Analysis of Eternal Senia's Endings

[lego brick on floor]

I thought this game was pretty amazing. If you're reading this, you probably mostly agree with this assessment (or you're stuck and need help.)

Hopefully this interest is high enough for you to stick around and read a long, informal series of essays.

Obviously there are many many many spoilers. Turn back if you do not wish to be spoiled.

// Endings //

1) Eternal Senia

This ending, I feel, is definitely the "worst" for both of our beloved sisters. No one dies, yes; in fact, both of them quite technically live forever together. So why would this be considered the worst of them all?

Let's consider what Magaleta set out to the Tower of Eternity to do; she wished to cure her sister of her curse, even knowing that she would never see her again. This curse isn't explored altogether too much; it doesn't seem to possess a serious threat to Senia, especially considering that Senia popped right back out of her bed the second Magaleta actually went to the Tower of Eternity. I can't help but wonder if this was intentional; if so, kudos to you, plot writer, for creating one hell of an "ouch" feels moment. Because, well, that would have made Magaleta's first sacrifice basically futile; or, at the very least, makes the player feel like that could be the case, and knowing all three endings, well, that's painful.

Senia's quest is to retrieve her wayward sister and bring her back to the church for their happy ending, of course. Slowly, through critical moments and flashbacks, we see the sheer "hero worship" and desire for a family that propels Senia to take insane risks (Entering the Tower, not backing down against the Dragon even with a broken sword...!). And in the end, Senia accomplishes some of this; she finds her sister again.

What actually happens in this ending can be cheerfully explained as "the absolute failure of both quests". Nothing is achieved. Both of them are lost to Eternity and for all intents and purposes, live forever in the Tower with presumably fading sentinence. Nothing will ever come to save them.

But, no, it's worse than that, when you think about it. Magaleta didn't just fail to cure her sister; in fact, she is the direct cause of the worsening of Senia's Eternity dose (a term I just made up on the spot, of course) and basically ensues that Senia is screwed.

Senia not only failed to bring her sister back to the Church, she failed to bring her sister back at all; rather than pull her out of the depths of Eternity, she is pulled in.

And it isn't even a happy ending, because both of them are basically mindless zombies at this point. Special mindless zombies, because it's obvious that Magalenta somewhat resists the complete mind-destructive properties of Eternity, as does Senia, and so are vaguely attached by their love for each other. But that's not really a happy ending, since, well, they'll never know happiness. Just a slave-ish desire to remain attached to each other.

Both climb the tower. Neither of them get their wish; but they still suffer the consequences.

So absolute failure isn't good enough of a term; the worst possible outcome defines this ending better, even though, emotionally, it is the lightest of all three endings.

2) Magaleta and Senia, to Eternity

This ending is probably widely considered the "worst" of the endings, and I can't blame anyone for that; that final CG of a smiling, bloody Magaleta and a tearful, broken Senia is armor-piercing and made me want to cry...a lot.

But...well, everything applies from the above, except for one critical action.

Magaleta dies. Senia kills her. Magaleta could...well, she can't beat Senia. But she could most definitely have teleported Senia out of there and made her escape, if she can't just simply teleport herself.

You should note that she did neither.

Sentient Magaleta couldn't live with her absolute failure staring her in the face; watching Eternal Senia pull out her sword, a violent violet aura swirling around her, the effects of her curse in full form. In the process of being stabbed, she was more concerned about the damage that she did to her sister...which, considering the ending SG, wasn't permanent despite what Magaleta thinks, if Senia is aware enough to realize what she's done.

So, well, Magaleta dies with a smile on her face; a broken and bloody one, though. Because, well, she's absolutely failed, but she isn't going to live with her mistakes, and she's said everything she needs to.

...What about Senia?

Senia feels that her very existence and sense of self revolves around the ray of hope in her life; Magaleta. Senia regains consciousness to find blood on her blade and her sister and hero dead at her hands.

There's absolutely no way she doesn't kill herself with that weight on her shoulders. Probably without even thinking twice about it, once she gets up from her grief; if ever. Perhaps she doesn't actively take her blade to herself; she just sits there, crying until her consciousness fades forever.

