Manah and Seere, the abused

• I don't think I need to say much, these are children. I haven't seen anyone viewing them as disgusting or monstrous. So I'm just going to explain their lack of agency.
• The two are brother and sister, they came from the same household, one that's fucked up by default because of the culture it's a part of. Explaining that culture would take too much time and this is already the biggest rant ever, so go read the wiki or Drakengard 1 Story Side.
• Seere was the favorite child of their mother, while Manah was the hated one. Seere was loved and adored as long as he existed, Manah was hit whenever she looked wrong at her mother.
• This culminated in the mother deciding that she needs to get rid of this "filthy burden" that is her daughter. She left her to die from cold and starvation out in the wilderness, which is almost exactly what happened, until God came.

God possessed Manah's dying body, which became a possibility because of the sheer hatred and pain that the girl was feeling as she was dying. This helped her "sync up" with God's own utter hatred of humanity and they became one.

Manah doesn't know what proper love is, so God gave her his own brand of twisted love. He made her the head of a cult and the Empire in general. She became the High Priestess. Manah could finally have anything she ever wanted, all the toys, the food, any kind of clothing and comfort etc. In exchange? All she needs to do, to prove herself worthy of God (and, in Manah's mind, her mother)'s love, is to end. it. all. Destroy the world. Because it's love!

"Love me! I want you to love me!" *unhinged sounds* "Square Enix".

As if that's not enough, the way God takes control of Manah whenever he wants is very intrusive to say the least. Although they seem to be in sync, it is forced. Manah's personality gets suppressed and overwritten, which deeply distresses the girl. Whenever she blacks out, she is unsure if she will ever wake up again.

I mean, shit, she even sees being killed as an expression of love, which is shown by her not being afraid of death and always welcoming it, unless it interferes with God's plans.

• Back to Seere, the poor boy is a tutorial on writing survivors of abusive households 101.
• Seere is the absolute favored child, which means he hasn't experienced any kind of direct, physical abuse, but the passive, unintended emotional abuse? HELL YEAH BRUTHURR, he got that in spades.
• Seere knows that the way his mother treated Manah is wrong, but, until shit hit the fan, he couldn't care less, and that's not his fault. What was he supposed to do? Noone would listen to him and being loved felt too good to sacrifice. A small child should not be expected to fix his parents' mess.
• When his home village was destroyed (by Manah, as revenge) and his mother killed, the one thing that Seere wanted is the love that he was so used to to be brought back. In order to try and replace that love, so that he would never be left alone again, Seere, in his naivete, made a pact with a golem, the only creature that swore to always be by his side and one that would never grow old... And neither would Seere. He will always remain a child.
• "But it's alright, I'll be just like The Little Hero!" - thought Seere. Oh, my sweet summer child...
• *Sigh*. The thing that is both the most heartwarming and heartbreaking about Seere is his unwavering optimism. Seere believes in happy endings and only sees the best in everyone, including Caim. His optimism is a double-edged sword, as it helps him save Golem and, in Ending D, the world. But it also leaves him completely open to being obliterated by Manah in any way she wants. More often than not Seere ends up hurt in some way, because the world that he lives in is merciless.
• After losing his mother, Seere's perspective regarding his household situation finally becomes lucid. Alas, that comes with a truckload of trauma. He feels extreme guilt about doing nothing to help Manah, even though everyone else, including the player, understands that he could have done nothing to fix things. Seere's one goal in the story is to find Manah again and try to mend their relationship. Manah hates Seere, to her he's "the little devil", the embodiment of injustice and ugliness of the world that oh so deserves destroying from her perspective. Seere knows Manah hates him, and he knows she's innocent, he doesn't blame her for anything, he feels that he deserves any kind of pain that comes his way, and he will never stop trying to help her.

Well, unless Yoko Taro sadistically forces him to end Manah's life, causing the eldritch beings known as the Watchers to break into humanity's plane of reality. Whoops.

In the face of this completely unintentional, unforeseeable mistake, Seere sacrifices his life to stop the Watchers dead in their tracks via a localized time stop caused by breaking his pact with the Golem and releasing the Great Time.
His final thoughts before he freezes in time are:

"Manah... Will you finally forgive me now?"

Yoko Taro, I despise you. Please, stop. Keep writing, I love it.

At least in Drakengard 2 >!their future is a bit more normal compared to the utter hell they're facing here.!<

Angelus and Verdelet, the preachers

• These characters are sort of parallels to each other. Both spend the game (understandably) criticizing Caim's brutality, both believe themselves to be morally superior to everyone around them (in Verdelet's case it's more subtle) and both keep receiving reality checks that, eventually, force them to see the world and the people around them for what they are, their judgement mostly unclouded, although Angelus keeps being a tsundere to the bitter end, which is just her character.
• Angelus is quite obviously supposed to be Yoko Taro's mouthpiece. An exaggerated one, but a mouthpiece nonetheless. And, damn, Taro, why are you 14 years old, some of her lines are 3 edgy 5 me. Here's an example:

"Wise men choose death before war. Wiser men choose not to be born."

What the hell is this, get out, booooo! lol.
Anyway, back to the convo.

1. Angelus is a neutral party, she's not a human and was simply dragged into the conflict by Imperial forces. Although not beholden to human morality, she is one of the most moral characters in the game. No, Yoko Taro, don't give me that shit about "humanz bayd", I can see through your agenda. Good thing you grew out of this as time went on.
2. She's oathbound to help Caim because of their pact that they made only to survive and keeps giving him shit at every turn, but does so in a rational, measured (albeit sometimes illogical) manner that keeps Caim grounded, prevents him from completely losing his head in the slaughter, even though the prince likes to ignore her a lot of the time.
3. As pretentious as she is, Angelus is the moral center of the story. She tries to stay clear of fighting whenever she can. She can be brutal with her words, just like Caim with his actions, yet, thankfully, more often than not, she is just (oddly enough, she's Inuart's biggest critic and his greatest soldier if you pay attention to the in-game lines lol). But she really should have some more empathy than she does, sheesh... Eh, it is what it is.
4. Her growing bond with Caim allows her to eventually stop being arrogantly resentful towards humanity. She starts "seeing beauty in the lives of the beasts", sacrifices herself for Caim, and consequently, all of humanity's sake in Ending A. In Endings B, D and E she fights for everyone's sake until her final breath, it's precious, really.
5. The extremely weird part is Ending C, in which she... decides that Caim has to die, just like that, out of the blue, when there is nothing different about him compared to the rest of the routes. She doesn't even accuse him of being bad or anything, she just goes "you life burns too bright", breaks their pact and fights him to the death, forcing Caim to kill her. This ending is too weird, man (dat ending cinematic slaps tho, it's Caim at his purest), the dragons that end up destroying the world in it never come into play anywhere else, Angelus' character motivation makes no sense. It's more misery for the sake of misery, plot holes be damned. Taro, what a man you are.

Hence, coupled with the Caim-related arguments, she's not guilty. Aside from the PIS that is the leadup to Ending C I guess lmao.

Verdelet is... bald a guy.

