#opinon

Fuga Melodies of Steel is a story about children surviving in a war to save their families. It also sets itself up as a World War 2 analog, and that is where most of the problems start. The invading Berman army is such an obvious mirror of the Third Reich it's painful. The fascism, the iconography, the arm bands, the (furry) racism, the war crimes, CC2 is taking from real history to create the villains here.

This on its own is fine! Many pieces of media pull direct inspiration from horrible dictatorships to make its themes more resonant with the audience (The Empire in Star Wars is an example). Thankfully, Fuga is very clear when it comes to their 'War is bad and it steals the future of youth' message. BUT that doesn't mean that the storytelling of this trilogy is free from flaws. Especially flaws in regard to how they try to redeem characters who are Nazi's in all but name.

Before I continue, let me get one thing straight. I do not think CC2 is pro-nazi in anyway. The trilogy does NOT support the warmongering fascist actions of the Bermans, however that does not mean CC2 handles this subject with the tact it needs.

First let's go over the problem of the story trying to redeem the Berman characters. And it all starts with Flam Kish and Pretzel...

Pretzel is the first boss in the game and while the game states he is a "moral" man, he's still willing to kill an entire group of children to "protect his country". Earlier he even questions why his garrison is attacking a random civilian village, but in the end, he continues to follow orders regardless (committing war crimes). This shows how "just following orders" can turn normal people into monsters. This is a good example of how Fuga can use its inspiration from WW2/Fascism well.

Said monsters in this case are subjugating an entire country and are willing to commit war crimes against the people of Gasco. So, the kids have no choice but to defend themselves and they kill Pretzel. The game makes it very clear that they are already killing these Berman soldiers in both self-defense and to rescue their families who have been taken to a LITERAL prison camp. It also helps that he is styled after WW1 German soldiers separating him a bit from direct Nazi inspiration (Keep this in mind for later)

Then there's Flam Kish who is Pretzel's adoptive daughter...She is in no uncertain terms a NAZI. She's captured an entire factory forcing the workers to be slaves for the Berman army under the threat of violence (She killed Jin's Father). All the while she spews the LTB world's equivalent of supremacist ideology.

The children fight her in self-defense, and they almost kill her. But when Jin tries to finish her off for killing his father the children stop him. The kids don't want to be killers even though they've killed entire garrisons of the Berman army, they are still children who do not want to kill excessively, ok sure.

However, Flam comes back to kill the children again in chapter nine. She's still the same character just angrier now. She's still trying to get revenge for her father, and the kids seem to kill her again...Except in Fuga 2 she's still ALIVE and was nursed back to health and found by Jin no less.

She has done nothing to warrant a redemption arc. She is a war criminal who tried to kill the Taranis kids for killing Pretzel. The kids did that in self-defense and Pretzel is a COLONEL in an invasion, both him and Flam are grown ass adults who made these decisions that led them to this outcome. The games do not give me any solid reason as to why I should feel bad for members of an invading army being killed when they commit war crimes. And the games want us to treat Flam like a damaged person ruined by revenge only. No Fuga she's a war criminal, why are they writing this character with this much historical baggage like she's some revenge addled anime character who can be redeemed.

Even if she did anything to warrant a redemption arc, it should NOT be up to Jin to facilitate it. Even after Jin helps her, she still is an absolute jerk to him. Excuse me, you killed his father and invaded his country if anything he should have brought your sorry ass to the Gasco military to stand trial (which mind you doesn't happen until the very end of the trilogy). Prisons have medical wards ship her off there and call it a day. This whole Flam redemption thing is so underdeveloped it's jarring.

Then there's Baum and Stollen...

Ok so these two are war generals who literally destroy civilian houses FOR FUN. It's blatantly stated in their character profiles that they treat war like it's a game. You beat them in Fuga 1 and they show up again in Fuga 2 and 3. Unfortunately, this is another case of characters who do horrible things coming back for no reason. The only thing they add in Fuga 2 is the fact that they fly the Taranis to the final boss fight. Literally anyone else in the Gasco military could have done that so it's not worth bringing them back.

