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Though the story of first soldier II came to an end last month, there were still things that kept me wondering, one of which was the story beyond section, or rather, the pinkish-purple dream sequence of Angeal. What exactly were those dreams? And how did they contribute to Angeal's characterization, along with the rest of the story, of Ever Crisis and Crisis Core? In this post, I would like to share some thoughts or my own what-ifs regarding the first question, as the Part I of this discussion.

[tw: mention of character's suicide and self-loathing]

#angeal hewley #gillian hewley #young angeal #ff7 ever crisis #ff7 crisis core #Jung's shadow #I'm sorry that - rather than a formal analysis - this was full of my assumptions and ended up being a super long post of thoughts sharing #and now at least PART I here. the only thing I could hope for was that I did Angeal justice...#scared that if i didn't...I'm sorry...!#also…the contrast in the head pic was making me emotional…after I finished making the edit of the pic i realized…what a contrast…#cosmo down in ff7 #Thank you for reading this!

Rewriting The Past

After rereading the manga and looking at Misha’s role in story again, i realized that ‘rewriting the past’ seems to be important theme for the story and characters. (And it was also one of theme in Pandora Hearts too).

I also love that this panel tells a lot about how Misha sees the world. Everything looks shine but it looks like its covering the darkness, as if it looks like escapism from dark reality in a way.

Anyway, here we go.

Jung’s take on the Hero has a twist then. Archetypal heroism is ALWAYS accompanied by darkness. But here’s the real twist. A truly Jungian one. Darkness comes not only from outside the self – from all those trials and tribulations the present themselves through the course of our lives – but also from within The Self. What’s more, this is the most potent test of all. It is our own degenerate nature which above all else, must be exposed, acknowledged, and if not defeated, then certainly fought against. (Source)

In many hero-villain stories, villains are meant to symbolise hero’s biggest flaws. That they are the dark side of heroes, the side they dont want to face. The flaw they dont want to adress.

Heroes of this story is our protoganists, Vanitas and Noe. Vanitas has classic self-sacrificing behavour that heroes has, he is just the more tragic and dark version of it cause of his violent side. Noe is the same cause of his simple desire to help others but just like Vanitas, he is not just pure good, he is gray.

And when it comes to villains, well, we have characters like Doctor Moreu, Teacher, Ruthven, Faustina who became cursed and steal names etc etc. Just like any other story, vthere are different kind of villains. Most of them is still a mystery to us but anyway. There are just cruel-natured villains like Teacher and Dr Moreou. Ruthven is mystery but he is meant to be parallels with Noe. (They both wanted vampires-humans war to stop). And Faustina is most likely tragic victim who end up loosing herself but her story is mystery too.

There are also characters like Mikhail and Astolfo who is on the wrong side and doing wrong things but not because they are evil but because of their tragic backstories. They are villains too in a way. Astolfo is parallel with Vanitas, he symbolise the old self of him, they only choose different paths cause of destiny in a way. Meanwhile, Mikhail is both parallel with Noe and Vanitas, as i and other people already mentioned.

The Shadow is not so much the hero’s nemesis, as his evil twin. It is that irrational, unpleasant and unpalatable side of our nature that we all possess. It is our own internal and unincorporated darkness which must be encountered and assimilated. According to Jung, it is precisely because the shadow is an integral part of our whole self, that it becomes imperative for us to know that it exists. In fact, it is impossible for it not to exists. And this knowledge seems to be entirely lacking in most of us. (Source)

As villain, Mikhail’s purpose in story is rewritting the past and this is exactly why i think he is the shadow of heroes. The dark side, the flaw of heroes that they dont want to face or adress because we know that Vanitas and Noe try to rewrite the past why projecting that past onto people around them. Even though, Mikhail is the antagonist for them, that they dont agree with his purpose and actions, they do exactly same thing in a way. (Not just rewriting the past, Vanitas and Noe act violent too and doing wrong things too so.)

Repetition compulsion is a psychological phenomenon in which a person repeats an event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes re-enacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again. This "re-living" can also take the form of dreams in which memories and feelings of what happened are repeated, and even hallucinated. (Source)

As an example;

Vanitas putting himself onto dangerous situtions for no logical reason. Just like when he admitted that he is the kin of blue moon to the all vampires. He is putting himself onto danger cause he is used ti living his life in danger. (+ Him pushing people is also cause of fear of loosing those people).

