N...no...I'm still not done actually....because I got so wrapped up in my tangent that I forgot I was in the middle of making a point...
So, characters that interact with the MC even while knowing she's sent to kill everyone, there's more than Ascanio and Marané, I just got distracted talking about them LOL the downside of loving every character, I could write an essay about all of them.
Alpheon is crucial here, for reasons I already talked about LOL but more than that, considering he's the only one out of our immediate circle [who also knows exactly what we are, it's a very small circle, everyone say hi to Nessa she's the only human here until Marané joins.] that acts as a moral compass.
Atri is compassionate, but brutal in her methods, more black-and-white than the rest. She has a strong sense of justice, and for her, she already knows what's right, she doesn't need to deliberate on morals and ethics like we do. We're still developing, we're still learning about ourselves, but she just knows. She's not particularly interested in guiding us, and she'll only push back if she strongly disagrees, so that leaves Alpheon as our conscience. He gets to be the little angel on our shoulder.
Hilarious to think that Marané would probably be the devil here, or Šlūq.
I love that he's so much more gentle than I thought he'd be at first, Alpheon is so soft, so lovely, he just wants to be comfortable and provide that comfort for the people around him as well. He has a gentle love of life, not necessarily weak or flimsy, but compared to Atri who loves with her fierce protection, and Ascanio who loves with their firm guidance, Alpheon is content with just a nudge. He watches, he supports, but he doesn't seem to want to influence you strongly one way or the other.
[Obv take that with a grain of salt since I didn't play an MC that he would particularly want to oppose, but I did try killing Charybdis just once to see Atri's reaction and the way Alpheon felt afterwards destroyed me. Will never do that again, Charybdis has a designated name for every playthrough and it's Halcydon. That's my BUDDY.]
But at least for me, it's that gentle disposition that makes me want to be kind as well. The fact that, completely unprompted, he saw fit to regulate your feelings to let you experience what it means to be alive, it says so much. He wants so badly to dream, to be human, to trust, that he just can't help himself when he sees that you're lacking the small, precious parts of you that can make you human, or as close to human as either of you will ever get.
Okay wait I hadn't thought about it until just now but now I wonder if it was intentional??? Hold on, LOL I thought it was just an act of kindness before, but like, if he knows that you're here to kill everyone and he DOESN'T WANT THAT, then you having no emotions is a BIG problem. I wonder if he was trying to stop the darkest hour from happening, even all the way back then. We know that he's a lot smarter than he likes to appear, and I don't think he'd be above a subtle tactic like that if it means ultimately everyone is happy. It'd be a risk, but no more of a risk than letting you stay an empty shell that will undoubtedly follow the Abyss with no questions.
But also, he's allergic to high amounts of pressure and responsibility, and yet that would make exactly this kind of very subtle manipulation perfect, because it's so behind the scenes that someone might not even notice until they're writing 3 essay-length comments describing it.
DO YOU SEE WHY I'M SO CONSUMED?? THERE'S SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT LOL I HAVE TO KNOWWWwwww
Šlūq is another fascinating character for this conversation, if you've read the notes attributed to him in the codex [not just under his name] there's some really weird stuff going on with him. He seems to want you to bring forth the darkest hour, if you're determined to do so then he hopes that you hold fast, but if you waver then he disapproves. Does he really?
It doesn't look like that's entirely true, or at least, it's not as cut and dry as he's implying.
I could be totally misreading the codex entries, the cool thing about implied storytelling is that I might not be right, and someone else might have thought something different, and these conversations can be really fun to have. For me, it seemed to imply that since he's friends with Ascanio, he doesn't actually want to see them punished, but it puts him in a difficult position because he is also of the Abyss. That part isn't so much implied as directly stated, but it's his intentions that I want to speculate about.
Because I have 0 fucking idea of what his motivations are LOL that dude is an enigma to me, I love him, I kind of wish we got to meet his siblings too but I know the scale of the story would be way too big.
His sister mentions hoping that you'll bind yourself to him in a lapse of judgement, and I wonder if it's so they can prevent an all-out war, by force if they have to. It would be going directly against the Abyss' wishes, so I don't know for sure if that was their intent, it could have just been a failsafe for themselves to make sure Banu Javidyar is unaffected by either the darkest hour, or whatever retaliation might come from the fallout of the alternative.
But I like thinking that he just wants to, very secretly, make sure you don't actually start the apocalypse, if only because it's funny to me to have a character that's lowkey trying to push you to do evil, but even MORE lowkey wants to stop you from doing evil LOL watching how they dance around the MC's nature is so entertaining. He would know that you're here specifically to hurt someone he considers a friend, and he might act rather casually about it, but I have to think about the fact that he's on the opposite side.
In the beginning when he approaches you, it's under the guise that you're the same--you're both Envoys, both have the potential to be gods to these humans, and he makes it seem like it'd be something he's willing to do alongside you in friendship. He's friendly, charming, and seems very very easy-going.
But to him, we're probably the enemy, are we not? Is he trying to egg us on because he wants to prompt his friend into action? Is he hoping that, by putting you on the path to the darkest hour, Ascanio will have to step out of their shadow and act as the Envoy that they are? Or is he just trying to see how far we're willing to go, is he testing our intentions, and if he is, did he pass any of that information off to Ascanio? I want to know if he was relaying our answers to his questions to them, or if he was just genuinely curious. Maybe he does want the darkest hour to come to pass, and maybe he was hoping we'd be able to persuade his friend to change sides as well. One big happy abyss-loving family LOL
Also man, MAN. KNOWING THAT ASCANIO GAVE HIM THEIR BLOOD?? HUH??
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY GIVE ANOTHER ENVOY THEIR BLOOD, THAT SOUNDS KIND OF INSANE LOL
It's just so cool, I could geek out all day, I can't express how fun it's been exploring this world and everything it has to offer. I know this game JUST got released and everyone involved deserves so much rest and patience and grace, but I so badly already want to know if they're going to work on anything after this LOL I still want to know what was up with Lyris [I can't actually remember how to spell her name and I couldn't find an entry for her either, but the serene traveler who was looking for her sister] and why the Abyss was willing to allow her to intervene.
I do want to try choosing mortality at least once for Sylas, Malec, and Marané just to SEE what all is different and what answers I might be missing, but I can never make myself turn Ascanio down LOL the chokehold they have on me is disgusting.
I also got very very attached to Alpheon and Atri, the found family vibe was something I did not expect, and it breaks my heart to split them up LOL but I do want to see what in the epilogue changes, I'm just afraid of the grief that I know is gonna be waitingggg.
So many questions....still so many things I don't know....and I'm still missing like 5 codex entries but I'm too scared I have to do the other endings to get them....
Okay I'm done for real this time LOL my baddd xoxo
[Except I realized immediately after posting that I actually didn't continue my point at all, and instead went on a very long rant just going over the characters in general and giving my thoughts on them, instead of tying it all back into my initial conversation about how fucking cool the MC is and how interesting it is to watch all these characters who know more about her than she does interact. Oh well LOL]