Howdy dear reader! I'm your host Glagger, and today I'm here to bring you the seventh post in my medal analysis series for Password the VN.
As you're aware by now, his post has SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL. So please, if you haven't read the novel yet, and don't want to be spoiled, leave for now.
Leo, the medal of Expectations, Determination and Futility:
Leo is found on day 22 of all routes inside a book in the hidden study. Thanatos guides Dave there as a reward, after he proves he's starting to remember past iterations on his own.
The medal is inside a book with a re-interpretation of "the three little pigs", in a hollow space alongside a childhood picture of the Hammond siblings Flora left there. In path A, Dave flips the picture and finds a message in the back written by Flora, telling Oswin to remember what's most important.
Afterwards, Thanatos gives an abridged version of the tale in the book. It has a rabbit as the villain, and the first pig is killed by the rabbit with a piece of chocolate the pig accepts. The second pig turns into a rabbit after rejecting the chocolate offered to them, which, to the author, is the same as death. The third survives by escaping from the rabbit who accidentally cooks himself alive trying to burn down the house with the pig inside.
Once Thanatos is done, Dave says there's no lesson to learn other than to mistrust rabbits in the book, calling the author racist. Thanatos confirms, and says it's the kind of book Regis, Oswin's father, liked to keep and read to his children.
In Astrology, Leo is the positive fixed fire sign of the zodiac. It's an expressive, inflexible and assertive sign marked by its intense willpower, ambition and of course, determination. The most beloved quality of Leo is bravery, which is its main strength and gives Leo physical, mental, and emotional fortitude. The fearless optimism of Leo causes it to never accept failure, and every challenge they face as they mature only multiplies the content in their well of courage.
Much like the lion they are represented by, people born under Leo act like kings and queens full of grace, ego and pride. Leos embrace the concept of royalty by being natural leaders who are theatrical, passionate and full of life, taking the spotlight to celebrate themselves. Since Leos perceive themselves as celebrities, they always search for partners who are artistic and creative, making their friendships and romantic affairs dramatic and explosive.
Leo's planetary ruler is the sun, the representative of creativity, life, vitality and power. The sun never stops burning and glowing, so, much like their ruler, Leo is naturally loyal, stable and consistent, always putting their entire heart in their relationships. In romance, the sun's influence causes them to only love seeing their partners be sucessful until they feel threatened. No sun likes being eclipsed, and as such, jealousy is a very strong trait in Leo thanks to their strong pride and ego. The most important lesson for Leo's maturity is the understanding that the shine of success from other people doesn't diminsh their own.
In Leo's myths, the sign represents the foe Heracles fought against in his first labor. The sign is the Nemean Lion, a giant, sentient lion with an impenetrable pelt that kidnapped beautiful maidens to lure warriors into his cove so he could devour them.
Heracles was tasked with killing him by a king, and in his journey to Nemea, he stays at a man's house to rest before the hunt. The man offers to sacrifice an animal to bless him in his mission but Heracles asks him to wait 30 days after he leaves instead, so that if he dies, the sacrifice can be done in his name as a hero. If Heracles succeeds however, both of them would celebrate together, sacrificing an animal to Zeus instead.
In the battle against the lion, after understanding that his weapons are useless against its pelt, he uses his divine strength and breaks his back with his bare arms, killing it with a headlock when it can't fight anymore. He takes the lion's pelt for himself, and returns to the man's house to celebrate and sacrifice an animal to Zeus, who's so impressed with his son's triumph, he turns the lion into the Leo constellation to eternize Heracles' achievement in the heavens.
Leo is the medal associated with the Hammond family and their tale. Its traits represent the members of the family and their story together, and also how the tale ended. The Hammonds are filled with ambitious and prideful members, Regis and his wife being prime examples of it. This is visible in how they both adopted Flora simply because they were worried her intellect would overshadow their children's, bringing her mind to the family so it could challenge and compete with the intelligence of their sons internally. There's also the fact Regis, much like Zeus, is a demanding and egotistical father that constantly orders his children to accomplish his trials and expectations to earn both their place in his "divine" family, as well as his affection and respect.
The Hammond siblings are expressive, driven and assertive individuals. They lived active lives in pursuit of great goals, being full of willpower and determination. They tried carving their place in the family's history but were ultimately unsuccessful in both acheiving the expectations set for them and changing its dysfunctional nature. Trapped in inflexible ideals and expectations, they only met death, rejection and isolation, much like the three pigs in the book's story.
It's also interesting how Heracles' traits can be broken down and divided amongst the Hammond siblings. Reginald has the blind devotion and loyalty towards a father who only sees him for his accomplishments, learning, studying and doing anything Regis desires of him. Much like Heracles earned his full divinity through his talent and abilities, Florencia caught the attention of Regis and his wife and became a Hammond for the same reasons. Heracles being raised by non-divine foster parents who cared for him most of his life fits perfectly with Oswin, who was raised by Benson because his own parents where either too busy or focused on their other children instead.
Craig says that the medal was left there on purpose by Flora to be found by Roswell to clue him in on the truth about Oswin being his father, but as time passed, it became less and less likely to happen. Thanatos never finding out the truth also prevented things from playing out differently. This fits Leo because, despite Flora's active efforts to assert her own desire of bringing her family together over Oswin's desire to remain distant, Roswell remained ignorant, and the situation stayed inflexibly the same.
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Artworks were made by https://twitter.com/butchii123 , https://twitter.com/terrantitanium and https://twitter.com/orbitpaws on twitter respectively.