*WARNING: MASSIVE ENDING AND GAME SPOILERS FOR KILLER7 AHEAD!*
I will attempt analyzing the storyline and themes of Killer7. But, to do so, I believe some information needs to be cleared up. To examine a story, it's better to have a clear idea of the overarching timeline. However, since Killer7 can be very liberally interpreted, one may argue that the game doesn't make any sense or perhaps the game is a broad critique of contemporary issues. Nonetheless, I want to try outlining the chronology of the game.
Most of the timeline are directly influenced by Japan's surrender to the United States and subsequent occupation and demilitarization following World War II. The Escapist Magazine's Robert Rath does an excellent analysis of Godzilla and other monsters largely being a response to Japan's utter devastation at the hands of the atomic bomb and American testing of the hydrogen bomb. This was how profoundly this psychologically affected the Japanese. They viewed atomic power and Western power as a brutal, overwhelming force.
Killer7 is Suda51's response to this East VS West dynamic.
Prior to the game's events, the two semi-deities Harman Smith and Kun Lan are polar opposites, representing Life and Death, Chaos and Order, and, more prominently, the eastern and western aesthetic respectively. Since the East met the West, these two immortals are destined to fight until the end of time, though they are close enough friends to play regular chess games. Their eternal confrontations are the true main focus of the game, whereas world events and the entire plot of Killer7 the game merely serve as a backdrop.
While the East initially seems weak with Japan being abandoned by the rest of the world and subsequently nuked by the end of the second level. However, Japan actually has the advantage. The United States, the bastion of western culture, is controlled by Japan. The location of the penultimate game level, Colburn Elementary School, is both a training ground for Japanese sleeper agents and the sote where the Japanese control the U.S. presidential election. (Though it was located in Washington state, which wasn't a U.S. territory until the mid 1800, Suda blatantly uses an alternate history where the school was founded around the time of the first presidential election)
Just as the world is about to reach a new age of peace, Kun Lan's Heaven Smile organization disrupts the United Nation's peace signings, using minions that are effectively living bombs. While their tactics resemble those of fundamentalists, these enemies are kamikazes, reminiscent of Japanese pilots who ran their planes into American battleships and carriers when their planes were irreparably damaged or out of ammunition or fuel. A kamikaze saw themselves as performing a ritual sacrifice for the sake of their nation and divine emperor, thus preserving their honor. The Heaven Smiles fit this description perfectly. For example, the first and only low-level Heaven Smile transformation we witness at the start of the game has the victim proclaim "I have been chosen" as a cultist would say.
Most of Killer7's plot focuses on the fate of Japan and the United States. The second mission, Sunset, is extremely symbolic. First and most obviously, because Japan's symbol is the rising sun and the sunset indicates the exact opposite of that symbol. The Killer7 work to obtain the Yakumo Cabinet Policy, which the Japanese have used to both control the United States and map out an ideal society (implied to have been used by Ulmeyda). The document was forged by Toro Fukushima, but Kun Lan was also linked in its forging. This becomes evident as many later villains in Killer7 are in possession of parts of the Yakumo and have used it to create Heaven Smiles, an ability only Kun Lan has. Toro Fukushima's assassination and the subsequent theft of the Yakumo doom Japan's major cities to total destruction from a nuclear strike from an unknown location in the United States. However, this is not the end of Japan.
During the second half of Sunset, Kenjiro Matsuoka takes the reigns of Fukushima's ultranationalist U.N. Party under the influence of Kun Lan's abilities. He then sets out to avenge Japan and destroy its enemies, acting as Kun Lan's envoy. He disappears for most of the game, re-appearing in the finale. He kills a Killer7 informer, Hiro Kasai, by torturing him and causing him to fall off a building to his death. When Garcien later confronts him knowing that Japan controlled the U.S. election, the two seem to develop an implicit partnership. In fact, during the final level Lion, Matsuoka is waiting for him at the entrance to the final Smile's domain and gives Garcien the choice of killing him or not, ultimately deciding both Japan and the United States's ultimate fate.
I will attempt analyzing the storyline and themes of Killer7. But, to do so, I believe some information needs to be cleared up. To examine a story, it's better to have a clear idea of the overarching timeline. However, since Killer7 can be very liberally interpreted, one may argue that the game doesn't make any sense or perhaps the game is a broad critique of contemporary issues. Nonetheless, I want to try outlining the chronology of the game.
