Fear and Hunger: D'arce - The Damsel and the Knight

[@SuzumeMizuno]

I truly love that you read all the possible dialogues, it helps a lot to learn about the characters and the lore!!

[@agravemisunderstanding9668]

Considering darce is the character who seems to fear or is implied to be threatened with rape and or sex more than other characters, i like the idea that she faces of against Silvian, the god of tainted animalistic sex, in her final or penultimate battle, its a pretty triumphant ending thematically.

[@unmitigateddisaster3793]

It's an extremely uncomfortable subject that most RPGs and fantasy type stories (understandably) doesn't really want to engage with because it's genuinely unsettling to most people - but a woman in a world of violence and savagery is going to face the everpresent threat of sexual assault. This is a world where eldrich beings do impossibly horrific things to people and eternal torment seems to be a relatively common outcome- where simply being killed in combat ranks pretty low on the 'terrible fate' scale. Pretty much nothing is off the table in terms of threats.

[@nicholasgeere5125]

When was she threatened with that?

[@ThornwoodDrive]

@@nicholasgeere5125it’s an extrapolation (just honestly Realism considering she’s the one female playable character. It’s the same way Abella had. Unique problems with Caligura in Termina) from the circumstances. But, I would also say her “they did things to me” with the nightcrawlers can probably be interpreted as an attempt. But she just overall seems to have a fear of sex in general, which again, understandable for a woman in this world. Her discomfort with the rituals around marriage, for example. I will however say; technically Cahara is the one with the closest ‘cannon’ experiences with that. Specifically it’s implied he goes through the…alternate outcome of the coin toss with the guards. It’s why things get awkward silence in the conversation, and why his legs specifically are cited as being weak. Though it could also just a trick considering he tries to steal from you.

[@raro344]

@@ThornwoodDrive Also, given what the guard can do to you, it clear men can fear the same thing here. the dugeon in that regard dosent discriminate

[@anonymoususer9197]

But generally that's not...what sylvian is. In earlier versions of for example if you try to do the D baby or kid the gods will smite you. She is just a pure representation of love. We feel love to spur on relations to spur on reproduction. Of course there are outliers but they're not the norm, they're outliers. She is not a representation of animalism or taintedness of love. I know the moonless guard implies some things but I think as long as sylvian agrees that both participants have the same goal for example survival she'll "bless" them with marriage

[@ThornwoodDrive]

My personal headcannon is that D’arce is actually the Heartless One. She resurrects her captain by literally cutting her own wrists; she’s proven that she would do quite literally anything for him, excuse any atrocity no matter how…one might say heartless. And at the very end gives her LITERALLY heart and soul to this man, bleeding on his corpse to resurrect it to life. And her reward? Abandonment. She’s not mentioned anywhere, so chances are as the Kaiser, or any point before that, Le’Garde simply…let her memory fade. Either she was with him outside the dungeons, in which case that kind of love story would’ve been too good not to pass on through the ages as a fairytale all the way to Termina, or he abandoned her in the dungeons. To me, the latter seems more likely. So now, she has been thoroughly betrayed. Sees the man she loved as the monster he was. Bleeding, drags her way back to Mahabre, past the monsters she slayed, and then literally has to fight her own shadow self and the Mother of Love. And defeat her. Literally kill the sole part of her that loves. The Heartless One has a hatred of the new gods. Probably because she saw Le’Garde’s attempt to become one and how it ruined him. And even the design of the Heartless feels like a D’Arce who embraced more of her femininity. It’s a lot like her New God form, looks really close, just with longer hair and the armor more melded into her body; which feels like her coming into her own. Her own power as a woman separate from Le’Garde, stopped trying to mold herself to his image. I think it makes a lot of sense and provides an explaination of where she went overall that feels satisfying. She in a way achieved what Le’Garde NEVER does. She attained some form of godhood, no matter how fleeting or feeble. She became heartless and honestly she f*cking deserved to.

[@alanleonel95]

She also holds a sword and a spear, which are the possible weapons you can equip at the start of the game.

