Spoilers for Tales Of Symphonia!
Tales of Symphonia thoughts:
This has never occurred to me before and now that it has I am BAFFLED that I never thought of it before: Why are the Chosens humans instead of half-elves?
I know the Half-elves are discriminated against heavily, which would imply that the people of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant wouldn't take kindly to a half-elf with celebrity status, but I still think that being chosen to save the world would probably ingratiate at least those specific half-elves to the community at large, even if it was only during their active journey of regeneration. (We also know that even the human chosen are a bit ostracized because of their positions, so it's possible the average person could still be discriminatory to the chosen) (this would make it harder to the Chosen themselves to have enough positive feelings towards the world to want to save it though, so maybe it was because of that.) The half-elves are generally persecuted because of their long lifespans, but, in the case of the chosen, that wouldn't really be a problem as they begin their journey at age 16 and die at the end of it. The normal reason for discrimination wouldn't apply to a half-elf chosen.
We know that Martel is a half-elf, and that the Chosen of Regenerations serve 2 purposes: 1. to flip the mana hourglass system between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla and 2. to provide a host body for Martel's soul. We know that the body has to be organic (see Tabetha) and empty (see the steps to becoming an angel), and we know that in order for the body to accept Martel's soul, it has to have a similar enough mana signature for the transfer to be possible. We also know that that CAN work on humans as Martel is successfully transferred into Colette's body, but WHY? aren't the Chosen's half elves? Wouldn't that make it easier to find a mana signature that matches instead of selective breeding (which we know happened because of Zelos's parents arranged marriage). There would probably still need to be selective breeding if they were half-elves, but at least the race would match and the vessel body would already have the ability to sense and manipulate mana due to being a half-elf. I think it would be easier and therefore faster to match a body that already is the same race.
It's possible the Cruxis crystal renders that point moot because it messes with the host physically, but we know from Kratos and Zelos that their ability to use magic is NOT from the cruxis crystal (hence why Colette can only use angelic magic while Zelos and Kratos can both use magic that's closer to Genis, Raine and the other elves and half-elves we see in world), they had to eat the stone Aionis in order to gain the ability to use magic. So the magic in the blood thing doesn't apply to humans. (We also see this in Sheena as she is many generations removed, but does have some elven blood which allows her to be a Summoner.)
We know Martel had magic. She was a half-elf. She was the team's healer. In the computer game (I forget its name), we see her use magic. It's also speculated by Raine that maybe the Journey of Regeneration the Chosen have to go on is to test if they are similar to Martel in personality who was self-sacrificial and wanted to save the world. Colette matches her very closely all the way down to their shared illness, so it makes sense that Colette can bear her soul, but why aren't the chosen half-elves? Surely half-elves going on the journey successfully would either already have, or would develop Martel-like traits that would facilitate the transfer, and would make it easier to find a functional body. I don't know if mana signature is affected by race. Maybe it's not and is some personality like thing. Yuan was able to transfer his mana into Kratos to keep him alive (which is a half-elf to human transfer (which itself may or may not be affected by the fact that they are both angels)) so maybe the race of each member doesn't matter at all. But it makes me wonder. Wouldn't it be easier if they were? Maybe that's not how mana works at all? Maybe the mana transfer is facilitated by them being different races? This wondering led to point 2 - which is entirely unrelated to Martel, but instead inspects Mithos and his relation to half-elves and their status through the years.
Mithos has lived 4,000 years as basically the ruler of both worlds. With the Eternal Sword and pacts with all summon spirits, being an angel, a trained swordsman and a powerful caster, he is an unmatched force of power, and is using that power to turn everyone into lifeless beings in order to achieve his sister's goal of ending discrimination. This leads me to some questions.
Why didn't Mithos use his status as the hero of the Kharlan war to improve the position of half-elves in society? This one is kind of tricky as very little is known about the direct aftermath of Martel's death and what happened immediately after they stopped the war vs what we see in the present day with the myth of Mithos the Hero and the goddess Martel, but we know that in the story Mithos is not explicitly a half-elf. It's possible that that changed over time, or that it was edited out by people who were continuously racist against the half-elves, but initially, Mithos could have used his power and leverage as the ender of the war to highlight half-elves and improve their societal standing. It's possible he did, and it simply didn't last the 4,000 years. 4,000 years an incomprehensible amount of time. But I think about it. Especially in the present as the half-elves are almost all members of the Desians. That makes sense from their perspective as it makes more sense to join a group that wants you rather than one that persecutes you, but it perpetuates the idea of "half-elves bad and humans good" and "half-elves good and humans bad" depending on which side of the divide you're on. The rift between them is intensified when it's believed that the desians are killing the Chosens and robbing the worlds of salvation (though we know this to be a plot by Yuan and the renegades, no doubt leveraging the race divide in his favour.) The set up of the system keeps them apart - that's in line with Mithos' beliefs, that people can't change, but it's still an interesting way it's being reinforced. It's possible and even likely that Mithos tried to make these changes a long time ago, but they didn't stick and then he didn't bother to keep trying as the years went by, but the current state of race relations highlights how he isn't using his power to facilitate it at all and is in fact using his power to keep people divided.
