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Episode Ardyn – Prologue
-This is the anime prologue y’all recommended. I’m watching it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yOOF8AKQbw&feature=emb_logo
-Starting with a woman stumbling into town and… biting someone? Maybe she just got daemonified.
-Somnus orders his troops against a horde of daemons, then sets fire to the massive pile of corpses afterwards. Both daemon and human.
-Ardyn stumbles across this afterwards. Grimaces in pain at seeing it. He’s covered up in a robe – a sign that he’s maybe impacted by the plasmodia?
-This is 2,000 years before Noctis. Lucis wasn’t a monarchy, it sounds like just a loose federation of houses at the time. House Caelum had popular and divine support since they could purge the daemons.
-There were two candidates for kingship. Somnus was ambitious and charismatic. Ardyn was devout. Wow. Maybe his brother really was as shitty as Ardyn perceived him.
I LOVE this Dragon Age-style art.
-The narrator is the Oracle, Aera.
-Somnus burned not just daemons, but those he suspected of Starscourge infection. Getting Arthas vibes from the Warcraft universe.
-Ardyn can CURE the Starscourge in others! We see him suck up the plasmodia from a sick woman, but it’s going into him. I wonder if it just kept building and building inside him until it gained sentience.
-I wanted to get this in English to better judge the different inflections in Ardyn’s voice, but no go. So as I watch Ardyn talk to his followers and say he’ll reluctantly accept the kingship if it’ll help his people, I can’t tell if he’s being sincere or manipulative. I think sincere?
-Aw, Ardyn and Aera are engaged! And kind of adorable together.
-Soldiers pursue Ardyn. So even before the gods have made their decision, Somnus moved against his brother.
-Ardyn collapses. The weight of all that plasmodia.
-Aera gets a vision… and she doesn’t look happy. The gods must just have chosen Somnus.
BUT WHY? He seems objectively worse.
-Word spreads through the kingdom that Ardyn is the new king. Aera must have spread the wrong news, and I can’t imagine the gods would be pleased. But would she really risk that? She’s in DIRECT CONTACT with the gods. Divine retribution is a certainty.
-FUCKING SOMNUS. He forced Aera to lie to lure Ardyn to the capital.
-Somnus charges Ardyn and attacks. Pretty sweet duel, with that XV theme in the background.
-XV falls into its old habits as Aera Dies Protecting Her Man.
I’m sure they meant to go for a parallel between Aera and Luna, but it mostly serves to highlight my annoyance with the game’s treatment of Luna.
-Ardyn’s daemonic parts emerge. His tears drip purple onto Aera’s body. Pretty awesome visual.
-He drags himself to the Crystal at the top of the throne, bleeding and dragging darkness behind him. Somnus wasn’t lying; the gods really did choose him (for reasons I still don’t really understand).
[Later edit: I now think that the crystal rejecting him here is a purely physiological thing, the Star rejecting the Starscourge inside him. Something that doesn’t have to do with Ardyn’s worthiness as a king.]
-Somnus buried Ardyn beneath Angelgard as “Adagium.” His true name stricken from the history.
It’s cool to see more of this part of Ardyn’s history. Most of it I inferred from the start of the DLC, but it did surprise me to see confirmed that Somnus really was a big ol’ jackwagon. I was hoping it’d say WHY the gods chose Somnus over Ardyn, but no such luck.
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Awakening (continued)
-Back to the DLC. Last time, I left off with Verstael leading me around the facility.
-He shows me the frozen, unconscious body of Ifrit taken from the Rock of Ravatogh.
VERSTAEL: “Do you think you could turn him?” Oh SHIT, he wants to daemonify Ifrit! Shiva had told Noctis that Ifrit was seduced somehow, so maybe this is how. Maybe the plasmodia didn’t exactly turn him into a different being, but did corrupt him.
-He also suggests that daemonifying Ifrit would let Ardyn control him. I didn’t know that he had that power. I thought doing so just turned them into daemons that acted independently, but it makes sense that Ardyn has some influence.
-Lucian special forces suddenly attack.
THIS IS WILD, HE SEES THE SOLDIERS ALL AS SOMNUS, TAUNTING HIM
Is this Verstael’s doing? It’d be quite a coincidence if these hallucinations spurred Ardyn to act just how Verstael wanted.
-I fight off the Lucians, and… ruh oh. Ifrit’s awake and pissed.
[Non-rhetorical question: is it possible to win this fight? If so, do you get some alternate cutscene?]
[Later edit: I wonder if these hallucinations are simply his past trauma resurfacing, or if all the plasmodia he sucked up is manifesting to push him in a particular direction. I don’t think so – it seems to not have will or sentience – but we’ll see.]
-He knocks my health down, picks me up… and Ardyn gives in. He floods Ifrit with plasmodia, and in the process sees his memories.
FHDJKLSFHDSLDS THE GODS CHOSE ARDYN, NOT SOMNUS
Why did they let Somnus’ usurpation stand? I could’ve SWORN Bahamut at one point said the gods chose against Ardyn… or did they leave it vague, like, “We chose one, as the other was too corrupted” and I assumed they were confirming that Ardyn was the corrupted one when it was in fact Somnus?
-Ardyn stumbles forward as if in a dream towards a vision of Aera, calling out to him.
-She apologizes, revealed that she told Somnus Ardyn was chosen. Again, I’m shocked the gods let Somnus’ trick stand.
-This is enough to push Ardyn towards an overt desire for revenge.
-Why does Aera think SHE sinned? Did the gods specifically dictate the manner in which she was to tell the world? Or am I still misunderstanding things, and the gods actually DID choose Somnus but she lied to Somnus and thus got Ardyn “killed?”
Perhaps she interprets her strategic blunder – telling Somnus that Ardyn was picked – as a sin, not just a mistake.
-Aera starts to go daemon mode, asking to be punished for her sins. And Somnus prances behind Ardyn, egging him on.
SOMNUS: “Put that monster out of its misery, just like I did!”
No way this is the real Somnus. Nasty as he was, the prologue showed us that killing Aera wasn’t intentional.
-He raises his dagger, but can’t. Too committed to saving lives.
There’s a mini-game here. I have to button mash to fight “Somnus,” who’s trying to get me to push the dagger into Aera. I’m too slow, and he drives the dagger in.
[Non-rhetorical question: is this mini-game even winnable? My guess is no.]
-This little dream pushes Ardyn fully over to Team Burn Down Everything Somnus Built.
“Hear me, gods above! No longer shall I supplicate you for pardon. No longer shall I sojourn toward the light. Nay… the path I intend to tread is paved with blood and darkness.”
Voice actor killing it, as always. As he speaks, his eyes drip with the Starscourge.
“No longer shall I seek your guidance. This path is mine to tread alone.”
-He gives a mwa-ha-ha evil laugh, but it doesn’t sound hokey to me. It feels like he’s newly experiencing and expressing that particular feeling you get when you give in to the freeing despair of “Fuck it.”
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Next time: time skipping ahead.