Or even the scene where Misha forced Noe to drink his blood. Drinking blood thing is sexual activity in a way so forcing Noe to harass himself is because thats what happenned to him when he was child. "Then, here, you can take my blood". Offering himself as if he is some kind of "object". He is sexual abuse victim and this is how he was treated and he unconciously repeats his trauma.

Or even the reason Misha is choosing an adult (teacher) even though he uses him. But unlike their past, this time they choose those awfull situtions to feel more powerfull but in the end, they repeat their trauma.

“We repeat what we do not repair.” —Christine Langley Obaugh (Source)

So i would like to focus on Vanitas projecting his past onto Jeanne and Noe and a little Noe projecting his past onto Vanitas.

Main reason why Vanitas chose Noe and Jeanne is because he thought he was so sure they wouldnt like him and he unconciously saw the traces of pasts in them.

First, with Jeanne.

The reason he found her interesting is because ‘she became weak cause she found someone to protect’. Jeanne’s desire to protect Luna is similar to Vanitas’s desire to protect Misha. He saw his past self in her and found her interesting.

- (Chloe-Vanitas parallels too.)

He also said he found her pretty attractive, he is right but its kinda weird that he is attractive to someone who is similar to his brother. A woman who exactly look like Mikhail, even their aura, their cute behavours, expresions seems to be identical.

Mikhail-Jeanne panels looks so identical, its hard to differentiate.

They both idolise Vanitas. And the way Vanitas try to look cool and impress them is similar.

(Actually similarities between those two and other things made me write this analysis.)

Compulsive repetition of the trauma may provide a temporary sense of mastery or even pleasure (but ultimately leads to chronic feelings of helplessness and a sense of being bad and out of control). (Source)

And he also made a promise to her, that he will kill her, before she hurted someone she cares about (Luca). Vanitas was so familiar with that emotion. Theory, whether Luna or he hurt someone they love (maybe Misha), thats why Vanitas thinks he should kill ‘that person’ before they become something monstrious and hurt someone they love. He projects what happenned to him, Luna and Misha on her issues. Vanitas most likely failed to kill ‘that person’ before the whatever happenned so he is trying to fix that mistake by helping Jeanne. By rewriting the past.

And even he is giving her a promise, just like how he promised Misha in the past. The promise Vanitas failed to keep. So this time he is making a promise that he thinks he can keep.

Later, the scene when Vanitas fell in love with Jeanne, the moment he felt warmth. That smile of Jeanne is exactly look like Misha’s smile with Luna and Vanitas, the panel where Misha said he likes warm things.

And with Noe.

He found him interesting with his cute expressive personality, (Just like Luna and Misha).

Jeanne is a character who is identical to Mikhail while Noe is more identical to Luna. Noe has black skin, white hair with mature, tall, big body just like Luna. He looks like the male version of Luna. (Yeah, Luna doesnt have gender but still, she looks like female).

They both airhead, adults with manchild personality, they cant handle things by theirselves so other people need to take care of them. + Mikhail’s past, worldview, positvitism is parallel with Noe too.

Also both Luna and Noe are the first people who really gave a choice to Vanitas and understand him. Also Vanitas show his vulnerable side to them and open up. Vanitas rely on him, the way he uses to rely on Luna.

The scene when Noe gave blanket to Vanitas to make him warm is also similar how Luna gave him blanket too, again to keep him warm, showing that he is loved.

And again, just like Jeanne case, Vanitas wants to be killed by Noe, before he become something monstrious. This time, he takes the opposite role. Just like how he killed Luna before its too late, he wants Noe to kill him.

Even the Tarte Tarin scene, Vanitas making sweets for Noe is parallel with the times he did for Luna and Misha.

+ Mikhail wasnt wrong when he thought his brother is kinda replacing him :’))).

We know Noe too. How he projects his failure to save Louis onto Vanitas. By protecting Domi and by trying to reaching out to Vanitas. Louis and Vanitas also looks identical, not by apperances but characters. They both suicidal kids who is full of self hatred, secrets, desire to be saved but wont ask for help, they both jerks who push other people away.

