finished my replay of zestiria a few days ago and something that's been really on my mind is just how incredibly hard all of this must have been for mikleo in particular. we all know the tragedy of mikleo waiting multiple centuries for sorey to come back but what about the immediate tragedy. he literally lost zenrus right before the final showdown and then he loses sorey right after. the two people he's known as long as he can remember. both of them snatched away from him in one fell swoop. what must that have been like for him? he still has the rest of the party, but they aren't what gramps and sorey were to him. the extent to which he can emotionally lean on them for support is just not as great. so he probably had to bear most of the grief by himself. and of course he knows sorey will probably be back in some form, but he also knows it will be longer than he can imagine. lonelier than he can imagine. and what can he do while he waits? elysia isn't really elysia without gramps. without sorey. exploring ruins isn't as thrilling without sorey. seeing new places, meeting new people, adventuring? sorey is what made all that special. what can mikleo do without sorey? a thousand years is a long time.
something that's even more tragic to me is that i know mikleo would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat to help sorey. he knew the risks involved with being used by seigfried in that way and he didn't care one bit. he'd throw his life away without question if it meant sorey would be able to accomplish his goal. and instead, he's cursed to live on. muse is dead. zenrus is dead. sorey is in stasis for so long he may as well be dead. only mikleo remains, cursed to survive. cursed to walk the earth for all of eternity, cursed to lose everyone he loves. cursed to loneliness, as he waits for a day that may never come. a foil for heldalf, although this is a curse of circumstance rather than of malice. and i just. i can't imagine what that must be like. to have lived your whole life with people and then to suddenly have them all taken from you at once. how do you even go forward at that point? how can you carry on?
but he did. he waited something like a thousand years, and he never gave into his grief. he never succumbed to malevolence. he lived a hundred lifetimes, all alone, and he stayed pure and holy. and sorey really did come back for him. all that loneliness, that heartache, that waiting, was all worth it in the end. and i'm crying
