo Game. Occasional variants with IN YOUR FACE PORN exist (the H-game!) but "let's just play through and hook main boy up with any variety of girls" games are pretty well known and fit a certain style. Mostly, you go through and depending which girl you want to bag, you arrange to have your character hang out with them (if you want the quiet reading megane girl, you go to the library after school a lot, for example, and if you get an option to hang out with her, you take it). Along the way you gain relationship points by picking the 'right' choices in discussions with them; a wrong answer at a critical juncture might guarantee that you can't hook up with them, while a right answer might almost guarantee you the ending with the girl you want. There's a variety of archetypes who end up in this game -- the sporty girl, who's usually strong and sexy and tanned and secretly self-conscious of her lack of feminity. The quiet reading girl, usually wears glasses and is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL without them, sometimes she gets mixed with the rich girl or the art student girl, generally she's the 'upper class' type. The childhood friend -- this one is invariably a tsundere (gets angry easily, and usually acts irritated with the protagonist more often than anything else, but her anger is there to cover up her need for him and her secret love) -- who has known the protagonist forever and either has refused to admit her love for him to herself or who is just hiding it because she knows that he just thinks of her as a friend/sister/whatever.
At this point I'd like to point out that Heat is an almost horribly perfect archetype of the tsundere childhood friend.
The SMT team is very aware of the dating sim genre. Though I can't point to a SMT game before DDS, which I recognize weakens my argument, the team integrates the Dating Sim style very explicitly into Persona 3, which is half horror, half dating sim. I would assume that as it's a HUGE game genre, any game designer is well aware of its existences, its tropes, and also is aware that the video game audience is well aware of it. Not being aware of it is like-- I dunno, not being aware of RPGs and RPG tropes, or something like that.
So! DDS -- both games -- is not a dating sim. You cannot pick between party members to end up with. Except for one.
There are a series of four questions -- two in the first game, two in the second -- which appear in scenes that Heat is also in, all directed towards Heat.
These questions all are about Serph showing Heat his feelings for Heat and or for Sera (to Heat). They are about making Heat feel welcomed, loved, accepted -- essentially, answering the questions 'right' are with the answers that make Heat see that Serph cares for him, while answering them 'wrong' sets Serph against Heat in some way.
1) The first is in Coordinate 136 at the top. Sera's been kidnapped, and the enemy has stabbed Heat and told him to fight Serph, and they'll reward him with "a trip to Nirvana for you and your sweetheart". This is apparently his chance to kill Serph and get Sera, no penalty applies. Heat pretends to side with the enemy and decides to face Serph in a fight. Gale tells Serph to fight Heat because there's no other choice, and the player can choose between having Serph refuse to fight Heat and having Serph agree that he must fight.
If you choose to have him agree to fight, Heat will not join Seraph in the final dungeon of DDS2, and during the fight sequence that results, he tells Serph, in a pained voice, "Give me a break". This is the choice that doesn't make Heat feel trusted wholeheartedly.
If you choose to have him refuse to fight, Heat will beat the crap out of Serph in the fight as he's looking for a chance to get Sera back, but Heat will know he's trusted. This is one correct point to getting Heat in DDS2.
2) The second is after Colonel Beck has just explained to them all that Sera is THE DEVIL WHO CAST THEM INTO THIS HELL RAAAAAAAAR. Sera has taken advantage of the shock to leave them because she's just remembered everything and is scared to hurt them more. The party is debating, trying to decide what's right, and whether to trust Sera or believe Beck. The entire thing is slanting towards distrusting Sera, and Heat has been very,v ery quiet through the discussion so far.
Abruptly, Serph gets the option to give his input on whether Sera stuck them "in this hell". The two choices are "It doesn't matter" and "There's no way to be sure..."
If you pick "There's no way to be sure", Heat breaks into the conversation to yell at Serph, and you've lost your chance to have him come to your side in DDS2.
If you pick "It doesn't matter", Heat breaks into the conversation with enthusiastic agreement. They're thinking the same way; he's pleased and relieved that he can rely on Serph to feel the same way he does about Sera. (Lol.) You have one more point towards getting Heat in DDS2.
3) the third is in DDS2, when Heat comes charging at Serph with the intent to kill him, when he sees that they've fished Sera out of the EGG (insuring her upcoming death, though THEY don't know that yet). He stabs his demon arm through Serph, who just stands there and smiles painfully at him. Shocked and taken aback, Heat asks him, "Why did you just stand there?" The two dialogue choices Serph has is "We're comrades" and "I won't let you have Sera."
...I could explain the difference between the two to Heat but I think they're KIND OF OBVIOUS OKAY. Saying they're comrades moves and shocks Heat, that even after that, Serph could care for him. Saying the other is JUST A PISSY BITCH THING TO DO OKAY.
