It’s about time I talk about the Endless Hug and my personal interpretation of it, because I swear it makes me go feral whenever I think about it. So bear with me as I try my best to glue my thoughts together into something coherent.
First of all, I want to address probably the most important thing when it comes to the framework of my interpretation – whether the piece is actually talking about Chigda or not. There is no explicit mention of Chigda in either the sketch or description, so please approach the following interpretation as purely my own decision to treat it as something intrinsically tied to Chigda’s character. What suggests that it talks about Chigda are the following reasons:
Content/association: it represents the Desperate Vines, and the character that's tied to them the strongest (metaphorically and literally) is Chigda;
It dropped right after Chigda’s boss fight;
All other sketches that dropped after their respective bosses portray a piece that is explicitly stated to be inspired by that boss (see: Raging Bouldy, Pearly Bird, Hidden Sentiments, Gentle Guidance) and even commonly share the trait of “defanging” the boss.
The scarf is not the only piece of clothing that’s related to Chigda or the Desperate Vines. The description of Wishful Aurosa: Daybreak, while never mentioning it by name, directly references the time of the delayed Coming-Of-Age Ceremony and conspiring with the Dark. The link is further confirmed by the accompanying comments under the pieces, often reminiscing the terrifying times of Aurosa’s corruption or rejoicing in foiling Chigda’s sinister plan.
Endless Hug is such a fascinating element of the Desperate Vines lore exactly because it contrasts this general attitude of the characters as well as what we, as the players, were exposed to prior to this. What sets it apart is that everything about this piece – its physical form, title and description – evokes tenderness.
Part 1: Two Warm Hands
Starting with its name – the word “hug” is usually used in a positive context, evoking feelings of warmth, companionship, affection. A hug is usually a moment of intimacy between people who trust each other enough to be very close to another. I think it’s interesting that instead of something like “embrace”, which is more neutral, or “clutch”, that can hint towards a malicious intent, this specific word - 拥抱, a hug - was used. Then, the adjective “endless” is like a promise – of comfort and intimacy that never ends, never lets go. I’ll get back to the “endless” part a bit later, for now let’s get to the description:
The scarf echoes the Desperate Vines in color. Two warm "hands" hug from behind, adorned with pink flowers on soft dark fabric.
Comments:
Dada: So, has anyone actually hugged Desperate Vines? I feel like I'd be half dead just trying.
Bebe: For some reason, it feels like the Desperate Vines are trying to keep someone from leaving... but who could it be?
First of all, I think it’s interesting how the developers decided that clothing inspired by the Desperate Vines should be a scarf – something that brings warmth, cuddles you and protects you from the cold. A common interpretation of an act of wrapping a scarf around someone’s neck is a concern of someone’s health and safety, therefore caring about that person. Shaping it like hands is also a rather unusual design choice – it intentionally invokes personhood and can be even interpreted as an act of humanization of the Desperate Vines. They are not just a huge, terrifying plant that’s controlled by the one that’s bound with them, but a distinct, conscious party on their own. Furthermore, the description of the piece brings attention to its physical attributes. The scarf is “warm”, the fabric is “soft”. It makes you envision it as something cozy and comfortable to wear, a far cry from the thorned, twisted vines that harm you upon every touch. This dissonance is even pointed out by Dada – being so intimate with them is a ridiculous concept in itself given how dangerous and repulsive they are for any living being.
Bebe’s comment is the one that gives the interpretation a little “twist”. After the very tender description that we got so far, that comment brings a more sinister side of the meaning of “endless”. You will be hugged by the Vines, the comfort and companionship will be forever, but once you enter that relationship there is no coming back. The “hands” hug from behind, that way the person that’s hugged can look before them, yet is held back from moving forward. On a meta level, despite not even touching the neck and laying mostly on the chest, it’s not a neckwear (like, for example, Orange Scarf), it’s classified as a choker, a category that groups together pieces wrapping around the wearer’s neck. It doesn’t even seem like a choice guided by the developer’s intention to pair it better with other pieces - in fact, it obscures the majority of necklaces available so far in the game. The hands might rest on your chest for now, right above your beating heart, but what you’re not aware of is that at the core of their creation - they’ve been around your neck the entire time.
Part 2: The Hidden Despair
The sketch features neat strokes and abstract content. In the corner, it says, "Look! A scary exterior and a soft interior—I love the contrast!"
The contrast is a central theme of this piece, from the description of the sketch to the circumstances in which we got it. Right up to that point, our interaction with the Vines have been extremely negative – it was the manifestation of evil and destruction, their inhabitant talking ruthlessly about sacrificing human life and overthrowing the existing world’s order with his twisted idea of godhood. Confronting the hidden darkness culminated in an epic fight, where his defeat was crucial for stopping Dark Essence from spreading and thus a matter of life and death for countless living beings. Chigda and the Desperate Vines are, without a doubt, vicious and irredeemable villains whose defeat is necessary for Miraland’s peace. And yet, just after that moment, we get a sketch that brings attention to some hidden softness – one we never got to see.