Neither succeed at their goals; both suffer absolute failure, and both presumably die. But neither of them must live with this; hell, they have the consciousness to realize what they've done. Both welcome death with open arms, because living is no longer a safe alternative.

Both of them die, crying and shattered, but their pain, intense as it may be, is real. They're real, absolutely real, and not mindless dolls.

Death is a better option than, for all intents and purposes, being alive but never living again.

3) Eternal Determination

A lot of people consider this the most positive ending.

I feel that positive is too strong of a word to use for this. The creator goes out of their way to make you realize that this is not a happy ending. Senia, turned away from a literal and symbiolic cross, facing presumably towards her salvation, her priest in a tower, determined to (in essence) throw her life away for Ending 1 or Ending 2...

This is the top of the slippery slope, and the player knows that she will not receive her happy ending.

But let's study what happens before that. Senia sits there and lets Magaleta absorb her curse into herself.

That's one hell of a burden to live with; but, Senia doesn't kill herself, like she almost certainly does in Ending 2. Because she's seen the light, she's seen the hope, and even though the player knows that it's all false, she doesn't. Because Magaleta can't leave the tower.

...And nothing Senia can do will change the fact that the Eternity has to go somewhere. Senia absorbs Eternity every time she attacks a being with it; there's no way that she can save Magaleta without absorbing some of it herself, and either forcing Magaleta to absorb it back, absorbing it herself (ending 2) or directly failing to even defeat Magaleta (death) or the Cross Pendant reaching its limit, breaking, and forcing ending 1.

There's no happy ending for anyone, except for Magaleta, of course. Because she's accomplished everything she set out to do, almost; she didn't keep her promise of returning to the church, but she's lifted Senia's curse...right?

Nope. Silly Magaleta, thinking that Senia would be okay with never seeing her again. Senia will eventually force one of the previous endings, if she doesn't wind up dying, and, well...

Ending 3 ultimately is nothing but a stall for something worse...it is the false hope, though heartbreaking in its own way. That door we see in the second to last CG of that particular route, however, is literal and symbolic. There's no way they will ever reunite properly without death or worse claiming one or both of them.

//

This game is horrifically heartbreaking and nihilistic, but so utterly gorgeous in its presentation. Thank you, Holy Priest, for allowing us to play it.

[Gorloj]

I agree with you except there is always hope. It is fantasy world, there's not such thing as 'impossible'

[lego brick on floor]

Originally posted by Gorloj:

I agree with you except there is always hope. It is fantasy world, there's not such thing as 'impossible'

Well, given what we currently know of the plot, there's no realistic way for a happy ending out of 3. Further plot changes or devices could create a 4th ending, but Magaleta herself realized that there wasn't anything she could do (besides, well, sacrificing HERSELF).

[molk]

I think it's a kind of good end

[lego brick on floor]

Originally posted by csuizeal5867:

I think it's a kind of good end

Why, though?

[MuscleLover69]

So, Senia is all like, "I'm not Nia." and ♥♥♥♥ so she kills her sister out of her being super mads and stuffs. I'm pretty sure Senia can't even die from stabbing herself. She's op as hell what do you expect? Fun fact:If you use that like eternal bomb the R ability, if you go in equipment it changes the sprite. Also if you can somehow break the game to let you move while using R (ive done it before but dont remember) you move super fast

[lego brick on floor]

Originally posted by CryingSenia:

So, Senia is all like, "I'm not Nia." and ♥♥♥♥ so she kills her sister out of her being super mads and stuffs. I'm pretty sure Senia can't even die from stabbing herself. She's op as hell what do you expect? Fun fact:If you use that like eternal bomb the R ability, if you go in equipment it changes the sprite. Also if you can somehow break the game to let you move while using R (ive done it before but dont remember) you move super fast

What? Senia doesn't kill her sister because she's mad. She's being influenced by Eternity.

[Robb216]

Well, idk about you guys, but I'm going back to games with happier endings. Like Dark Souls or something.

