"All that pain, that misery, that loneliness, and it just made him kind." - Amy Pond, Doctor Who, season 5, episode 2, "The Beast Below" written by Steven Moffat

Pain sits on a chest too frail to lift it, its mouth split by teeth. it digs curved claws into sinew and bone and untwists nerves where they lie blank in its hands. Misery, hollow cheeked and hollowed bare, keeps its stomach concave, starving for company. A rattle in your lungs. Weeping sores on your skin.

What are you thinking? What are you feeling?

It hurts.

What are you thinking? What are you learning?

Make for me a map of the starving thing shredding your muscles. Hold open the puncture wounds, and pull out the claws.

Or else leave them in and let them fester. Watch your skin go blue and yellow, watch the flesh swell where they lay buried somewhere deep inside of you. Feel your tongue grow heavy and drop down your esophagus. Won't you lift your head?

Pain pulls from your head every thought before it's formed. Pain threads a needle from the spool of your words and stitches closed your lips. Tiny, and neat, a surgeon's touch. Pain takes your hands and holds them, fast and steady. Let me teach you, it says, and presses its splintering bones into the skin of your back.

What are you feeling? What are you learning?

It hurts.

-oh, my darling. pain doesn't have anything to teach. it just hurts.

What does it take to use the life we already have in order to make us wiser rather than more stuck? What is the source of wisdom at a personal, individual level? To the degree that I've understood the teachings, the answer to these questions seems to have to do with bringing everything that we encounter to the path. Everything naturally has a ground, path and fruition. This is like saying that everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. But it is also said that the path itself is both the ground and the fruition. So, one sometimes reads, the path is the goal. This path has one very distinct characteristic, it is not prefabricated, it doesn't already exist. The path that we're talking about is the moment by moment evolution of our experience. The moment by moment evolution of the world of phenomena. The moment by moment evolution of our thoughts and our emotions. The path is not Route 66 destination Los Angeles. It's not as if we can take out a map and figure out that this year we might make it to Gallup, New Mexico and maybe by 2001 we'll be in LA. The path is uncharted. It comes into existence moment by moment and at the same time drops away behind us. It's like riding in a train sitting backwards. We can't see where we're headed, only where we've been. This is a very encouraging teaching because it says the source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. The source of wisdom is whatever is happening to us right at this very instant. We're always in some kind of mood. It might be sadness, it might be anger, it might be not much of anything, just a kind of blur. It might be humor or contentment. In any case, whatever it is, that's the path. When something hurts in life, we don't usually think of it as our path or as the source of wisdom. In fact we think that the reason we're on the path is to get rid of this painful feeling. When I get to LA I won't feel this way anymore. At that level of wanting to get rid of our feeling, we naively cultivate a subtle aggression against ourselves. However the fact is that anyone who has used the moments and days and years of his or her life to become wiser, kinder, and more at home in the world has learned from what has happened right now. We can aspire to be kind right in the moment, to relax and open our heart and mind to what is in front of us right in the moment. Now is the time. If there is any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now. Not at some future time. Now is the time. Now is the only time.

— Pema Chödrön

What’s up with Luigi and the Chaos Heart?

So, on the topic of Super Dimentio and all...

Does anyone else wonder what made Luigi, of all people, a “perfect host” for the Chaos Heart?

How can such a mild-mannered fella be a great container for this eldritch thing of chaos and destruction?

It’s even more intriguing when you consider the themes of the game, with its focus on order and chaos, light and darkness, and the power of both love and hatred. There’s certainly this pseudo-Ying-Yang theme going on (look at the creation of Flip and Flopside as an example. Merlon and Nolrem mention how one side needed the other to create a “balanced” dimension).

A mural of Flipside and Flopside from one of the Trial Pits.

I suppose Luigi goes with this theme with his infamous “dark side”, Mr. L. He seems to be the complete opposite of the Luigi’s shy, awkward, and friendly behavior: he’s confident (to the point of narcissism), prides himself in being stylish (though it can be argued he still is a bit of a dork), and as rude as guy like Luigi can be (“Mr. Stomps-A-Lot!”).

