You know I personally wouldn't put too much stock in 2 Laguz, it's not like Tormod showed up with the entire LEA, Also the soldiers we rescued last mission were all pretty pathetic, so I figure we'll be using human wave tactics on Begnions frightfully competent soldiers.
Its victories at Talrega and other locations have strengthened its position. The army rides across the land, liberating prisoners from Begnion encampments.
Wha-
No no back the FUCK up. I've liberated 2 camps, are you meaning to tell me that off screen we pretty much won the whole war? especially seeing as these blue dots cover most of the map of Daein... Okay, there are 43 chapters in Radiant Dawn counting separate Stgs as chapters, you mean to tell me in a 43 chapter long game, you managed to skip over the majority of the liberation of Daein? This is just poorly paced, most Fire Emblems do the logical thing, and have the army itself only attack key locations, because saying you got into a fight and then not letting you, ya know, fight is a hunk of bullshit plopped straight onto my plate. You wasted my time with 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4 but the actual LIBERATION of Daein was apparently too much?
And no, this is NOTHING like Chapter 17 in Path of Radiance, where it says you've been looking for Oliver for 2 weeks. The thing is nothing happened in those two weeks, there was no battle or event. This is like ending chapter 16, and then starting 17 with 'And Ike hunted down and captured Oliver, bringing him in for questioning.' I'm glad you didn't think I had to be there for that game. If you are going to complain "Well it would have been similar mission after similar mission" then the story shouldn't have gone that way, These camps are spread around the country, our army must be a fucking pinball to be hitting them all. Why aren't we marching on Nevassa? we have numbers, power, and it's the head of the fucking command structure. Kill the head and the body falls.
Oh sorry my mistake, we took 8 camps off screen, well I sure like being involved in the whole liberation thing. we've spent 2 chapters actually doing the whole 'liberation' thing in the 10 chapters we've been playing this game. Wow, I am filled with fucking confidence for the rest of this game.
This march will not be long or bloody, we'll pretty much jump right to Nevassa after the worst ambush ever.
Meanwhile at Silicon Tor
Haha! Reboot Reference
Von Doom here says that he's going to try talking to Duke Gaddos and ask him a favor, but in the meantime Jarod has to get rid of the Rebellion. See, here's my problem, how does he even know? Why would Sanaki have apparently made this public enough knowledge to the higher ups that Numida, all the way out here in Daein can get the information (I know, ReWarp, not the point) when she should have conducted with much more secrecy, it's not like she doesn't have fucking precedence in hiring a third party to dispatch her justice, fuck she didn't even have Sephiran at her side when she did so. This seems especially weird given that she was in contact with Tormod who WAS reporting a negative situation, so all it really takes is writing him something official like she did in PoR for Ike, and having him march to Daein. He's strong and capable enough to escape any sort of danger, and he can even show it to Sothe first. So what the fuck?
Oh wait, I'll answer my own question, plot contrivance. Why else would a character who has previously and intelligently made a decision, choose to not make the same decision in another situation. After all, Oliver didn't catch wind of what was going on, and he got strung out and caught unaware, there's zero logical reason for this to be Sanaki's course of action, especially considering she's Empress and Sephiran is actually in Begnion to aid her this time. Then again Radiant Dawn hasn't even BEGUN to get into Sanaki's character assassination so lets just move on.
Not without lots of murder. You know this is stupid, Begnion are supposed to be cerebral villains, why would they perform such blatantly retarded acts like they have in all of part 1, simply so they can be dicks. In fact this really undermines any real threat the Begnion Occupation Force has. We've successfully defeated them all over Daein, the Apostle is cracking down on them and sending an investigation team, so far they've proved themselves completely incompetent to quite frankly a group of rebels stocked by children or old men, or prisoners who have been wasting away for 3 years under mistreatment. This is against an army that's well stocked, well fed, and been ruling in comfort for 3 years.
You know what? fuck it, let them be a cartoon villain group, but at least make them a THREATENING Cartoon Villain Group. Make it so the rest of this act actually has some tension, because right now all we're doing is stopping dick moves.
Anyway Jarod says they'll use rumors of mass executions to draw out the Liberation Army and let the swamp conceal their remains.
Wait. Hold up.
