Building Character: Bianca and the Hero

For this February’s Building Character pieces, we’ve covered various types couples that experience love. We’ve seen the life of longtime married couples. We’ve seen star-crossed lovers as they get pulled apart for one reason or another. We’ve even seen platonic love of co-workers as they work toward a common goal. So, where do we go from here?

A shotgun wedding.

That’s the situation the Hero from Dragon Quest V finds himself in. He’s on a mission to find the legendary Zenithian items as well as the legendary hero that his father, Pankraz, sought in order to find his mother, Mada. But along the way, he finds the Zenithian Shield being held by an aristocrat named Rodrigo Briscoletti.

However, Briscoletti won’t give the shield away to just anyone. To get the shield, the Hero will need to become part of the family by marrying his daughter Nera. But even before that, he demands that anyone that marries his daughter find two rings: the Circle of Fire and the Circle of Water.

Now, if you’ve played the DS version of the game (which this Building Character will be based on), you know that you get more than one choice for the Hero marry. Alongside the gentle Nera, you can also choose her… abrasive sister, Debora, as well as the adventurous Bianca Whitaker. Now, you could make the adventure interesting with Debora or even have him be a man of his word and marry Nera. However, and I’m sure that there are many that agree with me on this, the clear choice is Bianca.

So why is Bianca the clear choice? Short answer: it’s destiny. The long answer? Well, you’d have to start from when they were young.

At the beginning of the game – after the prologue when everyone involved is between the ages of 6 and 8 – the Hero actually runs into all three girls while on a trip with his dad. However, only Bianca is given any extended time with him. Now, this is mostly because Nera and Debora didn’t appear until mid-way through the original Super Famicom version. But I think an adventure with either of the two couldn’t have happened anyway because Nera is too timid and Debora is… scary beyond all reason.

So what happens with the extended time with Bianca? Well, the Hero rescues the man that’s trying to get medicine for Bianca’s father. He then teams up with Bianca to defeat the ghosts of Uptaten Towers and free a sabercat cub that was being bullied in her hometown. And between the Hero’s exit to when he returns after 10 years (maybe more), she gets the itch to go out adventuring again while becoming more responsible as well as reliable.

That itch to adventure is why she comes with him to find the Circle of Water, even after telling her that he needs it in order to marry someone else. Let me repeat that again: she helps him find a ring so that he can marry someone else. While the character probably won’t admit it, I get the feeling she was all “Dude, I’ve been waiting to go adventuring with you for the past decade and now you’re marrying someone else? What the hell? What about all that stuff we did when we were kids? Didn’t it leave any impact on you?”

And I think that’s what Yuji Horii and crew wanted to you feel because Nera even suggests that Bianca could be a better wife to the Hero. And, not surprisingly, I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. Nera is way too timid and unconfident, asking for validation on nearly everything. And Debora… metaphorically kicked you in the nuts every time she talked.

And while there is technically no wrong answer as to who the Hero should marry, it’s obvious that the original developers wanted you to go with Bianca. Looking at the Super Famicom version, depending on which one you select, Nera ends up married to a childhood friend but Bianca ends up as a depressed barmaid. If you were worried about where they would end up, they made it easy for you.

In addition to that, there is one other very visible thing that suggests that the developers wanted the Hero to end up with Bianca. Every cover of every version of this game has Bianca on the cover with the Hero. In addition, she also appeared on the Super Famicom cartridge and the North American DS cover has their kids, complete with blonde hair.

It kind of makes you wonder which person is holding the shotgun at this wedding: Rodrigo Briscoletti of Yuji Horii.

But even without being forced into anything, it just makes sense for the Hero and Bianca to be together. Nera seems like a helpless child while Debora… Okay, Yuji Horii is laughing at you if you pick Debora. Even the Hero’s children will question your sanity if you pick Debora.

Out of the three bachelorettes, the relationship between the Hero and Bianca just feels the most natural. She’s the adventurous type that finds someone who is on the ultimate adventure. And her responsible side will make sure that her whole family comes out of every scrape alive.

Call it destiny. Call it favoritism. Call it poor writing… Whatever. The Hero and Bianca were, quite literally, made for each other. It makes complete sense for them to be married.