#chisk rambles

“I could go to heaven.” (Alef is canonly dead by DQ2, where he’s a legendary hero and well beloved)

“I could go to hell.” (By the time of Dragon Quest Builders 1, he’s become a fallen hero and literally cursed and isolated.)

“Does it even matter? I could never tell.” (At the same time, Alef doesn’t exactly care on where he ends up going. He knows he’ll die of course and not to mention he’s understandably quite jaded)

“Maybe I am nothing.” (He’s a bit of a cynic from what was said about him in DQ Builders. He’s referring to his true real self as “nothing” as he hasn’t been able to show his true self at all. Only show the idealized self people see him as)

“Maybe I am all.” (I am all is the idealized self that’s a hero and beloved and that people adore and praise! He’s famous and the Scion of Erdrick who’s come to save them!)

“Baby, make me something fore I get that call. (Thinking, Alef wanting to be known for his real true self before he had been summoned to defeat the Dragonlord (the call). Not to mention he wants to be his OWN person, not the **Hero** he’s been raised to be. He was raised with the single purpose of defeating the Dragonlord.)

“I can’t bear the solitary don’t forget me.” (Alef was alone on his whole journey. He doesn’t want to be alone, he wants companionship. He’s also afraid that people will just eventually forget about him in the end many years after his death and never remember who he really was, and only remember him as the legendary hero who defeated the Dragonlord)

“I don’t know a single thing and I’m so lonely.” (The “I’m so lonely” of course refers to the fact Alef really hasn’t had any companions/true friends/people close to him, and the I don’t know a single thing is referring to Alef well, he certainly never got to know how to be a normal teen with a normal childhood. He’s grown up too quickly.)

“Everything that I can say is spoken for me, yeah” (By this point, Alef has accepted his destiny/fate albeit reluctantly.)

“Visions of violence are overpowering, yeah!” (Bad ending moment! In which Alef here eventually has had enough of this and goes down a different path.)

“I could be a friend, or I could be a foe.” (The two endings. Canon and Bad. “Friend” is him staying on the path of good. Foe is of course him siding with the Dragonlord. and accepting his deal)

“You make the decision, and that’s all I know” (People constantly made decisions for him since birth! That is literally all he’s known. And of course, reference to players)

“Oh I could be a sinner” “I could be a saint” (Referring to him ending up as a villain in bad ending and of course him being a legendary hero who’s saved the world and beloved in canon ending)

“Perfectly devoid of anything I ain’t” (To the people, he’s the perfect hero with no flaws)

“I could be a Martyr.” “I could be a cause” (Martyr being where he thinks he could have died in the battle. Cause is him in the bad ending, which is the **cause** of dragon quest builders 1.)

“I can be whatever everybody wants.” (He can be a hero, or a bad guy depending on what players choose)

“Oh I could be a canvas” (silent protagonist! You could give him any personality depending on your hcs)

“I could be a doll” (He’s basically treated like a doll considering how he was raised)

“Oh I could be a difference” (Him ending up on a different path than what was intended)

“I could be the same” (Him staying on the good path)

“Try to give me meaning, it’s a losing game.” (He wants to not just be known as only a hero and known for other things besides that but well, of course it wouldn’t happen)

“Caught up in a routine. Can they see the person beneath?” (Expected of him to be the hero they call him as birth. Plus he has to go save people and defeat monsters. People don’t exactly know what he’s really like either, and not just the hero they praise.)

“The days go by so uniformly. Tightly controlled and determined for me yeah!” (He continues his journey as usual, it’s a routine until he defeats the Dragonlprd. Second part is that he was never able to make his own choices/decisions as mentioned in a DQ Builders Quote “he never had a chance to make a decision for himself”. Not to mention can reference the player since they control him of course. And Ingame he has to do this, he can’t refuse. Aka “But thou must”)

“Showered in fame, my fans adore me.” (Villagers + the King + everyone who’s heard of him constantly praise him for being the Hero, and the descendant of Erdrick. Another quote from DQ Builders 1: As the descendant of the mythical hero, that warrior must have spent his whole life being heralded as a savior by everyone around him”)

“Everything that I can say is spoken for me, yeah.” (A choices are made for him, he’s a silent protagonist too therefore the players are speaking for him. And the “he never had a chance to make a decision for himself” and “From the moment of his birth, his path in life was already plotted out.” like!!! That says a lot. Those quotes are once again from the first DQ builders)

“Am I anything? Am I even a person beneath?” (him just getting used to being only known/praised as a Hero/Scion of Erdrick, and honestly by this point he doesn’t exactly know who he really is now.)