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valeriefauxnom · 4 months ago

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Chapter 14 - Bad Writing or Something Else?

So, as you may or not know, there was, to put it mildly, a lot of bonafide discourse regarding chapter 14 when it first released. While quite a bit revolved around Elisanne, with the short scene that initially seemed to some that she had given up Zethia to Nedrick voluntarily, the true centerpiece of debate was Euden.

Specifically, him in the big scene of the chapter with Morsayati.

Now, I'm not here to tell you chapter 14 is a perfect masterpiece, because it most definitely isn't, along with the rest of Dragalia's plot. However, I will make the claim that Euden's actions here were inevitable and destined to fail from the start.

Let's take a look at what had people so up in arms about Euden in chapter fourteen, first:

In this scene, Euden near-instantly capitulates to the Other offering to free Zethia, offering himself up to free her and, in his view, save her life. Now, there's plenty of fair critique that could be made here from a logical observer- why trust a demon overlord's words to begin with? What about his previous claims that saving and protecting the kingdom is his primary goal instead of Zethia?

At first glance, it understandably looks that Euden has conveniently flipped course between ch.9 and 14 for the sake of drama. I really can see where there were a lot of people up in arms about Euden not exactly being the brightest bulb in the overwhelmingly blond family (among other insults).

Nevertheless, I'd like to present a bit more nuanced view than just 'Euden did a 180 in values and ruined everything, chapter bad' opinion that many seemed to have.

For starters, it is made as clear as chapter 7 that the Other now has the explicit goal of making Euden his next possession victim, even if not spelled out explicitly:

Valyx and Harle are rightly advising the Other that if one wants to stop Euden's growing momentum, it needs to be put down soon and with excessive force. Morsayati, however, pish-poshes this, and actually is invested in letting Euden gain power. That seems stupid on Morsayati's part, and initially would likely come across to players as just the villain setting up their own downfall as so many stories write.

But no, not with Morsayati. As glad as he was to jump from King Aurelius to Zethia to gain some sweet sweet magic power, he's already looking for the next biggest thing to accomplish his ultimate goals of destruction, and has found it in Euden. However he can, Euden has rapidly assembled many dragons' power, all surviving Greatwyrms included, which are formidable in their own right. And with his capacity to control and corrupt said dragons through their pact with the whole mutual 'tugging' I've described previously, Morsayati sees a silver platter of natural forces of destruction in Euden.

In short, by chapter 7, Morsayati is already scheming to possess Euden. And, likely, scheming the most efficient way to get Euden to capitulate.

Now, I can't remember exactly if it was indicated how much insight Morsayati had into his hosts' memories and all that, but regardless of what degree, Euden gives him all the keys he needs to figure out the answer to that previous question in chapter 10:

Morsayati, in this same conversation, seems to be trying to test out another potential tool for capitulation, namely, his desire for peace:

That, however, failed, Euden instead directly revealing his hand:

To Euden, it's less of a 'give up everything for Zethia', but to Morsayati, all he sees is that he offered Euden what Morsayati believed was Euden's version of a 'perfect world' only for Euden to refuse because of Zethia. His actual reasoning involves more than Zethia, as seen when he continues, but I digress. The Other has found his weak point.

Enter chapter 14...but first, let's look at chapter 13.

The only reason chapter 14 comes about is because Leif, a very well-trusted friend and skilled commander, encourages Euden to press an assault on the capital.

Leif's reasoning is sound from a military standing point. It makes sense to attack when enemy forces are in disarray... but unbeknownst to either of them, Morsayati has already realized the lacking security in the capital and yet is more than willing to roll out the red carpet to make it even more of an tempting invitation to Euden by permitting Valyx to leave in the first place:

In essence, Euden and most everyone with strategic sense sees a golden opportunity, so much so that delaying it would be foolish.

One problem: he's not ready to face Morsayati as a person or army. And he's just taken the Other's perfect bait. Opportunities only last for a short period of time in the military, which means that Euden's attack and plans were likely pretty hastily drawn-up since the capital seemed to be so far of a goal away before.

