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MARTA LUALDI DEFENSE / APPRECIATION POST.

Strap yourselves in because I’m not being polite this time.

I can’t even begin to articulate how exhausting it is to see people constantly rehash the same "Marta is a flawed / bad character, she constantly gets jealous, obsessive, etc. etc. etc." spiel. What makes this more upsetting is when people who actually do like Marta somehow adopt some of these misinterpretations (in my opinion) as canon, which only opens up the door to more hate on this girl.

I’ll be the first to admit that Marta Lualdi is a flawed character. But you know what? She is way more than those flaws and she overcomes most, if not all of them by the end of the game. Reducing a character down to traits they showed for maybe 2/8ths of their screen time is unfair and wrong.

Let’s backpedal for a minute and remind ourselves that Marta is sixteen years old. She lost her mother when she was 14, due to the Giant Tree destroying her hometown - Palmacosta was called "a reflection of death itself" in the Successors of Hope novel. It also says, “With the destruction of Palmacosta, the happiness she [Marta] knew came to a crashing end.” Remember that even before it was destroyed, Palmacosta was fighting the threat of the Desians, and if you recall they were the only city in Sylvarant openly opposing them despite Magnius constantly terrorizing the city. It’s important to realize that THAT is the environment Marta came out of, the place she grew up in.

After losing her mother and hometown, her father lost his mind and started an organization that’s dead set on murdering the Tethe’allans and taking over the world. She’s a sixteen year old girl on the run with only Tenebrae by her side, while she’s being hunted down by a literal army. Oh, and half of that organization actually doesn’t care about capturing her, and is actually trying to kill her instead as they’re loyal to the Richter and/or Alice faction. And there’s no way to tell which side is which. But if the side who wants to capture her succeeds? They’ll force her to take part in genocide.

But Marta is immature, right? She’s self centered and stupid, right? She didn’t choose to stand up against her last surviving family member and try to protect the world by herself since no one else could be trusted, right?

Also, Marta is a Sylvaranti. Plenty of Tethe’allans have bullied her and harassed her for simply being born on the ‘wrong’ planet. They’ve called her dirt and treated her like garbage. That’s who she’s protecting, here. The people who do everything they can to make her feel like nothing. Marta gets attacked by a Tethe’allan, thrown against the stone pavement so hard her head starts bleeding, while trying to protect a little Sylvaranti boy in the Successors of Hope novel. She’s willing to put her life on the line for them because she believes that not every Tethe’allan is bad, and that the relationship between the worlds is worth mending.

Now, after everything she’s dealt with up until now, she meets Emil. And SHE saves HIM, since, as we’ve established, protecting people is basically her job now. And what happens after? He doesn’t remember her, so she brushes him off. She says she needs to go - 'I’m in a hurry.’ She tells him. ‘I’m Marta. Is that it?’

EMIL is the one who asks what her name is and stops her. Then he goes after her and gives her a chance to flee from Richter. He makes a pact with Ratatosk to protect her. I think it’s pretty clear that he goes beyond what ‘helping someone out’ entails. It’s especially weird, considering Emil hears Richter call Ratatosk a ‘demon lord.’ He was still willing to go out of his way to protect her, which says something about Emil, but also says something about why Marta was immediately attached to him.

She’s been on the run, with no where to turn to; she can’t trust anyone, since they’re all out to capture her or behead her. Then Emil shows up. He’s kind, and he vows to protect her and keep her safe. He becomes a KNIGHT OF RATATOSK for her. Sounds pretty fairy tale-esque, don’t you think?

Then Emil’s family and home is put in danger. She’s been there, she’s seen it happen first hand, twice (first with the Giant Tree and then with the Blood Purge). And she takes the blame for it, for everything the Vanguard has done. She doesn’t get mad at him for saying it’s her fault. She accepts responsibility and willingly goes to her death. She’s willing to give up Ratatosk’s core to the church, who she thinks will at least keep it safe from the Vanguard, and die to save Luin. That happens in the FIRST CHAPTER OF THE GAME. It’s basically the tutorial, and Marta is establishing herself as selfless and kind.

Emil saves her from being killed when the church doesn’t stop its attack, but she tells him to stop attacking Magnar, even after he tried to behead her, when Emil goes into Ratatosk Mode ( ‘That’s enough Emil, stop it!’ ). She has very clear morals, and she doesn’t like seeing anyone hurt - also, she knows EMIL doesn’t want to hurt anyone either.

She does fawn over him, but Emil doesn’t stop her. He talks with Tenebrae about how he feels about it, but not with Marta. He willingly holds her hand in Asgard, but when he is VISIBLY embarrassed/awkward about it, she lets go. She’s not trying to make him uncomfortable, and when she can see that he is, she drops whatever she’s doing to try to make up for it. She may get carried away, but at the end of the day she tries her best to be considerate. That fact needs to stop getting overlooked.