4) The last and final one is when Heat is dying. Serph has just learned everything that had happened five years ago, when his past-life self had betrayed and killed past-life Heat aand had been using baby Sera for his own ends. Heat knows Serph has learned it. Bleeding out from his gut, he asks Serph, "Now do you see where I stand?"
Your two options are "I do" and ...standing there silently like a lump. If you pick the first, and you've answered all the other questions, Heat will join up with you at the end. He feels trusted, accepted, understood, believed-in, loved. If you pick the other option, it's a final betrayal and he won't join you.
If you "get" Heat in the final dungeon, Roland shoves Heat forward, and he stumbles, looks back, then meets Seraph's uncertain gaze and tells hir to "Lighten up... I'm here for you."
If you don't, Heat starts to step forward, hesitates, and then...moves back, shoving Roland forward, and Roland tells Heat that he should be more honest with his feelings. Heat smiles self-deprecatingly.
If you "get" Heat in the final dungeon, and talk to him in the optional dialogue after, Heat tells Seraph that they got closer than he wanted, but they're kind of cute like that, and adds that he won't hurt Sera any more.
If you don't, Heat comments that he guesses the two of them were meant to be together.
Now, of course, none of this is explicitly sexual! Except the equating Sera and Serph on levels of cute when we already know Heat wants to put it in Sera hardcore, but I already talked about that. What this IS about is love and acceptance. Whether it's platonic or not isn't made clear, but the combination of the equating Sera and Serph at the end of that if you answer the questions right AND the hilariously explicit use of the romance-genre dating sim method to get it is something I firmly believe implies that part of the 'honesty' Roland refers to is Heat's love for Serph.
(I note, for the sake of completeness, that it's not a choice between Roland or Heat in the same way; you have to COURT Heat by picking options; Roland is the default choice. You don't have to work to get Roland; he just joins you if you didn't have a DDS1 save or anything like that, so there's no Serph-Roland argument here too ;; )
(Also for the record, Serph and I are both playing with the assumption that Serph would have picked the 'good ending' options.)
ACCIDENTAL SHIPPING
So Heat's got himself an interesting conundrum throughout the first game wherein he always turns to Serph for help in Sera feeling better, and as a result she likes Serph more and more!
EXAMPLE:
Sera: [is feeling bad and blaming herself for everything D:]
Heat: [BLITHERS AT HER] WE'RE COMRADES AND COMRADES LOVE EACH OTHER AND SINCE WE'RE COMRADES DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. UM. UM. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I LIKE YOU OR ANYTHING -- hey, say something, Serph!
Serph: I like her!
Sera: Oh, Serph!
Heat: ....goddammit.
The thing is, although this builds up into the jealousy that explodes in the second game, it doesn't actually bother him that much in the first. Like, he's aware that it's him vs Serph for Sera's affections and he tries to convince Sera he's better than Serph, but he doesn't turn his anger on Serph -- not really. Throughout the game, up to the end, he's worried for and thinking about Serph constantly. Like I said, ONE OF THE QUESTIONS that determines if you get Heat in DDS2? Is about whether Serph loves Sera enough to trust her unconditionally.
In short, if Serph didn't love Sera wholeheartedly, Heat couldn't love Serph as well.
This also comes out in DDS2, but in a different light. Heat's... angry and grieving and paranoid in DDS2 because he found out that in the past Serph was a user who would pretend to genuinely care for others but would just be using them. Past!Serph abused both Heat and Sera in this way, and current Heat ... is worried and angry for both himself and Sera because of this. He can't trust Serph's intentions towards Sera anymore. The first time they meet up in DDS2 and fight, it's because Sera's held hostage ("Sera will be fine as long as you're with us") and it's the only direct thing he can do when he can't actually trust Serph etc. At the same time, towards the end, the thing that gives Heat peace, after he's come to have to trust again that Serph is just Serph, is to hand Sera off to Serph. It's just the two of them alone, Heat dying in a pool of his own blood, and he tells Serph to undersatnd that Serph is the one who killed him.
However Serph answers, Heat's thoughts immediately turn to Sera. "You're the one who has to protect Sera now. Don't let go of her" is one possibility; the other is "I don't want Sera to blame herself. Take good care of her..."
And then, after making that choice, he can admit he doesn't have any regrets.
Heat may have never intended to, and had a long, jealous road because of it, but it's because Serph loves and will take care of Sera that Heat CAN trust him, that Heat CAN know Serph's not the bastard from five years ago, that Heat CAN give up regrets like that. Heat's love for Serph is directly tied to Serph's love for Sera, and Heat's love for Sera making him want her to have that.
This is one of the reasons they're my, the player's, dysfunctional OT3, but also why, in camp, I play him as worrying incessantly about the impact of their more direct relationship on Sera. If it hurt Sera, he'd just. Die inside, and it's also why he gets really scowly and angry when he thinks Serph isn't thinking hard enough about that. (in truth, of course, Serph's thinking about it just fine, because there's no point in worrying about something that hasn't happened, but ANGRY HEAT IS ANGRY.)
