Thaeonblade
[09] Warrior
As some of you know, I'm not a fan of SCV's story, I never will be and I'd rather for PS to take a hatchet to most of this story and start from scratch in SCVI.
One of the main reasons for this is the notion that Patroklos, a selfish, arrogant, incestious, vengeful, weak-willed and cold-blooded murderer was not only capable of wielding the Soul Calibur despite the fact that he shouldn't be able to physically or spiritually touch it, but was also able to unlock and use an ability that had never been used or seen by any previous wielder.
Then I sat down and thought for a second. I've even asked the question of if the story would be better if both swords were switched with Pyrrha getting Soul Calibur and Patroklos getting Soul Edge. After all, they should be natural fits considering their actions and personalities, right? Pyrrha's not evil and had to be manipulated to become Soul Edge's wielder, why is she the designated villain? Patroklos is not heroic and is lacking any sympathetic qualities whatsoever, why is he the designated hero?
But I got a good reply on that topic that had me thinking again and I read back through soul calibur lore and suddenly that good reply made sense. In short, the guy said that Soul Calibur didn't represent goodness necessarily, but order with Soul Edge representing chaos. While this does make a lot of sense, I don't believe that Soul Calibur completely represents order due to evidence to the contrary in previous games.
At least prior to SCIV.
As we all know from SCIV's story, the Hero King Algol was the first recorded wielder of Soul Edge. His will was so strong that he could use the sword without being controlled by it's evil influence and used the sword's power to usher in a golden age for his kingdom.
But the sword was stolen by his son, Arcturus and this sparked a destructive civil war which ended when Algol broke Soul Edge (with his bare hands like a boss) and tragically killed his son. The sword disappeared after this and Algol vowed to create a blade to counter it. After many failed attempts, Algol finally succeeded in transforming purified shards of Soul Edge into Soul Calibur at the cost of his own life.
However, the newly created sword still continued Algol's ambition and likely a portion of Soul Edge's spirit now independent and referred to as Elysium. The ancients were likely aware of Soul Calibur's potential to become just as dangerous as Soul Edge and so they created the sacred items, the Kali-Yuga and Dvapara-Yuga to keep the sword in check. The Kali-Yuga would channel and absorb excess energy both good and evil from the sword to keep it from becoming unstabilized while the Dvapara-Yuga purified the sword of any ill-intent.
Therefore, Soul Calibur became the sword that we knew it as up until SCIV. When Soul Edge emerged, Soul Calibur would eventually choose a strong willed and pure hearted warrior to face it. Before and after the destined clash, the sword was kept stable and pure by the Kali-Yuga and Dvapara-Yuga to keep the sword from being just as dangerous and destructive as Soul Edge. This dance for countless centuries all the way up to Xianghua and Nightmare in Soul Calibur.
But what happened in Soul Calibur again? Oh yeah! Xianghua dropped Soul Calibur and it was sucked into the void along with Inferno/Soul Edge and Nightmare. The sword is absent for a long period of time until SCIII when Siegfried retrieves it from within Soul Edge. As the sword was weakened by Raphael's desperate eye poke and Siegfried's own successful attempt to break from from the Sword's control which left it vulnerable to Siegfried's own epic eye poke.
Where was the sword in the meantime? Inside of Soul Edge? How?
Maybe this should jog some memories::http://soulcalibur.wikia.com/wiki/File:Soulcalibur_-_Inferno_ending
I already know what some of you are saying: That ending was non-canon since Soul Calibur does return untainted right?
I thought so too. But on closer thought, maybe not. Remember Evil Soul Calibur from SCII? Believe or not, that's canon at least during the time period of that game. It's unclear as to whether or not Inferno managed to completely taint Soul Calibur or the nature of the corruption itself. But it is canon and it brings future events into perspective.
