I rewatched Marty Supreme, and it's kinda funny because everytime Marty establishes his goals in the first act I can see with hindsight how they won't come to fruition. All except winning that last game against Endo of course!
Everytime he's like "I'll be the face of American ping pong", or "i won't do that it's beneath me", or "I will not settle down now", or "I'll step up (financially)", I'm just like 🫢 sure you will buddy, sure you will.
i find it interesting that while other nations have all-powerful mystical figures in their history as The important historical footnotes, fontaine has a bunch of humans that became leading historical figures instead (narzissenkreuz kids). though a lot of them transcended their mortal forms to become immortalized in various ways, they still started out as just some kids that befriended each other. i suppose they might have taken inspiration from individualism culture popular in many European countries & real life historical figures for that.
i've seen some people say fontaine's history and lore isn't as developed as other nations because of that, but i think centering the stage on these humans' lives and efforts for a change really reflects the kind of nation fontaine is, and it's a unique point among the others.
ok but imagine modern au, rafal and hubert on a reserach trip, draka schmidt yolenta and co on a business venture, and badeni oczy on vacation, all somehow converge in the same city during the most intense (fictional) meteor shower in recent years. Eventhough each group has their own purposes for travelling there and they might not be anything more than ephemeral strangers to each other, later down the line as they recall that astronomical event, they come to remember each other as short lived companions who witnessed something resplendent together...
The falling stars that night became the connecting thread between totally unrelated people, travelling from different parts of the world in their own life journeys...
I get goosebumps every time I remember Rafal's speech to Nowak. The boy truly placed all his trust in meaning and inspiration that brings forth said meaning.
One will think of this as madness, as we saw Nowak claim, but to the boy, it had been the first time he felt the need to act on a certain matter.
I just get filled with so many strong emotions thinking about this. Rafal grew up as a homeless orphan until he found a way to live a better life, one he was good at maintaining too. The better his life was, the more touching his sacrifice is.
"You are living a good life so why would you throw that away?"
He had finally reached an answer and felt that it served a purpose that is even bigger than his own life, moved enough to give his life for that purpose, isn't that just insane to think about?
When people grow up in poverty and then begin to live a humble and comfortable life, in most cases, they will do everything to hold on to that but he gave it up for meaning.
His life was perfect and yet, he longed for meaning. I am going to crash out bro.
i genuinely CANNOT get that panel of Schmidt overturning the coin Draka flipped out of my head. Schmidt, whose belief was that every action and result was intended by God, and Draka, who didn't believe in any God but at the end of the rope, tossed a coin to leave the Heretics' fate up to God anyways.
But then Schmidt, who gave her that idea in the first place, who flipped a coin in the beginning to show Draka that any result from the coin toss was God's absolute choice, flips the coin himself to set his own fate in stone. That the choice, in the end, was his alone.
Everyone knew he went against his own belief. At the end of the line, no one questioned him; It's just decisiveness and faith. The symbolism is crazy to me.
AAHHHHH YESSSSS. draka and schmidt's arcs are so interconnected. to the point i believe you have to examine their deaths together to understand the full picture of their development!
one is a devote believer in god who believed in god's ultimate control over human fate, the other is an atheist who commits herself to making enough money to quell her fear of death. the initial dynamic is that schmidt is fearless because he had god behind his every action, and draka is fearful of death since her father died to provide for his family. as a complete reserval, schmidt died feeling fear for the first time since he no longer had god as his reason (though he didn't feel any regrets for overturning god's choice in the end), and draka died while soothed by the light of the sun at dawn (through which you can feel 'god's presence' - schimdt).
draka has already realized that people believe in god to sooth their fears when she found oczy's book. i believe her dying while being soothed by the dawn is her gaining peace by being in god's presence, and she was able to die without fear, which had defined her character arc up until then.
I think it's a line that is so ruthless and condemning it changes the entire game (and the chemistry of my brain too).
And when you think about it, this is the fate of everyone but one in the series.
But just because they are not known doesn't mean they don't exist. Like after all, history is created by people who had lived, doesn't matter if they were well-known or not.
This extends not only to the main protagonists and deuteragonists. We know the extent of their struggle to reach and pass the truth. But besides them, even the minor characters play vital roles that leads to the survival of the truth.
Like Piast, who would set his pride aside and admit he was wrong, and lent Badeni his materials.
Or Simon, who saved Jolenta and tortured then executed for that.
Or Grabowski, who bothered to follow the beggars and copied the content of Oczy's book from Badeni.
Or the members of the Heretic Liberation Front, who gave their lives up so Draka can escape.
Or Lev, who because he did nothing in part 2, encouraged Albert to follow his own calling in the finale.
This is what I love about this series and makes me go awooo the moment I realize it in the finale: That everyone can be a hero and is a hero on their own. It doesn't matter if they are just nobodies. In fact, everyone is nobodies in the end. This is a story of nobodies.
Albert, who is the final protagonist and the one that would instill the idea of heliocentrism later to Copernicus, won't ever know who sent the sender of that letter that makes him question in the first place. He won't ever know how many years and tragedies for that letter to arrive. He won't ever know what the letter content really means or the weight of it.
But just because it's never known, doesn't mean it's a lie. That line before suddenly isn't as full of despair as it originally is meant to. Neither of you will be known to history, "but you are still here to shape one."
You know, I didn't expect that the way heliocentrism is relayed from Draka to the next person to be so...
quiet and mundane. And in no way I think it's disappointing. It is precisely because it's quiet and mundane that I find it so profound.
It comes not from a series of arson, murder, suicide, all three at once, or even the book that's been the backbone of the plot. It's simply through a single letter arriving through a civil order. One that doesn't even mention or explain the heliocentrism, but simply a single phrase. And it's not even written for the purpose of entrusting the truth, but simply just as a goodwill from a human to another.
Hell, even the actual recipient of the letter has no clue or interest towards it. While Albert is just a guy passing by who happens to overhear the conversation. It's just a coincidence, one out of idk, a bajillion. Or fate, whatever you'd like to call it. But it fits so much with the phrase "inspiration can come from anywhere" and so it can reach anywhere through any means.
It's like Badeni says, the possibility of it being entrusted to the future is infinitely abysmal. But the chance is not 0, therefore there is hope.
The truth will find its way. Conversely, human beings will also find their way to the truth. And it's possible because humans are so intertwined to each other. I think there is something so solemnly beautiful about it.
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