Most of the timeline are directly influenced by Japan's surrender to the United States and subsequent occupation and demilitarization following World War II. The Escapist Magazine's Robert Rath does an excellent analysis of Godzilla and other monsters largely being a response to Japan's utter devastation at the hands of the atomic bomb and American testing of the hydrogen bomb. This was how profoundly this psychologically affected the Japanese. They viewed atomic power and Western power as a brutal, overwhelming force.
Killer7 is Suda51's response to this East VS West dynamic.
Prior to the game's events, the two semi-deities Harman Smith and Kun Lan are polar opposites, representing Life and Death, Chaos and Order, and, more prominently, the eastern and western aesthetic respectively. Since the East met the West, these two immortals are destined to fight until the end of time, though they are close enough friends to play regular chess games. Their eternal confrontations are the true main focus of the game, whereas world events and the entire plot of Killer7 the game merely serve as a backdrop.
 |
| BFFs! |
While the East initially seems weak with Japan being abandoned by the rest of the world and subsequently nuked by the end of the second level. However, Japan actually has the advantage. The United States, the bastion of western culture, is controlled by Japan. The location of the penultimate game level, Colburn Elementary School, is both a training ground for Japanese sleeper agents and the sote where the Japanese control the U.S. presidential election. (Though it was located in Washington state, which wasn't a U.S. territory until the mid 1800, Suda blatantly uses an alternate history where the school was founded around the time of the first presidential election)
Just as the world is about to reach a new age of peace, Kun Lan's Heaven Smile organization disrupts the United Nation's peace signings, using minions that are effectively living bombs. While their tactics resemble those of fundamentalists, these enemies are kamikazes, reminiscent of Japanese pilots who ran their planes into American battleships and carriers when their planes were irreparably damaged or out of ammunition or fuel. A kamikaze saw themselves as performing a ritual sacrifice for the sake of their nation and divine emperor, thus preserving their honor. The Heaven Smiles fit this description perfectly. For example, the first and only low-level Heaven Smile transformation we witness at the start of the game has the victim proclaim "I have been chosen" as a cultist would say.
Most of Killer7's plot focuses on the fate of Japan and the United States. The second mission, Sunset, is extremely symbolic. First and most obviously, because Japan's symbol is the rising sun and the sunset indicates the exact opposite of that symbol. The Killer7 work to obtain the Yakumo Cabinet Policy, which the Japanese have used to both control the United States and map out an ideal society (implied to have been used by Ulmeyda). The document was forged by Toro Fukushima, but Kun Lan was also linked in its forging. This becomes evident as many later villains in Killer7 are in possession of parts of the Yakumo and have used it to create Heaven Smiles, an ability only Kun Lan has. Toro Fukushima's assassination and the subsequent theft of the Yakumo doom Japan's major cities to total destruction from a nuclear strike from an unknown location in the United States. However, this is not the end of Japan.
During the second half of Sunset, Kenjiro Matsuoka takes the reigns of Fukushima's ultranationalist U.N. Party under the influence of Kun Lan's abilities. He then sets out to avenge Japan and destroy its enemies, acting as Kun Lan's envoy. He disappears for most of the game, re-appearing in the finale. He kills a Killer7 informer, Hiro Kasai, by torturing him and causing him to fall off a building to his death. When Garcien later confronts him knowing that Japan controlled the U.S. election, the two seem to develop an implicit partnership. In fact, during the final level Lion, Matsuoka is waiting for him at the entrance to the final Smile's domain and gives Garcien the choice of killing him or not, ultimately deciding both Japan and the United States's ultimate fate.
Indeed, Garcien and the Smith Syndicate heavily play into the dichotomy between the United States and Japan since it becomes revealed that the Smith Syndicate has been dead all along and that their original personality is not Harman, but actually Garcien. Formerly, he had been Emir Parkreiner, a student of Harman. However, faced with the traumatic guilt of murdering them all, he attempts suicide, resulting in the now amnesiac Emir becoming reborn as the Killer7.
The reveal of the Killer7 being part of Emir's consciousness is perhaps the most difficult area to peg down chronologically. While there exists an unofficial account in the supplementary Hand in killer7 that fills in those blanks, there are too many inconsistencies to consider it very reliable. Fortunately, there are several ways to form boundaries to narrow down how and when the birth of the Killer7 began. First, the game's events take place in 2011, thus setting a limit on all other living characters. Second, there are Holbert's tapes used to unlock the final major puzzle in the game. Holbert's tapes specifically mentions the dates when the original Emir Parkreiner lived and died and cited that he had a special social security code for Japanese agents, indicating his loyalties. Furthermore, midway through the game, Kun Lan and Harman are playing chess when the former randomly begins telling the story of a boy who killed his mother, heavily implying this to be the first Emir. This supports the idea that the original was reincarnated as the second Emir on roughly the same day the first one died. Since Emir was trained by the Western-oriented Harman (in his principal form), he forsook his Japanese roots and eventually killed Harman, as well as the rest of the school's students and teachers (including Holbert).