Some may say that Soul Calibur was just fine in SCIII right? Except that Soul Calibur was inactive because of it's Soul Embrace with Soul Edge with both swords bonding and canceling each other out. The Soul Embrace was only broken by Zasalamel's arts which had the respective wielders of their swords clashing once again and creating a maelstrom that destroyed the Lost Cathedral and left both blades drastically changed.
Soul Edge summoned it's fragmented shards and restored itself while Soul Calibur lost it's graceful designs and appearing to be nothing more than an erratic mass of crystal with a handle. Furthermore, characters like Kilik, Taki, Cassandra and Talim came to distrust both swords equally due to Soul Calibur's more vindictive state. Taki is even shown killing Siegfried in her ending while Cassandra destroy both swords. These appear to be drastic examples, but remember Siegfried's ending? Soul Calibur crystallizes the world and creates a it's own version of utopia. Where everyone is a icy popsicle incapable of evil or anything at all.
Luckily that didn't happen.
Siegfried managed to temper Soul Calibur's less pleasant tendencies and used it to do what he set out to do. Kill Nightmare, defeat Soul Edge and earn redemption for his past sins as Soul Edge's wielder. Then the sword went silent again until Siegfried choose Patroklos to be it's inheritor.
So what was the point of this Soul Calibur history lesson? To point out that the Soul Calibur in SCV is no longer the holy sword that it was meant to be. It's now nothing more than a feminine palette swap of Soul Edge. The very thing that Algol and the ancient sages who first created the sacred items had tried to avoid.
Patroklos wasn't chosen for a strong will or a "pure" heart, he was chosen for the same reason that Soul Edge chooses the grand majority of it's wielders. Because the boy was easy to manipulate and wouldn't have the will to fight against it or it's intentions.
What intentions? Freezing the world in a crystal wonderland like it does after Patroklos kills Pyrrha in Chapter 16. By freezing the world in crystal, the sword fulfills its desire for a utopia of order.
Now some will point out that the Dvapara-Yuga and Kali-Yuga were used on Soul Calibur in a previous chapter. So wouldn't that purify the sword and restore it to the blade that it was meant to be?
No. It was too late. Here's why:
Soul Calibur hasn't been in contact with either sacred item for over twenty years. First, the sword in it's form of the Krita-Yuga was stolen from the other items by Xianghua's father and it was given to her mother who gave it to Xianghua who was unaware of it's true nature until the events of SC. Since Xianghua was 16 in SC, that means that the sword had been separated from the sacred items for at least 16 years up to where Xianghua battled Inferno. Even in Soul Calibur, nobody knew about the Krita-Yuga's true nature to even use the sacred items on it and by the time that they did, the sword was lost in the void with Soul Edge and Inferno.
Let me repeat that: Soul Edge and Inferno.
Inferno had four years to taint Soul Calibur and despite the events of SCIII, something clearly stuck. Which is unsurprising considering that Soul Calibur was created from Soul Edge's shards. The maelstrom clash between Soul Calibur and Soul Edge only further entrenched Soul Calibur's quiet corruption and if not for Siegfried's will, the world would be facing a choice between death by fire or death by crystal.
But after SCIV, Soul Calibur was kept in Siegfried's possession and further withheld from the sacred items. Add Xianghua's age in SC to the total time gap between SC and SCV then that means that Soul Calibur has not been pruned or purified for at least 40 years! Meanwhile, Inferno had 4 years in the middle of that time span to influence and taint the sword for the worst.
By the time the sacred items were finally brought to Soul Calibur in SCV's story mode, Inferno's quiet corruption was hard-coded within Soul Calibur's own power, leaving the items unable to distinguish the sword's native power from any intrusive forces. In short, Soul Calibur had spiritual AIDS that weakened it's own internal purity and strength and left it vulnerable to Inferno's influence that was only strengthened by maelstrom at the end of SCIII.
All that the items managed to do was strengthen the silent corruption, unintentionally serving as accomplices to when the sword destroys the world that it was created to protect.
Until SCV's story throws in a BS time travel ability so that our "hero" can have a happy ending.
But that's another story all together...that'll discuss here.