Fuga 2 wants us to see them just as some kooky grandpas the kids keep in the basement. But in my opinion, they're not particularly charming or pleasant to have around (comedies of steel 2 does NOT HELP). Again, they commit war crimes in the first game and pop up in the second and third and we are expected to like them while they don't take any real accountability for what they did.

And the trilogy could have made some commentary about how people like this escape accountability in a serious manner. Because that sort of thing does happen in real life unfortunately, but they completely glossed over it all. This two get to hide away from facing accountability for a year and they are kind of rewarded for it by being a part of the main story.

There is another Berman who shows up again in Fuga 2 and that is Shvein Hax...

Hax is the main villain of Fuga 1, and he looks the most like a Nazi out of all the Berman characters. He facilitates the invasion of another country and the near genocide of an entire group of people to farther his insane goals. Nazi's trying to control ancient, advanced technology is a somewhat common trope, and it is thankfully played straight here.

He enters the heart of the Vanargand, is fused to it, and dies there. His obsession with the story of the lost god can be interpreted as an analog for how fascist can use religion to justify their actions. Hax does speak of the Vanargand like it is a birthright to the Berman empire, eerily echoing past and current real-life events.

While Jeanne made that lost God tale for her own purposes, it doesn't change the fact that the Berman empire was a dictatorship that was already "conquering" the other countries around it.

And Hax doesn't come back to life (technically). The Ai Hax in Fuga 2/3 is implied to be a different new person than the original Hax. If this is true than Hax is the exception to this "redeem the nazi" stuff the trilogy keeps doing. For my own sanity and the sake of not making this a novel long post, I will believe Ai Hax is a different person than Hax and they only share some memories.

The only Berman who is treated how most media treats Nazi's is Blutwurst...

Blutwurst is the scientist responsible for the Bio battery program that killed an unknown amount of Felineko. Him being a Felineko committing war crimes against other Felineko is another realistic analogy. In real life it is possible for someone of an oppressed group to harm their own people for the favor of their oppressors. And the games treat him with a reasonable amount of scorn and disgust. But this is when something strange happens...

Blutwurst comes back in Fuga 3 but compare him to Flam

Both were supposed to be dead, both were almost killed by the Taranis, both are war criminals who have done horrible things. But Blutwurst returns missing limbs, and it literally looks like he's on life support. Flam is just covered in bandages and has an extra scar or two. Again, they both did horrible things and as of Fuga 2 neither of them did ANYTHING to be redeemable, so why is Flam mostly fine?

While disability should not be treated as a punishment, the trilogy isn't even consistent in how they handle two characters of (in my opinion) similar levels of awfulness. Is Flam's relationship with Pretzel a source of sympathy for her? Is that what she has over Blutwurst?

Well no because-

1.Her backstory with Pretzel is supposed to juxtapose with her vindictiveness in adult life. It shows how serving the army and believing in the Berman's fascist propaganda changed them. It's for understanding why they are like that, not justifying it.

2.As stated, before Flam and Pretzel are adult war colonels that continue to serve the fascist Berman empire. If they die doing so, that itself does not warrant sympathy.

3.Blutwurst comes from a family/society that instilled this internalized racism into him. That is a deeply disturbing and sad thing to happen. Like Flam and Pretzel, Blutwurst's backstory is for understanding not justification. He too is an adult who still made the decision to help his oppressors kill hundreds of his own people in mass. The trilogy treats him as such. But not Flam.

It's inconsistent and jarring. CC2 brings Flam back because she was a fan favorite, but they don't take the time to show her actually change for the better in any meaningful capacity ON SCREEN. This is important because she and the rest of the Berman draw too much from the real life Third Riech to be handled this clumsily.

