LogFAQs > #973716888

#20 Campanella

This guy was originally going to be ranked much higher, but I had time to think about the names in the rest of this post and realize they all have reasons to be ranked higher. The Fool is awesome. He is one reason I want to play the rest of the series, because he is such a cool presence when he is around. He is also the most mysterious character in the series, so far. Why does he never grow? WHAT is he? What can he do, besides teleporting? Campanella is such a great set up I can't wait to see the pay off of.

But I need more content to rank him higher. Because right now, he's just that, a set up. A puzzle. Let me know when the puzzle is solved.

#19 Cassius Bright

One of the 4 top swordsmen of the world. One of the 4 top bracers of the world. The greatest military general. The crappiest father (jk).

Cassius is that guy. The character so amazing he becomes a hindrance to storytelling. 9 ouf of 10 times, this guy gets killed to hype the villain up, or just to give the hero a motivation to grow. Instead of that the writers went and did something genius: they deconstructed the concept, by having Cassius's perfection be the primary cause of conflict. Because once the genius retires, he creates a void, and that motivates Richard to make a coup. And at the same time, Cassius's continued presence in Liberl means Orobouros must have a contingency plan against him, and so Joshua's entire character comes into existance as part of a long term plan to bait Cassius out of Liberl when the time comes for Phase 1.of the Gospel Plan.

But Orobouros doesn't make the same effort again in SC, and that gives him some room, just a little, to strike back. Ironically, through Joshua, by having him manipulate Weissman into doing more evil, just like Weissman once had Joshua manipulate Cassius into doing good. I love how the start and end of the duology show opposite plots.

Now whole I'm amazed with the way the story uses Cassius, that makes Cassius himself less interesting, by design. He doesn't really do things. It's Estelle, Josh, Kloe, Olivier who do, he just nudges them in the right direction. He forces himself to be a background character, so the plot doesn't suffer, and because he has to let Liberl, the Bracer Guild, and his children walk with their own legs, or the world is doomed. But that means there just isn't much material to make Cassius more of a mid tier character in my book. Someone had to take the fall for the good of everyone, and Cassius surely did.

#18 Mogran

The drill sergeant. The guy who doesn't have time for this supernatural stuff. The competent but unimaginative general.

Mogran serves an important role in FC, which is a red herring to Richard. Unfortunately his portrayal was so negative compared to Richard's it ended up giving it away! But he is a good guy at heart, once he learns bracers are not some stupid thing kids these days invented. Then he becomes a support in the story, albeit minor because Cassius, Julia, and arguably even Cid get to do more.

In SC, he also gets the sequence with Agate, which really endeared him in my book. He is consumed by the grief of not being able to prevent the unpreventable. That is something Agate shares, and which consumes him even more. Mogran is just a solid character, really. We are entering the point where everyone else is just more solid.

#17 Richard

The main villain of FC tends to be forgotten once you enter SC and its flashy sociopath enforcers. But Richard was a big threat, even if Orobouros was helping. He got really close to taking down a country with pretty much just his brains, and a few loyal guys. He's also got that "affable villain" aura. Where he's never really mad, or gloating. He knows he is a demon, he is doing it for his cause, not for pleasure. It reminds me of a sentence of a webcomic I read (Unsounded), "Only a cause makes a good man do evil". Villains of that type can feel inconsistent, but when they are written well, they are amazing. Richard is great.

His cause is also rather original, as I have explained in the Cassius post. What do you do when a man like Cassius retires, and an empire like Erebonia is still bordering you? The existential threat must have driven him crazy. So Liberl has to prove they can do the impossible without the help of an impossible man, and Richard doesn't think he up for the challenge.

I'm hyped to see more of him in 3rd, now that we know he regrets everything.

#16 Gilbert

He sucks! Gilbert was just a mid villain in SC. He was pathetic but he served to show how cool the real villains were. Well, the writers decided to bring him back, and run the point to the ground. There is nothing to salvage here, he is a sociopath and idiot. Gilbert absolutelym sucks! His quotes, his moves, it all suck! And it's HILARIOUS! This guy is great comedy whenever he is around. The entire cast will line up to dunk on him because he can't even be a threat. His allies will dunk on him. Campanella will. He is so shit he forces Campanella to have a bit of a character just to torture him. That's how you solve the Campanella mystery, keep Gilbert around so the former shows more character.

Gilbert is excused from not having much character, because he is funny. That's all I have to say.

16- Gilbert
17- Richard
18 - Mogran
19 - Cassius
20 - Campanella
21- Kilika
22- Loewe
23- Amalthea
24- Maybelle
25- Bleublanc
26- Walter
27- Don
28- Luciola
29- Hans
30- Julia
31- Sieg
32- Cid
33- Mueller
34- Kurt
35- Kyle
36- Josette
37- Aina
38- Queen Alicia
39- Russel
40- Jill
41- Anton
42- Clem
43- Ricky

Unranked:

Agate
Anelace
Dorothy
Dunan
Estelle
Joshua
Kevin
Kloe
Nial
Olivier
Renne
Scherazard
Tita
Weissmann
Zin