#leon strohl da haliaetus

[zipsunz]

they call them the meta four

[dexjarxenoengage]

Many of Louis’s story beats and motivations can tie into other party members as well.

Louis and Strohl both lost their homelands. It also helps that Louis was initially believed to be Clemar.

Louis and Hulkenburg lost their well regarded ties and are haunted by their respective pasts.

Louis and Heismay were both made to be scapegoats as a result of being in the “lesser tribes,” as well as their stories revolving around clearing their names. With the one responsible for their framing both being Rhoags.

Louis and Junah are the characters who have suffered the most (excluding Will) from Forden’s actions. Forden threatened to kill Junah if Rella didn’t comply with his plans to curse the prince and frame Louis.

Louis and Eupha both have knowledge of the former world. Louis and Eupha were both made to be sacrifices for the sake of the “greater good” of the people who would use them. This is Louis’s justification for wanting to burn down her people if it meant obtaining Drakodios.

Finally, Louis and Basilio both valued power in order to fulfill their respective dreams of ending discrimination.

Metaphor: ReFantzaio—Parallels and Foils

This is going to get into spoiler territory, so I'll put those parts below a read more.

In most fiction, there is usually one obvious parallel set up between our Protagonist and his main Antagonist.

Metaphor is no exception. Will/The Protagonist and Louis serve as excellent foils to one another, especially after some late-game reveals show just how closely they mirror each other.

Another set of foils are Maria Alces and Cirisium Zorba. This is made more ironic when you consider that Maria's follower bond gives rise to the Healer Archetype Line and Zorba is a Necromancer.

Maria and Zorba's parallels are interesting because Zorba is what Maria might have grown up to be had she been left on her own without others helping her find her place.

Like Maria, Zorba is of mixed heritage—he being half-clemar and half-mustari while Maria is half-rhoag and half-ishkia.

Like Maria, his status is blatantly obvious as he displays visible marks of his mixed heritage— such as the third eye of the mustari but a single solitary horn from his clemar side. Maria's single pair of wings give away her ishikia heritage, and also give away that she is only half-ishkia from it being a single pair (we never see her ears, but I assume they're pointed like Grius's were).

However, where she found family and acceptance, Zorba only ever found a dark and twisted version of that with Louis and his patronage to the point of being so utterly devoted to a man who lacks the capacity to see beyond his own aims.

Now we circle back to Will/the Protagonist and Louis. Spoilers to follow. You have been warned.

Let's get this out of the way.

Both are of Eldan descent and have connections to both the Elda and More/Hythlodeus V, losing family to the burning of the Elda Village and being inspired by the Fantasy Novel.

Both can inspire others. Neither gives a damn about what tribe someone is.

Both are skilled at magic, albeit Louis is far more powerful in this regard; keep in mind that Will/the Protagonist comes pretty damn far in power level in FOUR MONTHS. Who knows how much closer the fight might have been had Will had the time to train prior.

I digress. Both have ideals they refuse to back down from. It's in executing their ideals where they differ the most. That, and Will wants to help everyone and Louis will only help those who can help themselves.

Will/the Protagonist has had the deck stacked against him, almost as much as Louis, and they even share the same traumatic experiences to a degree.

Yet, Will held on to his desire to make the world a better place in spite of its massive flaws and would work to create the world of his ideals, while Louis never escaped the flames of that night and only ever saw destruction as the solution.

Louis sees fantasy and ideals like Will's as lies because he was failed by More/Hythlodeus V when the King gave up on life (basically) after the cursing of The Prince/Will.

Will sees fantasy as inspiration despite More/Hythlodeus V giving up on the world and—by extension Will—until Will has to show his father's own vestige More that he was holding firm to his ideals, unlike More/Hythlodeus V.

Will finds the strength to keep believing, whereas Louis sees belief as a weakness to be stamped out (see his hatred of the Sanctist Church beyond his legitimate grievances with their leader attempting the genocide of Louis's people).

Will also shares some parallels with Maria and Zorba because, like them, he is actually of mixed heritage—half-clemar and half-elda. He can easily pass as just elda, but that's not much better for him considering how the elda are treated. However, because the game doesn't touch much on this, all I can point out is Maria and Zorba show different ways Will's own life might have turned out, but the same could be said of his parallel with Louis.

In the end, it's that Will has friends (in true POWER OF FRIENDSHIP) and the strength to keep going and stick to his ideals that allows him to triumph over Louis.

Yet, it's so easy to see where Will could have become Louis (or even Zorba).

[owainigo]

[makahitaki]

[leon-strohl-da-haliaetus]

Everyone: 🧍

Strohl:

[meebochii]

I love them 😂

[stormieislurking]

I am but a simple man of simple tastes and I think they should kiss. It would be funny.

[animatedapostasy]

transparent Strohl doing the pose (you know the one)

[deeryaku]

Metaphor ReFantazio fancomic || Strohl's Horns

[kisasaurus]

Can I just say the main cast are all amazing characters with amazing development??

ALSO congrats to metaphor for being nominated for GOTY!! 🎉🎊🥳

[asha-mage]

I love the idea that the Elda (because they are directly descended from the Old World humans) don't really have a concept of homophobia but the Clemar (because of the whole hyper conservative theocratic society thing) do.

So while Strohl is agonizing over their every interaction and catastrophizing over every 'slip up', tormenting himself over his perceived 'monstrous desires' and living in terror that he'll go to far and destroy his friendship with Will and be left with nothing...

Will, who has never really had to deal with concepts like 'repression', 'heteronormativty', or 'internalized homophobia', thinks their already dating and just taking it really really slowly.

[nyankocatnyan]

Exquisite!

[kanamedaite]

Metaphor yaoi, anyone?

[meowsticmarvels]

... am i the First guy to make a metaphor refantazio textpost. maybe maybe not. but theres not many out there if there are. but yeah. inspired by the dialogue i saw below

[makahitaki]

[doctorcanon]

"I'm so tired, Strohl..."

"I know, my friend, just rest for now. I've got you."

Strohl seems like he'd give good hugs. As kind as he is, I feel like Protag-kun really needs one.