How Yuri Lowell Could've Been "Fixed"

[rumynoir]

“Fixed” is a very interesting word choice here, since I don’t think Yuri has a whole lot that needs “fixing.” He’s popular for a reason and is different from most Tales of protags, but he’s also a main character who’s got a dropped character arc and honestly? He could’ve used it.

The main issue with Tales of Vesperia is how it had multiple writers. It seems to set up a political conflict of justice and light vs dark... before dropping that or hand-waving resolving it to make room for the Entelexeia and aer. Unfortunately, Yuri’s characterization is tied much more closely to act 1/part-of-act 2 than it is act 3. In fact, I dare say Yuri's purpose comes for pushing other characters’ development and screen time than his own.

Let’s take a look at Yuri in the beginning: He’s unmotivated, he’s stuck in a rut because he doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. To any struggling adult, he’s extremely relatable.

Something interesting about Yuri is that he isn’t the typical “I will save the world” protag. He’s literally pulled into the bigger problems because he just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, his plan was to get the Aque Blastia and return it to the lower quarter. Traveling the world and saving it was not on his list.

Yuri’s internal conflict isn’t as “in your face” as Tales of the Abyss’ Luke fon Fabre, who has a harsh wake-up call at the end of his act 1. However, in his scenes with best friend, Flynn Scifo, you find out that Yuri does have his issues. He’s just not open about them because his hands are tied. He doesn’t have any faith in the Empire because it continues to roll through life without giving a damn about the lower quarter. He doesn’t like how corrupt the Empire is, and this shows when he meets Ioder.

So, when Yuri hears about Ragou getting off scot free cause he used his “noble title” to avert punishment, Yuri’s Not Pleased. Ironically, when he goes to confront Flynn, it’s Yuri who has to talk Flynn down from doing something he might regret.

This is where things get interesting.

Yuri kills Ragou.

Yuri’s fully aware that Ragou is “above the law” and that he never will receive punishment with the way the Empire currently is. As much faith as he wants to (and has) put in Flynn, Yuri realizes there are some things that even Flynn can’t fix. Yuri dirties his hands so that Flynn won’t lose everything he’s worked so hard for. Yuri can kill Ragou and not have to worry about his career falling apart the same way Flynn can.

The second time Yuri kills someone is Cumore in Mantaic. Cue an argument with Flynn later, Yuri’s starting to feel, well, not good, I guess. He claims that he’s aware of what he’s done, but he has no intention of going back on what he feels he has to do. Flynn is obviously not pleased with this.

And up until now, the only person who knew Yuri was killing unarmed nobles, was Yuri himself. Now Flynn knows, and a short seconds later, it’s revealed Estelle knows too.

Seeing Estelle is like kicking Yuri when he’s down.

At this point, he’s at his lowest and he isn’t surprised if Estelle decides to drop him like a hot potato. Luckily for him, Estelle’s a sweet girl. This is a poignant scene because she doesn’t respond the way anyone else would - the way Yuri would expect someone would.

After the Don’s death, Yuri decides that he’s “been too soft” and that he shouldn’t be giving out second chances like he has been.

It gets so bad that it’s implied he was going to kill Judith if she didn’t have a good enough excuse for breaking their (guild) laws.

The guild is one of the few places where Yuri has control. He doesn’t have to bend backwards for the same bullshit he puts up with from the Empire. For once, he can be the judge, jury, and executioner if he wants to be.

This is where Yuri starts to go off the slipper slope of morality. He’s just a few steps away from being a vigilante who kills people because he can. And now that he’s realized this, he’s taking it by the horns.

So... You’d think this would be the start of an interesting character arc, right? Here we have the protagonist teetering very close into the point of no return... and so logically, the rest of the game would be about him learning that “killing is bad” and that he can’t “play God” because he feels like it.

Right?

RIGHT??

Actually, no! Cause one cutscene after Yuri says his famous “if a part is infected, you cut if off before it infects the whole”, Yuri suddenly abandons this philosophy because a giant phoenix-thing throws his words back in his face.

This is utterly jarring because Yuri literally flip flops and loses any buildup act 1 and (part of) act 2 had. Suddenly, “cutting off a part before it infects the whole” (aka murder) is suddenly Bad because Phaeroh threatened one of his friends. Meanwhile, he was more than willing to have Judith’s head rolling if she gave him the wrong answer.

Having these scenes back to back just makes Yuri hypocritical. It doesn’t show any character development or that he’s grown. It feels like we missed several cutscenes before we were supposed to see this one.

Phaeroh’s ideology was to parallel Yuri’s, but with the way the story unfolds, the attempt to have them as parallels falls flat on its face. I think Phaeroh is supposed to represent what the “old Yuri” believed, and “new Yuri” would be like “no, that’s wrong.”

How this should have happened was have the confrontation with Phaeroh not take place immediately after Ba’ul’s evolution. Have more scenes and buildup that make Yuri realize he’s almost past That Point.

There’s a sidequest to get Yuri’s Dark Enforcer title. In it, Yuri meets with a young man who has no qualms about killing people. It’s blatantly obvious that this is a person who’s supposed to be what Yuri will turn into if he keeps going down the road of killing people just because He Can.

By the second part of this sidequest, Yuri speaks to the man and asks him why he kills people. For Yuri, killing people like Ragou and Cumore was necessary. To this man, killing people Just Happens because they get in the way of his overarching goal.

When Yuri says, “It’s who you are...?” it’s as if he’s thinking that THIS is who he’ll end up like if he keeps playing as his own judge/jury/executioner.

Now imagine if this sidequest wasn’t a sidequest, but part of the actual plot. Imagine this scene takes place following Mt. Temza after Yuri’s boldly implied he’d kill Judith for breaking guild laws. Now it’s integrated in the story instead of just something that can be easily missed.

Have a few more run-ins with the dark enforcer before Brave Vesperia meets Phaeroh. Have Yuri see that “killing is bad” and that if he continues, he’s going to end up just as jaded as the dark enforcer about human lives.

To further emphasize how Yuri’s aware and wary of what he could be come? View the scene + skits following Zagi’s death in Tarqaron. The team seem to believe that Yuri is afraid of becoming someone like Zagi. Someone who’s got an insatiable blood lust and with no care for hurting others.

While it’s safe to say Yuri wasn’t nearly as unhinged as Zagi, he could’ve ended up a true criminal like Zagi and the enforcer.

If we actually got to see Yuri struggling with vigilantism vs. his morality, then the scene with Phaeroh would’ve been much better. It would make sense why Yuri thinks “cut off part before it infects the whole” is no longer a good code to live by. As the game is now, it just makes it look like Yuri’s playing favorites among his friends.

Despite being popular, Yuri definitely got screwed over by his own game in terms of character arcs/writing. Had they stuck to the original story they were going for, it would actually feel like Yuri grew instead of just flip-flopping like he did. There’s also an issue with Yuri post-Zaude and being totally fine beyond some pain, and then going back to saving the world. But that’s another story for another time.