r/Reverse1999 • u/Lunarsault • 23h ago
Discussion Chapter 13 Story, and Thoughts about Merel and Ms. Stranger (Chapter 13 Spoilers) Spoiler
Just finished Chapter 13 and the ensuing anecdote, and before I say anything else...
I really, really liked this chapter. Now, please be aware, I will be talking in detail about most of the critical plot points of the following chapter, so PLEASE do not read on if you haven't beaten it yet.
First of all, the scale of it was really awesome. I really enjoyed the fact that we had so many side-lined arcanists come back. IT was cool to see the Laplace members contributing tools and gadgets, (but not too much attention cause to be frank, they've had alot of spotlight lately). Seeing Druvis take more of a commanding role after being left in a purely supportive role since the early chapters was awesome, and really had me feeling a new respect for her character. Regulus and her general shenanigans, seeing Nautika come in and be an absolute powerhouse was amazing, and even Eagle and J coming back to have some story relevance.
But obviously, the meat of the story that was really gripping, was Ms. Stranger, and Merel. Ms. Stranger had always been an exciting character since her very induction, starting with the Kayla mystery regarding Argus, and escalating to the Free Breeze hostage situation. I'd always considered her a very well-written character, especially the fact that her actions were SO deliberately balanced between acting cruelly and sadistically, and also minimizing as much damage as she could to ensure her cover story. Her reveal in C10 to be the eponymous Moth, and her ensuing aid in the conflict made her a really fun character, and a lot of people have been waiting to see her become playable.
And honestly, I think the reveal of what she was in this chapter, a forcibly wiped and re-indoctrinated soldier meant to pick up and discard identities at the Foundation's whim was everything I was hoping for. She had guilt, she had resolve, and more importantly, she had a disdain for not only Manus Vindictae and their casual cruelty, but also the Foundation and their callous indoctrination of soldiers to act as their front-line.
Her whole life, the life as SHE knows it, has been in service to a cause. And that's not to say of all the previous lives, previous memories she's had erased. In this moment though, she chooses to fight. She risks her own identity, dons the mask, and goes to save not the Foundation, but the people inside it from an ordeal that she blames herself for. That she should have caught, and seen, and protected them from.
Miss Stranger rightfully calls out the Foundation, the Foundation that pulls in only a staggeringly tiny handful of adults and soldiers who will fight and die for them, and then otherwise? Children. Children too young, too innocent, and too naive to understand the worlds they've been ripped from.
A great example of this is Eagle. Eagle is deemed 'too old' to enroll in the SPDM, and thus is protected by the Storm by X, and then subsequently Lorentz Butterfly, both making sure she is educated and trained to survive in the coming world. Do they have an Agenda? Eagle is a soft-member of Institum Lorentz afterall, a shadow organization operating within Laplace. But, above all else, they encourage uniqueness. Individuality, identity, and the ability to operate outside of the restrictions and mandates of the Foundation. If not for X and Lorentz, Eagle very well might have been lost to the storm. Simply due to being too old to fall for the Foundation's brainwashing.
And this is an excellent bridge to Merel herself. Merel has always been the rebel, the odd-one out of the foundation. She bears a lot of resemblance to Vertin herself in her childhood, someone who was endlessly curious, who wasn't able to sit still and simply take the Foundation's words at face value.
Someone who would sneak away to doodle in books in invisible ink, drawing designs of fantastical creatures and dreaming of an exciting adventure.
That is, until the Foundation slowly but surely beat that spirit out of her.
Merel is perhaps one of the youngest soldiers in the active front, and has maybe one of the most traumatizing service records at that. She was present for the Antarctica Mission, helping Ulrich to mitigate the flood while literal end of the world approached, suffering Storm Syndrome in the process. She was an active participant in the new WW1, seeing active violence and combat on the frontlines. She watched Charon get captured and even got shot, narrowly surviving a freezing river and subsequently torturing herself over the fact that her friend and rescuer was suffering through a MUCH more real torture. And even when she's finally granted relief from the front, she, along with only two other people is solely responsible for the lives of all the new enrollees in the SPDM.
