Themes addressed in Skullgirls [possible spoilers]

[Osmiumsmith]

What are the main themes of Skullgirls? Which ones affect you the most?

Temptation, friendship, sacrifice...

I am opening this thread to discuss these.

One thing that I have noticed.

A common theme in all story modes so far is: The characters triumph or fail depending of their companionship.

Filia, Squigly... You don't play with them alone. You play as Filia and Samson, you play as Squigly and Leviathan.

All the characters that have some degree of triumph have someone:

-Filia has Samson and Carol
-Squigly has Leviathan
-Peacock and Big Band have Lab 8
-Parasoul has the Egrets
-Ms. Fortune has Minette and Yu-Wan
-Double has the Trinity
-Eliza has Sekhmet, Albus and Horace




These characters whose names don't appear in the selection screen offer power, guidance, knowledge, emotional support...

Now let's see:

-Cerebela chooses to follow Vitale who is cruel and manipulative. She ends up regretting her final story decision.
-Painwheel has Lab Zero. Sarcastic hooray.
-Valentine is alone. She does pretty fucked up stuff in some stories and sacrifices herself in hers.

Take into account that the unused alternate endings for these three are also not happy.

-Fukua. Well... She is not alright.

It is important to have good company.

 

[Magma442]

Hmm interesting but keep in mind barely any of the characters have a high note ending the only two I can think of is Beowulf and Big Band. So maybe having a partner doesn't help I mean Cerebella did work with Eliza look how that turned out. The other thing is barley anyone helps anyone like Big Band helped Peacock, Filia helped Squigly, and Annie helped Beowulf but that's 6 people (5 if you don't count Annie) out of the entire cast.

 

[DDB]

They addressed rising hope and eventual disappointment in the Waifu Wars.

Does that count

 

[Magma442]

When did they address that? And did they say who won?

 

[Osmiumsmith]

Hmm interesting but keep in mind barely any of the characters have a high note ending the only two I can think of is Beowulf and Big Band. So maybe having a partner doesn't help I mean Cerebella did work with Eliza look how that turned out. The other thing is barley anyone helps anyone like Big Band helped Peacock, Filia helped Squigly, and Annie helped Beowulf but that's 6 people (5 if you don't count Annie) out of the entire cast.

Eliza never had any concern for Cerebela's well being. She was not her partner.

If you consider the parasites as sentient beings (as they are), partnership becomes very important.

And not all the roles of support needs to be associated with combat. Ms. Fortune didn't make a wish for the Skullheart and became the Skullgirl because she has a new family to support her. She is not miserably alone.

 

[Caleb]

I see sacrifice as something noble in some stories. You have Valentine wishing to be the Skullgirl, just so Painwheel could kill her and be free; Filia wishing for Painwheel to be free at the expense of her own life (she will become the Skullgirl eventually); Parasoul sharing a similar fate, and training her sister so she can defeat her someday. Even some characters like Ms. Fortune, Peacock and Marie are willing to accept dangerous paths just because they care about the people they love.

One of the main themes I see is some kind of inevitable doom. Like, no matter what we do, the end is inevitable. Every character that goes against the Skullheart achieves a temporary victory, because the Skullheart will be back, the Skullgirl will be back, and death and destruction will be unavoidable. The lights of hope are on the people you care, and fighting for them. I think some of the characters are getting ready to the inevitable day of reckoning, and they will fight, but the Skullheart and the Trinity are way beyond of all of our characters.

Loyalty is another main theme, I think. I'm not just talking about Cerebella and her loyalty to Vitale, this could include Ms. Fortune and her loyalty to the dagonians, Peacock and her loyalty to Avian, Double and her loyalty to the Trinity. This is pretty much like the first point you pointed up, this characters have others to rely with.

Eliza is another topic. We really played an antagonist here. No "anti-hero" at all. She is evil, and in any other game she would've been the enemy to defeat. Just remember her story mode. She has no loyalties, she doesn't care about anyone. Her bodyguards are just servants, but we don't know if Eliza would give her life for them. I don't think so. As far as we know, Eliza has been killing people for ages, when Albus and Horace won't serve any purpose for her I bet she will dispose of them.
I think Eliza is the truly incarnation of evil, and we see that she only brought pain and suffering to everyone she met. At the end she is alone in the world, without love, without people to care about, nothing but bitterness and a desire for power. Remember that her 'diva facet' is just a cover-up, it's not even her true nature. I think she's the most lonely and evil character.

 

[Cheesedragon]

Eliza is another topic. We really played an antagonist here. No "anti-hero" at all. She is evil, and in any other game she would've been the enemy to defeat. Just remember her story mode. She has no loyalties, she doesn't care about anyone. Her bodyguards are just servants, but we don't know if Eliza would give her life for them. I don't think so. As far as we know, Eliza has been killing people for ages, when Albus and Horace won't serve any purpose for her I bet she will dispose of them.
I think Eliza is the truly incarnation of evil, and we see that she only brought pain and suffering to everyone she met. At the end she is alone in the world, without love, without people to care about, nothing but bitterness and a desire for power. Remember that her 'diva facet' is just a cover-up, it's not even her true nature. I think she's the most lonely and evil character.

Well, she did save them from dying in Gehenna, so maybe they somehow grew on her. And who knows, maybe they decided to leave her service when she decided to enslave 2 major characters, kill another, then turn into a giant blood colossus and go off to rule the world.

Also, the second paragraph is EXACTLY why i can't get turned on by pictures/fanart of her. She might be hot but she's simply too arrogant, hateful and downright cruel to be attractive.