Weird, amirite?
So liek, almost no one reading this likely knows what I'm even going on about, but... I was poking around for I can't remember what, and I came across this discussion on the GameFAQs forums about Mana in Atelier Iris 3
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He fits the Decoy Protagonist trope, really: the everyman character who is there as a spectator in Iris' story, a viewpoint character for the player.
It's clear that they intended at some point to have there be this big rivalry between Edge and Ash and so on, but nope, denied. True, there's the sense that Edge is pretty ticked off at Ash, especially for attacking Iris and so on, but he never does anything about it because Iris and her life are more important, obviously.
On second playthrough, it really just became obvious to me that Edge = doormat. He'd like to take a stand and tell Iris that he doesn't really want to hear about alchemy (which would be much nicer than the passive-agressive dismissing it), but he's just too much of a doormat.
Regarding Rufina, the question when someone says 'pure of heart' is pure what? Nell is surprisingly perceptive when she bothers and Iris is an alchemist, but while Iris isn't selfish per se they're both quite self-centered, or centered on alchemy in Iris' case. Edge, on the other hand, is fundamentally about other people, Iris in particular. He doesn't even have enough of what Tales of the Abyss calls the good kind of selfishness, otherwise he'd be much less annoying. If Rufina really is a being that is there for the purpose of doing good deeds and helping others, than it makes sense that what her people would consider good/'pure-hearted' is doing good deeds and helping others.
Iris tends to be focused on alchemy and Nell is focused on herself in that way children are. They're not bad people, but their hearts are both focused on something that isn't helping others: although they will help others, it's not purely about that. Part of what makes Edge an annoying character is that he really doesn't have much that he cares about besides helping Iris and so on, but it may be this very lack of a life that let him see Rufina.
...Sorry, I just wandered over and saw the post. Would it be ok if I friended you? It's ok if you're too busy, etc.
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And this is an interesting perspective. I'd never thought of Edge as blindly selfless, but the more I think on it, it's true. He's an Annoying Love Interest with no motivations or appeal beyond that, which is what makes it all the more infuriating that he's the protagonist. It's not his story. He doesn't really have much of a story.
So yeah, I can see him as kind of stripped of much self-concern to the point where he'd be on a similar wavelength with someone whose purpose is to do good acts and not really have a sense of self. Although... the particular manifestation of it in Edge is one that never comes off to me as useful in the way that angelic selflessness might be useful, in the sense that he seems like the kind of person who'll do things for others because he believes that's what's Right, without checking in that that's what would really be useful to them. Which is not a terribly good thing to be espousing as "pure" without any criticism....
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As for other things: That's why the first question always needs to be "pure what?" Often when people talk about pure and innocent they're talking about children, who don't know any better. There's the saying that anyone without scars on their hearts would be a terrible person... Children tend to be quite selfish both because they don't have enough experience yet to quite understand that they're hurting others (empathy is knowing what someone else is feeling, generally via personal experience of some kind) and because everyone around them is so much stronger/more knowledgable that they can think that they're's no one that needs looking out for but number one: the tools an adult has to handle situations/their HP are so much more than a kid's.
Angelic selflessness, in the book about angels, is known to backfire horribly. A lot of Old Testament stuff, especially the apocrypha, has angels teaching humans things that could (and do) help make their lives better, but because neither the angels nor the humans have any concept yet that these things can be misused, they are. A lot of learning just has to be done from experience. As for Edge running ahead instead of checking with people... he really doesn't seem to have that much initiative in the game, which when Fridge Logic is applied is a bit of a 'hint' that he's not a brash young man type or out to have any control over Iris. He's just too subordinate to Iris.
Because of just how much it is Iris' story, Edge, who clearly was meant to be more fleshed out, is really stripped of most traits that could make him an individual and made into a 2-d character. Since he and Lita annoyed me so much, I decided when I included them in ToT that I wanted to find some way for their annoying in-game traits to make sense in-universe and not be quite so annoying. Edge's traits were lack of personality, concern for Iris (and Nell), semi-dislike of alchemy and desire to be a raider (the trait that was supposed to be his defining one, probably, and then mostly got cut from the game to center it on Iris' plot).
The character in Mana Khemia with an annoying lack of personality and a tendency to serve others instead of working towards his own goals is Vayne: giving Edge an analogous situation would allow him to contribute something to the plot instead of being shunted aside. I then decided to make his dislike of alchemy because of his concern for Iris and her psychological health, etc. I love Fridge Logic.
Of course, every character (like Lita) that I find a reason to love thus requires more character development time and more wordcount... I finally got around to explaining why the title in chapter 43 and it's not going to become relevant until Isolde reconciles with Vayne, Nell gets her mana, Yuveria arrives, Iris/Crowley becomes official, etc. etc. Way too many bunnies feeding into this thing.
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