Heat's Feelings for Serph are Sometimes equated with Sera's for Serph
This happens much less! For the obvious reason that Heat and Serph are in a big rivalry for Sera (at least in Heat's head), while Sera and Serph have no tension or anger between them. We get a lot more of Heat's feelings for Sera being equated with his feelings for Serph, rather than SERA'S for him. But it crops up now and then.
Probably the only example clear enough to talk about is the final scene in DDS1. At the very final scene when Sera's panicking that Serph won't make it out before the Junkyard explodes? Heat turns when she screams for Serph and he too freaks out that Serph won't make it. Now, it's not exactly significant in and of itself (Cielo is also shouting, like, "Hurry up, bro!") but it's not insignificant -- he'd gone to pick up Sera and carry her bodily to the gate out so that she'll get out safely and in worrying about Serph, he stops (as Sera had) and neither of them make it to the gate as a result.
Anyway, it's a minor one, but just tossing it out there.
LOL ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS LOL
DDS likes playing with elemental weaknesses for friendships, rivalries, and love. It doesn't always do it, but it crops up enough to lol. For example, I think we can all admit that Argilla and Roland are kind of cute? Roland's weak to Earth, and Argilla's an earth element.
Well, Serph's element is ice, and Heat's is fire. Heat is weak to ice. Serph is weak to fire. ...I also note Sera is an ice element and is also weak to fire. It plays off the rivalry element, for sure, but given that Sera's elemental design is the same it also implies, in essence, the other side.
(There is only one time Heat is NOT weak to ice, and that is when he has been invaded by corrupt data, is grieving for Serph and what he'd done, Sera can't get through to him, and he keeps encouraging the party to try harder to kill him. So. It's not an insignificant connection.)
SEX AND DEVOURING
I previously made an essay, like some time ago, on how hunger and desire get confused for the DDS demons. It's not that devouring is essentially sexual, but sexual desire is often read as hunger. As such, the bit I'm going to talk about isn't essentially significant, but it's another little interesting tidbit.
In DDS2, the angry, grieving, really fucking messed-up Heat only comments twice that he wants to devour someone.
The first time is when he loses the fight to Serph, at which point he swears that next time they meet, he'll devour him.
The second time is to Sera -- this is when he's been invaded by corrupt data and is NOT IN HIS RIGHT MIND, but he references when he kissed her and immediately follows up with a desire to devour her ("I told you I was strong, Sera. Now I just have to devour you..."), the latter of which definitely ties the lust back into the devouring instincts. though again, he's not in his right mind there (normally, the thought of devouring SERA is anathema to him, because it does also come with a tie towards death). But still, it makes that tie.
Those are the only two times he says it in DDS2, which -- well, he's not in DDS2 that much. Other people say it plenty of times. Again, not essentially significant, but.
IN CONCLUSION: IT'S A QUESTION OF LOVE
At some point along the way I've realized that this essay has started to try to point towards sexuality, and no, I'm not going to. DDS is not itself that essentially sexual; all of the essential questions come down to comradeship and love for each other. (I also didn't talk much about Serph's feelings for others, but that's a no brainer. SERPH LOVE EVERYONE and would do anything for any of his comrades without even thinking it's strange. He just wants to make everyone happy, and it's never something he feels costs him to do it).
I think without a doubt that Heat and Serph love each other is canon. There's a lot of other issues in there but Heat loev Serph as much as he loev Sera. I also think it's pretty strongly implied that there's a level of sexual desire in there, and Heat's... a sexual guy. But it's not important.
Yeah, in camp it's coming out a bunch in play -- kissing, etc, because that sort of thing has been introduced to them in camp; before Heat just dodged the issue, but now that Serph knows about it and feels it'd make Heat happy, it's gonna happen. (Again, I think it's IC, but I'm always happy to discuss it with someone if they feel otherwise and worry about characterization). Yeah, Heat worries about Sera and her happiness more than his own lol, and Serph just sort of sadfaces -- but although it relates to the sexual side, that just stands as a representation of expressing their love; Heat doesn't want his love to oppress Sera's and would rather just stand down. This is all before Seraph; it's before Heat can combine the two without feeling like he's overwriting someone's feelings.
But yeah. Heat loves them both the same; his confession, when it comes, is to both of them, and I'm happy that in camp, when it came out, it was likewise towards both of them.
...
o/
So guys what did I forget to talk about?
ALSO WARNINGS: SPOILERS. I thought about doing this essay without spoilers. I really did! And then I realized at least HALF THE POINTS require DDS2 knowledge, and a good chunk of those are stuff for the end of the game so, lol, no. This essay is full of spoilers. Read at your own risk. Since I can't talk about it without spoilers I'm going all out and just spoiling the fuck out of this baby. This is as spoiled as milk you forgot on the kitchen counter for like. A fucking month.
ONWARD!
I will leave that question unanswered while I set this up! Let's have some headers. I fucking love headers!
