You knew he was coming at some point...Today, I'm talking about none other than the fake Pope Saga. Buckle up, cuz I'm writing him in kind of a convoluted way.
In case this is the first post of mine you see : This is about my fanfiction Out of Nowhere on Ao3 and how I choose to characterize my characters, I'm not saying canon should be this way or another, even if I'm not scared to voice some of my likes and dislikes. Once again, it's all about the fic :)
Pretty sure there's a DC comics vilain like that...
Let's get this out quick : I am not a fan of Saga's possession plot
The Saga I wrote is very different than the one Kurumada did, because I am honestly not interested to write about this aspect of Kuru's characterization. (To sulm it up : My verse does not consider the whole Lemur thing he made up 40 years after finishing the main story)
But it doesn't mean nothing's interesting about it. So, what exactly did I take away from this...?
In Out of Nowhere, both Sagas are naught but different sides of a same coin.
To put it simply, his good and bad sides, instead of fusing to make his whole personality, stay separated within his soul, like putting oil and water in a glass.
The main difference being ; They are not oil and water, and are capable of fusing, but both sides refuses to do so.
Also, these personalities could be seen as one half of Saga each ; they aren't simply manner of speech or of acting resurfacing, they are two incomplete beings, meaning that regardless of wich Saga is dominant at the time, he isn't "whole".
But a soul isn't made to be split like this, and both side are trying to fuse despite their reticances. Think of the Ying and Yang signs ; Both have a droplet of the other. They are slowly assimilating with each other, and Saga's "transformation" become harder and harder on him physically.
Being a good or bad side doesn't mean you're either perfection incarnate or the devil itself, simply that one trait is far more proeminent than the other. Good Saga could make mistake, and evil Saga was capable of kindness, sometimes. Once again, think of the Ying Yang.
Saga in OoN behaves as though what 'Ares' did was completely separate from him, but 'Ares', if he were to come back by himself, would consider his existence from birth to 15 as still his. And despite what he decides to believe, Saga, even when 'Ares' was in charge, was still exepriencing his own life. He wasn't asleep or trapped in a mindscape.
If I was to compare it to something that actually happens, it would be like he was in a constant state of dissociation, like what you get when you're very tired or stressed out. You can hear yourself thinking, behaving and making decision, but it's like it's not you talking, even though you know it is.
By the time of OoN, 'Ares' is in that situation. He isn"t gone, as he's still half of Saga, but said Saga dominance has become overwhelming.
" Hoes before bros, am I right ?" - Kanon, Out of Nowhere
Up until he was 15, Saga's good side was the dominant one. He knew, deep down, that he wasn't "complete" but never resolved himself to deal with it, perhaps out of fear that it would cause his current self to disappear.
It wouldn't really have, as they're a single soul.
So the other side was buried, deep, deep down. But it wanted to be out. And it slowly managed to, one step at a time.
Now, I made quite a few important changes regarding the twins, and here's the main one ;
Gemini saints are usually born as twins, said to be one good, one evil. You may have already guessed it ; it's not the case for me.
The main thing to take from my verse is that Gemini saints are most of the time bordeline but important to the sanctuary. Meaning their minds often strays from the complete obedience they expect from knights, but their cosmos are too important for them to discard.
So it's not that Saga's good and Kanon evil, but rather that both of them are complicated beings to deal with. Saga for the reasons I explained above, and some others I will explain here ;
Saga's the Ying, and his droplet of Yang manifest mostly as one huge flaw ; His ego, and need to be in charge.
This reflected in two things ;
His stranded relationship with his brother, who he always felt some sort of superiority complex over, though he'd hardly admit it. He was the chosen one, not Kanon. Kanon was the inferior one, his follower. He does love him, at the end of the day, but from birth til 15, their relationship was Saga bossing Kanon around. Not in a purely abusive and violent way, but in a "You know I'm right, be reasonnable." way. Which is also bad. I'll ellaborate more on it next time with Kanon, but this behavior, coupled with the other side of Saga's resurfacing, were two major factor in Kanon trying to betray Athena back then.
The other thing is obviously Shion choosing Aiolos over him (as he didn't know about the test) There, he did not feel disappointment : His whole life plan shattered. All the thing he was sure to become were no more. This was his breaking point, were "Ares" finally managed to take over, in what could be seen as a desperate attempt to gain back some control over his life.
Not him changing wardrobe everytime he got a mental breakdown
Then comes Out of Nowhere.
If you read Alde's part, you might remember what I said at some point about the boy ; A character well-rounded, that doesn't looses himself within his own complexity.
Now you take this and turn it upside down. Yeah, there's Saga for ya'.
You know the shtick. They're brought back, mental shock, yaddi yadda.
