#the ruling/noble class causing the apocalypse because of their greed for power?

[scattered-winter]

they really put their entire pussies into the social commentary in this show huh

[fontasticcrablettes]

The worst Vesperia take is anything along the lines of “Alexei was just a power hungry megalomaniac” or “Alexei was greedy and wanted to take over the world” or “Alexei is a one-note villain who’s just an evil bastard trying to seize power.”

Alexei didn’t watch his shiny ideals get crushed and lose his resolve in the Great War and then slowly watch himself become the villain he once swore to eliminate to be called a greedy megalomaniac.  Alexei’s plan was to use Zaude to seize control of the empire because he saw that it was corrupt and broken and had lost his optimism that he could change it while playing by the empire’s rules. He’s a fallen hero, a well-intentioned extremist, someone who sees himself as the hero of his own story because he is willing to get his hands dirty and commit actions deemed criminal by others in order to purge the empire of corruption and create a better world. (Oh look, what an interesting foil for our main protagonist)

And this isn’t just me headcanoning him.  The game could have fleshed him out a lot more than they did, but this is all alluded to in the text.  Yuri asks Raven why the Royal Guard are so loyal to him: 

“Well, Alexei wasn't a piece of crap when he got his start. ...  It was his responsibility ta bring peace ta the world.... That's a heavy load for anyone.”

Then, when confronting him at Zaude:

Flynn: Alexei! What happened to the ideals you held? What changed?

Alexei: Nothing has changed except my methods.

Alexei never denies that he held the ideals Flynn - and everyone else - believed he possessed.  In fact, he rejects the notion that he ever lost them and still claims to hold those ideals of creating a just and fair empire.  “Nothing has changed except my methods” - he still wants to create  a better world, he just believes he is justified in doing any act of cruelty in order to achieve it.  

He directly states his motivations: 

“Absolute power is the only thing that can revive this rotting, stagnant empire.  Indeed, the world. [...] No true reformation could occur so long as I followed the means presented by the empire.  At times, dreamers must be branded as criminals.  But I’ll suffer such burdens gladly.  I promised to free this world from the Entelexeia, from the aer, and from this pitiful empire! This world shall be reborn!”

I mean, he all but looks directly at the camera sand says “I am doing this because I want to save the world from corruption and I am willing to become a villain if that’s what it takes.”   (Once again, that is... basically Yuri’s entire thing, Alexei is a fantastic villain to oppose Yuri as a protagonist)

His bit about “freeing the world from Entelexeia” also shines more of a light on his actions with Heracles and Astal.  His attitude toward Entelexeia become clearer when looked at through the context of him surviving the Great War.  Imagine Alexei as a younger man, still new to being commandant (Alexei is 42 at the time of the game, so he was 32 during the war.  Flynn is acknowledge as unusually young, so Alexei likely got the position only a few years before the war).  He’s still an idealist, he’s a low-ranking noble who earned his prestige through a tournament rather than connections or money, he wants to reform the knights.  And then the Great War happens and he watches more than 90% of the troops he deployed get slaughtered by monsters - monsters led by the Entelexeia.  Of course he wants to build Heracles.  After going through that, it’s perfectly logical that he’d a) have a deep hatred of Entelexeia and b) go to extreme lengths to ensure that if a fight with Entelexeia happens again, he’ll be ready and won’t have to endure such losses again.  

All this is directly from the game.  Even deeper Alexei lore can be found in the Raven manga, Empty Mask.  Take it as canon if you like:

This is a villain who became commandant with big dreams of breaking down class barriers in the Knights, changing the system to be more just, and creating a better world.  But his faith in humanity is continually challenged and broken down, until he’s ready to just throw the whole thing out the window.  The empire can’t be fixed, and humans are too weak and selfish to be trusted.  What does it matter if he hurts a few people along the way?  They’re likely going to die anyway.  Life is short and painful and meaningless.  Nothing matters.  Any suffering is a worthwhile sacrifice if it means creating a world that’s not like this.

Back to game canon, the part I find most interesting is his line immediately before dying: “It seems, in the end, I was the greatest fool of all.”

Alexei knows he made a horrible mistake.  All this time, he’s justified his actions with the knowledge that he’s working for the “greater good”.  Kidnap and torture an innocent girl?  Who cares!  It will save the world! She’s just a tool, right?!  Every death, every abuse, all the harm he caused... all of that was justified��because it would ultimately lead to prosperity.  History would remember him as the hero who saved the world from itself.  Except... then the Adephagos appears.  Not only has he doomed the world, but it means that every cruel action he’s taken is now meaningless.  He’s soothed his guilt over all his harmful actions by telling himself it would be worth it in the end, but the end is nigh and it didn’t justify the means.  So yeah, he has a bit of a meltdown over the crushing realization that he’s just as awful a person as Yuri’s group said he was.  

“I was the greatest fool of all.”  Because he used to view others as fools.  He saw them as foolish humans who squabbled over petty differences and corrupted the empire with their greed.  They were fools who weren’t able to look at the big picture and see why his sacrifices were necessary.  Except, it turns out that he was wrong, his actions were pointless, and he became the very thing that he was willing to become a villain to destroy.  “The ultimate irony,” as Alexei says. Alexei’s dialogue immediately before and after the fight only makes sense with the context of him thinking he’s the anti-hero saving the empire.  A man acting on lust for power has no reason to talk about reformation, of there being irony in him causing the apocalypse, of being a dreamer, or of freeing the empire.’  

Anyway, Alexei is a lot more than the power-hungry monster some critics write him off as.