It’s also funny how he becomes an amazing mechanic out of nowhere (as I am unsure if such abilities were ever attributed to him before); perhaps it represents a latent side of ingenuity the green brother never had the chance to show before—or a potential for craft that he never could realize without more self-confidence.

Perhaps this “hidden darkness” made him a perfect host. However, if darkness was an important chatacteristic, a guy like Bowser could’ve been a good pick. More likely, this nature of having a conflicting “double self” made him a good container, because the heart is an incarnation of chaos after all. And what is chaos but the struggle BETWEEN evil and good?

If the themes of SPM focus on the balance of light and darkness, perhaps the Chaos Heart represents an imbalance between the two...perhaps even an inward one, as it also is a heart...a “spiritual heart” is something that is envisioned the seat of one’s emotions, identity, or soul. Having a struggle within one’s heart is chaotic and painful, bringing about behavior and consequences that make it evident in a person’s life.

The Chaos Heart in all its dark glory.

Count Bleck is a good example of representing this struggle, especially in relation to his dichotomy of identity: the light of Blumiere and the darkness of Count Bleck. It is evident throughout the story that he struggles with both aspects of his identity- although he states that “Blumiere is dead” and assumes a facade of the Card-Carrying Villain, he still shows evidence of morality as shown in his guilt, compassion, and even affability that defines his former self. What more, he struggles with simultaneous feelings of hatred for the world that fights with his kinder nature: he wants all worlds to end, yet can’t help showing a benevolent towards his minions.

This inner conflict is perhaps why the count made a good incarnation it the Heart for a time, as this painful struggle was a perfect place for chaos to subsist. It is intriguing how by the time Heart is removed forcibly by Mario and Co., he had already made a spiritual decision of removal: he was fully committed to die and bring his destructive plans to an end, finding peace in knowing Timpani was alive. This is a complete change in character, in that for so long he feared never being able to see her again.

Although not stated, one could also infer that he also assumed that he would likely not see her in the afterlife, as he would have to face judgement for his deeds as the champion of destruction. In simply being happy that she'd live a long life, even one without him, even one where she perhaps finds new love and a life wholly devoid of him...yes, one certainly can say he changed greatly from the beginning to the end. He completely let go of that chaos within himself that he held onto for so long...and in this way, the facade of Count Bleck finally melted away to reveal the seemingly-dead Blumiere that was there all along; older, more tired, and less innocent, but wiser and finally at peace.

Nastasia is pretty much my face throughout this entire scene.

Whoops, there I go talking about Bleck (guess who’s my favorite character?). So...what does all of this have to do with Luigi?

Thinking back on all of this, I have to wonder if the "conflict" thing would explain his strange role. I could infer that Luigi had deep feelings of insecurity and resentment for being "second banana". These feelings fighting with his friendly and kind nature woul indeed cause emotional turmoil. Yet, again, I could INFER that. Nowhere in the game does Nintendo decide to portray Luigi with such a psychology. If his script is any indicator, he is still a lovable goofball as Mr. L (and not some angst-ridden anti-hero). He doesn't even have any memories of his darker side, which would’ve been a perfect way to have scenes of him recognizing and coping with it.

So all I can do with him is guess; I mean, I have been inferring with the Count as well, but there’s enough in the script to leave hints for interpetation. With the Green Thunder, it’s more ambiguous. As much is think having Luigi having some great struggle with his dark side would be wonderfully dramatic, I can’t say for sure if that’s what the creators of the game were going for thematically. (Though for all I know, they made Luigi the Heart’s host just because they thought it sounded cool).

This pretty much sums up the limit of Luigi’s identity crisis within the game.

With that said, I like to think there’s this subtext there. It’d certainly explain the Chaos Heart thing!

But hey, I’d love to hear what you guys think. Any other theories?