Yonah Gestalt

I'm replaying Nier Replicant (again I know), and this scene always gives me Drakengard flashbacks.

Though both women turn away to die against their brother's wishes after it is said that they love him, there are significant differences between the two scenes.

Yonah's love is pure, and Furiae's is corrupted.

Yonah's scene uses light colours while Furiae's is dark.

Yonah is honest with her feelings, but Furiae denies hers until the end.

Yonah's death selflessly lets her replicant reunite with her brother, while Furiae's is selfish.

Key takeaways for anyone who missed them in the actual game:

1. Both girls were possessed throughout the whole game. Sae possessed Mayu and Yae possessed Mio. (The hand on Mio's shoulder in the very beginning is Yae following her into the village. She doesn't yank Mio around like Sae yanks around Mayu, but she's still there with her. That's why all of the spirits throughout the game call Mio by Yae's name.)

2. Mayu's sensitive sixth sense and mediumistic tendencies allow said possession to make her act entirely against her conscious will. She doesn't want to run from her sister. She isn't meaning to make her worry and chase after her. She's not manipulative or selfish. She genuinely cares about her little sister and her little sister's happiness and safety. Most of what we see of her during the game is not who she really is. It's not how she truly behaves outside of the events of the game. Again, the corrupted spirit of Sae is yanking her around.

One twin being forced to kill the other so that the village is safe from earthquakes and crops can grow, bringing prosperity.

A woman has all her limbs torn off with ropes, and her blood-soaked ropes are used to seal off hell.

A woman, traumatised and filled with survivor’s guilt over being the only survivor after her village was hit by a disaster, offered herself to be tattooed with the pain and loss of the living and dead—only to be impaled later on so she may never “wake up”.

Then, when the ritual fails, they became corrupted versions of themselves, further leaving a trail of deaths and tragedies behind them.

And yes, I'll be one of the first to openly say it, Matthias planned on grooming her for a while by normalizing harassment and even animal cruelty as the age old "I'm only teasing you because I want your attention." That monster was PREPARING her for the future, he wanted to see how far he could go when he realized she wasn't saying anything about the mistreatment and nobody, NOBODY said or noticed a god damn thing.

Just felt that I had to make this clear because as a Claudine fan girl myself, I feel that we missed the entire point of what we were supposed to be opposing. I noticed a disturbing number of people depicting Layla as an over-eager thirsty thot who secretly wanted to be raped by Matthias... as if that wasn't exactly how Solche, the author that depicted her in an identical fashion for the sake of their ship they so desperately wanted to sail, acted.

Layla was frickin groomed ever since she was twelve, and even before that, her subconscious had already normalized unstable relationships so much that she starts to feel comfort in them due to their familiarity. Most of all, the adults in her life had failed her at every turn, many people could easily figure out that Layla was being held in a hostage relationship and said nothing.

And as sad as I am to say this because he is one of my favorite characters, even Bill had failed to notice his daughter was being sexually abused until she was already pregnant with her rapists child. To this day I am still furious that Bill was reduced to such an idiot because OG Uncle Bill wouldn't have looked the other way the moment he noticed Matthias sending Layla expensive clothes or dropping her off in his car. I can possibly believe that he wouldn't know that she was being abused but come on! He didn't even suspect the idea that Matthias has some level of feelings for her!? I call bullshit on that one.

An essay about my second least favorite character in the well know web novel and webcomic, Sister I am the queen in this life.

Written by Prune

Ariadne is such an infuriating yet interesting character to follow in the same way Navier is an infuriating/interesting character. She is evil, occasionally the narrative will admit that she is evil, but will she ever suffer proper consequences? Will other characters who aren't specifically designed to be pathetic villains call her out when she isn't as virtuous as we are led to believe? The answer is simply no, because all the seemingly innocent people caught in her crosshairs are either people who acted worse than her or their deaths were needed to progress her story arc of getting everything she wants, even if she doesn't really deserve it. She's unintentionally one of the greatest depictions of hypocrisy, internalized misogyny, and victim mentality I have ever witnessed so far.

