When people die in Suikoden

[Kobold]

I'm asking this mainly with focus in Suikoden 2. When you kill an enemy, even if its a human, say Highland soldier, they show them disappearing. Since this is just a battle animation, it might be worth little notice.

However, when you return to Muse with Milkotov to witness the Beast Rune slaughtering Muse citizens, a particular citizen runs out from Jowston hill, on the verge of death. When he dies, the man fades away, leaving no corpse.

My question. Do people simply disappear after they die? But there is another countering factor. The fact that there is a cemetry in the castle, and that Neclord raises corpse to make them into zombies. This suggests that dead people ARE buried.

However, this brings me to another point to justify that dead people disappear. Nanami's "death". In this instance, i am assuming that Nanami doesn't die, and is simply feigning death. After Nanami dies, the leader of the alliance army's sister dies, and there is no funeral or whatsoever? Even if funerals don't exist in the Suikoden world, wouldn't Riou at least go in and see his sister's dead body for the last time? Just after Huan announces that she's dead, everyone just walks away? They don't care about seeing the body at all? So much so that Huan can even ask Shu in right away on the spot to allow them to have a conversation?

How unrealistic is that? Thus with this point occuring, i would assume that it is a norm for bodies to disappear after they die, thus the people had no intentions of needing to see the body. As corny as this perspection sounds, it comes with the backed visual proof where the citizen in Muse faded away.

Thus, my query would be, do people disappear after dying, or are there corpse remaining like how the real world is? Or is this just negligiance on Konami's part? Where they simply haphazardly made the Muse citizen's body fade away, and didn't pay enough attention to make Nanami's death fein more realistic?
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Kobolds are great!

[Glen Cott]

When you go to North Window for the first time, Neclord comments on how well the graves were dug. Therefore they must be buried, which is what most of the evidence points to.

About Nanami, maybe no-one wanted to see her dead body, maybe its not their custom, who knows?

[Excalibur1027]

I'm going to say that the muse citizen and Nanami's "death" were just negligiance on Konami's part. Plus, further proof that dead people don't just dissapear after death:

SPOILERS FOR S1 and S2!!!!!!
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In S1, Odessa asks you to throw her body in the river so that the Liberation army doesn't loose faith. If she was just going to dissapear anyways then there would have been no need to. And it's said later in one of the Shinsyos that Culgan and Seed's bodys were found in the ruins of L'Renouille.
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[Sophita]

I think they must normally bury the bodies. There's been a graveyard in every game, which suggests that they must bury the bodies, since otherwise, why would they have them? Graveyards serve a pretty specific purpose. :p

I think the muse citizen dissapearing was done for two reasons - 1) Konami wanted to enhance the visual surprise by having the body fade, and wanted you to move on, instead of poking some dead guy, and 2) though this is going to sound absolutely stupid, I think the golden wolf thing just kinda sucked away his energy/soul until he didn't exist anymore.

As for Nanami, well, I think part of that was oversight on Konami's part, but I also think it's likely that Riou had his hands full with the war and didn't have time to really grieve; they may have simply held her funeral after the war. Riou might have wanted to avoid seeing her body until he had to. *shrugs*
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[Jurhael]

I think that the body disappearing was just for the effect. It was a way of letting the player know that the person is dead, so you don't have to be reminded when you see the body.
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[Yumi]

Correct me if I'm not remembering correctly, but in Suikoden 2, during the final invasion of L'Renouille, don't the dead bodies of some of the Highland soldiers that are in a set position remain on the ground after you defeat them?

In addition, at the very beginning of the game, can't you see some of the dead members of the Unicorn Brigade lying around?

[TheStrategist]

[Aurelien]

I think I agree with most people here that said that the disappearing bodies is just a gameplay effect and definitely not for storyline purpose.

The graveyards are definitely the most legit proof to support theory of people being buried. Genkaku was buried behind his dojo. Elza was faking her death by using a fake grave to fool Clive. And other proofs that are mentioned by others already.

