Crestfallen Studios

OK, I've been lurking on this board for a while and it seems that while there's a lot of stuff that gets talked about all the time (Midian and Jeruh, Shadow Swords, Traziun's mother, etc.) it seems like there's a lot of mysteries that never get talked about at all.

1) The Plunge against the Shadow Guys, the first time in the Pits in E3 and then again after the Plunge against Slade in E5. The first time, the shadow's sprite looked a lot like Midian. I forget what it looked like the second time. Does anyone have any theories on those? Maybe this means that Midian represents the "dark" side of Rhue, the side that takes him over when he becomes the Phantom Slasher (if he is the PS), and maybe sometimes the conscious, moral Rhue comes into direct conflict with his dark side and has to fight him. If that makes any sense at all.

2) Kalmar's "Pefect Blade." If I recall right, the implication was that Gaius became the Perfect Blade after Traziun's failure to live up to his father's expectations. But if that's true, that means Gaius has loyalties to both the Guided and the Blana Sera, who are supposed to be enemies. Is he a double-agent, and may reveal his true colors for one side or the other soon? Or maybe he's not the Perfect Blade, and we're just supposed to think he is. I suspect that if he is the Perfect Blade, he will probably betray Tetzel sometime in E6. It makes sense: he's not being hunted by Blood Lyn, which suggests that he "escaped" from Delhara with the Blana Sera's permission. However, he's shown no sign of connection to them at all, neither opposing nor obviously working for them. If you're going to betray someone, it makes sense to get as close to them as possible first so you can do the most damage and he's obviously more "in" with the Guided than the Blood Lyn. Furthermore, he's already betrayed one main faction of Guided (if, as the game suggests/I thought, he's responsible for Sacrifa's death), so betraying Tetzel would destroy the rest of them and undermine the organization.

Any thoughts?

My idea of the shadow men is that they are pieces of Rhue's soul tainted and than detached by the Shadow Sword, much like the Phantom Slasher, however the Phantom Slasher doesn't attach Rhue because he's much more a part of Rhue than the shadow men, and I think PS is also the main part of the detached pieces of Rhue's soul. I think everytime a shadow man is destroyed Rhue becomes closer to being the uncorrupted version of himself again.

Actually, these have been sort of discussed. Just the discussion was over and so we don't have anything new to say about it.

Er, the second plunge shadow man resembles the "default battle red" sprite, or something like that, i.e. like the guy you plunge on the Marna Stretch way back in E2. I think you also fight I similar one as a qualifier in E4, but I've forgotten.

The perfect blade is definitely Gaius.

Not sure if this meens anything or not, but Kalmar never actually says he made a new perfect blade. Traziun just assumes it.

Well If I remember correctly, Traziun asks Kalmar "Is he your perfect blade now?" and he doesn't answer.