A Hellion With No Purpose

A Hellion with No Purpose

I swear making Lunarre an aimless, wise-cracking Observer of All was the worst thing they could have done for his character. Even in the games he had a drive, while not particularly explored or examined, he at the very least had one. Namely, vengeance.

The anime, on the other hand, stripped Lunarre of his loyalty to, betrayal of, and ultimately his desire for vengeance against, the Scattered Bones and his former boss Rose. It stripped him, also, of his desire to pursue Alisha for longer than the plot would allow. Three episodes in and suddenly Lunarre is more interested in sightseeing along with Alisha than having her for dinner.

In so doing, Lunarre becomes little more than a stand-in for the audience. An observer with little to no influence on the plot unless the plot or, more specifically, Alisha focus, demands. He even outright declares himself an observer, and has little ambition to move from his solitary perch overlooking the plot at all unless pushed.

The rest of the time Lunarre is content with muttering to himself about what he sees and how excited he is, like a good audience-stand-in. As the Observer of All he adds precious little to nothing to the flow of the plot nor to his own character as the story progresses. It makes his sudden attempt at redemption at the end utterly baffling.

Lunarre also has a strange and utterly baffling habit of constantly questioning his own motives for being in whatever location he planted himself in, as if self-aware that his actions, as a fictional character, are controlled by the gods that are the Writers and so forth.

Unfortunately, it seems that Lunarre’s constant questioning of himself, even manifesting as rhetorical questions when asked directly who he is and what he is doing in such-and-such a place.

Example: In episode 20 of Season 2, Maltran asks Lunarre who he is. Lunarre’s response is quite literally ‘I wonder?’ It doesn’t occur to him to simply answer with his name.

From my perspective, there are two main problems with his anime portrayal.

Problem #1: His Brief Appearance as a Human

We are shown Lunarre as a human, working under Rose’s leadership as a member of the Scattered Bones. If the game is anything to go on, then like in the game Lunarre will have by this point been with the guild for two years.

This alone completely fucks with Lunarre’s identity crisis, as it appears.

He is onscreen as a human 54 seconds. I know, I timed it, including the time in which he was masked, fighting Alisha. 

From what we saw, Lunarre was loyal to Rose and a keen fighter, though unable to match Alisha. 

That, coupled with the fact that he is a member of an assassin’s guild and has likely been such for two years straight, calls into question how he could be anything but serious in his belief that he belongs to the Scattered Bones, that he is part of it. 

You don’t join something like an assassin’s guild for the luls, and you certainly don’t stay there two years when you’re not sure if it’s really the job you see yourself doing long-term. Rose certainly wouldn’t have tolerated someone like that in her guild. Game!Lunarre certainly considered himself a member until his behaviour got him kicked out.

So why does he leave? And why does he suddenly become the most uncertain man in the entire Zestiria universe?

Lunarre, as in the game, never removes his assassin uniform. He keeps his tie to the guild despite so abruptly and nonsensically leaving it, and he bears no grudge or ill will towards it or Rose. Neither what little we saw of his human life nor his transformation into a hellion give the audience any indication that he transformed and went rogue other than because he’s batshit crazy. 

Yes, there was a slight indication that Rose’s comment could have set him off, but it’s one comment, with no history of similar comments or treatment that might have made this particular comment mean anything. It certainly doesn’t give the weight necessary to give credence to the fact that LUNARRE BECAME A HELLION because of it!

If we had been given more insight into what could have been a mind steadily disillusioned with the assassin lifestyle, a man realising he is, for whatever reason (let’s say skill) the black sheep of the organisation. We could have seen how he feels belittled by Rose, perhaps, or underappreciated, or lacking in fulfillment. It would have gone a long way to explaining why Lunarre became a hellion after Rose told him he was ‘no match’ for Alisha.

Perhaps that is what they were going for, but it is so poorly conveyed it goes unnoticed under the maniacal cackling from the newly-transformed fox hellion.

Problem #2: No Time, No Effort, No Shits Given (Until it’s Too Late)

The identity crisis could have been a very interesting. it could have been a rare, intimate insight into a more in-control hellion’s mind. 

Lack of time and focus on him, even through other characters, who by and large forgot his existence until they discovered his dead body near the end of season 2, meant that his entire ‘arc’ was botched practically from the start. 