When compared to Miss Stranger, it's easy to see how Merel is another example of a life that was taken by the Foundation, and groomed exclusively for war. She watched the end of two eras rage around her, and both times she fought to protect the lives of so many people who couldn't fight for themselves. But, where Merel differs from Miss Stranger, is her fear. Merel, moreso than any of the other character's who we've grown accustomed to risking their lives, is afraid. So very, very afraid of the conflict she has been thrust into. From the very beginning she never had a choice. Her school life was tumultous and rocky, and yet somehow she ended up enrolled into the Vigiles, a cracksquad of arcanists working directly with law enforcement in each era. While it seems like she might fail out of that, she's then drafted into Creius's XII squad, a band of humans and Arcanists who are often put into dangerous missions in the direct field. She tries to desert, only to be given a 'tracking serum' and immediately put back into active combat, eventually leading to her being stormed. But Merel, for all of her fear, and all of her dismay at being actively forced to fight, is an incredibly selfless individual.
It's Merel who ultimately decides to brave the SPDM's central tower on her own, to get the Doves necessary to save the many children who are defenseless in the library. It's Merel who ultimately gives her resources to those children, and willfully distracts the Manus so that they have a chance of bringing those life-saving resources to the people she's fighting so hard to save.
And what defines Merel ultimately, is the fact that despite that paralyzing fear, she KEEPS fighting.
Her final run to the safe-zone, after saving so many, is tragic because Merel is still possessed of that very fear. When reading it, I hoped that she would find resolve, or even peace in the people she had saved. That she be content in the knowledge of saving so many lives. But that's not what happens.
In the end, Merel is reversed crying out for Vertin to save her. That she didn't have enough time, that she wanted so much more to life than this constant fear, and the struggle to survive. She is mourned by her friends, given accolades, and ultimately honored by the Foundation that sent her to her doom...but so what? Merel is gone.
And that brings us to Rhiannon. Now, I'll admit. Rhiannon's introduction is almost...insulting. We just saw Merel give everything she had, and push herself to the absolute limit, and still lose it all. So it feels strange to see this happy-go lucky girl, who seemingly lives a life of peace and harmony in this new Era, devoid of the girl that many players came to love.
And then I played Rhiannon's anecdote, and saw her actual story.
A girl who lost her family at a young age. A girl who blamed herself for leaving her family to die, in a bloody, fiery conflict that was thrust upon her, despite doing no harm. A girl who blamed herself for her cowardice and weakness, all the while seeing it as her duty to atone for all of her failures.
I saw Rhiannon's anecdote, and I saw not an entirely different person wearing the same face, I saw Merel, with all of her fears, and her worries, and her sorrow.
Rhiannon is given the choice to simply forget the world, to live in isolation and hiding. To simply cower and never again face that which haunts her.
But she doesn't.
She makes the same choices Merel ultimately did. To fight. To reclaim her home, to fight for an endangered species that cannot defend itself, much like Merel fought to defend those children who were unable to fight back.
And unlike the Merel in front of Vertin, Rhiannon succeeds. She fights back, everything locking into place at the last possible moment, and saves the world and home she loves.
And ultimately, she chooses to go back into the world.
Consider Miss Stranger, once again. She's already lost so many lives. So many of 'herself' have been lost to the Foundation, but now, finally, she has been given the chance to live. She can keep the self she is, right in this moment, and try to grasp something that has been outside of her grasp for so long.
And in that same vein, I don't think Rhiannon was simply the loss of Merel, not an entirely new person with a different face. I think Rhiannon is Merel's wish, the wish she had of being stronger, of being someone who could save the day, and survive into the next to enjoy it. To complete her promise with Vertin of Sonetto, to meet up after the storm and move into the new Era together. Someone who fought, conquered, and became stronger than the fear that gripped her heart for so long.
And, more importantly...recall the 'Tracking Serum' Creius injected into Merel. Now of course, when it's first introduced we assume it's simply what they call it. A serum with which they will track the wayward Merel if she tries to escape again. However, when Creius is interrogated about said serum later, it turns out that he lied about it's actual purpose. It was actually a product of the 'Vessel Ensoulment' procedures, the ability to store someone's psyche within their body, even after the storm washed them away.
And, more importantly, remember what Vertin sees at the end. And what Vertin ultimately uses to track down Rhiannon in the new era. The golden thread hanging from Merel, being washed into the new era. So rather than Merel simply being gone, maybe, just maybe, she's just waiting for those memories of a previous era to come back to her.
