Me Working Hard On Things That I Desperately Want To Achive And Then Someone Else Appears Gets It, By

Me working hard on things that i desperately want to achive and then someone else appears gets it, by doing the bare minimun. That wakes up my monstrous anger and frustration

Metaphor's artistic references

WARNING : CONTAINS SPOILER FOR METAPHOR RE-FANTAZIO IF YOU CARE ABOUT SPOILERS DO NOT READ

Focusing on the artistic reference of Metaphor- Re fantazio, I will be discussing the game's use of the paintings created by Hieronymus Bosch

As many have already discussed, the designs for the humans are all inspired off Bosch's works, notably because his works were considered to be the first "surnatural creatures"

While Metaphor have a lot of enemies based on mythical creatures, these designs are much more uncanny, and we are going to discuss this in detail

Metaphor explains in universe that creatures such as dragons for instance are born of magla, however magla, the fuel of magic, is the manifestation of fear and anxiety therefore this creatures are born from human imagination, much like in real life that being said, they aren't all born out of wonder and amazement, rather they seem to be born out of human's fear for something incomphrensible hence their monstruous appearances, made to match what humans fears

But in the case of the "humans" in metaphor, their appearances aren't based off mythical creatures because they aren't exactly monsters imagined by humans due to fear and anxiety, mainly because they represent something else : humanity becoming monster

Indeed, "humans" are part of the ancient humanity that has mutated but exposed to melancholia which lead them to become these monstrous entities yet they are still visuall distinct from mythical monster due to their different origin

They aren't born from imagination albeit fearful, they are born from humans being contaminated by melancholia

If you are familiar with the theory of the 4 humours, melancholia is one of the four humours considered to be linked to black bile and was treated like a disease, in that aspect the mutation of these humans into "humans" is considered negative due to the fact they got affected by a toxic form of magla based itself on a state considered to be sickly, even if today our perception of melancholia has changed it's still a state of negative emotion that surpasses fear anx anxiety, the next level if you will

As such the "humans" are beyond human fear, they are corruption of humanity hence why the choice of Hieronymus Bosch's painting to represent them is very interesting, notably in regards to the story behind one of (if not) his most popular painting : the Garden of Earthly Delights

Accoriding to popular commentary the triptych is divided between 3 ages of humanity : the creation of Adam and Eve - birth of humanity, the garden of Earth delights - the first humans before the Deluge, Hell - humanity's future

While Metaphor draw inspiration from various creatures of Bosch, what makes it interesting is the implications when compared to the story and the fate of humanity according to it

The Garden of delight is interpreted mostly as representing the first humanity which in metaphor corresponds to humanity before it came in contact with magla which lead to mutation as either a member of the 9 tribes or as a human in the case of melancholia, this humanity is indulging in various pleasures, notably eating fruits (in Bosch's language this was considered a metaphor to refer to intercourse, a reading supported by the nudity of the characters)

Some argue that this part of the painting should either be seen as the behaviour that lead humanity to the punishement of hell later on or as an alternate timeline where the original sin was never commited but all interpretations agrees to view this garden despite it"s bizarre imagery as being a utopia

Hmm, does that ring a bell ? Will and Louis both carry the same "fantasy novel" that which is meant to depict our reality and a world where none of the attrocities our cast have to face in the reality they live in exist, however this novel is an embellishement of the history of the world of metaphor for this society did exist but crumbled

Furthmore, this novel was written by More in reference to Thomas More, the author of Utopia, to clearly establish the link between a novel that pertains to a genre to the original novel that coined the word and genre

Therefore the world of metaphor's history can be compared to this age of humanity viewed as a utopia, an era idealized, out there followed by a grim future, hell

However, given how many view this painting as being a representation of the behavior that lead humanity to be doomed, it's worth noting that the painting contains many elements foreshadowing the cracks of this gardern of delights, much like the cracks of the world and humanity pre-metaphor that which lead the world to become what it became

Because the Hell Bosch paints isn't necessarily the spiritual hell, it's the current world, our present

This reading is justified by the numerous elements that hint at a social commentary by the painter but most importantly it reflects what the current world of Metaphor is

If our world is meant to be this world's past, Metaphor is a dystopia of a future where all of the issues we know we face in our reality just went even worse and in that aspects "humans" represent the fall from grace (the garden) into becoming the hellish creatures that torture humanity in Bosch's painting

This is even more relevant when you consider Louis's desire to test the strongest by testing which people will turn into a "human" and which one will resist the melancholia, something that Rella saw and described as hell on earth

Louis is meant to be a Lucifer figure and his Archtype and humans form are both drawing inspiration from the devil, whereas his Archdemon form seems closer to the Satan of Paradise Lost, his Destroyer form is inspired of Gustave Dore's rendition of the devil in Dante's Inferno, so him desiring to unleash and rule over hell on earth brings interesting connotations to his desire to turn people into humans, albeit for a test : in short, Louis is creating the Hell that Bosch painted

This hellish vision and the parallels between the painting and the game are clear as day when you reach Tyrant star, a place that looks eerily similar to Bosch's painting

Humans have become the demons of hell being corrupted by their dark feelings, much like Louis who, despite bearing an appearance of person, is in reality just as influenced and in reality simply kept everything hidden behind several masks (yes severals, his horn, his angelic appearance, his 3 human forms all looking different with one of them explicely requiring to break the masks he is wearing)

So metaphor didn't simply called their monsters "humans" as a very on the nose metaphor that humans are monsters, worse it's arguing that we are the one creating hell on earth

The design of humans is a nod to Bosch's reputation for creating fantastical creature, a link between the corruption of humanity from the golden age of a garden of delight, a utopia to a grim future, a terrifying vision of hell meant to showcase the fate of the first humanity and to portray Metaphor's reality as what it is, a dystopia

This is what makes this moment where More tries to convince Will to stay and live in the world of utopia so mindbreaking, not only does it play on the meta irony of the inversion metaphor created of the real world being the world of a novel and the world of the game being the real world, but it showcase More's denial of reality to find refuge in fantasy as assimilated to the alternate reading of the garden of delights as being a utopia in which we all live happy, an alternate timeline born of the fact that the original sin didn't happened and thus that we are freed from the anxiety of hell. More exactly, a place to escape the current hellish reality unleashed by Louis, but that which we know had been a hell for quite some time

However, a utopia is nowhere (no literaly, the word means "nowhere" in greek) and thus there is nowhere to run to, there is only this hellish reality where the vestige of humanity had been corrupted into monsters

That being said while Metaphor's focus is on the negative side of imagination, Bosch's painting is considered to be mainly focusin on criticizing lust, notably through the numerous wink wink to the do yet it would be hard to not view the painting as representing an ideal on one side and a fear on the other

In fact, Bosch's painting showcase the power of human imagination by depicting on one side a scenery that draws of human's dream and desires, possibly feeding on the fact that reality doesn't allow them to indulge in it, a utopia and the other a nightmare that draws inspiration and is so striking because it is inspired of what humans fear, colors that awake anxiety, creatures that are even more scary than the mythical monsters we pictured because of how nonsensical they looked, a scary future, a dystopia and at the same time an exageration of the present to better criticize it... that's what Metaphor is about fundamentally, and thus it uses the imagination of a man whose depiction of paradise and hell was so ground breaking to create its monster and reinforce it's own thematic regarding the power of imagination

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strawberryisokaj

7 months ago

I got yelled at for coming home from a bday at 11pm, the excuse? That im too distracted and not studying enough (lie)