Gabriel's Strongest Soldier

Gabriel Enters The Construct

By popular demand

A Mound of Princesses

What I like most about Apo is the "evolution" of her character from the Tower and how she shows the contrast between needing to constantly assert your power, and simply acknowledging it.

With Tower, her grandiose claims and posturing come off as if she is trying to convince herself of her own status more than Quiet. Like she isn't sure of herself deep down. With Apotheosis, her statements now sound entirely sure and definite, just as she herself is.

She also somehow becomes more...likeable? This one i'm not entirely sure on, but I to me Apotheosis just feels so much more gentler than Tower, despite having the similar high-and-mighty attitude. I think it's the fact she no longer insults you, directly or indirectly.

Though, when I think of it a bit longer, it's probably only because she doesn't feel you're worth insulting anymore - though she still see you useful as her "tool" to bring her ascension to the real world (however she expects you to do that anyway).

I made the joke with Needle yesterday I'm not doing it twice.

Tower's chapter, despite its looks, is Quiet's power fantasy, not the Princess'. While most routes involve glimpses of Quiet's true extent of control at one point or another, none show it as blatantly as Tower. Tower's narrative is wrapped in an exact opposite of its presentation - a scenario that is meant to reduce Quiet to a slave, a tool without agency.

his failing and surrender the first time reducing you to a mere pawn under the Princess' will. In truth, it is all but.

It's here than the effect of the Princess' perception effect comes in full swing. The forces that bind Quiet in place, chain him to kneel, compell him to drive his own blade into himself?

They mean nothing. The Tower only holds dominion because Quiet unwarily *allows* it.

Quiet is a smoking barrel here - an unstoppable force ready to shatter the chapter's illusion at a moment's notice. The Tower, in all her ego, fails to realize she is constantly a single moment of Quiet's doubt in her away from having her divine front come crashing down.

And doubt, he does. One act of defiance is all it takes - a single refusal of obedience for him to realize the truth: The Tower is a facade.

She lacks power over him, she always did. Her binds vanish into air, as frail as the false god. And with that truth, comes her downfall.

It is through this that the player fully realizes the story's message: No matter the route you take, no matter the Vessel you meet, no matter how many times you fail -

The Long Quiet's are the hands that forevermore pull the tale's strings.