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Parasoul Parasoul personality analysis and speculations [spoilers]

Ravnulfr

Valentine's alter ego
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Valentine Eliza Filia
Welcome to the Parasoul personality analysis !

I pretty much like Parasoul, she has an interesting personality, she's motivated by justice, she's classy, and she's a powerful woman. All I love !

Just as the Valentine one, all you will read here are just my own speculations, I affirm nothing.
Once again, I am not a psychologist, nor an expert in this area, so I might have made some mistakes. I just like to observe and analyze people and their behavior, and I give a personal interpretation based on what I know and what I've read.

Before beginning, here are the sources :
- [1] Skullgirls wikia : http://skullgirls.wikia.com/wiki/Parasoul
- [2] Skullgirls official site : http://skullgirls.com/characters/parasoul/
- [3] Skullheart forums : http://skullheart.com/index.php?thr...-revealed-during-igg-reward-skype-calls.1828/

Here is another analysis : http://heartcrusher.dreamwidth.org/280.html
This is pretty good, I encourage you to read it too !
Thanks to ACreationist for the link !

One more thing: if you've read the Valentine analysis, you will notice that this one is way shorter. It can be explained by the fact that, as I said in her analysis, Val is probably the most complex and "secret" character of Skullgirls, while Parasoul's personality is more... obvious.

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Engarde !


1. Her mask : cold and rigid

As I said in the Valentine analysis, we all wear masks in different situations to protect our true self. Here are the Parasoul's one :

In the Parasoul's story, we can see she obviously has a cold mask. At first glance, she could be seen as distant, nonchalant, serious, almost mean with others and she even dislikes overly emotional people. I have two theories about that.

First theory : she hates to show her emotions because, just as Valentine, she sees this as a weakness, and she does much of strength. Her cold and rigid mask is a protection, an armor to prevent others to see she feels emotions too and to use this against Parasoul and her family. I think she even doesn't allow herself to feel emotions, except with her family and people which whom she is really close.

Second theory : this is her path to self-control, and she needs it in order to rule the kingdom and the Black Egrets. She often comes under pressure because she must take important decisions for the kingdom and her family "and these two priorities frequently come into conflict."[2] So she probably thinks (unconsciously) she would be more efficient in her actions if she wears this mask, and that if she doesn't wears it, she could be easily killed and so, no-one could protect her family anymore.

Personally, I think there may be a little of both.


2. Parasoul "Justice" Renoir

- A great sense of justice :

If we should describe Parasoul in one word, this would be "justice". In the Parasoul description (on the official site) it is stated that she dislikes injustice.
We can clearly observe that in her story, when she arrests Scythana because she attacked the Renoir Grand War Memorial, or when she refuses to beat prisoners for Umbrella, or even when she fights with Painwheel, one of her quotes is "You poor girl... I never authorized this." and when she defeats her: "No one deserves this."
Parasoul fights for her kingdom and its inhabitants, she tries to rule as "a firm, fair, wise and diligent leader."[1] but, sometimes, when injustices are too big, or when her family is threatened, she can lose her cool.

But from where does this sense of justice come ?

- The injustice wound :

For this part, I will base my analysis on the book "Heal Your Wounds and Find Your True Self" by Lise Bourbeau. Yeah I know it sounds a bit "New Age" but after I read it, I found it is a really interesting book. It requires a bit of open-mindedness though, so I don't recommend it to everybody.
The main idea of this book is that there is five psychological wounds (Rejection, Abandonment, Humiliation, Betrayal and Injustice), and we all suffer at least of one wound. These wounds affect our personality, determine the masks we wear and even affect our body.

According to this book, Parasoul clearly suffers of the injustice one. People who have this wound wears a rigid and cold mask. Their body are upright, rigid and the most perfect possible, well proportioned, round bottom, slim waist with tight clothes, rigid movements, clear skin, tight jawline, a straight and upright neck, and finally, bright, clear and lively eyes.
All of that totally corresponds to Parasoul, don't you find ?

But that's not all !

They are perfectionist, they tend to be perfect, lively and dynamic. They justify themselves a lot, don't ask for help (and doesn't admit they need help), doubt of their choices, find unjust to receive less and more unjust to receive more than the others. They don't allow themselves to feel and express their emotions, they often break their own limits, they are quick-tempered, they love order and love to have a sexy appearance.
Finally, their biggest fear is coldness. So yes, they wear the mask of their biggest fear in order to protect themselves against it.