[Minato-sama]

An interesting interpretation, and I like the idea of how ending 3 would just turn into a loop or just finally brick walling at one of the other endings. Of course, there isn't any reason to believe the events of the tower have to loop.

There very well could exist some outside force we and the character in the game aren't aware of that Senia could use to save Magaleta, especially considering Senia does have prior knowledge of what she experienced already going through the tower.

We also have to consider that Senia's curse acting up when it did was a large factor in why there was no chance at a good ending. As you mentioned though, Magaleta took the curse upon herself. With that Senia could very well successfully bring Magaleta to the Fairy Queen without interruption and figure out a way to lift the curse and Eternity from both of them.

[lego brick on floor]

Originally posted by Minato-sama:

An interesting interpretation, and I like the idea of how ending 3 would just turn into a loop or just finally brick walling at one of the other endings. Of course, there isn't any reason to believe the events of the tower have to loop.

There very well could exist some outside force we and the character in the game aren't aware of that Senia could use to save Magaleta, especially considering Senia does have prior knowledge of what she experienced already going through the tower.

We also have to consider that Senia's curse acting up when it did was a large factor in why there was no chance at a good ending. As you mentioned though, Magaleta took the curse upon herself. With that Senia could very well successfully bring Magaleta to the Fairy Queen without interruption and figure out a way to lift the curse and Eternity from both of them.

That's one of my problems with Eternal Senia; I have no idea what the curse actually is. Ending 2 implies that it's some form of Eternity, but there's so little detail in regards to it that I'm not sure what is and isn't possible.

Dunno if the Fairy Queen actually has the power to do that, since she was clearly portrayed as being overcome by Eternity. If she can't protect herself, I seriously question her ability to protect others.

[acetwinef]

What? Senia doesn't kill her sister because she's mad. She's being influenced by Eternity. [/quote]

Your half right and half wrong, she is mad, and she is influenced by Eternity and because of Eternity senia's emotions grow out of control and cause her to unwillingly harm and kill sis
another thing about ending 3 is that, there is hope for a happy ending, and we have seen proof of it, you see as the fairy queen tells us, senia has some control over Eternity itself and as we see at the later parts of the game that she even develops enough control over eternity to use it to fight without any negative side effects, so in ending 3 when senia returns to the tower and climbs it again she will develop more and more control of Eternity and might even learn a full set of eternity only based skills and not be effected and she might even gain enough power to control eternity completly giveing her the power to save sis and not be consumed by Eterenity, if her mastery and control of eternity increase during her 2 climb in the tower and while this isnt certain it is supported by enough facts to make it possible and thus there is hope that when senia returns there will be a 4th ending and 1&2 will never pass

[Train27]

Originally posted by Robb216:

Well, idk about you guys, but I'm going back to games with happier endings. Like Dark Souls or something.

Laughed so hard my dogs woke up.

[Train27]

I know it can be seen with so dark eyes... in fact, in ending #3, I thought Magaleta simply died in misery sitting next to the door or something. However, seeing the last actions of Senia before the screen turns black and she is shown in the graveyard, I cannot help but think at which point did she gave up knocking the door and deciding to go back aaaaaall the way down the tower to... do... what?

It apparently seems like she'll be looking for another way of saving Magaleta from Eternity (maybe we'll see the Fairy Queen again?) thus opening an option for a sequel.

At least that's what I thought.

[Cosmic Diamond]

there is a sequel game guys!
it continues off of ending 3
it goes by the name of eternal senia: hydrangea after the rain
http://senia.ftp.cc/

[big chungus]

Originally posted by Datame:

there is a sequel game guys!
it continues off of ending 3
it goes by the name of eternal senia: hydrangea after the rain
http://senia.ftp.cc/

I know that i'm 2 months late but, this is unexpected.

[LockedDown]

Originally posted by Bloodsteel:

Originally posted by Datame:

there is a sequel game guys!
it continues off of ending 3
it goes by the name of eternal senia: hydrangea after the rain
http://senia.ftp.cc/

I know that i'm 2 months late but, this is unexpected.

I agree with Bloodsteel on this one. It really is unexpected.