Fatal Frame meta for Fandom_Level, level 2

[estirose]

I finished Level 1 of fandom_level! My badge is above. Here's the post for the second level.

1: Bonds, or the importance of Misaki to Sakuya.

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Meta 1: Bonds

[estirose]

Missing pieces, or the importance of Misaki to Sakuya in Fatal Frame IV. 606 words.
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The games are full of bonds of one kind or another. There's the bond that ties the unhappy spirits to their locations. There's the bond that tie family members together, and likewise tie lovers together. There's also the bond that ties villain to hero, which pulls Mafuyu to Kirie, Mio and Mayu to Sae, and most significantly, Misaki to Sakuya.

Sakuya's tie to Misaki pretty much kickstarts the whole plot of Fatal Frame IV. While the rest of the protagonists of the series ended up in the various locations to find a love one or deal with their issues, Misaki was drawn there by a need to recover her lost memories and to figure out why the place was so important to her. She's missing a puzzle piece, just as the two puzzle boxes in the game are missing pieces.

As the plot goes along, we find out that Misaki's tie to the island was much deeper and odder than expected. Misaki was a seven year old "natural medium", as several doctors' notes put it, and she found a friend in fellow medium and psychic Sakuya, an adult also suffering from Getsyuu Syndrome/Luna Sedata Syndrome. Sakuya was Misaki's friend, giving her a doll in order to help her preserve her memories. As it turns out, both Sakuya and Misaki had an ability to put part of themselves in the doll, and the fact that both of them put themselves in a doll named Miya.

After Sakuya's death, after having caused the death of the remaining villagers, she roamed around the village. But she must have realized that one piece of her was missing, or at least something of her, and that part of her was Misaki. She was an extremely powerful ghost, having been a medium in life, and she finally ended up calling Misaki back. Misaki didn't know why she'd been called back, having lost all memories of herself before she was found, but she did know there Rogetsu Island was important to herself.

Misaki, during her time around the hospital/sanitarium, keeps running across Miya. She doesn't remember that Miya is a doll at all; in fact, all she knows is that this mysterious girl keeps showing up. As she goes through the game, she starts to recover her memories, first of Sakuya, and then of what happened. It's finally when she arrives down at the location of the Kiraigou ritual, the place where she first lost her memories, that she finally remembers Miya's significance to her and Sakuya. It's there where she fights a weaker manifestation of her friend, and defeats her temporarily.

And it's there that Sakuya comes back for her friend, her missing part. Misaki's last scene - unless you count the bit in the alternate ending of the game - is her picking up the doll Miya and remembering. Sakuya approaches her, hugging her, holding her, trying to be there for her and comforting her. It's probably one of the most tender, sweet scenes in the game, Misaki just sobbing and Sakuya silently holding her as needed. They're together, Sakuya being there for Misaki once more, holding onto the lost piece of themselves together.

In the regular ending of the game, we don't know of what happens after Sakuya disappears and Misaki collapses. Given the luck of supporting protagonists in the Fatal Frame games, Misaki likely dies and joins Sakuya in the afterlife, likely peacefully. In the Hard difficulty ending, she survives. But in any case, Misaki was the missing piece of Sakuya, and with her there, Sakuya can rest, whole and peaceful, as she should have a long time ago.