Asch Essay, Pre-Game stuff
In here be spoilers for Tales of the Abyss and my own incoherent babbling, which is supposed to be an attempt to understand/explain my interpretation of Asch. A character with SERIOUS and DEEP-ROOTED ISSUES that kind of make up his entire being is a new and frightening concept to me and I want to make sure I am not Doing It Wrong so here, have an essay o/
As a note, this essay is meant to mainly cover Asch's set-up for the game and pre-game things. W-Which makes it part one in a series of essays, sob.
To start with, Asch has this little bit of side-manga canon which is one of the most HORRIBLE THINGS I HAVE EVER READ and yet at the same time is what made me fall in love with him. No really, I had honestly thought of Asch as an unredeemable jerk throughout most of the game and didn't give him much mind; he was that guy who was mean to Luke and Luke was this lovable puppy going through sad and horrible things and ASCH STOP BEING AN ASS LEAVE HIM ALONE. Then around the time I was finishing the game, Aviy sent me this little gem of a side story that covers a bit of Asch's history. And it... kind of just gave me everything I ever needed to understand and see Asch as a person. IT DOESN'T MAKE MUCH SENSE HOW but it just did for me. For those curious, it is scanlated, so you have no excuse to not read it RIGHT NOW (it has spoilers, but nothing more than you'll read in this little essay).
Anyway, that little gaiden covers what happens once upon a time when Asch was still known as Luke fon Fabre. Timeline-wise, it's seven years ago when he's kidnapped by Van, specifically right after he's been replicated. In it, Asch escapes the holding facility he was kept in in Daath and fights TOOTH AND NAIL to get back to Baticul (note the two cities are on separate CONTINENTS), enduring horrible child abuse by angry adults and fighting giant monsters and just THINGS A TEN YEAR OLD SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE ON BY HIMSELF. But, he does, because he is so absolutely determined to get back home.
In my interpretation, it's not simply a matter of him missing home and wanting to go back, but because he believes that he's needed. Kimlasca needs him, Natalia needs him, everyone has been telling him FROM BIRTH about these great hopes they have for him once he takes over as king and Asch does not want to let anyone down. He's been told he's the only one who can do this and wholeheartedly believes that he's the only one who can lead Kimlasca. In fact, he was prophesied to be the one to lead the people into prosperity and even his NAME is a part of this; Luke, Light of the Sacred Flame. From that train of thought and the pressures of the Score's prophecy, he trains and studies tirelessly to become the perfect ruler.
This stress to live up to the expectations of the people is one of the things that kind of messes him up as a person; his only thoughts while undergoing these HORRENDOUS EXPERIMENTS ON HIS BODY are I have to go back, everyone at the mansion must be worried. At the age of ten, he's already this self-sacrificing person whose most important need is a purpose. To belong somewhere, for someone to need him, just some form of acknowledgment of his existence. Which! Gets completely messed up in the frame of about one minute.
See, after getting bloodied up, losing his sword because he was fighting monsters, stowing away on ships because no one will believe he's the real Luke, and traveling on his own all the way to Baticul, there is this sense of relief that he's back and he didn't fail everyone by disappearing-BUT WAIT WHAT IS THIS REPLICA WHY IS MY FAMILY GIVING IT LOVE AND CALLING IT MY NAME AND WHY ARE THEY SO HAPPY. god that whole scene is just. ow. The shock of seeing himself so easily replaced just kind of completely crushes him. It's not their fault in any way, they don't know that it's a replica, but still Asch's whole purpose gets kinda fucked up with that one line Even if it's not me, they're fine. He wasn't special, he wasn't needed, he was replaceable. Something that kind of adds fire to the flame is how happy everyone seems to be; looking at the few pages in the beginning, there's a kind of standoffishness between Asch and his family but the Luke-replica is frolicking in fields with them. That hurts.
So, Van appears and does his pedo number comforting thing, telling Asch just about everything he did and didn't need to hear, generally playing up the fact that Asch has been replaced, they didn't need him anymore, but Van did. Asch's kind of obvious need to be needed is something Van knew about and took advantage of, and after being essentially REJECTED by the people he loves, having just one person tell him that he's still needed is enough for him. Now he believed that Van is the only one who wants/needs him, and even upon finding out that Van only wants him for his hyperresonance, he is okay with that. Even towards the end of the game, he states that he was totally okay with being Van's tool because he believed in what Van had said. Van using him still meant he was needed; he is the only one who can do this for Van, he is Important.