Even the way Noe meets them is similar. They both acted like jerks and Noe become violent agaisnt them but only to eventually be fond of them. + Also Noe is projecting his relationship with teacher on Vanitas cause of slave mentality. Noe was slave and he was bought bu teacher, thats why he tends to obey and idolize his master, this is what he does with Vanitas too, sometimes. He also acts extreme, just like the time he violently hurt Misha, just because of what Vanitas said to Noe in Gevaudan Arc and his possesive feelings of Vanitas, i think. I really hope eventually he realize how much messed up this is.

I am sure that there is more, the more we look it more, the more we will find out.

(I wanted to use more pics to show similarities between panels and scenes but you get the point and its tiring).

Humans seek comfort in the familiar. Freud called this repetition compulsion, which he famously defined as “the desire to return to an earlier state of things.” (Source)

As much as its looks messed up, its actually realistic. People in real life tend to choose situtions and people that they are familiar. People might (often) choose partner who is similar to their family members (parental figure, sibling figure) or ex partners/companion. Just Noe's feeling familiar with Vanitas cause of his childhood companion. And both Jeanne and Noe are meant to be Vanitas's partners. He chose them cause of the familiar feeling he had for his found family but of course, Vanitas doesnt see Noe as parental figure, the way Luna became for him. Jeanne is not sister-brother figure the way Misha was/is for him. They are meant to be his partners (maybe more equal relationship). Even though its good thing that Vanitas found more people he can connect, his relationship with both Jeanne and Noe are toxic, unlike the healthy relationship he had with Luna and Misha, before the accident.

Of course, besides all that ‘projecting their issues thing’, they had other moments. After all, Vanitas, Louis, Mikhail, Noe, Luna, Jeanne, despite their similarities, they are different people. And i think they grown to each others by knowing each others after some time. With Noe too. He is learning to pay attention to the person in front of him. They still learn. They still lack of self awareness. I think Vanitas has the some/a little self awareness but he still does it anyway while Noe doesnt seem to has that self awareness yet. They still try to rewrite the past with each others but at the same time, the more story goes, they learn to let go of it. As example, Vanitas’s saying to give up on forcing Noe to what he wants him to do.

Anyway, i hope they realize how much they project past onto each others, stop doing it and looking at the people in front of them. I hope Vanitas doesnt leave Misha behind while doing this too. Also they should realize that this is what Mikhail is trying to do and realize him, empathize with him and trying to help him (to move on) too. Its interesting that at least Misha is more honest about what he wants and what he does with his desire to live, with his desire to literally rewritting the past and with his desire to be happy. Well, usually, shadows are honest so they all should do. Misha is more associated with life than Vanitas who just wants to die, i love how their trauma push them to opposite ways but at the same time, Misha always somehow keeps giving Vanitas a reason to live, even its force and he brings the kindness inside of him. This is what Vanitas should learn too.

Overthrowing Saturn

Traditionally, Jupiter is known as the great benefic of the planets in astrology – a bringer of luck, opportunity, abundance, intuition, insight, optimism, faith, and knowledge – all of the good stuff, sometimes to excess, but few would object to an excess of ease. Saturn on the other hand, is traditionally known as the old devil; limitation, struggle, challenge, obstacles, discipline, lack, doubt, defense, denial, fear and all of the unpleasant things encountered in life. Saturn is often labeled a malefic planet for this reason, but he is said to yield rewards over time if he is worked with properly and taken on consciously by the individual.

While Jupiter is our bright face of vision and expectance of goodness, Saturn is our dark face of judgment. Saturn has been associated with our personal shadow, a term describing traits that are disowned by the conscious ego because of a sense of their inferiority and ugliness. Our moral deficiencies and bad traits are usually not acknowledged in ourselves because the ego can’t stand to see itself as lacking in any way. Typically, these traits are instead recognized as perceived moral deficiencies in other people. Integrating the personal shadow, in other words, owning one’s own Saturn is of great importance because it brings back the projection/externalization of lack and allows for the disowned traits to be neutralized and accepted as part of the self. The “bad traits” and perceived “deficiencies” are usually appearing that way because of resistance to them in the first place. This is not to say that all traits are good, but all traits need to be accepted as part of the self in order for the contents of the shadow to not run amok “back stage” submerged in the unconscious.