Numida says he's calling in a favor with Duke Gaddos so he can sweep the investigation teams findings under the rug. Then he says they have to defeat the Liberation Army, otherwise if the investigation team runs across them they'll report their findings... but Duke Gaddos will sweep their findings under the rug. So what does it matter if the investigation team encounters the liberation army? their report will just be hidden and silenced. And if it can't be silenced, what's with the favor?
Okay I know how to get through this! I'll stop applying logic to the game!
We swap scenes to Micaiah healing a soldier, Sacrifice is described in source materials as Micaiah taking the wounds she's healing into her own body as a one for one deal, she heals a cut on someones hand, she gets a cut on her hand, which calls into question how she could use it to heal an arrow to the lung, but hey she's PRETTY! So who cares is her powers don't have any repercussions that make sense. And of course the soldiers are going to her for healing and not Laura/Any of the Bishops we see in Part 3 for healing because... well obviously Laura could be dead, and we all know how impossible it is to program alt. scenes that hinge on characters being alive or not. And those bishops... well obviously those bishops ONLY showed up in Part 3, not Part 1, and the 10 prison camps liberated contained all of 0 people able to use a staff.
...
Yeah fuck it I can NOT keep that up for an entire update.
You know, these guys must all conveniently have wounds that are obscured by Micaiah's own clothing, because I'm pretty sure the response to seeing a gash on someones forehead split open on a silver haired girl isn't "It's a miracle" it's "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" It's not like Micaiah is the only healer in the army, and it's not like we don't have healing items like vulneraries that HAVE been brought up in-universe in support conversations. Also lets ignore all that, this scene might have an important message to the player. And that is... Micaiah is messiah-like in her healing of her allies? So the same message that we got back in 1-1? that we already knew back in 1-P? Even the only OTHER part of this scene that bestows information.
You know that Begnion is killing all our dudes, is something we learned in the previous scene, and the very scene after this repeats the information again.
Long story short? this scene is COMPLETELY POINTLESS. We learn nothing new, no characters are developed, nothing is gained, nothing is lost. If anything this scene hurts the game because Micaiah's sacrifice ability is NOT something that should be abusable like this, and unlike in the beginning of the game where there were no healers to help a dying boy in the street, there are healers in the army.
RADIANT DAWN: Wasting your time since 2007
See literally a scene after it happened, we get the same information again. I love how this game thinks it's details through "Showing the protagonists learning the information, telling the information, and then getting the mission, we need that. Showing the liberation of the majority of the country by the player controlled army? skip it!" Anyway for once Izuka has his head on straight and says something both completely stupid and completely smart
Completely Stupid: Izuka's one thing he's done without fucking up has been the gathering/spreading of information, to not have heard of it in the face of everyone else saying they had heard of it is stupid. And the thing is, he DOESN'T have the excuse of the twist in part 3, since at this time he has no reason to want to sell out a nation he wishes to puppet control. He's saying it so they wont go, however
Completely Smart: He's already correct in calling it an enemy trap, he gains about 100+ credibility simply by saying "It's obviously a trap, and even knowing that people will lose their lives we can not spring it" because that sort of attitude is more in line with who Izuka is, and more in line with giving him actual credibility. He doesn't even have to deny it's happening, just say what I said, it's not like he cares for lives.
For one glorious line, he actually has some credibility as a 'strategist' especially if we look at him in the 'August' Role, he's not but I'm trying to not completely fall into despair with this shit so bare with me. He's a callous fuck who doesn't give a shit about anything but winning the war, but what he's saying is not wrong, especially since we the player already know it is a trap.
This is another blatant lie, of the units force deployed in this chapter, 5 of them haven't been with the army or Micaiah until at most, 1-7. But this is basically "You know the army we have, we aren't bringing them." Anyway Pelleas drops his spaghetti and Izuka says she isn't doing jack or shit without Pelleas full approval.
Well glad we resolved that conflict quick-smart, Pelleas says we haven't failed yet, and Izuka?
That's because we are. anyway at 1796 words? we're finally done with the opening cutscene. but first things first
Items and BEXP
Nolan promotes using the Master Seal
Then we BEXP and Seal Leonardo, We also pump Edwards BEXP up to 99, same as Laura and Micaiah. We'll save the rest.