Let's break this OT3 baby down a notch
Seraph
A disclaimer before I start: occasionally I will refer to a "Seraph". This is not a pairing name. This is the name for the being that results when Serph and Sera's bodies meld into one, a hermaphrodite with Serph's appearance on one side of hir face and Sera's on the other and a bodytype between the two (tall, male-angled torso, breasts, penis, the whole nine yards. IT'S A SURPRISE TO THEM TOO). Sera does most of the talking as Seraph, for obvious reasons, but it is carefully designed so that Serph has the body language. It is also made absolutely blatantly clear, as explained by the enlightened being who clues them in to what's going on, that they're both there. They are a plural being in a singular form -- their minds haven't melded yet (though it's implied that over the course of eternity they'll accept that they're one with each other and end up melding fully). All the characters treat them as two people; even Johnny, an NPC, ends up stumbling up over "Listen up, boy... er, girl...", and whenever people refer to Seraph as "you", it's pretty clear that it's the plural"you". This will be important later, because I need to establish that when people say things to Seraph (or when Seraph says things to anyone else), it's not just to or from one half of Seraph, it's from two people in agreement or addressed to both people equally. OKAY THAT WAS BORING, onwards!
Serph/Sera
Serph/Sera IS the game's OTP. Hands down. No question. Sera loev Serph SO MUCH. Serph also loev Sera SO MUCH. I don't even know how to properly detail this in a canon way because it's like... in every of their interactions. It's not an uncomplicated love! It does come out that Sera ... you know, created him, is basically the mother of everything in the Junkyard, and that his "past life" self was a cruel bastard who had only ever used her, a fact that Serph mourned over when he found out. It also comes out that Sera is a loli of the tender age of seven. (Pubescent, yes -- lol scientific experiments + strain on her body = premature aging, but inside? Still seven). Thing is, none of these things ever actually ...comes between them! I'd say that they never actually consummate their relationship -- there's one point after the Airport but before the final dungeon where you can see the sexual tension and how close they are to kissing, but. They don't! -- but at the same time they uh. Moments later they meld into one, which, yeah.
Serph and Sera are an uncontested OTP because they are two halfs of a whole. There's no real issues in their relationship because the series is angling to equate the two; they're different parts of the same person and they're not literally the same person (until the end anyway), but they're the same type -- they both want to save everybody and would rather heap the world's suffering on themself. Their soul is the same, in a way -- in DDS2, they end up sharing an atma (essence of their true self). I'm literally trying to think of things to say here and can't -- because they're just too OTP to try to explain it. It's like feeling the need to essay on, I dunno, Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, you sort of hit this wall of "BECAUSE THEY...DO."
Short summary: Serph/Sera is the game's OTP. It's two-sided, very sweet and gentle, and while not overly sexualized or with anything resembling tension, it's constantly cute.
Heat/Sera
Heat/Sera is a one-sided thing -- at least, mostly. Not entirely! There are some hints that on a visceral level she views him sexually, but not that she, well, wants to.
Sera's pretty okay on both of them in a sort of |D way until one day, after sneaking her out of a trap they'd set up for the enemy (under Serph's orders) Heat carried Sera across the country to a new base and was then mostly alone with her for a while. At which point a bunch of his stewing issues came to a head and he confronted her about liking Serph, suggested that she like him instead becaues he's 'stronger'. That actually went over fairly well -- she wasn't upset or put on the spot, mostly ...frustrated and trying to explain that, well, Serph's got his own strength! Physical strength or always fighting isn't everything.
Then he grabbed her arms and she began to get a bit scared, the whole "Heat, you're hurting me!" thing. He was pretty much tuning out her words at that point (we get a close-up of her lips as she talks lol) and a few moments later he forced a kiss on her. She struggled at first, then sort of went limp into it and started to cry. FEELING LIKE AN ABSOLUTE HEEL, he let her go, where she ran off into a side room to recover.
He never told anyone about this, and neither did she -- when you (playing Serph) go up to her in that side room right after, she just tells Serph that she's all right. However, after that, we start getting hints that she's become sexualized to some extent -- especially as regards Heat. For example, I think I mentioned that the demons in DDS1 often confuse hunger and desire as basic wants -- right after the above scene, if you talk to Argilla just outside the new base, she comments that it's weird but "Sera's finally started to look hungry." In DDS2, as well, Serph etc (without Heat) fish her out of the EGG where she's buck naked. She isn't at all self-conscious about her nudity -- she hugs Serph, she looks around at all the others happily, and she doesn't mind at all that she's nude in front of Roland, a total stranger. However, Heat shows up in the door at the end of the corridor and the first, clearly instinctual response she has is to cover her chest. I wouldn't say she's happy about it, but she is clearly aware of Heat as a sexual being -- of Heat's desire for her, at the least, and I think the comment about Sera starting to look hungry (since there IS no other context for it -- she doesn't actually gain atma and begin cannibalising until halfway through the second game, so there's a huge break between the two events) indicates that whether or not she wants it, Heat's facemash and clear sexual desire for her has made her aware of her own budding sexual needs.
