Rants on ToS
characters
Kratos
Your view on Kratos is entirely dependent upon your view of redemption. Is it possible? Is it attainable? If so, through actions or attitude change? What is redemption? It does not erase the consequences of your past sins. Is it a balancing of the scales or a realigning of proper beliefs and attitudes? Can a last minute heroic act or change of allegiance make a difference?
Lloyd seems
to think so; as soon as he accepts Kratos as his father he does so fully and
does not once mention the countless scores of innocents Kratos surely must have
murdered and was intending to murder as an accomplice to Mithos's crazy plans.
Of course, Lloyd makes a career out of forgiving people their mistakes:
And since
Lloyd is the viewpoint character of the game, this means the game sees Kratos
the same way. An act and an attitude change a la Darth Vader redeem the
cold-hearted killer.
But this does
not seem to be how Kratos views himself. A more fitting comparison would be
Himura Kenshin, the scar-faced hero of Watsuki Nobuhiro's Rurouni Kenshin. Both of our identically initial initialed heroes
have committed atrocities for what they interpreted to be good causes. Unlike Kenshin, who never doubted the justness of his cause, Kratos comes to realize
(or rather acknowledge; some time during those four thousand years he had to
have already realized Mithos was wrong) the error of his ways. But both react
the same way: by seeking redemption through self-torture. Kenshin travels
across the country defending the innocent and downtrodden; Kratos denies
himself the opportunity to get to know his son and exiles himself to a dying
comet/planet to care for the angels of Derris-Kharlan. He probably would have
preferred to go out like Vader, but, having survived the battle at Origin's
seal, he must deny himself true happiness. He truly believes he does not
deserve it.
Lloyd
He's compassionate and trusting, allowing assassins, convicts, and strangers, who could as easily hurt as help his quest, to join without thinking twice (unless you choose to have him think twice, of course). Some of this compassion could be attributed to the influence of his friends. Genis convinces him to help Marble when common sense and his dad's strict orders demand he do nothing. Colette convinces him to implore Raine to heal Sheena. However, practical to a fault Raine is also there insisting that such compassion could lead to ruin. It is a testament to Lloyd's character that, if he is giving in to peer-pressure, he is giving in to the right kind.
But there's also a double standard at work. Lloyd is forgiving except when irreversible attacks have been made on him or his friends. When the attacks have resulted in no permanent harm, he can forgive. Sheena tried to kill his friend, and, though he forgave her, was instrumental in her joining the team, and in some variations of the game became her best friend and she his, had she been successful in assassinating Colette, it seems unlikely he would have forgiven her. I can readily imagine Lloyd hunting her down and exacting revenge—"I've finally avenged you, Colette!"—just like he killed Kvar and Forcystus. The actions of these latter two led to the deaths of Lloyd's mother and Marble respectively. Nothing stops him from exacting his revenge. Even when Kratos tells him that Forcystus is considered a hero among half-elves and Lloyd realizes that there are two sides to every story, two perspectives to every war, he does not hesitate to kill Forcystus.
Lloyd hates injustice in any form, and he hates the Desians who embody injustice on Sylvarant. If he could, he'd wipe them out. When I called him the second Mithos in chapter one of The Swordsman and the Summoner, I wasn't kidding. His desire for revenge against the Desians could have destroyed him, could have been the seed of hatred that transformed him from a Gentle Idealist to a stone cold killer. Though he never had Mithos's intellect, and would lack the craftiness to initiate a millennia-long plan for world domination, he has the same spirit and determination. His concern for Colette (mirroring Mithos's concern for Martel) could have pushed him to do some pretty horrible things. When Mithos kidnaps her, Lloyd abandons his other friends to go charging after her with little or no hesitation. Had she died we could have had, rather than (to quote myself) "Mithos as he should have been," "Mithos as he was."
Lloyd, like any young person, needs guidance to grow into a decent adult. Fortunately, he has that guidance. Dirk, Raine, even Kratos after a fashion, provide that guidance. Thanks to them, he becomes a hero.
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Additional thought: Lloyd is young and naïve, hardened by the world, but still believing there is good in just about everyone, even megalomaniacs who want to destroy the world. But I can't get past that double standard. He'll forgive Mithos who destroys whole villages from space (Ozette, anyone?) but not the half-elf who killed his mom (not that the half-elf was contrite, mind you. Lloyd would have had to kill him anyway if only to stop him from turning humans into Exspheres). I guess that makes Lloyd human.
This might be something that is bothering me about fantasy literature as a whole. Whether intentionally or unintentionally these heroes lift themselves above the rest of humanity like kings or gods and make decisions that affect millions of lives without consulting even a handful of those millions. Had Mithos agreed to give up, he should have been brought before a tribunal to answer for his crimes, not honored by having the tree of life named after him.
You should probably ignore that last paragraph. It's more of a rant than anything else.
So, to recap: Lloyd's a pretty swell guy, a little lacking in the brains department, but with a good heart. He's got his faults, but most of those faults are the result of a compassionate heart.
