CONTINUATION OF: Games and the Philosophy of Love - Part 2
VI.
Love, indeed, is a very confusing creature. It causes characters to be become different yet the same. It causes characters to go beyond possibilities and attempt impossibilities. It causes characters to be both protectors and destroyers. Love has pushed them to the boundaries of what could be called good and evil. What then to make of love?
The single most powerful scene in Final Fantasy VIII is when we see Rinoa floating in space, helpless, after setting free the witch trapped in space. She clearly understands that she is going to die, probably fitting for what she has just done, and almost silently resigns to her fate. For one entire scene she drifts across the screen in utter silence. And then, in a moment without a thought, Squall leaps into space in his space suit in an attempt to be with Rinoa. He leaps to her through space and finally reaches her, half dead, and seems focused on the breaths of Rinoa condensing on her suit visor.
The game shows us Squall, probably the greatest video game character to ever fear love. But, as the game progressess, we see a slow evolution of character so much in fear of love that he rejects and avoids it. He never really realizes before that point that he is slowly changing: his shell of isolation is opening slowly. Rinoa, as the catalyst for his transformation, is the only one who could pierce his shell and show him that if there is anything to fear, it is the fear of not having love. Squall was clearly leading his life to self-destruction, and despite all the people who had shown any concern for him, it was only Rinoa who could show him the light and save him.
Throughout the game monstrosities are clearly evident. The cast has killed numerous people, has defied national policies and even their own schools. Despite all that, their humanity still exists.
This is the saving power of love.
Hoelderlin says: "Where danger is, grows the saving power also." It is her breath, at that moment in space, that symbolizes the saving power of love. That breath of air that shows life, and the leap of faith across space, is love itself. It is a piercing scream that says "I want to live and love! I don't want to die!" The desire to breathe and live is its showcase.
At the moment that Rinoa strives to stay alive, and when Squall enters the nothingness to save her, the saving power of love becomes clear. It becomes clear that despite all the confusions of love, all the killing that has occured due to love, love can still save. What does it all mean?
It is the loved, the one to whom our love is directed to, that saves us. Her breath, her hug, her kiss, her heartbeat, among so many things, are the only things that return us to our humanity after the killing and murder is said and done. Love forces us sometimes to do these things, but it is this love in the form of the loved that saves us from them us well. As mentioned in with James in Silent Hill 2, it is his wife, despite being dead, that allows him to retain his sanity after all that he has done and experienced. In FFVIII, despite all the things both have done, it is both that would save each other.
The risk must be taken. All these games mentioned characters who took the risks they needed to make. It is in these love risks can they hope to return to their true humanity despite what things they would be forced to do. It is in the moments within those extremes of love when the love is finally understood and truly felt does the return to the human self occur. It is by risking danger and ethics that it becomes possible to finally reach the essence of humanity: LOVE.
It is in the end of Final Fantasy X that the note strikes. We learned that Tidus was simply a dream made real by Sin. With Sin now destroyed, he begins to fade as the dreams begin to cease. Yuna refuses to part, attempts to catch him, but goes through him and falls. She begins to cry. At that moment, that very moment, the transparent Tidus hugs her from behind. He might be spirit now, but she feels his final embrace before he finally leaves. She weeps as he leaves.
Kant says: "Do what is right, though the world may perish". It is in this exact, precise moment, that their humanity is returned. At the exact point that Tidus ceases to be, at the edge of non-existence and death, does his humanity return to him. He may have been a dream, but this sacred, indisputable moment of caress and tenderness, despite all the extremes he had to endure for the sake of love, does he become HUMAN again.
To point out Kant's statement is probably going over the top, but the message is clear: To love is to place everything into danger, fully aware of the great horrors and monstrosities that may occur, in the hopes of arriving at something beyond the endangered: the love and life of the ones we love.
To me, love can follow no other route.
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