Edward also takes a Master Seal to go into battle
Supports
Leo and Volug form a C support of course the effort is getting Leo to Volug in the mission.
Skills
Volug loses Paragon to Nolan
Talk
Alright then Micaiah's going to have a Chat with Sothe now.
Micaiah is still spacing out because of last chapter where Muarim revealed that he knew she was branded... wait what? that chapter chronologically was ages ago, she's been acting like this for all 8 offscreen missions? Radiant Dawn everybody! Anyway Sothe takes the obvious "Well Muarim is kickass anyway so it's not like it will get out" and then Micaiah starts having an epic freak out that works, but also doesn't shine a very good light on her.
She starts freaking out about what happens if the people find out she's god Laguz blood, which they consider cursed and she says a line that sounds really selfish and vain, and I don't think that was what was MEANT of it.
What was meant: That Micaiah's fear is being abandoned, she doesn't want to lose the friends she's gained ever since forming the Dawn Brigade
Why this isn't what someone will take away: What fucking friends? the guys she has next to no interaction with outside of Sothe? Which just leaves the NPCs which leads into
How this scene can be interpreted: She doesn't want them to stop loving her
Why this line of thinking can be supported: Micaiah's actions, even if they are wrong, or cruel actions, are ones she makes to keep the peoples favor. I'll get to these in depth when we get to those moments but let me say this
I DO NOT THINK IT WAS THE INTENTION OF THE ORIGINAL WRITING THAT MICAIAH REALLY JUST DOESN'T WANT PEOPLE TO NOT LOVE HER. I think this Talk Topic is poorly worded, we aren't done mind you. But this comes across as the writers not paying close attention to how the scene could sound. The problem is compounded because, we have absolutely 0 evidence that Micaiah was ever mistreated in the same way Soren was for being branded. We can speculate and form conjecture, but outside of her saying that she used to isolate herself from people, we have zilch.
The other reason this really falls flat, is that Sothe knows that she's branded, and he accepts her regardless and did so before meeting Ike, I think it would have been better if the Dawn Brigade DID find out she was branded, have them act confused, potentially hurt. Do they go with what they've been taught as a people, or do they stand by their friend. It would have been a better chapter than 1-2 or 1-3 or 1-4 which were all fucking filler bullshit. Let them grow, let them develop, let them make their choices. Let the 2 dimensional cardboard cutouts actually have life. Soren never told anyone he was branded, and it scared him because the only person who he felt comfortable with (excluding Greil) was Ike, and when he told Ike, he expected to be stoned and despised. It worked for Soren, because he risked having nothing. Micaiah will always have Soth- wasn't I in the middle of a Talk Topic?
Oh right, Sothe says that she can just stop if she wants, The Liberation Army doesn't need her, and she was always going to have trouble adjusting, but Micaiah said she took the job and she'll see it through to the end. When Sothe tries to point out something Micaiah said that she realized something when Daein lost the war. She realized she loved her country.
The country full of racist assholes who teach their children to hate Laguz and hunt them down. I have never claimed Micaiah was smart.
She thinks of the people of Daein as friends because they helped her despite not knowing who she was, just because she was from Daein. Again, this allows her to overlook literally everything negative about her country, because they were kind to her. Even though they would have cast her out if they knew about her brand. Or if she had been a Laguz. Or simply had not been from Daein, really they aren't too picky on the whole 'Hate' thing.
Micaiah says she was touched by their kindness and is afraid to lose it
But Micaiah, your power ISN'T needed to liberate Daein, also you've taken a public role when you don't need to, especially now that the army is up and run- wait holy shit what am I saying? everyone else in our fucking army is incompetent at even the slightest act of leadership or strategy. Bitch they are your meat shields. Anyway Sothe continues to be awesome in my book
and then just as quickly loses a lot of respect
Sothe, I expect better from you, I know you promised to protect her, but friends are just as important. Still, not going to get into a fit since they are 'like family' even though she wants to jump his jailbait ass.
Anyway, off poorly written
support conversations
silly Onmi, Radiant Dawn doesn't have support conversations, it has support templates. Off poorly written Talk Topics, onto 'Give me your fucking shit' talk topics.