Colette
In my experience, most people who don't like Colette are proponents of other pairings: Sheloyd, Preloyd, Raine/Lloyd, etc. The affection aspect of ToS allows the player to try for any pairing he likes; player preference affects the game a great deal, personalizes it. Yet many proponents of the Colloyd pairing insist on calling it "canon" and claim that any other pairing (i.e., Sheloyd) is illegitimate. This leads to a lot of bad blood between Colloyders and Sheloyders (and don't get me started on Shelosers). So, the occasional potshots are taken at Colette. I'll admit to posting a few myself on the Sheloyd forum I had going for a while on fanfiction.net.
Another reason is that the Colette/Lloyd romance is so predictable. The childhood friends "ending up" together story has been done to death, especially in RPGs. How many childhood couples actually last into adulthood? You occasionally hear about high school sweethearts marrying, but only occasionally. Lloyd falling for someone he meets on his journey is more realistic (at least from a twenty-first century standpoint; it was far less common in the days of yore when world travel was less widespread; but—remember—Lloyd is a world traveler). Taking a symbolic view, starting a romance with someone else, or no one else, signifies growth. Lloyd's journeys have changed him. To go back to Colette and settle down in Iselia would seem to defy this change. It would be as if the adventure never happened because his situation hasn't improved. Colette strikes me as a person who will never go on an adventure again. She tells Phaidra, "I'm home, Grandma," and home is where she'll stay. I can't see Lloyd doing the same. The quest to save the worlds has fueled his adventurer's spirit, and it won't easily be squelched. Sheena, a more experienced adventurer than he, can match that spirit, even with her responsibilities as chief (assuming you complete that side quest). If Colette agrees to go with Lloyd on the Exsphere hunting journey, she will go, but only to be with Lloyd. She'd rather be at home in her quaint little village.
There are others, though, who genuinely do not like Colette's character. The sugary sweet, timid, self-sacrificing, tee-hee, ditzy blonde shtick can get old after a while. At times she seems less a character than a caricature. However, it must be granted that the problem of archetypes plagues most works of fantasy literature. In ToS, Lloyd is the hero; Zelos is the rogue; Colette is the princess who must be protected; Raine is the wise old teacher (or sage, if you like; granted, she isn't really old—she has to be kept young so she can be a love interest for Lloyd should the player choose); Kratos is the mentor, etc.
Still others have pointed out this fundamental and irreconcilable difference between Lloyd's and Colette's value systems: Colette is willing to sacrifice herself without a fuss, while Lloyd views no life as expendable. This game showcases this clash of ideals. Multiple times Lloyd tells Colette she cannot die even for the world. He doesn't even ask her if she wants to. He practically yells at the poor girl.
On a side note, this is why I cannot understand all those Colloyd fics that have Lloyd asking Colette to marry him during the dinner party in Meltokio. That Lloyd does not really understand the concept of marriage is suggested by a skit point outside Mizuho when he (should you choose a certain answer) readily agrees to marry a Mizuhoan ninja just so he can learn a few nifty fighting techniques. And Colette, love Lloyd as she may, has lived her entire life in preparation to be sacrificed for the good of the world. Marriage is a promise she cannot make, even if it's possible that sacrifice may be unnecessary. If Lloyd asked her, and again he wouldn't, she would probably suggest that they wait until the worlds are saved before making any plans. Of course I'm a Sheloyder, so perhaps I'm a tad biased.
To review:
1) Proponents of other pairings dislike Colette because some Colloyders trumpet their favored pairing as superior to all others. It's like fighting for the home team; you hurl insults at the opposing side during game time, but you’d never be so cruel if you met them on the streets.
2) Others dislike the Colloyd pairing because it is too predictable; they find more storytelling potential in other pairings.
3) Others dislike Colette because they consider her character too clichéd.
4) And, finally, some dislike Colette because they consider her core values and Lloyd's to be too incompatible.
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For my personal view on Colette, see this excerpt from The Swordsman and the Summoner Chapter 16:
To Colette, who
rarely let a day pass without praying to Martel even after finding out the
truth of her origin, speaking to her in person should have been easy, if a bit
more intimidating. Surprisingly, it turned out to be quite difficult, though
she thought it likely the gravity of the subject matter, rather than any
reticence on her part, was the culprit.
She took a deep
breath, and poured out her heart. "I was born to die, to sacrifice my life
so you might live again and regenerate the world. As the
"He wouldn't
let me sacrifice myself. He worked so hard to give me a normal life." Her
brow crinkled. "Why would he do that if he didn't want to be with me? I
meant to tell him, after the journey, that I loved him too... But things
happened so fast, and before I knew it he was off on another journey. With her."
Colette squeezed
her fists so tightly her knuckles lost their color. "It isn't fair! Lloyd
is all I ever wanted. I would have given him up for the world—you know I would
have. But now that I have a chance at a normal life, he is taken away from me!
If he meant to abandon me, he shouldn't have saved me in the first place."
Martel listened
patiently, never prodding, just allowing the girl to speak her peace.
"I don't
understand, Martel. The only thing that ever made sense to me was being the
Admittedly this is Colette at her worst, depressed and angsty, not at all her normally cheerful self. But sometimes there is pain behind even the cheeriest of exteriors.