Lady Appreciation Post: Colette Brunel
It's almost New Year. A time to look back and reflect on 2011. Hope your past year wasn't as rough as mine's.
Anyway, a Lady post for y'all.
"But, even so, I love this world." --Colette Brunel, Tales of Symphona OVA Episode 1
I love Colette. Like, ridiculously love Colette.
She's got a "Starfire"-like personality, meaning she's warm, caring, sweet, feminine, gentle, loves life, loves her friends, loves puppies and other cute things, internalizes her pain, and is kind and compassionate towards everyone and everything. (And maybe a little dim and naive.)
She's also pretty kickass when she needs to be.
Exhibit A: Colette after bitch-slapping Pronyma with her chakrams. Complete with a SMACK sound effect.
Colette is an utterly adorable girl who treasures life. She's ditzy and a bit of a klutz. She apologizes when she doesn't need to. But she loves the world and she wants to protect it. As the Chosen of Slyvarant, it is her destiny to make an epic quest across the map to unlock the mana seals and then pray at the Tower of Salvation and become an angel, to restore the mana flow to the dying, decaying, and declining world. Colette accepts this task with very little whining or complaining, shoulders the burden of saving the world with acceptance and responsibility.
Of course, things turn out to be not quite so rosy for our Holy Chosen Maiden. For starters, the World Regeneration Tour is a lie, a cover for the Bid Bad's true purposes. The Chosen does not become a full angel. The Chosen dies, and if female their body is sacrificed as a potential vessel for the soul of Martel, the villain Mithos Yggdrasil's sister, whom he desires to bring back from the dead at all costs. Slyvarant will be renewed with mana, but at the expense of her sister world Tethe'alla, which will then begin to go into decline. (Mithos split the worlds several thousand years prior to the events of Tales of Symphonia, forcing them to share a limited amount of mana between them. When one world flourishes, the other declines, and they switch off like an hourglass.)
Worse, Colette knows about most of this. From a very young age, she was told that she would have to sacrifice herself to restore Slyvarant. That she would die. That she must die, for the good of the world. Her elders thus groomed her to be the perfect sacrifice. Colette is self-sacrificing to a fault, almost dead inside, and has no sense of self-worth. She's not allowed desires of her own because they could potentially conflict with her mission. She's not even considered human by many of the people in her home village of Iselia.
And she still faces things with a smile and a cheerful, upbeat attitude.
Oh gosh LET ME HUG YOU MY POOR LITTLE WOOBIE!
Even when she stars to lose her humanity due to her partial transformation into an angel-losing her need to sleep, her sense of taste and touch, and her voice-she keeps on smiling. She tries to keep her pain secret at first, not wanting to be a burden on anyone else, not wanting them to worry about her, because she wants them to be happy. (Other people being happy are the only way she can face her destiny.) And she apologizes a lot for causing worry, or burdening others. She willingly gives up her heart and memories and the last of her conscious humanity and becomes a soulless empty shell, believing that her sacrifice will save the world and the people she loves.
*SNIFFLE!*
But through the love and determination of her friends, Colette is brought back. Oh wait, let me rephrase that-her friends manage to make her a Key Crest (a magical item that controls and steadies the power of exspheres and Cruxis Crystals, gems that grant a person greater strength and speed and agility) that doesn't seem to work at first and then Colette freaking breaks out of her paralysis when Pronyma attempts to take away Lloyd's birthday present necklace to her.
Go Heroic Willpower!
Colette doesn't quite get a break after her return to consciousness though. She feels guilty and selfish for living, for failing at the one mission her life had been leading to. Numerous characters blame her for being a failed Chosen, for not doing what she was supposed to do. Colette is taken through a humiliation wringer for daring to continue to live, and joining Lloyd in his quest to find a third option, a permenant solution to the mana problem for Tethe'alla and Slyvarant. But she manages to find new resolve, and new ideals to follow. Along with her friends, she bravely defies the system in order to bring about a reunification of the worlds.
Colette fascinates me with how little she thinks of herself, how completely she staked her own worth upon dying and then, when she wound up not doing that, how she floundered trying to find her purpose before emerging a stronger character than ever before. She susprises me with how passionate she can get about protecting Slyvarant and the people she loves, how fierce she can be. She loves everyone, and through niceness and kindness alone manages to make friends with former enemies. Sheena, who's sent to kill Colette before she can complete the Regeneration Tour, finds herself utterly flustered when Colette refuses to be afraid of her, refuses indeed to be anything but completely friendly and NICE to her. Colette treats Sheena like she's already a friend, and thus, Sheena's conscience is pricked, she can no longer go through with the assassination, and she actually does become friends with Colette. Colette also is quick to forgive Presea for leading the evil Grand Cardinal Rodyle to her. She doesn't blame Presea for actions taken while under the crushing numbing influence of her Cruxis Crystal, a mentally catatonic state that Colette knows only too well. Colette also encourages Lloyd after he's just found out that the traitor Kratos is his biological father, much the way he encouraged her earlier in the game, telling him that, "Lloyd is still Lloyd." no matter who is father is.
She helps a lot with getting Lloyd to a place where he can forgive Kratos actually. Her Flanoir scene is pretty much all her encouraging him about the situation.
Aside from just how sweet she is towards everyone, Colette is pretty awesome in battle too. In-game, she's actually one of the strongest characters to use in your fights. You can do some real damage to enemies with Colette, if you use her properly.
She's a completely beautiful soul with a lot of compassion and heart. Her journey fascinates me and her courage inspires me. Here's to you Colette.
