Persona
I will argue that Tear is one of the more static characters in Tales of the Abyss, but that is not to say she does not grow at all. Regardless, Tear generally is the same personality wise at the end of the game as she is in the beginning.Tear is probably most well known as being a “good soldier”. But hey, who can blame her? She was trained to be an Oracle Knight, and therefore, as a solider, she does not display her emotions. Tear holds all kinds of emotions inside, giving her the outer appearance of being cold, strict and even a bit mysterious. Luke tends to emphasize those traits a good amount in the beginning of the game, to which she does not really respond. Luke also points out how Tear can watch a bomb go off right in front of her face and appear completely unaffected by it. He deems her as being almost inhuman by all of her mask qualities, though he does not really understand that they are only mask qualities and she does have emotions underneath them. Tear’s soldier front also gives her an air of fearlessness. As she seems to be unaffected by most things, fear is not something that shows on her face (proven by what Luke points out with the bomb going off). That does not mean she enjoys it though, as Tear gets somewhat angry about when Luke accuses her. She does not like killing people, but she understands that she has to do so to live. It is either kill or be killed in her world, so she has to be the way she is. Tear has a great understanding of her surroundings, making her pretty intelligent as well. Tear also puts a great amount of responsibility on her shoulders, as she thinks it is her duty as an Oracle Knight. She makes comments such as “this is my failure” or other such things when the situation seems bad because she takes responsibility for her actions. Tear may take too much responsibility sometimes, as she cannot be at fault for every thing that goes wrong in battle. When Luke and Tear are transported far away from the Fabre manor because of their hyperresonance, Tear takes full responsibility for the situation, as she was “careless”. She definitely does not fit the common human theme in most literature that “man blames everyone but himself”. Occasionally she will blame Luke for things, but that is to teach him a lesson that he cannot simply run away from his responsibilities.
Tear is also a very mature woman. She is calm and collected, and does not flip out in any sense (emotional or otherwise) during any kind of situation. She is very much like a mother figure to the party. Obviously Tear is the main healer, so she has to watch out for the others in combat, but she does it with care. She rushes to heal others before healing herself. Generally though, Tear takes care of the group. She uses her wisdom and experience to help them individually at least once, and they all know they would not be able to get as far without her healing and caring. Tear specifically looks out for Luke like she promises, guiding him and preparing him for what lies ahead. He does not realize it for a good portion of time, but he eventually comes to be thankful for having Tear around to help him. Tear comes to care about everyone in the group a large amount, and does her best to keep them well. Though Natalia is generally better known as the character that wants to help people, I would argue that Tear does to almost the same extent as well. She just does not display her emotions as much, and therefore seems less “into it”. Tear sacrifices her health and almost her life in order to lower the Outer Lands into the Qliphoth to save the people. She knew she was being poisoned by the miasma, but she continued to activate the Sephiroth anyway. Tear refuses to let her own pain and sorrow get in the way of others or her helping other people. Tear is a very kind person underneath her emotionless exterior, and that side of her comes out more and more as the game progresses.
Of course there is also Tear’s little secret. Okay, maybe it is not really “little” as it would be extremely surprising to the people she knows. Tear has a weakness for cute things. Totally unexpected, right? She thinks that Mieu, Tokunaga and other such things are very cute, which you find out when she secretly thinks to herself throughout the game. Though she makes some comments like naming a monster “Fluffy” when Luke asks what it is called, and not minding being with Tokunaga, Anise is really the only one that knows about her liking of cute things. She stumbles upon Tear talking to herself about how something is very cute, and Anise promises not to tell as long as Tear buys her some food. Tear agrees, so it is obvious that she wants to keep this part of her as a secret, most likely because it would ruin her strong soldier front. When it is suggested to use Tokunaga to keep Tear warm at Mt. Roneal, Luke comments that Tear would not like that and starts thinking of other things. Tear is slightly embarrassed and mumbles quietly that she would not mind “cuddling” with Tokunaga. Overall, her liking of cute things makes her seem more human to the person playing the game, as in the beginning of the game, it is really the only emotion you see out of her (referring to Mieu). It reminds us that Tear is really just a girl who is forced to put up a front because she is an Oracle Knight and puts the responsibility of the group’s well being on her shoulders. So even though Tear appears to be strict commanding general-like, she is a woman full of normal human emotions on the inside.
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