#also i said thinking but truthfully i think i'm always head empty i'm incapable of thinking properly

[mistbow]

Okay I can’t say this enough but Sorey as the protagonist really embodies the themes and messages of Zestiria so well that it feels like you can’t truly like Zestiria if you don’t like him. He’s the narrative itself, he might as well be called “Tales of Zestiria” the character.

As an anniversary title, Zestiria puts emphasis on inheriting from your legacy and how to evolve and build on top of that legacy respectfully. From this you can see why the developers would draw inspirations from actual history, and since it’s the Japanese history they’re intimately familiar of, they went with it.

Japanese history has always been highly influenced with spirituality, that’s a fact that Zestiria also tries to bring up. We’ve come so far in these modern times, but that’s also thanks to the many eons of traditions that we’ve exactly come a long way. Think about it, the time we get to live is so short compared to how long the world has lived and will live (yet the world is also still young, it still continues to evolve), recorded in history or not. We’re all connected from the past to the future. If we forget about it and don’t show the gratitude, who will?

I’ve talked about “born Shinto, die Buddhist” but that’s how uniquely pluralistic the Japanese society is. It’s not even moving from one to the other, because both are still practiced, even though people in the modern times often think they don’t have time for things like these anymore.

On one hand, Shinto is really all about how sacred this world is, and that includes your life, so please cherish yourself as well. It is exactly because Sorey, as a mere human who really is not all that special in the larger scheme of things (yet he’s still part of this world, the only one he has), has pure appreciation for the world around him, excitement and curiosity for the mysteries yet to unfold, and the eagerness to pass this feeling onto others that he’s in tune with himself and conscious of the way of the 神. Living in harmony. On the other hand, death is an inevitability of human condition, and Sorey, as the 導師 (a word that also specifically means Buddhist monk for funerals in Japan, as mentioned before), has come to regard death as a way of salvation. Death is often seen as something so sad, so unfortunate, but he has learned that perhaps it can be a release for some. Life is beautiful, life is sacred, but life is also suffering. That is just being human.

This ties in nicely with what he wants to do and what he needs to do. There is passion in both. The things he wants to do, it’s because he knows life has so much more to offer out there, and he has plenty of time and energy for all that! The things he needs to do, it’s because he took upon that responsibility himself, and with that he has to accept viewpoints and approaches he might have had a hard time agreeing with before, but thanks to those his horizons widened and again, death is an inevitability, it must happen. However, both of these don’t exist in vacuum, they’re both interlinked. Both of these are what make a human, human. The more you respect life, the more you respect death. The more you respect death, the more you respect life. A balance is needed here, and in the end, he doesn’t tip the scale too far in one direction, yet he doesn’t lose a sense of himself.

Then you have both Shinto and Buddhism teach you on how to conduct your own self, in relationship to your life, mostly. But you’re not alone, there are others, and they’re different, that should be celebrated! Precisely because there are others that you can shine more in your own way. Each of us has a role to fulfill, and that’s fine, let’s just all work together towards a better future for our successors. In both Shinto and Buddhism, the human is originally pure, yet life makes them be afflicted with either kegare or kleshas. There’s no way around this, that’s just another fact of life as a human, and Sorey accepts this, accepts that malevolence will always be there as long as humans exist, but they don’t and won’t get to define humans, ever. Humans are so much more than the malevolence; humans and malevolence might be inseparable, but they’re barely one and the same. Despite everything, everyone deserves their own chances to come to their own answers.

I don’t know I’m just thinking out loud how much I love Sorey as a character (and subsequently Zestiria as a whole). I’ve been saying this since 2015 but in my eyes he’s one of the most well-executed characters Tales has and I will die on this hill. Not saying it is without its hiccups, but Zestiria is really a thematic masterpiece to me. Everything fits together nicely like puzzle pieces; it starts with this one idea, expands, and then converges again to that one idea.

Just look at him. I love him so much I could combust. The legend that has become “hope” to me.

#mino rambles #mino talks zesty #i'm whelmed with FEELS and suddenly all these words pour out #sorey lovemail #zestiria lovemail #i can't stop thinking and overthinking and then falling in love again with this dumb little game #so charming and despite all the wordvomit #words still aren't enough to describe how MUCH i adore tales of zestiria #i really mean this with all my heart and soul without a lick of irony and i've been doing this since january 2015 #i will never take my words back #you will find me dead on this hill. or not. #because even if i die i will still through sheer will alone haunt that hill and protect it MY LOVE WILL NEVER DIE #EVER #and you'll be sure of it #i love tales of zestiria #ok shut up mino you've talked TOO much #i will stop here #over my dead body tho #also i said thinking but truthfully i think i'm always head empty i'm incapable of thinking properly #it's all about FEELING i guess to me #there's no overfeeling tho lol #this makes me sound insane but who am i fooling i'm indeed insane