#And that whole morality argument had me spinning my gears a lot

[fermataofthecomposer]

It's been a while since I last revisited Micaiah myself. If you don't mind, I would give in my two cents on your argument.

While I do find her Part 3 arc really compelling, that speck on her morality is admittedly questionable. Because it only really applies there, where the circumstances were extreme, and led her into a crossroads of choosing either her people or her morality, and she chose her people in Part 3. Then again, that decision is tested shortly after, because she realized she could not fully commit to it as she was paralyzed to the threat of Sothe dying.

I looked at it like this. There are two main forces that drive her: her general sense of morality, empathy and kindness and her devotion to those who are kind to her (friends, found family or country people).

Throughout the story, the two traits generally went hand in hand. A bad trait of hers that this spurred was her recklessness, but that's what the two traits combined can lead to when your allies are constantly fighting or in danger. Early on we can see that she had more pious traits (not wanting too many funds out of impoverishing the soul, not necessarily wanting donations from villagers to her cause, condemning the use of poison, recklessly saving hostages in the swamp) but these will eventually get sided out as her situation gets more out of hand and she can't afford to put these forward.

Her early stints in Part 3 also have traits of both, funnily enough. Her acceptance of Pelleas' order, while contrary in her general nature, is kind of forced upon her due to both not wanting her people to collapse and not disobeying her... Emotionally unstable king. Even so, she tries to go about it as defensively as possible, wants to save as many lives as she can, doesn't hold grudges for those who leave her cause (she even offered Sothe to leave and fight for Ike), and made Tauroneo try to talk Pelleas out of the war because she deemed it senseless.

AND THEN THE BLOOD PACT WAS REVEALED TO HER.

This is the one big "morally questionable/wrong" thing about Micaiah, where she fully forgoes her general kindness for a bit to fully go into "protect my people" mode. Now, admittedly, the handling of it all is kinda murky because of the differences in Localization that concern Micaiah's character. That completely metal speech about "I'll save my people even if I will be seen as a monster everywhere else" is unfortunately... Localization only. I will still deem it appropriate for Micaiah's character though, because what she does in 3-12 warrants that speech: people have seen the boulders, the oil, the arrows, the potential flames. Less people are talking about the fact that she sent a decoy force to distract Ike, sacrificing people for the cause whereas she focused on keeping as many alive as she could before this. However, there's a thing that's Japanese only, Extended Script only, in which the plan is discussed more beforehand and it implies that she hated every second of it.

AND THEN TIBARN DROPPED SOTHE OFF A CLIFF.

That might as well have smacked Micaiah out of that road she was going towards and make her rethink her life. Sothe being threatened to die caused her to essentially snap back to reality, and she realized that she couldn't give it her all for Daein because of her empathy for those she cares about. It's quite murky in execution also because of the differences between the Japanese Script and the Localization Script as well as understanding what's the canon route Micaiah chose regarding Pelleas. But one thing's clear. Saying that the borderline vile actions she did, she felt bad about, would be an understatement. They almost DESTROYED HER. That's her caring nature realizing that she fucked up and almost paralyzing her.

Unfortunately, from that point on, it's tough to say where Micaiah is aligned, especially because Part 4 makes her a non-presence in character. We don't really get a finality to that character arc and conflict and I think it's a shame.

I believe there's another reason why you may have received these comments of Micaiah being a good person, and that's due to how she's portrayed in Heroes and Engage. Her character there is also difficult to fully portray correctly because it's led by circumstances and due to the differences between JP and International Radiant Dawn in script. I think what they meant her story to be was for her to be a good person pushed to the brink by said circumstances. That doesn't translate well to Heroes and Engage because of a lack of them and a lack of pressure on her morality.

But... There's also the fact that a "good person" is not so easily defined if the situation itself is complicated.

She's not a just person, that's for sure. That's her lowest priority when it comes to "good person" traits.

She's a kind person, and for those who are also chill, it shows, as she forgives mistakes, gives them their personal space, knows when to be polite, etc...

But most of all, she's selfless.

That's her definitive and certain trait out of all of this. Everything she's done was at cost of herself, and we see how that's both a good thing and a bad thing. It leads to many kind acts, and it leads to her willing to let her name be vilified as she serves her people.

Daein itself being a racist country doesn't actually impact her that much because... While it's more pronounced in Daein, racism is... Kind of everywhere in Tellius until Ike ended it. When it comes to being morally upstanding, we have to put Ike above everyone else.

Overall, I didn't mean to berate any of your points. It's just that also due to the rushed nature of the game, it's easy for opinions to be contested like this. I know Micaiah is all over the place in that regard.

Do I wish that her darker side would be shown... At all in modern media? Of course I would! But the circumstances need to be there in order for it to be plausible. I dunno, I haven't played Engage myself but... Uh, make some thugs threaten Yunaka's life in the desert and Micaiah comes out and drowns them all horribly in quicksand. Or Micaiah devises a morally ambiguous plan but it's the one that would grant her friends safety. Something like that.

It's a bit messy, I know... But it's also interesting how Micaiah changed, I just wished it was defined better in the end.

its been so long since ive done any fire emblem meta commentary but here i go (ranting about micaiah incoming)

people have for years come at me with "uhmm micaiah is a good person ackshually" no what makes her so interesting as a protagonist is that she isnt. she straight up says "If that's what it takes to be just, then I want nothing to do with justice. I'd rather be hated and feared like Mad King Ashnard. I'd rather the dark god take my soul. I'm going to save my people, Sothe. If the rest of the world paints me as a beast to be reviled and hated, so be it.”

she is, on paper and beyond, willing go to any lengths for daein including committing atrocities against anyone who's against daein, even when daein is in the wrong (which is usually is lol). and she does.

sure she feels bad about it but that doesnt make her a better person than say soren (who to be clear is also not a good person) who is openly willing to go to the same lengths if needed. micaiah stands for a country thats straight up racist and bloodthirsty towards innocents just bc those same bloodthirsty racists are nice to her and revere her.

and she enjoys that reverence (see: her conversation w/ sothe where she expresses terror over losing the people's adoration of her if they find out she's branded).

of course theres a degree of murkiness even then because to a point you can see her justification - as far as she knows, everyone in daein will die if she doesnt support begnion's racist-ass campaign against the laguz. so there is some understandability to her course of action even while its still, when you weigh out the options, largely wrong (imo and debatable [do not debate me on this i dont care what u think lol]).

anyway micaiah being morally questionable despite her ostensible "kindness" is, again, what makes her so interesting and what makes radiant dawn so compelling. to have a protagonist who can be kind in manner and feeling but also amoral in action is fun!! she does not have to be a "good person," she makes it clear she doesnt even care about being a good person. and in fact its more interesting that she's not.