#the way the otherworld revelation from rexona tore me apart | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

moopsloops · 2 years

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Maple’s Melfel Megapost: Lovesick Obsession and Conspiracy-Style Origins

I mean the title says it all. I’m here to scream about Melfel. Main points are his relation with Elhaza and my thoughts regarding backstory. Very long post ahead, feel free to read but uhh TL;DR I love melfel a very normal amount. BF2 spoilers ahead, questionable accuracy at some parts bc I’m not a lore expert, but I put a lot of time into this so hopefully it's mostly accurate, coherent, or entertaining to read if nothing else.

First off, shoutout to @/symonynii for sharing the bf2 translation w me, all the script quotes are from their work, thank you for fueling my brainrot and permanently altering my brain structure. Quotes from that translation will be this fun purple >:) Translations from Rexona will be this cool green :p Also melfel is referred to with he/she/they in this doc just fyi

Melfel is a massive simp for Elhaza

When investigating this relationship, it’s very obvious Melfel has this obsessive near-worship level of respect for Elhaza. If you took a shot every time Melfel reiterated that everything they do is for Elhaza (or “that man”... haha edgeworth vibes just call that mf your husband) you would die from alcohol poisoning, he constantly talks about it. But they also trust Elhaza with their life, or at least enough for some soul-related experimentation to take place:

"Melfel: Yes~ Oh, but don’t worry. I’m only a clone that contains part of my spirit. I was made by Elhaza"

"My existence is only for Elhaza, please do not misunderstand that..." (Resonance line from BFR). This level of devotion is just ffsdfdfsldfldfsdfldf. My brain melts. He gets irked if you assume he's working for Nogreth due to loyalty for Nogreth's cause, he wants to reiterate that he is loyal to Elhaza above all else. Man. Same sentiment is shown here too:

"Tiny Melfel: ...Of course. Everything is for Neo Orcus. Of course~

Tiny Melfel, to himself: Well, for me, it’s more like “everything is for Mr. Elhaza”. I only exist for that person..."

I have already gushed about this development multiple times but it drives me crazy. Melfel starts the game being completely unable to comprehend how someone can sacrifice themselves for the sake of others

"Melfel: Oops... hey, I wonder what I should do now... To give yourself up to protect others... how does one act on such a feeling?"

And then at the end of the game he sacrifices his life to protect Elhaza and his work from the protags it drives me feral. Their bond with Elhaza, their love for him pushed them to make the ultimate sacrifice all for him. It makes me crazy, how much love and devotion one has to learn and accept how much they would give up.

Adding on, Melfel’s last words?????

“Elhaza......I... always….”

I always WHAT?? I always loved you???? It’s very specific structure, it can’t be spun in some way like “I was honored to serve you” it sounds like a full-on love confession. Having a man’s name be your last words as you try to address them one last time,,, idk seems pretty gay gay homosexual to me.

Also, this bit kind of dives into headcanon territory, but I view the tiny melfels as fragments of Melfel’s soul, so it’s crazy and emotionally gutting how even after death a part of Melfel’s soul cares about Elhaza, it makes me feral this clown is so in love. Her love extends past life and death and every part of her soul screams about her love for Elhaza, it's just aaahdjshjkssdskadsdk peak romance.

“(we see tiny melfel carrying elhaza’s mask across a black screen, and he grins at us)”

And this Rexona voice line drives me crazy like OH MY GOD???? This is so much. mf wants him so bad.

"Elhaza is everything to me. What he wants is what I want. His enemies are my enemies."

Elhaza’s feelings (or lack thereof)

Now it’s a lot more difficult to find examples of Elhaza’s thoughts about Melfel bc we just. Don’t see much of him and he rarely talks about them which is :/ And it also can just read as Elhaza doing the bare minimum to keep Melfel in line with him instead of genuine sentiments. But there are some instances.

Most notably when Melfel leaves for their final encounter with the protags, they mentions how they had to ask Elhaza to face you, Elhaza didn’t originally want/order Melfel to be out there and likely took some persuasion to agree to let them go. So maybe he does care? He seems to have held some concern for her safety, because as this point Nogreth’s demon lords have kind of been falling apart both internally and with the protags taking them down

“Melfel: ...You can say whatever you want, but we have something to do. It’s for that reason that I asked Mr. Elhaza to send me back here. It’s ridiculous to think that you’re the protagonists of this world~”

Additionally there’s this whole dynamic they have before encountering the protags and og gang together ft. Melfel being so so excited and hyped about working with Elhaza while he’s just like “cool :/ ”.