[@ambustio9807]

​@@alanleonel95nah she has a canon new God form

[@Baddaby]

She has a Dominant soul, it's confirmed

[@domenico26752]

My headcanon is that none of the endings occurred in a "pure" matter, the ideas are there, but very likely what happened is something in between. Probably the party met and split multiple times, and it is even possible that they reached different places at different times. For example a possibility is that the party helps Le'Gard to ascend, defeats him, and he is later found dead by D'Arce, and resurrected. This would explain both the rot sprite, and the Nas'rah dialogue.

[@wdbeanie5392]

Yeah I think this is pretty close tbf

[@BR-dj1bo]

Or maybe there are multiple timelines that somehow merges with the major key events that played out in F&H1. I mean think about it, we play the game with the same 4 characters but we get different results depending on the actions we take and given how the powers of the older gods, new gods and ascended gods have influenced the world, who to say it hasn't created some kind of temporal flux that made all of the events canon in some way. Just spitballing here

[@cid_xexyz]

From 12:20 on. You answered these questions about Darce earlier in this video. She is very devoted to Alll-mer, but she also believes the legends about Le'garde more than even Le'garde himself does. By resurrecting him, she is helping to fulfill the prophecies and ascend him to his place as a New God. It didn't exactly turn out that way, but that is what she is trying to accomplish. It's also just Casca and Griffith, Miro pulls from a lot of sources and Berserk is definitely one of them.

[@amandaanstett6973]

Another great vid! One thing I will say why I think the D’arce S ending is canon : When fighting the Yellow King in Termina, he sheds his skin and becomes just muscle at some point in the battle if he isn’t defeated yet, reflecting how he looks during the S ending of D’arce. My assumption is he was revived via D’arce, then ascended after, becoming the Yellow King but an even more twisted version than you see if he wasn’t revived. He left D’arce to die, and she dragged herself to the throne and ascended and became the Heartless One and is now out for revenge against new gods and Le’Garde.

[@Pikacrew1]

When you try to leave with Le'Guard he says he still has to do something. I think after he gets revived he just makes his way to the throne. Man is fiending for power

[@mattmolloy636]

You dont think she’s the Tainted One?

[@iwillconsumeyourflesh5882]

I think the canon ending is where Le'garde let's you out of the dungeon and then years later you see him walking on the street.

[@ekidonaa]

Oh yeah I think it does make sense.... ...if you can't read and wasnt playing both games. Please, go on, read the lore of Legarde, of Kaiser, read the S-ending final text, read the Kaiser's dialogue with Nashrah and Osaa, and I bet youll never thought again of this theory about Darce S-end

[@ekidonaa]

Also that THEORY about Heartless is insanely fun cos theres NOTHING that leads to this nonsense, shes just an easter egg, and Darce 90% chance died in the dungeons according to Miro's words and ingame texts You guys are so IN LOVE with this theories without any logical ties

[@Chubbasaurus]

"Perhaps she joined Ragnvaldr and Moonless..." SPOILERS FOR TERMINA I mean. The character of August and his interactions with Moonless suggest that Ragnvaldr did in fact have another family. August is red haired. Like Ragnvaldr and D'arce. The rest of Fear & Hunger's characterisations put a twist on the archetypes - D'arce fell for what she thought was a shining knight and he turned out to be a monster. Ragnvaldr appears to be a barbarian, but shows wisdom and kindness. What if D'arce did join Ragnvaldr and Moonless, and they managed to carve out a life together?

[@jtreview7506]

So I do think that Darce’s S ending is somewhat canon, mainly because it would seem that the reason she can break away from her obsession with Legarde is that she had other people with her the whole way trying to help her, and that let her focus on other things. If she didn’t get that help, probably would have just hyper focused on legarde to make it out sane

[@Tracequaza]

I've been enjoying your videos, I hope you end up getting more views! One thing about the S endings I noticed including this one is that the main connection between them is the characters fulfilling the goals they had entering the dungeon, or another way to put it is taking their ideals to their logical conclusion. While some of the characters change through the ending, ultimately Cahara uses his tricks to get rich and gets out of there regardless of legarde, Enki gets knowledge, Ragnvaldr becomes a mighty warrior/slayer of the darkness, and D'arce gets to reunite with L'egarde, so while D'arce doesn't get to develop in the same way she does outside of the S ending, I find it interesting still in the idea that not everyone gets to have a 'good' ending like Cahara, where they get to learn and change at the very least. Since the "ideals" I mentioned are strongly reflected by their soul types, this also reminds me of old Francois talking about how true domination is impossible and you're always a puppet; in this case D'arce literally becomes a puppet for whatever god is "guiding" her. The theories you found in termina with the tainted/heartless are really interesting, and I appreciate that while you didn't like this ending that you explored these possibilities.

