Azure/CS1 spoilers: I think it's neat seeing exactly how the events went down reveal that the reports you hear in CS1 from Rean's point of view are wrong, almost certainly part of Osborne/the Intelligence Division's propaganda. In CS1 you hear it told that the Aion attacked out of nowhere basically but in Azure you see that Erebonia was literally firing the railway cannons and it was more of a retaliatory strike.
Yeah, it's obvious pretty early on that the Imperial Chronicle is a propaganda machine, and I appreciate that the series portrays it that way.
Mac Arrowny posted...
How do you mean? I feel like I was pretty annoyed at Lloyd in this section, if that's what you're talking about.
Lloyd? No, he seemed pretty much the same as always. I'm talking about Noel, who's like "yeah I know all this is wrong but I have to arrest you anyway" like her time with the SSS literally didn't happen. I get that this is meant to reflect the "barrier" that many of them have tried to get over and can't (namely, the compromise of overlooking all the bad stuff that happens in and around Crossbell as long as it means Crossbell can continue to exist as it is, which is one of the things President Crois actually nailed in this chapter really well even as simultaneously he is now the cause of all the bad stuff), but c'mon man, you haven't even been gone a full day yet.
And then I always hate the trope of the bad guys manipulating the innocent child into doing bad stuff for them under the pretense of "oh don't worry this will let you protect the people you love" like they did with KeA. Like, brainwashing or "awakening a dormant personality within" would almost seem more believable than KeA willingly going along with this. I get that they've been foreshadowing this since the Mishelam chapter, but still.
And I guess this last one is "we'll wait and see how it turns out" with Arios. He confesses to murdering Guy and cooperating with the Crois family for years, but in Cold Steel, he still has the reputation of "awesome hero guy," even among the SSS (if I'm remembering right), which is why this sudden heel turn is really confusing me. I expect he'll make a last minute face turn to help save the day or it'll be revealed that he was just lying about killing Guy, but there's this weird disconnect for me. Perhaps it's just the result of having already beaten all the Cold Steel games and having a general sense of all that happens without knowing the specific details yet. Like, the idea of the national hero being a cold-blooded killer on the big bad's payroll is an awesome plot twist on paper (because even from my perspective, I didn't see that coming at all), but if he just gets off scot-free like Alan Richard in Sky basically does because he promises to be good from now on, it'll be a bit disappointing.
I don't know. Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh. All of that stuff at the end of the chapter is awesome on paper, but it just left me feeling a little unsatisfied.
