LoK Meta: Kain Never CHOSE to Let the Pillars Rot

[razielim]

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.

We see a more clear example of how the presence or absence of alternative options might affect people’s emotions in SR2. The first time Raziel meets Moebius and threatens to kills him, Moebius just laughs and is like “Lol, no I die later.” He can’t even take the threat seriously. The second time Raziel threatens to kill him, however, standing just a few paces away from a second Soul Reaver, Moebius barely holds his shit together bargaining for his life. He knows it’s possible and experiences Real Fear about saying the wrong thing. Moebius of course knows he is invulnerable the first time, but rather than framing it as “Raziel does not have the power to kill me” he might frame is as “Raziel does not have the power to be serious about killing me.” The second time, Raziel looks serious about killing him, and as far as Moebius knows, he might actually be serious.

Also interesting to note is that EG/M chastise Raziel for not killing Kain when they rendezvous at the pillars at the beginning on SR2, and the player can easily fall for that narrative because it’s very
convincing - it’s not clear why Raziel launches into another huge Shakespearean battle of wits with Kain rather than simply lobbing his head off, but the important thing to note
is that only one Soul Reaver is present in that scene. Raziel could
never have murdered Kain in that place and time, and he is chastised for
his failure to do so precisely to maintain his illusion of free
will and to prick his ego because the antagonists placed their bets on that being
the best way to make sure he felt angry enough to kill Kain when the
right time and place presented itself.

Anyways, that SR2 part was a tangent (though very satisfying to discover). My point was...

Uh...

OH!

So, basically, after simply breaking the vampire race failed to produce desired results, Elder God/Moebius/the Hylden were all working towards the plan of a) corrupt the pillars so that they are unable to choose new guardians b) systematically kill the guardians, no matter how long it takes.

THAT MEANS that Kain’s first real countermove, which inevitably allowed Raziel to forge the Spirit Reaver btw, was breaking the Soul Reaver over Raziel’s head. That technically created its own timeline, whether or not the player realizes it without all the later emphasis on “reality feels like it’s being distorted” and Raziel simply woozily finding himself in the spectral realm. There were two Soul Reavers present in that room - that’s the whole point, that’s why the blade broke. EG/M would have been able only to anticipate the future that would have played out had Kain not done that. The antagonists had initially banked on Kain being murdered when Raziel first catches up to him in SR. Raziel having a symbiotic weapon was not part of the plan and had nothing to do with the flow of history in the original timestream. Literally at no point does Raziel having a wraith blade factor into the plot for destroying the pillars except to use as damage control since Kain hadn’t died when he was supposed to. In fact, Raziel typically uses the blade in ways that EG/M don’t like, unlocking ancient secrets and ultimately curing Kain’s affliction. That is what Moebius is referring to when he says Kain introduced his own pawn to the game, one of the few times he drops hints at the actual truth. We think of his genius countermove as being located in SR2, in the Sarafan Stronghold, but that was actually the second crux. But it is possible that if Kain had not used the Soul Reaver in that fight, Raziel would have killed him, and then traveled back in time for some other reason.

On the other hand, Kain didn’t seem to struggle with his decision to break the Soul Reaver, which might seem strange considering how much trouble Raziel had later with subverting destiny. It could be that it was actually very unlikely that he wouldn’t break the blade at that moment, and he would have instead struggled if he’d tried not to strike Raziel with the blade. But we don’t see him struggling too much with assassinating William either, which certainly killed a whole-ass timeline.

It might instead be the case that Raziel, despite being the very Reaver itself, and despite Kain himself believing Raziel to be the only free agent, does not possess the most free will. That’s just another piece of the illusion.

In fact, something that’s worth pointing out, is that Raziel’s biggest struggles with the paradoxes appear to come from an inner conflict - who to trust, what to do. It could be argued that the reason he has so much trouble refraining from hurtling down the destiny the antagonists have laid out for him is because he is burdened with doubts. Kain, as a man who had never doubted himself (except after the fact, when it makes no difference) a single moment since he was a little brat, literally just plows through those moments with a nearly blind and dumb willfulness in whichever direction he sees fit. He possesses a reckless unawareness and terrifying amount of power at the junctures. He created new timelines when he assassinated William and when he struck Raziel down and we never even saw him flinch.

So we see finally who exactly we have as our protagonists - Kain, an expert toddler/Übermesch who rearranges reality as he sees fit, and Raziel, a literal baby who is frightened and angered by
everything until he achieves enlightenment and immediately
sacrifices himself for pave the way for Kain’s ascension.

In fact, a potential reason Kain mistakenly believes Raziel to have more free will than he could be that he sees Raziel struggle with it, but never feels any difficulty himself. Kain has, oh my god, impostor syndrome, of all things.

Coincidentally, totally unrelated to saving the world, this makes those scenes where Kain warmly coaches Raziel to struggle against destiny while Raziel is visibly struggling to do what comes naturally to his mentor very, very cute. Pure affection right there; don't touch me with cold-hearted Kain nonsense.

why is this so long