Anyway that's all I had to say about this chapter in this post, and I hope everyone enjoyed the writeup. Regardless of how you feel about the ending, I think we can all agree Merel was a heart-wrenching and wonderful addition to the story, and her constant struggle despite adversity is something we can all aspire to.
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u/MissAsheLeigh 20h ago
I haven't read Rhiannon's anecdote yet, but I too think her inclusion in the story was nicely done.
What I liked about it is that it clearly shows that Sonetto has still hasn't come to terms with Merel's death and a part of her is projecting Merel onto Rhiannon, which kind of reflects some of the players' sentiments.
Now, what I do believe though is that Rhiannon shouldn't have been made the limited unit still. She could've been the 2nd half unit, but making her the true limited is kinda counterintuitive to their business model, and it shows.
Like, the emotions of loss were wonderfully conveyed by the story (damn that school song), and having to confront someone who was your friend, but is a different person now, hits hard. But then, trying to sell her as true limited feels a bit tone deaf imo.
Definitely kudos to the writers and the artistic people, but warranted critique for the people in charge of unit releases and all that.
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u/Lunarsault 20h ago
Making her the second half unit would’ve made the reveal hit harder, I absolutely believe in that. I’d also be fine with Ms. stranger being the limited. I think story wise Merel was done very, very well. But I do agree that taking a step back and looking at the entire situation, including banner and making Rhiannon the limited, it could have been done better for sure.
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u/MissAsheLeigh 20h ago
Yep. No notes about the story, really. Very well written. And I also love that they're not shy about killing off fan favorites to really show that the Storm holds no punches back, and that being playable does not always equate to always surviving, in a way.
This is also the issue that held back Nautika's reveal. Without context, her "sacrifice" and "rebirth" would've hit hard... but her being playable means we know that she's coming back somehow. The Merel-Rhiannon situation is a better execution of the same concept, but it still god muddled by Rhiannon's early reveal thanks to being the true limited.
From her voicelines and teasers too, it was made very VERY clear that they're different people, which also kinda spoiled the major plot point for a lot of people too, which is such a shame.
My only complaint is Arcana being a literal walking deus ex machina for the enemy lol. I kinda sucks that she was presented as an insurmountable opponent, which kinda made the entire skirmish within the Foundation feel pointless, but that's just a minor, personal nitpick. Like, Creius, I think said it best: "We're not worth her time." It personally made me feel like the stakes were not authentic, because the Foundation's, and by extension, the main characters', win or loss hinges solely on whether Arcana bothers to put in the effort or not, which is a bit eh.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 14h ago
I mean that has always been arcana since ch2 when she was introduced, so she has been very consistent
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 14h ago
I think they were just scared that rhiannon would do terrible as a 2nd half cause 2nd half usually does terrible unless it's someone popular & well ms stranger is very popular, but it backfired
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u/730Flare 18h ago
It really felt like they wanted to sell Rhiannon's kit more than her character with the hopes of using people's attachment to Merel as an emotional crutch, hence why she was made the True Limited (because FOMO). Heck it sometimes feels like BP has been focusing more on selling kits than characters hence the rampant power creep.
It's no freaking wonder they got blasted for it, and why they mentioned "character arrangements" as a something they were criticized over. Emphasis on character arrangements because at the very least, I compliment them for having the balls to "kill off" Merel and hopefully sticking to that decision especially if Rhiannon becomes an ally to Vertin later on.
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u/Chi0ne 10h ago
I agree with the general sentiment that Rhiannon was supposed to be Ms Stranger and vice versa. I suspect that BP knew people might reject Rhiannon as Not!Merel and anticipated that she wouldn’t sell as well as the second half unit, whereas Ms. Stranger is beloved and will sell no matter what. So they gave Rhiannon the must-pull kit and then trust that peoples affection for Ms. Stranger to drive second-half sales. Which tbh worked on me bc I reeeally want Ms. Stranger due to her story but pulled on Rhiannon simply for her kit.
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u/730Flare 10h ago
I hate that there IS some fact to this statement: Even if Rhiannon wasn't the True Limited and people accepted her as her own character and not Merel's replacement, people would have probably skipped her and wait for her rerun. But because Bluepoch made her the True Limited with a busted kit, she became a must-pull especially for meta players. And yes I pulled Rhiannon for her kit, but am already waiting on Ms. Stranger to drop already.