LTB tries to redeem most of their villains and it's rare for the villains to have permanent deaths. Bruno, Fool, Grumpf, Baion, Nero, Blanck, they are all alive after their main stories in some capacity. But the difference between them and the Berman army is the historical inspiration. LTB villains of the past were your typical shonen/cartoon villains. There is a degree of separation that both trusts the audience to infer the themes and respects any historical parallels they do draw from.

Fuga 1 was presented as a story of war, and it depicts its historical inspiration with the grace needed (for the most part). But as the trilogy continued CC2 seemingly wanted to add the tone and story conventions of the earlier games in the series (Solatorobo/Tail Concerto).

So CC2 wanted the "We are Nazi's, so we are evil" narrative shorthand but they also want the "shonen villain redemptions" of the past games. In the end the two clash horribly. This makes me and a lot of other people in the fandom think that CC2 just used WW2 Germany as an aesthetic of evil without actually having the time to process the deeper implications of drawing from that history. It becomes an unsettling mess where characters who are NAZI analogs are given more grace and room to grow by doing nothing to warrant that or taking any accountability for their crimes in the slightest.

It is time to talk about Cayanne...

Cayenne Riesling's wife, son, and parents were killed in the Bio experiments conducted by Blutwurst. This would make him a victim of the attempted genocide of the Felineko people. Ok so why the hell is he so CARTOONISHLY EVIL? He murders his best friend and his wife in cold blood, Steals said best friends' identity, and he manipulates his pupil to blow herself up with a bomb. And all to what? Have his revenge on the Berman empire? Ok if that's the case, then why does he attack Gasco FIRST?

Sure, there's no such thing as a perfect victim, but this is laughably cruel. And it comes out of nowhere. Cayanne is barely mentioned before he appears at the very end of Fuga 2. There is no way for the player to get a read on what kind of man he is. Was he an evil vindictive person the whole time? According to the secret events of Fuga 3 he acts completely normal. Nothing there implies that he is willing or capable of these evil acts. This turns what could have been a character with a heart wrenching backstory into a two-dimensional villain connected to real history in the most tone-deaf way possible.

What was the thought process behind the idea of turning a survivor of a war crime into a mustache twirling villain? Again, Fuga doesn't even develop him enough for his spiral to make sense. There is a reason Cayanne is the least liked LTB villain by a long shot. And to add salt to the wound, Cayanne was RIGHT about Berman breaking the peace treaty. Was there really no other option for a cartoonishly evil villain for Fuga 2? Did it have to be Cayanne, the victim of a war crime?

I get that another theme of the trilogy is revenge and how it can turn you into the thing you hate. But the way it's done with Cayanne is basically him directly telling the audience "rawr I'm evil because err revenge errr, oohh isn't revenge so bad rawr".

(He is also one of the few LTB villains that stay dead. Not the other Nazi analogs, just him, Blutwurst, and the Kaiser, ok cool...)

The Fuga Melodies of Steel trilogy treats the Berman characters is underdeveloped, jarring, and tone-deaf. They pull directly from real WW2 history just to use it as an aesthetic. WW2 was one of the darkest points in human history, it needs to be handled with more awareness and care than this.

The strange thing is that there was already a WW2 Germany fascism allegory in the series in the Solatorobo side story: Kadenz ~closing melody. Seriously the main villain looks like this-

So not only is it poorly done in Fuga it's also redundant. I need to stop here...

I believe you can love a piece of media no matter how flawed. Nothing is perfect after all. But it is important to acknowledge the flaws and think about what you watch, read, and play. It is so you can learn from them and continue forward. Regardless of it's flaws this series was made with so much love and I personally admire CC2's level of dedication to their passion project. With all of this being said, I still love LTB and Fuga. Solatorobo and the first Fuga game are still some of my favorite video games of all time. I still adore the Taranis kids and the lore connections to the rest of the series.

But I completely understand if the Fuga trilogy puts anyone off of the series, because these serious topics were handled incredibly poorly. And I hope other LTB fans understand this too.

Hopefully the next game in the series will have nothing to do with WW2 or Nazis.