"Melfel: Mr. Elhaza himself will go? This is unusual. I thought the interception would be left to me.

Elhaza: ...It’s not a bad idea to get a look at their faces.

Melfel: Oh, I’ll come and help you! It’ll be an honor~

Elhaza: ...Hmph."

Just gonna drop this here too because it’s a fun moment, Elhaza really just said “lmao go crazy”. I think he has some sentiments towards Melfel, but it’s not nearly as much as Melfel holds for him.

“Melfel: Of course~ I’ll get support for Hilda and Lune... And above all, the killing of weak summoners~

Elhaza: Hm... enjoy yourself. You might be able to use support from Shaia in some cases.

Melfel: I understand~ And now, I’ll…”

They both really have a thing for encouraging each other to kill and complimenting murder. Typical evil lovers behavior.

"Melfel: As expected, Mr. Elhaza! An instant kill as always, it’s wonderful~

Elhaza: ......

Melfel: Ah.... but it looks like you’re not pleased.

Elhaza: ....... It seems like the damage was much lower than normal. I’ll entrust you to the rest. Do whatever you want.

Melfel: Is it alright to kill that Weisser as well?

Elhaza: I don’t care.

Melfel: Wonderful. Then I’ll have a great time~"

Of course Shida's whole character plays a role in how he expresses himself. Due to how long he's lived and extended his life, he's become very disconnected from human emotions and bonds, viewing them as something interesting to study rather than an actual experience.

"Human beings are truly interesting.

Life and death, bonds, negative emotions…no matter how much we study them, there is no end to them.

They are silly, beautiful, and irrepressible."

So it makes sense how neutral and even dismissive he is towards Melfel and his clear expressions of devotion. Additionally, Shida seems to be focused solely on his research, he sees everything as a way to advance his work.

Their relationship is inherently tragic because of how little Elhaza cares when compared to Melfel’s obsession. But because of Melfel’s nature they just don’t seem to care. Even the smallest recognition is enough for him. They feel fulfilled with what they get, even overjoyed. It makes you wonder… what did Elhaza do to cause such a strong infatuation? Well, I have a buckwild frankensteined mess of canon, headcanon, and stretches of connections to potentially explain it.

Smashing together a backstory for Melfel

Brave Frontier Rexona actually flat out states Melfel's backstory, which genuinely surprised me ngl. I just tossed this from the brave frontier library site into DeepL so hopefully it's somewhat accurate:

-Blind faith in Elhaza-

He joined Nogreth when they invaded his home world of the Otherworld.

As a man of very low status, Melfel saw Nogreth who had destroyed his world as a god of salvation.

His cunning mind and talent for magic were bought by Elhaza, and his absolute loyalty to him led him to become the head of the legion in the blink of an eye.

In addition, he seems to have led many insane subordinates.

So, Melfel is from the Otherworld, which made me cry because I had to watch all the cutscenes from the Otherworld section of the game to piece together the lore since I never reached there lmao. But more notably, Nogreth invaded Melfel's home and he viewed them as his savior. He hated his life and saw the destruction of it as a saving grace, a moment for him to achieve the greatness and power he likely desired. This low-status background ties in really hard to what Roy brought up to Melfel in their trauma mirror confrontation.

“Melfel: Every human has a wound in their heart. This mirror picks it out and shows them it~ It’s prized in my collection.”

....

“Roy: I know, Melfel. You just fool around with all your cowardly tricks, but your strength is well-hidden. You must have suffered, and harnessed that suffering for your power. And... now you’re fighting for your own reasons... right?

Melfel: ......”

That inferiority and struggle in Melfel's early life is what pushed him to follow the one that tore it all down for him, Elhaza.

Ngl this revelation made me have a mini meltdown because I didn’t notice Rexona on the brave frontier library site when I wrote the next part and this revelation poses quite a big complication which sucks bc I think it ties together a lot of themes and arcs together well and deepens melfel’s character so I’m about to commit crimes against canon.

Okay forewarning: this next part delves into unhinged conspiracy theory shit so if you’re not interested I completely understand. But this relationship gets like, 100 times crazier and more fascinating if you consider that…

Conspiracy theory: Melfel is Malef.

