Genso Suikoden II Ending
This is continued from the discussion on safiiru's journal.
Anybody who doesn't want spoilers, read no further.
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Anybody who doesn't want spoilers, read no further.
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The funny part is I agree with some of this, especially #3. So freakin' lame. Her leaving didn't help the Hero at all, and it completely destroyed her characterization -- she was supposed to be a reasonably strong woman, and yeah, I can see the war was hard on them and they were only kids and whatnot, but the hero was the only family she had. Her entire character was built around that; she wasn't supposed to be the kind of person who'd choose to give that up, even for a supposed greater good. Feh.
I think I agree with #1, but I also think maybe it could go either way. The non-Tinto bad ending is definitely powerful and bittersweet, but I also found the good ending touching in its own way, the idea that faith and hope can still play a role even after the disastrous events that happened in the game.
But on #2 I have to disagree wholeheartedly. It took playing GSII a second time for me to really appreciate just how tragic a figure Jowy is, but dammit, it gets to me. I don't see him as having damned himself; I seem as having made a tough choice -- the wrong choice, as it turns out -- but with the absolute best of intentions. (Yeah, the road to hell and all that...) Despite his cold, worthless adoptive family and a town that hung him out to dry, he had a profound love for his birthplace and his people, and he wanted to save them the only way he knew how -- by becoming strong, deposing Luca Blight, and unifying everyone under Highland's rule. It's that whole "history is written by the winners" paradox; what gets to me is that, done another way, Jowy and Highland could have been the 'hero' of GSII and Riou/Hero2 and his gang could just as easily have been the wayward friend who had to be stopped, even if it hurt to fight him.
But mostly what mattered to me was that promise they made at the rock at the beginning of the game. Promises are critical; they are the lifeblood of a relationship (this is what I meant in safiiru's entry when I said I take some things seriously). It would have felt unfinished to me, had Hero2 just gone on ruling the city-states and said "well, fuck it, that Jowy thing's all in the past" and not gone after him. (Not to mention, Hero2 doesn't seem like the kind of guy who's cut out for sitting behind a desk and running a country, you know? Any more than Hero1 was, and we do have it as canon that he and Gremio set off again...) And once they met back at Tenzan Pass...it would have been sacrilege, so utterly disrespectful of everything I think the game is trying to show, to think they made that promise in order to return and kill each other. That promise was made between friends, friends who were practically family in terms of how much they cared about each other -- the hero and Nanami *were* more to Jowy than his own family, if the flashbacks at the start of the game are to be believed. I guess I played through GSII thinking the hero had two missions -- one, to free the city-states, and two, to free Jowy -- and it would have been such a letdown and felt so incomplete to me if he failed in either of those missions.
And this is why I love the series, because it's so easy for me to get all involved in. :D Hope you don't find this too intrusive. ^_^;
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Anyway, when I first played through GS II, I was also reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Jowy definitely reminded me of Raskolnikov. Especially the fact that Jowy thinks he can make things right if only he had the Power. Since power corrupts and all that, this leads me to believe that Jowy went down The Wrong Path in the cave. Also, once Lucca is deposed, it seems to me that Jowy's attempts at "peace" only make things worse.
My memory gets particularly hazy here, but as I recall when I first played through the game and got the "bad" ending. I (if you'll pardon the first person) met Jowy at the pass and refused to the fight the duel. I think I kept defending over and over again. Eventually Jowy died anyway, I believe from the rune. This indicates to me that his death was inevitable (which is why he wants the Hero to kill him). Also, as I recall, he refuses to admit that he's done anything wrong. That is the very essence of being Unredeemed and I remember being very struck by that point.
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Ah yes, I remember now. "I have no regrets." This line infuriated me. "Sure, I betrayed my allies and my friends, sure I literally stabbed my benefactor in the back*, sure I killed people in cold blood, sure I continued to wage war even after disposing of Luca. I admit I was Evil with a capital E. But I'm not sorry and I'd do it all again!" The rotten little bastard! I'm really not sure at all that Jowy does understand the seriousness of his sins. The best that can be hoped for is that he just blurted out those words and didn't mean them.
The point about Mercy being a theme of the series is well made. Of course at the time I played GSII that wasn't quite so obvious as now, two games latter. Also, I confess to being a Justice kind of guy.
Finally, it is very much the people of Highland and Jouston's forgiveness that Jowy needs to earn, because it was they who truly suffered because of his actions.
* According to Dante, that alone will get you into the lowest pit of Hell.
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I'd address some other issues, but I sense a clash of world views here that goes far beyond GSII and since I'm now officially on break, no writing papers! :)
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This is exactly why I think Gremio's cheapened by the 108 star bonus, and Nanami is not.
I don't have a strong stance on which GS2 ending I prefer-- both are poignant and lovely, and bring out very important things in the characters, and I don't really want to give either of them up. But this is why I'm not bothered by Nanami's coming back at all.
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