#flamebringer

operational intelligence

6th anniversary celebration artwork

This story is a love letter to Arknights. The raw story itself is so peak 😭 but the combat and transition to cutscene is really wonky. Like when you accidentally skip forward something and it doesn’t make sense from one scene to another. Even though individually the pieces make sense, but it just doesn’t connect well in some places.

This chapter seems to be split into 3 parts in gameplay. First act, Endmin went into the gender changing crystal to find the ice fields where Laevatain was at, trying to find her memories. This area has really nice backgrounds, and I took some commemorative pictures. We found some not very well translated poems for Laevatain, and got introduced to her shadow that tells her to give up this search. I thought the quest would’ve ended there but we got out of the rock and tried to find Surtr in the real world. This is where Endmin reflects on himself as he sees himself in her struggles. Afterwards they went into the deep boss areas and faced their fears together. But it’s not enough for Laevatain, so she went deeper chasing who she should be, aggravating her wounds as she denied herself. We found her in a critical condition, but Endmin healed her and affirmed her journey as a person instead of calling it a waste of time. Laevatain then saw memories of Surtr, and envied that she has reached a goal, her home in Rhodes Island. That’s where our Endmin invited her to stay at Endfield, and let that be her home. She agreed, but she acknowledged that it would not be the same as Rhodes Island, thus she would never be Surtr. That is enough to put her mind at ease, and let herself be Laevatain.

Introduction to why I identify with Surtr so much on the schizospec. But this is Laevatain’s story, not Surtr’s. Being in Laevatain’s shoes, she woke up one day, got a name and a body pre-attached to her, no childhood to grow up from, no person who knew who she is, just what she is (physical observable attributes like having red hair and big sword) and does for them (hyper carry them).

Then! The game does the unthinkable and develops Endmin into an actual character!! He should talk more often, I absolutely adore his voice. Both of their voice acting were phenomenal as they played different sides of the same person. They completely sold me on how Endmin of now may have the same body as Endmin from the past, but they’re as different from each other as Surtr and Laevatain. And Endmin actually being uncomfortable (but still plays along) with how people idolise and worship him is exactly how I felt playing through the main story.

Side note, I hate Perlica’s dynamics with Endmin where she acts way too close for a professional relationship (especially towards an amnesiac) ((even weirder power dynamics if we take past Endmin to not be as humble as current Endmin)). Current Endmin has to play his role of pretending to be the past Endmin, and nothing Perlica says makes me feel like we’re treated as a person with amnesia. Instead I feel like her boss, and she’s constantly looking for guidance from us as everyone else does. There is a lot gravity in losing one’s entire memory but nobody cared about us but Laevatain 😭 hell, I doubt anyone cared about Laevatain’s struggles either until we reached out to her. Which is why I think our friendship with Laevatain actually makes sense and doesn’t feel forced. These people have lives and a background that informs who they are and why they do the things they do. If we actually lost all of that one day, wouldn’t that feel like the entire plant that we are is uprooted?

Quoting her, this is more about “understanding your amnesiac self” which gives Endmin the closure to his fears of not living to past Endmin. We should be kind to ourselves now, by understanding it and giving it voice. If Endmin kept pretending to be someone else, then he wouldn’t be understanding his amnesiac self, he would keep trying to understand others and what they want. Through this story quest with Laevatain, I can imagine Endmin having more conviction to grow into the kind of administrator that people rely on him to be. We are in effect, being children of our past selves, being built up from what was once there but now gone.

About Laevatain’s fears, it is that she is nothing without her memories. She sought so desperately to find herself, but all she found is what Surtr was. And I love Surtr to bits and this quest only further proves to me why.

Surtr kidnapped a giant sword to go on adventures with her and be her pet companion. Really proves to ya the power of having voices in your head that you can experience the world with.

That is how Surtr overcame her lack of memories, she made friends who guaranteed a future for her. There was no need to find a past, when she definitely had a past that wasn’t anything worth remembering. So she chose to be happy, and in turn, Laevatain reflected on it.

Had she seen Surtr’s conclusion before she reached her own, she would’ve only repeated the past. So by only going through the memory lane after being witnessed by another person, our Endmin, she can guarantee that her identity and path won’t be rewritten by Surtr’s decisions. Laevatain is the sword that Surtr carried along in her journey. She had memories of being used elsewhere, memories of other people’s but never her own. But there was an argument made that even those memories are hers, even if she wasn’t there. It was still something she felt in her mind, and I’d say that’s valid as hell.

As for the real twist of this story, it was that the past self that Laevatain chased after was a defensive mechanism in her head that prevents her from destroying herself in pursuit of memories. It speaks on a meta level that Laevatain would destroy herself trying to be Surtr, and so would Endfield in trying to be Arknights. Surtr is happy where she is, as Arknights is, and the only one yet to be happy is Laevatain, in Endfield. Which is why the story concludes with Laevatain agreeing to give Endfield a shot at making her happy. That is for us to experience in this game. We will make more memories if we choose to keep on going.

In conclusion, Laevatain’s story chapter outlines not just her journey but Endmin/Endfield’s journal as well. At some point Laevatain asked Endmin why she even had to be a reconvener to begin with. And his answer was to honour their legacy (for hype moments and aura what else). Not out of disrespect, but to continue the story where they left off in Arknights, and permission to borrow their own characters for a different landscape. And seeing how they’ve handled Arknights lore in this chapter, I’m more than happy to support it.

P/S: I’ve hit the image limit for mobile but I NEED TO GUSH ABOUT THE GREENHOUSE. I was legit just thinking about how when they release Flamebringer, we gotta have to see his plant collection as well. This is the closest I’m gonna get to that. I love the Sarkaz population. Keep being peak.

P/S 2: Greenhouse added in post.