Hear me out please. There’s just too many similarities and connections to be coincidence:

Evil nightmare clown with prominent eye motif is a character design archetype that is ripe for possibility, the fact that Melfel and Malef are the only two (as far as I know) to exhibit this theme is crazy. And their designs are kinda similar? The Parch Misfit Malef design especially retains the similar purple stripes and eye motifs. Also it’s a fun contrast that Malef’s element is fire while Melfel’s is nature, practically the complete opposite it’s neat. And it’s reflected in their designs, transforming from Malef’s predominantly red design to the complementary green of Melfel’s design, ties into the themes of transformation and significant change between the lives of Malef and Melfel

Little bonus find: Melfel does constantly switch elements in his battles of brave frontier two dungeon and that can relate to why he has a completely different element as malef, but that has questionable canonical weight it could just be a fun mechanic. Additionally, Malef’s extra sp skills allow him to add extra elements to his bb/sbb attacks which is similar to Melfel’s event, but once again: questionable canoninity due to how frequent that buff pops up in other unrelated units’ sp buffs. It's also interesting to note that while Melfel is technically a plant/nature attuned unit his attacks are primarily flame-based, which can tie him back to Malef (ik brave frontier isn't the best at sticking with units' elements when designing attacks but it's another interesting connection).

The similar names. Idk it’s a bit too similar to be coincidence or laziness imo. There are similar names of characters throughout the games’ rosters but like. This is different. I feel it’s a bit too similar to just be unintentional.

Malef’s research being very very similar, almost identical to what Elhaza has been researching, it makes sense why they would become allies. They both are studying how to extract the powers of demons and other living magic users to create an ultimate being. Very very specific, very very fascinating how it’s these two of all characters to study this. (I elaborate more on this later, just wanted to mention this as theory proof over here).

I think that if Melfel and Malef were the same then the contrast between their two deaths would be so cool. The first time Malef "died" it was from selfishness and a desire to keep the research for himself by killing his co-researcher Holia. The second time Melfel dies it’s a selfless sacrifice to protect Elhaza and his work that he’s so passionate about. The near opposite cause of death, the growth and development and parallel is just mmmmmm it's perfect it just feels so fulfilling it all comes full circle.

Melfel is hinted to have had a tragic backstory centered around failure and not being enough.

Melfel: ......”

When Roy calls him out for it it’s notably the only time the theatric, always talking Melfel is left speechless. This focus on inferiority and inner turmoil is so etched into Malef’s character that it pushes him to murder Holia and take all the credit for their research, it makes sense that this deep fear pushes Melfel to weaponize others’ trauma and insecurities because knows firsthand the devastating mental effects it can have on a person.

Ngl I don’t know the timeline very well and am not 100% certain when Mora saved Malef but for the sake of this spiel we’re gonna assume it was wayyy before Nogreth encountered Melfel.

Eventually Melfel and Elhaza met (which I believe was quite a long while ago, I headcanon he was the first one after the OG Nogreth crew to be recruited). Anyways, Melfel repeatedly cites Elhaza as his savior and all, so what if Elhaza quite literally reconstructed Malef’s body or gave him a new vessel to inhabit? I know he was technically saved by Mora, but he’s very much lacking a proper physical form. My man is just a ball of fire with limbs, his whole torso is gone. He was also condemned to servitude for Mora. Perhaps Elhaza gave him a proper physical form and was his second savior in a sense? I think that slaps. And of course in Melfel’s eyes the role of savior demands his servitude, so out of gratitude for being freed and fully restored, he moved to serve Elhaza and join Nogreth.

Additionally, Malef’s field of study was near identical to Elhaza’s goal: creating an ultimate being by extracting and utilizing demons’ powers. Perhaps Melfel was saved because of his knowledge overlapping with Elhaza’s research. It's clear that Shida values his research over anything, so to come across someone who may have knowledge and experience that can further that knowledge? He would try and recruit them in a heartbeat lmao. Idk it’s very cool and adds so much more connection and bonding material between them. It also serves as Melfel’s backstory and an explanation for why he’s so infatuated with Elhaza (besides being rly gay ofc).

This convo shows how Melfel is more familiar and able to understand the contents of Elhaza’s research, probably because of his researcher background as Malef (side note it also shows Elhaza and Melfel reassuring and checking in with each other,,, a small chill moment between them :,) )

“Melfel: After that, my alter ego was discovered in Akras.

Elhaza: Good, you played your role well.

Melfel: By the way... how is the plan going?

Elhaza: ...Everything is going according to schedule.

