Ponderings on "In Happiness You'll Die"
May. 15th, 2014 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiroseCut because I don't think anybody reading me on a regular basis plays Fatal Frame, plus highly spoilery for parts of all three games (including canon/semi-canon endings).
Basically, the premise of the story is that Reika died fairly happily, but there's a bit of her that knows that Kaname was killed that she suppressed. Therefore, the Manor of Sleep came into being, but people die of being with their families/friends, not because they feel guilty for the most part as in canon.
So, I established early on that Miku was semi-immune because the person who she sought to be happy with, her brother, is a guardian at Himuro Mansion and so he can never take her to the final shore (the Sea of the Dead). I realized this afternoon that I might have a problem, because Mayu also became a guardian of sorts in the canon ending of II, therefore Mio should be immune as well. Except she's not!
Whoops.
And then I figured it out. Mafuyu is *the* guardian for Himuro Mansion; he acts as a protector for Kirie, and can't be replaced, therefore he can't go into the final afterlife/final shore like all the other deceased people. Mayu is a guardian as a crimson butterfly, but she's one of hundreds; if she goes into the afterlife with Mio, it's not the end of the world (or Minakami Village).
But what if the real Mayu wasn't there, and instead Mio is interacting with a memory of her sister? That could explain why Mio is not immune, because her anchor/guardian is not there like Miku's brother is. I do know that I have something similar for Reika, because there is a dream version of Kaname wandering around the mansion. Kaname left for the afterlife a long time ago (and even if he didn't, the "offering of tears" doesn't work because Reika doesn't know that Kaname died of his wounds right next to her - she doesn't dream of Kaname's body because Kaname's moving around).
The dream-Kaname is part of the conduit that the local hellgate inhabitants use to keep the place going. Reika knows that dream-Kaname is not her lost lover, but the curse makes her react as if he is even as she knows he isn't. (It's an echo of anxiety disorder - just because you know your anxiety is running away with you doesn't mean you can do anything to stop it. Or to use a Fatal Frame analogy, just because Rei knows that Miku's running after Mafuyu doesn't mean she can do anything to keep her from doing that.) Most of the time, Reika is sad because not only are people dying because of her - she did become a priestess to help people, partly, I think - but because she herself is forever cursed to react to dream-Kaname the way the cursed people react to their friends and relatives.
One of the things that the crew is going to be facing is that Reika needs someone to not only take her and dream-Kaname to the shore and push them out on the boat to go peacefully into death, but that person needs to be able to maintain the Manor. In essence, they become the guardian of the place for eternity, but it's no longer a place where people are cursed. It closes the hellgate in the dream world, but also traps the guardian in a dream place forever.
There are four current candidates for staying there: Miku, Mio, Rei, and Kiriko (the crawlspace lady), assuming that one of them can find their way there. Miku stands the greatest chance, because she's not as limited as the others (she can roam around without the desire to spend time with Mafuyu), but if she could find the way there and lead one of the others, one of them could choose to spend eternity as a guardian with their loved one. Kiriko has the least reason to do so, though if she did she'd have the most people there - she lost her entire family, pretty much. Rei could be with Yuu forever, Mio could be with Mayu forever (assuming that Mayu is there and not a dream image like Kaname, or if the butterfly-Mayu could be pulled from Minakami), and Miku could have Mafuyu and Yuu (Yuu's been around long enough that he might just be able to stay and be there for Miku - plus, if she or Rei stayed as final guardian, the other would be semi-immune and be able to visit him anyway).
I don't know who's going to die, but at least I think I have an idea. It's just going to be weird. As usual.
Basically, the premise of the story is that Reika died fairly happily, but there's a bit of her that knows that Kaname was killed that she suppressed. Therefore, the Manor of Sleep came into being, but people die of being with their families/friends, not because they feel guilty for the most part as in canon.
So, I established early on that Miku was semi-immune because the person who she sought to be happy with, her brother, is a guardian at Himuro Mansion and so he can never take her to the final shore (the Sea of the Dead). I realized this afternoon that I might have a problem, because Mayu also became a guardian of sorts in the canon ending of II, therefore Mio should be immune as well. Except she's not!
Whoops.
And then I figured it out. Mafuyu is *the* guardian for Himuro Mansion; he acts as a protector for Kirie, and can't be replaced, therefore he can't go into the final afterlife/final shore like all the other deceased people. Mayu is a guardian as a crimson butterfly, but she's one of hundreds; if she goes into the afterlife with Mio, it's not the end of the world (or Minakami Village).
But what if the real Mayu wasn't there, and instead Mio is interacting with a memory of her sister? That could explain why Mio is not immune, because her anchor/guardian is not there like Miku's brother is. I do know that I have something similar for Reika, because there is a dream version of Kaname wandering around the mansion. Kaname left for the afterlife a long time ago (and even if he didn't, the "offering of tears" doesn't work because Reika doesn't know that Kaname died of his wounds right next to her - she doesn't dream of Kaname's body because Kaname's moving around).
The dream-Kaname is part of the conduit that the local hellgate inhabitants use to keep the place going. Reika knows that dream-Kaname is not her lost lover, but the curse makes her react as if he is even as she knows he isn't. (It's an echo of anxiety disorder - just because you know your anxiety is running away with you doesn't mean you can do anything to stop it. Or to use a Fatal Frame analogy, just because Rei knows that Miku's running after Mafuyu doesn't mean she can do anything to keep her from doing that.) Most of the time, Reika is sad because not only are people dying because of her - she did become a priestess to help people, partly, I think - but because she herself is forever cursed to react to dream-Kaname the way the cursed people react to their friends and relatives.
One of the things that the crew is going to be facing is that Reika needs someone to not only take her and dream-Kaname to the shore and push them out on the boat to go peacefully into death, but that person needs to be able to maintain the Manor. In essence, they become the guardian of the place for eternity, but it's no longer a place where people are cursed. It closes the hellgate in the dream world, but also traps the guardian in a dream place forever.
There are four current candidates for staying there: Miku, Mio, Rei, and Kiriko (the crawlspace lady), assuming that one of them can find their way there. Miku stands the greatest chance, because she's not as limited as the others (she can roam around without the desire to spend time with Mafuyu), but if she could find the way there and lead one of the others, one of them could choose to spend eternity as a guardian with their loved one. Kiriko has the least reason to do so, though if she did she'd have the most people there - she lost her entire family, pretty much. Rei could be with Yuu forever, Mio could be with Mayu forever (assuming that Mayu is there and not a dream image like Kaname, or if the butterfly-Mayu could be pulled from Minakami), and Miku could have Mafuyu and Yuu (Yuu's been around long enough that he might just be able to stay and be there for Miku - plus, if she or Rei stayed as final guardian, the other would be semi-immune and be able to visit him anyway).
I don't know who's going to die, but at least I think I have an idea. It's just going to be weird. As usual.
