Benedikta Harman is a deeply flawed lady. You can see this in her expressions, which are sometimes twisted in rage, and her manipulation techniques, which lie twisted in bedsheets. She is temperamental, power-hungry, merciless, and conflicted, repeatedly switching backwards and forwards between being the villain and the sufferer in her wrestle for self-preservation. She can also be among the best feminine characters to look in a Final Fantasy recreation in almost two decades–and she deserved so significantly better than the remedy she acquired in Final Fantasy XVI.Spoilers for Final Fantasy XVI forward.As Dominant of the wind harpy Garuda, Benedikta, in all her insatiable glory, is an impressed character. Much just like the harpies depicted in Greek mythology, Benedikta is an exquisite vulture–hungry for scraps of energy and sharp sufficient to take them. We see this in her aggression on the battlefield, and her submission to males she sees as highly effective. Like the wind itself, she is ever-changing and able to providing respite, or unleashing unfathomable destruction. In brief, her Eikon completely fits her, and her relationship with Garuda looks like a real merging of souls fairly than one thing transactional or hierarchical.Benedikta Harman.I used to be immediately drawn to Benedikta–her cat-like options, her damaging conduct, and the concepts she represented. And when she was stripped of Garuda’s favor and energy so early within the recreation’s story, I grew to become enamored along with her. I grieved along with her as she mourned her lack of identification and management, having been there a number of instances myself. And I discovered myself in awe of Nina Yndis’ (the voice behind Benedikta) efficiency, and the way she was capable of convey panic and loss in a manner that felt real–that felt palpable. I used to be enthralled by her story, and after we began to get a glimpse of her previous and the ache and squalor she got here from that drove her to worth stability and energy over all the things else, I used to be desperate to comply with her character arc and see the place it could lead. And it is exactly then that the sport determined to kill her off.To say I used to be pissed off by this alternative is an understatement. As somebody who has performed a stable 80% of the Final Fantasy sequence, I’ve develop into more and more disenchanted with how the sequence’ handles its feminine characters–and this newest blow felt particularly merciless. This is not to say Benedikta essentially wanted extra time, even when it is what I’d have most well-liked. This is not even to say she wanted a fully-fleshed out redemption arc–she did not. She did not want to return to her senses simply earlier than dying, tearfully run again into Cid’s arms, or determine to affix Clive’s trigger. If rage, ache, and deadly miscalculations have been to be her legacy, that legacy would nonetheless be simply as compelling. The downside is, Benedikta has no legacy.And to be honest, the concept her lack of legacy is her legacy may work. For somebody as power-hungry as Benedikta, the concept of going by all that she went through–of burying her nails deep in flesh and filth as she crawled her manner as much as the top–only to die powerless, is each painful and significant. However, Final Fantasy XVI does not decide to that concept both. It may have, had it not chosen to discover her trauma simply moments earlier than she perished. But because it stands, the sport reveals her humble beginnings and her implied sexual assaults simply earlier than having her fly off the deal with, by some means regain her energy, and die unceremoniously. Her story is considerably of a tragedy and considerably admirable in the way it allowed her to be a personality who existed on this world’s many shades of gray, however in glossing over an important items of a personality arc, it in the end does not really feel wholly significant.Perhaps much more egregious is how her character arc in the end feels prefer it exists to bolster others. While not a terrific narrative goal, Benedikta’s dying serves a really clear narrative goal: To solidify how we must always really feel about Cid and progress Hugo’s story.Cid saves a younger Benedikta from two males.Through Benedikta’s dying, we see that Cid is not only the Bearers’ savior however a private savior as nicely. Cid rescued Benedikta from her bitter childhood. And as he kneels over her physique, we see that regardless of on a regular basis that is handed, her fluctuating morality, and their subsequent rift, all he needed was to save lots of her once more. Through all of it, he beloved her and noticed the very best in her–something nearly each particular person I do know with trauma longs for in a associate.He laments her dying and the way she went out–consumed by anger and damage. Seeing him wrestle with not having the ability to “fix” her naturally makes us really feel that sense of remorse as nicely. Through her loss, we perceive Cid a bit higher. We get to see his empathetic nature and, for these of us who’ve beloved somebody with trauma or psychological sickness, we will relate to his sense of defeat and guilt over her destiny. But this additionally comes on the expense of us connecting with Benedikta herself.Similarly, Benedikta’s story additionally seems to be lower brief to provide rise to Hugo’s wrath, which in the end has main implications on Cid and The Hideaway. I do not contemplate myself somebody vulnerable to calling explicit plot factors “fridging”–a time period used to explain an writer killing off a personality purely to inspire another–because I feel a personality’s dying can and needs to be impactful and we’re all too fast to leap to that conclusion. And, contemplating her relationship to each Hugo and Cid, it could be unusual for it to not act as some kind of driving pressure. That mentioned, I do assume her dying crosses the road into that territory and following her dying, she turns into a prop–literally.The solely instances Benedikta is seen after her dying is when her severed head is shipped to Hugo to impress him, and when her nude kind seems to each him and Barnabas in malevolent visions. Her physique turns into one thing to be maimed and unclothed with a view to encourage rage and jealousy, in addition to signify lust. As somebody who fought mercilessly to develop into one in every of Final Fantasy XVI’s elite army officers, possessed the ability of a goddess, and confirmed large self-preservation and loyalty to what she believed in, to be diminished in such a manner feels insulting.Benedikta cries as she considers that her destiny is a punishment for not listening to Cid.Shortly earlier than her dying, Benedikta questions if the misfortune she’s been experiencing is supposed to be some sort of lesson. But fairly than realizing it is her decisions and her lack of tending to previous wounds that has led her to this destiny, she involves the conclusion she’s being punished for not listening to Cid. In her last and most susceptible moments, her feelings and sense of being develop into tethered to a different with a view to prop him up as morally good–something we arguably already knew he was–while she is ceaselessly resigned as a wild, sexual lady who did not hear. It’s a harsh conclusion for a girl whose entire life felt pained–and it feels merciless in the direction of anybody who has skilled assault, violence, or trauma that led them to develop into a contorted model of themselves. With every new Final Fantasy entry, I can not assist however really feel more and more slighted by how girls are written. While Jill is perhaps likable and charming, I’d argue she is not given the chance to actually shine as a personality. And whereas Noctis’ love for Lunafreya was endearing, she too was relegated to being a chapter in another person’s story. We deserve extra. And so did Benedikta.
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