F A N T H E O R I E S
Joachim's Back Story by
Moon
I also think that Walter was a lord, and Joachim could had been his loyal knight and best friend (Friendship similar
to Leon and Mathias?). Walter may had interested in alchemy, and search for the Philosopher's Stone. But in the end,
he got Ebony Stone and incomplete Crimson Stone, and then accidentally/intentionally turned into vampire. Walter may have
invited Joachim into eternal life as Mathias had invited Leon.
What may Joachim had done are:
1) He trusted Walter and accepted his invitation, followed Walter into the unknown world.
2) He refused and tried to persuade Walter to find a way to regain humanity. He may have loved his best friend too much
and could not fight Walter. In either case, Walter made him a vampire at last.
Whether Joachim had chose it or not, he soon became shocked at the slowly losing of humanity himself. He may even have tried
to kill himself (as a little rebellion to Walter?). Why did I think so? In his water prison, there are 3 orbs that would
protect him from all harm. But in the lonely water prison, who would be able to hurt Joachim except himself? From playing as
Joachim, we can see that it is not his power. So it seems that someone had put the 3 orbs there to prevent Joachim from hurting
himself. Now, the question comes to who did that? The most likely answer is Walter! Why Walter won't let Joachim die? Was it
the cruelty of wanting Joachim to suffer forever? Or just because he can't bear to see his best friend/loyal knight die?
The first reason is hate, the second is love (friendship is another kind of love, right?). Which one is the truth?
I believe that Walter did care about Joachim, and care more than anyone, including Joachim, could imagine. And Joachim, instead
of really hating Walter, care about him more then anything else in the world (No, I am not a fan of Walter, I am only a fan of
Joachim. And no, I am not trying to make m/m pairing for them ^_^). I don't actually like Walter, I am just trying to figure out
the truth.
The water prison may not be a real prison to lock Joachim at all!
1) Walter didn't chained Joachim as the Forgotten One, along with the three protective orbs, the water prison seemed more
like a protection room than a prison.
2) The so-called water prison had no seal as all, and didn't seem to be able to stop Joachim from leaving.
Then, why was Joachim inside the Dark Palace of Waterfalls?
Joachim may not be a "complete" vampire. We never see him turn into a bat as Walter or Mathias. So he maybe much or less like
Sara's situation, feeling himself changing into something inhuman, gradually losing his humanity (Why this situation is so long
for him? I think it maybe the protective orbs or his strong will-power slow down the process). But Joachim was difference from
Sara in the way that he should had been able to save himself! The only thing would be to defeat Walter immediately.
From playing as Joachim, we know that Joachim don't need the vampire-killer whip, his swords can defeat Walter. By killing
Walter, he could save himself. He is not the prisoner of Walter, but the prisoner of his own heart. As Rinaldo had pointed out,
it is difficult to beloved one even she/he is no longer human. Joachim cannot point his sword at Walter, his lord and best
friend, as long as he hasn't lost all his humanity. He maybe angry with Walter, but he could never really hate Walter.
So Joachim locked himself there, unable to fight Walter to become human again, unable to bear the fact that he is turning into
a vampire, and unable to take his own life even if he wish to. You can't blame him for being melancholy, right?
Now, we move back to Walter. If Walter still had some sort of humanity, he would felt terribly shock and sorry when seeing
Joachim so desperate. He would had want to "turn back the tide" and make Joachim human again. He maybe willing to be defeated
by Joachim in order to save his best friend, but he also knew that gentle Joachim could never make up his mind to fight him. So
he may had setup a plan to help Joachim to fight him. Walter took Rinaldo's daughter and Leon's betrothed, made them go into the
castle and fight him. Is it really just a "cat and mouse" game to make the eternal life less boring? Or did he had a good reason? If we can accept the fact that Walter care about Joachim and wish to undo his curse on Joachim, then we can see that his "game" is no game at all!
Rinaldo had said that there is no way Walter could lose, no without the vampire-killer whip, but that's not true. Joachim's
swords can kill Walter too!
So for the heroes forced to play Walter's game, the situation is
1) In order to save their beloved ones, they need to defeat Walter immediately.
2) The only weapon that can defeat Walter is Joachim's sword.
In this case, the only way to win the game is find Joachim, persuade him to join and fight Walter before it is too late! The
purpose of the whole game is to force Joachim to save himself along with the innocence ones. Walter knew Joachim well, so he
believed that Joachim has the heart of a noble knight that won't let others suffer. If Rinaldo or Leon find Joachim and tell
him their sad tale, Joachim would not allow others to suffer his fate and will be willing to fight in the same side as them. On
the other hand, because of what their beloved ones had suffered (on the way of being turn into vampires), they would have pity
Joachim and see him as a friend rather than enemy when they heard his story. The whole game was actually a crazy but clever plan
to save Joachim!
But the game is too difficult, Rinaldo didn't make it. He didn't find Joachim before too late. So Walter decided to lower the
difficulty by allowing Rinaldo living near the castle and help the hunters.
And finally, Leon came into the story and made a way to Joachim's prison. There could be a happy ending. Leon could tell Joachim
about Sara, and Joachim would help him to defeat Walter and save Sara. Then, both Sara and Joachim could become human again. Leon
could marry Sara, and Joachim could become their new best friend. But what went wrong and made the whole things turn into a total
tragedy?
When Leon met Joachim, they were polite toward each other. Even when Leon found out that Joachim ¡s a vampire, he still had
great interest in Joachim and didn't want to fight him yet. After Leon discovered Joachim's origins by his unnatural red eyes,
Joachim's words turned from polite and gentle into bitter and violent. I think Joachim did it with the intention to make Leon to
dislike him, so that Leon can kill him without any sorrow and guilt. When Leon said, "This feeling...Are you a vampire?" Joachim
realized that he had already become more vampire than human. So his time of choosing whether defeats Walter or turns into vampire
forever had come. But he chosen the third way, he wants to die.
If Joachim had asked Leon to kill him, even if Leon grants his wish, Leon would feel sad and sorrow for him. Joachim had a gentle
and kind heart, so didn't want Leon to get hurt because of him. So instead of asking Leon directly, Joachim chose to insult Leon
by calling him ¡§lowly human¡¨ and force Leon to fight him. But it seemed that Leon could sense Joachim's noble heart and still
wanted to ask why he was locked away there. So Joachim intentional mention the Ebony Stone. The true meaning behinds "If you want
to know...BEAT ME" was "Please kill me!"
Why Joachim fought Leon with full strength? The reason may be:
1) To test if Leon has the ability to defeat Walter
2) Wish to fight a final battle with swordsman pride
3) Want to protect and fight for Walter for one last time.
Anyway, Joachim pretended to be a not-so-good person till the end, and warned Leon about the Ebony Stone, Crimson Stone and alchemy
in a way that Leon won't notice that he is helping with his last words.
So this is the end and truth of noble Joachim's sad story (in my point of view ^_^).
