DATE: 1/24/99 at 1:13 p.m.
So I finished Myth II this afternoon, and all through the game I was very
suspicious of Alric. I don't know exactly what it was -- it didn't really help
when he decided to crown himself emperor of the Cath Bruig thingy. That seemed
pretty arrogant of 'im. So I was expecting him to turn around at the end and
turn out to be secretly in cahoots with Soulblighter or something, and of
course I was wrong. But I was thinking... okay, I don't know if this is right
but I figured I'd put it up here so other people could tear it apart and maybe
come up with something better. Um. Right.
So in TFL Alric gets grabbed by the Dark and, like, interrogated and stuff. Or
so 'e says. See, what I'm thinking is, at this point, Balor grabs Alric so he
can explain everything to him. You know, he sits him down and gives him the
Big Talk: "So, like, I'm the Leveler right now, but I used to be Connacht, and
back when I was that guy, the Leveler came and talked to me..." And basically
Balor tells him what's going on and how he, Alric, is going to be the big hero
for a while, but will eventually have to become the Leveler himself. And then
he more or less lets him go. (You'll remember how ridiculously easy it was to
"rescue" Alric -- mayhap that whole thing was just to keep us from being
suspicious.) We know that, at this point, Alric has learned a lot of stuff,
since he tells us as much. But what I'm proposing is that he's also been made
fully aware of his own role in the future of the whole Hero/Leveler affair,
and goes about playing his part as best he can. This is why, in Myth II, he
crowns himself emperor, has Balmung brought to him, yadda yadda yadda; he
knows that this is what he has to do. So the Heroes of each age always know
ahead of time what's going to happen. This isn't all that difficult to accept,
is it?
But then there's other stuff, like, what was up with showing Balor the
Myrkridian flag? Was Alric trying to take matters into his own hands, perhaps
trying to fool Balor into thinking he'd brought back the Myrkridia himself,
rather than let the Summoner do it sixty years down the line? If this is the
case, why? Why wasn't he going according to plan, if everything else he does
IS more or less according to plan? Furthermore, what's... you know, if you're
looking for coherency, go somewhere else, because I'm sort of leaving my
theory behind and just asking questions now. Anyway, what's up with
Soulblighter? My impression is that he'd wanted to be the big Hero / Leveler
guy, but he was pissed 'cause his boss Connacht got to do that. So now in Myth
II (and to some extent in TFL) he's trying to upset the balance of things and
just take over as Leveler anyway. So he's kind of competing with Alric in M2
for the future status of Leveling Guy. Questions: why did Soulblighter want
Balor's head at the end of TFL (Balor was clearly dead at that point, so what
good would it do if the head weren't destroyed)? How did Soulblighter contact
the Summoner even though he didn't have the Codex? Furthermore, why didn't we
learn *anything* about who the Summoner was? He was just... this guy. Who,
like, raised Myrkrida. Why? Where did he come from? What the hell?
My other and more farfetched idea is that when Alric got snatched, Balor just
plain killed him and sent out like this Hero spirit in his place. This doesn't
fit with what the journeyman in the M2 epilogue says, but presumably he got
his information from the Heroes, so they naturally wouldn't tell him the whole
truth, that in fact there was a Hero spirit as well as a Leveler spirit. That
would make the whole thing seem pretty pointless, and make it seem like all
the various races were little more than pawns in this big game devised by...
well, whomever. I'd like to know who's in charge of this whole Hero/Leveler
thing.
Also, what's up with Balor and Soulblighter being so similar? Remember that
picture from a loss screen in TFL where Soulblighter is holding Balor's head?
Take a look at that again. You'll see that if you ignore SB's facial scarring,
the two faces are remarkably similar (admittedly I'm mostly going on their
hairlines, but...). That's probably totally wrong and useless, but I figured
I'd toss that out there. Also note that SB now speaks in Balor's voice for M2
(my guess is that they just did that so you could understand what he was
saying... in TFL I had to read the subtitles whenever SB "talked"). Uhmm...
okay, that's it. I realize I'm not exacltly backing myself up with much
evidence, or even saying anything particularly coherent. Just... um. I can't
be arsed to put it all together myself, so help me out a bit if you could.
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MESSAGE: (#266) Re: Alric -- Quite the Weirdo
<http://myth.nontoxic.org/cgi/asylum/index.pl?review=266>
AUTHOR: Tlaloc
DATE: 1/25/99 at 1:42 p.m.
Reply To: (#260) Alric -- Quite the Weirdo
Author: Gherrit
Date: 1/24/99 at 1:13 p.m.
Well, I remain ignorant as to the extent of control the spirits of the Hero
and Leveler have over their "hosts" (assuming that "the Leveler" and "the
Hero" just aren't simple labels). For instance, during the War, did Alric
remain "Alric", and not just the Hero incarnate, impersonating the avatar? Or
some combination of both, with Alric being led like a dog to whatever destiny
the Hero/Leveler balance has in store...? Whatever the case, I don't really
see Alric just filling the role given to him in the Big Leveler Talk, without
some kind of outside influence. ;)
As for Alric crowning himself emporer, yes, I agree, this does seem rather
insolent (and in context with the Myth storyline, insolence seems to hint at
evil). But which of the two spirits compels him to do this? Obviously not the
Hero; the Leveler has been toppled, which is the Hero's purpose, no? And the
Leveler only destroys, and thus has no interest with being "emporer." Just
Alric's human(?) nature compelling him to total power? On a similar note, I've
always been curious about the gray area between the Hero and the Leveler,
like, what the hell happens, when does the leveler take over, and the rest.
Heh, doesn't look like I'll say anything particularly coherent and meaningful,
myself. But. Whatever.
My order for Myth II hasn't gone through yet, so I haven't had the pleasure of
playing it; they've replaced SB's voice? Shitty. I liked SB's voice.
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To be continued . . .