>>Folken Lacour de Fanel>>Speculations Of course I like to speculate about Folken; he's so much the Mystery Man. Ten years of his life are lost to us; we know a little of what he did in that time, but it's very little. From his rescue of Nariya and Eriya, and his recruitment of Zongi, it's obvious that he feels a deep sympathy for the dispossessed, the homeless, the exploited, for life's losers and rejects. Folken believes that these people have potential and gives them the opportunity to realise it, in the service of the cause he believes in. I think one reason why Folken believes so passionately in the cause of Zaibach and Dornkirk is that he no longer has any belief in himself. He failed in his own culture's central rite of manhood, he let down everyone he loved when he was put to the test, he has lost his physical integrity and become a half-creature, one gentle hand replaced by a mechanical claw. It seems that Folken sees himself as irretrievably ruined. The word sophisticated used to have a somewhat different meaning, carrying some of the connotations that nowadays hang around, for example, artificial additives and preservatives in food. Almost like polluted. Perhaps this is the word I want to describe the feeling that makes Folken despise himself; perhaps it isn't, but I'm trying. The point is, many things about his appearance seem like external symptoms of this feeling, as he tries to emphasise to the world what he feels to be true about himself. I'm particularly struck by this when I see the flashback sequences of Folken at about fifteen; I notice the openness and vulnerability of his smile, the complete natural ease of his movements, the rather cute way his hair flops over his forehead. He was someone who had not yet been badly hurt by the world, and had not learned to be defensive. Van, at the same age, doesn't have those qualities (except the cute floppy hair); he is guarded and tries to present a staunch demeanour. To get back to what I was trying to say, Folken at twenty-five affects many artifices in his appearance. His hair is stiffly spiked, he wears heavy gold earrings in both ears, his movements are slow and deliberate. His enveloping, self-concealing cloak is part of the costume of a Zaibach sorcerer but is particularly appropriate to his style - in fact, I bet Nobuteru Yuuki designed the costume for Folken and then decided the others should be dressed the same. If you've ever wondered, Nob' says Folken's clothes are made of leather and vinyl (ew). He has gone so far as to permanently mark his face with tattoos, a purple teardrop on his cheek and little flares of purple at the corners of his eyelids (I don't want to think about how much those must have hurt to have done - I'm from New Zealand, we like facial tattoos here, but there's still a wince factor). The teardrop, especially, seems an artificial affectation, reminiscent of one of those godawful Pierrot clown dolls, but I think this is part of the point. It's not only an external emblem of Folken's deep sorrow, but a sign to the world of what an unnatural, artificial, adulterated Thing he now feels himself to be. 'Don't mistake me for a real person,' he seems to be saying. And then there's the most dramatic change in his appearance, the one he probably did not effect deliberately (yes, I am using 'affect' and 'effect' correctly) but the one which reflects most simply and starkly his inmost heart - his beautiful white wings have turned black. He cannot allow himself to be in any way the natural, gentle person he once was, consciously or unconsciously. He has lost that forever. His story is inscribed upon his body, in both injected ink and his own pigmentation. Author's Note (months later): When I wrote this, I got a little confused about one point - Folken's wings do not turn black when he loses faith in himself, but later in the series - they are still white when he shows them to Van in Seal of the Brothers. He sees the black feathers as an intimation of mortality, a sign that he does not have long to live - specifically, they're a side-effect of messing with fate, which has shortened his life expectancy. More than one person has emailed me to comment on this and I apologise for taking so long to make a correction. It's still true that he didn't make his wings turn black on purpose, but he places a different interpretation on the significance of the change than I did. I guess he should know - they're his wings. *shrug* We're talking about the most almighty case of low self-esteem here. Folken can believe in other losers and rejects, but never in himself, because while he can see them as victims of circumstance and others' cruelty, he feels entirely responsible for his own failure. Never mind that it's horrible to send a soft fifteen-year-old boy, still grieving at the death of his father, out to kill a huge slavering fire-spewing dragon. Folken does not believe he deserves to be alive. That he is is thanks only to the work of the sorcerers; logically, he owes Zaibach absolutely loyalty and service. But I think he also feels that having to continue to live like this, as a Thing, is apt punishment for his failure. This would be why soft-hearted old me wants like mad to hug him and kiss him and make him feel better. But Folken certainly sees himself as unlovable and untouchable. More about this in my consideration of his relationship with Nariya and Eriya - see Silver & Gold. The other rich field for speculation when I started this shrine was what Folken would be like in the forthcoming movie version of the story, Escaflowne: a Girl in Gaea. What you can see below are my thoughts several months before I got to see the film - they are not a correct source of information. To find out what I thought after I'd seen it, go to At the Movies. I discussed the prospects for the movie in more detail in Van's half of this shrine (now gone), and I didn't know anything about what will happen to Folken as a character, but I can show you what he will look like. Brace yourselves. This ain't pretty. Oh dear, oh dear, oh tut. I can hardly express in words how wrong this picture looks to me, and tend to resort to making noises like 'Ack!' and 'Beurk!' (which is French for 'yuk' and the right way to pronounce Björk, which is Icelandic for 'birch' - isn't language fun?) Although you can't see his back view here (there are a couple more views of this design in Folken's gallery), I can inform you that his hair is Allen-long at the back. Frankly, what he looks like to me is someone from a try-hard 80s metal band. He's awful. I sometimes make Westie jokes about Folken, but he's a cute Westie - this guy is a bogan. I tend to be very negative about the character designs for the Escaflowne movie, across the board, simply because to me, they seem to indicate a quite different philosophy, a different vibe, if you will, to the essence I loved in the series. They're fixing things that ain't broke. They're uglifying wonderful-looking characters - or, in the case of Meruru and Hitomi, making them more conventionally cute, which I feel is just as bad. In terms of the vibe, I mean. You never know. I may eventually get to see the movie and love it. I may put up a full retraction on all the webpages where I've whined about how the new designs look. But what I've seen so far, I certainly don't like. It feels to me like Escaflowne is losing its wonderful girl-friendly aspect, trying to appeal more to boys, and I think it's sad that the makers feel they need to do that. The world needs more fantasy for girls. It's empowering, and besides that, it's fun. Basically, I was hoping this guy would get killed when the Black Dragon Clan invaded Fanelia, and we wouldn't have to look at him for the rest of the movie. {{ Return to the Folken index }}