1. In the game, he is the Union's spiritual leader, the Hierarch, so his role is to keep up everyone's morale via faith and help the soldiers maintain their humanity by offering them guidance if needed. He really sucks at his job because all he does is repeat the values he's been taught without giving things much thought. I can't blame him. He is old, has lived most of his life exclusively by the holy books and is just a figurehead, not a politician, nor a warrior.
2. He spends the entire game kicked around by everyone and everything (sometimes literally). When you think about it, he's sort of a comic relief character, as he is the resident panic-ridden victim of circumstance, such as Kobeni from CSM, for example.
3. As with Kobeni, the good thing is that he is not useless. Verdelet keeps reminding everyone of their objectives, is "the normal one" of the party, is the one that keeps Arioch under control with his magic (saves Caim from being chomped by her even), and, most importantly, he is the only person capable of stabilizing the Goddess' condition and making a non-human creature into a Goddess if the need arises. Bro is, coincidentally, the GOAT in Ending A's sequence of events and a non-factor in the rest of the endings lol.
4. Verdelet doesn't really have a backstory, aside from the fact that he lost his luscious locks as his pact price with another dragon in order to gain greater authority amongst his religious coworkers. The dragon in question didn't do much and since became permanently petrified, leaving Verdelet with only the pact user "Voice" as his one remaining benefit from the pact. What a loser, I love characters like that lol.

What's weird is how different Verdelet is in the game compared to how Taro himself views him.

• From Taro's perspective, as stated in developer interviews, Verdelet is a cowardly, power-hungry, opportunistic bastard that's prepared to sacrifice anyone to save his own skin and that is... not represented in the game at all?

The wiki excerpt says the following:

>Taro Yoko explains that he was envisioned to be the "despicable elder" who doesn't care for taking responsibility for anyone else but himself. Yoko believes that's the reason why he was spared in the game's multiple endings.

Ah, it seems I made some shit up. Anyway, let's roll with the characteristics I listed just to prove that the "despicable elder" is a description that is completely contradicted by the game.

Verdelet is afraid most of the time, yes, but that is because he cannot do anything to help 90% of the time and he's the only one aside from Angelus who knows the full gravity of the situation, especially as someone intimately familiar with the Goddess System. I'd be terrified in his place, too.
I wouldn't really call him a coward, he stepped up against Inuart to try and protect Furiae once Caim was beaten and "HOON-GA-LAY LATI-RA"d Manah in an attempt to try and expel God from her (which he, understandably and very ironically, thought was a demon lol), forcing her to go full power, which in turn allowed Caim to beat the God out of her.

Power-hungry? Where? Implied in his backstory? Okay, I guess that's that.

Opportunistic? (in the negative sense) I can't remember anything that would confirm this. Ending A doesn't count, Angelus is the only available Goddess candidate and volunteers herself. It's Verdelet's moral obligation to elect a new Goddess ASAP if he doesn't want further damage to the world, or in the worst-case scenario, it's destruction because of the seeds of resurrection being around while there is no Goddess.

I mean, dude, he even expresses that he sees himself as an executioner because of his role in the Goddess System. He is already living in his personal hell, go easy on him.

• The only thing he's guilty of is being racist towards goblins, orcs etc, but those guys are by default implied to slaughter humans on sight even when not directed to do so by God because of the D&D worldbuilding foundation. The game offers no counterevidence to this and hey, Verdelet still expresses his disapproval towards Caim when he kills too many "monsters". One should also keep in mind that this is a laughably minor offense when it comes to Yoko Taro's levels of character traits fuckery.

Yoko Taro is full of shit when it comes to Verdelet. Leave my lowkey racist boyfailure grandpa alone!

I mean, I guess Drakengard 2 is a thing, but >!that game's lore blatantly ignores Verdelet being a pretty normal guy in DG1 considering the extreme circumstances the game take place in, makes him extremely paranoid and turns racism into his main character trait for some reason, so he randomly decides to make Angelus suffer more for reasons and deservedly gets destroyed by Caim as punishment. I'am convinced that someone on the scriptwriting team was a Verdelet hater.!<

The Fairy

"You should kill yourself, NOW!!!": the character. The actual irredeemable monster of the cast alongside God. All this little shit does is: be annoying, tell Leonard to kill himself, ragebait, which is repeated like clockwork. Negative vibes merchant. Nuff said, at least this gremlin is entertaining. "DEATH NEED NOT BE THE END OF HOPE!" upon ye.

A world without hope (?)

When questioned about Drakengard's ending (or endings?), the following was documented (an excerpt from the wiki):

>Yoko commented that Caim is a reckless deconstruction of the hero archetype, as he believes that any game that centers on slaughtering hundreds in war shouldn't deserve a happy ending.

I guess, but, mister Taro, you did a pretty bad job at justifying your point. The war that Caim fights essentially has one course of action - to keep slashing away. A working alternative solution is never presented.

And when the one true God of the setting's multiverse is a hateful creature whose one goal is to wipe out humanity? Just because he doesn't like that it exists? Drakengard's central conflict becomes as black and white as it can get. It's Man VS God.

As more lore details are revealed throughout the game, the more Caim begins to assume a completely heroic role, which is bizarre, considering that your idea behind the game was to create a narrative with morally grey characters, and yet you didn't even have the balls to make the enemies regular humans with thoughts and feelings. Thankfully, he fixed that last part in Drakengard 3.

Oh, what's that? Some more relevant info I found on the wiki? Let's take a look.

About Caim and Angelus:

>In the Dengeki Online interview series, Yoko admits he had no real hand in planning the main story fans are familiar with and can't remember much about Caim's story arc. He can't relate with the popularity of Caim or Angel because he originally wanted to make their relationship similar to one where Angel was an old woman crazy about her young male host Caim. Takuya Iwasaki and Sawako Natori were the ones most responsible for the love story between the two characters, planning to make Caim the "Romeo" of the pair.

>When Yoko was asked for his opinion of Caim's tears in Ending A, he replied that he approved them since it's a cliché often seen in happy endings. He wanted that ending to be the one that ended on a definitively positive note and tried to present that as the "happiest" one, thus explaining the blue sky in the final pan. Akira Yasui, the director of Drakengard 2, adds that he considers Caim and Angel friends of war, even though the sequel continues from this ending. Neither he or Yoko could properly identify when exactly Caim's feelings for Angel became romantic. They directed the interviewers to ask more about their relationship to Sawako Natori, *Drakengard'*s main scenario writer.

About Furiae:

>In the Dengeki Online interview series, Yoko goes on to explain that Furiae was made as his backlash to the stereotypical happy ending. His personal definition of this concept means any work of fiction that has a handsome man ruthlessly slaughter thousands to rescue a defenseless damsel and somehow have the story conclude on an upbeat note with a kiss between the lovers. In his earliest conception of the game's story, Furiae was going to be blond and heralded as an important yet hidden figure throughout the story. When she did finally appear, she would be killed off in a cinematic. He remarked that he wanted to keep the siblings "pretty-looking" for his deconstruction of the "prim and proper" image commonly associated with good-looking characters in fiction.

