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Princess Evangile: A Case For Mateship


Nimbus

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Last night I finished my play-through of Princess Evangile and having completed it, I feel I can finally talk about something that has been on my mind since starting.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it; Princess Evangile is about a boy called Masaya who, through a series of unfortunate events finds himself attending Vincennces, an all-girls school for upper-class snobs that has been isolated from the lower world (outside family, most of the students have never even seen a boy before). From what I can gather this premise isn’t unheard of in visual novels but none one the less, it was my first time with such a story which is probably why it had such an impact on me.

As the premise suggests, there are no male characters besides the protagonist (excluding student’s fathers and the Goons who aren’t in it too much). This means that Masaya is now without something that I feel is an important aspect of male youth; Mateship.

Mateship can be seen differently by different people but to me, one of the key features of mateship is aggression. When I think about my mates and how we interact with each other it does seem a little peculiar from a social standpoint; we insult each other constantly (I greet my oldest friend by referring to him as “Captain Piss-Wank”), we get into little scuffles and generally seem more aggressive towards each other than we should. But at the same time we are very close, close enough to know that there is no malice behind our actions and that we are watching each other’s backs. When I compare this to the relationships between the Vincennes students I can’t help but feel they are two very different things. There are many phrases that apply to mateship; No man left behind, brothers in arms, fighting is a way of loving, you watch my back I’ll watch yours. I don’t think there were any students who embodied these philosophies.

Even with regards to Rise and Mitsuki.......

Even after they rekindle their relationship they remain rivals, yet there wasn't the kind of friendly hostility that you often see within male rivalries.


Another sign of differing relationships is in Chiho’s route. Masaya says that he saw Chiho differently to all his male friends, though this may be due to either his dormant love for her or the fact that they are childhood friends.

While playing Princess Evangile I came up with a separate scenario; while growing up Masaya had a group of friends who like him had troubled lives thanks to the mob. These boys acted like delinquents but at heart were just trying to enjoy their miserable lives. When Masaya enter Vincennces he regains contact with his mates and through various circumstances they are allowed to meet where the normal student can see them. I often wondered how the girls would react to not only seeing a group of boys, but the bond between these men. To see them insult each other, to slap each other in the back and act like (in the girl’s eyes) enemies. One specific moment of this delusion was during the open athletics festival were Masaya would spar with the strongest delinquent, the girls would look on in horror as Masaya gets his arse handed to him yet when it’s over the boys laugh, complement each other on their strength and walk off as if nothing ever happened. I can imagine the girls being confused by this sudden turn around; one moment they are at each other’s throats and the next they are walking off reminiscing about past spars.

It’s funny when you get down to it, the students refer to themselves as family yet their relationships with each other never really gave off that impression, certainly not the same impression as two friends calling each other “brother”. I can’t imagine the girls of Vincennces getting together and singing like the Dwarves in the first Hobbit movie (and not just because they are upper-class), though I could imagine the boys doing it while the headmistress acts as Bilbo.

 

A question this brings up for me is “Can two women have the same relationship?”
This is one that I can’t answer, and whilst I'm sure men and women can have a similar relationship, these would be an exception, not the rule. This is something of an argument from ignorance because I interact with women so little that they may as well be an alien species (and isn't that just depressing), so for all I know men and women can have the same relationship with no barriers, though based of my observations this is unlikely.

 

At the end of the day, Masaya is deprived of something that is one of they defining factors that make men. Despite how close he gets with the students of Vincennes, it is my considered opinion that he will never experience 

 

What do you guys think of this? Can two women have the same type of relationship as two men? Do you and your mates act more aggressive towards each other, or do you have another way of expressing your friendship?

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i dont know about you, but whenever my male friends and i get into a heated argument, we then have on of the most manliest pillow fights ever. after all the aggression is out we braid each others hairs and discuss which one direction member we like the most. oh the fun times we have. tehehe

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My relationship with my male friends: insult each other with typical middle school insults every 12 seconds and maybe throw in some punches rough physical contact to spice things up. 

What I see my female friends doing with each other: holding hands, hugs, giggles & gossip all day errday 24/7

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My relationship with my male friends: insult each other with typical middle school insults every 12 seconds and maybe throw in some punches rough physical contact to spice things up. 