[@wdbeanie5392]

Oh damn, never really looked at it that way before, great observation! It compliments the games twisted fairytale aesthetic really well.

[@barditooficialytbr]

I like the idea of D'arce being a independent person and evolving from her naive black and white sense of morality, but to be honest, I don't think that's what happens. While I don't think her Rank S ending is canon in its entirity, I do believe she used the spell to bring Le'Garde back as a ghoul and then he eventually, probably soon, realized that he didn't become an actual god and continued his journey with D'arce by his side. The fact is that Kaiser is too different in terms of personality from the Yellow King or from the ghoul, so either one of them could've eventually gone frustrated with their insignificance in the grand scheme of things, but I think ghoul Le'garde is the most likely to go through that transformation, because the Yellow King spent centuries in the void thinking about his past life and almost became something apathetic and devoid of Le'garde's ambitions of reuniting the world without violence, kinda like the Kaiser, but with that fake love that he claims to have for everyone, and I can't imagine this guy actually becoming an emo man that would go to war against the world to defy the Old Gods again.

[@agravemisunderstanding9668]

Also cuz Kaiser and the Bremen army is supposedly a very brutal, known for their warcrimes, I don't think the yellow king would behave so brutally, especially since its completely tangential to his goals, even Le'Guards massacre in Oldguard was seemingly only because he needed the Cube.

[@raro344]

@@agravemisunderstanding9668 For the kaiser the war is irrelevant once he figure out what it want it, it took the town and sue for peace. this is very much legard way

[@TheMCNinjas]

My headcanon is that Ragnvaldr succeed in killing L'garde (his S ending) but also D'arce manage to revive L'garde thanks to Nas'hrah's guidance(her S ending). After D'arce revives L'garde through blood magic, is either (my weakest theory) she continued to use Nas'hrahs laboratory and research to make a new vessel for L'garde to control. Or (my strongest theory) D'arce and L'garde performed the marriage ritual to become one and proceed to reach godhood -> kaiser.

[@nerdsferatuskeep3902]

It's canon. Use Rot on him in Termina to reveal his true form. And the meaning behind her simply knowing how to use the spells is is the nature of magic of the old gods to begin with. You don't use it, it uses you.

[@generalfletch7043]

It’s not confirmed. Plus the yellow cloak and snake only comes from his new god form from sitting on the throne. It’s supposed to be ambiguous. Plus the blights of the void hve the same skin tone

[@VaporGrisAzulado]

It could be both, she revived him and as a corpse like thing he became a new god

[@TheOnlyWAYtoStayHere]

The best fear and hunger lore channel! Awesome contents! Thank you man 🙏

[@Animoia]

The canon endings is basically just how dragonbreaks work in the elder scrolls

[@FFVogter.-em6zz]

I think that both D’Arce’s ending and Ending C are Canon. D’Arce revives Le’Garde who in turn becomes a new god but his skin is false and or weakened, allowing specific spells to peel it away to reveal his true form. It could even be possible that he died when Ragnvaldr got his hands on him after he was freed from his cell. Either way it’s hard to piece the ending together since only Enki and Ragnvaldr got their S ending unambiguously.

[@mr.CraZiHatz]

The gods saw da'rce crying said "Queen never cry" and taught her blood magic.... But she was simpmaxxing

[@onlyonezenn6037]

I truly love your analysis on D’arce. You’ve chosen to explore the value in D’arce’s potential (based on canon evidence), which is the best decision. The optimistic interpretation is by far more interesting for her character development and would serve the story much better in any sort of adaptation. Thanks for being so holistic in your research and personal conclusions. I really disagree with anyone who insists all S endings are canon. I would even argue that maybe 1 or 2 of them are, overall, and even then, not fully. The other endings are much more interesting and do a lot more for D’arce as a person.

