Fridge / Tales of Arise

Fridge is for post-viewing discussion, so all spoilers are unmarked.

Fridge Brilliance:

• Kisara is always the first to comment about the party spending a lot of money. This actually makes a lot of sense - she's the only one who had any actual skill with budgeting and managing finances. Everyone else either had no ability to do this period or were so rich that they never had to think about it.
  • This is further brought home with Law having a pauldron that costs only 10 gald. Everyone thinks it's a bizarre little tchotchke as it serves no apparent purpose.
• Ganabelt sent Law to Messia 224 in order to make Zephyr falter and capture him, which seems a little too well-planned considering that Calaglia is cut off from the rest of the world. However, Law later reveals that he once joined a resistance group before being forcibly recruited into the Snake Eyes. Given how Ganabelt is a spymaster, it's possible the group was compromised from the start, allowing Ganabelt to get information about Zephyr from Law. Law being the Sole Survivor also makes more sense if Ganabelt knows the former can be used against Zephyr.
• Ganabelt's plan to kill Zephyr and demoralize further rebel activity gets additional context due to the events in Lenegis. When Lenegis transforms, the movement of the satellite's parts causes many homes to be destroyed, and the citizens are completely lost without any way to contact their Sovereign. Ganabelt is probably aware of the Renans' dependency on authority and believed that the Dahnans would experience a similar breakdown in their chain of command. He didn't expect the rebels would be able to pick themselves back up after Zephyr's death and view him as an Inspirational Martyr. It helps that the Crimson Crows and the Silver Swords have a looser sense of hierarchy that allows them to operate even with the death of their leaders.
• When Law prevents Rinwell from acting in anger against Almeidrea to avenge her parents, there's a good reason why it's a bad idea for Rinwell to enact her revenge in anger right now. Unlike Law, who was still capable of some sound thinking when gunning down Ganabelt, Rinwell looks like she's ready to throw away any of her common sense just so she can enact revenge in the name of hatred, and it's becoming a bit too similar to how the Dark Wings and their supporters got massacred by Almeidrea. Their leader, Dedyme, used to be a decent man, but continuous futile fighting against Almeidrea clouded his mind with frustration and hatred, changing him into a more ruthless man who became susceptible to many of Almeidrea's traps, from using her own explosives to blow up Niez to seizing her supplies without realizing the Fruit of Helgan was mixed inside them. Eventually, this all led to their brutal deaths in the massacre. While it's a stretch to say that Rinwell would've gone down the same dark path as Dedyme and his followers, it's likely that she, in her fragile mental state, would've committed her own fatal mistakes and become another of Almeidrea's many victims.
• Orange Gels are significantly more expensive than usual in this game. So what gives? Well, most Dahnans can't use astral artes anyway - it's the Renans who need Orange Gels. Not only can they afford them (as they are the only ones who receive compensation outside of Elde Menancia) but also they're the only ones who really need Orange Gels.
  • Not to mention that most Renans don't have nearly the Astral Arte capacity that the users in your party do. Your two Renans are one of the five lords (explicitly chosen for their combat prowess and aptitude for Astral Arts) and a literal Apocalypse Maiden that said lord admits is better than he is at healing (and he's no slouch at it, at least in gameplay). Your party likely burns through more astral energy in any one day of fighting than most Renans even have available or are called to use over the span of a lifetime. It might be that the average Renan soldiers only ever have to use one or two of those gels, period, in case of emergencies. It's only the protagonists that go through them like candy.
• Rinwell gets skills that increase the amount of damage she deals to flying enemies, and also skills for damaging Dragons better. Almeidrea's boss fight involves fighting a Dragon that flies in the sky, and Almeidrea loves to use artes. Perhaps a coincidence, but it subtly nudges the player to using Rinwell in the fight with Almeidrea, which considering Almeidrea is the target of her vengeance, makes sense.
• The Renan transferral technology works as a lore-friendly explanation not just for weapons, but for the RPG-standard unrealistically huge inventory that the party accrues throughout the game. Presumably if wielded weapons can be hidden there, so can the rest of the assorted bric-a-brac the party acquires across its travels.