The people who are the most “good” (or at least perceive themselves to be morally superior to people around them) usually have the most vicious shadow because of its autonomy and exclusion from the conscious awareness. In my own experience, I got a great example of this when I changed schools when I was younger. My first school had been quite disorderly, the students were overtly antagonistic with each other and the atmosphere was rougher, a bit chaotic. I transferred because I wanted a more serious, civilized environment but as it turned out, it was only more overtly pleasant and more covertly sinister. The shadow was definitely there as much as in the other school, but it came in a “nicer” package. I guess I didn’t realize that there’s no such thing as a “better people”, human nature is the same – its darkness is the same, its light is the same. But most of us still long for that possibility of perfection.

In all places and social settings – whether its in society at large or in a family unit or a circle of friends, someone or a cluster of people are usually appointed the “scapegoat” role because someone has to take on the shadow, the role of the inferior – the role of the deficient and impure. This is done because people haven’t become conscious of their own shadow. Bullying stems from this, judgment and punishment stems from this. If we at any point feel repulsed and threatened of some quality in someone else and feel compelled to condemn them for their inferiority and weakness/ badness we should take a good look at ourselves first. What we have a hard time with in regards to others we have a hard time with ourselves. We are afraid to look at the ugly and unpleasant parts of ourselves because of our heavy judgment of them. Not uncommonly, these judgments are picked up from our environment as cues for how to behave and how not to behave in order to be “good” and “approved of”.

I’m quite Saturnian with my Sun-Venus conjunct the old devil at the MC; I kept myself (or was kept by Saturn) on a tight leash in terms of behavior and conduct growing up… I saw myself as a relatively good person compared to other people because I thought myself to be humble and willing to do what had to be done without dishonest shortcuts. I was willing to face my deficiencies if they presented themselves in order to work through them. I was willing to face reality. I tried to embody certain quality of character and I succeeded – I was praised and approved of most of the time but it was hard won. I never “winged” things like the Jupitarian person would. I worked on them. When you do this, you hope for it to pay off over time, for the ease to settle in. However, what I realized was that it was never quite enough; the effort and the discipline – nobody really cared if I succeeded or not, neither did I. They just wanted someone to judge or praise. I wanted someone to judge or praise. I had hoped that I would some day get a real confirmation of my character and superiority … I was always working from the ground up - working off my debt – and therefore I must be better than other people who didn’t even seem notice their own badness and fundamental insignificance. I assumed nothing and let my compensations take me as far as they could. Yet, this in itself was done simply to be good with an assumption of my own inferiority. It was still a defense mechanism and I didn’t gain the satisfaction I thought I would from it. I resented my hard work. I cursed and devalued the irresponsible and immature people around me –the people who had a less impeded sense of self (and perhaps a more integrated shadow). I hated other people. I still do because I project my own shadow onto them. I get nothing for free. Others seem to assume their own goodness and be confused when it is denied. I’m always denied. I gain by effort and concentration.

(Buy products with my art)

With Jupiter types, all experiences are valuable and there’s no fear of failure. With Saturn types, there’s a fundamental lack and insignificance that is felt which acts as a whip to get to work and achieve. The Jupitarian jumps without second thought, relying on a heightened sense of intuition and trusts that it’s going to work out. The Saturnian assumes that all is hell or is going to hell but at least one can do one’s best to avoid it. No body is wholly Jupiterian or Saturnian, everyone is a mix of both – however, people often come more strongly under one or the other. Jupiter is expansive, Saturn is restrictive – Jupiter is the carrot, Saturn is the stick. Jupiter encourages us - Saturn discourages us. Both planets (psychological functions) have their legitimate place. Nonetheless, Saturn seems to bring more troubles and grievances and is very hard to work with. The question is, is there a way to outsmart him? In Greek/Roman mythology Saturn is overthrown by his son Jupiter, which points out that a more benign ruler conquers Saturn in order to let him and his brothers (Neptune and Pluto) have a chance to reign. Jupiter is, according to myth, the one that frees us from our overly fearful and restrictive tendencies. He puts things right.

