In this scene from Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, Teppo, a “plug-in” for the Cosmosphere, analyzes and scans the soulspace, or the mind, of one of the main characters here, Finnel. After finishing the scan, Teppo reports back with the list of problems and suggested solutions for the main character, Aoto, to take.
The whole situation resembles that of handling a computer. Teppo represents something along the lines of maybe an anti-virus scanner, Finnel represents the computer itself, and Aoto represents the user. The only major difference is that the “computer” is an organic living being modeled after humans, has emotions, and is able to personally react and respond to situations. The Cosmosphere, or the soulspace, is the term the game uses to label Finnel’s mind, or going back to the computer analogy, the Cosmosphere would represent the hidden and protected files that normally, users shouldn’t touch if they want their computer to continue functioning. The Cosmosphere acts as a way for divers, or the users, to go inside the minds of their “computers” and help fix their emotional problems so that they can perform better. In a way, this also applies to the computer analogy as well; someone well-versed in modifying computer data can help boost performance speed and other functions of the computer.
If we had the ability to “dive” into the minds of people, it would be a cooler way of developing romantic relationships. Instead of say, going onto a date to the movies or eating out, one could dive into the mind of the other person and understand each other and resolve each other’s personal problems. At the same time… there would probably be a lot of relationship problems, and I would predict the marriage rate to plummet. I think a lot of people wouldn’t be able to handle the personal problems of their potential spouse, and they would just end up breaking down and breaking up with the person if they find a personal flaw while in their minds. As they go deeper into their minds, they would find a large number of serious problems that they would have to deal with, and if they can’t deal with it, then the relationship gets broken. There may be a personal issue if we allowed anyone to go inside each other’s mind, but if we modeled it after the Cosmosphere concept in this game, the person being dived into gets to reject anyone who they don’t want messing around in their minds. If the couple does survive being able to handle each other’s problems, then I think that would qualify as “true love.”
With the Cosmosphere concept in mind, I think the writers for this game probably wanted for the audience to think about the relationships that they have. Are people really friends with each other if they run away from each other’s problems and don’t help each other in some way with the problems? Are people really in love if they don’t care about each other’s problems? One of the messages, I think, is that to develop a genuine and strong bond, one needs to also genuinely care about other people’s problems, and help them out, whether it’s physically, or emotionally, like an encouragement. The way the game presents this message is actually through repetition. The player gets to explore other Cosmospheres other than Finnel’s, and resolve their personal issues and problems.
The possible future we could develop from this game obviously shows that in the present day, technology will continue to evolve as time passes on. But it also presents an idea of shallowness in today’s society that we see. Sometimes, we see people marry for money, or marry for beauty. Even in movies like Twilight, the love is irrational and not really for the right reasons. Real love is much more than that; it’s about confronting each other’s problems and supporting each other through thick and thin. On a lighter note... we are victims of cute and fluffy objects, e.g. Teppo.
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