...or maybe why Mafuyu stayed with Kirie during the canon ending of Fatal Frame. 547 words.
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Perhaps no ending of a Fatal Frame game is more controversial than the canon ending for Fatal Frame I. Certainly, there are sad endings and horrific endings, but none that seem to annoy fans as much as that particular one, mostly because of Mafuyu's choice.
Mafuyu's choice to remain with Kirie and spend eternity as a ghost guarding a hellgate can be exasperating for the player, who just spent several hours as little sister Miku trying to find him and get them both out of there. His canon explanation is that he couldn't leave Kirie to suffer alone, not after all he saw. The simple way to explain his actions is he's a naturally compassionate man who saw someone suffering, a stranger, and went to do something about it, the same way that he ends up in Himuro Mansion in the first place - to find Junsei Takamine and his team.
But there's a slightly more complex explanation for Mafuyu's motives, one that can work better than just simple compassion for a fellow human being, albeit one that died a century or two ago. And it all goes back to the beginning of the game, where he's run into a dead end and is heading towards the entrance, to follow the ghost he's just seen.
That's when Kirie partially abducts him, gives him a mental connection, and then leaves him to his own devices. He retains some focus on Mr. Takamine and his team, as evidenced by the note at the beginning of night 2, but as things go along, I think Kirie starts becoming more and more important to him. After Mr. Takamine is gone, Mafuyu really has no reason to be wandering about the manor; he could have stayed, despite Kirie screaming in his head, and waited for Miku to catch up to him. But he keeps going.
Some of this could be put down to his journalist or folklorist background, but not all of it. He's curious as well as compassionate, which is what drives him there in the first place. But I think he feels a connection to Kirie. We don't see everything he sees, none of his visions, except the early cutscenes. Kirie may well have shown him more of the time before she became an onryo, more than Miku sees in her cutscenes.
And even if he didn't while he was wandering about Himuro Mansion, he might have done so while he was trapped inside Kirie. When Miku defeats Kirie and purifies her, he seems startled, and not in the way that they've just ended up in the same time and can see each other. He seems almost deep in thought.
Kirie's choice to stay is what seems to spur him into motion. He is in love with her in such a way that he wants to be with her, forever. He wants to help her, he wants to be there with her. He likely knows he's going to die - probably has to die to be there with her. But it's what he chooses, ultimately, to stay with the being who had kidnapped him, because he can. Even if it's frustrating for the player, there is love in there, and possibly fate, and in some ways it even makes sense.
Meta 1: Abduction as Seduction
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Perhaps no ending of a Fatal Frame game is more controversial than the canon ending for Fatal Frame I. Certainly, there are sad endings and horrific endings, but none that seem to annoy fans as much as that particular one, mostly because of Mafuyu's choice.
Mafuyu's choice to remain with Kirie and spend eternity as a ghost guarding a hellgate can be exasperating for the player, who just spent several hours as little sister Miku trying to find him and get them both out of there. His canon explanation is that he couldn't leave Kirie to suffer alone, not after all he saw. The simple way to explain his actions is he's a naturally compassionate man who saw someone suffering, a stranger, and went to do something about it, the same way that he ends up in Himuro Mansion in the first place - to find Junsei Takamine and his team.
But there's a slightly more complex explanation for Mafuyu's motives, one that can work better than just simple compassion for a fellow human being, albeit one that died a century or two ago. And it all goes back to the beginning of the game, where he's run into a dead end and is heading towards the entrance, to follow the ghost he's just seen.
That's when Kirie partially abducts him, gives him a mental connection, and then leaves him to his own devices. He retains some focus on Mr. Takamine and his team, as evidenced by the note at the beginning of night 2, but as things go along, I think Kirie starts becoming more and more important to him. After Mr. Takamine is gone, Mafuyu really has no reason to be wandering about the manor; he could have stayed, despite Kirie screaming in his head, and waited for Miku to catch up to him. But he keeps going.
Some of this could be put down to his journalist or folklorist background, but not all of it. He's curious as well as compassionate, which is what drives him there in the first place. But I think he feels a connection to Kirie. We don't see everything he sees, none of his visions, except the early cutscenes. Kirie may well have shown him more of the time before she became an onryo, more than Miku sees in her cutscenes.
And even if he didn't while he was wandering about Himuro Mansion, he might have done so while he was trapped inside Kirie. When Miku defeats Kirie and purifies her, he seems startled, and not in the way that they've just ended up in the same time and can see each other. He seems almost deep in thought.
Kirie's choice to stay is what seems to spur him into motion. He is in love with her in such a way that he wants to be with her, forever. He wants to help her, he wants to be there with her. He likely knows he's going to die - probably has to die to be there with her. But it's what he chooses, ultimately, to stay with the being who had kidnapped him, because he can. Even if it's frustrating for the player, there is love in there, and possibly fate, and in some ways it even makes sense.