Why did Ferio wanted to help the Magic Knights to kill his sister?

[Antoinette Veronica]

I will start a chapter involving Ferio and Fuu very soon on my fic, so these days I am always trying to stand in Ferio's shoes.

I am pondering why Ferio would join forces with the Knights knowing they would kill the sister?

In the anime, they conveniently let him lost his memories and subsequently, he knew nothing about the legend.

In the manga, he is fully aware of everything, thus, it is extremely, extremely hard for him to make the decision to help the knights.

What I gather was, Ferio felt to be killed by the knights was the way to release his sister from ther burden without Cephiro getting jeopardized and he wanted to do what his sister wanted, EVEN if he would grieve after the legend takes place. He put his sisters' wish above himself.

What do you think?

[shinomu]

Since I go by manga canon, I also have a hard time with Ferio, mainly because I just want to hug him whenever I think about his predictment.

Although I just don't know what goes in his mind, I know one sure thing: that boy is strong, really, really strong. To actually do the shit he did knowing how everything would end, and actually explaining everything to the knights at the begining of 2nd part without even crying, he must also be incredibly mature. So emotionally, Ferio must have been raising barriers for the longest time.

The image we end up having of him is completely different, which is also great. I adore Ferio and his Vagabond Prince image, but he also has those moments of such clarity that uuuurgh I can't handle how much of an incredible person he is. Sorry I went off tangent in the end. XD

[Antoinette Veronica]

I think indeed, people overlooked how well Ferio dealt with his sister's death, much better than the "stoic" Lantis in my opinion. Why no one seems to have looked into this?

Ferio seemed to have resigned to the fact as Pillar, Emeraude would die at the hands of the magic knight, all struggles would be futile, so he allowed destiny to run its course.

It begs the question, who was right? Zagato would not let Emeraude die, even if Princess Emeraude thought she had to. But Ferio decided to let go.

[suzanami]

I know, he barely batted an eye when he found out the Magic Knights had been summoned.  He didn't seem to realize everything that was going on; when Hikaru says to Alcyone that Zagato has kidnapped the Princess, Ferio says, "So it's true..."  Though, not sure if he's referring to rumors of the Princess or that the legend of the Magic Knights is true.

Either way, he didn't realize at first that the Knights were here to execute Emeraude, so he didn't already know she was going to die.  So he didn't have time to resign himself to that fact.  And he barely bats an eye.  I just love this little guy so much.  He's an almost universally-liked character, but it's easy to forget because of that easy-going nature that he was so strong when he realized not only was his sister probably going to die, but the Knight he developed a bit of a crush on will be involved.  And he helps them out anyway.

What a gangster.  I love him.

[Somariel]

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the only people who knew the full story of the Magic Knights were Emeraude, Clef, and Zagato.

So although Ferio knew the legend of the Magic Knights, the version that he knew was the one that he told to Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu. He was trying to become a Magic Knight because he genuinely thought the Magic Knights were supposed to rescue the Pillar.

He was probably just as shocked as they were when he learned the full story.

[milady]

I do not know if there's any extended material on this, but I believe the following:

regardless if  Ferio was aware whether the magic knights would kill his sister or not, he knew that Emeraude found her  role as a pillar a burden, and being one of the closest people to her, he witnessed her unhappiness . Deep down he knew his sister was incapable of governing and that her dying, was  after all the best solution for everyone.

Ferio himself was against the pillar system, found a burden to be a prince and couldn't bear to stay in the palace, so I think he had much pity and empathy for his sister who had twice of his responsabilities. He was resigned to any tragedy that would happen and wanted to relieve his sister's suffering regardless of her choice.

[Down]

I think he absolutely knew the whole truth. He's probably hoping it's not ALL true. But everything they say matches up to what he knows. 