Working for the United States government, Emir would go on to kill the Union7 (AKA the original Smith Syndicate) of Japan's Liberal Party (rivals to the U.N. Party who controlled the U.S. government). The time that he killed the original Smith Syndicate can be defined because of the organization's relationship with Curtis Blackburn, Dan's former mentor. Curtis is an elderly man by 2011. Furthermore, it's indicated that he killed Dan, which had to have happened prior to Emir assimilating the Smith personalities due to Garcien's resurrecting abilities not being in the picture yet. Some sites suggest that Dan and the rest of the Smiths had all died and then been resurrected by the Young Harman avatar (seen in Killer8 and the Union Hotel levels) to join the Union7. This theory holds some weight since he is a demi-god and such abilities are different from Kun Lan's ability to create new beings. However, the fact that we only see this kind of power from Garcien says otherwise and leaves this in the realm of speculation.
One mystery that arises is that the Union7 are a Japanese organization while Harman usually serves Western interests. Perhaps he set up the organization to provoke Emir and thus propagate the events of Killer7 the game. After all, he must have helped contract the new Smiths for the American government. Furthermore, he remained in the Union Hotel until 2011 when he was again confronted by Emir under the guise of Garcien. It's certainly a possibility...
The birth of Garcien and the other Smiths occurred with Emir's attempted suicide on the roof of the Union Hotel. From there, the new Garcien, believing himself to be a part of a collective consciousness under that of his mentor, Harman, went on to become an assassin from the U.S. government, unknowingly resuming where his previous self left off.
We know that all of the psyches in the game had joined Emir's consciousness with their appearances and personalities being very similar to how they were prior to death. However, Harman's different since he is in a wheelchair, when principal Harman did not need one. I've read a fascinating theory that the older Harman is bound to a wheelchair since Emir had stuffed his corpse into the safe found in Coburn Elementary School. To do that to a corpse, their back would probably have to be broken. I believe that Suda and the other writers could have been that thorough in planning this out. Furthermore, the proclivities of the Harman psyche would further induce him to join the U.S. government.
How the remnant psyches were absorbed is a bit messier to explain. Travis Bell knows who Emir is, specifically addressing him by name. Thus, he must have been aware of Emir and Harman prior to his death. He couldn't have died after Emir killed the Union7. Therefore, he must have been killed by Harman and the original Smith Syndicate. But, this raises the question of how Travis's psyche still remains with Garcien when the latter never killed him and the younger Harman was not absorbed. Perhaps, Travis is not assimilated like the other psyches and is instead more like Mills, whose psyche lingers despite not being assassinated by the Killer7. He definitely has more of an independent personality from the other psyches, helping the Smiths, but not being interested in their activities.
As for the other remnant psyches, it's perfectly reasonable that Garcien simply subjugated their psyches. This brings us to the question of Iwazaru.
Iwazaru is the Last Smile and possesses physical traits of Kun Lan, namely his face. Therefore, maybe Iwazaru and co. were not assassinated by Emir or Harman, but were part of the old principal Harman's psyche from his interactions with Kun Lan. Maybe Kun Lan implanted them so that he could have a mole within the organization and know how to counteract their Heaven Smile exterminating sprees. It's all conjecture, but this is one of many explanations that I reason would explain things nicely.
Okay, that's enough with chronology... Now that all of the backstory and possible explanations have been organized, I want to explore some central ideas of the game.
1. The chess games and its implications.
Harman and Kun Lan are shown to play chess several times in Killer7. Despite world events around them escalating (primarily due to their actions), they seem absorbed with outsmarting each other's actions.
To them, the entire game is a big chess game, regardless of collateral damage. Kun Lan's Heaven Smile threat is simply an offensive move to create chaos and put his opponent into checkmate. Meanwhile, Harman's assassinations undermine his move, bringing things back to a balance.
They are gods, and they do not care who their machinations harm, as long as one of them gets the upper hand in their chess games.