Because while she may emulate the image of what a perfect noble woman and future queen should be, she started out like this, a peasant girl who couldn't afford luxuries as basic as an education, she needed to rely on memories of a past life just to be on the same rank as Isabella in her current life, she had to endure back breaking labor if she wanted to survive as a mere nobody in the 16th century Italy inspired setting just like everyone else, and if it weren't for the cardinal, then she would have been another plague casualty, another citizen nobody cared about, another unidentified skeleton that would or wouldn't be unearthed over four hundred years later.

And despite that, despite most of her neighbors being in the same position as her, despite knowing that there were other children who suffered under the thumbs of opportunistic adults who could barely qualify as guardians, she still chose to fight against a preacher during a sermon that called out the greedy nature of the church and the divine right of nobles that could have, and in fact did in a past life, made lives for the millions of those struggling people easier, it originally would have taught these people that poor people are still people, regardless of any possibility of a wicked past life, they shouldn't be deprived of basic resources and instead should be offered the grace of God's forgiveness.

Ariadne, someone whose past life was riddled with selfishness, petty envy, and bloodshed, should know this better than anyone, she helped usurp a kingdom, she killed the man she is currently trying to enter a relationship with, and she still chose to follow the orders of the same man's tyrannical brother even if it was in the name of love. She by all accounts doesn't deserve to go back in time so she can try again and become a queen but here she is, alive and well, living in a mansion and already gaining the affections of the crown prince, surely this should be a sign that God has extended some kind of forgiveness for her sins because this God knows that she had to have suffered immensely to become the monster she is now.

Ariadne is living proof of the preacher's example, that no one should deserve this kind of cruelty no matter what the bible says about divine favor, and yet she still chooses to condemn this man in public and ruin his life so she can gain the favor of a father who only started to remotely care about her existence so he could marry her off to an unstable abuser. Her neighbors, childhood friends, strangers who happened to be struggling just like her, single mothers with children just like the situation she and her mother once shared, are now being left to suffer further class inequality and discrimination, all because Ariadne wanted to rub elbows with the nobility and clergy. She can say that she doesn't really believe in those classist ideologies all she wants, she still made the active decision to allow the belief that those in poverty are inherently born sinful and dirty to spread, she betrayed her child self and her mother in that way.

But when the poor are left to fend for themselves during a plague, when they are left to rot in shelters that can hardly be called that, when they are so hungry that they no longer care about any possible punishment for attacking noble girls feeding them soup that won't last long enough for everyone because one of them chose to wear jewelry, all of a sudden Ariadne cares about the impoverished. She's willing to throw money at them, she's willing to guide them so they can survive the illness, some of them are even willing to go as far as to die for her. Ariadne is willing to be their voice, but only for a price, and that price is unwavering loyalty, just look at Sancha, what is she other than the loyal maid Ariadne was generous enough to keep around?

These people are ignorant to the fact that the woman claiming the role as their savior during a time of crisis is the same woman who paved the way for their suffering for years to come, and they either have no clue, or they are accepted that Ariadne is the best they can do when she's one of the few nobles who doesn't want them to drop dead for the crime of poverty.

BEHOLD. A SILLY DUBBED PLA PARODY FOR FUNSIES.

⭐️

The way Isabella was written doesn't feel like the usual way someone would write the woman you are supposed to see as "the wrong kind of woman" There's a certain subtle amount of vitriol that went into her development, turning her from a character with a role to fulfill for the story to caricature with a role to fill for the author's and the audiences hatred for people they project onto her.

Isabella was originally supposed to be the most beautiful female character in the story, no matter how evil she is, her beauty is a part of what makes Isabella the woman she is, she knows her looks are the only piece of her that matters according to her family, which could have been used to explain why she wasn't as educated as her sisters. Her good looks combined with her fake personality are what brought her to such high standing in the first life.