>Dengeki Online conducted a follow up interview series to their character popularity poll with series's producer Takamasa Shiba and series's character designer Kimihiko Fujisaka. Shiba believes she is a character completely written by the game scenario writer, Sawako Natori, even with Yoko's direction. He considers her "a pain to think about" and didn't want to answer any complicated questions about her.

A little bit of wholesomeness in regards to Manah and Seere:

>While Yoko was okay having a child voice the twins' lines in Drakengard, Sawako Natori, one of the main scenario writers, wasn't. Natori remembers feeling very apologetic watching a young girl and boy speaking the dark lines she had penned.

These quotes are all from the character-related wiki pages. The wiki has sources listed, so if you want to take a look at those, please visit it.

As you might have noticed, there is constant: the actual person responsible for most of Drakengard's story is not Yoko Taro, it's actually Sawako Natori, who is clearly mentioned to have a vision diverging from the game director's (Yoko's)!

This and Drakengard 1's sometimes directionless, chaotic vibe, lead us to two amusing conclusions:

• 1) Yoko, for all his nowadays hype, was only the ideas guy. As a newbie game director, he was carried mostly by his talented team. Yes, a game director's literal job is to take part in the ideas for the game and direct the efforts of making them real, but...

You know what fucking infuriates me?

Most of the time, in many discussions regarding his works, Taro is the only one that ends up getting credit. Just like Kojima, he is this mythological figure in the videogame industry, the man who can do no wrong and has a rabid cult following.

I'm sick of shit like that, just imagine being on the dev team, working your ass off day and night, and when it's all done? Yoko Taro is the only that gets recognition and is treated as a deity. This is just depressing. Well, at least they get paid.

Don't get me wrong, I know this is an issue with team-made media in general, but holy shit, when it comes to popular, successful creators, they are typically the only ones that are talked about.

I mean... I'm just like everyone else, I fall into this trap from time to time as well.
When we discuss team-made media, I think we should try to make an effort to take a moment of our time to briefly look up who is responsible for what and draw the lines in our mind.

I know I'm just some arrogant stranger on the internet, I just think that, to truly respect something means to understand it. So, to show our respect towards the creators, we should keep in mind that Taro and the other big creatives are not the sole creators of our favorite works. They couldn't have achieved what they have without so many wonderful, talented people behind their backs!

For example, Sawako Natori is the main scenario writer for all of the DrakeNieR games (including Drakengard 2), those games are famously story/dialogue merchants. Give her some credit, our girl is awesome!

• 2) Because of Taro's "Yeah, sure, let's go with that, sounds cool" attitude that seemingly permeated through Drakengard 1's development and the fact that he's not even fully aware of some key elements of the story and lore, the game is actually just a big experiment, way more so than most others games, it is a melting pot of various ideas, concepts and works within works. This is supported more and more if you take a deeper dive into the game's development history and the dev interviews, which I won't be doing, because I'm lazy.

The reason why one might ask "What the fuck is Drakengard even about?!?!?!" is precisely because the game is a beautiful, packaged chaos that is whatever you make out of it personally.

The supportive material (curiously, by writers not involved with the games themselves, with all of the works approved by Taro) does a lot of heavy lifting to bring order into all this. I tried to mention whenever something was related to supportive media (it's mostly the extended character backstories).

It's a shame that, as far as I can tell, we have no interviews with Sawako Natori regarding her writing and the themes included in the games.

But, you know... Maybe it's for the best?

There is no God (A world of ONLY hope)

"Death of the author"

Name me a bigger turn-on when it comes to media analysis, I dare you, I DOUBLE DARE YOU!

What I hate about Yoko Taro is how pretentious the content of his games can get, even though it's perfectly reflective of the ideas behind his games.

What I love about Yoko Taro is that he, himself, is a fan of the DotA (looool, I didn't think I'd get this name when shortening the term) approach. Taro has went on record multiple times saying that he is open to various interpretations of his works and the elements in them.

Thank you, pookie!

With that said, with all of the points I've made throughout this rant, I'd like to present my pretty generic, simple perspective in regards to Drakengard: it is a story about the immortality of our humanity.

Drakengard's Midgard is a very oppressive setting, everything in the game serves to create a hopeless atmosphere of madness. The gameplay (accidentally), the music, the events in the story. Everything comes together and creates this surreal, dream-like atmosphere that is trying to suffocate the player while simultaneously being intoxicating, as if you're on drugs without taking drugs (I've never done drugs or alcohol lol).

Everyone in Drakengard is tested to their psychological limit. It is a Greek Tragedy in which everyone, in a sense, is doomed from the start. The world (God) does everything in it's power to try and break everyone involved. On your first go through the game, everything may seem lost, that it is a world beyond salvation...

But it isn't.

Nobody. in Drakengard. loses their humanity.

Caim, even after losing his voice, keeps striving for connection with others. Behind his coping mechanisms, the bloodlust and the cynicism, he is that very same, kind prince that strongly loves the ones he cares about and wants to do the right thing (supported by him always doing the right thing at the end of the day).
Whenever his heart, the ones that he fights for, are attacked, he is devastated. It is only Caim's exterior that is hardened. On the inside, he is but a broken young man that wants to escape from pain. Ending C illustrates this the best. Here's my analysis of it.

>When looking at Angelus' corpse, Caim is wearing an expression of sadness and regret.

>He regrets that things came to this, that he had to sever the last bond he had in order to save his life.

>After this, he chooses to drown himself in his bloodlust, going out in the best way he knows.

>Just prior to that, he smiles, for there is nothing left for him. Right before his certain death, Caim is free, he can kill until his last breath, not having to worry about anything anymore...

Angelus is a dragon, she thought that everything is set in stone, that she cannot change the world and found humanity's everpresent ugliness disgusting.
So instead of reflecting on it all, she simply blamed the beasts that she saw the humanity as and chose to live in solitude, hiding from that darkness.
After being dragged out of her hiding place back into the world, she is forced to confront "the beasts" and help them.
In the process, despite how rough it is, she begins to understand the beauty in the lives of "the beasts" and cannot lie to herself about it.
Which is why she falls in love (the exact kind of love doesn't matter) with Caim and offers her life to his cause in all of the endings, even including Ending C, which implies she gave in to the then pactless Caim.
Yes, this is the Guilty Gear quote... And it fits.

Inuart's whole drive is his yandere-like love towards Furiae. This love both strengthens and breaks him. It drives him mad. As tragic as that is, it is also beautiful and cements his humanity.

Furiae, although spiritually broken, clings to life because of her love towards Caim and Inuart. I also think that, in the depths of her heart, at some point, a part of her truly believed that her unjust fate was not without purpose, that her suffering is there in exchange for the possibility of happiness of everyone else in the world. She hoped that, maybe, one day she could be free. At least in her death she grew wings and flew high. She is so very strong.

Leonard's soul balanced between love and lust his entire life. In the end, he spent the entirety of his time as pact partner performing acts of love and kindness.

Arioch's existence throughout the events of the story is defined by her mad love for her children. When backed into a corner, as a mother, she decides to become a sacrifice, "the greatest of feasts" and satiates a swarm of eldritch babies with her own flesh, finally giving instead of taking.