Alright, now with the Colette confrontation. Marta openly states in the Journal that she’s confused, she doesn’t know how to feel about the Chosen. She doesn’t think she’s the type to abandon the world, but in Marta’s eyes she basically told her to her face that she let Marta’s mother die. She ran away, for no explainable reason, other than the rumor that she chose Tethe’alla over Sylvarant.

Remember that it was the loss of her mother that changed her father, and what more or less prompted him to form the Vanguard (thus causing the situation she’s in now). Colette didn’t explain herself, though since the truth behind World Regeneration seems to be a secret, it’s likely that she couldn’t share the truth with Marta at that time. Marta seems to pick up on the fact that there’s more to the story, which is why she is able to more or less become quick friends with her. She’s not the type of person Marta dislikes - she’s kind, and she tries her best to help others no matter what dangers she faces. She willingly rushed in to protect Marta and Emil from Alice and the Vanguard, knowing that they’re after her, after all. It’s similar to what Marta herself does numerous times throughout the game. You can read my analysis of Marta’s feelings regarding Colette here.

Later, with Colette, she asks if she likes Emil - Colette, not really understanding what Marta really meant, says she does. She doesn’t tell Colette she can’t like him or give her the cold shoulder, she’s just surprised and says she won’t lose. It’s only in a skit that she acts that way, though. Marta doesn’t really acknowledge it afterwards, only getting a bit jealous when Emil later says that Colette was soothing to be around. She tried to fish for compliments from him before and got nothing, but then he casually complimented Colette. Given that he’s her only friend in the world (besides her confusing relationship with Colette), and she has a puppy crush on him, I think it’s pretty understandable why it would make her feel not so great inside.

Also, I have gone on about this before, but we find out very late in the game that Marta is afraid of heights. Even so, she willingly crawls across a very narrow platform to save a little boy, while Alice tries to kick her off it. Alice says herself that if she falls, she’ll die. So it’s high enough up that the drop would cause instant death. Scary for anyone, let alone someone with a fear of heights. Again, she’s doing this in chapter two. You can read my analysis of that particular incident here.

When Emil and Marta end up in Iselia, Emil is extremely agitated from the get go. He makes rude comments, and has an overall bad attitude since it’s Lloyd’s hometown. Marta lost people too, and Lloyd took Lumen’s core, but she chooses to be the bigger person for the sake of their objective. Emil isn’t acting like the gentle, kind boy he usually is (which is why she can be so fiery and passionate usually - since they’re not both being hotheaded), so she takes the role of the calm, collected one and does most of the talking with the townspeople. She gives people a chance to show their character before she makes judgement. Even Emil, whose signature trait is being kind, isn’t able to do that due to his resentment towards Lloyd.

When Emil finally tells her he doesn’t like the way she treats him (like a prince, etc.) she owns up to it and vows to change. She takes legitimate personal criticism and applies it immediately, and that’s hard to do. After that she gets defensive when anyone even suggests her and Emil are more than friends, since he told her it bothered him. And you know what? It’s Emil who decides he doesn’t like it.

After that, Emil is the one who Tenebrae notes is jealous throughout the game. When Emil dejectedly asks if Marta prefers rich guys like Regal, Tenebrae says that his “petty jealousies” can wait. Marta nervously asks if Emil has a crush on her, but he says no in a panic and she lets the conversation end there. She tries to ask about what he said later, but he exclaims it wasn’t important at all, and she quietly accepts it. Emil definitely sends her mixed signals, so I don’t think her inability to completely give up on him is entirely her fault.

Despite having the weight of the world on her, and trying to deal with being a sixteen year old with a crush, Marta still did her best to take what Emil said to her to heart. She changes her view and without meaning to, starts to love the true Emil. And she tells him that. She tells him, “I think that the real you is much, much cooler than the fantasy I had in my mind.” She acknowledges her flaws in this same scene but by this point, has actually already overcome a lot of them.

Marta’s true defining trait in the game up is being caring, and kind, NOT being obsessive, jealous, clingy, etc. as much of the “fanon” portrays her as being. She looks out for Emil, defends him and encourages him to grow at his own pace. She tells him that looking out for others (even Richter and the monsters he fights) and caring about them is okay and that he shouldn’t feel bad about it. He confides in her more than anyone and she comforts him. When she sees that Emil is struggling or not feeling well it’s Marta that has the party take a break so he can rest.

But Marta cares about others, too, not only Emil. She cares about her friends and even strangers. And she’s not afraid to stand up for them if someone says something unkind, even if that person is Emil. When he goes too far she calls him on it. Whether or not he’s in Ratatosk Mode, she has no problems telling him that he needs to cool his jets and be more considerate. She goes as far as to slap Ratatosk Mode Emil in the Temple of Lighting when he says he doesn’t care about Rilena or the fact that she’s trapped with Decus and could be in danger.