(I say 'budding' there but there's a good chance she was sexualized much earlier,s adly, around the age of two -- we get a flashback five years when she had been physically (though not emotionally or anything) aged to around ...eight to eleven? Her body starting to change though still looking like a child's. Anyway, we see her acting out, in an AI world of her creation, basically her comfort fantasies and it does involve playing with friends, but it ALSO involves the young teen fantasy of 'there are two hot guys and both want me and the good guy and I are soinlove while the bad boy is jealous and lusts after me', which is a pretty good sign that she was reacihng some degree of ... sexual awareness, though a young one, quite a while ago. At any rate, I don't think she'd consciously associated sexual desire with Heat or Serph until that point, hence the 'budding'.)
Anyway, however you look at it, Sera ...feels bad about things with Heat! She realizes in DDS2 that it's because of her earlier programming, mixed with the ghosts of the original, that Heat is so desperate for her and so jealous of Serph (though, because she has a tendency to self-blame, she does neglect that it's also Sera's current actions and everything else that Heat does love now). She apologizes for this at least twice in DDS2, though neither times Heat is capable of really hearing it ("I'm sorry, Heat -- I know that I've made you suffer" and another variant on it where she apologizes to everyone in a very broad way for how her programming drove them). At the same time it's also clear that she's made very uncomfortable by the force of his want for her and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume, from Seraph's reactions at the end of game (more on that later!) that she sort of deep-down wishes that he'd go back to that stage where he shuts up and copes while supporting her.
On Heat's side? He loves her. Desperately, passionately, to the point where he can, will, and has harmed others because of his desire to protect her and, well, because of his desire for her. He's aware now that she's, um, seven, but it doesn't even occur to him as an issue -- technically he's younger (lol) and ...man I can't even comment on it because it just doesn't register to him any more than it registered, back in the Junkyard, that the fact she has black hair is also kind of weird -- he knows about it, but in the meantime, it's just Sera. The point I have him from since updating him is a strange place as relating to both Serph and Heat and Heat and Sera, in that it's right after he had the BIG CONFRONTATION that helped him work through his issues, but right before he... well, dies and goes to the afterlife where he's still very guilty and upset but has moved, as a RESULT of the big confrontation, to a point where he supports them wholeheartedly.
So the place I've got Heat from? He's still a bit mixed up about Serph. He's had to confront the fact that he still looks up to Serph, still would support him, still would make up for his past actions and 'be there for him', and, given what I'm gonna talk about in a minute, still loves him. At the same time he's jealous and angry and S-sera loves serph so much and Heat believes (because he's a smart guy -- rude and aggressive but smart and he is perfectly aware of Sera's nervous behavior towards him and what it means) that Sera doesn't love him the way Heat loves her. Instead, she loves Serph that way. And he hates that; he hates having it rubbed in his face but has come to a place where he (believes) he accepts that; he ships Serph and Sera. If you get the "bad" ending (rather, the 'less good' ending, where Heat doesn't end up with you and in your party), he just outright says, "You two were really meant to be, huh" and leaves it at that. However much he wants Sera for himself, he does reach a point by end of game where, whether you get his bad ending or his good one, he can say "hey, take care of her". In his dying scene he deliberately passes Sera over to Serph; he says that Serph'll have to take care of her now, and that he doesn't regret his choices. This is one of the reasons that, in camp, he's very ... however much he hates it, he wants Sera to be happy and he wants Serph to make her happy, and if it's even possible that she'll be intimidated by his 'thing' with Serph, he wants out so Serph can make her happy.
Heat/Serph -- HEY THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR RIGHT
Okay! I'm gonna say this up-front: Serph/Heat is canon.
Now, the disclaimer: It's not blatant canon. It's not face-sucking leg-humping sweet hot vore cannibalistic action! They don't kiss, like they've started doing in camp; that's a camp development and if people worry that it's OOC, by all means, talk to us about it. ♥ It isn't even outright stated "Heat and Serph love each other" canon; it is shown and in a lot of ways it is stated, but it's never made absolutely unquestionably flat-out written clear. However, I believe it to be canon that Heat at least finds Serph attractive, and here's why, in its flattest, easiest form:
If you get the good ending, where Heat has managed to accept his feelings, has come to terms with himself, and has (as Roland puts it) learned to be honest with himself, he tells Seraph that he finds both of them to be cute. Heat ranks his physical feelings for Serph on the same level that he does Sera. He admits to his jealousy in the same breath ("you two got closer than I'd wanted") but he tells them that he finds them both cute.