2. Battleship Island, the Vinculum Gate, and Garcien's Trailerhouse
The final level of Killer7 takes place on Battleship Island, an abandoned artificial island and city located directly between the Americas and Asia. On this island, the reborn Emir discovers that the Colosseum, the area that precluded every battle against a boss Smile, is not only within the heart of the city, but also contains a vast network of underground tunnels leading back to Garcien's trailerhouse.
The very presence of Heaven Smiles on Battleship Island indicates that it is Kun Lan's territory. Not only that, but the island seems to be a testing ground for new boss Smiles. This is supported by the fact that the Gatekeeper's Vinculum Gate dimension links directly to the Colosseum. The Vinculum Gate is meant as an obstacle for the Killer7, thus it makes sense that the greatest obstacle would be an experimental new Smile birthed on the island.
Garcien's trailerhouse is another matter. Harman's Room, the main location where the character can switch between Smiths or save their game, appears in every single level. This indicates that, like the Colosseum, it's the same room being accessed from a different spatial dimension. How would this be possible?
Well, the penultimate room to the last smile resembles the main save room. In this room, Emir discovers the corpse of Harman Smith, possibly the original demi-god. This Harman may have used his power to impose his cell's dimensional space into the save rooms, supporting the Killer7. Thus, when Garcien entered this room in his trailerhouse, he was in a normal room imprinted by Harman's essence.
This also applies to the Forbidden Room where Harman and Kun Lan play chess; an area isolated from temporal time. I say that this is isolated from "real world" time because they are aware that they will be shot by tommy gun-wielding Young Harman in the future, pantomiming being shot much earlier in the game. (I say it's Young Harman because he's the only non-Killer7 character who could have had a rapid-fire weapon).
I'll get more into the extent of Harman's power in the next section...
3. The Harmans
In Killer7, the player encounters three different Harman Smiths. The first is Old Harman Smith, the leader of the Killer7 psyches who later awakens and breaks free from Garcien's psyche. This Harman Smith was originally a principal of Coburn Elementary School that honed the second Emir Parkreiner's skills as a killer. After being assassinated and absorbed by the Bloody Heartland, he would take on the form of the wheelchair-bound old man to whom Garcien would devote himself.
The second Harman Smith is introduced in the penthouse of the Union Hotel during Part 1 of Smile. This younger Harman started the original Union7 Smith Syndicate that Emir would massacre, acting as the only survivor. Harman's demigod powers manifest in his immortality since he hasn't aged in thirty years. Furthermore, he appears alongside a man named Dimitri Nightmare (as revealed in supplementary material) who is very probably a remnant psyche of this Harman. That he survived the Killer7 incident indicates that he probably pushed Emir into his psychological collapse and subsequent suicide attempt, though this is never outright stated in-game.
As stated earlier, the final Harman Smith is discovered at the very end of the game, located underneath the Colosseum of Battleship Island. If he is the original Harman Smith, for him this is an extremely ironic turn of events since he is a representative of the Western aesthetic and he has been imprisoned in the East.
If this dead Harman Smith is the true demi-god, it's possible that each Harman is a shadow of the original. They act as avatars, enacting his will in his absence. This indicates that his power his immense since he can not only control multiple iterations of himself, but he can still control the version assimilated by Emir.
The Old Harman persona, in particular, appears to be confined by Garcien's consciousness, forced to be in a wheelchair and behave as Emir remembered him. However, he seems to be manipulating the Killer7, using them in his chess game to defeat Kun Lan. The mentor role suits him as a way that he can get through to Garcien/Emir and manipulate him.
Because Harman is being physically cared for by Samantha Sitbon, this indicates that he does have a physical presence. It's likely that this man may not be Harman, but a catatonic man who is possessed by the Old Harman persona. The personality starts out dormant, being abused by Samantha Sitbon, his caretaker, in Harman's Room. However, when the lights are turned off, he becomes dominant and she takes on the persona of the subservient Samantha Smith. By the Smile chapters, the Old Harman personality has disappeared, leaving behind a deceased and possibly raped Samantha. This indicates that the personality may have fully awoken from her abuse, breaking away from Garcien's psyche and allowing the catatonic man to awaken and get his revenge on her.
4. Who are the Killer7?
While the game outright states that the Killer7 are all controlled by the Garcien persona, there are many lingering questions that put such revelations under some doubt, especially in regards to their physical manifestations. The Smiths are all a single being, Garcien Smith. As stated earlier, each Smith is a manifestation of a deceased member of the Union7 absorbed into Emir Parkreiner's psyche, save for Garcien himself.
