Luke fon Fabre

Luke fon Fabre (ルーク・フォン・ファブレ, Rūku fon Fabure, Luke fone Fabre) is a fictional character introduced in the 2005 role-playing game Tales of the Abyss by Namco Tales Studio. Luke is a young swordsman who has been living in a mansion in the Kimlasca Kingdom for seven years after being kidnapped and started suffering amnesia. His pampered life turns upside down when he unwittingly becomes the target of a military-religious organization known as the Order of Lorelei, who believe him to be the key to an ancient prophecy. Across his journey, Luke fights to stop an impeding war and matures as a person. He has also appeared in the anime and manga versions of the game as well other games within the Tales series.

Luke was created by game's staff to be a flawed person who despite being unlikable due to his personality would mature across the game. He was designed by Kōsuke Fujishima who wanted to show through his appearance his laziness, a sense of fashion as well as the fact he practises martial arts. He has been voiced by Chihiro Suzuki in Japanese and Yuri Lowenthal in English.

Critical reception to Luke's character has ranged from negative to positive based on his development in Tales of the Abyss. While initially seen as an unlikable person, his growth into a respectable hero across the story earned praise by critics. He has also appeared in multiple Tales polls where he has been voted as one of the series' most popular characters.

Creation and design

The producer of Tales of the Abyss, Makoto Yoshizumi, explained that the staff made the protagonist, Luke, unlikable in the beginning, being "selfish" and "annoying".^[1] These negative personality traits would generate dislike within gamers during the game's beginning, but over the course of the game, the protagonist would mature into someone so likable that the other main characters would comment, "Huh, Luke's not that bad".^[1] While such a character could turn off many players, Yoshizumi preferred a cast of "flawed characters" rather than a story in which "the fated protagonist had a perfect life and a perfect upbringing, and he grew up to defeat the demon king".^[1]

Character designer Kōsuke Fujishima noted that while Luke's clothing makes him look lazy, it was okay to have clothes that are outrageous since the setting was to have him wearing the most fashionable clothes of his time. As a result of being a main character, Fujishima wanted to show it in the design. He decided to show his abdomen as it was needed to show that he could combat in the production. Fujishima remains anxious about the character's design as he wonders what impression people have regarding how he always shows his abdomen. His pose is the result of the research from fashion books he bought which features boys who look like they hang out at Shibuya.^[2]

His Japanese voice actor is Chihiro Suzuki. Originally, Yasunori Matsumoto aimed for the role of Luke but Suzuki was picked instead. Suzuki had no idea as to the setting and how Luke looked like since there was no picture and then that he was told to use Shibuya as an image.^[3] Luke's English voice actor is Yuri Lowenthal.^[4][5] Lowenthal noted he could relate to the character due to his selfish nature and comically noted he lacked Luke's development.^[6]

Appearances

Luke cutting his hair signifies a change in his character to avoid making the same mistakes.

The main protagonist of the game, Luke is 17 and is the only son of a noble family in the kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. After being kidnapped at ten years of age, Luke lost all of his childhood memories, and upon being returned home was confined to the safety of the Fon Fabre manor. His isolation from the rest of the world leads him to become a rather immature, selfish kind of person with next to no knowledge of the world.^[7] His only hobby is swordsmanship. During a training session with Van Grants, Luke tries to protect his teacher from the assassin Tear Grants and the two are transported to the outer world.^[8] On his way back, Luke meets Colonel Jade Curtiss from the Malkuth forces who requests his help to stop an impending war using his status as a noble.^[9] When reuniting with Van, he learns he possesses the ability to create a "hyperresonance" on his own, an extremely powerful ability when two fonists of the same type use their abilities in tandem. Luke is convinced by his teacher to use his power to become a hero and stop war so that he would not be used as a weapon.^[10] Van manipulates him into using the hyperresonance to save the town of Akzeriuth from miasma to become a hero.^[11] However, this results in the town's destruction and Luke losing everybody's trust.^[12]