What I see my female friends doing with each other: holding hands, hugs, giggles & gossip all day errday 24/7

This is the kind of this I was getting at.

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I was under the impression that female friendships were kind of like this:

JP83mJi.jpg

So maybe they'd just be surprised at how honest guys are about how much they hate each other? :P

 

As for the other question, I'll get back to you once I have mates/friends. >.>

 

PS. The word "mateship" just oozes Australia :P

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I was under the impression that female friendships were kind of like this:

JP83mJi.jpg

So maybe they'd just be surprised at how honest guys are about how much they hate each other? :P

 

As for the other question, I'll get back to you once I have mates/friends. >.>

 

PS. The word "mateship" just oozes Australia :P

That's a good point, I certainly am vocal about Captain Piss-Wank's flaws.

 

P.S. You figured me out!

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My relationship with my peers is usually based on them speaking and then me making lewd remarks about it. Basically, everything they say becomes a lewd thing. Also, I usually bombard them with teasing, then when they retaliate, I use their retaliation to pin them down. Otherwise, it's me. That's basically it.

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I'm going to ignore the prompt at the end of your post. Sorry!

 

Just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your post. I thought it was really fun to watch how close friendships affected the characters, too. R and M were great examples, but even inside the core group of friends there is a lot of in-joking, play-fighting and play-mocking (which, okay, I guess goes to show that I think gender doesn't really matter and "mateship" crosses genders). I feel like that's the strongest part of the game's writing so far.

 

That said, I'm still on my first route (Rise), so I haven't explored Chie's story (deciding between those two routes pained me greatly). Your post helped re-spark my excitement to circle back at the end of Rise's route and check out Chie's, too. (How long did the routes last for you after the common route ended?)

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I'm going to ignore the prompt at the end of your post. Sorry!

 

Just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your post. I thought it was really fun to watch how close friendships affected the characters, too. R and M were great examples, but even inside the core group of friends there is a lot of in-joking, play-fighting and play-mocking (which, okay, I guess goes to show that I think gender doesn't really matter and "mateship" crosses genders). I feel like that's the strongest part of the game's writing so far.

 

That said, I'm still on my first route (Rise), so I haven't explored Chie's story (deciding between those two routes pained me greatly). Your post helped re-spark my excitement to circle back at the end of Rise's route and check out Chie's, too. (How long did the routes last for you after the common route ended?)

Glad you enjoyed the post Tay.

 

I do agree that in Princess Evangile there were a lot of elements that made up mateship, so perhaps in my mind men and women go about these elements differently (i.e men and women play-fight differently).

 

If memory serves the game is 26 chapters long, so each route is about 8 chapters long (give or take)

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Glad you enjoyed the post Tay.

 

I do agree that in Princess Evangile there were a lot of elements that made up mateship, so perhaps in my mind men and women go about these elements differently (i.e men and women play-fight differently).

 

If memory serves the game is 26 chapters long, so each route is about 8 chapters long (give or take)

Wow, I'm almost done, then.

 

And thanks, again, for the post. It was a fun read. Glad you shared it with us : )

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I'm going to ignore the prompt at the end of your post. Sorry!

 

Just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your post. I thought it was really fun to watch how close friendships affected the characters, too. R and M were great examples, but even inside the core group of friends there is a lot of in-joking, play-fighting and play-mocking (which, okay, I guess goes to show that I think gender doesn't really matter and "mateship" crosses genders). I feel like that's the strongest part of the game's writing so far.

Thanks, now I finally have something to say to all the people who ask me why i like Princess Evangile so much despite their claims of the plot being boring blah blah blah nothing special yada yada.

The character interactions with all the injoking, playfighting and playmocking is what I'm in the business for :kosame:

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Thanks, now I finally have something to say to all the people who ask me why i like Princess Evangile so much despite their claims of the plot being boring blah blah blah nothing special yada yada.

The character interactions with all the injoking, playfighting and playmocking is what I'm in the business for :kosame:

I agree that the characters where the highlight of Princess Evangile (Panterbell stole the spotlight in ever scene), though this unfortunately did make the small heroine roster all the more damning. 

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I agree that the characters where the highlight of Princess Evangile (Panterbell stole the spotlight in ever scene), though this unfortunately did make the small heroine roster all the more damning.

Not even my admin powers will allow me to 'like' this post twice. Hahahahaha
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