That same beauty is what would eventually become the source of mockery against the character as a whole, it paints her as a backpedal on feminism, a stereotype that women who care about their looks and dress in traditionally feminine colors and clothes are all pure evil temptresses with the brain power of a sloth, these type of "bad women" can never be better than the "right women" because the "right kind" of women never have to beg other men to notice her, the men already notice how different and "unique" she is because she doesn't dress or act callously like other broads. Ariadne doesn't have to wear heels or bright colors because men like Alfonso are already attracted to how "special" she is compared to other women.

Isabella's lack of interest in anything outside of makeup, fashion, jewelry, and evil scheming isn't the result of a writer wanting to tell a story about the inherent sexist society the setting takes place in, Isabella's lack of interest in academics or the arts is simply because she needs to embody every negative trait of these perceived "bad women" to prove a point, that girls who act a certain way are all secretly out to get you because they're jealous of your special ability to attract men with your messy bun and "interesting" personality.

The funny part about this whole thing is that despite Isabella being portrayed as someone who will do anything for men to love her, she still is depicted as a misandrist, one of the only remaining remnants of what she used to be before personal bias, and hatred tainted her character writing. When has Isabella ever truly had any kind of genuine crush on another man? Every man she has ever been affiliated with, she only ever tolerated them in the moment because there was something to gain out of it. Power, status, a chance to hurt Ariadne, whatever it may have been, love was never a reason.

Sure, her inability to charm most men is something that is designed to ridicule her. Ariadne doesn't have to try, and several attractive and powerful men are already at her feet, ready to do whatever she says. Isabella can only attract ugly, fat, diseased, and sexist men who only want her for her body, these types of men are her "punishment" for being so girly and unoriginal, they could do horrible and sadistic things to her and you'd be expected to nod along because these horrifying crimes would be inflicted on the woman who "deserves it" because she's so cruel.

Isabella pushes children down the stairs, causes miscarriages, sacrifices infants, sleeps with other women's partners in broad daylight, sexually assaults people including her own sister, attempts to assassinate the same sister, NOT because she is the villain of the story, but because if she wasn't this obscenely evil then the fantasy of watching her be mutilated and abused by other men wouldn't feel as comfortable to the audience. Notice how everything she does plays little of a role in the actual narrative? How most characters who were victims of her wrath don't think about the trauma that was inflicted on them until it is needed for an Isabella torture scene or how nothing is done out of randomly writing her as a rapist?

Isabella isn't evil because she's the main antagonist, she's evil because the author NEEDS her to be evil in order to paint the stereotype as true, she's evil because there needs to be some kind of justification to watch this character be brutally tortured while still being able to claim that the people who hurt her are "better" than her because at least they know to hate the right woman.

And despite all of that, that little piece of the original Isabella still survived, she may have been reduced to a slut who will throw herself at anyone who gives her a five-dollar bill, but her view on the patriarchal society she is confined has remained, she knows these men won't love her forever, she is AWARE that she is replaceable, she never tries to get attached out for the sake of romance.

It makes her a tragic character in a way, a woman who is aware that she is trapped in a situation that forces her to rely on the whims of men to survive but will never be allowed to leave that situation due to the hand of the people who already won the race. Unlike her amazing, generous, intelligent, and special sister. Isabella is "the wrong" type of woman, so whatever happens to her is always going to be considered to be deserved.

At least our toxic queen still has several panels of looking spectacular.

Lariessa is a victim of similar writing to Isabella, she's another case of "The bad type" of women in IATQITL, acting very much like first life Ariadne in the way that she's obsessive over a man who never loved her to begin with and is instead pining after another woman.

But whereas Ariadne is owed sympathy by the audience, Lariessa is mocked and ridiculed for acting "delusional" She doesn't want to accept that the first person who asked about HER and not her sister, Susanne, is in love with another woman, the man that she has been promised to actively trying to fight against the marriage because he doesn't want HER, he wants Ariadne, the only "good woman" who doesn't think about things that are "typical" or "basic" Lariessa is all about fairytales and romance, she wants things to go her way exactly, and when she can't have that, she copes in self-destructive ways.

