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SkyBlueFox's Blog - How The Fairie Arc Fits as a Classical Tragedy: Summary and Analysis

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The Fairie Arc in Legend of Mana is one of the three “main” questlines in the game (for a given value, as the game forgoes a true main narrative in favor of many, many “sidequests”). It revolves around four characters, and a love triangle that springs up among them (alongside an already-present friendship square, so to speak), fitting snugly into the game's overarching theme of the various kinds of love – both good and bad. While the arc is generally seen as one of the more popular of the three (with the Jumi Arc typically taking the top spot while the Dragon Arc sits at third), it's commonly agreed that it suffers from some confusion among the characters and their motivations, either coming off as strange or being unexplained entirely.

However, one of the important things about the story (and a common descriptor of its events in general) is “tragic”. This is used simply because of the way the arc plays out, but it fits better than most probably realized - the story, when looked at closely, hits many of the main points of the classical definition of a tragedy. Since this analysis will go into detail on the narrative of the arc, as well as providing an initial summary of the questline's events, spoilers abound. If you care about those, of course.

The Fairie Arc has a group of four main characters besides the silent protagonist player: Daena, Matilda, Escad and Irwin. The four fit well into a standard four temperament ensemble.
  • Daena, who is generally polite, friendly and good-natured, is Sanguine or Leukine. Her primary motivation is to find a way to resolve the love triangle in a way that will benefit everyone; however, she is not directly part of the love triangle.
  • Matilda, who is also polite, but also frail and very passive, is Phelgmatic. She is the leader of the priestesses at the Temple of Healing in Gato, and is generally not a very active person, partly due to her nature and partly due to her rapid aging.
  • Escad, who is quick to anger and quick to judge, is Choleric. He is at the losing end of the love triangle, and is a warrior who dislikes Irwin due to the fact that Matilda prefers Irwin over him. He is skilled and thinks logically, but is also stubborn and judgmental to the point of racism.
  • Irwin, who is aloof but also cunning, is Melancholic. He is a half-demon. His demonic nature to destroy is curbed by his humanity (and his love for Matilda), and he hates the fact that Matilda's life of becoming a priestess is basically already decided for her.
The events that eventually spiral out of control begin ten years before the game proper. Matilda is 16, and while specific ages are not given for the other characters, Escad is likely the second youngest, Daena is probably the youngest, and Irwin either ages slowly or doesn't age at all due to his demon heritage.

The four characters are friends in their youth; Escad is born into a family of holy knights, Daena hails from a family of warrior-monks who serve the temple, Matilda is in training to become a priestess (a fate basically decided for her from birth like the others) and Irwin simply has no fate. Irwin's freedom is perhaps the main reason Matilda is attracted to him, Escad dislikes Irwin due to prejudice about his demon heritage (as well as his own attraction to Matilda), and Daena sees Matilda as a big sister and is put off by Escad's attitude.

One day, Irwin convinces Matilda to leave the temple and travel with him to explore around the mines. Escad discovers this and gives chase, intending to rescue Matilda from Irwin. Matilda is initially pleased as punch by the feeling of leaving the temple by her own decision, and Irwin is simply happy that Matilda is happy, despite his demonic nature. If this wasn't a tragedy, it could be considered the high fantasy equivalent of a typical love story: girl meets boy, boy meets girl, boy helps girl escape from a life she doesn't want to be in. Standard teenage romance stuff.

But this isn't a typical love story. It's a tragedy, and befitting that moniker, the entrance to the mines collapses, trapping its inhabitants inside. Matilda is shocked, frightened, and beings to panic, starting to regret going with Irwin to the dark, scary mines. Irwin reminds her of the protection the Mana spirits grant her (as well as her priestess ancestors, natch), pointing out that even if he dies in the mine, she'll survive. This only makes Matilda more upset, saying that she won't become the priestess because “priestesses can't be friends with demons”, and that adults are always telling them what to do.

Irwin suggests that she summon her spirit to light up the dark cavern, and possibly get advice on how to escape. When Matilda does so, Irwin boldly states that she has to live, and that if she hates the lot in life that the world has dealt her, he'll destroy the world for her, stating that they should be allowed to use their power however they want to. He then absorbs Matilda's spirit powers, while Escad busts onto the scene at the same moment. Not having the full story, Escad's temper flares, and he attempts to attack Irwin for what looks to Escad like him hurting Matilda. Irwin uses his new powers to fling Escad into the Underworld, and he himself disappears as well. Matilda is eventually found and brought back to the temple, explaining her side of the story to Daena upon her return.

