Four, the Goddess of Envy: A Drakengard 3 Analysis
Warning: Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!
EDITED 1/27/2024
Oh, hey. It's me again, your favorite over-analyzer. The more I look into the intoners, the more interesting they are. I should've said this in the last analysis, but I have to admit that I actually have not played any of the Drakengard games. However, I have watched all the Drakengard 3 cutscenes and DLC's online and have been re-reading all their novellas. I had a lot to say about them, so I dump all of that here. I gotta say though, Four's character is one that hits close to home for me personally, and I'm sure a lot of people would resonate with a character like this. Now let's get onto Four, the Goddess of Envy. You could say she's green with envy. (Ba-dum-tss)
"Once upon a time, many moons ago...There was a beautiful Intoner and a middle-aged man. The Intoner yearned for a world of peace and happiness and for evil to be banished forever."
INTRODUCTION TO FOUR
Four is the second youngest of the Intoner sisters and the ruler of the Land of Mountains. In this post, I'll start from the main game, to the DLC, and then the novella. Though to be honest, you don't get much of her in the main game. Before we even meet her, both Mikhail and Dito ask Zero about what kind of person she is. Zero claims that Four is "sleazy" and that acts sweet on the surface but is really evil deep down. When we actually see Four, she is seemingly one of the only normal Intoners. She seems harmless and doesn't want to fight Zero and just wants Zero to be her "old self" again. That doesn't stop Zero from killing her, though. Her being "sugary sweet" on the outside does match up with what Zero claimed, but we didn't get to see the whole picture before Four's death. If you only went by what you saw from her in the game, you'd think that Four is a kind, normal, unassuming girl. But the deeper you look, the more you see that Zero was correct in her claims.
FOUR'S PROLOGUE (DLC)
"Dragons can see the shape of a person's heart. And the heart of this beautiful intoner... was full of holes. A frigid breeze seemed to blow through it. What could have made it so cold? This dragon had no idea."
Four is given a task by One to eliminate the remaining troops of the previous lord in the Cathedral City. Gabriella, One's dragon, accompanies her a little later to help with this task. This is where we get to see the side of Four that Zero was talking about. While Four does want to do the right thing by maintaining peace and order, she is immensely self-righteous, perfectionistic, and condescending towards those that she thinks are less than her (i.e. all of her sisters save for Zero and One, and the elves later on). She takes every opportunity to throw her sisters, mostly Five, under the bus in order to make herself look better by comparison. She's definitely a "I'm not like other girls" type of woman. She considers herself to be morally superior and just, has a black and white mentality and does not think about the consequences of her actions (preemptively attacking the pirates for instance, more on that later.)
I think Decadus and Gabriella are foils in their relation to Four; Gab constantly calls out Four for being disingenuous and shallow, whereas Decadus enables her and coddles her ego. Going back to the quote, Gabriella sees that Four's heart is "full of holes" because of her many flaws and complexes.
"The screams of burning victims rang out from the downed vessels. The cries for help echoed far and wide. But none of it bothered the Intoner in the least. After all, they weren't civilians. After all, they weren't human. After all, they were the 'bad guys'. The Intoner was filled with sublime exhilaration."
The part of this DLC that I think is the most telling is the very end when Four insists that they go and slay the pirate elves. It is unclear if this was part of One's plan or if Four came up with this on her own, but it's probably the latter. Anyways, with Gabriella's help, Four begins slaughtering the elves and it doesn't sit right with Gab. She feels guilty and uncomfortable due to the screams of pain from the elves, but Four insists that she should ignore it and continue. Gab tries numerous times to tell Four that she thinks what they're doing is wrong, but Four doesn't bother to consider it. And now to the moment where everyone began to collectively hate Four; Gabriella calls their attack "manslaughter", which makes Four laughs maniacally. She says it can't be manslaughter because they're killing elves and not people.
This once again proves that she's apathetic towards those she considers less than human and justifies her slaughter. I should note that the elves are pirates and by that logic, they probably aren't innocent. We all know what kinds of things pirates do. However, she not only preemptively attacks the elves without any sort of plan, but she laughs and takes pleasure in doing so. She immediately resorts to violence instead of trying to form an intelligent strategy. She believes that she can do whatever she wants because she thinks that they're in the right and shows absolutely no remorse. This shows a very immature mindset.
NOVELLA
"I hate you so much! All of you! I despise you! I know I'll never be lovable like Two or beautiful like Three. I know that compared to Five I'm a pancake! I hate myself! I hate my face! My body! I'm not pretty or lovable and I have the most average face you can imagine. My arms and legs are gangly and I look like a twig that can never get my stupid hair to straighten out!"