[@ayecity5505]

The lore: Da baby is the knight character, who canonically becomes old through ghosts in the mines

[@Kittykat81572]

I think Darce is a great combination of Farnese and Casca from Berserk

[@HalfLifeOfHumanity]

Ye , at first I just saw her as Casca.. She looks like her, fights like her, and even devotes herself to rescue Griffith from being tortured in an ancient stone dungeon that was also the location of ancient ritual sacrifice... until I discovered she was a knight that came from nobility, like some kind of Royal Iron Chain Knight.. and then she abandons her family in order to pursue her personal desires and goals, like some kind of runaway daughter of the Vandimion family.

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

Brother…Legarde is literally a vampire. D’arce found a vampirism spell…Jesus it’s not that hard

[@HesGotaGun505]

You were expecting Legarde, but it was me, Dio!🧛🏻

[@AbC-pj2op]

Enki s ending and rag s endings cannot be cannon at the same time. Enki likely fought the traces of grog with nashrah

[@Bleilock1]

what if it was legard who went down there with nashrah

[@AbC-pj2op]

@@Bleilock1 legarde wouldn't survive the encounter with grog

[@Bleilock1]

@@AbC-pj2op well Maybe darce found him later and resurrected him

[@AbC-pj2op]

@@Bleilock1 if you played the game. You must know that there is no way to exit the gauntlet

[@julianadams3710]

I’ve never seen anyone bring it up but if D’arce is a member of the Knights of the Midnight Sun did she help massacre Rags village? Why doesn’t he ever make the connection when she introduces herself as a member and attack her like he does L’garde?

[@walidsmith5104]

I get liking one ending over the other but Idk why you're acting like D'arce ressurecting Le'gaurd is the wackiest thing ever. Like the ritual coming to to her makes sense, or are we ingnoring the fact the Enki arriving to the dungeon at all was literally divine intervention. Or the part about her using heretical magics, are we going to Ignor the fact the the dungeon has shown it not only can, but WILL, warp peoples' mind and morals, if not their bodies and souls too. Also you said vampire Le'gaurd is cartoony compared to the Kiser who you seem to like, but that is a massive strawman. People think D'arce S ending le'gaurd and kaiser are the same person as in they share all positive and negative traits. All you did was make the statment as if they were two different things gave one all the characteristics you like and gave the other "vampire" as it's only character trait and called it worse.

[@walidsmith5104]

I like the video btw not trying to be super negative. It just seems weird that you praise the writing for Kaiser but show so much disdain for ressurected Le'gaurd as if they are somehow mutually exclusive to one another

[@Baddaby]

Yeah they're the same thing, literally When Le Garde dies in Termina he turns into lumps of flesh the same color as Darce S ending

[@simonemancuso3576]

Great Video. I will watch it later

[@agravemisunderstanding9668]

Isn't it stated that Rondon uses Le'Guards massacre in Oldeguard to justify finally having him arrested

[@wdbeanie5392]

To be honest the game is very unclear as to even started the war. Theirs multiple sources, including: Rudimer's journals, New Gods, Darce's opening etc, that give contradicting answers. Nosramus says that Legarde's plan was to end up defeated and in the dungeon no matter what, and Rudimer says that the kingdom betrayed Legarde in his second journal I believe. I'll keep a look out for that in my next recording session though!

[@brendanmuller7301]

I agree that her resurrecting legarde likely isn't the canon choice, i don't say this from a character writing perspective but simply because the legarde we see in the sequel acts more like the legarde we see in the yellow king non ghoul ending but bittered over time.

[@mattmolloy636]

So if you had to place your bets, do you think D’arce is the Tainted One?

[@agravemisunderstanding9668]

But that's such a sad ending for D'Arce, also I'm pretty sure the Tainted one is a homage to one of the developers friends

[@xSmuggen]

Nah, that would imply she possessed a tainted soul. D'arce has a dominating soul.

[@mattmolloy636]

@@xSmuggen I agree, but it could just be a title designated from her actions after the resurrection, similarly to how Ragnavaldr didn't actually become a god even though he's deemed the God of Ultraviolence after destroying pretty much everything except for the butterfly dude lol

[@mattmolloy636]

@@agravemisunderstanding9668 so kind of like the appearance of the Sergal?

[@BunePoster]

Trigger warnings on a Funger video, lmao