From the Cocoon 3 - A Dream Shared

 Spoilers go away.

Leave, seriously, there's so much other better stuff to read, even on here.

...

My favorite part of the expansion, storywise, is the theme of people with very little held in common, and a large degree of animosity towards each other, banding together for a common purpose.

It's a theme that has been explored before in these games, but it's often the cooperater is framed as being a lone, naive (but incredibly strong) simpleton like solaire or targray or sirris, and as often framed against someone like patches or gren or leonard.

So it's nice to have it portrayed with more depth and nuance here. Miyazaki has talked in interviews about how, although he's an atheist, his deep love and respect for religion and religious people is a big inspiration of his games. The respect, part of it, is born out in Faith's ability to bring disparate groups together. Given a dragon and a path forward, lautrec and solaire WILL coop together. Sirris and the handmaid were aligned on the need for cordial intrusion at one point in the past.

I like how some characters, leda and hornsent, have a harder time working together, and I like how some, moore and ansbach, get along great. I like that they have "useless" characters - thollier and his plants - and "misused" characters, freyja and her tablets.

When we run into a lone, an alone, character in this expansion they're generally not having a good time. Our beloved grandam sure isn't happy, nor is our fearless and daring and not very good drsgon hunter igon. But our presence, in alleviating their loneliness, helps to reignite their joy of purpose, their reason for being. 

Messmer, I've gotten to his second stage but haven't beaten him, he seems like one of the lonliest of all. His entire ENTIRE reason seems to be for Marika; the faith that the Accord is being upheld on her and Radagon's end. As twisted and warped and deranged as he is, he still has that one thread holding him together, probably holding him back from a true rampage, which would probably mean apocalypse for both worlds. 

Also, I think midra is torrents old partner, only explanation. Haven't seen midra yet, have seen the forest