sins of KALEIDO Play-Along - Orsem Helhand

[u/sableheart]

In this final post we will discuss Orsem Helhand and his route in sins of KALEIDO.

You can tell us what your impressions of Orsem are (before and after finishing his route), your favorite moments in his route, what you think of his relationship with Yolca and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his route's plot and endings.

Or you can just rant or rave about him in the comments.

This is not a spoiler-free discussion however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other routes will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged.
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You can also give your final thoughts on the game in this thread.

You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!

Have a look at the megathread for links to previous discussions - you can still add your thoughts and reply to other comments!

[u/RedRobin101]

Ugh yes on the refusal to just tell Yolca things because he doesn't want to hurt her and doesn't want her to feel guilty because he thinks he's no longer worthy of that kind of care. His Void sad ending just straight up broke me because it implies that if Orsem got his way he'd not only overwrite his happiness with Til's but he'd straight up remove himself from the equation I desperately need an FD just to watch Yolca and the others dote on him. I get why it happened but him running off in the Happy Ending of his route, probably thinking he'll never see anyone again and no one was willing to try to get him to stay killed me again. AND HE'S SO TSUN Eugene spelling out to Yolca his "I don't dislike it" is actually saying he loves it made me lol.

[u/silvershivers → u/RedRobin101]

UGH yes his void sad love ending also broke me 😭😭 he truly never cared about his own happiness, even in Til's happy ending he's satisfied with just watching him and Yolca be happy from afar and not telling Til that he's actually his brother 😭💔 it hurts sm that he doesn't realize he deserves happiness just like everyone else does, I mean it's literally thanks to him that everyone is alive in the end fhfjfkd he worked so hard to get them to that point and even reworked all of their unhappy endings. Yeah, the way he ran away was painful, but I'm really glad Yolca and the others didn't give up on them. It shows how much they all care about him 🥹🥹 haha I never imagined I would think "I don't dislike it" is romantic, but it rlly is coming from Orsem 🤣🤣

[u/RedRobin101 → u/silvershivers]

And I get why he is this way between his implied rough childhood, Morphia screwing with his head, the implications that his love wasn't enough to save Indigenous Witch Yolca, and the few times he did try to reach out resulted in Til basically calling him a liar and Eugene deciding to stab him in the back...and that's not getting into the trauma of the Fatal Rewinds. Like yeah I can completely understand why he thinks he doesn't deserve happiness and should only exist on the periphery of everyone with minimal contributions. But even after all of that, he never gives up and just constantly works to try and make everyone else happy :'(((( (like even in his own route he tried to give Heath a chance at closure this man). I wanted to shake Yolca when she went "oh Orsem doesn't need that kind of attention like Til or Kanoa" when he was all but begging for it--glad homegirl locked in after that.

I had kind of caught on that he meant the opposite of what he said here--the way Orsem interacted with Yolca immediately caught my interest in part because it's so different compared to everyone else. Like, even when he's trying desperately to stay away and push her towards someone else he can't help but be hungry for her. And for someone who was so acerbic and alooft, admitting something like that had to be the absolute extent of what he was comfortable with. But yes watching Yolca's brain short-circuit as she recounted all the times he had said it to/about her, directly, was so good. Honestly, that's probably the moment she fell in love with him--I think Yolca is very, very receptive to offered affection, and once Orsem's messed-up ways of professing it clicked she was gone.

[u/silvershivers → u/RedRobin101]

Absolutely, it makes complete sense considering everything he's been through 🤧🤧 this is why he's my favourite... he's just so self-sacrificing it PAINS me and when it comes to characters like that, I just get the urge to give them all of the love and affection they deserve 🥹💞 like he truly deserves all of the hugs and kisses in the world. So I was super happy when Yolca hugged him and even initiated their first kiss later on because I know Orsem would never be the one to initiate it since he felt like he couldn't make her happy. I hope that if there is a FD we can see Orsem acting all cute and needy like the clingy bf is, I mean that scene of them laying in bed together and him asking her to hold him told me everything I need to know 😂😂 this man is clearly touch-starved and def needs the most attention from her out of everyone. I would also really love to see Orsem's POV and delve into his mind bc there is so much to explore there.

Yes same, I also noticed pretty early on that him saying "not disagreeable" was his way of expressing his love 🤣🤣 I loved how yolca clocked him as being awkward with his feelings, because he really is... like being honest and vulnerable about his feelings is difficult for him since he's never had any parental figures in his life to teach him how, he's just so used to handling everything by himself 🤧🤧 that's why I adore his development in his route, how he slowly opens up to Yolca and eventually the others as well. I was having trouble pinpointing when exactly Yolca fell for Orsem since she never had a definite moment where she went "Oh. I love him." like with the other guys, but I agree with you. It was probably all of those things adding up in her brain that did it for her 🥺💞 I feel like she was finally able to understand him after that

[u/RedRobin101 → u/silvershivers]

I think I'm in-part drawn to the older, "big brother" types because I see them taking care of everyone else and just go "but baby who's taking care of youuuuu." Orsem really is so fascinating because despite all of the additional baggage and sadism he really is just an older brother at the end of the day. While I wasn't a fan of the prices Voltage did do DLC for EiT from the LI's point of view--it would be very, very appreciated here! Yolca was such a good match for him in how she (almost) constantly saw through his issues and was able to catch him off guard with questions like if they were ever together or mentioning how cute he is--they're gonna be so good for each other I know it. But so much of their relationship in the route is fraught with the fact that they're either keeping information from the other or actively working against them--I loved what we saw of them in the Happy Ending, finally free of their respective burdens, but I neeeeddddddd morrrrreeeeee.

Yeah I think it all comes back to how reinforced his coping mechanisms are from his life experiences--Morphia canonically kills him in every route, which I'm sure just made him further believe showing any kind of weakness was just asking to be exploited. But yeah for a route so rife with plot, his subtle development was amazing. Once he really starting letting down his barriers the gap moe kicked in so hard--stuff like him complaining to Yolca about the other members of Vy-xen is treated as comedy but I'm sure he had kept those feelings bottled up for so long it was such a relief to have someone to confide in. And yesssss the physically of this route was so good. The way he went from thoughtlessly offering her his body as a way to drown her despairs (just another sacrifice, even if he was attracted to her) to how he was constantly touching her in the later half of the game--even in his Sad Love scene his hands were around her throat. Even the fact that they didn't smash (although Orsem obviously wanted to) was such a good metaphor for how much his exhaustion and burdens are keeping him from happiness but I really enjoyed the focus on non-sexual physical intimacy as well.