Ten years pass. Escad meets with Olbohn, a member of the Seven Wisdoms and keeper of the Underworld, and asks to become his apprentice in the way of the sword. Irwin simply vanishes off the face of the planet. Daena grows up and begins to serve the temple as a monk-warrior. Matilda, despite losing her important spirit powers, ends up becoming a priestess anyway, and eventually ends up as the Abbess of the temple. However, because of her lost spirit powers, she begins to age at an alarming rate, and by the time she's 26 years old, she has become a wrinkly grandma by her own admission.

Daena, understandably worried about her adoptive big sister's condition, sets off on a personal journey to try and find a way to help save her, despite Matilda's protests to just let her die. The catgirl decides to visit Gaeus the Earth (another Wisdom) to get some advice. It is at this point that the player meets her at a crossroads, where she explains that she's wanting to see Gaeus and is afraid of what he might tell her. She ends up giving up, and spends the night at the inn in a nearby town. The player meets her the next day, and the both of them eventually go see Gaeus together (with the player hanging around more for moral support rather than being a bodyguard). Daena tells Gaeus (in broad terms) about how Matilda was cursed by Irwin and is going to die, and wants to know what she can to do about it. Gaeus tells her that if Matilda said to let her die, then Daena should let her die. When faced with a reply about how Matilda used to be very strong-willed, Gaeus reminds her that people can change. Daena thanks Gaeus, saying she'll try to think calmly about the whole ordeal, and thanks the player for helping her.

Later, the player is visiting a jungled area when they encounter a group of Fairies. The Fairies are plotting to kidnap the head priestess from Gato on order of Irwin (who has become the lord of the Fairies in the past ten years), and are briefly befuddled by the fact that Matilda is a wrinkly grandma despite Irwin's insistence that she's actually 26. However, Escad appears on the scene and mercilessly cuts down all five Fairies. He then introduces himself to the player and warns them to avoid any battles, saying that they shouldn't incite any human-vs-Fairie wars (despite having just murdered five of them; the hypocrisy is lost on him).

Escad and the player return to Gato, and the former reunites with Daena and Matilda after the ten year period. Matilda is overjoyed to find out that he is alive, but Escad only has his resentment grow deeper when he sees how Matilda has been affected by Irwin's theft of her powers. He attempts to convince Matilda and Daena that Irwin only cares about destroying the world, but upon resistance from both of the girls, he leaves in a huff. When the player leaves the room, Matilda is suddenly kidnapped by a disguised nun working for Irwin, and Daena and the player search the cliffs (Escad takes the duty of searching the town and temple). Matilda is eventually rescued, Escad makes his case once again about Irwin, but still fails to get through due to his friend's knowledge of his prejudice towards the half-demon.

Daena ends up leaving the temple of her own accord to try and find Irwin. Matilda tasks the player with finding out where Daena has gone, and mentions that Daena is like a little sister to her. Eventually it's found out that Daena wants to try and go to the land of the Fairies, and is at a lake with a Fairie presence to find out how. She and the player meet Irwin there, who Daena initially greets with a somewhat-tense-somewhat-casual bit of small talk before losing her patience and telling Irwin off about the fact that Matilda is dying and it's his fault. Irwin acts coldly towards the catgirl and effortlessly smacks her away when she pounces him, and he leaves the scene. Daena eventually makes it to the land of the Fairies, and the player returns to Matilda.

In the meantime, the player can visit the mines where all this business started, and sees for themselves the events that transpired there in a flashback. Once the flashback ends, the present-day Escad pops up and offers the player a choice: to side with him and “fight for justice”, or to side with Daena and “aid a demon and make mankind an enemy”. Choosing not to side with him, or that you pick neither side, will result in him attacking you.

Finally, returning to Gato again will reveal that Daena returned from her jaunt in the Fairie world, and has come up with a solid plan: she and Matilda will travel to some nearby ruins, where they will meet with Irwin. Irwin will bring Matilda with him to the Fairie world, because time flows differently there and Matilda will be able to prolong her remaining life. Escad then bursts in and attacks Daena, yelling that she's been “taken” by the demon, and Daena retorts that he's the only demon. Matilda intervenes with a spell, teleporting her, Daena and the player to the ruins. Irwin and Matilda reunite (with Daena warped somewhere else in the ruins), and discuss how they've changed in the past ten years, and eventually broach the topic of Irwin bringing Matilda with him to the Fairie world. Irwin laments that Matilda so readily accepts the rules that her life forced on her, and Matilda says that not everyone gets to have a choice, and that her only choice is to be free.

