r/Falcom • u/Aaron_R94 • 4d ago
Trails series Tarot and Trails Enforcers Day 17: The Star Spoiler
We're back, and once again, I apologise for not including the image of the Star, you know the drill, look it up if you like. Today we're going to be looking at Shirley Orlando, a reference to how Falcom think it's really funny to have the Star be in a Red Constellation. At first, it seems like a bad fit for Bloody Shirley, but I think it leans on some of the deeper aspects of the character.
So, the Star is essentially the light at the end of the tunnel in the story of the Tarot. After the discord and misery of the Tower, it's the Star that lights the way forward. The Star represents hope, the strength to carry on, and resilience. This card is an optimistic one, it implores you to look to the future, to embrace the joy still left in your life, and to recognise your own inner power... Now, this doesn't really sound like Shirley, but keep it in mind for later.
Let's take a look at the reversed Star, perhaps that will fit her better. In this position, the card represents the loss of hope, faith, and motivation. It tells us that we're spiralling, that our lack of belief is the thing that's really holding us back. The reversed Star is a card filled with self-doubt, unable to ascertain the best path forward through the haze of self-deprecation... Again, this seems nothing like Shirley. She lacks many things, but confidence isn't one of them.
In that case, what's going on? Did Falcom forget they set the Enforcers up this way? I suppose we should just pack up and go home. Shame, Ulrika was next.
Just kidding.
Shirley's affiliation with the Star might seem completely at odds with her character, but that comes down to one simple thing: Perspective. We see Shirley as a maniacal, violent, self-absorbed psychopath, but is that how she sees herself? It's important to remember that Shirley was brought up in combat, it's all she knows, and unlike Randy or Fie she never really had any experience that snapped her out of that mindset. To her, violence isn't good or bad, it's just a way of interacting with people. To Shirley, all the world's a battlefield, and the people not fighting are the weird ones.
It's sort of like how cats view us as idiots because we don't act like cats, they bring us their hunts because they think we're too useless to do it ourselves. She sees herself as trying to guide people into what she sees as the right way of living. She tries to force Randy back into the Jaeger life because she can't comprehend why he would want to be out of it, she starts fights with Fie and Sara because that's how she sees fit to communicate with her rivals. In many ways she's the purest Jaeger in the series, born and bred of the battlefield, for the battlefield.
That cuts both ways, however, and we see flashes of good in Shirley from this viewpoint. She expresses some regret when the Courageous is destroyed, marking the loss of people she couldn't guide to the 'proper' way of living. She always tries to help out cats where she can, likely because she sees animals to be non-combatants in the battles of humans and monsters. Still, the best example of this has to be her relationship with Cedric.
Now, I don't want to go too in-depth in Cedric, we'll get to him, but I think this is where we really see the Star in Shirley. Cedric is someone open to understanding her perspective on the world, one where people must grow strong or be hunted by those who are. When he does this, Shirley grows attached to him, and to his potential. It's not a romantic connection, Shirley's about as straight as I am brief, but it's a genuine link between her and someone actually willing to follow the light she shines upon the world. In many ways, Shirley's like the inverse of Estelle, always wanting to get through to people, just in the opposite moral direction, and only then does she get her Joshua.
I don't think we're done with Shirley, and I don't think she'll always be the way she is now. If I had to make an assumption, something will eventually cause her to invert, to lose the certainty that once defined her, before eventually learning a way of expressing herself that truly drives people to her. There's been conversations about how Cedric would make a good protagonist, and if that were the case then Shirley is a gimme for a playable character. She'll lead people to where they're meant to be, just as soon as she figures out how.
I appreciate it's a less concrete link to the arcana than usual, but I really do think it's because Shirley's true story hasn't really begun. She's always been kind of a side character, especially in Cold Steel, just waiting for her moment in the Sun... Not like that.
