#metaphor spoiler

[nicorenarin]

Inherited Fantasy: The Tragic Tale of The Prince

WARNING: Heavy, heavy, heavy spoilers ahead for the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Please don't read onwards unless you have reached beyond the 9/24 date in-game.

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Across the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio, you as the protagonist are tasked with freeing your best friend, The Prince and heir to the throne, from a deadly curse that aims to take his life, having been seemingly placed by main antagonist Louis ten years prior to the game beginning. Yet, as you progress into Altabury Heights, the final explorable city in the game, you come to realise that not is all as it seems.

We may as well dive straight into. The whole time, you and The Prince are one in the same. The protagonist was The Prince's ideal self created after reading the very book that you carry everywhere you go on your adventure. At first, this may be a very shocking and potentially awkward twist, but I'm here to explain how beautifully done this twist is and how it ties into the overall themes that Metaphor aims to display. Mainly, how fantasy impacts reality and the notion of 'magic' as a whole within the United Kingdom of Euchronia.

Not too long after The Prince's body and soul (what the protagonist is described as) join together again, we are treated to a rather big lore dump about both the history behind the elda tribe and the world itself. It's revealed that the former King Hythlodaeus V fell in love with a woman from the eldan village, the high chief to be exact, and from that The Prince is born, half-clemar, half-elda. This is important in the context of the journey, because you've come to realise that the elda tribe is despised all around the country. You as the protagonist experience the racism first-hand as if it were a casual conversation and in that moment when you realise that The Prince himself was considered 'dirty' and 'unclean' by others in society, the fight for the throne becomes that much more serious.

The protagonist claiming his identity as The Prince is not a means to stop his underdog-like journey from continuing, but it instead pushes it forward even more. Especially due to the actions of Louis, society has come to despise both the eldan tribe, the actions of the former King, and even the notion of the royal family itself. Even as the rightful heir to the throne, you are still treated as an outlier compared to someone like Louis, who has convinced society to a degree where their emotions run rampant and many almost "give up" on wanting a new ruler other than Louis himself. Embracing the identity of The Prince is a means to accept the fact that everyone in the world that he wished to make, that he read from the fantasy novel, would be equal to one another. The discrimination that the protagonist and many of your fellow party members experience happens not because of their position, but of what tribe they belong to. Even when you falsely declare yourself as The Prince, there's still a huge air of hostility towards your campaign.

The protagonist's journey is one that should be underestimated. He's The Prince's ideal self who wanted to go on a journey, to meet new friends, to unite the tribes, it's almost as if fate itself is on your side. The Prince didn't want to be known by his title, he wanted to be known as simply someone else in the vast population, somebody that could rise to the throne themselves and prove themselves worthy to sit atop the throne rather than get there on merit alone. The unification of body and soul only symbolises a final step needing to be taken in order to save the country itself, knowing how far Louis was willing to go in order to see his dreams realised.

We spend our journey showing this fantasy novel to our party members, believing that one day we can create a world exactly like this, and that's what The Prince's ideal self was always planning to do. The raw magic that ended up creating who we'd come to know as the protagonist comes from The Prince's wishes to have fantasy impact reality and so right before the curse can truly take hold of him, the ideal self is created, never truly knowing who he is until the last moment and allowing him to create as many memories of travelling the world as possible.

Now, the protagonist sets forth to capture the hearts of the people again, and whilst he may be recognised as the heir to the throne, in the new society that Louis has helped create, his status does not matter anymore. He must convince the people, the fellow former candidates, and even his followers that he is still the man to lead their country forward. Even upon re-visiting the followers to finish off their links, there's a single line of dialogue that will highlight them noticing a slight change about you, but it doesn't amount to anymore than that. You are still the same person to them, your new status as The Prince doesn't matter, because you are still an underdog fighting against a tyrannical madman with dreams of power and control.

Ultimately, The Prince's story teaches us that fantasy CAN impact reality and ultimately, he too must uphold the same ideals that he wishes the world could embrace one day. He can't do this as The Prince, he must do this as just a simple travelling boy, with ambitions of changing the world for the better.

