/lit/ - Literature

>>12622177
'intersectional nihilism' is not a well-known term, but it's not the worst way to describe the relation of the characters. the more interesting question here is whether or not the irrepressible schizo avatar of difference and multiplicity torpedoes any possible accelerationist techno-fantasy also, and i would say the answer is yes. that's the real stomach-punch of the game: art saves, but not in the way one would like. it's their misfortune to survive failed dreams, the loss of loved ones, even armageddon.

Kefka is the one who contributes one of the greatest pieces of technology to that world - the slave crown. but he is a puppet who pulls his own strings, and a true abomination for that reason. he's also exactly what would have troubled Heidegger, had he lived in that world: a complete expressiveness, a transgression and overcoming of all signs, even history itself, and through him the apocalypse repeats itself, this time as farce, which makes it even worse: this time the Warring Triad aren't even involved, and the whole thing is a grotesque squandering and a parody. he spawns a meme cult and tears up the post-apoc universe like a lunatic, because ultimately he has nothing to live for but this.

he even says as much at the the end: hate-hate-hate-hate-hate. that is a much more honest commentary about the nature of hate, not even hate of any particular thing, but the hatred of love itself, or the love of hatred, and he howls it from atop of a mountain of scrap where the centre of the empire used to be. identity politics would bore him to death.

i know, i know, i shouldn't go on like this. but seriously, there's more truth in this game than in a dozen third-rate academic papers on Land or even Heidegger. there's no cure for what Kefka has, because the fact is that he's seeing the world more clearly than most: what's the hot fix for nihilism? is there one? what do you do with the transcendental schizo-artist-terrorist? those are exactly the kinds of things that bothered Heidegger about Nietzsche...and yet somehow they escape from the crumbling tower, in the end, and on to whatever comes after. Kefka is the greatest villain in vidya because industrial postmodernity is truly a force beyond compare, as much as the Revolution was for the 19C. that's what makes the game so great. it asks questions we are still struggling to answer.