In fact, if this theory is true then I'd argue that the paradigms of the two swords in SCV may have been intentional. Perhaps the rushed development did ruin what would have been a genuine redemptive quality in an otherwise horrible story. Think about it, Soul Calibur being able to send it's wielder back through time makes absolutely no sense. As I'd said in my Insight of SCV, how do we know that Soul Edge doesn't also have this ability? And if Patroklos was capable of activating it, then how come no one else could?
With this theory in place, what happened in SCV's last chapters can be shed into a greater light. Perhaps what we saw in the game: Soul Calibur freezing the world after Patroklos murders Pyrrha and Patroklos fighting off Soul Calibur and making amends with his sister are actually two separate endings. The Former would be the bad ending while the Latter is the good ending for Patroklos' storyline.
For instance, after A Patroklos defeats Pyrrha in Chapter 16, he has a flashback to when the siblings where children which causes him to hesitate from finishing off Pyrrha. Soul Calibur tells Patroklos to kill her and he argues that he's trying to bring Pyrrha home, but Elysium starts exerting control over Patroklos. Here, we have where player prompt will play out which ending that we have.
The wrong prompt will lead to the Bad Ending, Patroklos kills Pyrrha and Soul Calibur freezes the world.
The correct prompt will lead to the Good Ending, Patroklos strikes Soul Edge instead of Pyrrha, breaking it's hold over his sister and then he drops Soul Calibur and begs for her forgiveness. Elysium manifests itself, Patroklos fights and defeats it and Inferno with the help of Pyrrha, they destroy both swords and earn their happy ending together as brother and sister.
Something similar was likely planned for Pyrrha with the good ending tying into Patroklos' good ending and a bad ending having Pyrrha become the New Nightmare, eternally in pain and eternally alone. If so, then it an otherwise horrible story mode would redeem itself by showing how these siblings love for each other has overcome their fates as imposed upon them by Soul Edge and the corrupted Soul Calibur or displaying the consequences of not attempting to place input into one's own fate.
But this is likely nothing more than a theory...a game theory...
Thoughts?
One of the main reasons for this is the notion that Patroklos, a selfish, arrogant, incestious, vengeful, weak-willed and cold-blooded murderer was not only capable of wielding the Soul Calibur despite the fact that he shouldn't be able to physically or spiritually touch it, but was also able to unlock and use an ability that had never been used or seen by any previous wielder.
Then I sat down and thought for a second. I've even asked the question of if the story would be better if both swords were switched with Pyrrha getting Soul Calibur and Patroklos getting Soul Edge. After all, they should be natural fits considering their actions and personalities, right? Pyrrha's not evil and had to be manipulated to become Soul Edge's wielder, why is she the designated villain? Patroklos is not heroic and is lacking any sympathetic qualities whatsoever, why is he the designated hero?
But I got a good reply on that topic that had me thinking again and I read back through soul calibur lore and suddenly that good reply made sense. In short, the guy said that Soul Calibur didn't represent goodness necessarily, but order with Soul Edge representing chaos. While this does make a lot of sense, I don't believe that Soul Calibur completely represents order due to evidence to the contrary in previous games.
At least prior to SCIV.
As we all know from SCIV's story, the Hero King Algol was the first recorded wielder of Soul Edge. His will was so strong that he could use the sword without being controlled by it's evil influence and used the sword's power to usher in a golden age for his kingdom.
But the sword was stolen by his son, Arcturus and this sparked a destructive civil war which ended when Algol broke Soul Edge (with his bare hands like a boss) and tragically killed his son. The sword disappeared after this and Algol vowed to create a blade to counter it. After many failed attempts, Algol finally succeeded in transforming purified shards of Soul Edge into Soul Calibur at the cost of his own life.