Each psyche's abilities correspond directly to how Emir dispatched them. Kevin Smith, a master of invisibility and evading detection, was immediately killed due to his weak bellhop disguise. Mask de Smith, the epitome of a true luchador Hero, was effortlessly bumped off while in the shower. Con Smith, gifted with super speed and heightened senses, was shot while idle, completely unaware of Emir's presence. KAEDE was killed while hiding behind a barrier and thus now can break barriers with her blood. Furthermore, KAEDE's dress has a bloodstain from her fatal wounds, a possible mark of her cowardice as she was the only Smith to try fleeing Emir. Coyote Smith, the greatest thief in the world capable of scaling unreachable areas, was outflanked and killed. Dan Smith, a powerful, cocky gunman capable of firing balls of energy at enemies, was all bark and no bite, first being easily killed by Curtis (who he later kills while part of the Killer7 collective) and later being killed by Emir in a standoff. Finally, Harman Smith was the original mentor of Emir who failed to stop him from massacring the staff and students of Coburn Elementary School. Thus, he gained God Killer powers that could dispatch any enemy with a single shot (save for Kun Lan). Garcien himself is similar since he gains the power of resurrection and acts primarily as backup, marking a complete divergence from his role as Emir, the most dangerous assassin in the world.
When Garcien reaches a dilemma, he brings forth a persona. How he does this is left very uncertain despite what definite information Killer7 presents, though some possibilities exist...
First, Garcien's cleaner case contains all of the Killer7 weapons, indicating that they were physically used, by either Garcien believing himself to be a specific Smith or him actually taking on their physical appearance as well. During Encounter, Curtis Blackburn actually sees Dan Smith when they duel, offering the only clear proof of Garcien's form shifting to actually resemble that of the Killer7. Perhaps this is an ability he acquired from absorbing one of the Harman Smith avatars. After all, principal Harman and his later form as a Garcien psyche were both imbued with the power of the true Harman deity, mainly since Kun Lan and the Garcien psyche behave as if nothing was wrong.
Garcien loses the ability to harness psyches with the appearance of the Black Heaven Smiles due to the resurgence of the Emir Parkreiner personality. Apparently, Emir had been trying to break free throughout the whole game, mainly since Johnny Gagnon talks about the abilities of Garcien's Smith Syndicate (due to their superpowered abilities) and is describing them to Emir, specifically when Emir could not have existed.
When Harman disappears and Emir re-awakens, he has effectively been freed from the hold of Harman. Destroying the Heaven Smiles becomes the final link to the great chess match between Harman and Kun Lan, and, more importantly, Emir's connections to the East and West.
The final Smile itself combines elements of Iwazaru, Harman's most loyal servant, and Kun Lan's visage, heavily implying that destroying them ultimately severs Emir's connection to their war in both a concrete and abstract sense.
5. The Ending
Prior to eliminating the Last Smile, the revived Emir has the option of killing or sparing Matsuoka. The former route indicates that Emir still sides with the U.S. government despite being lied to and manipulated by them, while the latter indicates his loyalty to Japan in his previous life. It fascinates me how this scene ultimately shows how Emir deals with his past, leaving the player with a decision that must favor one side of the America Vs Japan conflict occurring within the smaller microcosm of Emir's past and present.
But, what I love is that it really doesn't matter. No matter what happens, the game reaches the same inevitable conclusion: In 100 years, Japan and America will be irrelevant, supplanted by China, which only serves as Kun Lan and Harman's newest battleground. It's an amazing ending that demonstrates the cyclical nature of history and how we are all caught between the balance of light and dark, yin and yang (not good and evil exactly... Morality's very scuttled in Killer7). Despite the end of the Heaven Smile threat, Kun Lan will continue to cause chaos and Harman will continue to curb it, as they maintain the global balance of power. For immortal demi-gods, such brief and fleeting events are minor nuisances that hardly register in the grand scale of things. While it makes the adventure of Killer7 seem pointless, it really doesn't. The game ironically flips things around, instead making the conflict of Kun Lan vs Harman the background, while making Emir's journey the true focus. It's about a killer who fought for one side and then broke his ties from that war, starting anew. I'm satisfied with how that story was told.