Well, okay, we don't clearly see all of that in the Parasoul's story and in her lore in general, but I think it matches pretty well to her.

So, what personality hide behind all of that ?


3. Parasoul's real personality

- Who really is Parasoul ?

Parasoul is a natural leader with a good strategic mind. We can see it mainly with the fact that she's the commander of the Black Egrets, but also at her personal taste : she likes logic, chess, diplomacy and philosophy[1][2]. In a fight, her Black Egrets represent a major part of her power and, even if she didn't have Krieg, I think she still could win most of her battles thanks to them.

Parasoul is a warrior. She "prefers to take action over doing paperwork"[1], and she likes fencing and training. Moreover, the Renoir family seems to have a very warrior past, mostly under the reign of King Franz, so that's maybe a kind of family inheritance.

She is also a kind person who loves her family and will even sacrifice herself in order to protect Umbrella from becoming the Skullgirl (as we can see in her story). Furthermore, behind the "permanently serious" face of Parasoul also hides a big child who loves to watch "Annie: Girl of the Stars".
She is kind as a family member but also as a ruler. As we seen before, she hates injustice and wants all of her people to live in good conditions. Of course, there will always be crimes and injustice (mainly because of the Medici I think), but the people of Canopy Kingdom are more free than under King Franz[3] (and so, the people are probably globally happier than before).

- The origins of her actual personality :

Finally, the last part of this analysis, and probably the most important one: the origins of her actual personality.

When she was a child, Parasoul was probably less cold and serious, she was certainly more "authentic". But the trauma she lived when her mother became the previous Skullgirl added to a tyrant father who was hungry for power and conquest, deeply affected Parasoul, making her totally change over the years.
I think that, when she was a young child, she was more like Umbrella. But she started her military training, and she started to learn how to rule very soon, so she had a harsh childhood. She was certainly not allowed to complain or express her wishes and emotions. Parasoul was forced to do all of that (in order to succeed to king Franz) and was probably too terrified by her father to oppose him.
Despite that, she has always been really attached to her family and when her mother became the Skullgirl, it affected her even more and she now seeks to protect them by all the means while ensuring the security and the smooth running of the kingdom.

The fact that King Franz was a tyrant probably also affected the Parasoul's sense of justice. She's pretty well placed to know what "suffering" means and now she refuses to make people live that, and, as said before, she hates seeing injustice and people suffering.
She dreams of a peaceful, fair and equalitarian world, and she works to create that, Parasoul is an utopist.


So, we can conclude that her father, her "stolen" childhood and what she lived seven years ago gave to Parasoul her great sense of justice and her cold mask.


To summarize...

- Acting as a cold person allows Parasoul to control herself and her emotions.
- She can lose her cool if her family is threatened.
- She wears the mask of what she unconsciously fear the most (cold persons) to protect herself against it.
- She suffers of an injustice wound.
- She is a good leader and strategist.
- She is a warrior.
- Behind her cold mask, she is a kind and sweet person.
- Her childhood has kinda been stolen by her father, as she started her training and formation very soon.
- She hates injustice and seeing others suffer, because she lived her "stolen" childhood as an injustice.
- She lived the Nancy-Renoir-Skullgirl events as a trauma.
- If she has had a "normal" childhood, she would probably has been more like Umbrella.
- She's an utopist.


So, what do you think ? Is Parasoul like you thought she was ? Do you agree or disagree with this analysis ? Do not hesitate to comment and share your own opinions !

I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis !

If you want me to do another character, please tell me ! I will probably not do it soon because I want to analyze a character from another game before, but tell me anyway, I'll take note !
 
I like your interpretation on Parasoul. She endured many problems throughout her life, whether it's dealing with the kingdom or her family. I would like to see another analysis on Filia, Cerebella, or maybe even Double.
 
Thank you all ! I'm glad to see you like my analysis !

I like your interpretation on Parasoul. She endured many problems throughout her life, whether it's dealing with the kingdom or her family. I would like to see another analysis on Filia, Cerebella, or maybe even Double.
Actually, I already thought of making one about Double, but unfortunately, we don't have enough informations about her personality and her lore in general. That would be more speculations and almost a fanfiction than an analysis. :/
But why not Filia or Cerebella !

By the way, as I said previously, I will also make character analysis from other games and some animes. I'll post them on my deviantArt if you want to read them (I'll also repost the Val and Parasoul analysis with a better presentation).
 
I'd be down for Filia or Cerebella next.