However, the newly created sword still continued Algol's ambition and likely a portion of Soul Edge's spirit now independent and referred to as Elysium. The ancients were likely aware of Soul Calibur's potential to become just as dangerous as Soul Edge and so they created the sacred items, the Kali-Yuga and Dvapara-Yuga to keep the sword in check. The Kali-Yuga would channel and absorb excess energy both good and evil from the sword to keep it from becoming unstabilized while the Dvapara-Yuga purified the sword of any ill-intent.
Therefore, Soul Calibur became the sword that we knew it as up until SCIV. When Soul Edge emerged, Soul Calibur would eventually choose a strong willed and pure hearted warrior to face it. Before and after the destined clash, the sword was kept stable and pure by the Kali-Yuga and Dvapara-Yuga to keep the sword from being just as dangerous and destructive as Soul Edge. This dance for countless centuries all the way up to Xianghua and Nightmare in Soul Calibur.
But what happened in Soul Calibur again? Oh yeah! Xianghua dropped Soul Calibur and it was sucked into the void along with Inferno/Soul Edge and Nightmare. The sword is absent for a long period of time until SCIII when Siegfried retrieves it from within Soul Edge. As the sword was weakened by Raphael's desperate eye poke and Siegfried's own successful attempt to break from from the Sword's control which left it vulnerable to Siegfried's own epic eye poke.
Where was the sword in the meantime? Inside of Soul Edge? How?
Maybe this should jog some memories::http://soulcalibur.wikia.com/wiki/File:Soulcalibur_-_Inferno_ending
I already know what some of you are saying: That ending was non-canon since Soul Calibur does return untainted right?
I thought so too. But on closer thought, maybe not. Remember Evil Soul Calibur from SCII? Believe or not, that's canon at least during the time period of that game. It's unclear as to whether or not Inferno managed to completely taint Soul Calibur or the nature of the corruption itself. But it is canon and it brings future events into perspective.
Some may say that Soul Calibur was just fine in SCIII right? Except that Soul Calibur was inactive because of it's Soul Embrace with Soul Edge with both swords bonding and canceling each other out. The Soul Embrace was only broken by Zasalamel's arts which had the respective wielders of their swords clashing once again and creating a maelstrom that destroyed the Lost Cathedral and left both blades drastically changed.
Soul Edge summoned it's fragmented shards and restored itself while Soul Calibur lost it's graceful designs and appearing to be nothing more than an erratic mass of crystal with a handle. Furthermore, characters like Kilik, Taki, Cassandra and Talim came to distrust both swords equally due to Soul Calibur's more vindictive state. Taki is even shown killing Siegfried in her ending while Cassandra destroy both swords. These appear to be drastic examples, but remember Siegfried's ending? Soul Calibur crystallizes the world and creates a it's own version of utopia. Where everyone is a icy popsicle incapable of evil or anything at all.
Luckily that didn't happen.
Siegfried managed to temper Soul Calibur's less pleasant tendencies and used it to do what he set out to do. Kill Nightmare, defeat Soul Edge and earn redemption for his past sins as Soul Edge's wielder. Then the sword went silent again until Siegfried choose Patroklos to be it's inheritor.
So what was the point of this Soul Calibur history lesson? To point out that the Soul Calibur in SCV is no longer the holy sword that it was meant to be. It's now nothing more than a feminine palette swap of Soul Edge. The very thing that Algol and the ancient sages who first created the sacred items had tried to avoid.
Patroklos wasn't chosen for a strong will or a "pure" heart, he was chosen for the same reason that Soul Edge chooses the grand majority of it's wielders. Because the boy was easy to manipulate and wouldn't have the will to fight against it or it's intentions.
What intentions? Freezing the world in a crystal wonderland like it does after Patroklos kills Pyrrha in Chapter 16. By freezing the world in crystal, the sword fulfills its desire for a utopia of order.
Now some will point out that the Dvapara-Yuga and Kali-Yuga were used on Soul Calibur in a previous chapter. So wouldn't that purify the sword and restore it to the blade that it was meant to be?