The smatterings of appearance he made only raised eyebrows from confused viewers, wondering what he’s still doing here. He either comments on what the audience can already see, or acts like a deranged lunatic simply content to watch cool shit go down. Only as the series draws close to its finale do the writers suddenly realise Lunarre exists and has had no resolution yet. 

Unfortunately, it falls flat on its face (much like Lunarre does as he dies) because there has been no build-up, no tension, no time or effort given to invest in his character before. Why should the audience give a shit now, when they have never been given a reason to prior?

When there has been no build-up, there cannot be any pay-off. At all. Only confusion, disbelief, and annoyance.

Thus, as the main cast inexplicably take time out to have a minute’s silence over Lunarre’s dead body, the viewer can only sigh and mutter “Can we just get on with it? Who the fuck is this guy anyway?”

hi there! in reference to your last post, rose's supressed resonance does extend to hellions - the dragonewt they fight in tintagel looks like a whirlwind to her until she starts perceiving mikleo, then sees dezel, then the dragonewt in the background, so it makes sense that she wouldn't have seen lunarre's hellion nature until that point.

Oh right, I forgot about that. Though by that logic wouldn’t Lunarre have also been similarly invisible, as a hellion, like the dragonewt? Though maybe there’s a difference between human-turned hellions and animal-turned hellions?

Send my muse a fear you see them having, and they will rate it from 0-10 depending on how much it frightens them.

0 being “I’m not scared of that at all” to 10 being “NOPE NOPE NOPE”

thetraitordemon:

“I suppose so.” He shrugged looking at the hellion’s excitement. Maybe he never heard much on Seraphim? Then how old are they?

Closing his eyes he shrugged. “Just how I am maybe. But I still wouldn’t stick my head in a lion’s mouth even if it doesn’t attack me at first. As for how you use that information I doubt there’s really much you can do with it. You’re not the Lord of Calamity, even if you were there’s still a slim chance on the seraph turning into a dragon. No one it that stupid to let that happen to them.”

He paused to think on the name, he has heard of them before on his travels. They were a guild of some kind.

Jerking his head back on the outburst he raised a brow. “Well I guess you are giving off that suffocating feeling now that I pay more attention.”

Lunarre scowled. Not quite the reaction he was hoping for, but then this was an old fart he was dealing with. An old fart who had seen far worse than Lunarre could imagine.

He sat down again, slightly put out, but curiosity got the better of him.

“Is it really suffocating?” he asked, with some pride. “What’s it made of, hm?”

Lunarre wasn’t a fool - he knew he had changed. He was gifted with strange powers, capable of feats that had until only recently been impossible. He was driven by the burning fire in his belly, fire that continued to grow within him each passing day. Some people could see him and were repulsed. Some could only see a normal man, as he had once been, and carried on their merry way oblivious. 

By the looks of things he was invisible to the majority of ordinary folk, with Kimuri one of the few exceptions. That suited Lunarre just fine.

Um, sorry, I have questions. 

Lunarre tells Sorey and Mikleo that he is no longer after Alisha. Presumably he made up his mind about this sometime along the way to Ladylake while being a highly unrealistic and convenient two steps behind the human princess, because Lunarre still referred to her as his ‘main dish’ before resuming pursuit in the previous episode.

Then again, Lunarre called her this in the prologue yet refrained from killing and eating his target, so honestly the term lost its meaning a while back.

But aside from the completely unexplained change of heart - remember, we know so little about Lunarre as a person that his transformation from human to hellion, from what we were shown, boils down to ‘because he’s loopy’ - where the ultimate question: 

WHY ALISHA?

Seriously, why her? What about her and her experiences is guaranteed a more interesting ‘spectacle’ than Sorey and the gang? If anything, Lunarre has deprived himself of infinitely more interesting conflict, drama and action by restricting himself to Alisha. Thank God this is the X anime and not the games! It’s only by sheer luck, plot contrivance, and an boosted Alisha focus that Lunarre gets to see some of the things encountered by the main cast that make him following her worthwhile.

Lunarre says he likes the princess, and in the dub elaborates that it’s her spunk and feisty attitude in particular that he likes. Aside from the fact that this is the man who not too long ago wanted the princess for dinner, how are these personality traits limited to the princess alone? Lunarre could easily find the same measure if not more of these in Rose or any of the other cast, who also struggle valiantly against adversity and despair. 

