It's Just A WIP For Now... Rhea Is Singing 'In Time's Flow' To Raphael In Their Hypothetical Support.

It's just a WIP for now... Rhea is singing 'In time's Flow' to Raphael in their hypothetical support. I also wanted to make a Post Time Skip version.

YOU, 3H ARTIST

SHOW ME HOW YOU DRAW RHEA FIRE EMBLEM

Mother

There are plenty of comments I have about that timeline update, because I really didn't expect them to play *that* hard into imperialist themes and holy emperors but for now I want to focus on Ganondorf.

The translation of the whole timeline page is here if you want to see for yourself but I want to focus on this part in particular.

So, let me get this straight.

The Zonai, technologically and divinely blessed as they are, flew too close to the sun (literally) because their collapse began in the sky. In the meantime, with the Zonai gone, the tribes kind of figure out how to govern themselves on the surface with the Gerudo particularly singled out as forming a sovereign country. Of their own. Without *forcing* other tribes to join them. Therefore, Ganondorf wasn’t just the chief of a tribe; he was a ruler of a country that precedes Hyrule. Here comes a Zonai upstart, a man whose race is dying out, and after having some enlightened holy pilgrimage (which is akin to a rich white boy doing yoga in the mountains of Asia and discovering Enlightment) decides to not only found a country but repeatedly press the country that borders his new country to join his *better* and *peaceful* country apparently.

If you think about it, can you imagine the kind of pressure Ganondorf was under? He is the long awaited legendary male Gerudo, a king by birth as Rauru called him. He is expected to be an exceptional ruler of the Gerudo. All of a sudden, during his rule, a new country is formed by this Zonai who has a vault of secret stones and is sending a number of invitations because he’s too stupid to understand that no answer means “no thanks”. Why should an established country have to negotiate its right to exist as its own entity to a new country? Did the Zonai not abandon the surface? Why should he cede power because a Zonai got spooked that his people died out and decided to come back to the surface and create his own kingdom as some weird last resort at peace? Do you think the Gerudo would have simply accepted that their king give up THEIR COUNTRY to this new, upstart country without a fight?

So, Ganondorf’s molduga army gets defeated in one sweeping attack from Hyrule. Putting aside Ganondorf’s personal motivations, this is already a sign of weakness to his people. Then after that, not only does he bring himself down to the level of the common people by kneeling before Rauru and offering his country to Hyrule, but he is “kept close” aka within Rauru’s watchful eye. The fact that Ganondorf was within Hyrule Castle when he attacked Sonia indicates that Rauru did, in fact, wrangle Ganondorf into staying at Hyrule Castle. Can you imagine how damaging this was to his reputation amongst his people, that he seemingly caved to this fledgling country and gave up the Gerudo's sovereignty? I wouldn’t be surprised if his people began turning on him at this point. It could explain Ganondorf’s resentment towards the Gerudo.

Anyways, no wonder Ganondorf bears so much hatred for Hyrule. He was born and raised a king, having spent his entire life proving himself to secure the position. In one fell swoop, his status as king, his respect amongst his people, his country, are taken away from him by this upstart kingdom. To dig the wound deeper, his people erase his existence entirely, no one ever remembering him as a Gerudo king, or even remembering he existed because they were made to feel shame for his existence and became complacent in their fealty to Hyrule. The thing that annoys me the most of all is that, even then, the lore still tries and continues to insist that Ganondorf is the aggressor, that he is a "lone warrior that acts on his own" and "will do anything to get what he wants even though he is king of the desert" (real explanations used to justify why he visually stands out amongst the Gerudo). SO Ganondorf is a selfish, power-hungry king for wanting to take Hyrule for himself when he has his own country and is repeatedly getting his arm twisted by Hyrule to give up the Gerudo's sovereignty to Hyrule "in the name of peace", but Rauru is a selfless hero king for starting a new country and sending repeated invitations to the Gerudo to join his kingdom because he decided this was the best solution for longterm peace on the surface and will not take no for an answer. Anyways Ganondorf yeah you're right burn this country to the ground.

vomit is going to ooze out of my pores

I'm playing TO: Reborn and I think it's a blast. I have high hopes for Triangle Strategy as well.

I still haven't finished my first playthrough, I'm in the middle of a Chapter 3 Chaos battle (I'm seriously considering letting some of my generics die so I can advance lol) All I really know about the law route is that Vyce can live, as you say... and it got me thinking... is he worth that?

Without taking into account the explanation you've given and the true meaning of the route split, what is Denam thinking in the moment? I'm trying to save people from this concentration camp and it's going less than smoothly, and rather than giving you time to convince this broken of spirit people, you find out almost immediately that your lord deemed them a lost cause and fodder for his real plan. This is insane! You obviously will oppose! Catiua and Vyce will surely side with me! Wait... what is Vyce doing? What...? What is he saying? He's been harboring resentment towards me all this time? A hare? Where is any of this coming from? And then the game unfolds after that, every encounter with Vyce he grows more antagonist and hateful and all Denam wants to do is trying to reconcile, even if the person he's trying to reconcile with took part on a massacre (would it be appropriate to call it a genocide?)