Manah and Seere only ever wanted love. Manah, not knowing what healthy love is, took whatever she could find, while Seere, having an overabundance of love throughout his life, has decided to try and share that love with others, most importantly, his sister.

Verdelet... What is he doing here again? I guess he loves... Humanity? Himself? I dunno. He is very human tho, I think I proved it.

So yeah. To me, Drakengard is about love and our undying humanity. No matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, we will always remain what DrakeNieR's God hates most... Human.

In conclusion

Whew! I'm finally done with this rant, it took me 1.5 (or, maybe, 1.3 hehehe) days of non-stop writing to make. I do not regret it, as this is my love letter to the game and everyone involved in it's creation, even though they'll never see this.

I'm a 23 y.o. Russian male and Drakengard 1 has become one of my favorite games and stories in general. It's such a shame that it is obscure (yet somehow widely-known?) and a proper remake is impossible because of how controversial the game's content can get for the current society's standards. I doubt we'll see a remaster either...

The title and the beginning of the rant are a bit clickbaity, but I still listed my issues with Yoko Taro's take on certain things in the game as well as his main thesis, it's fine.

Some fun facts:

1. I didn't even know that Drakengard is a Yoko Taro game when I first started playing it and I've never played (or LARPed) any of the NieR games, but I have completed all 3 of the Drakengard games last year, so I guess this makes me a Drakengard fan.
2. I will play the NieR games at some point, but first I need a stronger PC to do so. This one is a 2014 oldie.
3. I even tried writing a fanfic that would organically connect Drakengard 1 and 2, but my mental health got in the way and forced me to abandon ship. I think my ideas were great though! Since then, I've been visiting a therapist weekly (still am) and I'm doing fine, I'm on a summer vacation currently.
4. I'am the strongest soldier of Caim, Furiae, Inuart and Leonard, as you might have noticed.
5. Drakengard 3's Zero is a mean, toxic bitch while Drakengard 2's Nowe is precious.

So, everyone, what do you think about the rant? Did you enjoy it? Did I piss you off? Do you want to talk about anything I've said? What is your own experience with Drakengard 1? Go ahead, tell me, let's discuss it in the comments!

In the meantime, I'll be dreaming of a perfect world in which every character from DG1 got their happy ending. I love y'all!

That's a cocky title, I know. I'll be building up to my point little by little throughout the rant. Let me preface by saying that Taro is a pretty cool guy, I greatly respect his creativity and I could never become as successful as him, but, just like any other creator, no matter how successful, he isn't immune to criticism.

To those that are familiar with Drakengard 3, NieR and/or NieR: Automata, I'am not trying to downplay Yoko's achievements and the rant does not concern these games aside from possible brief mentions of DG3.

Of those who adore Yoko Taro, I only ask one thing: let's remember the fact that he is just as human as any other, as well as that there was a time when he was still inexperienced and in the process of finding his footing as a game director.

This rant is written with the assumption that, when going in, you already have intimate knowledge of Drakengard 1's story, characters and the lore in general. It does not replace playing the game yourself and coming to your own conclusions about the material on display, as media in general is intended to be experienced. It is also worth noting that, if you've experienced DG1 by watching a YouTube video, I think you've only gotten a brief, biased perspective that, more often than not, only does the bare minimum in regards to the story and character analysis. I urge you to play the game yourself before interacting with this rant. It's a mediocre videogame, but, in my opinion, is also a pretty thought-provoking story. There is nothing like experiencing Drakengard 1 blind, as I did.

With that said, let's begin!

My personal experience with Drakengard 1

I felt pretty bored during the end of summer last year and decided to play Drakengard 1, a game that I didn't know anything about except for hearing of how meh it's gameplay is and that the protagonist is a psycho the likes of which are hard to come across in videogames in general. That latter part has greatly interested me and served as my primary motivation to experience the game fully and conclude for myself whether that's true or not.

What I didn't expect is that Yoko Taro doesn't play by the rules of storytelling (a double-edged sword) and literally drops a nuke on your head out of nowhere at one point in the story, which had me going "WHAT THE FUCK IS DRAKENGARD EVEN ABOUT MAN?!?!?!"

Ah, good times. Anyway, to summarize, I ended up completely infatuated with the game, religiously playing it until I got all 5 of the endings. Although I had to watch Ending E on YT after fruitlessly trying to beat the final boss many times and failing. That final wave of notes is complete bullshit 😭. Rant invalidated IG. Might be the best decision of my life in hindsight. At the end of it all, I felt great empathy for all the characters and, before doing Ending E, kept naively thinking that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, that Caim, Furiae and Inuart will finally get their happy ending and know what peace is like for once.

"Think again, bitch" - said the ever so malicious Yoko Taro, as Angelus and Caim got fucking obliterated by rockets after saving the world. Albeit completely logical in context, that shit felt like a slap to the face.
I felt very depressed for like a month after finishing the game, dead inside even, because Taro made me feel attached to the characters, made me want the best for them after going through fire and water, then proceeded to rip out my soul several times over while going on his self-righteous spiel about mass murderers not deserving happy endings.

Mister Taro, I agree with the general point that you're trying to make, which was the core idea behind making DG1, that only the mentally ill will kill as many people as Caim did throughout the game. Of course I think that mass murderers should get what's coming to them. The problems are:

1. All of the characters are EXTREMELY human, none of them ever cross the threshold of "being a demon" for me, even when they're doing questionable things, so the last thing that you see in the game being the protagonists getting blown up and the corpse of one of them impaled on a tower while the sounds of everyday city traffic uncaringly play in the background felt... Too mean-spirited.
2. Motherfucker, YOU ENDED UP JUSTIFYING EVERYTHING THEY EVER DID!!!

As you have definitely noticed, I'am furious, even after 9 months have passed. Allow me to elaborate.

The Red Eye Disease

So the enemies in this game are all poor soldiers that were thrown into the meat grinder that is war and Caim is mercilessly slaughtering innocents that just want to go home, right?

Not really.

• Yoko Taro immediately shoots his own foot by making it very obvious and evident that the entirety of the Empire is made up of what are essentially zombies. During the first few missions you are introduced to that fact, the game focuses on the enemies' red eyes in CGI cutscenes and you can hear them saying various things, which boil down to "Kill, kill the Goddess, destroy The Seal" and variations of that in the later levels.
• But, surely, there must be a cure, yes? Alas, no. The only character that ever recovers from this affliction during DG1 is Inuart, and that moment is very vague. He comes to his senses when he sees that Furiae is dead and it seems that the utter shock of the moment - seeing the person he loves most in a state like this is what snaps him out.

BUT there is a little elephant girl in the room possessed by God. Manah is the one that took control of Inuart alongside everyone else in the first place, she didn't even need physical contact to do so and mindraped him via telepathy until he was ripe for the taking.