I’ll admit that I don’t exactly think that was the best way to go about it, but up till this point in the game Ratatosk Mode Emil made light of other people’s lives and showed no sign of stopping. She didn’t lay her hands on him again, but afterwards opted to give him the silent treatment which proved very effective on him. It was her way of forcing him to open his eyes and see that other people’s lives have value. And it worked. This was a turning point in the game for Ratatosk Mode Emil to start taking other people’s lives more seriously. The Summon Spirit Ratatosk said he wanted to destroy mankind and that he didn’t care about individual people’s lives; Marta Lualdi was the one who changed that. Her kindness and compassion for other people inspired that in him.

She is gentle and reassuring no matter who he is, Emil or Ratatosk, and even when he wonders if he was Aster, she tells him that it doesn’t matter. The person she met and traveled with is real, and nothing could ever take that away. Marta is Emil’s pillar of support, his strength when his own fails him. He acknowledges that as her role in his life. The misinterpretation of Emil thinking Marta is clingy and annoying and that’s it has got to stop. He didn’t even think that of her in the beginning of the game, before all her true character development began.

I’ve already noted how Marta was willing to sacrifice herself in chapter 2, but she does so again in Altamira. She’s willing to die to save the city, and she doesn’t even hesitate. She thinks about saving the innocent people first; saving herself comes after, no sooner. Even when she’s forced to leave so that the Vanguard doesn’t capture her, she can’t bring herself to stay in Mizuho and endanger the people there. She makes the decision to go and fight her last surviving family member and stop him herself. She says that she’s afraid, but she’ll go anyway. If that isn’t true bravery and fortitude, I don’t know what is. Marta Lualdi is anything but weak. She is just as much a hero as Emil or any of the original cast.

She’s even willing to try to help Decus, her enemy, because she doesn’t want him to have to suffer under the affects of the Centurion’s Core. She has her suspicions that it may be a trap, but she goes anyway because she would rather be betrayed than leave him to lose his mind if it was the truth. In the end it was a trap and she was captured and brought to Brute, but she makes the most out of the opportunity and tries to reason with him one last time. When it fails, she steels herself and prepares for it to come to blows. This sixteen year old girl had to face her own father turning his staff against her. And she toughed it out for the greater good. She embodies strength and resilience, not obsessive behavior.

She acknowledges the fact that she relied on others a lot in her past, but that she’s grown. That’s not who she is at the end of the game, and she knows it, even if Alice doesn’t. Marta very clearly is insecure (“I half expected you to be relieved that this annoying girl was finally out of your hair.” in the Temple of Ice), and that’s very likely at least partly due to Alice’s insults and jabs, so it means a lot that she’s able to realize her own growth.

She was strong enough to kill Alice to protect Emil, which even Alice thought she would never do - maybe not because she didn’t have the strength physically, but that she couldn’t do it morally or have the mental strength to go through with it. She never wanted to hurt Alice and Decus, even after all the terrible things they had done and all the personal attacks Alice directed towards her. But she did it. She immediately feels the guilt for it, and even wonders if she’s any better than Alice for being willing to do what she did; Tenebrae (constantly called insensitive) is the one who comforts her, saying she fought out of love for others while Alice fought out of love for herself.

Marta, in the end, is the one who sees through Emil’s act and realizes that he wasn’t being controlled by Ratatosk. Many times throughout the series its HER who realizes the truth, or senses that something’s up. She’s highly observant and intuitive, she’s by no means stupid. She has street smarts and actually knows a lot about the world from all the traveling she’s done (before & during the game).

Despite not being responsible for what the Vanguard did, as she actively took actions against it and left before they started being increasingly violent, she still states in the ending that she intends to pay for her “crimes.” She vows to bring peace to the world by finding a way to make the Tethe’allans accept the Sylvaranti. She literally says she’s going to devote her life to being a peace maker. I have no doubt that Emil coming back in the “true” ending wouldn’t change that plan of hers at all.

I’d also like to point out that all the while, throughout the entire game, what is Marta doing in the Journal? She writes about half of it, and along with writing down their adventure, she’s supporting Emil, as his best and closest friend and confidant above all else. She’s doing her best to encourage him and tell him that she thinks he’s okay just the way he is. He doesn’t have to change. She leaves little notes checking up on him, making sure he knows she’s rooting for him and has her full confidence.

And she doesn’t think anything of it, it’s just natural. Because in her mind, that’s what you DO when you’re friends with someone. You support them, encourage them, and be kind to them. You are there for them no matter what and you defend them at all costs. She thinks EMIL is kinder than her and wants to be more like him. Emil thinks MARTA is kinder than him and wants to be more like her.

Marta Lualdi is the kind, caring girl who said, “Emil's saved me so many times. I want to do the same for him.”

Marta Lualdi is the wise, worldly girl who said, “Those who rely only on power will be doomed because of power.”

Marta Lualdi is not the obsessive, jealous, self centered girl that “fanon” makes her out to be. Period.