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sub_dividedNo, I haven't started playing. I watched the cutscenes.
Comments from here and here. SPOILERS!!
1. The politics in this game are terrible. XD Cooperative stasis forever! Any action which alters preexisting territorial borders is not to be countenanced, nevermind how the empire got to be the size it is in the first place. (It's ahistorical, is what it is -- set boundaries as Ultimate Goal o International Politics are a 20th century thing.)
2. The gods weren't interfering that much in the first place?
3. (In response to speculation about what Basch could have done that was so terrible even his brother, who became a Judge Magistrate of the Empire, denounced him) I think Basch's trespass was abandoning his defeated country to fight for an uninvolved third party. According to Noah he should have had the courage to stay on and face reality: that Landis is Archadia now.To the victors go the spoils. Noah's taunts of fair-weather patriotism hurt Basch enough that he doesn't protest them. But Gabranth goes overboard in making himself a martyr: he's so caught up in the rightness of serving even the people who conquered his country if it will help his people that his stops thinking about whether it will help his people. It's selflessness taken so far that it becomes selfishness.
Also he's defeated by a genetic need to follow orders. -_-; My guess is that Basch, knowing himself better than his brother knew himself, realized that priority #1 was to find someone whose orders he could follow. He got lucky with Ashe. This also explains the hullabaloo with Larsa: if Noah had stuck to following his orders, he'd have been fine, but nooooo, he had to go and get himself used by the game's main villain.
4. Ashe: We need not fight all the empire to win. If we can get to Vayne, we can put an end to this war.
THAT'S ASSASSINATION, PRINCESS.
(![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
petronia: Ashe doesn't really pretend that she aims to come out smelling of roses. Which is sort of refreshing really.)
4. Like others I think Penelo/Larsa would be pretty hilarious, if not very chemical.
(How this would work is, she'll tell him he's offended her Dalmascan sensibilities and he'll think she's serious and apologize and she'll tease him about being so formal all the time. It'll work approximately as long as the jailbait remains baitable and then Larsa will grow up and turn the tables. ^^; It's really not that funny, just funny because it is so random. Picture it like the player RPing Penelo has chemistry with the player RPing Larsa, so the two of them end up together even though Larsa and Penelo, the characters, have no reason to get together.)
5. Someone once told me that no Final Fantasy is over until the villain has transformed into a seraph. XD;
***
And to think I had a policy against reposting comments. XD;
WHAT I THINK SHOULD HAPPEN NEXT:
I want to put Basch in a conflict-of-interest position. NOT personal, political. It can't be a border dispute, both sides are comitted to maintaining present borders until the end of time. Economic? What if Rozarria threatens (0r offers, no need to be cynical) to pay for Rabanastre's reconstruction, allowing insiduous infiltration into key markets by merchants who are agents of the Rozarrian government? No, that's getting ahead of the timeline: based on what we see there are powerful merchants (Migelo) but they're independant, not connected to the ruling class, maybe even mostly extra-national (lizards). When Archadia invaded it was forced to rely on these groups for support (the banquet), or maybe just preferred to rely on them since the lizrds were assumed to be less invested in the country, hence more reliable than the Dalmascan nobility (Ondore).
Come to think of it, what about internal unrest in Dalmasca? Because Archadia was supporting this merchant group for two years during the occupation, its fortunes increased dramatically, while the affluence of Dalmasca's local nobility fell. Now there are grumblings in the provincial capitals as the urban noble families are forced one by one into bankruptcy and their assets taken over. Racial tensions are on the rise as suspicious Ordinary Citizens, prompted by the tracts of sulky former aristocrats, wonder if the lizards are really loyal Dalmascan citizens, or whether they are Secret Agents of the Empire (or elsewhere - is there a lizard country)?
Loyalty is a huge theme in this game. Can you imagine what would happen if word that Basch used to be head of the Dalmascan Royal Guard got out? There'd be chaos! And it might even be justified!canis_m may kill me for saying this, but who's to say whether, in a situation where the Emprire's interests and Dalmasca's interests are in conflict, Basch won't side with Ashe? Or maybe he wouldn't, but he would be tempted, and Basch is the kind of person who'd feel so guilty about even a second of doubt that he'd consider it like he'd all-out betrayed Larsa. He'd probably demand to be released from service. Larsa would have to convince him to stay on, hiding all the while that he, just for a second, had also doubted Basch. In all the confusion a minor official finds out the truth and now he is demanding money to keep quiet about it. The sensible thing to do would be to see him quietly disposed of, but wouldn't this start Larsa on the same ruthless path recently traveled by his older brother? Maybe the official knows this and (fearing for his life) has only confronted Basch, who is doing his best to keep Larsa out of it. But Larsa finds out anyway and...works out a compromise? Where he pays for/pressures the man into going far, FAR away, maybe to some nice tropical island or something.
