Triad vs. The Madra Blushing Scene




Well, after playing through part of TLA over again, a new revelation has crossed my mind about Jenna's blushing sequence, and no, I'm not converting to Valeshipping. I will now explain the thoughts that I've been tooling with for awhile.




A Short Essay on the Madra Blushing Scene


Most Valeshippers use the whole ordeal of Jenna blushing after Sheba taunting her as a solid Valeshipping argument. For a long time, many Mudshippers had problems refuting it (including myself at one point), but now, after some careful deliberation, I for one, have determined that the whole scene was not meant to be taken as it has been. On the surface, it looks like an intentional act to reveal the insights of the characters, but can they truly be taken without a grain of salt? I have come to the conclusion that the scene is primarily used as a sort of comedy relief and was not actually meant to be taken to heart.

Most Valeshippers are probably thinking: "Triad, what the heck are you going on about? You're just upset because you're a Mudshipper!" Granted, I was frustrated at the scene at first, but at the time of the writing of this essay, I can assure you that I am of sound mind and health. Now, as for the business at hand... Please keep an open mind as you read this.

One of the reasons why the said scene is nothing more than comedy relief is pretty simple. Look at its timing. When does the scene show up? It shows up immediately after one of the darkest points in the game: The first encounter with Menardi's younger sister, Karst. And what is Karst exactly? Karst is one of the main antagonists until the Mars Lighthouse. In this particular scene, Karst is pondering over the loss of her sister... given the fact that she's not the most chipper individual anyway, this effect can turn her into a near homicidal monster. She even threatens Felix's life during the scene! The whole ordeal there was meant to inspire some kind of fear of her from the player. Keeping with the history of Golden Sun being a somewhat lighthearted RPG, it would not be like the game to leave you with a sense of fear in your heart. So what did the writers do? They made a clever little twist and turned the mood light again...

If you don't follow, consider Sheba's quote: "Man, I thought Saturos and Menardi had issues."

And consider this: Other than a couple of witty lines of dialogue, what better way to lighten the mood than make fun of one of the main characters? Think about it... in real life, people tend to laugh more at the misfortunes of others or when someone is being outright embarassed. And who better to be the target of the said embarassment? The very hothead of the group! Jenna's been the one throwing out most of the insults and has been the one providing most of the humor up until this point. You know the old saying: "What goes around comes around", right? Besides, the hothead of the group would likely produce the best reaction to anyone. Do you honestly think Felix or Picard would produce half the reaction that Jenna did if put in an embarassing situation? The answer's "No way in Weyard." And Sheba? What do you have to embarass her with?! And Kraden? It's been done. So, we have to use Jenna. It's that simple.

Now, the last paragraph might not have made a lot of points to my idea, but bear with me. Naturally, what is the easiest way to embarass someone? Tease them about love, be it false or not. This is exactly what Sheba did. Besides, doesn't Sheba seem like the teasing type? I mean, look at the end of the game... Garet thinks he's lost his whole family and she goes "Aww.... poor baby." Couple that with the whole "Saturos and Menardi have issues" thing, and you can see that Sheba's pretty sarcastic and really doesn't mean half the things she says under conditions like that. What is there to prove that Sheba was being serious? It seems to me that she was merely trying to get Jenna riled up in any way she could.

If you think that arguement is bogus, I can refer you to some Defective/Silvershipping people who act in much the same manner as Sheba.

Next, this reason is just to further support my point that the game needed some serious comedy relief: Think about it. You were swept away in a tidal wave. Alex, who is supposed to be protecting you and helping you, has left you not really caring what happens to you. You have been swindled by the system on a couple of cases. Picard's been rotting in a jail cell for no real reason. The Kimbobo high priest looked was a major handful. You had to deal with pirates. You're being chased by your former best friends who want nothing more than to stop you. And to top it off, you just got your lives threatened by one of the most powerful Mars Adepts alive. Does that sound like everything's been court jesters and pizza pie? Don't make me laugh. Comedy relief was badly needed to try to bring things back down to earth.

Oh, and of course Valeshippers will bring up: "What about Sheba's Mind Read?! Jenna must've been crushing on Isaac or something!" The answer to this is simple. Jenna is HUMAN. Any human's thoughts can slip to any given moment to something else. Could it be possible that Jenna thought, only for a moment, about Isaac instead of Garet? Mind Read isn't a constant thing! It only picks up what someone is thinking at a specific given moment. It's a well known fact that sometimes the most faithful of men and women can have unfaithful thoughts. I mean, how many times have any of you been in a relationship and thought someone else you saw (aside from your lover) was really attractive and how you wish you could go out with them? This includes celebrities, actors, singers, and anyone else on the planet. I'd say most, if not all of you reading this. It's a matter of human nature. Besides... most minds of people are chaotic and riddled and it is probably hard to discern truth from fiction... do you think Miss Jenna's the picture of mental health? I'd say no.

Given the whole factor of internal deals that went on with the plot, the next actually has to do with Camelot and the writers of Golden Sun. One of the PRIMARY complaints against the original Golden Sun was that there was virtually NO personal interaction between the original four party members. Sure, they spoke to each other during events, but how often did they praddle on about the weather? "Practically never", said the critics. People who played and critics alike both said that the characters were dry and bland and some went so far to say that Isaac and Crew were drones. Now, fastforward a couple of years: TLA. The people at Camelot aren't bloody stupid. They decided, "Hey, if it's praddling they want, praddling they get." You'll notice a lot more well-meaning strife among the characters in the first thirty minutes of gameplay in TLA as opposed to the original. Naturally, having the characters tease and yell at one another makes them that much more human and gets rid of the said drone complex the original Golden Sun might have had. Essentially, Camelot was probably appealing to those shallow enough not able to read between the lines and see the subtleties in the original characters' personalities.

In all, with a little careful thinking, one can place the Madra scene as mere filler and comedy relief. In the scheme of things, it played no real purpose in plot development and its only goal was to show that the characters of Jenna and Sheba were very human. Also, the timing of it was placed at a convient place to refresh the gamer into thinking that the game was not all darkness and strife. One could aslo infer that Camelot didn't want Jenna to become the cast-iron loud-mouthed hothead that she appeared to be by bringing her down to earth and making her vulnerable to a well placed zinger-shot.

My question now is to the people: Am I wrong? The Silver/Defectiveshippers will likely agree that the analysis of Sheba's character is accurate. Most critics of the original Golden Sun said it lacked flair between the characters. Doesn't it strike you as natural that Camelot would've done this to get a chuckle out of the gamer? I think so.

The lesson learned here is... sometimes the truth isn't black and white.




There you go. There's my updated two-cents on the whole thing. I may have sounded harsh, but sometimes there is no other way to make yourself clear. If I offended anyone, I wish to apologize now and say offending people was not my intention. Very well. That being said, I wish to thank everyone who took the time to read this. Anyone who wishes to quote this, please make sure to either cite me or ask permission. Thanks.

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