LoK Meta: Kain's Guardianship of the Balance Pillar

Wait wait wait wait, I literally cannot believe I’m asking this question for the first time in my life, but I was listening to the SR2 dialogue before bed, as you do, and it just fucking hit me -

If the Pillar Guardians relinquish their role as guardian at the moment of their death, as we saw happen when Ariel was murdered and Kain immediately inherited the role as a baby, then why did Kain retain guardianship when he was murdered? Like you could say that Ariel was left to natural forces when she died while Mortanius had basically god-like powers over Death with which he pulled Kain back from death and he might have restored Kain to guardianship at that same time, but Mortanius wasn’t the one who killed him or even present when Kain was killed. Kain literally woke up in a crypt when he was resurrected and has memories of an afterlife, so more than sufficient time had elapsed between his death and reanimation for a new Balance guardian to be born.

( Oh boy... )

I FUCKING HATE THIS SERIES.

LoK Meta: Kain Never CHOSE to Let the Pillars Rot

Good morning. Rather than sleeping in to recover sleeps lost to Blood Omen madness last night, I am here with the further realization that Kain’s choice at the pillars, to not sacrifice himself, had also been set in stone from the moment of the creation of Timeline 1. (Or at least, this choice was confirmed and not rerouted to anything else at the moment of his assassination of King William the Just.) The whole series frames that choice specifically as a choice because of how Kain talks about the weight and guilt of it, he even calls it a choice during narration, but we know and Kain knows, intellectually if not emotionally, that free will is an illusion.

There was only one Soul Reaver present at the time of his “choice,” therefore he could not have rerouted history with any amount of willpower, not that he really wanted to kill himself. And even more fun to think about - he did not sufficiently consider the option of killing himself precisely because there was no second Soul Reaver present. He could not seriously fathom doing what was never an option.

( Here we go again... )

why is this so long