But they didn't just bring back half of Saga. They're both still there.
Now, it's unlikely that Ares, if he gains back control or complete the fusion, tries to conquer earth again. He saw himself loose and Athena gaining forces. So for now, he's inactive, though the fusion is still slowly occuring. It won't stop, as it's a natural process (in a somewhat cosmic sense)
Thing is, Saga's the one who suddenly came back in charge. He didn't mind that at first. Fighting during the war against Hades, sacrifying his life for the greater good...All these were part of the warrior mindset forcefully ingrained inside him during his childhood.
But actually living ? When he's just out of a good 13 years of pure dissociation ?
Thing is, Saga is absolutely disturbed. Every time he looks at his hands and sees them clearly, everytime he has to think before talking instead of just blurting out things he half exepcted to say... You could say that reality is a bit too intense for him.
Now take into account what I said about his ego, his need of control... He's out of it, and needs something familiar and uplifting to give him some of his agency back.
Guess the best thing he could think of ?
Yeah, it's a person, actually. Aphrodite. I gotta talk about him a bit so you understand my Saga better.
Now, once again, I changed quite a few things from the canon. Maybe only half of them were actually there as gold saints 13 years ago, and I'm still not fully set and this background for Dite (the one I usually go for leans more towards fantasy and parrallel universes, that are not used for OoN but for my other main fic.) But be sure of one thing ; they go way back.
And Aphrodite, over these years, had been someone Saga could count on. Not necessarily because Pisces was so in on the whole world control thing, but rather because he saw fit to be soothing presence for the Pope, who he not only saw as a contender for quite litteraly the world's next dictator, but also the only human alternative to protect the earth against all the menaces flocking toward them.
Now, Saga has a long a complex relationship with both Dite and Death. But with the latter, their relation is mixed with negative and positive, negative which Deathmask is very vocal about, as he's got his own resentment towards Saga.
Aphrodite, however, has some trouble with putting boundaries with people that are not directly hostile or straight up dangerous with him. (Like he knew to stop Kanon when he grabbed him at the start of the fic, but wasn't sure on how to proceed with Saga's obsession the whole fic, and it has not been resolved by the end of part 1.)
So yeah, for a mix of all these reasons, Aphrodite has unwillingly become Saga's anchor in his current reality. And he really, really struggles to express this in a healthy way.
Now, I won't rewrite about everything I did with him in the story and analyze, because I'll need to do so in the next two parts (Kanon and Death...) and Aphro's. It would be redundant.
I'll just reassure people : He'll get better. He started a journey in chapter 37 that will go on in part two.
I realllly didn't want to keep the whole Saga's a stalker plot.
Why did I even write it in the first place...?
There are two wolves inside of me.
On to some revelations about OoN making of.
When I started writing it, it was around 2016. I was fifteen to sixteen. Deep, deep into my anime phase. Not a great mix.
...Yeah. So the english version differs quite a bit from the french one. I've been rewriting it, but basically, at first, Saga's obsession was a gag.
If I had to compare the whole thing, it would be like how Marinette from MLB is a stalker to her boyfriend (Warning ; I'm not an avid watcher, I just have some memory glimpses from watching season 1 a long time ago). I think it's meant to be a cute girl crush if I'm correct, but it obviously comes off as as creepy as it actually is.
And you know the worst ? Do you want to know what's worse about this whole mess ??
They were supposed to hook up !! Aphro and Saga !! That's was my damned direction back then !!
Thank gods, I quickly grew up and realized it would not be a thing.
But I the thing was, back then, that I feel like I could'nt just remove it entirely, or else I would have to change huge chunks of the plot and create some Frankenstein's monster of a story. So I kept it, just changing the reactions of the characters around him to his behavior (Once again, Kanon, Death...)
But now in my mid twenties, as I slowly advanced towards the end of part 1, and part 2, that will feature conflicts with specters and such (Huge spoiler, I know) I was soon faced with the long awaiting problem.
Hoooow do I write the golds as a group facing outsiders (non saints, non golds, specters), when one of them is a damned stalker a bonder (remove the d) away from humping another member of said group ????
Kind of a ditch, if you want my opinion.
Which leads to my no less terrible conclusion ; Towards the second part/last quarter of the fic, I just...kinda dropped it anyway. Kanon tells off Saga basically off screen, and then he's just like, "Yeah, it was bad. I know he don't love me. I'll just stop being a creep."
That was a rushed resolution, but I couldn't end part 1 like "So, they all came back, they all had their little arc...Saga's still a weirdo, tho. Anyways !!"
So in part 2, the objective I guess will be to have Saga hold himself accountable for his behavior, and learn how to get back control of his life without crushing others.
Holy cow this one was long.
Anyway, see you next Christmas for Kanon's part.
