#van grants

To give a summary of Legretta's plot; she was born Giselle Oslo and had a brother Marcel. Prior to the events of the game, Marcel died in battle under the command of Van Grants. Giselle would investigate her brother's death in the Closed Score only to find that Van sent his troops into battle knowing they would all die. This would fuel a revenge plot with Giselle making an assassination attempt on Van, which would fail.

Van, learning of her rejection of the Score, would bring her into his fold, eventually promoting her to God General and even allowing her to train his own younger sister Tear. With this closer access to Van, Giselle would learn more of his past and motivations, eventually resulting in her abandoning her revenge against Van and even falling in love with him.

Does some of this sound familiar? Maybe if we touch on Legretta's personality. She's a cold and calculating soldier, operating with efficiency while concealing her emotions from those around her.

While all the God Generals are foils to the main cast to varying degrees, Legretta is Tear's foil in a near perfect sense, that is to say Legretta is the version of Tear who sides with Van.

On a superficial level, because Legretta trained Tear they have a lot of similarities in combat. Both are projectile users, Legretta with her fon-tech guns and Tear with her knives. They share many of the same Physical Artes, and they both specialize in Sixth Fonon (light) and Seventh Fonon (healing) Fonic Artes.

Legretta's personality is a perfect copy/paste of Tear at the beginning of the game, which Tear credits her training under Legretta as well. The game opens with Tear trying to kill Van and she fails, and both Tear and Legretta have complex emotions toward the man; Legretta feeling romantic love while knowing Van's role in her brother's death, and Tear feeling brotherly love while knowing Van is trying to destroy the world. Both women are also willing to sacrifice themselves to achieve their goals.

What makes Legretta interesting is her contrast to Tear. She provides a background to compare Tear against; every time we see Tear grow and develop Legretta is there to be a reference to highlight the changes. As one example, every time we see Tear be compassionate, or help civilians, it is in stark contrast to Legretta leading the massacre of Sheridan. And these comparisons are solidified the first two times you fight Legretta, where she attempts to convince Tear to switch sides in the conflict while Tear outright rejects her, Van, and their shared vision.

So the next time you think that Legretta is a bit of wasted story potential, or the most boring character in Abyss, remember that she's not only one of the most effective antagonists in the story nearly every time you run into her, but she makes one of the main cast party members better. Tear is a better character, and her growth more impactful, because Legretta is there to show what Tear could have been, would have been, if she had chosen to support her brother instead.

Come and worship our Redeemer / Sing and praise forevermore

Happy 19th birthday to Tales of the Abyss!! Close-ups under the cut!