(SPOILER WARNING!!)
I think that I've made it clear in the past that I'm not particularly fond of Kamen Rider Ghost, and one of those reasons was the fact that Adel, the eldest prince of the Ganma World, is one of the worst villains in the entire franchise (that I had seen, at this point; maybe someone in Zi-O will be worse). But one of the reasons why he is such a waste of a villain is his sudden moment of redemption.
Essentially, Takeru is somehow able to forge a connection with him and reminds Adel of his long dead mother and brother, which somehow snaps him out of his stupor and he suddenly doesn't want to be a villain anymore. Thus, while the Ganmaizers somehow overtake Adel's body, Takeru is allowed to deal the finishing blow that kills Adel and somehow he ends up going to Ganma Heaven or wherever the fuck a Ganma goes when they die.
Have I mentioned that this show does not explain ANYTHING about how the Ganma World works?
But yeah, for no reason, Adel is just forgiven of regicide and potential genocide and he's suddenly supposed to be a sympathetic character. This, however, fails, as we were never alluded to the idea that Adel had any form of sympathy or empathy, or even the whole dead relatives thing that in no way relates to Adel's scheme of making everybody him. We were never given the impression that Adel ever regretted his actions throughout the series, and thus never feel sorry for him when he breaks down crying and allows Takeru to kill him.
But of course, this blog is more about a revelation I've had about Adel as well as why he was a terrible villain. Namely, as I've seen this exact character type done before to great effect, with how it was done correctly.
Here's some hints; a prince, themes of death, ideology twisted by sociopathic influences, is revealed to have a tragic back story, is meant to be a figure of sympathy and regret by the end.
You know who that reminds me of?
Yes, really. I've just described, word for word, the characters of both Adel from Ghost and Asriel Dreemurr from Undertale, as both are actually eerily similar.
Ignoring the fact that both Undertale and Ghost were first released in 2015, Asriel and Adel are actually quite similar in their purpose; an all powerful being who wants to change the nature of reality itself. This difference, of course, is that Adel simply does what he does out of his own ego to make everyone him, whilst Asriel wants to constantly reset the timeline so that they always have the chance of facing off against Frisk.
But see, here's where the two continue to diverge, and this will involve spoilers for the True Pacifist Route for Undertale (which I have not addressed yet as I haven't wrote the next part of my Undertale review [it likely isn't coming]). So if you aren't aware of the ending, you have been warned; there are massive spoilers.
Anyways, Asriel is the long dead son of Toriel and Asgore. Sometime before he died, however, he befriended a human that fell into the Underground; Chara. The child was able to convince Asriel to go through a crazy scheme that would involve Chara poisoning themselves and having Asriel absorb their soul so that they can return to the surface, gather six human souls, and return to break the barrier preventing the monsters from returning to the surface. Upon arriving at a village, however, the townsfolk blamed Asriel for Chara's death and attacked him, eventually forcing him to return back to the Underground where he turned to dust, said dust covering Asgore's yellow flowers. One flower, however, was used in Alphys' Determination experiments and thus, life was given to that flower, who would eventually be known by us as Flowey. Flowey retained all of the memories he had when he was Asriel, but was incapable of feeling compassion and empathy. This could be chalked up to him either being a completely soulless monster, or some leftover influence from Chara.
That last point is relevant for later, trust me.
Still, at the end of the True Pacifist Route where everyone finally meets one another and stops the fight between Asgore and Frisk, Flowey shows up; stealing the human souls as well of the souls of every monster in the Underground to finally regain his original form as Asriel, with him beginning his plans to reset the timeline over and over again just so they can play this little game with Frisk (whom he actually believes is Chara).
But do you want to know WHY exactly Asriel is what could've happened if Adel was in any way competently written?
Well, it's namely because Asriel is actually a sympathetic character and evidence in the game show him as more of a victim of the machinations of a sociopath.
See, Asriel himself admits that Chara was not a good person, as they wanted to use the monsters to wipe out humanity and have a semblance of peace. When Asriel carried Chara's soulless body back up to the surface to be laid on a patch of golden flowers, Asriel wasn't the one in control; Chara was. Chara was trying to force Asriel to use their new God-like powers to destroy humanity at their own leisure. Asriel, however, simply refused, which was what lead to his death and his ashes being spread on Asgore's garden. This not only paints Chara as a complete and utter sociopath, but also allows the players to have some of sympathy with Asriel as it's clear that everything he did as Flowey was merely a result of him going insane without the ability to feel any compassion towards other creatures, as well as the left over influence from Chara that twisted his goals into becoming the God of Hyperdeath (yes, really).
Furthermore, even before the revelation in the True Pacifist ending of Flowey being Asriel, we were still allowed the chance to sympathise with Asgore once we learned of the entire reason as to why he wanted to see humanity die; he was grieving over the death of his children and, in a fit of rage, swore to everyone in the Underground that human kind would pay. Heck, even during the Neutral and True Pacifist runs, there were illusions to Asriel's existence and the importance he had in the story.
Namely, after Frisk is left unconscious when they lose Undyne in a fall.
Ignore the "Joseph" bit, that was just the guy playing the game. But I hope that this helps you understand where I'm coming from, right?
This is what culminates in one of the most heart breaking moments in the game, when Frisk realises the main reason why Asriel is trying to RESET the timelines over and over again; it's not because he wants to keep killing Frisk, but because Asriel had yet to truly accept that Chara was truly gone.
Chara was the only friend that Asriel ever had in the Underground, and losing them rocked his world to the core. He wants to be able to relive those memories again and again, even if it meant hurting other people. It was only because he was finally able to feel compassion, thanks to him absorbing all of the Souls in the Underground, that he was able to accept that he was just afraid of really saying goodbye to the person he cared about the most, even when he acknowledges that Chara wasn't really a good person, as they manipulated Asriel into trying to destroy humanity.
But do you want to know what truly sets Asriel apart from Adel? It's this:
He earnestly, and honestly, earned his forgiveness, not through any story contrivances, but through his own machinations with him destroying the Barrier. He earned his redemption, because he actually tried to make amends for everything he has done, at the cost of his own happiness. After he used up all of those Souls, he would eventually turn back into Flowey, but he willingly made that sacrifice for the everyone else's sake.
Which is why, after everything he had gone through and everything he did to earn our forgiveness, I always have Frisk do this:
That simple few seconds of Frisk comforting Asriel is one of the most touching and heartwarming parts of the entire game, as it shows how you're supposed to do the whole "sudden villain redemption" troupe that I often otherwise despise. They built up to this moment, and thus it was earned.
Adel, in comparison to all of this, never deserved anything less than my ire and distrust. It was never alluded to that he missed his family, thus it makes no sense as to why we should suddenly feel sorry for him. There was never a point where Adel realised the error of his ways, but was instead forced by the narrative to suddenly be a crybaby brat. And of course, after he "saw the error of his ways", he never actually did anything to earn our sympathy or forgiveness, as the story was so hastily rushed that Adel never even got the chance to show his change, hence why it's so difficult for the audience to sympathise with him.
In short, everything that was done right with Asriel was done completely wrong with Adel. When an Indie game often derided because of its fanbase can do this story far better than a TV series with themes of death, you know you done fucked it up.
I'm not saying Adel has to be a word for word copy of Asriel; I'm saying that Asriel is an example of how to do the "fallen hero turned to villain" troupe far better.
Still, that's just the revelation I had only recently, maybe other people who've watched Ghost and played Undertale had that revelation before me. For all I know, it could just be me.
But until we next meet; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!
[You have finished reading the review; you are filled with DETERMINATION!]
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