[ultimafangirl]

I wanna learn how to write just so I can write a ffxiv x metaphor refantazio crossover for no reason other than I wanna add lalafell

[beaulesbian]

ARCANE 1.08 || 2.09

[orphiclovers]

ORV reels you in with the "What if all my useless interests were suddenly SUPER important in real life and I was better than everyone for investing all that time in them" isekai power fantasy and then when you're invested pulls a bait and switch like "Actually they WERE always useful and necessary! They are what kept you going through life all this time! Even if that was the only way they ever served you, it still was not a waste of time because the only thing that matters is that they helped you survive"

[livingthedragonlife]

you know. the conclusion of "the monsters we eat and digest lose individuality and can't be resurrected" and killing something and eating it to make it part of you, and specifically in relation to falin eating the monstrous half of someone you love to save their humanity... felt profound to me before i even finished the manga and it's taken me this long to put my finger exactly on why

it's processing something horrible, accepting it into yourself, but not giving it any power over you. digesting the terrible things that happen in life is the only way to truly kill them. perhaps you've had people help eat them, share the burden of processing when it's too much to bear on your own. they lose their individuality once they've been eaten. they can't be reanimated once you process them. they become part of you, and you are alive because you've eaten them.

[zipsunz]

when i destroyed everything that you loved, it seems i had forgotten one thing.

[essektheylyss]

I understand the impulse to clown on Essek for walking around in Vasselheim with his recognizable voice with the Bright Queen's spearhead commander, and of course we could turn to the metatextual elements (the necessity of signposting the world for players on the part of the GM, the ease of using a familiar ally to introduce a relevant NPC and new point of contact) to dismiss this if we wanted, but I think it's more interesting—and funnier, as you'll see—to imagine this as simply an extension of the laws and logic that dictate the Mighty Nein as a narrative entity.

Fundamentally, the Mighty Nein within their campaign pursue personal and collective agency, often at the expense or in denial of political power. Where they do interact with more political forms of power, they evade its grasp upon them, most notably in their interactions with the war, but also while they engage with the Cerberus Assembly, the Cobalt Soul, and even the Revelry. The way they pursue agency, on the other hand, has far more to do with their own support of one another and their own individual power, especially where there is magic involved, and manifests in having the freedom to move and act as they wish in the world.

The culmination of this, as we know, is the mechanical ability in their final battle against Lucien and the Somnovem to manipulate the terrain of the battle map to their advantage with only imagination. At the same time, Jester and Caduceus can both call in free favors from their gods, one of whom is unlimited by the Divine Gate and in fact is far more governed by fey logic. Fjord has made three different divine pacts and is virtually unrestricted by any of them. Caleb's hallmark is an almost infinitely malleable home that almost literally seems to operate as a hammerspace, with a pinnacle dedicated to the potentiality of the universe, the application of which is one of his signature spells—against all odds successful in his initial goal, no longer fueled by guilt and grief, of bending reality to his will. It's narratively and thematically cogent that this be the calling card of the party as a whole.

The Mighty Nein are, in effect, dictated by Looney Tunes logic, and nothing else. They have been so successful in their pursuit of their own freedom that they no longer abide by the cosmic laws of Exandria, let alone the laws of physics or sense. So yes, from an external point of view, it does look exceedingly foolish for Essek to be traipsing around in Vasselheim under the Bright Queen's nose, but it's far more entertaining to argue that being a member of the Mighty Nein in fact simply confers the capability of ignoring the laws of reality without consequence when it's narratively convenient, characteristically interesting—or just really fucking funny.

[caemidraws]

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[egophiliac]

don't think I'm not still deep in the episode 7 brainrot. because OH BOY AM I

(also one more extremely, obnoxiously self-referential thing, I'm -- I'm so sorry)

[ohno-the-sun]

Some thoughts about who Eclipse is exactly

[gzeidraws]

Look

(⚠ SPOILERS for Heismay's early follower bond)

Heismay has a very strong spirit, but it would not have been easy letting go of a physical keepsake. This would take place early on in the search for a burial spot, where he is left alone with his thoughts and grief.

[sassy-cass-16]

where's that one post somebody made a million years ago about how vax and vex in syngorn would have been surrounded by elves accustomed to 20-hour days. but as half-elves they can't trance and would have had to get 8 hours of sleep, thus limiting their productivity compared to their peers. and making them look worse or lesser by comparison to their dad who already hated them. cause that post fucked me up a little. i'm still haunted by that.

[mazojo]

Me when the boyfriend that doesn’t know he is my boyfriend breaks up with me unknowingly so to marry his alleged 6 month pregnant girlfriend instead of becoming Batman and Robin with me holding hands while saving the world to complete my 360 vision or something

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[slumberlands]

am i crazy or is the implication that all the guys are staying in that tiny two bed room together at the hushed honeybee in the endgame

[lilybug-02]

"A dead lantern"…Dewi has such a way with words.

Bug Fact: The Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) has uniquely shaped wings that resemble the head of a snake. When threatened, it drops to the ground, and shifts its wings to imitate a snakes' movement.

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