• The two most voracious Big Eaters in the party are Law and Shionne. Law is a martial artist who puts himself through ridiculous training regimens - and is also a teenage boy presumably in the middle of a growth spurt. So, yeah, of course he'd need to consume a ton of calories. As for Shionne, she comments knowing what it is like to go hungry, so her love of eating a ton of food no doubt is because she can make up for lost time.
  • It's also possible that Shionne's eating habit is a more benign aspect/manifestation of the ever-hungry Great Spirit's influence, as it's entire drive is to eat as much energy as possible. For the human body, eating is how it gets energy. The other party members even wonder how she can possibly eat so much, yet her body never actually changes (though apparently she does get a little heavier sometimes)... because most, or even all the extra energy is no doubt going to the Great Spirit, not Shionne.
  • Alternatively between the things she is called on to do from a storyline perspective - serving as the group's primary healer, housing and controlling the energy of the Fire Master Core within her body so the Blazing Sword can maintain form for Alphen, and keeping her Thorns at bay - one would almost have to be a bit peckish after doing all of that all day.
• Shionne being a Big Eater is also a Stealth Pun - due to her Thorns? She suffers from Touch Deprivation. Another word for touch deprivation? Skin hunger.
• When Alphen is on the verge of giving up after Shionne is captured and his memory and sense of pain is restored, it's Kisara who impresses on him that he needs to realize that how he is feeling/thinking right now is due to shock and not his real self. She's the best one to do this given her personal experience in the matter, having been driven into a uncharacteristic murderous rage toward Dohalim earlier in the story. Further, it was Alphen who brought her to her senses back then.
• The twin giant dragon zeugles that serve as the final gatekeepers to Vholran in Ganeth Haros give a clue to his true nature - One of the dragons has a Water element - he holds the Water Master Core as the Lord of Water and the foil to Alphen's element, which is fire. The other dragon is light-aligned, which is a clue to Vholran's own Dahnan origins.
• Vholran himself is somewhat of an Anti-Climax Boss compared to the past lords - because this actually gives the player a sense of just how far they've come. No doubt players struggled to beat the previous four lords, and the last time you fought Vholran he was a Hopeless Boss Fight. Now you can fight back, and kick his ass. He is still a threat to you, but now a manageable threat.
• Alphen's flashback interactions with Naori cast him as the Fish out of Water annoyed and angered by a power he didn't ask for or want, and just wanting to get the task at hand over with, whereas Naori is the kindhearted native put in a bad situation but still seeing the good within her counterpart, despite not knowing him well, and looking out ultimately for his best interest. This is the exact situation Alphen and Shionne find themselves in at the beginning of the game with the roles swapped. Subconsciously, it might have been because of Naori's kindness that Alphen felt the desire to 'pay it forward', as it were.
• The Final Boss summons elemental orbs during both of its phases. It's easy to guess that these are the Master Cores. If you highlight them? They all have unique names, befitting of the Lords who bore them. Tempestuous Greed. Earthen Delusion. Darkened Envy. Enflamed Rage. Watery Ego.
• The physical form of the Great Astral Spirit actually resembles Shadow from previous Tales games, primarily Tales of Symphonia. Of course, it's Dark aligned, and is the sentient form of Rena's astral energy - so if Dahna was like that, it would likely resemble Rem!
• Alphen's "Ugh! Guess I misread the landing" is delivered in such a way that makes him think more like he just stumbled rather than jumped dozens of meters to the ground. While unintentionally humorous, it makes sense as to why he would act more inconvenienced by this - early on he feels no pain and thus, he really is more inconvenienced from his perspective.
  • Another interesting attention to detail is the fact that when the characters fall off of a high location, they make a roll - this actually is a pretty good idea, since it helps absorb shock from said fall.
    • Even Alphen does this despite not being able to feel (at least initially) whatever shock would be associated with the landing. But he wasn't always unable to feel pain, and was trained as a swordsman - this would likely just be muscle memory for him anyway, much like his sword techniques were. (And good thing, too - Alphen would be the most prone to breaking both his legs like that and not noticing until he was unable to walk.)