No. It was too late. Here's why:
Soul Calibur hasn't been in contact with either sacred item for over twenty years. First, the sword in it's form of the Krita-Yuga was stolen from the other items by Xianghua's father and it was given to her mother who gave it to Xianghua who was unaware of it's true nature until the events of SC. Since Xianghua was 16 in SC, that means that the sword had been separated from the sacred items for at least 16 years up to where Xianghua battled Inferno. Even in Soul Calibur, nobody knew about the Krita-Yuga's true nature to even use the sacred items on it and by the time that they did, the sword was lost in the void with Soul Edge and Inferno.
Let me repeat that: Soul Edge and Inferno.
Inferno had four years to taint Soul Calibur and despite the events of SCIII, something clearly stuck. Which is unsurprising considering that Soul Calibur was created from Soul Edge's shards. The maelstrom clash between Soul Calibur and Soul Edge only further entrenched Soul Calibur's quiet corruption and if not for Siegfried's will, the world would be facing a choice between death by fire or death by crystal.
But after SCIV, Soul Calibur was kept in Siegfried's possession and further withheld from the sacred items. Add Xianghua's age in SC to the total time gap between SC and SCV then that means that Soul Calibur has not been pruned or purified for at least 40 years! Meanwhile, Inferno had 4 years in the middle of that time span to influence and taint the sword for the worst.
By the time the sacred items were finally brought to Soul Calibur in SCV's story mode, Inferno's quiet corruption was hard-coded within Soul Calibur's own power, leaving the items unable to distinguish the sword's native power from any intrusive forces. In short, Soul Calibur had spiritual AIDS that weakened it's own internal purity and strength and left it vulnerable to Inferno's influence that was only strengthened by maelstrom at the end of SCIII.
All that the items managed to do was strengthen the silent corruption, unintentionally serving as accomplices to when the sword destroys the world that it was created to protect.
Until SCV's story throws in a BS time travel ability so that our "hero" can have a happy ending.
But that's another story all together...that'll discuss here.
In fact, if this theory is true then I'd argue that the paradigms of the two swords in SCV may have been intentional. Perhaps the rushed development did ruin what would have been a genuine redemptive quality in an otherwise horrible story. Think about it, Soul Calibur being able to send it's wielder back through time makes absolutely no sense. As I'd said in my Insight of SCV, how do we know that Soul Edge doesn't also have this ability? And if Patroklos was capable of activating it, then how come no one else could?
With this theory in place, what happened in SCV's last chapters can be shed into a greater light. Perhaps what we saw in the game: Soul Calibur freezing the world after Patroklos murders Pyrrha and Patroklos fighting off Soul Calibur and making amends with his sister are actually two separate endings. The Former would be the bad ending while the Latter is the good ending for Patroklos' storyline.
For instance, after A Patroklos defeats Pyrrha in Chapter 16, he has a flashback to when the siblings where children which causes him to hesitate from finishing off Pyrrha. Soul Calibur tells Patroklos to kill her and he argues that he's trying to bring Pyrrha home, but Elysium starts exerting control over Patroklos. Here, we have where player prompt will play out which ending that we have.
The wrong prompt will lead to the Bad Ending, Patroklos kills Pyrrha and Soul Calibur freezes the world.
The correct prompt will lead to the Good Ending, Patroklos strikes Soul Edge instead of Pyrrha, breaking it's hold over his sister and then he drops Soul Calibur and begs for her forgiveness. Elysium manifests itself, Patroklos fights and defeats it and Inferno with the help of Pyrrha, they destroy both swords and earn their happy ending together as brother and sister.
Something similar was likely planned for Pyrrha with the good ending tying into Patroklos' good ending and a bad ending having Pyrrha become the New Nightmare, eternally in pain and eternally alone. If so, then it an otherwise horrible story mode would redeem itself by showing how these siblings love for each other has overcome their fates as imposed upon them by Soul Edge and the corrupted Soul Calibur or displaying the consequences of not attempting to place input into one's own fate.
But this is likely nothing more than a theory...a game theory...
Thoughts?
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