Thread by @soreildianna

a thread on the narrative relevance of the realm in fragment/the revenant’s dream (will contain spoilers ahead) #fatamoru

both jacopo in door 3 and morgana through the whg in door 4 during their moments of weakness (as they are perceived to be dying) ask giselle and michel to stay with them by their side and to hold their hands, reflecting their inner wishes

this desire of wanting to hold each other’s hand is something that is present throughout all their lives, first being shown in the base game’s third door: the figures dancing hand in hand, in their own world, being a representation of what jacopo and morgana wanted for themselves

going far back to their original lives jacopo and morgana, underneath it all, even then wanted to take the other’s hand and to simply be with them - two mutual desires that were never brought to the each other’s attention

these desires were so strong that they manifested centuries later into their reconstructed selves (jacopo in his door 3 self & morgana through the whg) but they failed to take root due to lack of communication, repeating the same constant mistake they made in their original lives

this brings us to one of the aspects as to why fragment/trd is important, because the realm in which they take place in is one where both jacopo and morgana’s suppressed desires are not only laid out in the open but also followed through in the end of the dream & in reincarnation

it’s a realm for the pair who wanted to indulge in a fantasy role because of their feelings but jacopo couldn’t bring himself to go along with his fantasy because of his sins, which then leads to morgana in trd going along with her’s to alleviate some of his soul’s suffering

a realm that starts off as a manifestation from jacopo’s want to atone for his sins (in an attempt to destroy his soul) eventually morphs into a world in which both characters can finally after centuries be honest with not only themselves but also at last with each other

this is vital because in both lifetimes jacopo and morgana’s wish to have the other by their side was never communicated across due to jacopo falling from grace and losing the right to be by morgana’s side (and later the whg’s side as she runs away) because of his actions

in both lifetimes jacopo and morgana’s second desire to take each other’s hand was also never communicated either: morgana felt that she couldn’t take jacopo’s hand because of her horrid scars and jacopo in turn couldn’t take morgana’s because of his sins

yet by the end of fragment jacopo offers his hand to morgana & as we see in trd it’s morgana that allows him to take her hand in his, leading both their souls back to the sphere of fate to reincarnate once more and finally be at each other’s side as they find their home together

the realm is one that not only completes both characters’ centuries old wishes but also one that allows them to acknowledge their mistakes & start to deal with them - shown poignantly through morgana saying jacopo’s name for the first time ever after he begs her not to forget him

the issue of ‘forgetting’ is one that has plagued jacopo and morgana’s relationship throughout each lifetime and was what caused the entire misunderstanding of the first game to happen

both jacopo and morgana suppress their memories as a means to cope with their intense trauma, forgetting their pasts and forcing themselves into a shell - the key difference is that while jacopo chooses to forget the bad memories, morgana instead chooses to forget the good ones

jacopo told morgana once that being close to each other makes them alike and the way in which both characters deal with trauma, although is similar, has different results and jacopo’s advice for morgana to forget the bad memories of the lord ironically becomes their downfall too

in doing so morgana makes the mistake of forgetting everything about jacopo: the person who once taught her kindness, the man she once loved, confusing him for the previous lord and while she doesn’t excuse jacopo’s own sins she realises she added the weight of barnier’s sins too

the realm and jacopo’s honest and open actions/words help morgana come to terms with the gravity of her mistakes & for her to start to rectify them - what is a self made manifestation of jacopo’s regret from his sins also becomes a vision in which morgana too can self reflect

trd showcases this growth of morgana’s: she went from someone who blindly scorned and hated the 3 men to taking a step back, assessing the situation and realising that she shares some accountability, that’s it not as one sided as she originally thought in her anger and heartbreak

jacopo’s impact on morgana runs so deep that she projected her feelings for him on to mell, which then also manifested through his relationship with michelle in door 1: the whg again being a representation of what morgana wanted most, of what her suppressed desires were

“i want to be the prince who whisks you away, i want to be like the prince who rescued the girl from the dark mansion and 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅” - (mell in door 1 to the whg)

it’s the profound impact jacopo had on her life, alongside the open communication with him which the realm provides, that allows morgana to have this growth and shift in mindset, one she actually never had in her original life as a saint, nor in the time she spent as the witch

jacopo is someone who starts off with no self worth living instead for those around him (masking it as an act of selfishness through his want to climb up the ladder) but later on he ends up conceited when he becomes lord - losing his former identity as a kindhearted man

and in the complete opposite regard morgana instead starts off as conceited because she is god’s daughter (masking it as an act of selflessness through her role as a saint) but later on she ends up having an identity crisis - resulting in no self worth

they’re similarly trapped by their duties in each life: jacopo is a protector of his loved ones, the lord of the land, a mafioso in line to be the boss and morgana is god’s daughter, the witch, a wife limited by societal and physical constraints but in this realm they are freed

the realm acting as a means for everything to be laid bare is where they can finally view the other to their core, devoid of any self imposed roles and devoid of any reluctance to speak their mind: things that prevented them from finding the happiness that they wanted together

new desires manifest yet again (jacopo’s wish to see morgana & morgana wanting him to treat her right in their next life) but they’re now equipped for the inevitable tragedy that comes their way as the time they spent in the realm gave them the experience to finally communicate

jacopo and morgana’s modern reincarnations now realise the importance of the realm and the significant fact that they wouldn’t be able to exist in their current life had they not spent time in it, thereby saving each other’s souls

morgana wouldn’t have been reborn as a human, having exhausted her capabilities in maintaining the cursed mansion, if not for jacopo’s heartfelt desire to see her again and so he ends up wishing her into existence, allowing her to be born in the current world

in enabling morgana to be reborn into the current world and by showing her their home, jacopo also inadvertently manages to fulfil an unspoken desire of his wife michelle/the whg - the weight of his transgression against her in door 3 laying heavily upon his soul as shown in trd

jacopo too wouldn’t have been reborn had morgana not seen that he was set to destroy his soul permanently from regret, crushing himself under the weight of his sins repeatedly, and so she leads him out of his eternal self punishment, allowing him to be born in the current world

morgana decides to save jacopo’s soul after she finds out why her own soul is lingering, it’s her connection to him in the realm that allows her to witness him in his true form, understanding and separating him from the irrefutable “irredeemable monster” she once claimed he was

the realm further changed both characters’ mindsets in their new lives, notably morgana’s who gains the self worth she lost and is now grateful she was born into the world, showing it by finally thanking maria & jacopo who she never got the chance to thank in her original life

the realm also gives jacopo the opportunity to be reborn and to finally, truly, make amends, one he lost after the tragic epiphany on his deathbed becomes undone as morgana’s curse had sealed his fate, dooming him to repeat the same mistakes he learnt from against maria & morgana

the second chance allows jacopo to save the girl inside morgana that he wounded centuries ago, the same girl he had brought out in her after breaking away at her saint exterior day by day with his kindness, treating her like any normal girl, which was what she desired deep down

this ends satisfyingly with the pair openly thanking each other for fulfilling their deepest wishes: which would not have been possible had jacopo not crafted the realm from his regrets and had morgana’s soul that is inextricably bound to his not found her way there to lead them

fragment/trd depicts a realm where two souls find a place to let the desires they suppressed finally come forth, after centuries worth of pain & miscommunication it became a place in which they can spill their heart to one another, face the regrets they share, and ultimately rest

and so because of the realm, jacopo and morgana are finally able to move on forward (together and individually) being reborn in a world where they can have another chance at the happiness and normalcy that were fleeting in both their previous lives