 |
| His Third Eye grants the ability to see the unseen and absorb the vanquished... |
The reveal of the Killer7 being part of Emir's consciousness is perhaps the most difficult area to peg down chronologically. While there exists an unofficial account in the supplementary Hand in killer7 that fills in those blanks, there are too many inconsistencies to consider it very reliable. Fortunately, there are several ways to form boundaries to narrow down how and when the birth of the Killer7 began. First, the game's events take place in 2011, thus setting a limit on all other living characters. Second, there are Holbert's tapes used to unlock the final major puzzle in the game. Holbert's tapes specifically mentions the dates when the original Emir Parkreiner lived and died and cited that he had a special social security code for Japanese agents, indicating his loyalties. Furthermore, midway through the game, Kun Lan and Harman are playing chess when the former randomly begins telling the story of a boy who killed his mother, heavily implying this to be the first Emir. This supports the idea that the original was reincarnated as the second Emir on roughly the same day the first one died. Since Emir was trained by the Western-oriented Harman (in his principal form), he forsook his Japanese roots and eventually killed Harman, as well as the rest of the school's students and teachers (including Holbert).
Working for the United States government, Emir would go on to kill the Union7 (AKA the original Smith Syndicate) of Japan's Liberal Party (rivals to the U.N. Party who controlled the U.S. government). The time that he killed the original Smith Syndicate can be defined because of the organization's relationship with Curtis Blackburn, Dan's former mentor. Curtis is an elderly man by 2011. Furthermore, it's indicated that he killed Dan, which had to have happened prior to Emir assimilating the Smith personalities due to Garcien's resurrecting abilities not being in the picture yet. Some sites suggest that Dan and the rest of the Smiths had all died and then been resurrected by the Young Harman avatar (seen in Killer8 and the Union Hotel levels) to join the Union7. This theory holds some weight since he is a demi-god and such abilities are different from Kun Lan's ability to create new beings. However, the fact that we only see this kind of power from Garcien says otherwise and leaves this in the realm of speculation.
One mystery that arises is that the Union7 are a Japanese organization while Harman usually serves Western interests. Perhaps he set up the organization to provoke Emir and thus propagate the events of Killer7 the game. After all, he must have helped contract the new Smiths for the American government. Furthermore, he remained in the Union Hotel until 2011 when he was again confronted by Emir under the guise of Garcien. It's certainly a possibility...
The birth of Garcien and the other Smiths occurred with Emir's attempted suicide on the roof of the Union Hotel. From there, the new Garcien, believing himself to be a part of a collective consciousness under that of his mentor, Harman, went on to become an assassin from the U.S. government, unknowingly resuming where his previous self left off.
We know that all of the psyches in the game had joined Emir's consciousness with their appearances and personalities being very similar to how they were prior to death. However, Harman's different since he is in a wheelchair, when principal Harman did not need one. I've read a fascinating theory that the older Harman is bound to a wheelchair since Emir had stuffed his corpse into the safe found in Coburn Elementary School. To do that to a corpse, their back would probably have to be broken. I believe that Suda and the other writers could have been that thorough in planning this out. Furthermore, the proclivities of the Harman psyche would further induce him to join the U.S. government.
How the remnant psyches were absorbed is a bit messier to explain. Travis Bell knows who Emir is, specifically addressing him by name. Thus, he must have been aware of Emir and Harman prior to his death. He couldn't have died after Emir killed the Union7. Therefore, he must have been killed by Harman and the original Smith Syndicate. But, this raises the question of how Travis's psyche still remains with Garcien when the latter never killed him and the younger Harman was not absorbed. Perhaps, Travis is not assimilated like the other psyches and is instead more like Mills, whose psyche lingers despite not being assassinated by the Killer7. He definitely has more of an independent personality from the other psyches, helping the Smiths, but not being interested in their activities.
As for the other remnant psyches, it's perfectly reasonable that Garcien simply subjugated their psyches. This brings us to the question of Iwazaru.
 |
| "Master. This is confusing. Like super confusing. Like I don't know, man." |
Iwazaru is the Last Smile and possesses physical traits of Kun Lan, namely his face. Therefore, maybe Iwazaru and co. were not assassinated by Emir or Harman, but were part of the old principal Harman's psyche from his interactions with Kun Lan. Maybe Kun Lan implanted them so that he could have a mole within the organization and know how to counteract their Heaven Smile exterminating sprees. It's all conjecture, but this is one of many explanations that I reason would explain things nicely.
Okay, that's enough with chronology... Now that all of the backstory and possible explanations have been organized, I want to explore some central ideas of the game.
1. The chess games and its implications.
Harman and Kun Lan are shown to play chess several times in Killer7. Despite world events around them escalating (primarily due to their actions), they seem absorbed with outsmarting each other's actions.
To them, the entire game is a big chess game, regardless of collateral damage. Kun Lan's Heaven Smile threat is simply an offensive move to create chaos and put his opponent into checkmate. Meanwhile, Harman's assassinations undermine his move, bringing things back to a balance.