Melfel: That means more to me than anything~ Finally, Mr. Elhaza’s research is in the final stages~

Elhaza: ......

Melfel: Oops, I may have snooped a little bit. I’m sorry.

Elhaza: What you did... do you know what’s going on?”

Now is it possible to tie this all in with the Otherworld backstory that Rexona presents? I will try, but we can also just take the easy way out and pretend Rexona's lore drop doesn't exist because canon is a joke. Maybe Malef fled to the Otherworld?? idk it's possible. He would have to have given up everything to flee anyways, no research no status no nothing, he would be living it rough out there, which lines up with the low status Melfel found himself living in.

To add to my case on why this theory is based and would be so good if true: there can be a lot of parallels drawn between Shida and Malef. I touched on it earlier but their similar research into harnessing god/demon power to create an ultimate being is damn near identical, as well as their undying devotion to research above all else. So in a way, Shida can be seen as a foil of Malef, as he was successful whereas Malef was horribly disfigured and condemned to servitude. So Melfel's devotion to him could also be stemming or strengthened by the perception that Elhaza is everything he wanted to be as Malef, Shida possesses the success and power that he wanted to have. He was saved from his unfulfilling life by the embodiment of everything he wanted, how could he not fall in love with him? Melfel quickly chose to work under Nogreth likely because of her insecurity she felt for her failing research as Malef, perhaps seeing this as the closest way to meet that. Then eventually along the way, likely while she chimed in input from her own similar research, her research-related motives turned to a genuine love for Elhaza. Hell, it can also provide a case for Shida having genuine feelings for Melfel. He would naturally be closer to Melfel if they had research knowledge that interested him, and through those interactions maybe that interest moved away from research to Melfel themselves, similar to how Malef's obsession with research morphed into an obsession for Elhaza.

And of course the theme of rebirth/given a second chance and falling in love with your savior, I eat that shit up it’s just so good, it fits so well and adds more dimension to Melfel’s worship, Elhaza is literally his god in this scenario, he gave him a purpose in life and a second chance to prove himself. It doesn’t get gayer than that. Melfel’s obsession with his research also seems to curb away and begin to turn into an obsession with Elhaza. If this theory is true, Neo Orcus can be seen as a fusion of Malef and Elhaza’s research, it can be seen as the embodiment of Malef’s research that he killed and died and dealt with demons for. So to see Melfel grow tired of his work, but instead have that passion turn towards Elhaza… idk it shows some sort of growth I guess? More ties to the transition from Malef caring only about research instead of partnership to Melfel caring for partnership instead of research. It draws parallels to how much passion Melfel has, how fixated they become on what they deem to be more important than life itself. It even ties into the idea of Melfel understanding sacrifice through his love for Elhaza. He would be familiar with sacrifice for research, his whole work with Neo Orcus reiterates that, but sacrifice for people? Only when he falls for Elhaza and grows more devoted to him rather than his work does he finally decide to die for a person he loves. How much love is needed for that? It’s simultaneously tragic but… beautiful in a way.

Closing words & more Nogreth ideas

Is melfel/elhaza a healthy relationship? Probably not. Is it cool and sad and fascinating to look at? Absolutely.

Yeah, thanks so much for reading, I’ve been brain-rotting over this for a while and just wanted to scream about it. Melfel obsession hasn’t died yet, it’s only become more all-consuming. Now that brave frontier died, the characters just exist in my head like ocs due to no longer having the source material being accessible in its original form so they just. Consume all my thoughts. I treat them like left-behind dolls with interesting bits of history to build off of, as if this doc doesn’t reflect that.

Uhhh some extra Nogreth thoughts real quick to cleanse your palate: Shaia was painfully underutilized and unexplored, Hilda is a lesbian it’s so obvious, Barragan and Lanford are quite possibly even gayer than melfel/elhaza, the whole Zaad being a demonlord instead of Gustav debacle is hilarious alongside Hilda and Rene having to fight over their single Demonlord position, melfel canonically hates uwuspeak, and I want Hilda to crush my skull. Thanks for reading.

#ITS FINALLY DONE #FUCK THIS TOOK FOREVER BUT IM HAPPY #melfel #elhaza #shida #brave frontier 2 #brave frontier #the way the otherworld revelation from rexona tore me apart #i wrote the conspiracy theory before I found the profile in the library #and I didn't want to scrap it because a: copium and b: it works so well #bf is literally gone so I think I can stretch and alter canon a little bit right?#long post

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