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Grima and the sting of failure(A small analysis)


Ottservia
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So I've been playing through awakening again and I've been really digging into it's plot this time around and overall it's pretty good. I feel awakening's story is better than what people give it credit for. Awakening is a story about failure and working to overcome it. It's a story about being pushed past the point of despair that follows a trail of failure and being able to pick yourself back up and move forward. A simplistic theme but I feel it executes on it well and no where is that more prominent than in it's main antagonist Grima.

Grima is a force of nature villain. He is a physical manifestation of failure and the despair that results from it. When you fall, when you stumble, when you fail, you always tell yourself "one more time" "I'll get it this time" in order to stay positive and try again. However for every time you decide to roll there's always this lingering voice in the back of your head telling you to just give up. It asks "what's the point?" or "If the end result is just gonna be the same, then why try at all?". Grima is a manifestation of that voice. Grima is what happens when you take those feelings of despair and give it physical form. He's arrogant and powerful. He's constantly saying stuff like "you can't save your future" or "you can't defy fate" why? because you've failed to do it before so what makes this time any different. Robin failed to make any meaningful connections which lead to him being unable to defy his fate. The consequences of which created Lucina's future which she to failed to save. It's these failures that fuel Grima. It gives him something to exploit. He has succeeded before so he's going to succeed again. Failure should be a teacher. Failure can be a good thing so long as you learn from it. What makes Grima so arrogant is that he believes humans can't learn from their mistakes. Time and time again have humans fought pointless self-destructive wars that do nothing but halt progression. They learn nothing from these wars as the new conflicts that arise show. So if humans can't learn from their mistakes and grow then why not destroy it? If you can't seem to succeed no matter how hard you try, why not just end it all? Again that is what Grima represents. He is a physical and constant reminder of all the failures you've had up till this point. He is that voice telling you "you can't do this". It's easy to give up and just end it all. It's easy to succumb to those self-destructive thoughts but you don't. You face those feelings head on and push forward and that is how you conquer those feelings. 

Grima's representation of failure can also be seen in the idea that he can never be truly killed unless by his own hand. You can always try and conquer this voice and those feelings with the help of others but they're always going to come back because whether you like it or not those feelings are a part of you so the only way to truly get rid of them is to accept and face them outright. accept that they are a part of you and face them alone.

Edited by Ottservia
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For all the criticisms I used to throw at it in Awakening as just "Rarrr! Fell Dragon!", which are still applicable in Awakening itself- it doesn't change the fact the improvements to them were added elsewhere and much later- Grima does have success on its side. It successfully destroyed a world and achieved its goals therein, no small feat.

Failure came only from overambition and wanting to expand to other worlds. Yet even here, due to the fact they did conquer a world just like the one they came from, you can't say Grima stood no chance of victory b/c of destined light triumphing over darkness. There was no prophecy that would have assured the heroes' victory.

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1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

For all the criticisms I used to throw at it in Awakening as just "Rarrr! Fell Dragon!", which are still applicable in Awakening itself- it doesn't change the fact the improvements to them were added elsewhere and much later- Grima does have success on its side. It successfully destroyed a world and achieved its goals therein, no small feat.

Failure came only from overambition and wanting to expand to other worlds. Yet even here, due to the fact they did conquer a world just like the one they came from, you can't say Grima stood no chance of victory b/c of destined light triumphing over darkness. There was no prophecy that would have assured the heroes' victory.

True. If only the final battle wasn't on his freaking back (with him later turning his neck all the way to face you when you reach Fell Robin)...

I mean, all the talk about overcoming failure and perseverance could have all ended with just a barrel roll!

Edited by Lanko
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I enjoyed it the most on my 4th playthrough because of how i used my units. used all the adults for the first half of the game and then used the children for the other half. Made the game fresh the entire time. Also pair up is busted in awakening lol. I also agree with you that awakening didint get enough credit but when i compare it to the others in the series its clearly not the best one. The character designs were my biggest issue at first but lots of them grew on me over the years. Story is decent enough just not a whole lot of depth. 

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5 hours ago, Lanko said:

True. If only the final battle wasn't on his freaking back (with him later turning his neck all the way to face you when you reach Fell Robin)...

I mean, all the talk about overcoming failure and perseverance could have all ended with just a barrel roll!

Pretty sure something that big cannot even do a barrel roll. Grima doesn't exactly have an aerodynamic body that can do tricks like that.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 26/04/2019 at 8:51 PM, Lanko said:

I mean, all the talk about overcoming failure and perseverance could have all ended with just a barrel roll!

Hah! Reminds me of the Deathwing fight from WoW where you had to distribute your raid evenly around his back (not too many on the left, or right) or he'd just barrel roll you off. Yes, him not doing it immediately makes about as much sense there, too.

 

It's funny, I thought the OP was talking about Gangrel at first. If you think about it he's another example of failure twisted into a villain; clearly he's bitter about his failure to win the war with Emm's father (whether this is out of kingly pride or a genuine concern for his people at the time is unclear).

The way Chrom and Gangrel react to failure is very different, and the game draws no uncertain parallel between the two. While Chrom is willing to defy Grima's supposed fate and move on, Gangrel is self-absorbed and possessed of a manic, cynical despair. Basically, if Grima is the voice of despair, Gangrel is what happens when you listen to that voice and let it guide your actions.

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