That is the number one thing, and why I wanted so badly to establish the plural nature of Seraph, to take away the "well couldn't he have been talking to just Sera at the end there?" Because they don't. They're both there; characters talk to both of them, and this one, in particular, is one where he addressed them both by name (like: "Sera, Serph..."). it is the closest we get to a canon confession, which, given that Heat hates so much to talk about his feelings, isn't nothing.
That said, it's not the only thing. And from here on assume the rest of the essay is about Serph/Heat so LET'S HAVE SOME MORE FUCKING HEADERS!!
DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA: THE DATING SIM
So there is a popular style of video game, particularly in Japan. This is known as the Dating Sim, or (if done with girls) a Bishoujo Game. Occasional variants with IN YOUR FACE PORN exist (the H-game!) but "let's just play through and hook main boy up with any variety of girls" games are pretty well known and fit a certain style. Mostly, you go through and depending which girl you want to bag, you arrange to have your character hang out with them (if you want the quiet reading megane girl, you go to the library after school a lot, for example, and if you get an option to hang out with her, you take it). Along the way you gain relationship points by picking the 'right' choices in discussions with them; a wrong answer at a critical juncture might guarantee that you can't hook up with them, while a right answer might almost guarantee you the ending with the girl you want. There's a variety of archetypes who end up in this game -- the sporty girl, who's usually strong and sexy and tanned and secretly self-conscious of her lack of feminity. The quiet reading girl, usually wears glasses and is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL without them, sometimes she gets mixed with the rich girl or the art student girl, generally she's the 'upper class' type. The childhood friend -- this one is invariably a tsundere (gets angry easily, and usually acts irritated with the protagonist more often than anything else, but her anger is there to cover up her need for him and her secret love) -- who has known the protagonist forever and either has refused to admit her love for him to herself or who is just hiding it because she knows that he just thinks of her as a friend/sister/whatever.
At this point I'd like to point out that Heat is an almost horribly perfect archetype of the tsundere childhood friend.
The SMT team is very aware of the dating sim genre. Though I can't point to a SMT game before DDS, which I recognize weakens my argument, the team integrates the Dating Sim style very explicitly into Persona 3, which is half horror, half dating sim. I would assume that as it's a HUGE game genre, any game designer is well aware of its existences, its tropes, and also is aware that the video game audience is well aware of it. Not being aware of it is like-- I dunno, not being aware of RPGs and RPG tropes, or something like that.
So! DDS -- both games -- is not a dating sim. You cannot pick between party members to end up with. Except for one.
There are a series of four questions -- two in the first game, two in the second -- which appear in scenes that Heat is also in, all directed towards Heat.
These questions all are about Serph showing Heat his feelings for Heat and or for Sera (to Heat). They are about making Heat feel welcomed, loved, accepted -- essentially, answering the questions 'right' are with the answers that make Heat see that Serph cares for him, while answering them 'wrong' sets Serph against Heat in some way.
1) The first is in Coordinate 136 at the top. Sera's been kidnapped, and the enemy has stabbed Heat and told him to fight Serph, and they'll reward him with "a trip to Nirvana for you and your sweetheart". This is apparently his chance to kill Serph and get Sera, no penalty applies. Heat pretends to side with the enemy and decides to face Serph in a fight. Gale tells Serph to fight Heat because there's no other choice, and the player can choose between having Serph refuse to fight Heat and having Serph agree that he must fight.
If you choose to have him agree to fight, Heat will not join Seraph in the final dungeon of DDS2, and during the fight sequence that results, he tells Serph, in a pained voice, "Give me a break". This is the choice that doesn't make Heat feel trusted wholeheartedly.
If you choose to have him refuse to fight, Heat will beat the crap out of Serph in the fight as he's looking for a chance to get Sera back, but Heat will know he's trusted. This is one correct point to getting Heat in DDS2.
2) The second is after Colonel Beck has just explained to them all that Sera is THE DEVIL WHO CAST THEM INTO THIS HELL RAAAAAAAAR. Sera has taken advantage of the shock to leave them because she's just remembered everything and is scared to hurt them more. The party is debating, trying to decide what's right, and whether to trust Sera or believe Beck. The entire thing is slanting towards distrusting Sera, and Heat has been very,v ery quiet through the discussion so far.
Abruptly, Serph gets the option to give his input on whether Sera stuck them "in this hell". The two choices are "It doesn't matter" and "There's no way to be sure..."
If you pick "There's no way to be sure", Heat breaks into the conversation to yell at Serph, and you've lost your chance to have him come to your side in DDS2.
If you pick "It doesn't matter", Heat breaks into the conversation with enthusiastic agreement. They're thinking the same way; he's pleased and relieved that he can rely on Serph to feel the same way he does about Sera. (Lol.) You have one more point towards getting Heat in DDS2.
3) the third is in DDS2, when Heat comes charging at Serph with the intent to kill him, when he sees that they've fished Sera out of the EGG (insuring her upcoming death, though THEY don't know that yet). He stabs his demon arm through Serph, who just stands there and smiles painfully at him. Shocked and taken aback, Heat asks him, "Why did you just stand there?" The two dialogue choices Serph has is "We're comrades" and "I won't let you have Sera."
