Tales of Berseria Analysis - Magilou’s character arc - Contradictions.
And then just one was left…
Magilou is a difficult character to talk due to the ambiguity in her own character…and while the game and other characters have, also, a grade of ambiguity, most of them come in consequence of the themes they explore …Magilou’s ambiguity, in the other hand, is in her presentation (Because for a big chunk of the game the only thing that we know about her is that she is a “Great Witch”, that she is NOT and exorcist and that she is NOT the traitor, that would be to obvious…
…and in her persona and in order to read her we need to ask us,; How much truth are in Magilou’s says and actions?
She is an apathetic witch that just stayed to end because she was boring or maybe she had her own agenda? How much important was Bienfu to her? She joins Velvet only for the opportunity to find Bienfu or she wanted to use Velvet to generate chaos and destruction for her own selfish reasons? She had a change of heart in some point or she just followed the group to the final battle, just to see how everything ends? She just found the Menagerie interesting or she grew to care for them?
…What is the truth behind Magilou?
It difficult to assure, but, I want to believe that the moments in which she is completely and genuinely honest, without a trace of doubt, are her faces to faces with Melchior, both, in Hexen Isle and in Meirchio (And her scene with the Menagerie before facing Melchior, but that one is far more straight forward that the other two)…and from them, is where we started to build up her true character.
Those are our first direct taste of what Magilou is, no more reads between lines, no more interpretations, no, here she just throws it her own truth…and it’s quite revealing.
Being in an unconscious level or not, Magilou may still have some sort of affection for Melchior (And taking into account how much of a bastard Melchior has been, not only with her, it say something about how much she desires the embrace of a loving family, even if that family have to be Melchior…or Bienfu…and yes there is an optional conversation later with Grimoirh that confirm this but I liked that we also have it in the main story)…but the real gut punches doesn’t come until later.
Magilou is a deeply cynical person, we know that, and she always expects the very worst of people, thing that is pretty in line with the beliefs of the Abbey and Melchior’s teachings. She is very pointy about other people’s flaws, their mistakes, their hypocrisy (Again, the best example here it’s probably her comments to Velvet for treating Phi as a tool or as a replacement for Laphi) and she seems to have developed sort some of enjoyment from that…and she hates it.
Magilou hates herself (Or, at the very least, has a very low opinion of her), Melchior and all of that logic and reason represent.
Her speech in Meirchio let us know about all of her deep anger and resentment against Melchior’s beliefs and her lines about the Menagerie and herself (and Melchior) being different of each other’s let us know how she sees herself and the others…and then you put it together and it’s when really hits home.
She sees herself as someone weak, unfeeling, someone that cannot endure the inherent pain of emotions and has choose to refuge in the comfort of the teaching that she despise but also protect her from that pain…
…a contradiction that she hates and may be the trigger that made her develop her funny persona, as a copping mechanism, and maybe, as way to inject a little of chaos and irrationality in a world she hates.
“…Despite the pain, the anguish, they embrace the life they’ve been given…”
Magilou admires the party and the strength they have and she doesn’t, it’s unlikely that she had decide to follow Velvet right from the begging for this reason, instead she probably developed this deep admiration and respect in some point between TItania and Aball (I would want to say that she developed her feelings in random moments during the journey and she just don’t fully acknowledge them until Aball when she saw Velvet overcome the same thing that destroy her …it’s pretty vague and I may be overanalyzing the all thing, but the throwaway line in Hexen Isle “if Velvet could do it…there’s no way I can’t”…again, it’s pretty vague, but it just make some much sense to me)…and if you take the “Stab on the chest” line in the context that we were discussing , she may indeed get hurt by the “less that kind” treatment that she receives from the Menagerie from time to time…but that pain is just another part of her emotions, a side that she may be ready to enter one more time…
“If that’s what you call ‘evil’, then I will live and die with evil as my mantra!”
…but only after she has an emotional close to all her traumas, in the final fight against Melchior.
Even as absolute follower of the ideas of reason and logic, Melchior is finally defeat by his own love by flowers, his own emotions…it was a stupid move for him in that situation, foolish, a completely irrational act that leads him to be devoured by Velvet…I would say myself but I think Magilou said it better.
Hey…master…Emotions are a real pain, aren’t they?
A real pain in deed, but a necessary one…and, most important of all, one that you can’t really throw away, not even the greatest supporters of reason could cut they are attach to the chains of emotion, not totally at least.
Magilou doesn’t change to much after this but, in the same way than Velvet, we can argue that she, at least, has made peace with the contradictions in herself and her own past, and that she has finally started to embrace this side of herself that she left aside long time ago, her own emotions…and this is show specially in the Majelu side quest, trying to avoid that Majelu and Valta walks to the same path that she and Melchior (a kind gesture born just form pure empathy…and it is very sweet)… and some of the skits post the battle.
Sorry guys but this skit…it just destroys me…it is so beautiful.
Magilou is an incredible character by herself, but she is also one of the final pieces to complete this great map of Emotion Vs Reason that Berseria wants to shows us.
There is a lot of collateral damage product of this ideological clash, but as with all the other character and their respective arcs, Magilou’s perspective is unique. Meanwhile Velvet is much more proactive about her own situation or Phi which took the better aspect of both sides, Magilou is the one that gets ripped apart by this war and finally ostracize from both sides…living as just that, a contradiction…
All the members of the Menagerie are flawed people, they have a lot of troubles and issues in their backs, but most of them were emotionally functional (and when a mean most, I’m talking about of Mid Game Velvet, which goes to really dark places, to darker to called healthy) and then it is Magilou…just staying there, apathetic to everything and isolated from everyone…growing to give us that genuine laugh at the end of the game…
and then i just realize how much I have grown fond of her character…
It’s funny; actually, how much this all situation reminds me of other of my favorite character, Jade from Tales of the Abyss.
The snarkiest of the main party, with a military past, funny and sarcastic personas that hide a more apathetic and unfeeling side to themselves, an arc mostly centered in the inner change of their views of the world and themselves and a heartwarming friendship with a main character who has an amazing character arc (And don’t get me wrong, both character are completely different, their purpose, their meaning, etc, etc. I was just pointing some similitudes of two characters that I love from a franchise that I also love).
…I consider Jade one of my favorite characters, and I say that in a general sense, he is one of my favorite characters. PERIOD. And when I thing “Holy shit, I may love Magilou even more than Jade” that means that Magilou may just become one of my favorite characters. PERIOD…
Well maybe it’s a little too early to decide that…but what I can assure right now is that Magilou is an incredible character and my absolute favorite in a cast that is already great.
Magilou is amazing, the Menagerie is amazing and this game has been just an incredible experience.
Part 1: Tales Series Retrospective
Part 2: The Elements of a Wonderfull Game
Part 3: Velvet’s character arc - Blindness and toxicity
Part 4: Rokuro’s and Eleanor’s character arc - Obsession and Conflict.
Part 5: Laphicet (Phi)’s and Eizen’s character arcs - Coexistence and Romanticism.
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