Beyond the Sky
So tell me... how was it, being alive?
warning: this page contains heavy spoilers for the entirety of Xenoblade Chronicles 1. it is highly recommended that you beat the game before viewing this page. or don't, i don't control you.
ah, Dickson. everyone's favourite Hulk Hogan-lookalike. minor character in the game, major character in my heart. duplicituous bastard. horrible, horrible man who lives rent-free in my head. i don't know exactly why i latched onto this asshole as much as i have, but i'm about to make it everybody's problem.
i've heard various complaints over the years that he's a blatantly-telegraphed twist villain; that his character is flat and one-dimensional. this page exists as a directory of all my observations and arguments as to why that's not the case. like many things in Xenoblade, Dickson is a character who's better understood on subsequent playthroughs; the nuances of his character shine most clearly when equipped with full knowledge of the game's story.
i'll be the first to admit that this is going to be biased by my subjective opinion. while i do wholeheartedly believe that there is evidence in the text to support this reading of his character, and have done my best to back up my points with the relevant evidence, these arguments aren't going to be bias-free. ultimately, i'm making these arguments to illustrate my overarching point: that Dickson cared about Shulk. i will die on this hill.
currently, this page is just a straight copy-paste of various ramble-essays i've posted over on tumblr, all collected in one place for easy browsing. i intend to add to this page over time, as i collate more of my thoughts and / or present them in a much more cohesive format.
he literally throws himself in the way of a lethal blow to protect dunban during the battle of sword valley. his mission was only to get the monado into shulk’s hands to facilitate zanza’s return; dunban never had to be alive for that. dickson could’ve just let dunban die and retrieved the monado after things died down but he didn’t. and dickson’s not exactly characterised as a charitable person; risking his life for the sake of another isn’t something he’d do without a damn good reason, especially when doing so has no perceived benefit to his overall character motivations.
i just reached satorl marsh in my current replay of xenoblade and the more i replay the game the more i appreciate this section in terms of its narrative implications
and i’m mostly talking about dickson here (because let’s be real when am i not) but like ??? everything he says during the brief segment that he accompanies the party is absolutely loaded with double-meaning. damn near every sentence out of his mouth is cast in a new light upon completing the game and learning of his true identity & motivations
which is why i find it so intriguing that during that one scene between him and shulk (‘so it is written’) he brings shulk’s parents up out of the blue for seemingly no reason ??? specifically he says “forgive me, shulk. sorry i couldn’t save your folks.”
at this point shulk’s already moved on to talking about exploring the world; it’s dickson who circles back and drops this comment about shulk’s parents, rather awkwardly at that, into the conversation. and it just kind of struck me how weird that is? most of what dickson says in that scene alludes very subtly to his identity and motivations. he initially starts the conversation by reminiscing about finding shulk on valak mountain – which, ymmv here, but to me reads very much as, like, “shit that time’s flown by and you’re already stepping into this destiny that’s been set out for you pretty much from birth”. all his talk of 'shulk being part of a higher plan’ seems, on first watch, to be extremely heavy-handed writing for the sake of the audience; only on subsequent viewings does it become clear it’s dickson trying to nudge shulk in the direction he wants him to go.
but the parent comment. in a scene so full of double-meaning and hidden intentions, it sticks out even on subsequent replays for not seemingly having a double meaning ?? and yet. i can’t quite settle on a satisfying reason for dickson saying that. he would have known there was no way to save shulk’s parents, given how they died. shulk himself hadn’t mentioned them before that point in the convo. and, if we accept the game’s characterisation of dickson as this duplicitous, power-hungry guy who’s remorselessly willing to kill those he’s been closest to for the last fourteen years, then why would he care at all about the deaths of shulk’s parents, these two people he didn’t even know?
the only way i can make it make sense in my head is by rejecting that characterisation. by rejecting the idea that dickson was nothing more than power-hungry and remorseless. sure he was duplicitous as all hell, and he probably didn’t start out caring about shulk (and the others) but i think he did, by the end. (i have so many reasons for thinking this but i’m not gonna elaborate bc this is already turning into an essay lol) and i think his comment about shulk’s parents is his way of… admitting guilt? or remorse? at the fact that it’s shulk who got wrapped up in this. at the fate that shulk has in store for him. and that if they hadn’t died in the tower that day, shulk probably would have lived a normal life, raised by genuine people who cared for him, instead of by someone who was deceiving and manipulating him to satisfy the whims of a cruel god.
because dickson wound up caring, too late, and that comment is perhaps the only means he has of admitting his regrets (even to himself).