Escad gives chase and eventually encounters Daena at the center of the ruined structure. Here the player is given another choice: to side with Escad and kill Daena, to side with Daena and kill Escad, and to simply stand by and watch (which will cause whoever you'd been more friendly towards to turn on you). Once one of them has been slain, the remaining two rush to Matilda, who is at the top of the structure with Irwin nowhere in sight. Matilda says that she is not going to the Fairie world, saying that meeting with Irwin was enough to make her happy. When asked, she admits that she loves Irwin, but then says that they don't intrude on each other's freedom (which, in less confusing terms, means that Matilda didn't go with Irwin because it would curb his demonic instincts to destroy the world, stepping on his freedom in a way she doesn't want to). She then says that she'll gladly accept Irwin's destroying the world, and begs Escad or Daena to believe in her.

Finally, at the endgame, Matilda explains that Irwin is planning to revive a world-eating dragon to destroy the world with. When Escad/Daena incredulously asks her why she didn't stop him, Matilda asks why she would stop him, and says that letting him be free to do what he wants is what made her happy. Attempts to get through to her fail with either character, and the player (with or without Escad or Daena's help) eventually defeats Irwin and saves the world from destruction. Upon returning to Gato, the player (and optionally Escad/Daena) learns that Matilda passed away just moments before their arrival.

The quest finishes with Matilda and Irwin reuniting in the Underworld (less like a “hell” and more like a place where dead people's souls wander around, like a Hades or something). Matilda is happy that they're no longer bound by the rules of their lives, but Irwin remarks that Matilda was always “a thorn in his heart” and that if he wished it he'd like to be reborn as a demon to spread chaos. At the apex of the scene, when Matilda is moving in to embrace her beloved Irwin, the half-demon vanishes. Matilda is left alone in sorrow and despair, crumpling to her knees and bursting into tears. And so the story ends.

Well. That was a much longer summary than I was expecting. Oh dear.

Well anyway, what does all that have to do with the classical definition of a tragedy? Quite a bit, to be honest. The story ending bittersweetly of course is tragic, but as I mentioned before it hits most-to-all of the major facets of a classic tragedy story – and perhaps most interestingly, it still works out the same way no matter what side the player takes. Do you choose Escad? Still a classical tragedy. Daena? Classical tragedy. Do you take the convoluted measures to kill everyone by siding with Escad and killing Daena, then not bringing Escad along to the final fight (where Escad just shows up anyway and ends up killed by Irwin)? Not even bittersweet anymore, and still a classical tragedy.

Let me explain proper. Aristotle's old set of rules for the basics of writing a tragedy are as follows (paraphrased from the TvTropes page on Tragedy):
  • Having a protagonist or protagonists with a high class or status who falls far (death isn't a requirement, but it's the common choice).
  • The way this fall happens can vary, but the most typical explanations are either the protagonists having fatal flaws that do them in, or their fall is the result of mistakes made in their past.
  • The people who are witnessing the tragedy play out in front of them need to feel catharsis at the protagonist's fall. How this catharsis works depends, but the catharsis needs to be there.
  • Aristotle didn't say that tragedies absolutely had to have a reversal of fortune stemming from a revelation, but did consider tragedies that had those happen better than those that didn't.
The four protagonists of the Fairie Arc generally fall into these parameters well, with each of them in some kind of high status, descending into destruction because of their past actions or their own fatal flaws, and the audience generally feels catharsis once the entire mess is over. How this catharsis plays out can depend on the player, as well as the choices made during the story (which character to side with, for example), but generally many say that it is there. Each character has this development play out in their own way, befitting their personality and actions.

Matilda's high status is that of the leader of the temple of healing. Losing her spirit powers didn't stop her from becoming a priestess, but she never gave up hope that both Escad and Irwin were alive, nurturing the bud of affection she held for the latter. Her fatal flaw stems from her blind love for Irwin and her (deliberately-written-to-be) confusing love of freedom, which leads her to commit naïve, obliviously selfish and hypocritical actions. She says that she doesn't wish to intrude on anyone's freedom, but her actions show that she really only cares about Irwin's freedom, which is why she doesn't want to step on his demonic urges to destroy (because it would limit his freedom). Her hypocrisy is clearly shown when she doesn't try to convince Irwin to not destroy the world because she loves him so much – she only cares about her love of Irwin and about Irwin's freedom, willingly stepping on the rest of Fa'Diel's freedom (to, y'know, not be destroyed by a dragon) so she can live with Irwin without being a burden on his nature. Her reversal of fortune is found in death, when Irwin lets himself be reincarnated because he ended up caring more about his demonic urges than Matilda, leaving the dead priestess alone and unloved in the Underworld.