• A Rewatch Bonus of the game will show that the Woman in Red has been there all along - particularly notable when you first meet Dohalim. This case is the most obvious since Dohalim is rather peaceful, thus the woman in red can be out in the open and not potentially get caught in the crossfire like the previous two Lords. But also why would we see them, despite the Perception Filter? Not only is it a case of Foreshadowing for the audience, but we're not Dahnan - thus we aren't affected by the Perception Filter.
• During a side quest to find a Renan solider who had been seeing a Dahnan woman in secret, Dohalim introduces himself to him as the victor of the Crown Contest to overrule the soldier’s orders regarding Vholran, and to assure both him and the woman that they are protected. While claiming he had won was a lie to ease the soldier’s fears and make him return to his lover, Dohalim was technically correct. With the other Lords either dead or unaccounted for, and Dohalim being the only one of the them to have held on to his Master Core until the Renas Alma was formed, this would technically make him the winner of the Crown Contest by default. Fittingly enough, when the party learns about the true nature of the contest and the Sovereign, Dohalim resolves to take command of Rena so as to help guide his people into changing their ways.
• Keen-eyed players will notice that around the time the party is making their way to Mahag Saar, Rinwell seems to have become a lot more vocal of her hatred of Renans, with most of the party conversations having her making disparaging comments about them in some way. While story-wise, it's to emphasize the start of her character arc of moving past her racism upon confronting Almeidrea and trying to move forward without The Power of Hate, there's a good In-Universe reason for this. When Rinwell first joins the party, the only Renan on the team is Shionne, who acts like a cold, pragmatic Jerkass (despite her willingness to heal injured strangers) and displays her own racist tendencies regarding Dahnans, which is exactly what Rinwell expects from Renans and so validates her beliefs. Dohalim on the other hand, who joins the group before their venture to Mahag Saar, is the seeming antithesis to this; not only is he more cordial and polite, if a bit Innocently Insensitive, he firmly establishes himself as The Atoner when he joins, is willing to engage the other party members in conversation and even takes part in their antics with a degree of good humour. He also cares a good deal about Dahnahn culture and history and wishes to do his part to preserve it, and he has the genuine, unforced loyalty of Kisara, a Dahnahn. Unlike with Shionne, everything about Dohalim threatens Rinwell's discriminatory beliefs, so she ends up doubling down on them in fear of her world-view getting shattered and possibly to avoid seeing the target of her revenge, Almeidrea, as capable of possessing humanity.
  • An alternative reason could be just how Dohalim acts. Compared to Shionne, who while a Jerkass is more introverted and mostly speaks when discussing the group's next movements, Dohalim is a lot more extroverted and willing to converse more openly with his companions. This leads to some Innocently Insensitive comments and gives Rinwell more fuel to justify and voice her racist views, whereas with Shionne she doesn't get nearly as much ammo to fling insults with.
• You can end the battle with Almeidrea by simply depleting her dragon's HP. This can serve as a great middle-finger on the witch: Almeidrea has been goading Rinwell (and to an extension, the whole party) to just kill her with hatred for all the horrible things she has done. So the best way to say "Nope, we ain't falling for that trick you love, we can beat you without degrading ourselves!" is... to just disable her, not kill her. Vholran will finish the job later anyway.
• In his final story fight, Vholran has much higher stats than before, except for HP. He also staggers more easily than any of his previous appearances, to the point where Alphen can break his casting even without using a Boost Attack. This makes sense, since Vholran is still offensively powerful due to his Sovereign powers, but he also might not have fully recovered from his prior injuries.
• Vholran being made to replace the Lord of Ganath Haros in the Crown Contest instead of Dohalim as Lord of Elde Menancia at first seems very misplaced in planning to eventually publicly named Sovereign as Elde Menancia has the best record. But as eventually learned in Daeq Faezol the real mission of the lords (unknowingly) was gathering the Astral Energy to recreate the Renas Alma. But Elde Menancia’s record is the point as this constant winning meant more Earth Energy was gathered throughout the 300 years of Crown Contests which can mean another domain was lacking and Vholran besides his compatibility needed to be a genuine Sovereign was on maybe the biggest Astral Energy collection with his methods and ideas. This does add a bit of Fridge Horror though with how Dohalim’s actions having resulted in him narrowly avoiding the Helganquil interference.