But I understand that this take is ultimately a meta one.

Denam doesn't know what Vyce'll turn into in the chaos route. This is something that only we, as players, especially players who already played one of the routes and want to go for the other, know. This isn't about doing the right thing for Vyce. It's about running counter to whatever Denam chooses because he's grown resentful of him. He either participates in the massacre in Chaos or uses the situation to look like the righteous one in Law.

So it got me thinking... is he worth that? Is he worth soaking my hands with blood of ground beaten people so that he doesn't turn into a monster? Must I be the monster? Why was he becoming a monster in chaos? He just let himself go? Must I soak my hands in blood because this... manchild couldn't get pass his own petty issues?

As I wrote this, it's only now that I'm considering that maybe I just plain don't like the guy, and it all ties back to the circumstance in which he becomes an antagonist, which I'm not sure the Law route will change in a meaningful way, but who knows, I'm yet to play that route... I'm still trying to complete the Chaos one, even though I already know what will become of Vyce in this route.

Still, you're the first person I know who talked about this game, so this was as good time as any to bring my experience so far.

Hope it was worth the read.

I've been looking into Tactics Ogre again. I think... I think people have been misunderstanding the route split and the alignment system.

I was looking through the PS1 manual and there's a little blurb of worldbuilding about the alignments. Law is aligned with Ishtar (I know they use a different spelling officially now, but ignore), goddess of light and war. What she wants is to unify the people under law, and that got me thinking. It's the Law path that makes it so that childhood friend Vyce doesn't dive off the deep end fighting you and can live. There's other characters that would otherwise die if you went the other route, but can be recruited in Law, and it's characters from the Law route that unlock the post-game CODAs. The game is also called Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together.

The Law route is not about following orders, it's about prioritizing unifying the people. The false flag operation you allowed to happen was bad, and the game calls it out, but the purpose wasn't wrong.

Chaos is associated with the dark god Asmodeus, who seeks freedom and believes that through freedom chaos will come about. You go down this path by rejecting the orders. You put your own morality above the call for unity, and as a result your character goes on the run. Instead of allowing your countrymen to be killed, you instead kill your countrymen in the name of your own beliefs and ideals.

In a Confucian-influenced society, Chaos is a bad end and the result of people not doing their duties.

The game also has the Chaos Frame mechanic, where if you have a bad relationship with one of the ethnic groups when you become king, usually through killing enough of them, Denam'll be assassinated in the game's ending which would lead to further war and bloodshed. Likewise, if you can keep them on decent terms... your country is invaded after you take the throne. The former is a Chaos ending, while the latter is a more neutral one. But if you let your sister Catiua take her rightful spot as queen, Chaos Frame doesn't matter and the country lasts for a thousand years before being conquered or joining another group (depending on which version of the game). It's the Law ending.

These endings mirror the route split, with a Chapter 2 Law only moving into a Lawful Chapter 3, whereas Chaos Chapter 2 can either remain Chaos or go Neutral. Chaos is presented as the better option, much like how the Chaos endings give Denam the powerful Lord class, but it doesn't appear to be the right option. You won't be able to save Vyce from himself, as mirroring your selfishness he begins to think too highly of himself and uses his backstory as an excuse, and going Chaos at the endings leads to Catiua's death.

The game still tries to call you out on the Chaos routes, and originally the Terror Knight class was locked to that route. Chaos may mean freedom, but it also is tied to darkness. If you put your own morality above the orders, as shitty as those orders are, it will eventually lead to Vyce going nuts and dying simply because of his desire to beat you. But if you do your mission, you'll eventually fight against your boss when it's revealed that he doesn't really care about the people and is just using the war for his own selfish purposes. And this whole war started because when the king disappeared the country broke apart, not wanting to live together or be ruled by another ethnic group. The war happened because unity broke apart, the land fell to chaos.

In the Chaos routes, you're killing people not to win the war but simply to protect your own freedom. You're killing not because you were told to, but because it's your own call. Same thing with regular battles, which end not with killing every enemy but simply killing the commander. It's possible to only kill them, which would in turn keep your Chaos Frame down. Ishtar may be the goddess of war, but killing is tied more to chaos and in the chaos routes you feel a lot more justified in doing so. But that can lead to falling deeper into chaos, more killing because you believe you're the good guy. Yet the Law route calls out killing far more effectively, makes the player feel like shit but also rewards the player the most. And it's the route tied to light.

But this is based on a detail from the game's manual, and game's don't really have manuals nowadays.

In short, please bring back manuals with physical versions of games. I mean, there's still the tabs to hold them so why not give something to keep there?

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.