Good or Evil?

Discuss the saga of Algo, where the legend began.

Good or Evil?

Postby Thoul » Sun Apr 1, '07, 11:45 pm

Here's another topic that used to be debated a lot on an old board I used to visit. Throughout the PS series, there is a recurring theme of people becoming evil by submitting to corruption, knowingly or otherwise. In PSIII, Siren, Lune, and Rulakir showed some evidence of this, but all of them eventually escaped control of the evil that held them. PSI's backstory says the same of Lashiec and the Governer is possessed in game. In PSIV, there is Zio's church, where people fell under his sway and were freed after his death.

But what about the other major villians, were they always evil or did they also fall into corruption after originally being good or neutral? Take the Profound Darkness, for instance. It's certainly as nasty as can be by the time it appears in PSIV. Just look at poor little Mile, the town that turned into a big hole. But, did it start out that evil or did it become warped after being imprisoned for so long?
User avatar
Thoul
Administrator
Administrator
 
Posts: 12923
Joined: March 2007
Location: USA
Achievements: 123
Gender: Male

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby Neithird » Tue Apr 3, '07, 9:14 pm

I suppose it's something we can't really know, at least with the Profound Darkness. It was locked away for a long time, millions of years probably. Maybe it started out bad, maybe not. It doesn't matter, because it's pure evil well before the end.

The Earthmen probably didn't start out bad. They seem to have regrets about messing up their own world. They might have been blind to their own wrongdoings there, who knows? By the time of PS2, I think they're more insane than evil. They claim to want Algo for their own, but then destroy a third of it and a huge chunk of the population. They're beyond redemption and have fallen too far when Rolf and crew catch them.
:clyde: · · · :pacman: · · · · · · ● · · · · :inky: · · ·
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." ~ Optimus Prime
Neithird
Sage
Sage
 
Posts: 1068
Joined: March 2007
Location: United States
Achievements: 21

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby The $ Avenger » Sun Jun 10, '07, 1:02 am

This is an interesting topic! I'd say that all forms of Dark Force have always been evil, assuming they spawned from the already corrupt Profound Darkness. During La Roof's talk on Rykros, there's some suggestion that perhaps the Profound Darkness wasn't evil at first as it was once united with the Great Light.

As for the Earthmen, I'd agree that they were once good, but were corrupted.

It was either at camineet.net or phantasy-star.net that I read an interesting idea. It had to do with Aron's PSIII ending where the ship goes through a black hole to Earth. It suggested the DF on the Alisa III was only suppressed at the end of PSIII and would return in 1000 years. Because of this, the theory suggested the Alisa III had to have gone back in time to find a populated Earth, (since in PSII the Earthmen have abandon it,) and that the Earthmen were corrupted when they made contact with the Alisa III carrying DF, and that the Earthmen used the Alisa III to go to Algo, thereby arriving in Algo to become the villians of PSII.

That was long and convoluted, but I think I got they gist of it correct.
"Impossible is just a word people use to make themselves feel better when they quit." Vyse, Skies of Arcadia Legends.
The $ Avenger
Esper Elder
Esper Elder
 
Posts: 990
Joined: June 2007
Achievements: 7

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby Thoul » Wed Jun 13, '07, 9:31 pm

Ah yes, I remember that theory. It's kind of weird, because it holds that this Dark Force was "born" around the time Palma was destroyed, went on the ships, and then came back from Earth to destroy Palma.

I suppose it is possible, but it seems odd to me that Dark Force would have waited so long to destroy Palma if this theory were correct. He would have arrived in Algo from Earth hundreds of years before PSII, so he could have struck much earlier... it's a neat idea, but I think it has some holes like that.
User avatar
Thoul
Administrator
Administrator
 
Posts: 12923
Joined: March 2007
Location: USA
Achievements: 123
Gender: Male

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby Rune Sa Riik » Wed Jun 13, '07, 10:21 pm

As far as I remember from PS: Compendium in the very begining there were neither Great Light nor Profound Darkness. There were two beings that fought each other. And when one being won it sealed another into another dimension and put Algo as a seal. Defeated being started to gain hatred towards the winner and turned into Profound Darkness. The victor was called Great Light as opposite of Darkness and Creator of Algo.
And about earthmen. In my opinion, Noah was built from the parts of Alisa III. So that means that they brought Dark Force with them. I think earthmen hadn't any evil plans in the begining of their journey but Dark Force that lurked on Noah started to spoil thier minds.
Please, excuse my terrible grammar! =)
User avatar
Rune Sa Riik
Shopkeeper
Shopkeeper
 
Posts: 55
Joined: April 2007
Location: Russia
Achievements: 2

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby The $ Avenger » Wed Jun 13, '07, 11:59 pm

Yeah, why would Dark Force wait to wreak havoc? I think the response from that camp is that Dark Force is dormant except for the 1000th year of the cycle, and that's why the Earthmen could set out with good intentions, and be corrupted along the way. I'd like to hear Sega's take on it since it's their material.