She could have simply released her control over him. Manah shows no sign of surprise when Inuart is back to normal, keeps acting like everything is under control, coldly goes "I broke the seal, she's useless now" and when Inuart starts getting aggressive, simply goes "lmao, get fucked", pushing Inuart away with a force field, which leaves him to hopelessly crawl on the ground in front of Furiae's dead body while having the rawest mental breakdown I've ever seen in a videogame. SHE'S EVEN EMOTING ON HIM, SPINNING AROUND HIM, THROWING PETALS AND SHIT. THAT'S GENERATIONAL DEDICATION TO THE BIT.

• Anyway, what I was saying is that there is no proof that Inuart broke out of Manah's control because of his "strength of will" or whatever. Inuart cannot even be called strong-willed, the game constantly hammers home that he is quite fragile mentally and isn't suited for participating in a war. His greatest feats are not with a sword, but with his harp and songs, which calm the heart. He's a lover, not a fighter. Manah purposefully allowing Inuart to suffer more is completely in line with how petty DrakeNieR's God (that is possessing her) is presented, that fucker is extremely sadistic and does evil shit purely for the love of the game. Bro woke up one day, saw that humanity exists and went "Huh, I didn't create that... I HATE ALL OF YOU, DIEEEEEEE!!!". Breaking Inuart further just gives him a plan B by provoking him to use the Seeds of Resurrection, which are another tool that can be used to complete God's ultimate goal: ending humanity.
• "Slukig, do you remember that mission of Caim killing child soldiers? The way they were begging for their lives?"

Yes, I do, that same mission has a cutscene showing that the kids begging for their lives and calling for their moms was a ruse to make Caim and Leonard drop their guard. It worked on Leonard, which nearly killed him, and didn't work on Caim, allowing him to, as violent as that sounds, destroy one of the aces up the Empire's sleeves.
Imagine being a soldier in a war and seeing a whole platoon of drone-like child soldiers that will kill you without hesitation while you have to grapple with the fact that you're about to kill kids, let alone enter the process of going through with killing them? Very depressing.

• As I said, you can't definitively prove that Inuart wasn't released by Manah herself, and even if we interpret the scene as him breaking out of the control himself, it is impossible to replicate the unique circumstances that happened in with thousands of enemy troops, especially when they act like a hivemind, wear the exact same armor and just. keep. attacking. The lore makes a big point regarding the Empire's effectiveness, tying it to R.E.D., which makes perfect sense, as the disease makes the soldiers perfectly obedient, numb to pain and extremely concentrated in battle.
• "What about Drakengard 2? The disease faded away and everyone turned back to normal"

They did, after a while. It didn't happen overnight the moment God was beaten, it was a gradual fading and time is very much of the essence when fighting an immeasurable, omnicidal army consisting of hivemind zombies that you can't reason with, so stopping the war by simply going after Manah wasn't really an option. Nobody even knew who led the Empire and where their leadership was located until Caim discovered that during the game, as shit was hitting the fan.

With this part of the rant over, a huge part of his burden is removed from Caim's shoulders. Speaking of Caim, let's talk about him.

Caim is not a psychopath, nor is he evil

This guy seems to be on too many people's shit lists when it comes to discussing DG1. Whenever Caim comes up, too many people's opinions on him boil down to "he's an irredeemable monster" and I'm always just thinking "did we play the same game?"

Caim is, indeed, a deconstruction of the classic fantasy hero archetype, for he is mainly driven by bloodlust and vengeance instead of good values, but, because of his muteness and his... "way of expressing himself" (let's call it that), people tend to ignore the plentiful evidence of his humanity.

In the game itself, Caim:

1. Fights to the bitter end against the Empire that wants to straight up end the world. Keep in mind that he's popular amongst the regular troops of the Union army, whom are inspired whenever Caim is on the battlefield;
2. Deeply cares about his sister, which is constantly reiterated throughout the game. Hell, the first thing that we ever hear him say is "Furiae...". He almost loses the will to live when he sees her die in the Ending A route and simply gives up on life after he's forced to kill her distorted version in Ending B;
3. Doesn't want to hurt Inuart, his best friend, to the extent that he loses their first duel while protecting Furiae (his sister) and outright spares Inuart after his first playable boss fight, which is implied via story and confirmed in supportive material. The sequence of in-game events also strongly implies that he loses to Inuart in the leadup to Ending B, because his heart wavers. And, after finally mustering the strength to deal the killing blow to Inuart in the Ending C route, he allows him to peacefully die by Furiae (her corpse)'s side.
4. Bonds with his pact partner, the very moral Angelus throughout the game, who comes to appreciate and respect Caim after many telepathic interactions that are left up to interpretation because we only hear Angelus. After a certain point, they even start bantering and (quite rarely) cracking jokes. Caim sheds genuine tears of sadness when Angelus sacrifices herself to become the Goddess in Ending A, is very hurt by having to kill her in Ending C and goes down swinging, united as one in combat with her in Endings D and E.
5. Is on stable "coworker" terms with the rest of the party, ends up having a sort of a soft spot for Seere alongside Angelus despite his strict demeanor towards the kid. Sacrifices himself just like everyone else during Ending D's events so that Seere may live just a little longer.
6. Does not strike Manah down in anger right after she pushes Furiae to suicide by outing her as a brocon, despite having all the reasons to do so. He flails around angrily, but is clearly restraining himself from harming a child that, from his perspective at the time, is doing everything of her own volition.
7. Ends up doing the right thing in all of the endings. He spares Manah in Ending A even after everything she has done. Yes, it is presented in an ominous manner, because this is Caim's way of getting back at her by having her live with her sins, but it's still the correct option. He ends Furiae's suffering in Ending B despite how much it hurts him to do so, to the point that it breaks him, and does the same to Inuart and Angelus for Ending C. He does everything he can to try and save the world in Endings D and E, which even gets him a glaze session from Verdelet, who was actively preaching against his methods, right before he enters Tokyo 2003.

Some people might counter this by saying "he enjoys murder!", and that is correct, Caim is definitely mentally ill, has severe anger issues and is most certainly a sociopath due to how easily he takes lives, but, bizarrely enough, he knows exactly how to direct himself so that his vengeful activities are useful to society, which he does by being monstrous only towards the Empire. He may kick a random person in sheer frustration, but you gotta keep in mind that the guy is constantly on the edge mentally, he fought in a war non-stop for 6 years (or a bit less than that), so him not doing anything worse is a feat. What I find admirable is that he never allows himself to seriously start hurting and/or killing innocents, might not even have an urge to do so as he constantly has an outlet (the Empire).

He does have some sort of a moral conscience, as evidenced by his human traits that I listed above, but, unfortunately, he doesn't have many opportunities to showcase his good side because of the extreme circumstances that the game takes place in.

• The one thing that Caim is widely known on the internet for is that one official image of him having a big, unhinged smile while looking at the camera, but that image is from Drakengard 2. It's also ripped out of context, because >!it's not a sadistic smile, it is a smile of pain. The only time he makes that facial expression in the entire game is when he hears Angelus suffering via their telepathic link, which has been occuring for FUCKING YEARS. Good luck living through that and remaining sane.!< Yes, I was surprised as well due to how synonymous that facial expression has become with Caim's identity in fanarts and inside the fandom. We've all suffered a case of accidental, collective LARPing in regards to this. What a shame.