Irwin's high status is not exactly high at first, but he is the ruler of the Fairies in the Fairie world. Stealing Matilda's spirit powers and inadvertently provoking Escad is the past mistake that is one of the leads into the tragic events, as Irwin's return ten years later reveals to him that Matilda has little time left to live at all because of him. All his efforts to bring Matilda to the Fairie world with him end in failure because of the other friends that care enough to rescue her. This is sidestepped at first when Matilda tells him “no, go ahead, I don't mind if you kill everyone else if it means I can love you without toeing your demonic urges to kill everyone else”, but of course going through with the world-destruction plot leads to his getting his ass kicked and finding himself dead in the Underworld. He gives up on his love for Matilda, which is what led to his demise in the first place, and decides to let himself be reincarnated, leaving Matilda alone in the Underworld.

Escad's high status is that of being born into a family of holy knights, and he learns the way of the sword from the overseer of the Underworld. His fatal flaw is a mixture of envy, wrath and pride; envy of Irwin since Matilda loves him (and not Escad, as Escad would like), wrath stemming from his envy of Irwin that takes the form of full-blown racism against both Irwin's demon heritage and the Fairies under Irwin's command, and the unyielding pride he takes in himself, both the fact that he swear to kill Irwin, and the fact that he learned from a Wisdom. He outright states that it's the Wisdoms' will for Irwin to die, when in fact that was never said; Olbohn taught Escad the way of the sword because Escad asked, not because Olbohn wanted Irwin to die. This potentially leads to Escad's death at the hands of Daena and the player (or at the hands of Irwin), done in by his inability to let go of the hatred he feels towards Irwin.

Daena is perhaps the only one who is not exactly “high status”; she is born into a monk-solider family that serves the temple, but this doesn't seem to be a position of great power. She is probably the one to be the most sympathetic during the whole questline because of her friendliness and her trying to find a way to resolve the situation in a way that benefits everyone. She lacks a solid fatal flaw, and she lacks any past mistakes that haunt her. What potentially leads to her demise at the hands of the player and Escad is the fact that she just wants to try and solve the problems. To quote the TvTropes page again, Daena is “so good and persistent” that trying to fix the mistakes her friends made can end up cause her death. The plan the catgirl comes up with is solid, logical and generally would lead to the best result possible in this mixed-up situation, but the other three characters are too blinded by their own flaws – Irwin by his demonic nature, Escad by his deadly sins and Matilda by her obliviously selfish naivete – to see the common sense that Daena's plan is steeped in.

Thus, the catharsis comes from seeing these characters end up reaping whatever they've sown for themselves. Matilda, in her oblivious innocence, thinking that even in death Irwin would choose her over his demonic ambitions, dooms herself to a lonely afterlife. Escad, in his jealousy and anger, too narrow-minded to think that Irwin is anything other than an evil demon that needs killing, potentially dies because of his inability to see the grey in his black-and-white mindset. Irwin, in his struggle between his human and demonic natures, makes the mistake that is the catalyst for the whole ordeal, and dies making the same mistake as before: trying to find a way to make Matilda happy. Daena, in her attempts to solve the problems with as little loss as possible, potentially dies because she's the only one who will stand up for common sense in a debacle where she might be the only one with such sense.

This also subtly (perhaps stretching it, admittedly) ties into Gaeus' words from the start of the story, where he tells Daena that people can change, since the four characters do indeed change. Matilda changes from an innocent, strong-willed girl to a love-addled fool, Irwin changes from someone who wanted the best for both himself and Matilda to someone who saw how loving her had caused him more trouble than it was worth, and Escad changes from someone who cared about Matilda to someone who cared about killing Irwin, stopping caring at all about whether his friends died because of his stubbornness. Daena changes from someone who was hoping to help her friend at the start to someone who realizes that despite wanting to help, her old friends seem to be beyond saving.

Granted, much of this is looking fairly deeply into a rather simple game (but then again, that seems to be what I do best anyway, so yeah), but the marks of a classical tragedy are there. There are parts of the story that could have used some clarification (such as a seemingly-irrelevant scene where another one of the Wisdoms tells Matilda that she will become the new Seventh Wisdom; the reasons for this seem to be left hanging), but overall the narrative is solid and is clearly inspired by the complex, badly-ending love stories that seemed to be common in terms of tragedies. Maybe they were easy to write. I dunno. The game and the Fairie Arc aren't any kind of massive achievement in videogame storytelling, but I think that it was at least worth drawing parallels and comparisons to.

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