They are gods, and they do not care who their machinations harm, as long as one of them gets the upper hand in their chess games.
2. Battleship Island, the Vinculum Gate, and Garcien's Trailerhouse
 |
| Final Destination |
The very presence of Heaven Smiles on Battleship Island indicates that it is Kun Lan's territory. Not only that, but the island seems to be a testing ground for new boss Smiles. This is supported by the fact that the Gatekeeper's Vinculum Gate dimension links directly to the Colosseum. The Vinculum Gate is meant as an obstacle for the Killer7, thus it makes sense that the greatest obstacle would be an experimental new Smile birthed on the island.
Garcien's trailerhouse is another matter. Harman's Room, the main location where the character can switch between Smiths or save their game, appears in every single level. This indicates that, like the Colosseum, it's the same room being accessed from a different spatial dimension. How would this be possible?
Well, the penultimate room to the last smile resembles the main save room. In this room, Emir discovers the corpse of Harman Smith, possibly the original demi-god. This Harman may have used his power to impose his cell's dimensional space into the save rooms, supporting the Killer7. Thus, when Garcien entered this room in his trailerhouse, he was in a normal room imprinted by Harman's essence.
This also applies to the Forbidden Room where Harman and Kun Lan play chess; an area isolated from temporal time. I say that this is isolated from "real world" time because they are aware that they will be shot by tommy gun-wielding Young Harman in the future, pantomiming being shot much earlier in the game. (I say it's Young Harman because he's the only non-Killer7 character who could have had a rapid-fire weapon).
I'll get more into the extent of Harman's power in the next section...
3. The Harmans
In Killer7, the player encounters three different Harman Smiths. The first is Old Harman Smith, the leader of the Killer7 psyches who later awakens and breaks free from Garcien's psyche. This Harman Smith was originally a principal of Coburn Elementary School that honed the second Emir Parkreiner's skills as a killer. After being assassinated and absorbed by the Bloody Heartland, he would take on the form of the wheelchair-bound old man to whom Garcien would devote himself.
 |
| The God Killer |
The second Harman Smith is introduced in the penthouse of the Union Hotel during Part 1 of Smile. This younger Harman started the original Union7 Smith Syndicate that Emir would massacre, acting as the only survivor. Harman's demigod powers manifest in his immortality since he hasn't aged in thirty years. Furthermore, he appears alongside a man named Dimitri Nightmare (as revealed in supplementary material) who is very probably a remnant psyche of this Harman. That he survived the Killer7 incident indicates that he probably pushed Emir into his psychological collapse and subsequent suicide attempt, though this is never outright stated in-game.
 |
| Also, he's the most powerful persona in Killer8... |
As stated earlier, the final Harman Smith is discovered at the very end of the game, located underneath the Colosseum of Battleship Island. If he is the original Harman Smith, for him this is an extremely ironic turn of events since he is a representative of the Western aesthetic and he has been imprisoned in the East.
If this dead Harman Smith is the true demi-god, it's possible that each Harman is a shadow of the original. They act as avatars, enacting his will in his absence. This indicates that his power his immense since he can not only control multiple iterations of himself, but he can still control the version assimilated by Emir.
The Old Harman persona, in particular, appears to be confined by Garcien's consciousness, forced to be in a wheelchair and behave as Emir remembered him. However, he seems to be manipulating the Killer7, using them in his chess game to defeat Kun Lan. The mentor role suits him as a way that he can get through to Garcien/Emir and manipulate him.
Because Harman is being physically cared for by Samantha Sitbon, this indicates that he does have a physical presence. It's likely that this man may not be Harman, but a catatonic man who is possessed by the Old Harman persona. The personality starts out dormant, being abused by Samantha Sitbon, his caretaker, in Harman's Room. However, when the lights are turned off, he becomes dominant and she takes on the persona of the subservient Samantha Smith. By the Smile chapters, the Old Harman personality has disappeared, leaving behind a deceased and possibly raped Samantha. This indicates that the personality may have fully awoken from her abuse, breaking away from Garcien's psyche and allowing the catatonic man to awaken and get his revenge on her.
4. Who are the Killer7?
While the game outright states that the Killer7 are all controlled by the Garcien persona, there are many lingering questions that put such revelations under some doubt, especially in regards to their physical manifestations. The Smiths are all a single being, Garcien Smith. As stated earlier, each Smith is a manifestation of a deceased member of the Union7 absorbed into Emir Parkreiner's psyche, save for Garcien himself.
