Emil Castagnier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
squirreledaway) wrote2012-01-09 01:01 pm
squirreledaway) wrote2012-01-09 01:01 pm
Entry tags:
Essaaaaay!!
Okay. So, first. I apologize. This entire essay is in Memorandum for Record format. Apparently, I feel a lot less guilty for musing on my characters as long as I do it in a military style format.
... YEP that's about it.
MEMORANDUM FOR: Aather
FROM: Raina’s work desk
SUBJECT: I seriously just put my Emil essay in MFR format natch.
1. The purpose of this memorandum is to write out my thoughts on Emil and his development so far in Aather. This essay will go into the details of his relationships with Peridot, and his more significant CR, as well as how he and Ratatosk are balancing at this moment. This report was inspired by staying up way too late with Lloyd and Mithos. There are zero regrets.
2. Emil is a unique character, in that he is not really a whole personality, though he presents himself as one. If you pay attention to him for very long, you’ll really start to notice, though, that he really is emotionally deficient in certain areas. His role, as Ratatosk’s essentially severed conscience, requires that he be more prone to over thinking his actions, and despite sharing anger with Ratatosk, Emil doesn’t have much anger. However, he does have an excessive amount of guilt, due to Ratatosk pushing it all on him because he doesn’t have time to worry about feeling bad.
3. Essentially, this puts Emil and Ratatosk in a balancing act. Emil is already at a disadvantage because he is such a small part of Ratatosk’s overall personality these days. It is for these reasons that I decided to try and limit how much I played Ratatosk. Emil needs time to establish himself, and already it is not going very well for him. Ratatosk is starting to diverge from Emil and reject him, and he hasn’t been awakened that long ICly. The effects haven’t been very noticeable yet, but that’s going to come into play. I’ll probably have to adjust for that, and find a way to keep it manageable.
4. What this means is that there isn’t a very good control on Ratatosk. And as I was explaining to Lloyd last night, it means it’s very important that Ratatosk (and by extension, Emil) remain angry at Lloyd. Which is hard because Emil has been hit very hard in the face with Lloyd’s perpetual Jesus-rays and is considering trying to move past what he did. But if Ratatosk continues to follow Emil’s desires and loses Lloyd as an outlet for his anger, he’s going to start focusing it on things and people who may or may not be able to defend themselves. All things considered, Ratatosk is still full of genocidal rage and hatred. So it is, honestly, the absolute best situation for everyone involved if he’s focusing that on Lloyd, because for the moment Lloyd completely outclasses him.
5. And it’s not possible for Ratatosk to let go of his anger and hatred. Even without memories of everything that happened to him in canon, Ratatosk still goes out of his way to be a menacing asshole. In fact, the more aware and powerful he becomes, the more pointlessly violent and reckless his actions become. This is only going to get worse now that Ratatosk knows how to increase his power.
6. There is some mixed news for what Peridot is doing for Ratatosk and Emil. Peridot is great for Emil, I can’t state how much improvement Emil has seen as a person from them. He’s gotten a lot more confident a lot more quickly. Yes, he still stutters and gets nervous, but the amount of apologies he gives out has gone down dramatically. He’s starting to speak his opinion much more openly, because he feels accepted in Peridot. However, while Peridot has been great for Emil, it hasn’t been so for Ratatosk.
7. Ratatosk is considering himself outside of Peridot, and Peridot as ‘Emil’s’ instead of ‘ours.’ So, this makes it easier for him to separate himself from Emil, which is going to play out more interestingly, in my opinion. This feeds into the imbalance between himself and Emil, and with Ratatosk starting out at an advantageous position, it doesn’t really help. This was going to happen eventually, but it’s happening faster than I really predicted.
8. So I am really interested to see how this develops, especially as it becomes clearer that Ratatosk really is a threat to Emil. I believe most of the team prefers Emil, except for Lucifer.