Listen to Tauroneo woman. She understands this is a dumb idea but she has to do it anyway, she's got a messiah complex. Can't fault her though, I would probably do the same thing. I mean less "Walking into a trap" more "Launch an ambush without getting surrounded" but the spirit is there!
HINT: WHO JOINED LAST MISSION?
Anyway Tauroneo trusts Sothe to not horribly fuck this up, so he decides to give us a Restore Staff, since
he's psychic
we still don't have a way to deal with status effects outside of Sacrifice... How does that even work? Shouldn't Micaiah fall asleep/get poisoned after use- Oh fuck it!
Anyway Laura gets the Restore staff being literally the only unit capable of using it and now we have to talk to Vika.
Vika is a stoner analogy. I really don't care if it was intentional or not, but her eyes are constantly droopy and she starts with a herb, so I will make as many pot jokes as I can at her expense until we get to Part 2's stoner.
Yeah, you throw off her vibes. Anyway Vika displays the other Laguz trait when dealing with Branded, they just feel... off. It's never explained but I guess it has something to do with Branded not being something created by Ashera or Yune and the fact that Laguz are always more sensitive to this fact. I thought it might be because of the balance of order/chaos but then Mist should be able to sense something's wrong...
Bullshit Laguz Empathy Powers.
Okay, Vika, that doesn't mean she's branded, that means you have a crush. Which is good cause Micaiah is a fucking hippie as well, you two can get stoned together and have hot lesbian sex.
Anyway Vika doesn't want to keep avoiding her because she knows how it feels to be feared, and wants to be friends with Micaiah, she gives us an Ashera Icon and says that it gave her luck, and it's how she met Muarim and Tormod. Micaiah doesn't wish to tell her that it didn't actually so squat since you have to USE an item to gain it's effects, so she smiles and nods and accepts it
Lets see how we did last mission
Nolan was our MVP and it's the first time he's been in that position. So kickass for Nolan.
We open on Shifu swamp where it turns out Begnion really IS executing all their prisoners. You know this isn't that good of a trap? A better trap would have been to make the 'prisoners' secretly Daein soldiers and as the Dawn Brigade tries to rescue them have them kill them off.
OOPS! There I go again using my brain.
Yeah Begnion now employs fuck-wretched bandits as well. Hm? What do you mean it doesn't make any sense, and that there's absolutely no reason for these guys to be bandits other than "Begnion is full of evil fucks". Look if you were looking for logical enemy placement and gameplay and story integration, you've come to the wrong game.
Anyway the bandits all smite the villagers into the swamp and... What? Why the fuck would you do that? Why wouldn't you kill them on the shore and THEN throw their corpses into the swamp, if anything this is more work for Begnion since they have to Smite, then move a potential 2-3 turns just to reach the prisoners. Spank my ass and call me Sally I tried approaching this shit with logic again.
Youth? Wait why is this guy a 'Youth' these are supposed to be prisoners, so we have someone in camp named 'Prisoner' and an actual prisoner named 'Youth' man Radiant Dawn you are lazy as FUCK when it comes to NPCs aren't you?
Micaiah appears, having apparently run past all the perimeter guards that were no doubt in the area because they were expecting the entire liberation army, into the center of the stage to light a Bandit. And yeah here's another bunch of Gameplay/Story Segregation, the complete LACK of units present despite anticipating the entire Liberation Army.
Propaganda plus off-screen accomplishments for the win!
A bunch of reinforcements pops out for us to fight, and my mouth salivates from all the experience.
Yeah it's called search and destroy, c'mon pull up the deployment screen already
Pfft just kidding, weren't you paying attention to the name of the update? we're being railroaded so fucking hard here it's not funny. Anyway, Micaiah wonders what the hell Rafiel just sung to make Volug and Naliah move again, and Sothe explains the Heron Gameplay mechanics to anyone who didn't play PoR or any other Fire Emblem game.
Anyway, Sothe tells us to summon the rest of our guys and we finally reach preparations
1-8 is a 12 unit mission, of the 12 units, 8 are forced. Ontop of forcing a whole 8 units into your army 5 of the 8 units will not return until part 4. Ontop of that, Jill, Tauroneo and Fiona are all absent from the mission. This is a hilarious amount of player agency removed from the game, and brings up a main complaint of mine about Radiant Dawn
The fucking story gets in the way of the great gameplay I can not think of an FE game in the past which forced deployed so many units outside of an end game. You know Volug, Sothe and Micaiah? I buy that, They've been forced in every chapter they've appeared in, but I can think of plenty of units who wanted the EXP in this mission more than Naliah, Tormod, Vika and Muarim. ESPECIALLY considering this is the fucking Dawn Brigade.