Rose, you would argue, would be more delectable to Lunarre’s taste (figuratively this time) as, in the anime, she wavers, she doubts, and she struggles enormously as her way of thinking and doing things is challenged. And she changes. But instead of turning into a hellion, as Lunarre would have expected, she dusts herself off and carries on. 

Alisha, on the other hand, never changes. She never wavers. She holds tight to her values and this works for her. From their conversation by the river in season 2, it is clear Lunarre cannot understand or relate to her.

And yet later we’re supposed to assume that his following Alisha somehow spurred the desire to do good within him. Sorry, I don’t buy it. Not only was there zero time to properly develop Lunarre’s character, nor a relationship between the two, but Alisha is precisely the wrong character to bring this change of heart about.

Rose, on the other hand, is the kind of hope someone like Lunarre could - consciously or otherwise - seek out. She has done many questionable and outright bad things in the past, her hands are definitely not the cleanest, and yet in spite of having her entire worldview turned on its head, she changes, and she does not give way to darkness.

So, with all that said, a final question:

WHY THE HELL DIDN’T HE FOLLOW ROSE INSTEAD?

And another thing: Is being a hellion a bad thing or not?!

The X anime doesn’t seem to think so. At least, as far as Lunarre is concerned. Of all the hellions encountered in the series, he seems to be the only one who isn’t negatively affected by his hellion status, and his behaviour does everything it can to convince you that it is literally the best thing that has ever happened to him.

The Problems:

Lunarre transforms from human to hellion in a fit of what the audience can only assume is pure madness. Lunarre is laughing like a maniac even before he transforms. He showed something of a sadistic streak when fighting with Alisha, again before he transforms. From this we can see that he is clearly unbalanced - but we know Rose would not allow someone like that to join her group, and if we assume Lunarre was a member of her guild for 2 years as in the game... what the hell happened to push him over the edge? Never explained! Was he always crazy and good at hiding it until the prologue? Does the hellion state just make happy crazy people happier and crazier? The end of season 2 (and Lunarre’s life) would have you see that Lunarre is actually not a happy man. A lonely man. Then... what? WHAT?

There is none of the emotional baggage or turmoil or despair that characterises literally everyone else who has become a hellion in the series. There are very few occasions in the anime where Lunarre isn’t smiling, and the times when he gets angry and throws a tantrum are generally related to Alisha, for reasons that are never explained. It is almost impossible to connect these moments of discontent to the effects of his hellion state.

X!Lunarre has two expressions: Loony Smile and I Will Murder Everything You Love (And Probably Eat It Too), with very few exceptions - the majority of which can be described as Whut?. This of course follows on from the above point. 

Until the about-turn in the closing episodes of season 2, Lunarre is having the time of his life. Having immediately gained full control over his powers, he uses them as he sees fit. He vaults and jumps around and yells like a wildman. He’s loving every second of life as a hellion, when his brethren live in misery. Slight anomaly? It’s a nice juxtaposition with Symonne, but with no explanation or context or anything we can’t understand why this difference exists.

If Lunarre is the exception to the rule that being a hellion is bad for you, why? Why is he special in that regard? If Lunarre is not the exception, we certainly don’t see evidence to suggest the contrary. Of all the hellions the main cast encounters, Lunarre is among the few most unique and interesting. The anime, sadly, does nothing to delve into his character at all. There are so many more questions than answers.

The Zestiria Game:

Even in the game it was at least somewhat clear that over time Lunarre’s mental state was rapidly deteriorating, even after he killed and ate Mason. Things went really downhill after he was confronted and punished by/kicked out of the Scattered Bones. 

The End Result:

All of the above throws crap in the face of the sudden about-turn X!Lunarre’s character undergoes literal minutes before he sacrifices himself.  If his entire character was merely a manic force of chaos, where did this desire to do good come from? There was no arc to speak of, no gradual progression to something more grounded or honourable. The anime shows us a disturbed, unstable human who after approx. 54 seconds turns into an even more unstable hellion with no room for whys or wherefores. 

Ironically in trying to make Lunarre more human/relatable as a character, the X anime made him a useless audience-stand-in, all style and little substance. He becomes little more than brilliantly animated window dressing, more distant and incomprehensible to the audience that he had been even in the original game.

Further confuses the concept of hellions for the audience, especially those who didn’t play the original game. Lunarre is the exception to literally everyone around him, but there are no answers for the questions his existence brings.