Alfonso telling her to remember that she is just a woman, to remember her place amongst both her homeland and Etruscan's culture, is meant to be considered a moment of triumph for Ariadne as it proves her love interest's adoration for the main character. Who cares if Lariessa was basically degraded to a womb and a vagina with eyes in the most passive aggressive way imaginable? Alfonso was the one who said it, he isn't one of the ugly fat men who blatantly tell women to get back in the kitchen, so it isn't sexism! Alfonso is head over heels for one particular woman who was ordained as "Good" and "Mentally sane" So he's already a feminist, guys!

Lariessa is moody, she's high maintenance, she's bipolar, narcissistic and BPD coded, she needs constant validation, she's clingy and obsessive, she was happy that her amazing unseen sister is dead, she wants attention, and most of all, she can't it through her head that Ariadne suffered the most so only she deserves basic respect as a woman.

Okay, sarcastic rant over, you guys know where I'm getting at.

I find it really ironic that the woman who acted just like Ariadne, a woman who believes that she should be absolved of all responsibility because she acted in the name of love, is being villainized as an unintentional stereotype of a person with a personality disorder. It's funny how an author will go so far to convince the readers that the main character deserves nothing but the readers sympathy that they start making contradictions in their morals.

Because that does is make me feel sympathy for Lariessa because she's just acting the same way Ariadne is, but since she doesn't have the foresight from a past life, the author's favoritism, or the traits of what makes a good the "right" type of woman, she is expected to be scorned as Alfonsos uglier fiancé with no chance at winning is heart.

And yes, Lariessa, according to the novel, is considered ugly by the standards of the story. Way to write women for the sake being put down to bring the boss babe up, Lariessa deserves way more than just being the evil crazy fiancé trope.

Even if Alfonso and Lariessa were wed, how would it even go forward in a healthy way? He didn't really give her a chance since he assumed she was on the same page as him and slowly grew to resent her when he realized just how desperate she is for his affections. Lariessa would still be denied the love she craves so much, simply because she isn't the protagonist, she's the one getting in the way of fantasy fulfillment of Ariadne. What could she do when her husband brings in his first love as a mistress, whenever Ariadne accepts becoming a mistress or not, the feelings towards Lariessa would still be evident.

Alfonso wants nothing to do with her, not after her emotions consistently got the better of her when she threatened him. She isn't what the story considers to be 'The right" kind of woman, her insecurities and lack of love for herself don't matter when she doesn't act like a good victim or a sanitized depiction of mental health.

Lariessa and Isabella aren't even the end to this trend of "Women the readers and the authors don't like being punished by sexism"

Body shaming and slut shaming is cruel... It's not Ariadne's fault she was born that; Isabella is probably just jealous that she doesn't have large, luscious melons like her beautiful sister.

Until it's the "bad women" Ariadne is back handily slut shaming. It's okay though, Lucrezia should know better than to show her cleavage and wear heavy makeup at her age.

A maid has to use her body if she wants a chance at a happier life? Oh wow... I can't believe Ariadne's mother had to endure all that just because she wasn't lucky enough to be born into wealth...

A maid is using her body to her advantage to gain financial security by having a baby with the son of the house? Ugh, what a whore, what kind of shallow skank thinks that she can cheat her way in life, she should be grateful that she even has this job.

There's a clear pattern here. It's what determines what makes a woman one of the "good ones" by this story's standards. The answer is obvious.

You have to be Ariadne or at the very least, you have to be someone who is both below her in status and devoid of any personality that has nothing to do with your love for Ariadne.

And if you're a female character with importance to the plot that isn't an enemy of the girl boss, then what do you know, you're being lined up on the chopping block of killed off characters for the sake of shock value

Isabella, Lariessa, Lucrezia, Maletta, and many more, will always be the women readers will want to stick around for the most, because tales of women trying to achieve happiness in a society that does whatever it can to push them down is far more interesting than watching a woman participate in that system because of her victim complex.

Anyway, live laugh love Bianca, she's one of the only female characters in the story that's still alive, likeable, and she isn't fodder for Ariadne, honestly, she deserves to have her own novel.

Also Navier fans: