#and yes Guy has both Van and Asch but Guy's whole vengeance is centered around hod so like...uhmmm??

[rangetsuryuu]

tales of the abyss is the best tales game except for one thing. bad foils.

okay every party member has at least one foil/rivalry when it comes to the god generals, right?

In game foils as follows. In the most straight forward, one to one examples. The final battles of each God General really cements this in mind.

Luke - Asch

Tear - Legretta

Natalia - Largo

Jade - Dist

Anise - Arietta

Guy - Sync

Some of these foils aren't really as strong as others, I'd argue. And on top of that some of these characters have much stronger relationships to the final antagonists of Van and Asch, than others do.

Meanwhile, Jade also has a vague relationship to Sync and Asch, as the father of fomicry. Jade is protrayed as someone's indirectly responsible for some incredibly unethical crimes that Sync and Asch are victim to. That's one of Jade's personal dilemma's, so even if it's not acknowledged directly in the game, we can interpret this to be an indirect relationship with these characters who were directly wronged by his science. A bit of a miss to not have any interactions, but still something that we could reasonably interpret from clues even if not seen outright.

But you know what's a bigger miss? Not swapping Anise and Guy's foils.

They should have made Arietta as Guy’s primary foil and Sync as Anise’s primary foil. 

Because listen. Arietta and Guy don't have a single interaction together but they have an actual historical connection to each other?

Both had their homelands totally wiped by the same tragedy.

Arietta and Guy both respect and adore Van and sided with him. They both want vengeance against a world that's wronged them and stolen their family.

But Guy doesn't go through with it. He ends up rejecting Van and vengeance. So doesn't that put automatically pit him against Arietta that's still stuck in that old mindset? Arietta, whose whole deal is vengeance against Anise for taking her only friend in Ion? Arietta, who's stuck in this idea that a single person can be responsible for her grief, in the the same way Guy was convinced that the death of Duke Fabre's family, could bring relief to his pain?

But Guy was able to recognize this wouldn't work. Luke's death wouldn't change the past.

So isn't it possible for him to see himself in Arietta when he found out she was from Feres Isle?

Hod and it's sister isle of Feres, were both wiped out for unfathomable reasons. Guy and Arietta both left as sole survivors of their respective isles. But isn't that insane? To find a survivor of a tragedy you thought was yours alone?

Imagine then, if Guy had been able to see his own past unfolding with Arietta's revenge against another person who had nothing to do with any of the horror. If he's able to recognize that Luke wasn't a justified target of revenge, then shouldn't he see that Arietta's grudge was just as petty as his own?

But Guy's change of heart isn't actually something that's seen in game. It's just something that's revealed to you. So woudn't it be exciting to see someone who can actually be a reflection his past ideals?

So then. The final battle against Arietta could have been a brutal clash with Guy. We could have had that revelation unfold in front of us, no?

Unlike Anise's final fight with Arietta, he wouldn't have necessarily considered Arietta a lost cause. He could have seen himself in Arietta, he could have asked her to choose a different path then vengeance. He could have told her they were both the victims of a war beyond their scope. Survivors of a nation doomed by something completely beyond their control.

Guy could have revealed to her, his own history with Van and vengeance, he could have appealed to her. Maybe she could have felt that connection. She could have heard it. Listened to it, and then admitted that his sympathy had fallen flat.

"You're right. That was short-sighted of me. Killing Anise, wouldn't change anything. But killing all of you will still bring bring the vengeance and justice that my monsters deserve. And if that brings us closer to Van's revenge too... then all of you have to die."

And Guy could realize that there wasn't any talking her out of it. That she'd somehow become even more embolded in her revenge despite his plea.

In a way, Guy could understand that her vengeance was different from hers but still identical. The only difference was that Arietta didn't care about the abstraction of responsibilty. She wanted real and immediate justice for her real and immediate pain.

Hod and Feres Isle could have been left in the dust to her for all she cared. Feres Isle was nothing compared to her love for Ion and Van and her monsters and her pain for them. If that was the case, could Guy who had claimed his vengeance was for all of Hod still be in the right?

When faced with Arietta's selfish, single minded desire for vengeance, could Guy really have claimed that his own vengeance was for anything more than his own twisted idea of justice?

He could have been terrified to see that she was the worst version of himself come alive. Excuse after excuse for a reason to take out his grief on the world. He could have been disgusted with her revenge or resigned to it. Or maybe he could have embraced it. Regretted it? Wished for things to end differently?

Either way he would have been forced to kill this version of himself that he saw in her, regardless of how he felt about her.

He could have seen Arietta as someone beyond help. He could see the way that Largo and Anise still grieved for her despite everything. And he could have grieved for their shared loss. He could have grieved for the two of them who could never get any justice that could satisfy their pain.

He could have lost the one last connection to his home that he had left, and he would have had to end it himself.

What would it have been like if he had to carry that on him? Wouldn't it have been more fun for us to see that grief unfold firsthand?

Or is that kinda sadistic...?