Even if they weren't just charging in with 0 plan, we do see the results of their lacking intelligence as to what their enemies are capable of with Harle at the gate. They called upon secret defectors within the capital to force a hole through the walls of Sol Alberia (since it is a giant, completely-encircled city) if they couldn't go through the gate, but failed to gather info regarding Harle's trickery.

In addition to any military hastiness in their assault, Euden personally isn't ready, either. We see all throughout chapter 5 to 14, as demonstrated by that bit I showed Euden saying to Zodiark in chapter 10, that Euden shies away from conflict with the Other directly, because that means swinging a sword/claw at his twin's body. I think that's an understandable hesitation even when said twin is possessed. It's not easy to harm those you care about.

However, it causes the biggest glaring hole in whatever plans they could cook up in the quick turnaround from Lake Reeve to the Halidom to the Capital: they haven't actually discussed what to do about Morsayati. They're going in with a plan of stopping the Other, sure, but beyond that, they've no concrete way in mind.

Now, this admittedly isn't the wisest decision, but I will point out that this doesn't entirely fall upon Euden as a failure. Nobody had a plan how to separate Zethia and the Other, or otherwise incapacitate the demon without risking Zethia's life. All they knew is that this was too good of a chance to pass up, and that being wishy-washy and letting this go by would be its own failure and would let Morsayati rebuild his forces.

We also see Euden start struggling hard in chapter 14 even before they entered the city. It's already becoming too real that Zethia, possessed, is in the castle he grew up with, and he's going to have to lead a hastily-gathered army to attack Sol Alberia and accept all the death and destruction that will inevitably cause to both sides and civilians.

Harle is not the only schemer in the capital at that time, as Morsayati turns the entire castle into a trap solely to make Euden more vulnerable to him.

He immediately separates Euden and co from the bulk of their army, preventing him from showing up with such numbers that even Morsayati couldn't handle, and disorients said small group. That likely doesn't help any sense of desperation that might be building in Euden to put an end to this, in addition to making him hasty.

Euden recognizes the Other's 'invitation' now, but with the door locked behind them and no way to exit, they can only head deeper into the wolves' den instead of retreating to regroup and formulate strategy.

Morsayati also went to the effort of conjuring illusions specifically to get Euden running into traps, further weakening both his allies and Euden both physically and mentally:

Now, before his, Euden was just about to take a break. Smart idea, but now that break has gone poof.

Enter the damning segment.

While it might seem unequivocally obvious to us that the Other is possibly lying about 80% of the time, to Euden, I will point out that there is a rational basis to believe Morsayati's words that his presence is harming Zethia.

Namely, as a demon overlord filled with Bad Vibes (er, black mana, but that's almost literally what it is in lore anyways), it's a pretty fair assumption that having a demon overlord crammed in a single human body is not good for their long-term health. The gang have seen again and again so far how black mana can wreak havoc and pain for humanity and even dragons both. Why would Zethia be immune?

Furthermore, Euden also has a reason to believe that Zethia might stand better in a 1 v. 1 against the Other. The Other possessed her, in part, to eliminate a critical threat to him to begin with, after all, as Euden witnessed here:

The most legitimate reason he'd have to not do it would be the possibility of his dragons falling under Morsayati's sway, but even that isn't quite as strong as some think.

I highly doubt the Fire Emblem collabs were canon, where Euden received his most explicit warning against allowing possession, despite many people using that as a gotcha against him, for starters.

Fractured Futures would be a more reasonable warning... but it's much more vague.