After Akzeriuth's destruction, Luke learns that he is actually a seven-year-old isofonically identical "replica" of Asch, the real Luke fon Fabre.^[13] This event, along with the abandonment of his friends, prompts Luke to change himself for the better, cutting his hair as a symbol of his resolve. He also asks Tear to look after him and to watch over him.^[14] Across the game, Luke also develops feelings for her to the point he once try confess them but decides not to.^[15] He then starts working with his comrades to protect the towns from being destroyed like Akzeriuth by using his hyperressonance on the Sephiroth trees.^[16] He fights Van who wishes to create a new world of replicas and emerges victorious.^[17]

A month after Van's defeat, Luke and his comrades become concerned with the appearance of miasma in the world. With no way of making it go away, Luke eventually decides to sacrifice himself alongside the new replica to destroy the miasma.^[18] Although he survives, a doctor later tells him he little time left alive.^[19] When dying, Asch gives Luke what remains of his power, allowing Luke to perform Second Order hyperressonance. Luke then confronts Van once again to free the spirit of Lorelei using his powers.^[20] After Van's death, both Luke and Asch's dead body are engulfed in a blinding light as Luke frees Lorelei.^[21] One year after the battle on Eldrant, and three years after the start of his initial journey, Luke is presumed to be dead. However, on the night of his coming of age ceremony, his twentieth birthday, Luke reunites with his friends.^[22]

Luke reprises his role from the game in the manga and anime adaptations of the series, as well as in the manga spin-off Tales of the Abyss: Asch: the Bloody.^[23][24][25] The Tales of the Abyss fandisc also features two segments where Luke roleplays with Tear and goes to visit a doctor, Jade.^[3] Luke also appears in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and the sequels Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 and Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 as a playable character.^[26] In Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave, Luke appears in Guy's serious scenario as his partner.^[27] He is also playable in Tales of VS.^[28] Outside the Tales series, he also appears in the PlayStation Portable version of Venus & Braves.^[29]

Reception

Critical reception to Luke has ranged from negative to positive based on his appearances in Tales of the Abyss. Based on a first impression from the game, Jeff Haynes from IGN called Luke a "spoiled and sheltered child" and noted how he was the opposite of Tear.^[7] GameSpot noted that while Luke "is highly obnoxious, at least at first, and the way the other characters riff off his behavior is entertaining."^[31] Casey Brienza from Anime News Network's saw Luke's interactions with Cheagle Mieu as a big appeal from the anime's second episode as "Anyone who has ever briefly nurtured homicidal thoughts when confronted by yet another cute anime creature will rejoice at his comedic whack-a-mole treatment and die laughing at his instantaneous hatred of its high-pitched squeal".^[32] Carl Kimlinger from the same site found the character irritating.^[33] Alex Fuller from RPGamer commented that "The exceedingly good handling of character development is easily Abyss' biggest storytelling strength. Luke's journey from selfish and sheltered brat into the final hero of the game is plotted superbly."^[34] Dan Whitehead from Eurogamer commented that Luke, in particular, stands out within the RPG genre's heroes "as his evolution from spoiled brat to worthy hero is enjoyably organic."^[35]

RPGFan's Abraham Ashton Liu commented that Luke was highly different from previous Tales protagonists due to his prominent unlikable traits which made his growth in the game highly notable.^[30] Richard Eisbeins from Kotaku also praised the character development of Luke in a review of the anime. He commented that while "Luke starts the series as one of the most unlikable protagonists in all anime", it "becomes less and less prominent over the first eight episodes of the series—as he develops a hero complex of sorts which drives him into the jaws of disaster. From that point on, however, he tries frantically to be better than he was—to think for himself and to do what he feels is right. And despite the occasional minor setback, he succeeds."^[36] Game Informer's Kimberley Wallace praised the development of the character as well as his relationship with Tear, commenting the two had one of the best moments in the games during the ending.^[37] On the other hand, Keza MacDonald from IGN stated that the development was "on his journey from total obnoxious jerk to slightly less of an obnoxious jerk" as the other characters were more likable than him according to the reviewer.^[38]

In a Famitsu poll from 2010, Luke was voted as the forty-ninth best video game character.^[39] He has also appeared in official Tales popularity polls where he was voted as one of the most popular characters from the series. He appeared third in the fourth poll,^[40] while in the two following ones he was fourth.^[41][42] In another poll from 2014, he was voted second.^[43] The character has also been popular within cosplayers.^[44][45][46]

References