Talk:Seneschal/@comment-68.38.190.179-20140110203236/@comment-63.153.154.250-20140117003334

This is venturing into the foppish minefield of literary criticism, but has it occurred to you that maybe you cannot end the cycle? We might as well explore that possibility, since the story otherwise makes no sense. I mean, where does the dragon come from? The Seneschal? Presumably the Dragon is made from the soul of Arisen, but where does the first one come from after a new Seneschal shows up?

I see two possibilities. Either the Seneschal makes a lousy dragon just to make an Arisen he/she can turn into a dragon, a through foresight, or the appearance of the Dragon isn't really under the Seneschal's control. This is evidenced by the Seneschal saying that as their will to live fails the world grows colder, but countered by Grette's account that her will was overridden by the Seneschal. Maybe it's a bit of both. Perhaps the Dragon comes from elsewhere, the world beyond the Rift, perhaps even the domain of a greater Maker. Once arrived, though, it craves a new Arisen just as the Seneschal does, because it is now part of their world. Not that you could call it evidence, but the change in Grigori's eyes might be an allusion to that type of plot mechanic. When he shows up, they are blue, but once he sees the Arisen, they turn red. Dragon overrides mortal will, combined will overridden by Seneschal?

Honestly, who knows? What happens if no Arisen defeats the Dragon and they all take the bargain? One could say that the life of the Arisen's chosen goes to fuel the Seneschal's will, sort of a bestowal of bestowal of spirit (or so Selene's Arisen calls it) but what if nobody has a life to take? In an infinite ring, no matter how perfect, that is bound to happen somewhere, as it did with the Dragonforged.

From here, I see another two possibilities. The first is the most likely, and it is that I do not understand Japanese culture or why dragons are/were divine to them. I will only ever understand it as a Westerner can, which is to say superficially. Not that I place any blame on Westerners. If Anime is any indication, the Japanese have the same problem relating to us on a fundamental level.

The second is a Western interpretation. You cannot escape the will of a God. Even the Seneschal is not God. The Seneschal doesn't even know if there is a God, but you are told that during your reign you will see that all life disappears only to appear again. That's indubitably a bit of Buddhist influence, but for the purposes of the game it makes sense. The game goes on for as long as you will play it, and when you finally grow tired, a new Arisen will take your place. And so it is. What Ur-Dragon generation are we on? Last I checked it was 454 or something, though that may be entirely erroneous. You cannot end the eternal ring. Even if you grow tired of this game, your children's children will still be playing some iteration of it. Until then, you as the Seneschal give it the will to live.

It's a stretch, I know, rationalization if nothing else, but it does make sense. If you want the real brass tacks the reality of videogame design is that artists come up with things that budgets and programmers cannot possibly implement. You knew that, but it is fun to muse upon plot devices now and again, no?