Played Tales of Xillia this week, and while I found it a deeply frustrating game and I don’t know if I’ll ever do that New Game+, I found myself thinking about Maxwell, Milla, and Muzet, and how the parallel the MCU Asgardian royal family. Specifically Maxwell as Odin and Muzet as Hela, with Milla not that much like either Odinson but with parallels to Loki’s backstory.
- The patriarch is considered a benevolent god looking out for all living beings under his domain, but is actually rather shit and doesn’t value individual lives when they get in the way of his vision. He condemned a lot of people to a slow death for crossing him and hoards the riches for his chosen few. And his death will release a seal that can doom everything.
- There’s a secret older sister, created to be daddy’s pet killer, who is way too enthusiastic about it. When daddy’s plans change to not include killing he tosses her aside and she doesn’t take that well, wanting to keep doing what she was meant to do.
- Finally there’s the youngest child, who was lied to their whole life about their true identity in order to be used as a tool, and raised alienated from their peers because of their differences
Obviously the parallels aren’t perfect. Maxwell is actually treated as a villain for what he did, and his choice to die is part of his atonement and fixing the mistakes he made, unlike Odin where his stopping active conquest is considered enough to not make him a villain and his death is a tragedy that only makes things worse. Muzet’s given sympathy for being just the killer Maxwell intended her to be, we get to see her anguish and confusion at suddenly being considered obsolete by her father, whereas Hela isn’t given any consideration or a chance to reform. And Milla’s very different in temperament to Loki, and the lie she was given was that she was Maxwell herself. She also took the reveal a lot better and stayed on the path of her convictions even after learning that they were part of the lie.