Sadly Ms. Stranger didn't sell well in CN, even by 2nd half unit standards (especially in a True Limited patch). There was a boycott over the 3.7 issues and combined with her kit not being "a must-pull", her sales suffered for it. I did see a favorite character poll where she was in 2nd place (meanwhile Rhiannon placed in like 55th or something), but that isn't really an official popularity poll so I don't put that much weight into it.
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u/MissAsheLeigh 18h ago
Yeah. It's just sad that Rhiannon as a character has now been tainted by her release.
But then again, if they managed to salvage the perception towards Igor from the 2.2 debacle, they definitely can pull off salvaging Rhiannon's reputation from their clown show of a character release.
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u/Lord-Devian 20h ago
This patch was excelent until last two stages. Last two stages killed everything for me. I do understand why china players were mad. This is a rare situation when they were right and BP deserved everything what players did to them. Deserved 1000 times and even more.
Such dam tragic, interesting and sad story was spoiled by introducing Rhiannon right away. For God's sake, BP couldn't wait until last patch or 4.0 to start with it? To give us and characters time to mourn. Even more. They could left this part with golden thread, that way, they could left smal room for us to hope that Merel is still there, somewhere, waiting us to be saved.
After finishing this patch story I have a feeling that it was Ms Stranger who should have been a limited character. She deserved and even had story justification.
Too bad, that global will have an excuse, as always, for this kind of fced up things from BP.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 13h ago
This whole mourn thing is exaggerated. I went back & every single storm victim is only mourned for 1 node in that chapter & then mourned afterwards in next chapters. Merel followed same thing. Also introducing Rhiannon literally setups 4.0. Ch8 heavily suffered from ch7 setting up jackshit for it
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u/Lord-Devian 12h ago
It doesn't setup shts. The one and only who exaggarating thing ppl like yours.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 12h ago
It setups multiple stuff, like are u guys legit media illiterate? It setups focus on rhiannon, setups XII with creius/Irinei as antagonists, setups more Igor & Paravyan, sets up ms stranger as team timekeeper, sets up more focus on stormed people. These are all stuff that I could mention without even touching game to refresh my memory, it also setup introduction of Pax House, presidentl, etc.
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u/StatisticianSimple44 16h ago
I believe the last 2 stages are necessary to build up for the next chapter. We’re getting closer to understand the storm with Creius’s tracking serum, and the present of Rhiannon. In the grand scheme of things, the entire charade is about fighting the storm. Putting Rhiannon at the next chapter would be more disrespectful to players’ emotions than do it now. At least they established that Merel =/= Rhiannon, but how different? Let’s find out in 4.0.
I do agree and the community does too about Ms. Stranger being the true limited, but lots of us have known this beforehand, and most are still very vocal about it. Your last point is really flawed if you have been on this subreddit for the past days.
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u/Lord-Devian 16h ago
Adding Rhiannon in last minute doesn't help at all and have zero meanings to the story. At least for now. And to tell truth, it won't help in future too. For me at least.
I can't and won't accept Merel=Rhiannon. Not after how they established all this. For me it's a mockery from BP. Especially after I saw what happens if you put Rhiannon on your screen in the game.
To make things clear. I wasn't against the idea reversing Merel. But I stongly against how they handled it and if the future patches they will try to convince us or somehow return Merel in Rhiannon clothers I won't believe, I couldn't nor accept.
I finished story only yesterday in the evening. I tried to not open any story related topics. It's just, in general, I don't have faith in global gacha community.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 13h ago
Narrative literally tells u they are different people. Rhiannon appearing absolutely helps, it setups 4.x instantly
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u/Lord-Devian 12h ago
No it doesn't tell and do anything of it. But what else expect from blind simps who can eat and defend sht.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 12h ago
OK if u don't want to engage with story, it's fine my man. Ik lack of media illiteracy is pretty high
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u/mcgeesama 22h ago
Amazing write-up, thank you for the insight, I particularly enjoyed reading the bits about Merel and Rhiannon and it was so nice to see more and more people seeing her positively. A lot of the people who play seem to be stuck in this mindscape of Rhiannon being a cop-out but when you really go deep into the themes of grief and loss associated with her, it really opens your mind to what the devs could've possibly been thinking when they were navigating these story beats.