Let's not bring Drakengard 2 into this discussion, that's a whole other matter. While it does continue and conclude Caim's character arc in a beautiful manner that is faithful to his portrayal in Drakengard 1, the circumstances in which he finds himself in that game, considering the consequences of what he went through in DG1, are arguably even more fucked up and should be studied thoroughly. >!I do think he is a villain in DG2, a very tragic one, but a villain still. So, don't worry, I'm not just some fanatic.!<

Taking everything I listed into consideration, the question in regards to Caim becomes "Is the more justified equivalent of a day 1 World War 2 vet evil?" That question is for you to answer.

• This is all without taking the supportive material (novels, short stories) into account, which completely confirm the "human" interpretation of Caim and paint him as a previously very kind, just person during his childhood, someone that had a bright future ahead of him and had everything taken away when he turned 18. His parents, his kingdom, his one and only friend and his sister... He lost all of it and managed to not die on the spot out of sheer depression. What a guy.
• In the novels, during the events of the game he is portrayed as rough and cynical, but there is that rare tenderness that slips through the cracks when he finds himself with the people he loves and trusts. It's heartwarming.

Thus Caim is, by definition, not a psychopath. I don't have an issue with him enjoying himself in combat because, clearly, it is a coping mechanism, the only one that he has which prevents him from completely going off the deep end.

It's not like Caim can just drop his sword and stop, the world is going to end if he does.

Do you fault Leon Kennedy for killing zombies, which he does in style, clearly enjoying himself as well? I don't.

Do you fault Yuji Itadori for killing transfigured humans, which is the only available way to put them out of their misery? I don't.

Caim is an unsettling individual, I can't fault his allies for being weary of his cruelty, but I also can't fault Caim for doing what he does at all because of all the factors in play.

Noone is a villain, everyone is a victim (except for the fucking fairy, Manah's mom, as well as God)

A certain trend that I've noticed with Drakengard discourse is that, depending on the person you ask, everyone will find their scapegoat, a character (or characters) that will disturb the person interacting with DG1 so much that their critical thinking will cease, resulting in them simply marking the character as a demon and completely refusing to use basic fucking empathy and logical analysis to recognize that they're blameless.

Allow me to explain why everyone (except for God, Manah's mom and that fairy, fuck you three in particular) is innocent.

Inuart, the noble fool

1. Initially, he does nothing wrong, only kills people in self-defense, protects Furiae, looks after her and helps Caim to come to his senses when the prince's rage gets the better of him. He is a bard, he sings songs and brings people's hearts closer even in times of war. Pretty good guy.
2. Things become complicated when he is captured by the Empire forces. He gets mindraped (telepathically tortured) by God, who is possessing a little girl. God keeps smashing into all of Inuart's insecurities, which have been following him throughout his life. You are weak. Caim was always better than you. Furiae will never love you etc. That capital G bitch keeps drilling right into Inuart's heart until he breaks and becomes available for control via the Red Eye Disease.
3. After that and until Furiae dies, Inuart is not his normal self, the disease unleashes all of Inuart's worst impulses, which results in his love turning into extreme possessiveness towards Furiae and turns his inferiority complex in regards to Caim into a delusional feeling of superiority coupled with sizzling hatred. Basically, Inuart gets mind controlled and his inner shadow self (hello, Jung) completely takes over.
4. Once Inuart is free of his condition, he is horrified upon the realization of what he has done. The first thing he sees is Furiae, the love of his life, dead, as a result of his actions while under Manah's control. Understandably, this causes another mental breakdown. For all intents and purposes, after this point, Inuart is a complete mess mentally, he is a shell of his former self and decides that the only way forward is to trust in a legend about the Seeds of Resurrection, which appear after the Goddess (in this case, Furiae) dies, so that he will be able to resurrect Furiae and fix his mistake that way.
5. Little does he know, the Seeds of Resurrection are a trap set by God, a way for him to cause the end of the world that is triggered if anyone uses them. The seeds were always a part of God's plan, he destroyed all of the seals and killed Furiae precisely so that they appear.
6. Caim and Angelus try to reason with him, but to no avail, Inuart's guilt and insecurities are too great, so he cannot be reasoned with and has to be put out of his misery. Alas... Have you ever made a grave mistake that hurt someone and you desperately wanted to fix it, but couldn't because it's something irreversible? I know the feeling, feels like shit. Well, in Inuart's case he wasn't even actually responsible for the mistake and the mistake in question has led to the world's destruction in 3 out of 5 endings. That's too harsh.

"I don't care... What is a world without Furiae?! HAHAHAHA!"

• Oh yeah, to rub salt into the wound, Furiae and Inuart were betrothed before she became a Goddess, they were supposed to get married, but Inuart is the universe's punching bag, tough luck. This brings me to my next point.

Furiae, the powerless lynchpin

This poor girl only knows suffering. Let me remind you what a Goddess in Drakengard is. I'll just copy-paste the explanation from the wiki lmao.

>The Goddess is the Seal that tethers the Great Time to the world, which is the eternal force that governs all Time, Space, and Dimension. It is said that if the Seals in the Temple of Forest, Desert, and Ocean along with the Goddess's Seal are broken (each causing increasing pain to the Goddess upon their respective destruction), then the Great Time would be unmoored from this dimension, plunging the world into chaos and causing the Seeds of Resurrection to appear to "correct" it.
There can only be one Goddess at once in any given era. A Goddess is chosen by the "Mark" (“Oshirushi”), which spontaneously appears on the successor's body upon the death of the previous Goddess. The Goddess must always be a female. For the women who try to hide it, it becomes a spiral-shaped string of incantations much like a brand. The "Mark" is always accompanied by pain, and its burden on the body is great. Once the Goddess is found by the priests, a sealing ritual is performed upon her, tying the Great Time to her existence.
The price of becoming the Goddess and keeping the world from descending into chaos, is that the woman chosen may not lead an ordinary life. She is never to see her family or anyone else, aside from the hierarch in charge of taking care of her (this rule is only enforced by the Hierarchs to prevent the Goddess from committing suicide or running away with her loved ones, however). She may never marry or give birth, either. However, if the state of war forces her to travel, she will be able to have contact with other people.
Before the mark appears on the chosen successor, a magical creature, such as a dragon, can have the seal placed upon itself of its own volition.
The world has undergone several other Goddesses before the events of Drakengard. While Goddesses have closely guarded and sheltered lives, a primary cause of death for previous Goddesses was suicide due to the immeasurable pain they had to endure.
According to Magnitude Negative, if a Goddess were to be killed by someone, the Seal would immediately transfer to another woman, hence why the Church of the Angels delayed in Furiae’s death. If she were to kill herself or die by natural means, the Seal transfer would occur slower.

Well, this basically tells you all you need to know. Imagine being on your period 24/7, shit's fucked.

So Furiae is always in a perpetual state of suffering that gradually becomes even worse during the game as the other seals are destroyed, increasing the burden on her body and soul. Bad enough, right?

