Soren and Sephiran character design progression parallels and symbolism: unhinged rambling session.
Before you read this and are like "oh I've heard this before" this is a slightly more coherent version of a twitter thread I made like a year ago lol. Just because it's slightly more coherent doesn't guarantee this will actually BE coherent bc I can't organise my thoughts to save my life. anyway. SPOILERS FOR TELLIUS !!!!!!!
SO what character design progression am I talking about exactly? I'm mostly referring to the common costume design progression beginning with black -> purple -> grey -> white (in chronological order) costume/ theme designs that both Soren and Sephiran go through. Soren starting off wearing black garb in PoR all the way to his white archsage garn in RD, kinda parallels with Black Heron Lehran (pre-canon) all the way to clad-white garb Sephiran (RD).
Soren: clad black mage (beginning PoR) -> ourple sage (end Por) -> greyish wind sage (RD) -> white archsage (RD)
Sephiran: Black Heron (pre-canon) -> ourple and grey Lord Sage (also pre-canon, mostly based on the CG cutscenes in the tower) -> orple and white but mostly white Prime Minister Sephiran (PoR and RD)
((also note Sephrian reverts to black heron Lehran for NG+))
What I found insanely interesting about these parallels was their opposing symbolism. When Soren went through his dark to light design progression it was most likely intended to represent him slowly getting less apathetic towards mankind; whereas Lehran going through the same design progression has the exact opposite character development.
Typically when a colour theme goes from dark to light it symbolises a positive(?) change in the character. Sephiran being a complex and morally controversial antagonist had an ironic opposite colour progression. That is, as his appearance seemingly appeared more "innocent" (i was always told in literature class that white clothes was symbolic of purity and innocence), the less innocent he actually became. Soren has a support system strong enough for him to, ever so slowly, develop into someone who hated the world a little bit less; he followed the typical character and character design development progression.
These character design choices and their respective characters represent different ways of processing similar dark and hopeless attitudes towards the world. You can either accept and grow (Soren), or you can let those attitudes fester into something more destructive.
I have a hypothesis for the significance of the colour purple because for some reason that seemed to be the colour marking a sort of "halfway point" between total apathy and hope towards mankind. Although.., purple might just be symbolic for wisdom (and spirituality for Sephiran perhap) because that's the basic colour association for purple and both of them are the wisest fellas in Tellius fr,, so that could be all it is. The purple on Sephiran might just represent his higher status as a stinky politician wheras it could mean something different for Soren in PoR but I am on copium right now so I am saying purple is meant to symbolise the halfway point of hope.
The reasoning I have for this is mostly based on the context surrounding the events in which purple was their primary colour. For example, in the latter half of PoR where soren is a orpple sage, at that point he would've at leased figured out he was branded and most likely have had support conversations with Ike or Stephan which marks the beginning of him coming to terms with himself being Branded. For Sephiran, he wears ourple in pretty much any context, but that cutscene with Misaha where he is wearing purple and Misaha is wearing a lighter purple.., that was SUPPOSED to mark the beginning of hope for Lehran before,,,,, certain events occured afterwards that put the nail in the coffin in regards to his descent. Speaking of that CG I think it's kinda poggers that they contrasted Lehran's darker colour scheme with Misahas lighter. The flavour. The contrast. Possibly adds some dramatic irony about Misaha being killed by her innocence...
Okay that is all I have to say for now. I honeslty have no idea if this was even the intention by the devs or if doing ATAR literature has brainwashed me into reading into everything too deeply BUT it is fun to think about regardless. okay im done here