So, Asch goes with Van and, most importantly, changes his name (it is a better change than CUTTING HIS HAIR okay). Asch drops the name Luke fon Fabre and picks up the name Asch, which has been defined to mean "the charred remains of the sacred flame". This... obviously means a lot! Van's the one who suggests it to him, but I think in the end it is Asch's decision to use it and that in itself is pretty symbolic. Asch believes that he's been tossed away, that he's merely ashes to a flame, so from that early point, we can see that he actually thinks of himself as inferior to his own replica. His own family seems to love the replica more, so of course he's just these forgotten ashes lying around in the ground while that damn flame keeps burning brighter and brighter.
BUT WAIT, WE'RE NOT DONE HERE YET. This isn't really covered in the gaiden, but moreso over the course of the game; the replicating process and its effects on originals/replicas. Using this as a reference (it's f-locked to the comm), it's found out that there have been cases of the replica dying during the process, but an issue of more relevance to Asch is that there are also cases of the original dying. Because the replica process involves removing information from the body of a person, it's probably kind of expected that this isn't too good for the original.
What it gets down to is that Asch has been slowly dying since the start of the game. In fact, it's possible that he's been dying since being replicated, which was seven years ago. CORRECTED, he's been dying since opening Luke's fon slots, which occurs early on in the game. But this doesn't change the fact that he knows about his own oncoming death and this is a fact that plays a very integral role in a lot of the decisions he makes over the course of the game (ie why he's a suicidal nut at some points of the game).
There is another side-effect of note in the replicating process. While exploring the Ortion Caves, the party runs across a pair of cheagles: one replicated, one original. They put shoot out flames! One is weaker than the other! Jade is smarmy and says that it's normal for replicas to be weaker! But wait lol no, the original is the one with a weaker flame. Whether this means that the original is now weaker than the replica or if it has a weaker flame because it is dying isn't something I'm sure about, but it is something worth noting: that there's the additional psychological effect on Asch of being physically weaker than Luke as well. This kind of gets hammered in during boss fights between the two, especially when Luke wins.
And... this is pretty much just the set-up for the actual game, which gets a whole new essay for itself because Asch manages to develop more issues upon finally meeting face-to-face with his replica. This is a whole new can of worms that takes place over the course of the game and. Doesn't even end with his own death because so many things are left unsettled for himself and between him and Luke.
I also probably laid it on pretty thick in this essay, so the short version of it is LIFE SUCKS THEN YOU GET NPC'D. More to come in future essays. SOMEONE HIT ME IF I MISSED SOMETHING/GOT SOMETHING WRONG.
As a note, this essay is meant to mainly cover Asch's set-up for the game and pre-game things. W-Which makes it part one in a series of essays, sob.
To start with, Asch has this little bit of side-manga canon which is one of the most HORRIBLE THINGS I HAVE EVER READ and yet at the same time is what made me fall in love with him. No really, I had honestly thought of Asch as an unredeemable jerk throughout most of the game and didn't give him much mind; he was that guy who was mean to Luke and Luke was this lovable puppy going through sad and horrible things and ASCH STOP BEING AN ASS LEAVE HIM ALONE. Then around the time I was finishing the game, Aviy sent me this little gem of a side story that covers a bit of Asch's history. And it... kind of just gave me everything I ever needed to understand and see Asch as a person. IT DOESN'T MAKE MUCH SENSE HOW but it just did for me. For those curious, it is scanlated, so you have no excuse to not read it RIGHT NOW (it has spoilers, but nothing more than you'll read in this little essay).
Anyway, that little gaiden covers what happens once upon a time when Asch was still known as Luke fon Fabre. Timeline-wise, it's seven years ago when he's kidnapped by Van, specifically right after he's been replicated. In it, Asch escapes the holding facility he was kept in in Daath and fights TOOTH AND NAIL to get back to Baticul (note the two cities are on separate CONTINENTS), enduring horrible child abuse by angry adults and fighting giant monsters and just THINGS A TEN YEAR OLD SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE ON BY HIMSELF. But, he does, because he is so absolutely determined to get back home.
In my interpretation, it's not simply a matter of him missing home and wanting to go back, but because he believes that he's needed. Kimlasca needs him, Natalia needs him, everyone has been telling him FROM BIRTH about these great hopes they have for him once he takes over as king and Asch does not want to let anyone down. He's been told he's the only one who can do this and wholeheartedly believes that he's the only one who can lead Kimlasca. In fact, he was prophesied to be the one to lead the people into prosperity and even his NAME is a part of this; Luke, Light of the Sacred Flame. From that train of thought and the pressures of the Score's prophecy, he trains and studies tirelessly to become the perfect ruler.