In short, Fuck You Radiant Dawn, you railroading piece of shit.
Turn 1
Micaiah heads south and pops the Bandit in the face, still can't double, still not getting speed, STILL not getting Resolve.
Sothe moves down for clean up, and Edward almost-kills a Bandit for a level, I COULD have killed it using the Brave Sword but... yeah
Laura moves down and heals up Micaiah for a level
Volug moves down and One-Rounds the soldier putting him in range of essentially every enemy on the left side of 1-8
Nalliah moves down parallel the first villager, then Rafiel moves down and Vigors her to go into the swamp and rescue the Villager, this is... entirely pointless but hey its something to do.
We also move Vika into the swamp to lure the Dracoknight, Tormod move to the edge of the swamp and Muarim shoves him, turn end.
Turn 2
Leo moves to the left to get close to Volug and takes out the weakened bandit, Noland and Edward clean up north and move to the east.
Tormod nukes the Draco and Vika takes a toke of her Herb when after she flies to bait the Bandit from killing the villagers and dodge Range 2 attacks to gain Transformation. No I didn't buy Olivi grass, would have made my life easier if I had.
Volug drinks down a healing item I gave him so he can continue to tank. Sothe is heading for the southernmost coin and Micaiah is staying down south to take potshots at reinforcements.
Turn 3
On Turn 3 Nolan and Edward continue to the west, with Laura trying to catch up to play healer and gain some EX.
This is a Range-3 Iron Longbow strike, Leo is definitely kicking ass.
Micaiah gets a level in Light when she pops a Bandit in the head, she ate his enemy phase last turn, but still she's still alive and a mild applause is given.
Nolan really fucking hates Soldiers, and shows as such by splitting one like a ripe watermelon. Edward swings around the Bandit and finishes him off.
And that pretty much ends my turn.
Turn 4
Leo, One Hit One Kill, Rafiel vigors both Leo and Volug and they go to town on clean-up again. a kill a piece.
Oh Cancel, why you so redundant 90% of the time?
Edward and Nolan, Clean up move East.
Volug, the only character to have more personality INSIDE his supports than outside.
Turn 5
Micaiah pops the Dracoknight reinforcement. The thing is she weakens them so much that they choose to run rather than sacrifice on her. easily manipulated AI is awesome.
And then Muarim rips it to shreds so it can't do anymore damage. Leo and Volug just hang out next to each other to build support points while Edward and Nolan continue on their way to the main group of enemies
Turn 6
Leo kills the new mage after a refresher and Edward and Nolan move to confront fo the main horde
The only reason the B Supports are less 'Derp' than the C supports is they all follow the "Lets team up" "Yes lets" format.
Anyway that's that for Turn 6 AND getting the max BEXP ran.
Turn 7
COME AT ME BRO! Edward moves down to confront the meat puppets with his Wind Edge equipped.
Micaiah kills and gets a nice level
And nothing else of importance happens. until the enemy phase.
On a counter attack, Ed activates a Wrath Critical for the kill
And the perfect front liner level.
Turn 8
Now Ed's looking a bit worse for wear, but that's why we gave him a Master Seal at the beginning of the chapter
And now he is god.
Building supports
Turn 9
Blocking Draco's from Civilians
Killing the fuckhead boss.
TIME SKIP
Turn 11-14
Fucking Finally, Got all the treasure, Nolan gets the last kill of the map
And Micaiah and Naliah have a conversation
He's on the other side of the map with Leo and Volug, working out great Naliah.
Micaiah are you out of your god damn mind? Pelleas LET YOU GO! He trusted in you, and you succeeded, what, in your long (off-screen) past of dealing with Pelleas has lead you to believe he would be mad for you doing something that he let you do in the first place?
Now we're coming to a point in the game I alluded to way back in the Prologue. As a foreword, this upcoming scene always creeps me the fuck out.