9. Lloyd really put it well last night with the analogies. Mithos, Emil, and Lloyd are all the main protags of the Symphonia verse. And they are all like trains in canon. Mithos is the train that refuses to switch tracks, even for the burned out bridge ahead. Lloyd is a train that maintains that ability to switch tracks, and Ratatosk is the train running towards the out bridge, while Emil is that part of him that goes, “Hey, wait, there are switches here! We don’t have to do this!” And interestingly enough, in canon, pretty much as soon as Lloyd joins the party, Emil seals of Ratatosk. So of all of the party, Lloyd is the only one who never has an extended period of interaction with Ratatosk. And by the time he does, Emil has come into his own enough for Ratatosk to regain some semblance of balance, and you can see images of who he was back when Mithos first met him.
10. Which kind of ties into the other possibilities for how he could develop. I don’t predict that Emil or Ratatosk will ever end up like they do in canon. That’s already not going to happen, and I’ve only played Emil in Aather for roughly 2 IC weeks. Emil has made a lot of friends, but I think what determines how much of an effect they’ll have depends on how they react to Ratatosk. In this case, I think Mitsuru has had the most calming effect on him, just because she seemed generally nonplussed, if a little shocked at his existence. Ratatosk, unlike my other general fanfare of dumb boys, isn’t stupid and will readily pick up on little tells. He’s quick to get defensive about them, as well. Because, while he is pretty damn angry and violent, his general motivation right now is one of protecting things he considers his. Peridot is only his in as much as he needs to protect it, and if the games are too much for Emil, that’s what he’ll do. He will take the trauma because it is hard to trauma him. Mitsuru is ‘our friend’ though, which is important and gives her a pretty surprising amount of leverage over him if she ever decides to use it. This is also despite the fact that Emil considers him closer to Sakura.
11. I am just taking an entire numbered paragraph to note that I am dying to see Ratatosk interact with Lloyd and Mithos more. Just saying.
12. For questions regarding this report, please contact me in the comments section of this entry or in the #talesofsigneg chan on IRC.
RAINA, Player, Aather
Emil Castagnier, Peridot
Now, I will follow that essay with a QUESTION MEME. No, it hasn't quite been a month but dammit I DO WHAT I WANT. This is for Judith and Emil/Ratatosk.
:')
... YEP that's about it.
MEMORANDUM FOR: Aather
FROM: Raina’s work desk
SUBJECT: I seriously just put my Emil essay in MFR format natch.
1. The purpose of this memorandum is to write out my thoughts on Emil and his development so far in Aather. This essay will go into the details of his relationships with Peridot, and his more significant CR, as well as how he and Ratatosk are balancing at this moment. This report was inspired by staying up way too late with Lloyd and Mithos. There are zero regrets.
2. Emil is a unique character, in that he is not really a whole personality, though he presents himself as one. If you pay attention to him for very long, you’ll really start to notice, though, that he really is emotionally deficient in certain areas. His role, as Ratatosk’s essentially severed conscience, requires that he be more prone to over thinking his actions, and despite sharing anger with Ratatosk, Emil doesn’t have much anger. However, he does have an excessive amount of guilt, due to Ratatosk pushing it all on him because he doesn’t have time to worry about feeling bad.
3. Essentially, this puts Emil and Ratatosk in a balancing act. Emil is already at a disadvantage because he is such a small part of Ratatosk’s overall personality these days. It is for these reasons that I decided to try and limit how much I played Ratatosk. Emil needs time to establish himself, and already it is not going very well for him. Ratatosk is starting to diverge from Emil and reject him, and he hasn’t been awakened that long ICly. The effects haven’t been very noticeable yet, but that’s going to come into play. I’ll probably have to adjust for that, and find a way to keep it manageable.
4. What this means is that there isn’t a very good control on Ratatosk. And as I was explaining to Lloyd last night, it means it’s very important that Ratatosk (and by extension, Emil) remain angry at Lloyd. Which is hard because Emil has been hit very hard in the face with Lloyd’s perpetual Jesus-rays and is considering trying to move past what he did. But if Ratatosk continues to follow Emil’s desires and loses Lloyd as an outlet for his anger, he’s going to start focusing it on things and people who may or may not be able to defend themselves. All things considered, Ratatosk is still full of genocidal rage and hatred. So it is, honestly, the absolute best situation for everyone involved if he’s focusing that on Lloyd, because for the moment Lloyd completely outclasses him.
