mystearicas | Flynn's Devotion Skill

cross-posted from tumblr with screencaps from my twitter

I’m not sure if anyone really looked at Flynn’s Skills in ToV: DE, but a lot of them only work if someone’s “near Flynn.”

One that really stood out (imo) was a Skill called Devotion, which he gets from the Seven-Branched Blade. Devotion “takes 50% of the damage dealt to allies near Flynn in battle”.

...Hell, there’s even a Skit that pokes fun at this Ability where Karol, Patty, and Rita just stay near Flynn because he’s a literal damage sponge.

I know that the whole “near Flynn” Skills is supposed to reference how he’s a Knight and he’s supposed to be a protector. But it’s kinda interesting how it plays into his personality a little too. We don’t see him as much as the party members because he’s doing “his own thing”, but Flynn strikes me as the “set self on fire to keep others warm” type of person.

We talk quite a bit about Yuri’s self-esteem issues (his inferiority complex), but I wonder what ToV could’ve done with Flynn if he were a permanent party member. I think Flynn puts himself under a lot of pressure, and it’s clear that when he fucks up, he lets it hang over his head. When Estelle is kidnapped by Alexei, Flynn is more or less forced to face his mistake of following Alexei blindly - not helped by Yuri calling him out. While we don’t really get to see Flynn’s guilt in the 360 Version, there’s more than a few scenes and Skits that show how much Flynn is beating himself up over it in the Definitive Edition.

(We’ll just ignore how characters’ inner conflicts and feelings more or less get swept aside for the Global Warming conflict in Act 3...)

Basically, I wish we got to see more of Flynn’s vulnerable, self-sacrificing side.