Saturn and Jupiter remind me a lot of the fairytale of “Rumpelstiltskin”. It’s about a miller who lies to the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold (he tells the king this in order to appear superior). The king puts the daughter in a tower threatening to cut her head off if she doesn’t spin the straw to gold by morning. Of course, she is unable to, and is completely devastated when an imp-like (demon/fairy) creature shows up and spins it for her in exchange for her necklace. She avoids the beheading but is required to carry out the same task again by the king’s orders. The imp helps her again in exchange for her ring. On the third day she is promised marriage to the king if she can fill an even larger room with gold, else she will be executed. She has nothing more to trade the imp in exchange for the service, but the little creature promises to help her if he can have her firstborn child. She agrees and marries the king. When the time comes to give away her child she pleads and promises the imp all of the treasures and riches he could wish for, but he denies. He wants the child. Certain of himself, he gives her a last chance. If she can guess his name within three days he will not claim his prize. She guesses many times and fails, until one night she overhears the creature sing at his mountain cottage, where he mentions his name – Rumpelstiltskin.

"tonight tonight, my plans I make, tomorrow tomorrow, the baby I take. The queen will never win the game, for Rumpelstiltskin is my name"

He is furious the next day when she has the correct answer but she gets to keep her baby. He is never seen again. Interestingly enough, there’s a psychological term/principle derived from this fairytale called the Rumpelstiltskin Principle. Basically, it has to do with the power of language –using someone’s title in a courtroom, or in a hierarchal setting gives the addressed person the power of that title. However, when using the person’s real name, equality is established. Curiously, using someone’s name disarms the person in an impactful way, similar to the fairytale.

Similar to Saturn, Rumpelstiltskin gives in order to get, not in the Jupitarian fashion with no strings attached and a faith in the universe to return the favor. Saturn always wants to control the outcome. Saturn, playing the part of shadow, wants to sabotage others, outrank them, outsmart them, and make deals that are devious yet seem advantageous to the people involved. He plays nice and he plays deviously - he can never be trusted because his deals are too good and too absolute to be benign. He is not really evil, he is only serving as devil’s advocate in order to motivate people to cultivate personal judgment and integrity. The lesson that he teaches is that nothing that is wholly pure and good is ever free, there’s always a price – there’s a debt and a consequence for everything. Saturn rules time and more often than not, time reveals the true nature of things. People who seem exciting, lively, joyful and full of energy could be empty inside, as in “lacking substance”. On the flip side, people who are ugly and devilish could be containing something of high value – in other words, the disowned “inferior” parts of the psyche could be extremely potent.

In Greek/Roman mythology Saturn is a cruel tyrant and a stern father archetype, a patriarch of sorts. In the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltiskin he is more of a trickster-devil, but I would say that both these images illustrate the complete dynamic of Saturn. In a sense, in the fairytale, Rumpelstiltskin is the ugly shadow and the Father-authority is the defense against it. The king in the fairytale is the controlling Patriarch – he has the right to lay down the rules and he will kill the girl if she doesn’t produce perfection (gold). The girl’s father lied in order to rise in the ranks; he couldn’t accept his own inferiority. The king however, doesn’t allow for mistakes (as typical of Saturn). The girl is stuck in an impossible situation that she doesn’t deserve because of other people’s foolishness and immaturity (also typical of Saturn). In response to this, the little imp enters the scene, which is really symbolic of the shadow of the psyche entering to offer a solution. No body else has her back except for a selfish and greedy creature (the immoral parts of the psyche). The girl is the conscious ego-self. She is pressured from the outside but can’t perform what is required of her through mere goodness, dependence and decency any longer. She has to give away her jewelry (symbolic of the identification with “goodness”) in order to be able to save herself and please the king. When she has no more jewelry to trade, she has to give away her own innocence and dependence (symbolic of giving up her child) in order to reap the benefits of her repressed traits (Rumpelstiltskin - the shadow). In the end, she is not required to give up anything because she has become familiar enough with her shadow self and has begun to integrate it. She can name the imp, which disarms him. The naming is symbolic of making the shadow conscious. She has a beautiful life, a curse turned out to be a blessing in the end.

The answer to the question of how to overthrow Saturn must be to make the shadow conscious, then there’s no longer any need for the defense mechanism. When the girl married the king, it was symbolic of real strength as opposed to weakness disguised by defensiveness. The conscious self could unite with that external and mighty “other”, the cruel patriarch.

How does Jupiter come in as the savior then? He does this through opening our eyes to themes in life and identifying their meaning and purpose. In a sense, Jupiter is unpacking this Saturnian complex – he is the visionary acting through us, through me – he is our intuitive knowing and understanding of life experiences and patterns. He is the traveller of myth and the king of the gods. He knows them and rules over them with benevolence.