Each psyche's abilities correspond directly to how Emir dispatched them. Kevin Smith, a master of invisibility and evading detection, was immediately killed due to his weak bellhop disguise. Mask de Smith, the epitome of a true luchador Hero, was effortlessly bumped off while in the shower. Con Smith, gifted with super speed and heightened senses, was shot while idle, completely unaware of Emir's presence. KAEDE was killed while hiding behind a barrier and thus now can break barriers with her blood. Furthermore, KAEDE's dress has a bloodstain from her fatal wounds, a possible mark of her cowardice as she was the only Smith to try fleeing Emir. Coyote Smith, the greatest thief in the world capable of scaling unreachable areas, was outflanked and killed. Dan Smith, a powerful, cocky gunman capable of firing balls of energy at enemies, was all bark and no bite, first being easily killed by Curtis (who he later kills while part of the Killer7 collective) and later being killed by Emir in a standoff. Finally, Harman Smith was the original mentor of Emir who failed to stop him from massacring the staff and students of Coburn Elementary School. Thus, he gained God Killer powers that could dispatch any enemy with a single shot (save for Kun Lan). Garcien himself is similar since he gains the power of resurrection and acts primarily as backup, marking a complete divergence from his role as Emir, the most dangerous assassin in the world.
When Garcien reaches a dilemma, he brings forth a persona. How he does this is left very uncertain despite what definite information Killer7 presents, though some possibilities exist...
First, Garcien's cleaner case contains all of the Killer7 weapons, indicating that they were physically used, by either Garcien believing himself to be a specific Smith or him actually taking on their physical appearance as well. During Encounter, Curtis Blackburn actually sees Dan Smith when they duel, offering the only clear proof of Garcien's form shifting to actually resemble that of the Killer7. Perhaps this is an ability he acquired from absorbing one of the Harman Smith avatars. After all, principal Harman and his later form as a Garcien psyche were both imbued with the power of the true Harman deity, mainly since Kun Lan and the Garcien psyche behave as if nothing was wrong.
Garcien loses the ability to harness psyches with the appearance of the Black Heaven Smiles due to the resurgence of the Emir Parkreiner personality. Apparently, Emir had been trying to break free throughout the whole game, mainly since Johnny Gagnon talks about the abilities of Garcien's Smith Syndicate (due to their superpowered abilities) and is describing them to Emir, specifically when Emir could not have existed.
When Harman disappears and Emir re-awakens, he has effectively been freed from the hold of Harman. Destroying the Heaven Smiles becomes the final link to the great chess match between Harman and Kun Lan, and, more importantly, Emir's connections to the East and West.
The final Smile itself combines elements of Iwazaru, Harman's most loyal servant, and Kun Lan's visage, heavily implying that destroying them ultimately severs Emir's connection to their war in both a concrete and abstract sense.
5. The Ending
Prior to eliminating the Last Smile, the revived Emir has the option of killing or sparing Matsuoka. The former route indicates that Emir still sides with the U.S. government despite being lied to and manipulated by them, while the latter indicates his loyalty to Japan in his previous life. It fascinates me how this scene ultimately shows how Emir deals with his past, leaving the player with a decision that must favor one side of the America Vs Japan conflict occurring within the smaller microcosm of Emir's past and present.
But, what I love is that it really doesn't matter. No matter what happens, the game reaches the same inevitable conclusion: In 100 years, Japan and America will be irrelevant, supplanted by China, which only serves as Kun Lan and Harman's newest battleground. It's an amazing ending that demonstrates the cyclical nature of history and how we are all caught between the balance of light and dark, yin and yang (not good and evil exactly... Morality's very scuttled in Killer7). Despite the end of the Heaven Smile threat, Kun Lan will continue to cause chaos and Harman will continue to curb it, as they maintain the global balance of power. For immortal demi-gods, such brief and fleeting events are minor nuisances that hardly register in the grand scale of things. While it makes the adventure of Killer7 seem pointless, it really doesn't. The game ironically flips things around, instead making the conflict of Kun Lan vs Harman the background, while making Emir's journey the true focus. It's about a killer who fought for one side and then broke his ties from that war, starting anew. I'm satisfied with how that story was told.
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| "The world won't change. All it does is turn." |
Copies are tough to find. They are super rare. You can't get them at retail stores, gamestop or even amazon. Ebay has 'em, but they are $40 for a like new complete set. Cheapestone I could find was $30, but you need to pay in bitcoins http://bit.ly/Killer7
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