a heavy dude named Ashtar
sets it all in motion
I don't know if Ash is supposed to be a cyborg or a demon or a devil or an angel
-I tend to see demons, devils, and angels as the enforcers for different styles of spooky authoritarianism, BTW-
but he’s got schemes afoot,
he's standing tall upon the battlements of a Dracula’s Castle,
he's got a messenger ninja kneeling before him with portentous news,
-the music of Chaosium Sword is maybe one of the most ominous opening themes on the NES-just feels like a gate of evil opening upon the Majesty and Mystery of World Annihilation-
lightning bolts, fer shoot'n'darn's fuckin' sakes coming out of boiling shadow clouds,
this Ashtar dude's got all the atmosphere backing him up,
but let's get back to the message
which is that the occultist maniac big bad of the previous installment has been killed,
and this defeat
is just a part of Ash's own secret scheme
or something
so right off the bat
this Ashtar dude is making like a Puppet Master Supreme
like
this is the dude that was secretly trying to fuck up all of our shit
or something
and as we go along
Ashtar reveals that he's packing a Dark Sword of Chaos
and he ain't afraid to put it to deadly work
okay
so we know who our big bad is for number two
and we gotta endure levels and field commander boss fights
'til we can put our Dragon Sword of righteousness through Supreme Commander Ashtar's fearsome skull
but
when we finally kill Ashtar
the Chaosium Sword disappears
and we have more danger road to travel
before we can nod our heads to the Staff Roll theme
okay
so
like
was it the Chaosium Sword Itself that was in charge this whole time?!?!
maybe
the soul of a warrior is said to reside within their sword, right?
our protagonist is the Ninja Dragon Ryu Hayabusa, himself just the latest in a lineage of shadow warriors wielding the bodacious Dragon Sword
so you could say that the Dragon Sword and the Chaosium Sword embody opposed souls of Good and Evil
persistent cosmic forces that outlive the Individuals who carry the battle forward
to whatever outcome
fated or random or brought on by the prowess of those who
by choice or destiny or chance
take up
whichever blade
something along those lines
of course
in the end
Jacquio
our enemy from the first game returns
enhanced'n'mutated by his time in hell
into a fanged and metamorphic screenfilling multiform pain-in-the-ass
and when we finally 86 Jacquio all over and again
we know he's vanquished for true
when the blood drinking Chaosium Sword
shatters
like a cheap prop
but what of Ashtar?
who or what the hell was he?
was there behind-the-scenes drama that required him to be written out of the big bad spot?
maybe Ashtar was the 8-bit version of some insufferable Method Actor fuckstick that the devs couldn't stand
so they were like, "To hell with it"
and they just brought in Jacquio to reprise his big bad routine from the previous game
or maybe Ashtar stormed off the cartridge
refused to do any more levels
I don't know
but it's always struck me as strange they spent so much time building up Ashtar
but then he's not the guy
y'know?
maybe
Ashtar
was an unwitting projection of Jacquio
who was still burning in hell
and so Ashtar was
like
Jacquio's video game avatar way of being In the World, and getting his claws on the Chaosium Sword
even as his soul was roasting
but maybe Ashtar didn't even realize he was an ersatz big bad, y'know?
you wake up
realize you're just a pawn
even tho' you absolutely believed
you were the Puppet Master
kind of a bummer for Ash
and he had a cool look
I thought
but looks aren't everything.
-October 1999-November 2021
