the existential nature of this video game

last week
in an imaginary conversation with myself
i was explaining that i’m more interested in the existential meaning of things
than anything else
meaning
when an event happens in “reality”
i’m more concerned with it’s meaning
than it’s reason
meaning
i’d much rather understand what in me is manifesting such a thing
so that i can alter my perception/desire/reception
rather than worry about what physics caused the event
so
this game i’ve been playing
Sword of Mana
i’m very impressed with it
as i mentioned earlier
i feel that it’s just a signpost on my path
i don’t really need to play it all the way through
but getting interested in the “Mana…” series again just as i was deciding to come to Hawaii
helped flow me in this current
playing the game
it’s obvious how whomever designed it was greatly influenced by the islands
— the maps of all the game worlds are comprised of small islands
volcanoes
etc…
This particular one
does a very good job early on laying out its morality (which is a bit heavy handed)
the power of Mana
is a Goddess (“mother earth)
who transformed herself into a tree
to keep the energy of nature balance
— there are people who are of the Mana Clan
who are those who belong to her
indeed
the special ones are considered to be borne FROM the tree itself
there is another race of beings that come here to this planet
and enjoy it
but because of where they come from
they relish the energy here
and become greedy
they harness it for their ends:
cities, machines, weapons: Control
they specifically want to stomp out the Clan of Mana
because the less human manifestations of that there are
they more energy they have access too
(very early in the game it likens them to Vampires)
and though the “point” of the game
is to “kill the bad guys”
over and over in the story
the main character says
“i’m not any better than they are: i have a weapon and i’m killing people and hurting people… i don’t WANT to.. but they killed my parents and i want justice and i want them to stop trying to kill us… ”
even when he gets revenge and kills the guy who killed his parents
the game’s not even half over.
when i played this game as a child (“the Secret of Mana”)
this whole belief system resonated strongly with mine
i was listening to the band “James” a lot
and they had a song called “Sometimes (Lester Piggot)”
telling various stories
one about a boy who stands on the roof of his house during a thunder storm
to be closer to the power of nature
his consummation is being struck by lightning
and being washed away by the rushing flood
i loved this song so much
i named the main character in this game “Lester”
(every character you play you have to give a name to)
so when i started playing Sword of Mana
i named him Lester as well
( years later, i found they named the song that because it had a “racy beat” and he was one of their favourite horse jockeys…)
so
through playing this new game
my character gets joined by many other helper-characters along the way
the longest i’ve had so far
is a guy called
Lester
which i thought an odd coincidence
he plays a large role in the “story” of the game
he’s a minstrel
(in this game, music is magic)
and he has green hair
(the boy with green hair… and when i was about 20… i had heard that Hemoglobin — the molecule that makes he blood red, and enables respiration — was only one atom different than Chlorophyll — the molecule that makes plants green, and allows photosynthesis — and i was trying to will the Hemoglobin in my scalp to convert to Chlorophyll so i’d have naturally green hair… and be nourished from being in the sun: not NEED to eat anything)
there are many other goofy characters
one of the silly ones in a desert town was called Yakov
(same spelling as my chessidic jew…)
another great line from that same James album
“you’ve been raiding
too much meaning
from existence”