I think that's one reason why he ran (though not as far as Lantis) and lived incognito and AWAY FROM EVERYONE. Even wandering about as a traveling entertainer seems to have gone right out of the window now things are going down. He's staying far enough away that he doesn't have to know when things start going wrong. That's why they're confirming things - all he's trying to do from the start is work out if they're really the potential magic knights, if things have got that far.

I think he may have been trying to find the escudo because if HE had it then the knights wouldn't have their swords wouldn't be able to summon the mashin wouldn't be able to hurt her. But I think mostly that's just a story he was using to be able to stay with the Knights and watch them, see if they were the real deal. When they start dealing with Alcyone, that's when he knows it IS real, and knows what's coming. But they're GOOD PEOPLE, too.

I would not put it past him to have thought of getting rid of them himself. But Emeraude would just summon more people - and he knows his sister hasn't got this wrong. That's why he's been watching them.

That's why he lets them go, and then goes back to the place he's doing some good, because I think Ferio is actually in the Forest of Silence because he's trying to keep the nightmares from escaping and hurting people and Cephiro. I think he's patrolling it because that's all he can think of to do to help - he knows this is his sister's wish. He knows he can't fight it. He probably doesn't want to hang about a bunch of people who think that the magic knights are going to turn up and rescue her - because how painful would THAT be? So he's exiled himself to do what he can to help Cephiro stay whole just a little longer, to help his sister just a little longer.

I think, also, that this has been coming for long enough that it's been years since he knew this was coming. He's been mourning her the whole time, just as Clef has been, just as Lantis is mourning for his. Even if he's been pretending otherwise, even if he's been hiding where he wouldn't hear any rumours, even if he's been waiting where he's bound to run across anyone trying to get to Eterna - even if he's been watching the monsters increase and now they're confirming it's people's fears because this is going down NOW. All they're doing is confirming what he didn't want to know until he had to. (We have a panel of him, eyes shadowed, as he accepts this - just like the panels of Clef's eyes being hidden as he doesn't tell them the truth.) And he won't tell them who he is.

And that's why he's able to put on a front and why he's still standing in Rayearth 2 - he's been in mourning since before she died. At least they ended things. At least they granted his sister's wish.

She was the Pillar. He could never have stopped her wish. And he knew it.

He doesn't contradict what Clef told them. He gives them a bit more information. He's probably still hoping that somehow they might help her, some other way, if they don't know their own purpose, but he won't go with them and he won't watch this go down.

The whole 'Zagato stealing Emeraude away' thing - he probably knows it's not that simple, but he also knows that she loves Zagato, she might go with him willingly, he might tear her away from the world to try to protect her - it doesn't matter what the actual truth is, because the only thing it means is his sister has not come back to soothe her people and her land, and that means this is the ending.

~CHEERY HEADCANON~

[Mokonalord]

Well, now that you mention headcanons, Down, one of my own seems like it might be relevant to this discussion.

I headcanon Ferio as being someone who’s tried but found they had pretty much zero aptitude for magic. And as such, he doesn’t believe he could be any help to Emeraude. Maybe he even tried a stint in the Guard but found that wasn’t for him either.

So, when the end seems to be coming, well, one has to get through the Forest of Silence to get to the (Weirdo) Fountain of Eterna, he’s got just as much chance as anybody, but even that effort’s kind of half-hearted, as he’s not really sure he could bring himself to kill his sister himself, even though he knows it has to be done.

[VKiera]

You know, reading all of this, I sometimes wonder if when CLAMP wrote the first season of the manga if they had already planned that Ferio was Emeraude's brother, I mean they do hint at him somehow knowing her in season one, but never really tell you how until season two. You'd never know, really. I think if I recall correctly CLAMP was originally going to stop at just the first three manga? I wonder if making him her brother was something the decided when writing season two later on?

I generally headcannon him as being kind of like Presea he knew the legend of the Magic Knights, but not the full story until after everything went down.

Damn you imagine Clef explaining all that to him and Presea post season one while Cephiro is crumbling and they're trying to create the castle and evacuate everyone to it? Ouch.