#arjun devraj

break the cycle, come back stronger

There is something so, so beautiful about a rogue like game where you fight and die over and over again being a story about the cycles of violence particularly relating to toxic masculinity, and how people tell themselves stories about the roles of themselves and the people in their lives without accepting the truth.

Bravo. Loved it.

And it's so, so pretty.

Dismantling this beauty piece by piece—from the fire mechanics to Arjun's psychology, through cinema and literature's lens— is the best thing I could ask for at this point in my life.

We start by knowing that Arjun wants to rescue Nitya. Standard trope.

Then we get to know more about Nitya's capabilities, and hey, she's a smart scientist, that's nice, we're still in the trope.

Then we find the Red Tree, which Arjun assumes Nitya planted in memory of him, which leads a first-time player to believe that Nitya still loved and missed him.

Further into the game and Sebastian is encouraging Arjun to find Nitya, and it's suspicious because a suspicious character is encourating's Arjun's focus on Nitya.

Then we find out that Arjun probably messed up his relationship with Nitya, but based on his behaviours, it still seems possible that he's amended his behaviour, intends to apologise, and is going to ask for a second chance.

It also becomes increasingly clear that Nitya was probably at least part of the problem with Carcosa. She is not innocent in the situation of what happened to the Echelon settlers.

Further in, though... we learn that Arjun spectacularly messed up his relationship with Nitya. She left the planet because of it, and he followed. He did not need to do that. He attacks the Priestess knowing it's her, he keeps talking about 'saving' her, and by then, it's unclear what saving her would even entail.

And then, the kicker, the moment where this part of the plot went from good to great: we find out that Nitya moved on from Arjun with Kiira, something which Arjun refuses to believe the moment he finds out about it. It's also likely that the Red Tree was planted in memory of Kiira, not Arjun, he just assumed that if Nitya was planting a tree for her lost love, it must be for him.

And even after all that... Arjun still keeps gunning for Nitya, trying to 'save' Nitya, certain that she'll 'understand'.

Already did a post for Jane Perry as Sheridan so let's get the biggest one out of the way: yes, that's Neil Newbon as Micah. As a Xenoblade fan I'm legally required to say that, thanks to XC3, I thought he was awesome before it was cool, even if half his dialogue in that game was about potatoes(it makes sense in context...kinda)

And the next biggest role after that is probably Keone Yong as Stack, best known as Jeong Jeong in ATLA, Luong Lao Shi in Jake Long American Dragon, and Jun Sato in Star Wars Rebels.

Jerome(rip) is voiced by Ben Prendergast, whose biggest roles in gaming are Patroclus in Hades and Tyr in God of War Ragnarok.

And lastly(of the characters I've met so far, having yet to get past Legion and only knowing Micah because I saw an article), poor Tarn is voiced by Alec Newman, the voice of Adam Smasher in Cyberpunk and the improperly translated Vangarre(it should've been Vandham) in the original Xenoblade Chronicles.