Well, no socialization either. Introverts, this might seem like heaven to you initially, but you will NEVER be allowed to see or talk to anyone aside from Verdelet's bald-ass head, including your loved ones, so, while you keep wishing to die every second of your life, you will also never find comfort in anything. With all that taken into account, suicide becomes a really sexy option.

• Before the game's events (and before becoming the Goddess) Furiae was just a girl from a royal family, not even a spoiled brat, she was on good terms with everyone and brought light into Caim and Inuart's lives.
• During the game, after being the Goddess for around 5 years, she is barely a person. Her facial expression is blank 90% of the time, her eyes are dead, she looks like a doll because of how lifeless she has become - that is how the supportive material describes her. Clearly, she is only clinging to life, for some reason.

She doesn't hurt anyone (not that she could), only ever speaks to show her care for Caim and Inuart and, well, is the macguffin that's tossed around...

• The moment that makes her controversial is during her CGI death scene, where she kills herself. The reason she kills herself is that, when Caim, her brother, arrives just in time to save her, Manah (God) begins to reveal her deepest and darkest feelings in front of Caim via telepathy, saying Furiae's thoughts out loud, while he can perfectly hear everything.

Manah reveals that Furiae has started hating the world, hating it for the fate that she has to endure, the fact that only she has to truly suffer while everyone else can, at the very least, live a somewhat normal life and function normally on a day to day basis. Furiae feels that, perhaps, the world deserves destroying, that it needs it.
Honestly? Completely valid crashout, can't even imagine lasting a couple of days in her place.

• Now, the actually controversial part is that Manah also reveals that Furiae is a brocon, as in she's in love with Caim, the incestuous kind. This is the part where some people just give up on Furiae, leaving me going "HUH?".

Everyone knows that incest is wrong, it's even proven to be such historically and scientifically, but let's go easy on the poor girl, existing is already suffering for her, so her having some unusual interests and kinks, if the subject is to be approached with a mature stance, is completely irrelevant.

Just like any person, Furiae cannot exactly choose whom she harbors feelings for, so, because of the unfortunate way her life turned out to be, the only male figure in her life with a 100% positive interactions track record ended up being Caim, her brother. Inuart, although a good guy, unfortunately, lacks confidence, which is a turn-off for most people. Furiae doesn't feel as safe with Inuart as she does with the seemingly unbeatable Caim, so that's that.

Really, Furiae's attraction towards Caim is a failure on her parents' part. I don't think anyone is going to argue against this. Caim, Inuart and that one servant girl (if we take the DG 1.3-related manga as semi-canon for DG1) are her entire social circle throughout her life, and she ended up losing that circle to the shitty yet necessary tradition of being a Goddess. Understandably, she's clinging to the one person that is fully representative of her happiness.

• When Furiae's feelings are revealed, it is deliberately done by Manah in a very judgemental manner, framing Furiae as dirty, pitiful, not worthy of being a Goddess. And if she's not worthy of her one and only purpose in life, then what value does her life have? None, that's how Furiae feels.

In shame and desperation, she turns to Caim, either looking for support or to simply confirm her fears, that he will be disgusted and reject her. The prince has a vaguely surprised expression, he never even considered just how deep Furiae's suffering is and the immediate second punch that is her romantic feelings sends him off-balance. He wants to speak, HE MUST SPEAK and defuse the situation, let her know that everything is alright, but he can't, for his pact-price was his voice.
Being at a loss for words both figuratively and literally, feeling pain for both Furiae and himself, he turns away, so that he doesn't have to meet Furiae's desperate stare. He cannot handle it.

This, however, was a fatal mistake...

Furiae, in her beaten-down mental state, misinterprets Caim turning away as him being disgusted and rejecting her - the very thing she feared. Now that the one person, the one reason she has been living for this entire time has abandoned her, life no longer has meaning. She takes a nearby knife and stabs her own chest, right into the heart.

Caim is shocked, he did everything he could to save his sister and this is how it ends? If only he could speak... THIS WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!!

"Don't look... at me."

God, writing this brought back all the emotions I felt... Such a spectacularly fucked up scene. Bravo, Taro, and fuck you.

• The supportive media's take on the scene is very similar to what I'm describing, not 1 to 1, but the overall intention behind the scene is the exact same. The text also hints at Caim harboring romantic feelings towards Furiae as well, which is subtly hinted at several times throughout the game (I'm willing to elaborate in the comments if anyone is curious). Thus we have another layer of tragedy: Caim is a siscon, he's also a mature, responsible older brother and knows that these feelings are wrong, so he's content with simply being a good older brother, but HERE COMES MANAH WITH THE STEEL CHAIR OF FURIAE'S OWN ROMANTIC FEELINGS and Caim doesn't know what the fuck he's supposed to do with this information. This very human hesitation costs Furiae her life.

Furiae spends the rest of the game dead or dies alongside Inuart shortly after being saved as the Empire's Sky Fortress crashes.

• Ending B's "Furiae" is not Furiae as we know her, it is merely a mad chimera with her appearance that has been programmed by God (through the seed) to destroy the world. She kills Inuart, her closest friend, in cold blood and attempts to kill Caim, her brother and the man she loves. Furiae would never do that. Of course, there is the symbolic interpretation that "Furiae" is supposed to be the real Furiae's revenge against the world, as hinted at in the lyrics of the beautiful "Growing Wings" song, but these events are all a freak accident and Furiae's mind is being clouded by God's hatred towards humanity, she cannot be held accountable for this.

Leonard, the gentle soul

• I adore this man, he is well-mannered and constantly shows kindness to everyone, including his enemies. When Caim first meets him, he is praying over a dead body of a soldier of the Empire in order to lay his soul to rest. Leonard becomes another voice of reason and tries to help Caim and Arioch maintain their humanity.
• He tries his best to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, does what he can to help and support others, desperately tries to avoid killing the child soldiers, but is confronted by the grim reality of things, which forces his hand.
• He becomes Seere's guardian and does everything in his power to protect the boy from the dangers of the world that they live in. In the events of Ending D, Leonard sacrifices himself for Seere's sake. He was afraid of death before, but has since learned that "death need not be the end of hope!" Very selfless, very inspirational.
• Leonard also happens to be a pedophile.

When most people hear of this, their immediate reaction is to mark Leonard as a monster and disregard everything else that they know of the character. They do not try to dig deeper, do not try to understand and simply allow their upbringing, the narcissistic social norms of our time to eliminate any kind of empathy and logic that would allow them to recognize the HoRrIbLe TrUtH that, bear with me, pedophiles can be good people.

The first misconception comes from people's misinterpretation of the word. Because the media and news most often discuss pedophiles that are predators and/or rapists, people immediately associate the word with the activities I just described.

That is incorrect, by definition, "pedophile" simply means a person that experiences sexual attraction towards small children.

"That is unnatural, it's disgusting". I agree. Leonard agrees as well.

Back when he was a kid, Leonard started experiencing attraction towards one of his boy peers. Leonard felt bliss and the feeling of butterflies in his stomach, but even back then he recognized that he has to keep this a secret, because it's considered wrong, nobody would understand.

