#He's smart. He's nice (even sometimes when possessed by a god). He's probably got 934 degrees and we only know of a few of them. He can BBQ

[valeriefauxnom]

Subtle Threads - Phares

Now, Phares is something of a bias of mine in the royal family, as you'd probably figure out if you've either read some of my fics or posts here. That being said, with him being such a slippery figure in the royal fam, especially in material that we can wholly put to him instead of the Progenitor and his continual influence warping him, he definitely doesn't have the more robust picture we get for more common members like Emile or Chelle.

That being said, I do think there are still plenty of interesting nuggets that hide within the many lines of text in Dragalia, and I figured I'd cover one for my boy!

Today's topic is that I think there's some evidence of an interesting relationship between Leonidas and Phares.

The introductory website outright says that they consider themselves 'worthy rivals'...

I'd like to expand on this relationship.

In Sibling Assembly, we see a hint that Leo and Phares seemed rather close growing up:

It makes sense. For a little while, they had their own little world to themselves to romp around in as the only brothers, and now a sister was intruding as younger siblings are so inclined to do.

That being said, even after Phares' wyrmscale, Leonidas still seems to consider Phares very highly. In the same conversation, despite being present in the capital to halt it and the one that was 'in charge' of the matter, he does nothing to stop Phares from freeing Beren when he announces his intentions bare:

For him, I almost think this amounts to Leo's form of trust for not immediately stepping in. Leonidas wanted to kill Beren outright, but by the time he gained the authority to order it so, something about Beren's Bad Vibes had grown too strong. The fact that he's letting Phares free him from his prison suggests to me that he believes that Phares could control him, or at least not immediately cause a massacre. At the very least, survive.

I'll also tack on that Leonidas first summons Phares in his story to help him with the fiends, even over Chelle with her high tech and maneuverability with the Gran Fiore, despite everything. While he might not fully know Phares' deteriorating state at this point, it's still a rather strong expression of trust that the Progenitor isn't in him and that Phares is able to help find a way to stem the invasion.

I think it's fair to say that there definitely is respect between the two, which is impressive that it managed to linger even through Leo's 'strong eat the weak' philosophy. Sure, he knows Phares to be very smart, but at the end of the day, if he truly were a hapless little flower, I think Leonidas would grow to disregard him all the same. That only goes so far on the battlefield, and one's performance on said battlefield is the metric he's ultimately concerned about.

They still do butt heads a tiny bit to show a shade of this supposed 'rivalry', though, between their different schools of thought, their ongoing Alberian chess rivalry show, and the fact that Phares was actually the second to start reading up on alchemy after Leo before he devoted himself enough to surpass him:

The chess match is, after all, a 'heated exchange' that has Leo there looking frustrated or otherwise in very deep thought (which he doesn't seem to have to do very often, able to beat Leif and Ilia both).

All this is speculative, but I'd also like to point out Phares' and Leonidas' weaponry.

Leo, of course, uses swords, and Phares, halberds. Halberds as a spear weapon actually have a bit of an advantage versus swords. No, the Fire Emblem Weapon Triangle didn't emerge from nothing!

The reasoning lies in its reach. It can safely hit and threaten a swordsman like Leo without endangering its wielder, and this sort of passive control of range and threat is what makes it hard for a sword-user to find an opportunity to strike safely.

Here's a video of what I mean, where you can see the swordsman just struggling to handle the constant threat of the spear he's facing, and is mostly just having to try to defend himself and seek an opening rather than actually engage in a true equal 'duel':

Here's yet more video for good measure, if you're really interested on how spear/sword match-ups tend to go:

And honestly? With how strong the legacy of using swords is baked into the royal fam as the cool thing to do with Alberius, I could see Phares instead pivoting to the spear and later a halberd to give him that edge against Leo, who is a martial juggernaut in the family.

Furthermore, Phares doesn't really indicate a problem with his physical strength, but he does obviously have one with endurance:

This stems from, of course, wyrmscale, which seems to affect his lungs:

While I'm not exactly a weapons-expert or how they were used, I think this ultimately kinda combines into another reason he went to the spear class of weapons: since he's at a 'safer' distance and always is going to have a sort of passive advantage against foes with shorter weapons, it might help reduce the amount of energy he's expending since his passive threat is so much more than a sword could manage.

Last but not least, with Phares' scales providing some much-needed protection to his left side, he's made himself quite a tough nut to crack, defensively. We don't know the full extent of his scales, but we do see that they at least largely cover his forearm, and have a more patchwork coverage of his upper chest:

See that arm vs. how it transitions at his wrist? That's encased in scale!

His model also suggests that they do at least partially run down his back (this is a side-back view of it, his head's in the top left)

In short, while its protection might not be complete, any amount of highly-resistant scales makes effectively hitting him that much harder, especially since his scales would work double time in stopping a slashing weapon from hitting his flesh as the protruding material.

Now, Dragalia is a magic society, which might make the spear vs. sword analysis more complicated, but still. With all this in mind, I do think that Phares might have gravitated to the spear as a means for him to help even the playing field, combat-wise, between himself and Leonidas. In pure physical shape, Leo would have him beat any day, but Phares has done his best to even the odds, keep the rivalry going, so that he could stand against Leonidas as an equal.

I just think it could be a nice touch to add to this rivalry of theirs.

At the end of the day, though, I'd like to point out that past all this rivalry or base respect between them, that Leonidas seems... rather caring. Emotionally vulnerable, for him. Even after considering his development after 12, Leonidas seems to be much more open about having a genuine brotherly love for Phares than he is for the other siblings.

Really, I'd like to just wave vaguely at Phares' story, sections 4 and 5 in particular, but since you're a captive audience if you've read this far, I'll just show you so you don't have to go hunting...

I mean, come on, anything that can get Leonidas to dramatically start yelling in caps lock is something that's he's not feeling flippant about!

Of course, he goes back to calmly snarking as soon as Phares' life is assured, but that's just Leo and the eldest trio's tendency to sarcasm...

I would also like to note that likely Chelle and Leonidas both were likely keeping vigil over him while he was unconscious, unconscious long enough to move him to the ship and for whatever Super Medical Squad Chelle assembled to ascertain that Phares' internal organs are OK. And for the both of them, both who tend to be busy with schemes and all the things they need/want to do, that says a lot!

As a final thing, Leonidas has good cause to be wary of Phares as next-in-line. All he would need to do is kill or otherwise permanently incapacitate a single elder brother, and the throne is his. And as I've shown, Leonidas harbors no delusions about Phares' abilities, which means that he both knows how dangerous a true foe Phares could be, and yet trusts him regardless even through their rivalry.

Sooo... yeah. Phares and Leonidas (just as Phares and Emile do) have a surprisingly fleshed-out dynamic that just kinda hid in the text, a thing that I'm not sure how many noticed besides me since nobody that's sane probably scours Phares' lines quite as much as I do!

Bonus Fun? Fact:

...Did you know that, -after Valyx, Phares actually seems to have the most square chin of the whole family? I just find it funny (and just found that one out a few weeks ago since I don't exactly stare at people's or characters' chins much...), since he's overall not exactly matching the whole 'Big Tough Strong MANLY MAN' aesthetic that that sort of trait tends to be used for.

(Leo's 'arms in air' pose admittedly and strangely is about equal to Phares, but in most all other arts he's far more angular and more like Euden or Chelle than Valyx...)

Fun? Fact 2:

Phares (well. Kinda. But that's always The Question for reading his lines pre-23. However, I don't think the Progenitor has enough personal knowledge of Euden yet to speak of him like Phares is...) is probably the closest anyone ever came to saying the word 'simp' in Dragalia!