For Nanami's body not being shown, I think it's more because Konami didn't want to pay too much detail on dead characters. From the gameplay point, Ridley could die and yet we didn't get to see his body. Kiba died and we didn't get to see his body either. It's assumed that "the players accept that X is dead". Hence, no need to have any proof at all to show that X really died.

For the storyline point on why Riou believed that Nanami was dead even without seeing the body or no funeral or whatever, we wouldn't know because it's possible that Riou did see Nanami's body (and her still faking the death). And Riou most likely wouldn't want to put her body in the casket (or if he wanted to, Shu could call him somewhere to make him not be in the same room as the "dead Nanami"). Hence, leaving an opening for the switch to happen (hide the real Nanami and put something else or even empty casket).

I agree with Sophita on the Muse citizen disappearing. Those two reasons are what I had in mind as well.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Marshmallow]

My theory with the Muse citizen was that he was drained by the Beast Rune, therefore, his body and soul were absorbed by the Rune so that it could materialize in its true form.

[Gwendal]

[Cirape]

While i'm quite of the mind to belive that people, or humans atleast, who die in the Suikoden universe leave bodies behind, the 6th volume of the Suikoden 3 manga brings up a question similar to this ((so I put it here, pyo)).
Spoilers for Suikoden 3/S3 manga. Highlight to view, unless you have a non-default color setting then, um...you were warned .oO
When Jimba/Wyatt dies in the manga, after Chris has taken his True Water Rune, his body just simply...disappears. Perhaps this is because the True Rune had sustained his life for so long ((I can't recall how old he is though...)), that now that he is without it and already dead his body just fades back into the etherial mists. Which would mean that ALL True Rune bearers, or atleast those who have lived longer than a normal Suikoden-world lifetime, would fade away like this once killed. Or, atleast, once the rune is removed and the body has died.

Or does someone else have more information on this? Something to explain why that happened or tear my theory--based on nothing, mind you--apart?
I'm quite certain that the S3 manga shows dead people elsewhere, but I haven't rechecked all 6 issues to be positive.
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Where am I going--I don't quite know. What does it matter where people go?
Off to the woods where the blue bells grow--Anywhere! Anywhere! I don't know.
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[Stampede]

Well, that makes sense, considering that their bodies are held together magically and not naturally. You remove the magical element that keeps the body composed and it falls apart. Like cutting the wire that keeps the big stack of poles together that just happens to be conveniently placed for a chase scene in a martial arts movie.
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Continue to push until it has given, by the way.

[unknown]

if you ask me they just didn't put blood and such in game for the rateing. I vet if it wasn't ment for all they would prolly put more blood and gore on deaths but this game is really ment for eveyone rather then the older fans. But thats just my thoughts.

~unknown~
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"The light in my eyes may have faded, but the light in my soul continues to shine."
~ Morgan, Suikoden 1

[Elc]

[Rheo]

I was in a similar situation as Elc, so I understand what he is saying. My father passed away last year, and I chose not to look at his body in the funeral. I dont regret that choice. I know what he looked like in life, I feel that this is enough, the face of my father that I remember.
(and with all those make up on, my aunt told me he didnt look like my dad AT ALL anyway)

I have said this in another topic, Riou is regarded as the hero of Dunan Army. He is supposed to lead the army towards victory at all cost, "I am really sorry for your sister Lord Riou; now lets talk about the strategy for the next battle" He is not even allowed to be depressed. They do have a war to fight after all, and to put it very rudely, its just one person's death. If the war continues, there will be a lot more death than one.

I guess Riou is too busy preparing for the war, and actually seeing his sister's body might really make him broke down. and I think Riou really believes his sister died. He saw her get hit by an arrow, dying in his arm, and then the army doctor told him she died.

As for the others in the army, since Riou hasnt seen the body, and he is the younger brother who should be the first one to do that, they might feel they shouldnt ask to see the body. I mean, usually people dont ask to see the body, they usually go see the body when they are asked if they want to see it or not.

For the funeral part, they might have hold a very small and private funeral for Nanami with a empty casket, or Shu can tell Riou they should hold the funeral after the war in Kyaro (It makes sense that Nanami would have like to be buried in her hometown) Anyway, its not too important so they dont show it in the game
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