Now THIS is really where we get to see who Four is. The novella lets us take a peak into her thoughts and boy, is it something. In this scenario, all the intoner sisters are living together in a house temporarily and some of the others are being rather irresponsible, mostly Five, Three and Two (unintentionally). She spends a majority of this novella complaining about having to clean up after the others while judging them harshly. She is extremely pessimistic, envious and resentful. Her cynicism reminds me a lot of Dito's novella. She points out the flaws of everyone else to make herself feel better, but she makes it clear that she feels inferior towards all of them. She projects her insecurities onto her sisters. While I can understand the frustration of living with careless and irresponsible people, she also doesn't do anything to change her circumstance. By that I mean she could've requested to live in a different house while her sisters sort out their own mess. When you always cover for someone else failing to be responsible, I feel like you're inadvertently coddling them, and they won't know how to solve their own problems. Or she could try to communicate more effectively.
Because of this, I think she has a martyr complex. By definition, someone who has a martyr complex "desires the feeling of being a martyr for their own sake and seeks out suffering or persecution because it either feeds a physical need or a desire to avoid responsibility....Other martyr complexes involve willful suffering in the name of love or duty." To sumarize, these types of people can seek out undesirable situations and continue to stay in them in the name of their victimhood. They also don't take accountability for their poor decision-making or actions.
Five makes an inappropriate comment about her body, and Four completely snaps, even throwing objects in the room in her fit of rage. While Five's comment was definitely inappropriate, Four's response was also inappropriate. Three was still asleep in the room, and she could've easily hurt her. She expressed her hatred, self-loathing and envy while hurling degrading insults when referring to her sisters. Once she's done, she does at least acknowledge what she did was wrong and that she needs to have better control of herself next time. Yeah no kidding.
NOVELLA ARTWORK
In the novella image, Four is standing in the center surrounded by dolls of her sisters. She is stabbing through the head of the Five doll specifically. We already know that Four resents Five the most because she's jealous of her mature body, so that checks out. While looking at the other ladies, most of them are a heap on the floor except for One. Maybe that represents how she thinks that they're beneath her, and that only One is at her level. Although, One is still upside down, which is curious. Zero is facing away from all of them, which shows that she's distant from them.
THE FINAL SONG
So, let's talk about Four’s dance in the Final Song. Just like the other even-numbered Intoners, Four’s movements are symmetrical. She had a desire for peace and order, so the symmetry makes sense in that context. This is also the “perfect” girl facade that she tries to put on in front of others. Her movements are limited and controlled, always within her line of sight. In her starting and ending pose, she’s covering her face with her hands. She’s hiding her feelings of inadequacy, or maybe it’s her true nature that she’s hiding. She also appears to reach out for Zero quite a bit, whom we know that she had always loved and admired. Idk if this has to do with anything, but Five’s song is playing during her dance. Which is ironic because Five is the one that she resents and antagonizes the most.
COLOR THEORY (GREEN)
I could go on forever about how important color theory is when it comes to fictional characters, but I'll spare you from that tangent. Four's signature color is green, as we can all see in her design. Green is associated with nature and is a soothing and relaxing color to the eye. Some positive traits include balance, harmony, vitality, renewal and restoration. Some negative traits include possessiveness, materialism, jealousy, selfishness, and greed. I referenced this earlier in my horrible joke, but I think when we think about green, the "green with envy" thing is one of the first things to come to mind. I also find it interesting that the positive traits are what she desires, but the negative traits are what she actually has.
TLDR/Personal Anecdote
In conclusion, Four is someone with a severe inferiority, saviour, and martyr complex. She also has an underlying twisted and sadistic side to her because of internalized anger and resentment. She has a desire to do the right thing and help people, but she has a skewed sense of what is "right" or "wrong" because of her black-and-white mentality. She is condescending and judgmental towards others that she deems inferior.
I'm gonna be outing myself by saying this, but I strongly identify with Four, as awful as she can be sometimes. I resonated with her character a lot as I was doing my research, and I think she's actually a well-written and relatable character. And realistic too, as there are many people in the world that are exactly like her. Over the course of the last few months, I've been in the process of healing from my wounds and acknowledging my own shortcomings. I only wish that Four got the opportunity to do the same. With time, surely she could've grown to be a better person.
Anyways, thank you so much if you've read this far. Doing this analysis was definitely eye opening and, again, reminded me of my own flaws and how much work i have to do. I can't say when my next analysis will be, but thanks again for your support. Until next time. ♡