But what about the next time this happens? Larsa decides he has no choice but to make a public announcement ofhis engagement the identity of his retainer, to keep it from becoming a weapon that can be used against them. The Senate immediately calls for Basch's dismissal but Larsa works it out...as a diplomatic gesture? Or something by sending one of the other judges (Drace would have been perfect for this - Zabraath?) to be Ashe's personal valet. The only downside is that now his own position is weaker vis-a-vis the Senate since he has one less ally in the capital. Basch is of course enormously touched &ct, plus now he doesn't have to remember to answer to his brother's name, which he had found distressing (the poor man has no stomach for deception AT ALL).
Getting back to conflict between Dalmasca and Archadia. What kind of conflict? Maybe...ooh! Maybe some members of the (disbanded but not entirely) Dalmascan Resistance are unhappy with the way the war played out, because they (like Ashe) wanted to see the Empire PAY for its trangression against the motherland. Can you imagine if word of the Stones got out? The whole country would want to know why Ashe didn't conquer Archadia, Nabradia, Rozarria, and everything else, in fitting with Dalmasca's glorious past. (I thought you were against oppression, Ashe says. Only when we were the ones being oppressed! they say.) Even without knowledge of the stones, I can easily imagine a small conspiracy by former resistance members to draw the country back into war. Possibly with Rozarrian spies involved. (The moral of FFXII: all wars are secretly started by a tiny group of people who will profit from them.) Ashe is forced to employ the army against her own countrymen, the patriots who heroically held out against the Opressors!!! It's not a popular move but fortunately this is an era before television and newspapers and PR (well...not entirely. See Vayne's Speech). Possibly Arcadia also - discretely! - helps with this. Maybe experts in resistance-crushing are sent in to advise, XD. Or maybe, less morbidly, other members of the resistance come together to denounce the conspirators as crazed extremists.
Vaan and Penelo's role in all this is secretly pass information between Queen Ashe and Emperor Larsa. A Sky Pirate is a pretty useful ally to have XD. Meanwhile Balthier and Fran are still missing. Am I forgetting anyone?
***
In other news, edited versions of non-YA readinglists from this entry finally posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
reading_mix:
The Psychology of Science and One and One is Three (formerly known as Looping Stories).
Comments from here and here. SPOILERS!!
1. The politics in this game are terrible. XD Cooperative stasis forever! Any action which alters preexisting territorial borders is not to be countenanced, nevermind how the empire got to be the size it is in the first place. (It's ahistorical, is what it is -- set boundaries as Ultimate Goal o International Politics are a 20th century thing.)
2. The gods weren't interfering that much in the first place?
3. (In response to speculation about what Basch could have done that was so terrible even his brother, who became a Judge Magistrate of the Empire, denounced him) I think Basch's trespass was abandoning his defeated country to fight for an uninvolved third party. According to Noah he should have had the courage to stay on and face reality: that Landis is Archadia now.
Also he's defeated by a genetic need to follow orders. -_-; My guess is that Basch, knowing himself better than his brother knew himself, realized that priority #1 was to find someone whose orders he could follow. He got lucky with Ashe. This also explains the hullabaloo with Larsa: if Noah had stuck to following his orders, he'd have been fine, but nooooo, he had to go and get himself used by the game's main villain.
4. Ashe: We need not fight all the empire to win. If we can get to Vayne, we can put an end to this war.
THAT'S ASSASSINATION, PRINCESS.
(
petronia: Ashe doesn't really pretend that she aims to come out smelling of roses. Which is sort of refreshing really.)4. Like others I think Penelo/Larsa would be pretty hilarious, if not very chemical.
(How this would work is, she'll tell him he's offended her Dalmascan sensibilities and he'll think she's serious and apologize and she'll tease him about being so formal all the time. It'll work approximately as long as the jailbait remains baitable and then Larsa will grow up and turn the tables. ^^; It's really not that funny, just funny because it is so random. Picture it like the player RPing Penelo has chemistry with the player RPing Larsa, so the two of them end up together even though Larsa and Penelo, the characters, have no reason to get together.)