Can you be any more adorable?
Anyway, a Lady post for y'all.
"But, even so, I love this world." --Colette Brunel, Tales of Symphona OVA Episode 1
I love Colette. Like, ridiculously love Colette.
She's got a "Starfire"-like personality, meaning she's warm, caring, sweet, feminine, gentle, loves life, loves her friends, loves puppies and other cute things, internalizes her pain, and is kind and compassionate towards everyone and everything. (And maybe a little dim and naive.)
She's also pretty kickass when she needs to be.
Exhibit A: Colette after bitch-slapping Pronyma with her chakrams. Complete with a SMACK sound effect.
Colette is an utterly adorable girl who treasures life. She's ditzy and a bit of a klutz. She apologizes when she doesn't need to. But she loves the world and she wants to protect it. As the Chosen of Slyvarant, it is her destiny to make an epic quest across the map to unlock the mana seals and then pray at the Tower of Salvation and become an angel, to restore the mana flow to the dying, decaying, and declining world. Colette accepts this task with very little whining or complaining, shoulders the burden of saving the world with acceptance and responsibility.
Of course, things turn out to be not quite so rosy for our Holy Chosen Maiden. For starters, the World Regeneration Tour is a lie, a cover for the Bid Bad's true purposes. The Chosen does not become a full angel. The Chosen dies, and if female their body is sacrificed as a potential vessel for the soul of Martel, the villain Mithos Yggdrasil's sister, whom he desires to bring back from the dead at all costs. Slyvarant will be renewed with mana, but at the expense of her sister world Tethe'alla, which will then begin to go into decline. (Mithos split the worlds several thousand years prior to the events of Tales of Symphonia, forcing them to share a limited amount of mana between them. When one world flourishes, the other declines, and they switch off like an hourglass.)
Worse, Colette knows about most of this. From a very young age, she was told that she would have to sacrifice herself to restore Slyvarant. That she would die. That she must die, for the good of the world. Her elders thus groomed her to be the perfect sacrifice. Colette is self-sacrificing to a fault, almost dead inside, and has no sense of self-worth. She's not allowed desires of her own because they could potentially conflict with her mission. She's not even considered human by many of the people in her home village of Iselia.
And she still faces things with a smile and a cheerful, upbeat attitude.
Oh gosh LET ME HUG YOU MY POOR LITTLE WOOBIE!
Even when she stars to lose her humanity due to her partial transformation into an angel-losing her need to sleep, her sense of taste and touch, and her voice-she keeps on smiling. She tries to keep her pain secret at first, not wanting to be a burden on anyone else, not wanting them to worry about her, because she wants them to be happy. (Other people being happy are the only way she can face her destiny.) And she apologizes a lot for causing worry, or burdening others. She willingly gives up her heart and memories and the last of her conscious humanity and becomes a soulless empty shell, believing that her sacrifice will save the world and the people she loves.
*SNIFFLE!*
But through the love and determination of her friends, Colette is brought back. Oh wait, let me rephrase that-her friends manage to make her a Key Crest (a magical item that controls and steadies the power of exspheres and Cruxis Crystals, gems that grant a person greater strength and speed and agility) that doesn't seem to work at first and then Colette freaking breaks out of her paralysis when Pronyma attempts to take away Lloyd's birthday present necklace to her.
Go Heroic Willpower!
Colette doesn't quite get a break after her return to consciousness though. She feels guilty and selfish for living, for failing at the one mission her life had been leading to. Numerous characters blame her for being a failed Chosen, for not doing what she was supposed to do. Colette is taken through a humiliation wringer for daring to continue to live, and joining Lloyd in his quest to find a third option, a permenant solution to the mana problem for Tethe'alla and Slyvarant. But she manages to find new resolve, and new ideals to follow. Along with her friends, she bravely defies the system in order to bring about a reunification of the worlds.
Colette fascinates me with how little she thinks of herself, how completely she staked her own worth upon dying and then, when she wound up not doing that, how she floundered trying to find her purpose before emerging a stronger character than ever before. She susprises me with how passionate she can get about protecting Slyvarant and the people she loves, how fierce she can be. She loves everyone, and through niceness and kindness alone manages to make friends with former enemies. Sheena, who's sent to kill Colette before she can complete the Regeneration Tour, finds herself utterly flustered when Colette refuses to be afraid of her, refuses indeed to be anything but completely friendly and NICE to her. Colette treats Sheena like she's already a friend, and thus, Sheena's conscience is pricked, she can no longer go through with the assassination, and she actually does become friends with Colette. Colette also is quick to forgive Presea for leading the evil Grand Cardinal Rodyle to her. She doesn't blame Presea for actions taken while under the crushing numbing influence of her Cruxis Crystal, a mentally catatonic state that Colette knows only too well. Colette also encourages Lloyd after he's just found out that the traitor Kratos is his biological father, much the way he encouraged her earlier in the game, telling him that, "Lloyd is still Lloyd." no matter who is father is.
She helps a lot with getting Lloyd to a place where he can forgive Kratos actually. Her Flanoir scene is pretty much all her encouraging him about the situation.
Aside from just how sweet she is towards everyone, Colette is pretty awesome in battle too. In-game, she's actually one of the strongest characters to use in your fights. You can do some real damage to enemies with Colette, if you use her properly.
She's a completely beautiful soul with a lot of compassion and heart. Her journey fascinates me and her courage inspires me. Here's to you Colette.
Can you be any more adorable?