MTG Color Analysis: Echo
Echo and its prequel The Smoke Room are two visual novels dear to my heart. I started playing the former way back in 2016 and it got me through some tough times. The latter meanwhile was only released recently and while its mostly its own thing it helps establish the setting and what exactly haunts Echo’s mysterious mines and is driving everyone crazy.
The basic setting is a town somewhere in the American Southwest that is infested by a supernatural horror. A group of friends that grew up in this town underwent a severe traumatic experience as one of their own died in a lake, and as the main character returns its time to either reveal what happened or be driven to madness.
The prequel, The Smoke Room, revolves around a male prostitute killing in self-defense, and the ensuing paranoia as the then prosperous town of Echo falls to madness.
Note: both works are NSFW. Spoilers ahead, play the games if you haven’t already.
So I’ve decided to make something I haven’t done in a long ass time, which is a color analysis of the many characters in these games, to see how they fit on the color pie. Enjoy!
Note that this list is currently incomplete; I’ll add more if I have the time to do so.
Chase Hunter
The main protagonist of Echo, Chase is an otter who suffers from an identity crisis. Once a little brat hellion, he has since cooled down, traumas leading dissassociation and self-hatred. He seeks to become a journalist, going to Echo for his school project.
Alignment wise, I think he’s a good example of a Blue/Black individual in a protagonist role. He feels insecure about his own identity and tries his hardest to figure himself out: perfection through opportunity. Though he is mostly nice, he himself is not free from nasty or selfish habits, though due to the town’s influence it is unclear if he has full autonomy over his actions.
As the routes go along we learn that the player character is not Chase himself but the ghost of Sam, the protagonist from The Smoke Room. Chase’s personality remains mostly intact (save the implication that Sam’s possession has made him more calm and reflected), but once he is free from Sam he expresses relief, clearly prioritising his own bodily autonomy. Blue/Black throught.
As a kid, he tended to be more abrassive and violent, so maybe Blue/Black/Red prior to his cooling down in his teen years.
Leo Alvarez
Leo is Chase’s ex-boyfriend, having departed in bad terms, but is still deeply in love with him over protective of both him and the rest of their friends. In Leo’s route, this love and protective instincts are twisted by the Echo entity into a flat out violent obsession, though hints of these negative qualities are seen in flashbacks in Jenna’s route.
This, combined with an occasional sun motif, clearly identifies Leo as a Red/White antagonist. He wants to keep his family together and protect them, and has some strong conservative beliefs and tendencies and a rigid sense of how things should be that cannot easily adapt (White), but is very emotional, both in his devoted, obsessive love towards Chase and in his violence towards anyone he perceives as a threat to their relationship (Red).
His controlling behaviour and paranoia may edge him a bit towards Black as well, but canonical Red or White characters behaving as he does(*coughHeliodcoughKondacoughGerrardwhenhegoesmadcough*) demonstrate that such is not necessary. His end goal is a very twisted form of peace, of stability in his life, not domination over others.
Flynn Moore
Flynn is a very important character as he was the best friend of Sydney, whose death traumatised the rest of the group. He constantly antagonises TJ, another member of the group, leading to friction with the rest of the gang. His route is easily the most spoilerific of the routes, where we learn what happened to Sydney (killed by Chase as he tried to defend TJ from Sydney’s bullying), possibly what’s causing the madness (quartz in the mines; see below) and that, in his quest for truth, he was turned into the horrific monster everyone keeps seeing, travelling through time and seeing decades worth of atrocities in Echo.
Flynn is self-assured and hedonistic. Being a lizard, this free spirit fits easily in Red. However, his ultimate goal is simply to find the truth about what happened to his best friend and find closure, thus going with Green’s acceptance endgoal. And yet, he’s not really content with life on Echo and tries to advance, first as a town hall clerk and then with potential future plans elsewhere, adding a bit of Black’s ambition. So, I think he is a good example of a Black/Red/Green character.
As the monster, his near instantaneous speed, chaotic disappearing acts and origin from beign burned alive while “fusing” with supernatural entities in the mountains makes think of several mono-Red monsters in the card game itself. Kinda like Neheb went from Black/Red to mono-Red once he became a zombie, ironically enough. Flynn did “lose pieces of [himself]” after all.
TJ Hess
Poor TJ had a rough life. Being bullied by other kids, witnessing a horrific deformed time-travelling Flynn before seeing Sydney’s death at Chase’s hands, this kitten is a ball of regrets and traumas that he compensates with by being a devout but non-judgemental christian (unlike some cunts who should be banned off the internet), so sheltered he can’t even tolerate swear words.
Ever nice and helping others out, TJ is primarily White aligned, reinforced by his attachment to religious dogma. However, as he does love hiking in nature you could argue there’s a bit of Green in him, while his analytical mind and intellectual pursuits pushes him a bit towards Blue. So, Green/White/Blue, the most goody-two shoes combination if not for the occasional tyrant. Which TJ is not, unfortunately.
Jenna Begay
The “girl option” in case you somehow don’t like gay furry romance, though you can also just be platonic friends with her. Born and raised in a Native reservation, Jenna’s early life was marked by poverty, bullying, parental abuse and mysterious hallucinations (time travelling burnt Flynn) she’d see when angry or upset. As such, she did everything in her power to study to become a psychologist, leaving Echo behind for grander pastures.
Jenna is a textbook example of a mono-Blue character, seeking perfection through knowledge. She studied to overcome the handicaps of her social and financial status both to escape the horrible shithole that is Echo as well as to understand the horrible things she saw and how the mind operates. A meritocrat at heart, she is emotionally reserved and expects others to put in the work she went through in order to improve themselves, fully buying Blue’s notions of tabula rasa.
