where there's a will there's a way

Character Name; Milla Maxwell

Canon; Tales of Xillia (game) (character)

Canon Point; Post-game

Age; 20

House; Heimdall

Power; Damage Drain

There are two sides to Milla Maxwell: Maxwell, the duty-bound spirit, and Milla, the human girl.  Upon first impression, Milla is a confident, forward, and driven woman with an intense preoccupation with her duty. She’s defined by her indomitable willpower and her unshakable conviction. She never falters from her path, never hesitates to do what must be done, and initially is well willing to sacrifice others for the greater good. Her single-mindedness can often be to the detriment of herself and others, although thankfully she’s learned to be less callous, more flexible. 

Her life of isolation has led her to have difficulty relating to people in the usual way, and at first she sees the world quite rigidly. Originally Milla viewed human nature as inherently corruptible, despite her fascination with humans, whereas she saw spirits as fixed upon a higher degree of purity, although she’s learned both of these views to be false. Much of her knowledge of the world is derived from books, and many of her humorous communication mishaps with her human companions derive from her almost encyclopedic view of the world. She has a childlike curiosity and enthusiasm for new experiences and learning new things (continuous nasal discharge...), and a fierce need to belong.

But for a long while she’s dedicated to her duty largely for duty’s sake. The reality is that Milla has never actually known anything else, and she follows the path before her because it gives meaning to the shape of her life. It’s only upon meeting Jude and developing her relationship with him that she begins to really become emotionally invested in her duty. Jude sees her as a hero, and so a hero Milla tries to become.
 

Her time with the party brings her more in touch with her own humanity. She learns to empathize with her enemies, learns the value of patience and compassion over reckless action. Her dual identities as Milla and Maxwell begin to grow disparate, such as when she activates the Lance of Kresnik onboard the Zenethra specifically to save her friends, even though it runs counter to her stated mission. She’s capable of that kind of human selfishness too, just as she knows the true Lord of Spirits is capable of grace prejudice and graver mistakes.
 

What Milla didn’t know was that she was never a spirit to begin with, but merely an ordinary human woman created by Maxwell in a gambit to draw out Exodus. But even learning the truth doesn’t cause her to falter, and dying doesn’t stop her. It’s precisely because of her growth as a person that she’s able to become the true spirit Maxwell in the end. Milla doesn’t choose to become Maxwell strictly because of her conviction that it is the right and just thing to do, but because she’s come to care so strongly for life, which Maxwell represents. She knows it’s what she’s meant to do.

Network Sample; Here

Elympios is not what she had expected.

It’s difficult to dredge through her memories of this world, to determine how much Maxwell fabricated and how much is derived from her own imagination. She’d pictured it as a desolate wasteland, appropriate for a prison for the shadows of humanity. And it is, of course. But there’s still the small garden struggling to grow outside of Balan’s apartment building, and the children playing at the corner, the sisters walking down the sidewalk arm-in-arm and laughing happily. There’s still life here.

Her hand at her side brushes the spot on her thigh where the Aspyrixis once clung, and she glances down to observe it thoughtfully. She remembers the ghost of the pain that had coursed through her body, long familiar as the rush of mana from spirit channeling. There’s no need for it now. She can walk just fine again under her own power. She hadn’t even noticed when it fell off, preoccupied as she’d been with her new mission here on Elympios. Find a way to save Elympios and Rieze Maxia. Stop Gaius.

Gaius. They leave in the morning for their final confrontation with him, and despite her words to Jude and the others, she does feel some disquiet over it. It’s too easy to see the shadow of herself in Gaius, so dedicated to principles for principle’s sake without an underlying sense of compassion. It was how she’d been before Jude and the others had taught her another way. That people were capable of change.

She’ll have to face her sister, too, which bids other complex thoughts. It’s probably not the natural course of things, to meet one’s sister and fight her so immediately this way, with so many lives on the line. Milla still can’t say she understands family. But this is her own family, and she can only try to make it work. Make Muzet understand humanity, complex and contradictory as it is, though Milla may not be the best person to convey it.

Because, is she human, despite her upbringing, despite truly being a spirit now? Was she ever? She looks down over her corporeal body, still the same shape, occupying the same boundaries. It certainly looks human. But humanity is more than that. It’s lies and treachery sometimes, innocence and solitude at others; guilt and atonement, trying hard and falling below your mark. Sometimes it’s feeling lost, sometimes knowing exactly where you are. Sometimes it’s all those things and more.

And it’s worth protecting.