5. Someone once told me that no Final Fantasy is over until the villain has transformed into a seraph. XD;
***
And to think I had a policy against reposting comments. XD;
WHAT I THINK SHOULD HAPPEN NEXT:
I want to put Basch in a conflict-of-interest position. NOT personal, political. It can't be a border dispute, both sides are comitted to maintaining present borders until the end of time. Economic? What if Rozarria threatens (0r offers, no need to be cynical) to pay for Rabanastre's reconstruction, allowing insiduous infiltration into key markets by merchants who are agents of the Rozarrian government? No, that's getting ahead of the timeline: based on what we see there are powerful merchants (Migelo) but they're independant, not connected to the ruling class, maybe even mostly extra-national (lizards). When Archadia invaded it was forced to rely on these groups for support (the banquet), or maybe just preferred to rely on them since the lizrds were assumed to be less invested in the country, hence more reliable than the Dalmascan nobility (Ondore).
Come to think of it, what about internal unrest in Dalmasca? Because Archadia was supporting this merchant group for two years during the occupation, its fortunes increased dramatically, while the affluence of Dalmasca's local nobility fell. Now there are grumblings in the provincial capitals as the urban noble families are forced one by one into bankruptcy and their assets taken over. Racial tensions are on the rise as suspicious Ordinary Citizens, prompted by the tracts of sulky former aristocrats, wonder if the lizards are really loyal Dalmascan citizens, or whether they are Secret Agents of the Empire (or elsewhere - is there a lizard country)?
Loyalty is a huge theme in this game. Can you imagine what would happen if word that Basch used to be head of the Dalmascan Royal Guard got out? There'd be chaos! And it might even be justified!
canis_m may kill me for saying this, but who's to say whether, in a situation where the Emprire's interests and Dalmasca's interests are in conflict, Basch won't side with Ashe? Or maybe he wouldn't, but he would be tempted, and Basch is the kind of person who'd feel so guilty about even a second of doubt that he'd consider it like he'd all-out betrayed Larsa. He'd probably demand to be released from service. Larsa would have to convince him to stay on, hiding all the while that he, just for a second, had also doubted Basch. In all the confusion a minor official finds out the truth and now he is demanding money to keep quiet about it. The sensible thing to do would be to see him quietly disposed of, but wouldn't this start Larsa on the same ruthless path recently traveled by his older brother? Maybe the official knows this and (fearing for his life) has only confronted Basch, who is doing his best to keep Larsa out of it. But Larsa finds out anyway and...works out a compromise? Where he pays for/pressures the man into going far, FAR away, maybe to some nice tropical island or something. But what about the next time this happens? Larsa decides he has no choice but to make a public announcement of
Getting back to conflict between Dalmasca and Archadia. What kind of conflict? Maybe...ooh! Maybe some members of the (disbanded but not entirely) Dalmascan Resistance are unhappy with the way the war played out, because they (like Ashe) wanted to see the Empire PAY for its trangression against the motherland. Can you imagine if word of the Stones got out? The whole country would want to know why Ashe didn't conquer Archadia, Nabradia, Rozarria, and everything else, in fitting with Dalmasca's glorious past. (I thought you were against oppression, Ashe says. Only when we were the ones being oppressed! they say.) Even without knowledge of the stones, I can easily imagine a small conspiracy by former resistance members to draw the country back into war. Possibly with Rozarrian spies involved. (The moral of FFXII: all wars are secretly started by a tiny group of people who will profit from them.) Ashe is forced to employ the army against her own countrymen, the patriots who heroically held out against the Opressors!!! It's not a popular move but fortunately this is an era before television and newspapers and PR (well...not entirely. See Vayne's Speech). Possibly Arcadia also - discretely! - helps with this. Maybe experts in resistance-crushing are sent in to advise, XD. Or maybe, less morbidly, other members of the resistance come together to denounce the conspirators as crazed extremists.
Vaan and Penelo's role in all this is secretly pass information between Queen Ashe and Emperor Larsa. A Sky Pirate is a pretty useful ally to have XD. Meanwhile Balthier and Fran are still missing. Am I forgetting anyone?
***
In other news, edited versions of non-YA readinglists from this entry finally posted to
reading_mix:The Psychology of Science and One and One is Three (formerly known as Looping Stories).