Oka-
Yeah we di-
... Excuse me?
Uhhhhhhhhhh. No. You know, respect for a leader, yeah sure I accept that, looking to her as a patriot. Yeah okay. This is getting into WORSHIP territory, and this is why it's getting creepy. See we missed what went on in those 8 liberation's, so as far as we the player has experienced, she's had a few successes, but we had more successes back when we were Marth/Alm/Cecilia/Sigurd/Celice/Leaf/Roy/Ephraim/Eirika and of course Ike, and while the characters received respect, they were never, ya know, WORSHIPED.
Don't you fucking encourage this Naliah, and you Micaiah, don't say "Oh I'm no hero, but I'll do it anyway" really this does a lot to catapult me even FURTHER from Micaiah as a character. How does she seem approachable, standing upon high, being worshiped by literally dozens of soldiers.
The thing is it escalates FURTHER from this, I don't feel connected to a character who is literally treated as a living saint. Every time they try to paint Micaiah as 'just a normal girl' it never rings true.
See, if you were going to really try to portray Micaiah as someone more down to earth, she would be FREAKED about that scene from before, they were all but BOWING towards her, imagine if that happened to you, like really, try to honestly imagine what would happen if people started WORSHIPING you. Not just looking up to you as an ally, or a friend, or a hero. Because I'm not denying the good things she's done, I'm just honestly so fucking freaked by that scene before, and I know I'm not the only one who was. You know what I hear in my head when I see that scene? Give us the Rope.
It's bad enough that, as I said, the Daein soldiers only grow MORE fanatical in their devotion to her. But that no one feels any sort of unease about it. I would think Sothe, would be one to try and curb it, but she seems to honestly WANT IT! There's this huge disconnect with the girl who goes "The Dawn Brigade is my family" and then "I felt really happy when I was worshiped today" Again, I chalk this up to incredibly poor writing.
Well at least Tormod is here to save me from this purgatory.
Muarim is shifting out of control, whenever Tormod calls out to him he can return to his humanoid shape, but he has absolutely no control and feels like he's in pain and losing his mind.
I'm going to again draw contrast to the previous scene, Tormod is someone who, despite his few appearances, is always in character, here we have the usual brash and cocky kid, and he is stuttering and panicking because he has no idea what to do, you can instantly believe what you see because Muarim has always been a father to Tormod. He is acting as an actual person would in this situation.
So yeah, Muarim is turning into a Feral One, and Tormods response?
Completely believable, with actual human emotion and conviction and a proper reaction to the scenario being presented.
Yeah all of a sudden in game the Galdr of Rebirth starts playing, Sothe and Tormod have heard it before, and Muarim starts calming down before collapsing, Rafiel walks in
See, Tormod breaks down, even though he usually has a tough guy facade, we've seen a broad array of emotions from him. This scene is well handled, and features a realistic reaction from everyone present, from Tormods desperation to Sothe's shocked fear to Micaiah's confusion.
Foreshadowing, not even going to lie, I hate the plot twist this is foreshadowing for, but I'm honestly so happy with the rest of the scene I'm not going to bother lambasting it.
The NEXT SCENE HOWEVER!
Sothe starts off by telling Pelleas about the Feral ones, and catching up the players who hadn't played Path of Radiance on what they are, and here in comes the stupid
That's right, not only does Izuka not bother pretending he wasn't responsible for the Feral One Syndrome, when he's no doubt wanted for about a billion fucking war crimes and crimes against laguzkind considering all the horrific shit he pulled last war (As a reminder, Naesala knows who Izuka is, knows he was responsible, and was just as pissed off by what he saw in the tower, so there's no reason he would have kept who the horrible skullfucker was a secret)
But no that's not the worst of it, he says this shit right in front of fucking TORMO, for the reminder, Tormod is not only the leader of the Laguz Emancipation Army, someone who has been campaigning since he was a child for their rights and freedom but he also just witnessed his Father figure, the man who RAISED HIM losing his mind. And the culprit is right in front of his face
Sorry I do not buy this, I do not buy Tormod not losing his shit and just unleashing the fucking fire right now. I dare any of you to tell me otherwise, that if someone as close to you as Tormod is to Muarim, was hurt in this way, and the culprit, a person you know to be a horrific war criminal, was standing in front of you, not just PROUD of what he did, but BOASTFUL of his twisted experiments, that you would do anything beyond try to kill that man. Especially since this is TORMOD and again, he does not have the emotional restraint Sothe or Soren has, hell Soren saw Ike take a hit for him because he had been acting like a jerk, and he wanted to rip Mordecai to shreds.