Keeping everything in mind, it all comes back to the character that is intrinsically bound with the Desperate Vines – Chigda. Similarly to the Vines, the one character that was embraced by them was the one where we only ever got to see the “scary” part of him, never the warm. Then what does it mean if this surprisingly tender piece is related to him? Even in our first time meeting him, even listening to his excited speech about his supposed godhood, he stayed hidden within the flower's petals and it took force to spread them open, thus exposing him, forcing him away from the Vines’ embrace, which escalated into a fight. In a way this “scary exterior” could be the flower, the Desperate Vines, and the “soft interior” the Faewish Sprite hiding inside of it, the one living (?) being that instead of being “half dead just trying [to hug Desperate Vines]”, needs to stay close to them just to survive.
Interpreting the scarf as something that hints at Chigda’s relationship with the Desperate Vines and therefore the Dark, it is only in its embrace where he can find comfort. But it is a two-sided situation, a double-edged sword, as behind the comfort hides something much more sinister, something that keeps him there while silently ruining him.
He's enclosed in the flower, with its petals embracing him and hiding him from the outside world. It begs a question: what is he hiding from? And by this question I don’t mean the practical reason for hiding, but what made him want to hide in the first place? He seeks comfort, but from what exactly? Could there have been another reason other than a desire to survive an unavoidable death? Maybe there’s more to what the sketch is conveying - perhaps under a scary exterior, there is something soft and vulnerable about Chigda that we never had a chance to see.
Part 3: The Faewish Sprite No More
As a child growing up in a deeply Catholic country, I often heard the story of Lucifer betraying God and becoming a force of sin. What was especially empathised in them was that it was an act of his free will - of course, with the intention of warning us about our own free will and the fact that we can also choose to turn our back to God. I remember asking my catechist that if Lucifer had free will, then he also had the capacity of realizing his own mistake and begging God for forgiveness. I was wondering, what would happen in that case? Was there ever a chance that he could make up for his wrongdoings and redeem himself? The catholic preachers usually hate these kinds of questions, but to my surprise, my catechist had an answer - that while we can’t rule out the possibility of it happening, every being carries a responsibility for their actions. Every action born out of our free will bears consequences, and the consequence of Lucifer becoming Satan was eternal damnation. Having heard a lot about God’s loving and forgiving nature, this answer was never particularly convincing - and I’m not talking about the part about needing to face the consequences of your actions. It's about this very Catholic way of thinking that presents free will as a one-way ticket, a door that you can only cross once. In a way, while an act born out of free will damned Lucifer for eternity, it has later on rendered this trait of free will of his practically useless.
For all we know, Chigda binding himself with the Vines was a conscious decision, one made in a desperate attempt to survive a terminal disease. Despite the tragic circumstances, he was 100% responsible for making that choice. But the consequences of that choice were that of changing the whole nature of his existence, his state of being and even his personhood.
The change is permanent, there is no turning back even if he wants to. Is his Dark Essence corrupted mind even CAPABLE of changing ever? Does the corruption even allow him, at least theoretically, to have any thoughts of regret? He's not a person anymore, he's an Esseling that can get purified and disappear. We don't even know if he's still alive anymore, which is the one thing he bargained for in this deal, and isn’t just shattered pieces of consciousness trapped in an effigy that can wither away under the force of Whim. It stops mattering anymore, these doors have been closed forever. The hands of the Dark have already embraced him from the back, trapping him in an endless hug.
The comfort is an illusion, and the price that's to be paid for it is high. It's possessive, not allowing anything else to penetrate the barrier that it set up, hiding the core from others. The trade off of Chigda’s mixture of ambition, fear and unsatisfied desires. While having been wrapped protectively by the petals, did he ever see himself? Was he even aware of what he's become? The Vines were his eyes, he perceived the world through them - as an example, it was through the Vines that Chigda was speaking to Avicinda as per his story in the cave. Chigda knew he was there, but we don’t know exactly how his ability to “see” worked - maybe he could see the world around him, it was more like a feeling, a different kind of vision. Even though his new form was devoid of eyes, what was left of his face was a mouth, a body part that let him devour Desperation Orbs and therefore harness Dark Energy. The Vines accepted him and his new foul form, but what really mattered to them was his usefulness. The deal was not about fulfilling his desire of godhood, but exploiting his utility for the interests of the Dark.
By entwining himself with the Vines, their being became one - there was no separation between Chigda and the Desperate Vines anymore. Hurting the Vines hurt Chigda, hurting Chigda hurt the Vines, purifying one meant purifying them both. Having merged with the Vines, Chigda gave up being a distinct entity, I’ll even risk saying that in the process he gave up his own personhood. They've become an inseparable fusion, one could say even one character. Because of this, I personally believe that it's incomplete to talk about the Esseling Chigda as the same character as the Chigda pre-corruption, not taking into the account the inseparable part of him which were the Desperate Vines. What would Chigda, the Faewish Sprite, think of the Esseling Chigda if he saw him? Would he still have made this choice? Perhaps he would. Perhaps his ambition would've been too high and the ramifications of the change would've been secondary in his eyes.
In a way, it's the most intimate relationship we've seen so far in the game. We don’t know if Chigda had any friends before the corruption, and after his defeat there was no one to say anything positive about him or grieve for him (maybe besides Avicinda, but it was never explicitly stated whether he felt grief among the regret), or at least reminisce about the past, even after he ruled for hundreds of years. So in the end, perhaps Chigda was right. In a twisted way, the only being that was there for him to the very end were the Desperate Vines.
But in the end I cannot help but think how ironic it is that the only time ever where Chigda is in any way allowed, as a character, to be connected to anything even remotely tender is with the very thing that corrupted him and eventually led to his demise.