Fridge Horror

• The Surprisingly Realistic Outcome way the mental deconditioning of liberated Dahnan slaves is handled at times is a touch chilling, but nowhere is this truer than in Ganeth Haros, where Vholran does not seem to have had mind control powers but has apparently turned both Dahnans and Renans alike under his dominion into near-emotionless, mindless puppets by power of mere suggestion. And because it's not magic, it doesn't instantly become better once Ganeth Haros is liberated. Yikes.
  • And speaking of Ganeth Haros and Vholran, Shionne doesn't seem much better off mentally than the Dahnans after getting kidnapped by him. And if that weren't bad enough, when you see her next she is stripped of her Battle Ballgown, wearing a new black dress that she did not have when she was with you, muttering to herself - and immediately has a Freak Out that causes her thorns to go completely out of control. Brings up some disturbing implications, to say the least. Kisara all but asks explicitly if Vholran 'did anything' to her. Shionne doesn't remember.
• While the rest of the party is indeed horrified, it is Kisara who nearly vomits upon seeing the crowd be hollowed by Almeidria. Kisara is quite experienced as a guardsmen and has seen plenty of death, so why is she the most strongly effected here? Then one recalls, the last person she saw die via hollowing was her brother, and it's likely this sight brought all that trauma back, only now she's seeing it happen to hundreds of people all at once.
• Rinwell, after a long arc of Character Development, still loses her temper on Dohalim after an ill-advised remark on Dahnan vs. Renan funerary rites (Dahnans by necessity have long burned their dead, something Dohalim initially finds disturbing and disrespectful to lost loved ones). She even goes as far as to bring up the Hollowing as if he were for it, despite knowing how much this would hurt Dohalim, showing just how upset she is in the heat of the moment. Rinwell was just a little girl when her family and village were killed by Almeidrea. She was the only one who survived. Doesn't take much to put two and two together on why Dohalim's suggestion struck a sore point.
• Kelzalik's fate is never shown - only that he turned from the party and ran after having gone insane. It's very easy to assume he committed suicide.
• After spending at least a hundred years isolated on Daeq Faezol, with only their tasks of observing to live for, the humans on the station have become creepily detached from everything else, seemingly not caring a bit about what happens to their home world and having given up any hope or desire to return to Lenegis. It's to the point that its the alien leading them who is the most "human" in personality, as they at least desire vengeance on the Great Spirit for its treatment of their species.
• The Helganquil have known nothing but slavery to Rena's will transmitted through astral energy for ages, so it's no surprise that any society they engineered would consist of slavery, and that the hierarchy would be based on who had greater astral energy powers.
• From what you can see of Rena's surface when you finally go there, you can see nothing but a silvery ocean as far as the eye can see. Just how deep is it? And not only that, but what would the Helganquil's society have looked like at their height. The fact that we know little about how or when Rena became like this only makes it even more disturbing.
• You know the armor that some Renan soldiers have? It looks suspiciously like the Helganquil's true form, except for coloring... this is practically confirmed in a later sketch. What better way to hide than in plain sight?
• It's never stated just what that multi-faced Eldritch Abomination you fought on Rena was. Dohalim can only guess what it is, but his guess is not good. That this is what happened to the previous winners of the Crown Contest. Think about what probably went through their heads as they were taken to their "Homeworld" - they were essentially drained of their astral energy because they knew too much. They would never get back to the ship to warn the "Renans" of what they just learned.
• Vholran never specifies what exactly his "fortress of death" would entail, but one can consider Pelegion to essentially be a city-sized fortress of death where people are brainwashed to worship Vholran before being hollowed. It's implied that Vholran wants to extend this system to the entire population until there is no one left to hollow. This process would likely be much slower and more painful than what the Great Spirit is doing to Dahna.
• The Curse of Thorns is loaded with fridge horror, a lot of it probably intentional.
  • Assuming the curse manifested when Shionne was born, how did anyone feed her before she could feed herself? They probably didn't. Shionne was most likely literally starved to death as a newborn, and only the thorns kept her alive without horrific medical problems. No wonder she's so obsessed with food.
  • Babies can literally die from not being held enough, and Shionne couldn't be held as a baby because of the thorns. The thorns once again are probably the only thing that kept her alive. There are probably no words to describe the sensation that would have come from this, but it was most likely nothing pleasant.