Tales (series)/Fridge

A reminder of the rules of Fridge Brilliance:

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• At first, this troper thought that Mithos turning into a bright and colorful killer robot at the end of Tales of Symphonia was just a nonsensical excuse for a final boss fight with multiple forms. Then after a while I remembered The traps that Mithos had set in Derris-Kharlan that pitted Lloyd and Co. against their inner demons (including actual physical fights with bright and colorful killer robots representing their inner demons.) While the group overcame them, we immediately see after each one that Mithos never could. So when he's beaten initially during the final boss battle, his inner demons rage out of control and continue the fight. -- Super Llama
  • • Or, it could be that Mithos's transformation was Mithos finally accepting his inner demons and allowing them to destroy his mind and body. Remember how much easier it was to beat that form than the first form?...
  • Tales of Symphonia is all about deconstructing the idealistic hero. Or maybe deconstructing the deconstruction. Lloyd is all set to break the seals and climb the tower until he realizes Colette is sacrificing EVERYTHING. However his idealism allows him to shed the thousands of years of war between the two worlds and find a common solution that satisfies both worlds. --Chadius
    • At least, for a time...
    • This troper had his own moment involving Dawn of the New World. While the setting may seem pretty bad, consider this: before the first game, at any given time, half the world was suffering famines and being overrun by Nazi-analogue Desians. Both problems you solve in the first game. A lot of the problems you cause in the process are solved in the second game. International politics may be tense, but your actions really have made the world better!
    • Remember how Lloyd gets bored with everything? Now, imagine if Lloyd isn't just the player character, but rather IS the player. Suddenly his comments become an excellent jab at how a new player will get excited over every single new feature that gets introduced, then quickly lose interest.
    • I had a realisation fo my own in regards to Lloyd's random angel wings at the end of the first game. While it could have also been an effect of taking Mithos' Cruxis Crystal upon the latter's death, surfing this site made me remember who Lloyd's father was: Kratos, an angel. That made me randomly think that Lloyd must have inherited something from his dear old dad. Then again maybe I'm just wrong.
      • I'm pretty sure it was a function of the Angelus Crystal (the Exphere gained from his mother), that he starts the game with.
    • Personally, I figured it had something to do with a mix of all three...
      • Hence why they're more than three times larger than normal wings. (After all, we have no idea if any of the three alone would have produced the same effect.) Also, every other angel in the game had "butterfly-type" wings, which have only one "bone line" (sticking straight out from the back^[1], and Lloyd had "bird-type" wings, which have three around the top. Rule of Three to it's logical extension?
  • When I first fought Vidarr, I thought that the music would be the main boss theme. Much to my surprise, it wasn't. Why would Vidarr deserve his own theme, especially since he dies after that fight? Then later, when I fought Yuan and Botta, they have the same theme. Okay, so why does a minor character get the same theme as one of the most important figures in the game? Only later do I realize that Yuan's claim that the Renegades were at the Martel Temple was true, and Namco was thinking in advance to put that as a tip-off. It is also the one and only sign that the plot is deeper than it seems for a good part of the Cliche Storm first third.
• Tales of Vesperia. Big time. It's genius how Estelle keeps nagging the party around to do her bidding because it deconstructs the idea of a nice, innocent princess entirely. Estelle might look like a cute little princess, but actually her desire to see the outside world and do... pretty much everything she ever does... is all born out of a selfish intent. So she's a Rebellious Princess without ever invoking the stereotype associated with it. Brilliant!
• It took me a while to figure out what bugged me about the plot of Tales of Vesperia, and only figured it out when I was talking with a friend: Yuri's subplot about whether killing people who are above the law, clearly deserve it, and need to die for the sake of others was "justice" seems to drop about two thirds of the way through the game and never really get picked up again. After thinking about it a lot, I realized it may not have been dropped -- it was resolved. Specifically, it's resolved when Yuri, knowing his hands have been dirtied and no one else will have the guts to do what has to be done, strikes out on his own to aer-filled Zaphias in order to kill Estelle, to prevent Alexei from torturing her and abusing her power to harm others. It's not justice, and the player knows it, and Yuri knows it, but it's something that has to be done, and he's the only one who can. Of course, this is a Tales game, and Estelle's your primary healer, so it's a given that he won't actually kill her - but setting it up to make it look as though he would makes the end result of this subplot that much more heartwarming. It may not be the most logical stretch of...logic, but I'm satisfied with the subplot as a result. --Wild Knight
  • To support this, look at the conversation Yuri has with Estelle about halfway through the game, after he and Flynn argue about Yuri's murders. Estelle says, in a bit of extremely blatant Foreshadowing, "If you ever end up pointing your sword at me, I'm sure you'd have a very good reason." The Tales games in particular do tend to keep their Plot Threads strung together by Arc Words and ideas and such, so doesn't it make sense that having Estelle say that, during the subplot about Yuri's murders, leads up to the "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight against her?
  • Additionally impressive when you realize that when Yuri talks to Phaeroh over his rationale for trying to kill Estelle he is essentially talking about himself and his subplot.
• In the early hours of Tales of the Abyss, the party has to remind Luke that it's "kill or be killed" on the battle field and that if taking a life is necessary for the greater good of Auldrant, that's what they have to do. So they kind of get the idea that "it's okay to take one life if it will save a thousand" stuck in the player's head. But then later on Tear becomes infected with Miasma and so if she continues to activate the passage rings, she'll eventually die, but she has to activate them to save Auldrant. The game switches it up on you and makes you think "Wait, what if that one person was someone dear to me? Would I let them sacrifice theirself as easily as those soldiers sacrified themsleves?" Brilliant!

1. ↑ Note that I am not trying to imply that butterflies have wing bones, I'm talking about how you might render/draw them