2. Why didn't Mithos make the half-elves affluent?
Another question I can only speculate on due to the nebulous information about the 4,000 years. It's possible they were at one point, but the humans despised them for their long lives and waged war against them, took their stuff, ran them off, ect. There are many ways that could have existed and then ended. With the power of Gnome though, Mithos could basically print money for whatever group he wanted and could have sustained the half-elves control over a particular area (which he did for the half-elves of Exire). Even the elves in Ymir protect their forests with magic and guards. It's possible the half-elves, if given a similar set up could have flourish in similar circumstances. It's possible they even did. But in the modern day, only Exire welcomes half-elves (and I'm still not even sure how the half-elves get to Exire? Are Rheiards something people can just get in Tethe'Alla?) (Mithos didn't seem weirded out by Lloyd group having them in Tethe'Alla or Sylvarant (How did he think they got from world to world?) but was alarmed when he learned they got them from the Renegades, so it's possible he thought they got them in Tethe'Alla and that the Renegades brought Lloyd's group through the rift? But Pronyma knew about the crashed Rheiards on Fooji... Maybe she just never told Yggdrasil? Sorry... getting off topic.) and I don't really see why that has to be the case aside from another home was never made for them. It's more than possible that many half-elf settlements existed throughout the millennia and none of them are still standing, but with the power of all the summon spirits and the Eternal Sword, I think it more than likely that Mithos could have built the half-elves another home to live it where they could have peace.
3. Looping back to the point about Martel really quick, WHY didn't Mithos use the Eternal Sword to create a body that could house Martel?
I don't know how the Eternal Sword works at all. I know you need to be a half-elf to use it. I know you can be human and use it with the Ring of the Pact. I know you need to be acknowledged by Origin to use it. I know Yuan says "it can do anything you want it to" basically. I know it was used to split the worlds. All I know is it's incredibly powerful and has the ability to bend/fashion reality to the wielders will. We only ever see it split/reunite the worlds and hold Derris Kharlan close to the planet without destroying it, but if it can manipulate reality, wouldn't it create a body for Martel? Was Mithos not able to use it anymore after breaking his pact with Origin? Was it stuck with certain settings when Origin was sealed and nothing could be done with it afterwards? Yuan planned to use it and kill Kratos to open the seal and claim the sword, so it's possible that it can't be used to do new things which Origin is sealed, but we don't know when Origin was sealed. It could have been used immediately to revive Martel after she was killed. In the PS version, if you talk to Yuan after the Tower of Salvation falls, he talks about the arrival of Derris Kharlan and how after Martel died, they needed to store her in the seed and then wait 200 years for Derris Kharlan to arrive in order to provide enough mana to save the world. I think the plan was to split the world anyways, then use the comet's mana to help the seed grow and reunite the world when the tree was big enough to sustain them both, but when Martel was killed, Mithos used the seed to sustain her instead and then refused to give the seed up when the comet did arrive, but either way, we know the sword was used to split the world and Martel died. If Origin was sealed before Martel died, maybe that was the reason they couldn't use the sword to revive her (at least without killing Kratos), but if Origin wasn't sealed when she died, why not just use it?
Also, side note: Why did everyone decide that killing Kratos was acceptable here? If the sword cannot be used without Origin's acknowledgement and only Mithos has that, that means in order for the wielder to change, you'd need to kill Kratos, meet Origin, have him acknowledge you and then, if you're a half-elf you can wield the sword, and if not you need the ring of the pact. But why did that need to be linked to Kratos's life force? I know Kratos was the best fighter on the team at the time so it's possible no one thought he would be defeated so it was their safest bet, but it's really putting a target on him. Maybe not if no one else KNEW he was the seal and Mithos never thought Yuan or Kratos would betray him, but if Origin needs to be unsealed to use the sword, then Kratos agreeing to help Mithos reunite the worlds after reviving Martel in the wake of Anna's death is equivalent to Kratos agreeing to die so Mithos can use the sword (which is in character at the time for Kratos, but still messed up), but if that's NOT necessary for the Eternal Sword to be used, and Mithos can just do whatever he wants with it still, why doesn't he use it to revive Martel?
The Mithos in the game that we get and his counterpart in the OVA are slightly different. Mithos in the game is entirely focused on bringing back Martel and I find it easier to think he either didn't notice or didn't care much about fixing the rest of the world once he got his systems in place to bring Martel back. He obviously valued her wish, which we see in the Age of lifeless beings - he wanted her to have a world without discrimination, but his goal seems extreme and he seems in favour of that extremity. There's not a lot of nuance to his view, and if he has nuance in his view, it's never explained. In the show, Yggdrasil explicitly tells Lloyd he tried everything to end discrimination and bring back Martel and nothing worked. In a lifespan of 4,000 years that would be a depressing and horrific experience and his age of lifeless beings makes more sense if he tried things I mentioned and more and everything simply didn't work up front or fell away with time and the discrimination continued. It would overtake any hope left after long enough, and Mithos clearly had fallen to apathy about the state of the worlds in the end. It's possible game Mithos did the same and there was simply nothing left to try that he could think of and didn't consider reviving old plans as he believed people can't change. It really brings into perspective how awful it would be.
I don't really have a good closing for this. I had questions and thoughts. If anyone has speculations, feel free to add them. It just makes me think.