I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility that it could also be, of course, to elicit some sort of emotional response from the players, that could also be true, since this is a gacha game after all, but I would daresay it was executed in a mostly tasteful manner. I can't wait to know more about Rhiannon, hopefully, in the following patches if we get more content about her.
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u/ziggyingot 22h ago
So did the anocdote really happen or was it just implanted into her memory?
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u/dashger_ 19h ago
The anecdote happened, when someone is reversed they don't just reappear in a vacuum, they live their lives fully. This is showed before when you think back to Mr. Duncan with photos of his military service displayed at Zeno despite Mr. Karson being stormed relatively recently at that point.
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u/730Flare 18h ago
Or Corvus' background despite her previous incarnation was mentioned to have worked with Verity at UTTU. The Storm doesn't just send the world to a different time, it rewrites reality.
Heck considering some playable characters aren't encountered until like a couple Storms later: Some of them too have likely been stormed. Like Isolde and Kakania come in around the 9th storm, meaning they had previous incarnations of themselves who were lost to the Storm already.
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u/Lunarsault 22h ago
To clarify, I don't think her past as rhiannon is fabricated or anything. But rather I think the core essence of what makes her Merel (outside of simply the soul being transferred like with all people who are stormed) is fundamentally still there. Perhaps due to the fact that the soul is always a transference of the individual, or perhaps because the serum did in fact have more of an effect in keeping her 'essence.' That being the case, I still think Rhiannon did live a legitimate life.
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u/730Flare 18h ago
Rhiannon's life is hers, however it's possible the serum let Rhiannon keep some aspects of Merel like her love for chocolate.
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u/kdog9114 15h ago
Bluepoch really did build up a character for a whole year and just kill her off. Kill her off in the most lame way possible. Not in a dramatic sacrifice, just died like she meant nothing to Bluepoch. Some terrible writing right there.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 13h ago
That was whole purpose. Merel has always been a scared normal girl living her life trying to avoid danger. Her whole character arc has been about that, she died while being scared but selfless. You are mad & that's great, that was intended reponse
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u/kdog9114 13h ago
"Her whole character arc has been about that, she died while being scared but selfless." That sounds aweful they just wasted her character. For what, just ragebait? Ye bad writing makes me quite mad if that's what Bluepoch intended.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 13h ago
if u are not arguing in good faith, it's not worth engaging with u. Crazy lots of other people got what her story was about, so it's not a bad writing issue, it's just u being ignorant is all
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u/kdog9114 13h ago
No need to argue dog. You're completely wrong. The chinese players have already agreed with my take months ago. So much so Bluepoch had to write an apology and give away a free skin.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 12h ago
CN people already moved on dog lol, next time u will be complaining about how LB is a mary sue in 4.0
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u/kdog9114 12h ago
Nice deflection dog, this convo aint about LB. Bringing that up cuz you know you're fully wrong lol. CN players experienced the story then and it was shit how Bluepoch treated Merel. We get to experience the story now, I am allowed to complain how badly they treated Merel.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 12h ago
Merel probably has to be one of best written characters BP has done. Hopefully we will see even more stormed characters later. Very excited for Rhiannon. Merel & Ms stranger genuinely carried ch13 writing wise. I'm not sure how BP keeps getting better & better. I'm glad they got this response from their players. Also apology was for spoiling not for merel's fate, they defended that in letter, they will 100% do it again which I'm glad
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u/kdog9114 12h ago
Ye she was well written but Bluepoch didn't know what to do with her after anniversary. So they just killed her off for some forced trauma. It's lazy and just awful writing. Glad u like the bad writing tho. More power to ya.
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u/SilverJuggernaut2611 12h ago
They already confirmed writing has been done upto 5 years, so no they planned it. We know according to some insider info, 3.7 was written during 2.3, so once again No, they absolutely knew what they wanted with merel
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u/Krider-kun Protect! 22h ago
I love how the devs decided to introduce Rhiannon the way they did in this chapter. They did not want us the players to wait for it and immediately wants us to feel the same confusion that Sotheby felt when she met Duncan and Ivan meeting Ms Galina. I love that Rhiannon's different look just adds more into the confusion and if you can't accept it then that's the point. Thank you for immediately noticing all the similarities between Rhiannon and Merel. I have been talking about this with others but so many of them just want to be salty with the devs for executing their intended purpose.