This should have been the breaking point "He goes or we go" Izuka has not just proved himself to be an incompetent tactician with no regards for the lives of his soldiers or comrades, he has proven himself an ACTIVE THREAT, he is a WANTED CRIMINAL!
And here we have Pelleas, trying to defuse the situation, but no I buy nothing of this, the man has no fucking backbone, he has done NOTHING to command respect, especially not Tormod's respect. So what happens?
Tormod just walks away. From the man who almost killed his father, from the man who stands for everything he opposes, from the man who he knows is a wanted criminal. No. This is not in any way inline with his character, this is the worst fucking scene. Claiming Ashnard never tried to destroy Crimea the nation? Really fucking dumb, but hey, retcons. This is directly at odds with the character in the scene, and the only reason this scene doesn't progress with Tormod trying to reduce Izuka to a smoldering ash- and hell he doesn't have to succeed! But come on, nothing?- Is because they need Izuka around to set up for even dumber plot points in Part 3.
Yeah his credibility as a characters been shot to hell in just one small scene, don't prolong the suffering.
Meanwhile in Nazi Germany
Hitler is here was Satan, pinning the blame of everything on Jarod's shoulders, and of course they are hamming it up real heavy
Now see, if Sanaki was still the Sanaki of PoR, there would be the Holy Guard hiding in the wings, and she would drop the bomb shell that she already KNEW what was going on in Daein, because her own informants had told her, and try to catch Hitler out, and then when he tried to attack her the Guard swoops in and takes him down.
But that's PoR Sanaki, that's intelligent "I give no shits about playing the game when I have everything to win the game" Sanaki. And lets say Sanaki wants to keep it going longer to root out the core of the corruption, the obvious thing to follow is, bullshit. Say that the informant spoke of some very interesting dealings going on between Lekain and Numida before they arrived, play up his Paranoia, make him slip up. But this isn't what she does
What she does?
What she does is she keeps playing the game, with no apparent gameplan in sight. Okay I'm going to put this into a chess analogy. Imagine that it's Sanaki's turn, and she's got everything set up for the perfect checkmate, all she has to do is make one move and she wins the game, but when it comes to her move, she moves a pawn forward a square. She's not making a move to win the game, she's just content with wasting turns doing things that don't contribute to the game plan.
She doesn't want Duek Gaddos to go though, she wants Sephiran to go, and she wants those Soldiers to testify of course... Now if this was Sanaki needing her proof to bury Numida, I would understand this, but the thing is... she has all the proof. That's what Tormod gave her, she doesn't need a public confession from the Soldiers, hell the people of Daein would suffice. And has she never heard of putting a suspect under arrest until the evidence can be procured "I've received intelligence reports of your actions, you're under arrest" get the people of Daein to testify, I mean hell she shouldn't even need them, Sanaki has taken down senators before, she employed third parties and used cunning and...
Welcome to the great Character Assassination of Sanaki, if you liked her in PoR, you will hate her here. If you hated her in PoR, you'll still be confused as to what the fuck is up. Much like Tormod, this doesn't gel with who Sanaki is, and much like Izuka, the only reason the situation is going this way is so we can set up the Part 3 Conflict, a lot of contrivance and characters purposely doing stupid things.
And NO! I don't want my heroes to always be triumphant and the villains never had a chance, I want my villains to be legitimately threatening and smart enough that simple shit like this SHOULDN'T be allowed to trap them.
And in doing the actions the way she does them in-universe, she sets herself up for failure, she is entirely responsible for the horrible shit that goes down on her end.
Huh, the plural for citizens of Begnion is... Begnion... That's not how English works.
Yeah I'm done here, fuck this chapter. Fuck the Senators, Fuck Izuka, Fuck Begnion, Fuck Daein, Fuck the writers for Assassinating Sanaki and Tormod. Fuck Radiant Dawn.
1-9 has no votes because we only have 1 character to use.
