Valid question, Zelos. Valid question.
Zelos is so madly in love with Lloyd that he can’t even stand being away from him for long. Oh you, Zelos…
Little known fact: If you kill Zelos, but he had the highest affection for Lloyd, he will STILL APPEAR HERE after he is dead if you return to the Temple of Shadow. It is utterly heartbreaking AND horrible and disturbing all in one. THANKS A LOT, GAME GLITCH.
WAIT WHAT
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT
PLEASE EXPLAIN
It’s a game glitch. I guess the programmers didn’t count on the possibility of the player coming back to the Temple of Shadow after the part where Zelos betrays you, so they didn’t think to re-evaluate the relationship rankings to accommodate for the possibility that you could simultaneously have Zelos as a soul mate, AND kill him. It’s an oversight. It’s the kind of thing that’s hard to catch without beta testing. I haven’t done this myself, but I found a video on YouTube of someone showing off this glitch.
But yes, this exact scene will apparently still happen whether Zelos is dead or alive, as long as he had the highest affection for Lloyd.
I understand from a technical standpoint EXACTLY why this happens. Game design is my major, after all, and I have to study this shit. But from an emotional standpoint, it feels like Zelos is reaching out to Lloyd from beyond the grave, still looking out for him because he wants him to stay safe.
I don’t think many people would be cruel enough to make Zelos into Lloyd’s soul mate and then still kill him, though. Because that pretty much turns Lloyd into a massive jerk- after Zelos opens his heart to him, he still can’t find it within himself to trust him??? I mean, if you think about it, doing this means killing Zelos in a Symphonia timeline where Zelos LOVED Lloyd.
No wonder there are doujinshi that have Lloyd crying at his grave. This pairing has the potential to get really fucked up. It doesn’t matter if Zelos is the first to knock on Lloyd’s door in Flanoir- all you have to do is refuse him and go talk to Kratos, after everything they’ve been through.
I FEEL LIKE THAT SHOULDN’T EVEN BE AN OPTION IF YOU MAX OUT ZELOS, DAMMIT. It’s not like the game doesn’t already make special exceptions for Zelos over all the other characters besides Colette. He holds a sway over Lloyd that only Kratos and Colette can match, in terms of special privileges he gets in the story line. And I really like that such scenes are mutually exclusive of each other. So while both Zelos and Colette are pretty much even in terms of the weight the story places on their relationship with Lloyd, the losing character never feels like a competitor for Lloyd’s affections, thereby avoiding a love triangle situation!
So if you get Zelos instead of Colette for those scenes, it keeps Colette from still being a major player in the romance side of things, and vice-versa. This is one thing that the OVA is physically incapable of doing, because of its format. Instead, it tries to compromise by showing BOTH scenes. This is cool and all, but it makes it seem like Colette and Zelos are now both vying for Lloyd’s affection, whereas the game eliminates the competition based on who you win over.
SORRY FOR THAT POINTLESSLY LONG REPLY. You asked a simple question, and I launch into another essay about my feels.