Rune Sa Riik: Hmm. If the Great Light only got that distinction as a title for defeating its' counterpart, perhaps there is room to say that the Great Light could be a villain in a future game? That's the only plot I can think of to keep the time-line going forward in Algo and still have an enormous foe, (although a very weak, and questionable one.) Maybe Chaz was right to be reluctant?
"Impossible is just a word people use to make themselves feel better when they quit." Vyse, Skies of Arcadia Legends.
The $ Avenger
Esper Elder
Esper Elder
 
Posts: 990
Joined: June 2007
Achievements: 7

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby Rune Sa Riik » Thu Jun 14, '07, 10:49 am

The Komrade, you read my thoughts. Actually, our small group of Russian PS Fans try to create sequel of PSIV. And Great Light is the main villain in this game =) Well, it is offtopic.

And I want to ask the question about Seth. What do you think, Seth excisted as normal human before DF captured him, or he was created by Profound Darkness as a trap for Chaz and company?
Please, excuse my terrible grammar! =)
User avatar
Rune Sa Riik
Shopkeeper
Shopkeeper
 
Posts: 55
Joined: April 2007
Location: Russia
Achievements: 2

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby Thoul » Thu Jun 14, '07, 4:41 pm

I think Seth was created entirely by the Darkness. It's been ages since I played that part, but I remember hearing someone say that if you take Seth to other places, like the Academy, no one knows who he is. Dark Force can possess a human (like PSI's Governor), but in this case I think it was just a mask.

Yeah, why would Dark Force wait to wreak havoc? I think the response from that camp is that Dark Force is dormant except for the 1000th year of the cycle, and that's why the Earthmen could set out with good intentions, and be corrupted along the way.


Possible... but that doesn't seem too likely to me. Rulakir was sustained by Dark Force for a thousand years after DF's last defeat. And that's while DF was sealed, but after the game he's running around free. He is weakened and may spend a lot of time recovering strength, but dormant is one thing he definitely isn't.
User avatar
Thoul
Administrator
Administrator
 
Posts: 12923
Joined: March 2007
Location: USA
Achievements: 123
Gender: Male

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby The $ Avenger » Fri Jun 15, '07, 2:06 am

Rune Sa Riik wrote:The Komrade, you read my thoughts. Actually, our small group of Russian PS Fans try to create sequel of PSIV. And Great Light is the main villain in this game =) Well, it is offtopic.

Ha, interesting!
Rune Sa Riik wrote:And I want to ask the question about Seth. What do you think, Seth excisted as normal human before DF captured him, or he was created by Profound Darkness as a trap for Chaz and company?

I think this one is open to some conjecture, since we have examples like Zio and Lassic/La Shiec, who both retain a human form despite some form of possession, and the Motavian governor, who becomes a DF. I agree with Thoul though, that Seth was a being creating by the PD. That Dark Force has all the same skills Seth had, and I'd think if Seth was merely possessed that his human body would return after defeating that DF, like the Motavian governor.

Thoul wrote:And that's while DF was sealed, but after the game he's running around free. He is weakened and may spend a lot of time recovering strength, but dormant is one thing he definitely isn't.

Indeed, you're absolutely right. During PSIII somewhere the game says that this DF had been going around destroying all the other Palman ships.
"Impossible is just a word people use to make themselves feel better when they quit." Vyse, Skies of Arcadia Legends.
The $ Avenger
Esper Elder
Esper Elder
 
Posts: 990
Joined: June 2007
Achievements: 7

Re: Good or Evil?

Postby Tsunami » Fri Jun 15, '07, 7:30 am

Thoul wrote:Possible... but that doesn't seem too likely to me. Rulakir was sustained by Dark Force for a thousand years after DF's last defeat. And that's while DF was sealed, but after the game he's running around free. He is weakened and may spend a lot of time recovering strength, but dormant is one thing he definitely isn't.

This is why I'm itching to read a completely translated PSIII script! In the Japanese version, Rulakir had also been sleeping for 1,000 years using cryogenics, just like Lune and Alair. Also makes me question most things in the game, since not much is true to how it should've been... I really wish I knew Japanese. :\

[rurakiru] [sa] leak
Older brother of twins of [orakio]. In the 3rd generation it awakes from freezing sleep. You ask the fall of the world from the sorrow which loses the wife and children in the war of thousand years ago, for reviving [dakuhuarusu] you mean with to secretly maneuver.

Good ol' Japanese Wiki, had to have the page's contents translated, though. That's why sentences are weird. Still, it's readable and that works for me.
Tsunami
Numan
Numan
 
Posts: 1683
Joined: May 2007
Achievements: 22

Next

Return to Classic Series

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests