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Everybody remembers that one person who made life torture for you. And you'll call them evil, most likely. But have you ever tried to understand that person? I tried, but...
I couldn't empathise with him for the people he slaughtered whilst laughing and cruelly degrading their will to live. I couldn't understand him, because I've never had to see the brutalising graphics of my own Mother being raped and a sister being produced of it. I certainly couldn't understand why he simply had to feed his bloodlust because I've never sheathed my sword in a harmless person. But I could understand why I loved Luca Blight's tyranny in Suikoden II.
Revenge is dish best served with a sword to your throat.
Luca Blight's goal wasn't so masterminded on a specific magical relic that would threaten all humanity, like other villains were. He didn't have some craved love for one of the pretty damsels and relentlessly tried to kidnap her. His soul had been carved over his painful childhood memories, and his revenge consumed his wayward soul to that he eventually became a monster in his own skin. Luca Blight may have claimed he craved world domination or a burning rage of control of everything before his eyes, but it was merely part of his ruthless onslaught against his own pain. "The mad prince." he was branded.
The son of King Agares Blight, the ruler of Highland. Usually Princes blossom into charming, eloquent young men who romance the flustering females before taking his place as rightful King. This is where Suikoden II really delivers the tale, uncut. King Agares was a ruthless dictator himself and fuelled a blazing war with Jowston. Everything is not all clean swords and shields as one night, during an ambush by hired rogues Agares' Royal entourage was swept by an attack. Agare's wife, Sara and Luca were kidnapped while Agares fled for his life. They were held prisoner in dirty cells and subjected to ill treatment. What was worst thing about it? Sara was repeatedly raped in front of Luca's eyes and the result was his sister, Jillia. And so a monster emerged after discovering Muse hired the rogues. When other teenagers were throwing stroppy tantrums, Luca was swinging his sword to the chime of his inextinguishable torment.
Though never actually mentioned, but hinted at in Suikoden II, having a villain drenched in their own personal tragedy was astonishing. Once I learned of Luca's past, everything he did in the game resounded in many ways I still can't digest. Before I could condemn him and feel euphoric pleasure in killing this psychopath. But suddenly, I emotionally couldn't muster enough strength to watch this man perish everything in sight anymore. Luca's defining moments of true cruelty and evil acts became a topic that my stomach found hard not to retch. When he callously forces a woman to crawl before him, imitating the noises of a pig and toying with her life - only to then horse laugh and viciously murder her was no longer just an evil moment in a video game. It was utterly painful. And watching him lean over the little Pilika, ready to cut her throat almost made me teary because of the mangled pain I felt watching this broken person. The moment Luca took his retribution to murdering his own Father he reveals his severed feelings by screaming how he felt his Father betrayed him. "You ran away while Mother and I were disgraced!" and after Agares' death coldly tells his sister "Why do you cry Jillia? He wasn't even your real Father."
There were times (if you knew this backstory) where you would get a glance of the hidden Luca. His words also spoke more volumes than a simple madman at certain points in the game. "Let me tell you something. There are weak men and strong men in this world. The strong men take everything and the weak men die. That's how the world was designed." was his philosophy, obviously referring to his own memory of what happened to his Mother and something that he guzzled down from his Father. When he said the famous quote "I don't care about breeding. A sword doesn't need a fine lineage, it just needs to be sharp." there is just an immense sense of angst and bitterness in his words that you really can't shake.
Luca Blight's last hour alive was one of the most memorable (and poignant) scenes out of RPG history alongside Aeris Gainsborough's death in my eyes. His demon strength may have been exaggerated like the book of cliche villainy suggests (eighteen people and a shedload of arrows it took to finally defeat him) but his last words were truly touching in the most ironic of ways. Before the final duel, when Luca is alone and wounded, I almost felt pity. "Fear is a stupid emotion." he snapped. I suppose we've all considered that at one point, but Luca? A perfect statement surely? He had nothing to fear. And even after he lost the duel and was on the verge of death, he still wouldn't be submissive and said one of the most haunting lines (delivered excellently by the chilling music) ever "It took a hundreds of people to kill me yet I killed by the hundreds. I am the true face of evil."
Almost? I wonder. The fact that he allowed his sister Jillia to live despite the fact she was the face of her traumatic past was something of an enigma. He was even civil towards her. And the saddest thing that even if she was one of the only shred of happiness for him, in the end she was so repulsed by him that she plotted for his death.
Cliche as it sounds I'll never forget that line or how I felt not satisfied, but mellow now that he was dead. It was like finally sloughing through rubble to find that trapped person underneath. I really revel when a character tugs me into the adventure I'm playing, and I make no excuse for being overly emotional or passionate in games I play. Luca Blight was the true face of evil, a beautiful depiction. Evil at it's most sublime. Cliche? I wouldn't say so. Luca despised the world, but only the world where he watched the vicious and most cruel side of it all. Luca's name is apt. The meaning of the word blight is of the following:
- Obscure malignant influence. Luca would have adopted this meaning by the tragic events that he and his Mother endured.
- Affect with blight. Destroy, spoil. This would be what Luca ran on. Not life, not love and certainly not happiness. Luca ran on steam and destroyed villages and slain the innocent people, remember?
- Disease of the plant caused by the insects. A possible reference to his Mother's rape? Doesn't Luca see the people he callously murders as insects?
To be blunt, I love to hate Luca, but part of me hates to like him. I don't sympathise with Luca. I don't understand his motivation because then, part of me would understand why all those innocent people he slaughtered had to die because of his hatred. And I don't think that Luca is better off anywhere else than death. But I do (and I mean this...affectionately) think that Luca was one of the treasures RPG characterization had to offer on its china plate. To me, he spreads his jagged wings above all villains (and defies stereotyping) and will remain the greatest enemy I faced: The foe who stole my heart.
It's a pity that Suikoden II didn't portray this key segment of Luca's life, but I'm glad that the subtext was there at least. Shifting the rules of attraction from protagonist to antagonist is hard, but the game pulled this off. With Luca, with Neclord (he was just designed as a creature) and with Leon Silverburg - a man who shifted from good to bad just to stamp his name into the books of history, to be remembered. It wasn't for anything else than for a reason to live.
On my hand were the fingers that counted the villains who resounded with me - and all but one broke the mould against the countless odds; Luca Blight. The mad prince. This editorial was mostly conformed by my own deep feelings, I felt as if I had to mention this man. It's my answer, but more of a wander back into the darkest shade of villainy.
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