Day 255: A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Ay me, for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth…”
The summer solstice, also known as midsummer, is when the sun reaches its highest position in the sky. It happens on June 21st. It is the day with the longest period of daylight, which makes it the longest day of the year. This is a very important day in the game. It’s shown to you as soon as you begin. On this day, Xion talks about how she dreams every night and begs Axel to tell her who she is. Axel tells Roxas why the sun sets red. And it’s revealed that Saïx can’t really “see” Xion. Nomura likes Shakespeare. Versus XIII had a tagline based on Hamlet. So, it’s not surprising that KH has Shakespeare references, too.
“Are you sure
That we are awake?
It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comic fantasy of four lovers who find themselves bewitched by fairies. There’s only one mission available on Day 255, and it’s in Wonderland. A dream world set in a forest. It’s just like the play, which involves magic love potions and fairies who live in a forest. The main theme of the play is love, and the crazy and absurd effects it has on people. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is full of strange, dream-like sequences and irrational behavior. Probably the most basic significance of dreams in the story is the representation of unreality, or the distortion of time and consciousness.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
This line is one of the most famous in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its humor, but it is also thematically important: first, because it captures the exaggerated silliness of the lovers’ behavior; second, because it marks the contrast between the human lovers, completely absorbed in their emotions, and the magical fairies, impish and never too serious.
Hearts and Emotion
Watching that foolish beast flail about only deepens my disdain for humans and their incessant need to be pinned down by feelings. We became Nobodies precisely to avoid the shackles of emotion. It was only later that we realized the scale of that loss: that some things simply cannot be done without a heart. Nonetheless, I see nary a pleasant thing about it.
Xemnas is a good representation of Puck. Xaldin represents this ideology well, too. Puck is a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. His antics are responsible for causing chaos within the group of young lovers.
“If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream"
This is another famous quote. Puck speaks these lines in an address to the audience near the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, extending the theme of dreams beyond the world of the play and putting the reality of the audience’s experience into question.
“And the quaint mazes in the wanton green For lack of tread are undistinguishable: The human mortals want their winter here; No night is now with hymn or carol blest: Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound.”
As many of the characters believe that the magical events of the play’s action were merely a dream, Puck tells the crowd that if the play has offended them, they too should remember it simply as a dream. At the end of the game, Roxas wakes up from a dream, and remembers none of the events you just played through.
“Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame or a dowager Long withering out a young man revenue.”
The moon is often depicted as a feminine virginal obstacle to romance, which male characters find ‘cold.’ At the play’s opening, an impatient Theseus complains to Hippolyta with the above quote. Much of the play takes place at night, and there are references to moonlight, which changes the appearance of what it illuminates. One of the main themes of the play is transformation—things are not always as they appear.
“Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright; For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams, I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.”
However, at times, the moon is depicted as assisting or blessing lovers instead. In Act 5, the wedding play is performed for Theseus and Hippolyta. In it, the moon lights the way for lovers Pyramus and Thisby. Here, the moon’s light is 'golden’ and 'sunny’ rather than cold and gloomy.
“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities.”
Unlike Theseus, Hippolyta is content to wait the four days until the wedding. Here, the moon is transformed in the course of a few lines into the image of fruitful union contained in the “silver bow,” an implicit reference to Cupid’s arrow, which draws lovers together. Utilizing the imagery of the silver bow, Hippolyta also invokes Diana (or Artemis), the virgin huntress who is the guardian spirit of the adolescent moon. In this guise, the moon is the patroness of all young lovers, fresh and innocent, just beginning their journey through life.
“Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.”
However, this quote is BY FAR the most famous from the entire play. I think this idea was actually the foundation of the entire story in 358/2 Days. Essentially, love has the power to transform “base and vile” qualities into “form and dignity”—that is, even ugliness and bad behavior will not deter someone in love. This is the case because “love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind”—love depends not on an objective assessment, but rather on an individual perception of the beloved.
Roxas: Have you gone nuts? Xion’s a person, not a puppet.
Axel: She’s smoke and mirrors, Roxas. And when I looked in the mirror…It wasn’t you I saw.
Xion is nothing but a robot—a puppet. She is not really Kairi. She’s all smoke and mirrors. But Sora has transformed something base into something lovable, based solely on his most precious memories—those of Kairi. It’s only in the person’s mind that she has any form at all.
Xigbar: If people see with their hearts, Saïx, then you’re even blinder than the rest of us.
Saïx is nothing but a vessel of Xehanort—a puppet. He is not really Isa. He’s all smoke and mirrors. But Axel has transformed someone vile into someone lovable, based solely on his most precious memories—those of Isa. It’s only in his mind that Saïx has any dignity at all.
