Van Grants
Vandesdelca Musto Fende is no other than the brother of Mystearica Aura Fende. Though at first you would probably not guess it, Van is Tear’s older brother. Of course that makes perfect sense when the whole reason Luke and Tear get transported far away from the Fabre manor is because she was trying to kill Van, right? Well, Van lived in the Qliphoth with Tear for quite some time, but she overheard his plans to create a new world by destroying all the current living things. As he was on the Outer Lands, Tear left Yulia City in search of her brother in order to kill him before he has a chance to carry out his plans.
Tear does not know exactly what Van is planning at the beginning of the game, but she simply does not trust him. Van insists that he is doing nothing when they are reunited and simply wants to talk rather than fight. Even after his “reassurance”, Tear is not convinced and still does not trust Van. While in the Akzeriuth mines, Tear is called away saying that they found the Seventh Fonstone. It is soon revealed to be a decoy, and then Tear realizes that Van is planning on doing something dangerous. She knew it was him that set up the lie about the Fonstone, as he wanted to protect her from whatever he was about to do. Once Tear finds out what Van’s real intentions are, the two siblings are forced apart as enemies.
Regardless of their enemy status, Van still does not want to harm his younger sister. Tear even comments once on how Van taught her how to cook, just incase they got separated on the battlefield in previous times. Legretta tries to get Tear to come back to Van with her, as she says he is worried about her and other such things, but she refuses. She knows that no matter what happens, she cannot agree with Van’s twisted plans to reform the world. Similar to Legretta, Van cannot avoid fighting her forever, as she insists on standing in the way of his plans. Though Van claims he wants to protect her, Tear only retorts back by asking if he was going to kill her and make a replica of her. Van cannot save both his younger sister and create a new world of replicas free from the Score…so ultimately he chooses his plans for reforming the world. Even so, Van does not care about virtually anything except himself and his plans for a new world. The only exception to that would be his sister. Tear is the only one he shows a little compassion for. Unfortunately, his obsession with being free from the Score drags his future away from hers, and he cannot be her older brother in anything but theory.
On the other side of things, Tear is uneasy about the situation with Van. He is obviously her enemy because she cannot agree with him and wants to stop his plans, but at the same time he is her older brother. Tear tries to reason with him numerous times, and even goes off by herself one final time to try and convince him to stop. I am sure Tear has a lot of inner conflict about the situation. She loves her brother, but she cannot sit back and let him carry out his plans either. Ultimately, she is forced to make the decision to help the others kill him. Ironically enough, she seemed pretty determined at the beginning of the game to kill him without a second thought, but when she thinks Van died at the Absorption Gate, she seems incredibly hurt by it. Not that it is not to be expected since he is her brother, but it probably made her feel bad about racing in to kill him like that at the manor. At the final battle, Tear seems to be firm in her resolve to defeat him. She knows what she must do, and that it is probably best for her and Van to kill him. However, Van did end up helping her understand the true meaning behind Yulia’s hymns, much to Van’s surprise.
VAN: …The fonic hymns. Their melody will indeed awaken Lorelei.
VAN: But you don’t know the true wish contained in those hymns. They won’t work on me.
TEAR: No, brother…I do know. I can feel the thoughts and emotions Yulia placed in these hymns.
VAN: If that’s true, Mystearica, then sing. Now, for me!
Tear realizes that Van had told her everything from the very beginning, as he sang the seventh hymn to her when she cried. He knew the true meaning behind the words to the hymn. He always has known them. As Van dies, Tear thanks him for helping her from the very beginning.
Van also understands how it must be between them by the final battle. Fate has them as enemies, and there is nothing either of them can do to change that. Tear addressing him as “brother” and Van addressing her as “Mystearica” touches on their true relationship underneath the pressure of reality, showing that they are still important to one another in a family regard. Both of them know what is right in their own hearts, and have accepted that what is right is not the same to them is not to the other.
b a c k . c l e a r . f o r w a r d Hymnaria and its contents are © Samantha, however Tear and Tales of the Abyss are © NAMCO. Stealing is absolutely not permitted, and your site will be shut down if caught. Hymnaria is a part of TETHEALLA.NET.