About Edgar's almost character arc
I was thinking about the story beats that Edgar gets. I’m ridiculously biased in his favor, I find his character likable and his plot satisfying despite giving him no growth (for which I’ve said he has no character arc).
In stories with twins, they mean to represent duality and bounce off each other in some way. In FF6, each Figaro boy has individual baggage to address, but also something that only seems to resolve when bringing the other twin into the equation.
The Figaro twins have a solid, easy-to-understand setup: They are burdened with family responsibility but desire freedom. Their duality comes into play to have them go about it differently.
- Sabin is short-tempered and wants freedom now because he’s shortsighted and expects that leaving home will suffice.
- Edgar is mellow-tempered and prioritizes responsibility before freedom (work before play) because he’s farsighted and foresees freedom being lost forever if the Empire is not dealt with.
Sabin has yet to realize that his way does not produce long-lasting results, so he experiences different stages of frustration that sets him on different journeys in the pursuit of his goals, leading to confusion, self-discovery, growth, and resolution (his arc is missable but well fleshed out, in my opinion).
Edgar, on the other hand, is correct. He’s got it all figured out, and when he hits a wall, he adapts and ends up figuring it out; no personal journey needed. He sure has personal issues (the womanizing), but the setup for those (mommy issues) is left out of the story, since none of it influences his outcomes.
And luckily, the devs pulled back on exploring what losing Sabin would do to Edgar, but there’s something to the role of Sabin in Edgar’s life that the game hints at. At first it looks like Sabin is used in Edgar’s story only to show how wise and selfless Edgar can be. The coin toss certainly gives Edgar great emotional depth, and almost an arc (I think it’s still Sabin’s arc, but y'know, duality! 😌).
Edgar makes it look like he’s got it all figured out, but his decisions may be working to his own detriment. Yes, he makes the right decisions, but there’s always a trade-off: he took on the role of king and responsible older brother, and put his emotional integrity on the line.
Edgar is single and ready desperate to mingle, and gamers often infer that it’s not just a sex-thing; he’s lonely. His mommy issues are supposedly running in the background, but we’re not given that information, and maybe we don’t need to know. Looking at his personal life, he doesn’t have one: all members of his immediate family are gone and all he does is work (or something productive) and maybe the horizontal tango on occasion.
I don’t think Edgar sacrificed freedom, he’s still pursuing it by playing the long game. By letting Sabin go, he gave up what was left of his personal life. Sabin chose to take physical distance while Edgar chose to take emotional distance, maybe not only from Sabin but from everyone.
Edgar is not emotionless neither trying to appear so, but he wears a mask. Whatever he shows is not quite what’s going on underneath; sometimes he exaggerates, sometimes he downplays, sometimes he deflects, sometimes he misleads, but he’s almost never transparent (that Edgar-pose really gives it away 🤔).
Having Sabin joining the quest was unexpected for both. I think Sabin was eager for an opportunity join efforts, but Edgar probably only planned to see Sabin again after defeating the Empire, so this is a curve-ball thrown at Edgar because it pressures him to drop his guard and close in the emotional distance prematurely.
Sabin knows of Edgar’s tendency to conceal, and he lets him be… for the most part. He’s definitely not OK with Edgar being a hoe, probably because he knows Edgar’s using immediate gratification to try to fill a void.
Sabin too spends a while running in circles, trying to fill his own void and failing at it, but he does come to understand that he has been barking up the wrong tree.
Sabin was given freedom of choice early on, but he also had been free to do what he felt was right. Having the ability to go on his personal journey and to wear his heart on his sleeve and make mistakes was what allowed him to find his inner wounds and work on them. This is the freedom that Edgar gave up, or at least delayed until securing peace for the kingdom.
I’d say it was nearly impossible for Edgar to address his personal situation while maintaining his emotional juggling act. I could also say “at least he should stop fucking around”, but was he fucking around? Is he a player? Is he polygamous? Is he a cheater? He’s all talk, I don’t really know if he “plays dirty”, we’re never ever shown a woman falling for his charms. 🤷🏻♀️
What I’m finding interesting now, is that at the end, not only is Sabin able to articulate his feelings, but he’s also nudging (not pressuring or scolding) Edgar to rely on him, something that Edgar might not be emotionally ready to do.
Yes he gets world peace, yes he’s the last king standing, yes the entire world is now his playground; but those were professional aspirations and none of those fixes him. On a personal level he gets to count on a wiser Sabin coming back to support him, not with muscle but with patience and empathy, which is what could finally get him to break out of the walls he put up.
World Leader Pretend by R.E.M just came to mind 🤔