Euden has pieces to the puzzle, but neither Audric nor Chronos spells out that this future is because Euden became possessed. All he knows, at most, is:

-Euden is Chronos' master, but 'not as he is in the present'

-Zodiark and the Greatwyrms are in Chronos

-Notte is angry at him for murdering friends

To Euden, however, this might just be a case of this world's Euden just not being quite as cool of a dude as he is. Nothing ever explicitly tells him that he was possessed, and the whole whirlwind nature of a trip of it all likely meant that Euden wouldn't be able to catalogue all the hints and remember them to stew on later. Audric tries to share this lore more directly at the very end, but he refuses:

The more obvious hints this world's Euden is possessed happen when Euden is not there, like when a swarm of his dragons attacks the Halidom in Audric's story. What he actually has isn't enough to definitively pin the tail on the Other and connect that Morsayati's possession of him is the cause of it all instead of this world's Euden just being a jerk or some other strange shenanigans.

His actual biggest demonstration that the Other could control dragons through a pact happened in chapter 5 where Zodiark attacks them because of Aurelius. Even that, however, could have seemed to Euden that Zodiark wasn't aware that Aurelius was possessed and was attacking him because 'Aurelius' willed it with again, nothing actually correlating that Zodi's attack is solely because he is being forced to.

(also, what 'ancient grudge'? I dunno myself!)

So yes, while there technically was room for Euden and co to realize that possession while pacted = bad news for the dragons, it's far from as solid as some make it out to be.

Thus, we have all the pieces for that scene. Euden walks in resolute as he can be...

...only for Morsayati to immediately take the wind out of his sails.

Between all the mental unpreparedness he's also walking in with, Euden might also be thinking that with the operation successful in the city, goal number 1 is already mostly 'accomplished': the city will be freed. The only piece left to topple is Morsayati, and Zethia is the only known piece that has countered the Other before.

Even before factoring in his emotional state, that's a pretty darn good argument to make a wild wager to allow Morsayati to possess him and his weakened self and free up Zethia. With Euden's self-disregard, he wouldn't care what happens to him, either. If his friends had to kill him to break Morsayati's control over Alberia, so be it- he's already established that he views himself as an expendable piece to his friends in this war game:

With Chelle and Leonidas coming around (again, in Chelle's case, even if her defection was fake), he also has siblings that could reign well left to pick up the pieces.

Now, you'd fairly and correctly point out that Euden most likely wasn't thinking of this when accepting, but I thought I'd bring it up that even a more coldly logical Euden might have accepted the Other's offer. (Honestly, that might be an interesting spin on how a Euden might have gotten Grand Theft-ed Body there!)

I digress.

We now have all the pieces to my overall argument, though:

-Morsayati has been planning for a long time exactly how to break Euden's will the fastest,

-Euden was all but forced into making a move for the capital without proper preparedness in ways both militarily and emotionally,

-Euden has few concrete reasons to fully understand the implications of the Other's possession,

-Euden is overwrought with emotion even before stepping in the castle, and with his only true friendly sibling in Zethia he grew up with at stake, he's inclined to rash decisions,

-His first goal is already mostly 'accomplished' - an uprising is in bloom, and Harle (the only other major commander) has been routed

-Euden doesn't view himself as the exclusive key to Alberia's peace- he's a sacrificial 'brick in the road' as said by him in other conversations

So on and so forth, but this is getting long enough. The long and short of it is that Euden was in no position to be waltzing to the castle, and Morsayati prepared to hell and back exactly how to make him crumble. There was little to no chance that the day truly would have been won as a decisive victory in Euden's favor.

On a final note, at the end of the day... is it really so hard to understand why someone might grow panicked and rash at any notion that their twin is about to die?

#dragalia lost #dragalia #dragalia analysis #Chapter 14 sure isn't perfect but I really don't see how else it could have ended up with the pieces given y'know?#The writers wrote themselves into such a box that Euden was not going to win that they felt compelled to Beren Ex Machina their way out.#In a meta sense they were also likely struggling how to pivot to Nedrick plot since Dragalia plot was pieced together by 3 writers working #...SEPARATELY. But yeah in all senses (narrative and meta) the plot just didn't seem to be set up to end in a Euden win!#I love my boy but Euden at the end of the day is deeply emotional. It both rallies and curses his cause.

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