Carl Hendricks
Heir to a vast family fortune, Carl was left with crippling social anxieties, having dropped out of college and deciding to just live his life in his bedroom, playing video games, reading comics and smoking weed. His insecurities do eat at him from the inside, but for the most part he is comfortable in his complacent, non-judgemental lifestyle, just wishing his friends were around more often in order to keep his mansion’s ghosts at bay.
In spite of some self-hatred and emotional sore spots for his inability to get a job and good grades, for having crashed a car, for not getting a stable relationship and a million other things, Carl is mostly content with living life as it is and gets downright irritated when others push for self-improvement. This fits perfectly with Green’s ideal of acceptance through harmony; though not much of a nature person, Carl certainly is down to relax and connect with others and his surroundings. You could argue there is a bit of Red in him as well, given his hedonism, emotional fragility and multiple interests.
Sydney Bronson
A posthumous character, not a lot is known from Sydney, all of which being from dialogue, flashbacks or, in this case, a hallucination Flynn had that was induced by Sam’s ghost. He grew up in a strict Mormon household with abusive parents who were provoked easily, the father commiting suicide suddenly as he realised how much of a dick he’d been. He had a massive interest in pirates and wrestling and love to drag others into treasure hunts, even throwing in a little poetry in his clue cards. Unfortunately, possession by Sam’s ghost lead toward abusive behaviour towards TJ, culminating in Chase finally killing him, believing him to have killed his own father and thinking he’d do the same to TJ.
Sydney was for all intents and purposes an artist, emotional person with a penchant for fighting, putting him well in Red. His love of elaborate, carefully prepared treasure hunts and pirates also seems to put him in Blue, and his craving for attention and social advancement narrows him on Black. As such, most likely Blue/Black/Red, fitting both his piracy obsesison and his status as a misunderstood person.
Samuel Ayers
Going back in time a century Sam is the protagonist of The Smoke Room. A gay prostitute in the 1910’s, he is stuck in the miserable town of Echo and wants nothing more than to leave it. He almost got the chance, but unfortunately he was tricked and forced to kill in self-defense, prompting him on a path to paranoia as he fears the consequences of his actions.
Sam is primarily motivated by a need for freedom and by fear, making him clearly primarily Red. Other characters describe him as kind, naive and considerate, which might indicate he is Red/White, but so far we only have their word on it. He is certainly God fearing at any rate.
William Adler
William is the sheriff in Echo during Sam’s era. He is ruthless, law abiding and paranoid as well as infected with internalised homophobia, but he does his best to protect Sam. Ultimately, he helps him out, both out of his ever-so-well-hidden feelings for him and as part of a plot to bring the mayor to justice,
William is an honorable man who enforces civic and moral law and seeks to protect the innoccent, but also paranoid, opportunistic and comfortable with people “getting what they deserve” and advising Sam to not “put out fires others made”. Textbook White/Black, in this case Black means for White ends but also with Black’s notions of responsibility and mild social darwinism. He also suffers from severe overcompensation being both gay and native, aspects of his identity he feels he needs to sacrifice in order to be a model citizen, further falling into White/Black’s love of bigoted morality.
Murdoch Byrnes
Contrasting William, this photographer/worker at his family business is much more comfortable in his own skin. Suave, witty, overconfident but with a good heart, Murdoch is one of the few openly gay men in Echo in this time period and an appreciator of the finer things in life.
His interest in photography is born out of a need to capture perfect moments as well as to obtain information. Couple with his wits (he is a fox after all) and general scientific pursuits (mostly in chemistry) he is clearly rooted in Blue. However, his appreciation for art and mild hedonistic tendencies push him towards Red as well, and his true value of courage, moral convictions and chivalry make him very White aligned as well. So overall Red/White/Blue.
Cliff Tibbits
Cliff is an anthropologist from Batavia (the in-universe analogue for the Netherlands) who has come all the way to Echo to research the Meseta Tribe. His expertise in anthropology, history and biology are matched by a naïve enthusiasm, that can sometimes turn into deadly stupidity.
He is very clearly Blue/Red, his scientific curiosity wedded with sheer impulsivity and hedonism.
Nikolai
Nikolai is an immigrant from Lahkia, an Eastern European nation (likely based off Lakistan) who has made it to Echo to make a fortune. In spite of his muscles he is very shy and deeply devoted to his dear friend-with-benefits Sam, though capable of having fun in poker nights with the rest of the gang.
Being a mostly complacent person who has more or less accepted his lot in life, he is clearly Green aligned. His emotional sensivity might push him towards Red. His desire for emotional connection in general fits both of these colours well, harmony through passion. His nonviolence might seem odd given how many MTG Green/Red characters are violent barbarians or wild beasts, but there are quite few examples of characters in these alignment more dedicated to positive emotions (i.e. Tacenda Verlassen)
The Echo Entity
Okay, as of now what’s exactly causing the supernatural shit on Echo is unclear, but Flynn’s route has his aunt mention that the quartz found in the mines reflects negative energies and thus causes hallucinations, nightmares and spiritual possessions. Regardless of whereas it is actually a crystal or not, the Echo entity resides in the mines and controls even the ghosts (actually simulacra of dead people), causing waves of hysteria to feed itself.
An entity living in the mountains that induces madness and powerful emotions? Seems pretty Red to me. One could argue Black as well, given how many of the scary events are connected with darkness, but honestly it has no Black magic, no people killed by darkness or decay, so mono-Red it is for me.