...I could explain the difference between the two to Heat but I think they're KIND OF OBVIOUS OKAY. Saying they're comrades moves and shocks Heat, that even after that, Serph could care for him. Saying the other is JUST A PISSY BITCH THING TO DO OKAY.
4) The last and final one is when Heat is dying. Serph has just learned everything that had happened five years ago, when his past-life self had betrayed and killed past-life Heat aand had been using baby Sera for his own ends. Heat knows Serph has learned it. Bleeding out from his gut, he asks Serph, "Now do you see where I stand?"
Your two options are "I do" and ...standing there silently like a lump. If you pick the first, and you've answered all the other questions, Heat will join up with you at the end. He feels trusted, accepted, understood, believed-in, loved. If you pick the other option, it's a final betrayal and he won't join you.
If you "get" Heat in the final dungeon, Roland shoves Heat forward, and he stumbles, looks back, then meets Seraph's uncertain gaze and tells hir to "Lighten up... I'm here for you."
If you don't, Heat starts to step forward, hesitates, and then...moves back, shoving Roland forward, and Roland tells Heat that he should be more honest with his feelings. Heat smiles self-deprecatingly.
If you "get" Heat in the final dungeon, and talk to him in the optional dialogue after, Heat tells Seraph that they got closer than he wanted, but they're kind of cute like that, and adds that he won't hurt Sera any more.
If you don't, Heat comments that he guesses the two of them were meant to be together.
Now, of course, none of this is explicitly sexual! Except the equating Sera and Serph on levels of cute when we already know Heat wants to put it in Sera hardcore, but I already talked about that. What this IS about is love and acceptance. Whether it's platonic or not isn't made clear, but the combination of the equating Sera and Serph at the end of that if you answer the questions right AND the hilariously explicit use of the romance-genre dating sim method to get it is something I firmly believe implies that part of the 'honesty' Roland refers to is Heat's love for Serph.
(I note, for the sake of completeness, that it's not a choice between Roland or Heat in the same way; you have to COURT Heat by picking options; Roland is the default choice. You don't have to work to get Roland; he just joins you if you didn't have a DDS1 save or anything like that, so there's no Serph-Roland argument here too ;; )
(Also for the record, Serph and I are both playing with the assumption that Serph would have picked the 'good ending' options.)
ACCIDENTAL SHIPPING
So Heat's got himself an interesting conundrum throughout the first game wherein he always turns to Serph for help in Sera feeling better, and as a result she likes Serph more and more!
EXAMPLE:
Sera: [is feeling bad and blaming herself for everything D:]
Heat: [BLITHERS AT HER] WE'RE COMRADES AND COMRADES LOVE EACH OTHER AND SINCE WE'RE COMRADES DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. UM. UM. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I LIKE YOU OR ANYTHING -- hey, say something, Serph!
Serph: I like her!
Sera: Oh, Serph!
Heat: ....goddammit.
The thing is, although this builds up into the jealousy that explodes in the second game, it doesn't actually bother him that much in the first. Like, he's aware that it's him vs Serph for Sera's affections and he tries to convince Sera he's better than Serph, but he doesn't turn his anger on Serph -- not really. Throughout the game, up to the end, he's worried for and thinking about Serph constantly. Like I said, ONE OF THE QUESTIONS that determines if you get Heat in DDS2? Is about whether Serph loves Sera enough to trust her unconditionally.
In short, if Serph didn't love Sera wholeheartedly, Heat couldn't love Serph as well.
This also comes out in DDS2, but in a different light. Heat's... angry and grieving and paranoid in DDS2 because he found out that in the past Serph was a user who would pretend to genuinely care for others but would just be using them. Past!Serph abused both Heat and Sera in this way, and current Heat ... is worried and angry for both himself and Sera because of this. He can't trust Serph's intentions towards Sera anymore. The first time they meet up in DDS2 and fight, it's because Sera's held hostage ("Sera will be fine as long as you're with us") and it's the only direct thing he can do when he can't actually trust Serph etc. At the same time, towards the end, the thing that gives Heat peace, after he's come to have to trust again that Serph is just Serph, is to hand Sera off to Serph. It's just the two of them alone, Heat dying in a pool of his own blood, and he tells Serph to undersatnd that Serph is the one who killed him.
However Serph answers, Heat's thoughts immediately turn to Sera. "You're the one who has to protect Sera now. Don't let go of her" is one possibility; the other is "I don't want Sera to blame herself. Take good care of her..."
And then, after making that choice, he can admit he doesn't have any regrets.
Heat may have never intended to, and had a long, jealous road because of it, but it's because Serph loves and will take care of Sera that Heat CAN trust him, that Heat CAN know Serph's not the bastard from five years ago, that Heat CAN give up regrets like that. Heat's love for Serph is directly tied to Serph's love for Sera, and Heat's love for Sera making him want her to have that.
