#mmmMMMM sasaraaiii

[grosserfluss]

30 days of suikoden challenge , day 4 ——

favorite star of destiny from suikoden iii

when i was eight ( or maybe ten, idr anymore ) years old, my sister and i played suikoden 3 all the way through once or twice together, voicing the cast together, and from that tender and impressionable age, i fell in love with one character in the game who became my absolute favorite and my very first fictional character crush ( probably ). in high school, my only ever nanowrimo story centered around exploring this character and developing his story because he was given nowhere near the attention in the game that he deserved. to this day, he remains my favorite overall suikoden character and even my dad knows who he is. this character is none other than sasarai.

it’s weird to think now that i didn’t really know anything about sasarai ( and luc’s ) appearances in suikoden 1 and 2 prior to last year — i pretty much only knew about their roles in s3, and to be fair i got really invested in just that. my sister always preferred luc as a character, but sasarai’s always been my main. looking back on it, there are a number of shallow, aesthetic reasons for this, none of which are a surprise to anyone who knows my “type” of fictional character.

1. he’s androgynous. my weakness for pretty, androgynous men is crippling, honestly. 

2. he’s a bishop and socio-politically high-ranking, both of which are also types i tend to find really interesting. especially in a place like harmonia, which is like the seat of corruption in the suikoden world, it’s so fascinating to think about how one navigates all those politics from such a high position. it’s made pretty clear that while he is one of the most revered figures in harmonia ( being not only a bishop, but also a true rune bearer ), this in no way makes him invincible. the structure of harmonia is such that anyone is vulnerable, and no one has unlimited power. sasarai knows how much he can do, how far his influence can extend, and when his hands are tied. arguably, being in such a high position only makes him even more vulnerable. i love thinking about people in these kinds of positions; every move he makes is carefully calculated in order to navigate the web of harmonian politics, and he does it expertly.

3. his outfit in suikoden 3 is really pretty?? i’ve always loved harmonian colors / clothing / architecture / design, and it’s a vast improvement from his mushroom hat thing in s1 and 2. cosplay goals.

ironically, though he’s a great unit in-game ( one of the best support mages you can have, though he joins really late and doesn’t even get his true earth rune until the final fucking battle ), his type of unit isn’t actually what i go for at all. i tend to prefer making every single one of my units into a one-man army, and sasarai’s support role doesn’t generally fit my play style. that being said, i use him every fucking time anyway because i love him so much. his combat role also says a lot about him as a character, too, and fits him — he’s a back-row mage, intended to remain distant from combat, casting support spells for his allies and occasionally doing some damage when the going gets tough ( i always give him a pale gate rune for this purpose ). in s3′s dynamic battle system where units actually move around the field, his tendency to remain separate from the fray becomes even more noticeable.

and i mean, that’s totally sasarai. he’s a very competent mage, but he’s a bishop and a high-ranking politician first and foremost. he doesn’t get his hands dirty; he’s got spies and soldiers to do that for him. he’s there for morale and for leadership. i love it when that comes across in combat role too.

of course, the meat of the reason why i love him comes from his unspoken narrative. ( which never got expanded on because they decided to cut sasarai’s story and i will never not be crying about all the things i could have known! now you’re just somebody that i used to know...... ) the manga adaptation goes a lot more into his side of things, thank god, and from there we get a much better idea of his character. he’s absolutely 100% a pampered dandy — luc is totally right when he says that sasarai is harmonia’s little sheltered puppet. he doesn’t go against what harmonia tells him to do, doesn’t question things much. however luc is also being a little bit unfair because sasarai isn’t blind or stupid. he’s very smart and cunning — you don’t survive long in his position otherwise — and very savvy at his role. however, it’s true he doesn’t think outside of it much.

though he’s been raised in such a corrupt society, however, he’s neither hoity-toity nor cruel, and on a personal level isn’t actually morally corrupt.in fact, he’s surprisingly kind, and despite being a skilled general, dislikes violence. i like to believe that, had he the ability, he would have wanted to make life easier for the le buque citizens. but the truth is that though he would have had compassion for them, he never saw their situation in le buque firsthand, and i doubt he would have been permitted to see how poorly they were treated by harmonia overall. he also probably would have had a case of ‘not in my backyard’: the situation is regrettable, but there does have to be some kind of order maintained in the world, etc. he is loyal to the harmonian agenda, after all. ( and it’s this dichotomy between his national loyalty and his personal sense of compassion that’s so interesting to navigate. )

i also enjoy the fact that even though he is also proper and formal when he needs to be, at base he’s surprisingly nonchalant. i don’t totally remember the scene from the manga, but he laughs during a moment when someone addresses him in a way that would otherwise be considered very disrespectful to someone of his rank. it’s a genuine laugh, and not at all condescending. in fact, for him, to some extent it must be nice to be spoken to genuinely. in the manga, he truly wants to help luc towards the end, and tries to make up for abandoning him before ( “you’re my brother! let me help you!” ) even though the abandonment wasn’t his fault. granted, the moment is rather naive of him, but the intent and the gesture are in earnest; by this point, he’s begun to realize the truth, and wants to redeem luc. 

the fact that he learns that he can’t is what brings about his post-game character development that i like to think about so much. though the game never depicts it, it’s clear he’s probably left in some kind of existential angst afterwards. after all, luc pretty much shattered his sheltered view of harmonia — the revelation of what he and sasarai are literally sends sasarai into shock enough for luc to steal his true earth rune — and then sasarai is greeted with the reality that he is not only unable to save his brother, but that luc hates him and what he stands for. that the institution and country he has served faithfully all his life led to someone being so hurt and twisted that they ended up where luc did. ( and y’know there’s also the realization that he’s not only a hypothetical puppet for harmonia, but very much a literal one. he’s not even his own person, really; he’s a clone. so how much of him is him and how much is manufactured? that’s enough to turn anyone’s world upside down. )

what sasarai ends up doing post-game, then, is anyone’s guess. suikoden 3 tells us he’s plagued by existential crisis as he returns to his post as bishop. does he do anything about it? does he end up trying to reform or change anything ( and can he? ) that’s up for people to imagine. but it’s this sheer wealth of potential as a character that makes me love him. there’s so much in store for his tale and he comes very far as a character over the course of only one game, from a well-meaning but complacent bishop to a man who’s had the reality of the world shoved on him and then is left to do some soul-searching. 

honorable mentions: franz ( true runner up ), chris lightfellow, percival fraulein, nash, futch, sharon, dupa