A little detail regarding cutscenes

[PinkButterflyGaming]

This was a detail I noticed for quite a while, was thinking about drawing it, but I guess I’ll make a seperate post instead~

We all know AO has cutscenes, and most are MC interacting with another character.

In these cutscenes, there’s usually a specific perspective, where MC is closer to the camera, their back facing us and they are facing another character.

This is done for two reasons:

1. To show that this is from the perpsective of the MC, the player.
2. It also gives us a full frontal view of the character we’re being introduced to, interacting or confronting.

What’s interesting is that there is a character in which their cutscenes breaks this rule. Morden.

When having a one on one with Morden, the camera perspective is entirely different from any other cutscenes with another character (there is another, but I’ll get into that in a bit)

Our first meeting with Morden:

Our second meeting with Morden:

The other ones I showed gave one character more importance over the other, perspective-wise. That isnt the case with Morden and the MC, in which BOTH are given equal focus.

The only other character that has this camera perspective when in a cutscene is with Beringer.

…Yet it doesnt last long.

The camera slowly pans to Beringer during the whole thing. When Morden and MC interacts and them only, it stays on that perspective the entire time. We’re almost treated like the outsider instead of the other cutscenes where we’re placed in the same perspective as the MC

I feel like this might be significant considering MC and Morden’s past relationship to each other. Tech has also recently confirmed that these two are meant to be foils, which is nice confirmation on something I had suspicions on for a while now.

I feel like later on, we’ll have more cutscenes like this with Morden during important segments, its also possible this perspective will also be taken with other characters that MC happens to have history with before their amnesia.

Just an interesting detail I’d like to take a note of~

[MrYes]

…Or maybe vetex just decided to use a different camera angle that time

[Ultimateblaze75]

The camera does face Morden when he is with other people, and when he is fighting Julian

[PinkButterflyGaming]

Im talking about MC and Morden’s interaction specifically. When its only the two of them. Thats why I said “one on one”

[PinkButterflyGaming]

…You must be fun at parties.

[WarmWater]

I’m guessing the reason why is that in most of these the point of the cutscene is to add more to the character, as in every single one of these you learn more about the character, while in the Morden scenes, you don’t actually learn much about him. Unlike every other cutscene, where you get to know about who you’re talking to, Morden’s cutscenes act as a way to learn about the plot. In these cases, you and Morden are on equal terms in terms of importance and knowledge.

[Virge13579]

It’s probably not that deep, but it could serve as a slight cue to how the MC usually acts prior to his amnesia (a feeling of familiarity or how they originally were) while camera angles hiding their face is the current them.

But, in any case, I don’t think Vetex has a pattern of story telling (if you get what I mean), such as those of Toby Fox, so it’s merely a shot in the dark at this point.

[PinkButterflyGaming]

@Virge13579

it could serve as a slight cue to how the MC usually acts prior to his amnesia (a feeling of familiarity or how they originally were) while camera angles hiding their face is the current them.

Thats what I was thinking when noticing this. Like what WarmWater said above, with the other characters, the normal camera perspective is also done to introduce the new character, while it isnt the case with Morden, which actually gives me the impression that there’s some familiarity between the two even though MC has amnesia.

We’re not given an introduction, more like a conversation between two characters that already knew each other.

Maybe I could be reaching, but it is an interesting thing to note since this seems specific to Morden so far out of the many cutscenes we have. Vetex and Tech likes to add extra details to things, so eh. We’ll see.

[Sheep_Enjoyer]

We’re gonna be able to play as Morden for a story section!!!

Seriously though, that’d be fire.

[Virge13579]

@Sheep_Enjoyer

We’re gonna be able to play as Morden for a story section!!!

Objective: Save your friend, again.

[PinkButterflyGaming]

I still wish we actually did through the 1 month timeskip tbh. It seems like Vetex and Tech left a gap there on purpose so that there’s room to go into Morden’s perspective. I think that’s Vetex’s plan for his book/s once he gets to writing those.

Look at the dates in Morden’s journal. He arrives at Ravenna 2 days later right when we wake up in the mines, and he spends a few days looking for us and meets Iris and Neviro afterwards. Looking at it, this seems to happen right after MC finds out about the important info in the mines.

This was absolutely done with the intent of going into Morden’s perspective after our capture. Such a shame it doesnt happen in-game tho

[wmdrayal]

erm akcutally its to foreshadow morden getting the death curse cause beringer is dead!!

anyway yeah ig this would mean that Morden would become pretty important later on
( unsurprisingly since death curse user and also has knowledge of the Order like we do )

[PinkButterflyGaming]

I always saw him as the deuteragonist tbh, or at least, the closest to that role. Idk why people always insisted another character like Iris, I guess she is what leads MC into this conflict, but I always saw Morden being the more important character in the long run due to his relation to the MC and also seemingly being set up as a foil I guess

[A_friendly_Bear]

they are just too cool for that camera angle

[beefybuffoon]

not that deep

[Skenana]

@PinkButterflyGaming

In these cutscenes, there’s usually a specific perspective, where MC is closer to the camera,

Well, until…

[TheFollest]

Okay so this is gonna be the lamest possible answer as to why these scenes are like this.

For our first interaction with Morden its also an introduction to our own character. When our character first wakes up we know just as little about them as we know about Morden so we’re treated to a sorta middle ground perspective that shows both characters we’ve never seen before. Through Morden’s dialogue as well as the mc’s dialogue choices we learn about both character’s paths, why they’re here, and our own character’s amnesia, this scene is for the mc just as much as it is for Morden.

The second one is much less narrative heavy. Our character is kinda stuffed between the bar and a table so they typical camera angle thats about parallel to where our character stands probably doesn’t work very well with where the characters are positioned.

[AnUnoriginalUsername]

@PinkButterflyGaming

foils

I looked it up and can’t find what this word meana

[MrYes]

[Retribution]

@PinkButterflyGaming

Tech has also recently confirmed that these two are meant to be foils

I wonder if this is why killing Elius or sparing him is so early on, and so pivotal to the character.
If it might specifically change how Morden acts, so that he remains a foil to the character - a rather personalized one, too.
This also means that we indirectly prevent him from going on a murder spree by killing Elius