Fast forward to becoming an adult, Leonard has moved to a town and has become a teacher. Everyone liked him and he liked them back. Problem is, he never found an outlet for his urges, but he knew that what he feels is wrong and repressed himself, not wanting to make his feelings anyone else's problem.

Unfortunately, one of Leonard's young students saw right through him, seemingly being a blossoming member of the LG TV community himself, the boy kept teasing Leonard and acting outrageously provocative (from Leonard's own account), which kept happening until Leonard could no longer contain himself.

It is intentionally left unknown whether Leonard forced himself on the boy or if it was a "mutual experience", but what happened left Leonard disgusted with himself. He has decided to isolate himself from society and live out the rest of his life as a hermit in a forest.

At some point, he learned the very useful technique of masturbation, which greatly helped to cope with his urges and allowed him to lead something resembling a normal life.

Alas, the Empire's conquest throughout the land was moving swiftly. To protect his brothers, likely the only family he had left, Leonard took them in to live with him in the forest, so that he could protect them, which he wouldn't be able to do had they remained in the city.

Leonard's brothers were young and, to Leonard, very beautiful. Living with them felt like a curse and a blessing at the same time. To relieve his urges, Leonard occasionally snuck away at night from his cabin into the woods to masturbate.

After one of his "sessions", Leonard came back to his cabin to discover it burning, his brothers lay dead nearby before his very eyes. The Empire has found them. Leonard wasn't there, when he was needed the most. He felt that a failure of a brother like him did not deserve to live.

Taking a knife, he wanted to stab into his own throat, but found himself unable to do so. He... didn't want to die. Very understandable.
Still, he couldn't cope with this disgusting, irresponsible piece of shit that he saw himself as. He wanted to be punished, so he made a pact with a fairy that kept sadistically making fun of him, which made him lose his eyesight. He will never be able to see children again and, thanks to that, will never be able to be tempted and hurt them again in any manner.

This background lore all comes from the supportive material... Good fucking job, Taro, so much important information and it's not even in the game. This is a trend with Yoko Taro's works in general. The most egregious example being Drakengard 3.
"You know how Drakengard 3 is supposed to be the prequel to Drakengard 1, yea? Well, fuck you, playerbase" - said Taro and made the canon prequel route exclusive to the Drakengard 3 Story Side novel. None of the Branches in the game lead to Drakengard 1 and that game was advertised as the prequel to DG1. Talk about false advertisement.

Leonard spends the rest of the game trying to atone for his sins, for being different and for not being there to save his brothers. He never acts dangerously sus around kids, only ever tries to keep them safe and helps Caim fight against the absolutely evil Empire. These are all objectively good things.

I didn't even know that Leonard is a pedophile until after beating the game. Nothing pointed to that, the game doesn't have a dramatic reveal scene or anything like that. All I saw when playing is a tortured, kind soul that was too harsh on himself.

And after finding out his "secret"? My opinion hasn't changed. In fact, I admire Leonard for successfully keeping his mental illness at bay, in a setting with no therapists. He had absolutely no help of any kind when it came to dealing with his pedophilia and he still recognized it as wrong and did what he could to avoid hurting others and live a normal life. This is worthy of respect.

In interviews regarding Drakengard, Yoko Taro (or some other dev on the team) said that whether Leonard ever allowed his urges to hurt anyone is up to interpretation. Based on what I see in the game? To me, this man is the most precious pedophile in fiction, as insane as that sounds. "One of the good ones", as prejudiced folk would put it.

Pedophilia is a mental illness and people that are ill need help. Unfortunately, society likes to smell it's own farts too much, so we're stuck in an echo chamber of people being disgusted by those that are different and constantly yelling about that, to the point that empathy towards individuals suffering from severe mental issues has become a rarity, and those that are perfectly self-aware, like Leonard, are pressured into hiding and hating themselves until, little by little, they are destroyed**.**

“What is better – To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?”
There is no "better" option, in my opinion, but Leonard does his absolute fucking best to be good, which is why I want to protect him.

Let's be kinder to those that want to be helped, shall we?

Arioch, the mad mother

• I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, she is beyond saving, that's the entire point of the character, that's what we see in the game and that is also how Taro describes her.
• What we see of Arioch in the game is a completely mental, child-eating cannibal that doesn't listen to anyone. She is always daydreaming, always thinking of her children, whom she lost to the Empire alongside her husband. All she ever does is kill and eat.
• Taro avoided delving into Arioch's backstory on purpose per his own admission in order to avoid players feeling sorry for her, but that's where he fucked up, the simple in-game revelation that Arioch is the way she is because she lost her children is all that it takes for me to feel great pity towards her.
• Her backstory (from the novel) is short and supremely messed up. She was a normal mother with a daughter and a husband, as well another kid on the way, baking in the oven. When the Empire came to the elven lands, she was forced to pick up arms while pregnant and did her best to protect those she loves, but fell before the Empire's overwhelming lack of humanity. Her husband and daughter killed, her unborn child murdered via Arioch being stabbed in the belly.

Arioch couldn't bear the weight of what happened, ate the remains of her unborn child after the miscarriage and, as her psyche shattered, completely deluded herself into believing that her children are still somewhere out there. Any child she comes across she mistakes for her own dead children and tries to "protect", "return to the womb" where it's safe by killing and eating them, sometimes while they're still alive.

She will also never have children again because of her pact price, which is her womb. How cruel, don't you have a human heart, mister Taro? But maybe that's for the best, someone that is completely out of their mind shouldn't be a parent.

"So... Slukig, what the hell are you getting at then?"

All I want is for you to understand and feel. Feel the horror, the dread, the pain and, most importantly, empathy.

Thanks to Caim and Leonard's efforts, Arioch got a chance to properly use her powers to actually protect a child (Seere) for once, even though she obviously wanted to eat him like all the rest.

Just like Leonard, Arioch, even if unintentionally in her case, ends her life by buying time for Seere to live on and save the world. "The greatest of feasts!" as she calls it. She fed those Watcher babies, fulfilling her role as a mother, it's morbidly cute now that I think about it.

Arioch is not evil, because there is no moral intent behind her actions, she is simply broken beyond repair.
A person such as this should not be allowed to interact with society. She needs to be locked away, with professionals attempting to help her, as unlikely as being helped is in her case.

Personally? I'd prefer for her to be painlessly killed. This is an unfortunate, rare case of a person that is completely beyond help unless we start bringing in mind-healing hax from other fictional works.

"Jokuh, honey, you're like a little baby, watch this" *chomps a child's face off*

BUT, what Caim and Verdelet have decided to do with her is the best course of action in the circumstances the game takes place in. Arioch's power is a great boon against the endless army of the Empire, killing her at that time would just be stupid. It's better to put her to use for everyone's sake than to end her sole misery, resulting in even more misery for those that suffer from the Empire, and a potential loss that will end the world.

T.B.C. in Part 2 (it's out on r/Drakengard!)

Edit: Part 2 is long finished, but automod kept deleting it whenever I post. I've managed to post it on r/Drakengard!