This stress to live up to the expectations of the people is one of the things that kind of messes him up as a person; his only thoughts while undergoing these HORRENDOUS EXPERIMENTS ON HIS BODY are I have to go back, everyone at the mansion must be worried. At the age of ten, he's already this self-sacrificing person whose most important need is a purpose. To belong somewhere, for someone to need him, just some form of acknowledgment of his existence. Which! Gets completely messed up in the frame of about one minute.
See, after getting bloodied up, losing his sword because he was fighting monsters, stowing away on ships because no one will believe he's the real Luke, and traveling on his own all the way to Baticul, there is this sense of relief that he's back and he didn't fail everyone by disappearing-BUT WAIT WHAT IS THIS REPLICA WHY IS MY FAMILY GIVING IT LOVE AND CALLING IT MY NAME AND WHY ARE THEY SO HAPPY. god that whole scene is just. ow. The shock of seeing himself so easily replaced just kind of completely crushes him. It's not their fault in any way, they don't know that it's a replica, but still Asch's whole purpose gets kinda fucked up with that one line Even if it's not me, they're fine. He wasn't special, he wasn't needed, he was replaceable. Something that kind of adds fire to the flame is how happy everyone seems to be; looking at the few pages in the beginning, there's a kind of standoffishness between Asch and his family but the Luke-replica is frolicking in fields with them. That hurts.
So, Van appears and does his pedo number comforting thing, telling Asch just about everything he did and didn't need to hear, generally playing up the fact that Asch has been replaced, they didn't need him anymore, but Van did. Asch's kind of obvious need to be needed is something Van knew about and took advantage of, and after being essentially REJECTED by the people he loves, having just one person tell him that he's still needed is enough for him. Now he believed that Van is the only one who wants/needs him, and even upon finding out that Van only wants him for his hyperresonance, he is okay with that. Even towards the end of the game, he states that he was totally okay with being Van's tool because he believed in what Van had said. Van using him still meant he was needed; he is the only one who can do this for Van, he is Important.
So, Asch goes with Van and, most importantly, changes his name (it is a better change than CUTTING HIS HAIR okay). Asch drops the name Luke fon Fabre and picks up the name Asch, which has been defined to mean "the charred remains of the sacred flame". This... obviously means a lot! Van's the one who suggests it to him, but I think in the end it is Asch's decision to use it and that in itself is pretty symbolic. Asch believes that he's been tossed away, that he's merely ashes to a flame, so from that early point, we can see that he actually thinks of himself as inferior to his own replica. His own family seems to love the replica more, so of course he's just these forgotten ashes lying around in the ground while that damn flame keeps burning brighter and brighter.
BUT WAIT, WE'RE NOT DONE HERE YET. This isn't really covered in the gaiden, but moreso over the course of the game; the replicating process and its effects on originals/replicas. Using this as a reference (it's f-locked to the comm), it's found out that there have been cases of the replica dying during the process, but an issue of more relevance to Asch is that there are also cases of the original dying. Because the replica process involves removing information from the body of a person, it's probably kind of expected that this isn't too good for the original.
What it gets down to is that Asch has been slowly dying since the start of the game. In fact, it's possible that he's been dying since being replicated, which was seven years ago. CORRECTED, he's been dying since opening Luke's fon slots, which occurs early on in the game. But this doesn't change the fact that he knows about his own oncoming death and this is a fact that plays a very integral role in a lot of the decisions he makes over the course of the game (ie why he's a suicidal nut at some points of the game).
There is another side-effect of note in the replicating process. While exploring the Ortion Caves, the party runs across a pair of cheagles: one replicated, one original. They put shoot out flames! One is weaker than the other! Jade is smarmy and says that it's normal for replicas to be weaker! But wait lol no, the original is the one with a weaker flame. Whether this means that the original is now weaker than the replica or if it has a weaker flame because it is dying isn't something I'm sure about, but it is something worth noting: that there's the additional psychological effect on Asch of being physically weaker than Luke as well. This kind of gets hammered in during boss fights between the two, especially when Luke wins.
And... this is pretty much just the set-up for the actual game, which gets a whole new essay for itself because Asch manages to develop more issues upon finally meeting face-to-face with his replica. This is a whole new can of worms that takes place over the course of the game and. Doesn't even end with his own death because so many things are left unsettled for himself and between him and Luke.
I also probably laid it on pretty thick in this essay, so the short version of it is LIFE SUCKS THEN YOU GET NPC'D. More to come in future essays. SOMEONE HIT ME IF I MISSED SOMETHING/GOT SOMETHING WRONG.