Quick Questions...

[Accoch63]

Alright. When Rhue killed Jeruh, he took on his memories. How? Was it the Shadow Sword that absorbed Jeruh's aura? If so, then why didn't Rhue take on new memories upon absorbing other auras? Say, for instance, Cade's (the Aratotzi member who Jopaga aura-sucked)?

Number 2, Rhue killed Jeruh only a few minutes before the beginning of Ep. 1, right?

Finally, if the whole sequence of Serena falling into the river was a lie, how did Rhue believe that instead of the real story when he absorbed Jeruh's memories? My assumption is that it was because Jeruh had been telling himself the lie for so long that when Rhue absorbed the memories, his Shadow Sword didn't know which to accept and simply took on the most agreeable. Would I be correct?

[Dr. Casey]

1. I dunno.

2. Correct.

I assumed that Rhue absorbed Jeruh's persona, not just his memory. He did lighten up considerably after absorbing Jeruh's aura, although he returned to his Bandit Wanderer ways before too long.

[Masked Gamer]

I think I get it. Japoga at one point defines an aura as "the shadow of a soul".
In other words, the aura is like a real world manifestation of the soul. Which is maybe why Mimic absorbed Rhue and not Jeruh. Jeruh can't change his soul, but he can change how his soul effects the world. So when Mimic absorbed his aura he was affected by Jeruh's fake persona.

As for why only Jeruh's aura affected Mimic... I'd say it's probably like whomever said: after a shadow sword absorbs too many auras, stuff just gets jumbled, perhaps Jeruh was just that breaking point (or one breaking point in Mimic's cycle of existence).

[Sage Of The Wise]

No, I think Jeruh's aura took over because the aura that was dominant before was Midian (just guessing) and when he killed Jeruh, Midian's goal had been fufilled and the shadow sword needed a new aura to impose on Rhue so he would continue having a reason to go around the Way killing people. It chose Jeruh seeing the search for Serena as a good way to get Rhue killing more people. Maby it could even tell Serena was actually dead so it knew Rhue would never find her and continue the forever.

[Imoto]

That's fairly likely, considering how the PS tries to do all those Serena mind games in DE.

[Legend of the Past]

I'd assume that the Shadow Sword chooses only certain Auras to be dominant. Rhue STILL has bits and pieces of other people's pesronalities, no one can say that Jeruh and Rhue after absorbing his Aura acted alike. It was just the memories that changed-Rhue said that he went through the same thing Jeruh's 'Rhue' went through, and had the same mission. The Sword takes the memories that would push Rhue forward, so he can keep on feeding it with Auras, like SotW suggested.

[Sage Of The Wise]

Yeah, we know that Rhue still had bits and pieces of old memories attached to the one he has now. Like seeing the end of the way where Landorin is, and I think the memory of him and Serena gazing at the stars was really Midian's memory.

[Noodles]

Oh yeah.. So Mimic or whatever it is kills Midian, absorbs his aura and memories, calling himself Midian for sometime (which is why the bounty hunter mistakes Rhue for Midian way back.. And explains Gaius comment about Rhue changing his name).

Finally he catches up to Jeruh who now calls himself Rhue (Of course Gauis might know him only as "Jeruh", therefore he doesn't recognise it when he meets up with Mimic/Midian/Rhue the next time). Once Jeruh is dead Midian's quest is over and so he no longer has a purpose... so his memories get kinda replaced by Jeruh's.. But Jeruh up to that point has tricked himself into believing he is this Rhue guy..

Deep down inside, our Rhue knew that Serena was dead and that he killed her.. But he was just doing exactly as Jeruh would do AND did.. Before he was killed that was.

[Masked Gamer]

So then it does seem plausible that one's aura is just what a person's own interpretation/filtering of their soul is. That's why when Rhue absorbs Jeruh's aura it's "Rhue" that he becomes.
I may be wrong, but dialogue wise I don't think it was suggested that Jeruh fooled himself into believing Serena was alive. However the fact that Jeruh is locked in the phantom's blade does suggest that Jeruh's true self, his real memories of Serena's death and possibly his soul are there beneath the Rhue aura all along. So maybe he WAS just lying to himself. I don't know.

[Noodles]

I may be wrong, but dialogue wise I don't think it was suggested that Jeruh fooled himself into believing Serena was alive.

Actually Jeruh clearly rejects the idea that Serena is dead when he is confronted in the top of the tower.

So then it does seem plausible that one's aura is just what a person's own interpretation/filtering of their soul is. That's why when Rhue absorbs Jeruh's aura it's "Rhue" that he becomes.

IMO: by the time Mimic kills Jeruh.. Jeruh has already embraced the Rhue identity. So what memories and personality that is actually absorbed is Jeruh telling himself that he is Rhue.. And that is what becomes our main character:

Someone pretending he's someone else when all the time he doesn't realize that he is actually neither of them.

EDIT: Something else I just thought of, right at the beginning the first bounty hunter Rhue encounters asks if the name Jeruh means anything to him.. Rhue hesistates. If the only memories that were absorbed was the "lie that was Rhue", then the name Jeruh should mean nothing to him

[Sage Of The Wise]

(Of course Gauis might know him only as "Jeruh", therefore he doesn't recognise it when he meets up with Mimic/Midian/Rhue the next time)

But Gaius did know him as Rhue, and he did recognise the name.

[Xusa]

I wonder what would have happened if Rhue decided to kill Jeruh's soul, spirit, whatever in Dream Estrana? Will Rhue just instantly dissapear? Or is this a stupid question?!

[Legend of the Past]

Rhue won't disappear. For starters, I doubt the Sword would let him do that. Second, he'll simply go catatonic for a while, until some other Aura gets into the top of the Arm of Estrana. (Imagines Rhue being Lexus) Hmm...

EDIT: Something else I just thought of, right at the beginning the first bounty hunter Rhue encounters asks if the name Jeruh means anything to him.. Rhue hesistates. If the only memories that were absorbed was the "lie that was Rhue", then the name Jeruh should mean nothing to him

You gotta keep in mind that '...' is Rhue's most-said line in Ep.1. It could be that he's adjusting to the new memories, or just trying to be a cool silent hero type-dude.

[Noodles]

But Gaius did know him as Rhue, and he did recognise the name.

Yeah, forgot that Gauis did recollect the name from somewhere.. Although it wasn't a definite recollection.. It all works out a little better if you consider that Gauis did recognise the name.

You gotta keep in mind that '...' is Rhue's most-said line in Ep.1. It could be that he's adjusting to the new memories, or just trying to be a cool silent hero type-dude.

'...' could mean absolutely nothing.. But something is telling me that it didn't in this case, maybe its just the music. Either way, I find it more plausable that Jeruh's memories tainted by the lie he told himself was absorbed; Rather then Rhue's memories being absorbed completely independant of Jeruh.

[Legend of the Past]

Of course, the Sword could of just sorted out the memories and only showed Rhue what he wanted. Jeruh's memories were combined with Midian's, so the Sword glued some memories together to give Rhue a purpose.