This is one of the reasons they're my, the player's, dysfunctional OT3, but also why, in camp, I play him as worrying incessantly about the impact of their more direct relationship on Sera. If it hurt Sera, he'd just. Die inside, and it's also why he gets really scowly and angry when he thinks Serph isn't thinking hard enough about that. (in truth, of course, Serph's thinking about it just fine, because there's no point in worrying about something that hasn't happened, but ANGRY HEAT IS ANGRY.)
Heat's Feelings for Serph are Sometimes equated with Sera's for Serph
This happens much less! For the obvious reason that Heat and Serph are in a big rivalry for Sera (at least in Heat's head), while Sera and Serph have no tension or anger between them. We get a lot more of Heat's feelings for Sera being equated with his feelings for Serph, rather than SERA'S for him. But it crops up now and then.
Probably the only example clear enough to talk about is the final scene in DDS1. At the very final scene when Sera's panicking that Serph won't make it out before the Junkyard explodes? Heat turns when she screams for Serph and he too freaks out that Serph won't make it. Now, it's not exactly significant in and of itself (Cielo is also shouting, like, "Hurry up, bro!") but it's not insignificant -- he'd gone to pick up Sera and carry her bodily to the gate out so that she'll get out safely and in worrying about Serph, he stops (as Sera had) and neither of them make it to the gate as a result.
Anyway, it's a minor one, but just tossing it out there.
LOL ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS LOL
DDS likes playing with elemental weaknesses for friendships, rivalries, and love. It doesn't always do it, but it crops up enough to lol. For example, I think we can all admit that Argilla and Roland are kind of cute? Roland's weak to Earth, and Argilla's an earth element.
Well, Serph's element is ice, and Heat's is fire. Heat is weak to ice. Serph is weak to fire. ...I also note Sera is an ice element and is also weak to fire. It plays off the rivalry element, for sure, but given that Sera's elemental design is the same it also implies, in essence, the other side.
(There is only one time Heat is NOT weak to ice, and that is when he has been invaded by corrupt data, is grieving for Serph and what he'd done, Sera can't get through to him, and he keeps encouraging the party to try harder to kill him. So. It's not an insignificant connection.)
SEX AND DEVOURING
I previously made an essay, like some time ago, on how hunger and desire get confused for the DDS demons. It's not that devouring is essentially sexual, but sexual desire is often read as hunger. As such, the bit I'm going to talk about isn't essentially significant, but it's another little interesting tidbit.
In DDS2, the angry, grieving, really fucking messed-up Heat only comments twice that he wants to devour someone.
The first time is when he loses the fight to Serph, at which point he swears that next time they meet, he'll devour him.
The second time is to Sera -- this is when he's been invaded by corrupt data and is NOT IN HIS RIGHT MIND, but he references when he kissed her and immediately follows up with a desire to devour her ("I told you I was strong, Sera. Now I just have to devour you..."), the latter of which definitely ties the lust back into the devouring instincts. though again, he's not in his right mind there (normally, the thought of devouring SERA is anathema to him, because it does also come with a tie towards death). But still, it makes that tie.
Those are the only two times he says it in DDS2, which -- well, he's not in DDS2 that much. Other people say it plenty of times. Again, not essentially significant, but.
IN CONCLUSION: IT'S A QUESTION OF LOVE
At some point along the way I've realized that this essay has started to try to point towards sexuality, and no, I'm not going to. DDS is not itself that essentially sexual; all of the essential questions come down to comradeship and love for each other. (I also didn't talk much about Serph's feelings for others, but that's a no brainer. SERPH LOVE EVERYONE and would do anything for any of his comrades without even thinking it's strange. He just wants to make everyone happy, and it's never something he feels costs him to do it).
I think without a doubt that Heat and Serph love each other is canon. There's a lot of other issues in there but Heat loev Serph as much as he loev Sera. I also think it's pretty strongly implied that there's a level of sexual desire in there, and Heat's... a sexual guy. But it's not important.
Yeah, in camp it's coming out a bunch in play -- kissing, etc, because that sort of thing has been introduced to them in camp; before Heat just dodged the issue, but now that Serph knows about it and feels it'd make Heat happy, it's gonna happen. (Again, I think it's IC, but I'm always happy to discuss it with someone if they feel otherwise and worry about characterization). Yeah, Heat worries about Sera and her happiness more than his own lol, and Serph just sort of sadfaces -- but although it relates to the sexual side, that just stands as a representation of expressing their love; Heat doesn't want his love to oppress Sera's and would rather just stand down. This is all before Seraph; it's before Heat can combine the two without feeling like he's overwriting someone's feelings.
But yeah. Heat loves them both the same; his confession, when it comes, is to both of them, and I'm happy that in camp, when it came out, it was likewise towards both of them.
...
o/
So guys what did I forget to talk about?