5. And it’s not possible for Ratatosk to let go of his anger and hatred. Even without memories of everything that happened to him in canon, Ratatosk still goes out of his way to be a menacing asshole. In fact, the more aware and powerful he becomes, the more pointlessly violent and reckless his actions become. This is only going to get worse now that Ratatosk knows how to increase his power.
6. There is some mixed news for what Peridot is doing for Ratatosk and Emil. Peridot is great for Emil, I can’t state how much improvement Emil has seen as a person from them. He’s gotten a lot more confident a lot more quickly. Yes, he still stutters and gets nervous, but the amount of apologies he gives out has gone down dramatically. He’s starting to speak his opinion much more openly, because he feels accepted in Peridot. However, while Peridot has been great for Emil, it hasn’t been so for Ratatosk.
7. Ratatosk is considering himself outside of Peridot, and Peridot as ‘Emil’s’ instead of ‘ours.’ So, this makes it easier for him to separate himself from Emil, which is going to play out more interestingly, in my opinion. This feeds into the imbalance between himself and Emil, and with Ratatosk starting out at an advantageous position, it doesn’t really help. This was going to happen eventually, but it’s happening faster than I really predicted.
8. So I am really interested to see how this develops, especially as it becomes clearer that Ratatosk really is a threat to Emil. I believe most of the team prefers Emil, except for Lucifer.
9. Lloyd really put it well last night with the analogies. Mithos, Emil, and Lloyd are all the main protags of the Symphonia verse. And they are all like trains in canon. Mithos is the train that refuses to switch tracks, even for the burned out bridge ahead. Lloyd is a train that maintains that ability to switch tracks, and Ratatosk is the train running towards the out bridge, while Emil is that part of him that goes, “Hey, wait, there are switches here! We don’t have to do this!” And interestingly enough, in canon, pretty much as soon as Lloyd joins the party, Emil seals of Ratatosk. So of all of the party, Lloyd is the only one who never has an extended period of interaction with Ratatosk. And by the time he does, Emil has come into his own enough for Ratatosk to regain some semblance of balance, and you can see images of who he was back when Mithos first met him.
10. Which kind of ties into the other possibilities for how he could develop. I don’t predict that Emil or Ratatosk will ever end up like they do in canon. That’s already not going to happen, and I’ve only played Emil in Aather for roughly 2 IC weeks. Emil has made a lot of friends, but I think what determines how much of an effect they’ll have depends on how they react to Ratatosk. In this case, I think Mitsuru has had the most calming effect on him, just because she seemed generally nonplussed, if a little shocked at his existence. Ratatosk, unlike my other general fanfare of dumb boys, isn’t stupid and will readily pick up on little tells. He’s quick to get defensive about them, as well. Because, while he is pretty damn angry and violent, his general motivation right now is one of protecting things he considers his. Peridot is only his in as much as he needs to protect it, and if the games are too much for Emil, that’s what he’ll do. He will take the trauma because it is hard to trauma him. Mitsuru is ‘our friend’ though, which is important and gives her a pretty surprising amount of leverage over him if she ever decides to use it. This is also despite the fact that Emil considers him closer to Sakura.
11. I am just taking an entire numbered paragraph to note that I am dying to see Ratatosk interact with Lloyd and Mithos more. Just saying.
12. For questions regarding this report, please contact me in the comments section of this entry or in the #talesofsigneg chan on IRC.
RAINA, Player, Aather
Emil Castagnier, Peridot
Now, I will follow that essay with a QUESTION MEME. No, it hasn't quite been a month but dammit I DO WHAT I WANT. This is for Judith and Emil/Ratatosk.
:')