big leem

Also Osborne was so disappointing. The fact that Ishmelga was used to absolve him of all wrongdoing sucks so bad. He could've been by far the best villain in the whole series but they just didn't commit to making him an actual dictator. The direction I genuinely thought they were going with him (before the ending of the third game) was that after he lost his wife and son he spent decades stewing in grief and self-loathing ("I wasn't strong enough to protect them, I'll never see her again") and from that he gained so much power in the Empire that no one could actually stop him. I thought he'd have a motivation, y'know? One that isn't just "I have to make The Curse killable so the cycle stops repeating itself." I thought he'd literally become the "Blood and Iron Chancellor" by becoming an actual world dominating madman who sought to cover the entire world in iron (not literally im talking figuratively) so that no one would suffer loss the way he did ever again. The kind of self-aggrandizing rhetoric that MAKES a dictator, right? In so doing maybe he adopted a bunch of kids that lost everything themselves in Lechter, Claire and Rufus to try and fill in the hole his lost family left. Hence the whole "ironbloods" thing? A man with nothing left to lose whose only purpose left is to build a fortress around everything that is so that a "utopia" can be achieved.

And here's the thing, I feel like Ishmelga and the Curse can still exist in this story! Because wouldn't it be so much cooler if, instead of just doing what Ishmelga wants because he can't deny it (flimsy, non-existant motive), he actually seized control of it and used it to further his goals? Because his will is iron? Because even a hundreds-of-years-old curse that compels men to madness isn't enough to sway his conviction? That's almost sort of what they do but they handwave it as "oh your will is so strong you kept your personality intact" like no man that's weak sauce. What personality? Imagine if he actually used Ishmelga (the sept terrion of fire and earth WHICH TOGETHER MAKES STEEL???) to control the military flawlessly and make the people of Erebonia war-starved hounds so he can build his utopia? Maybe this hypothetical plot I came up with isn't airtight but at least it's SOMETHING, right? Why did Osborne need a perfect redemption? You're telling me after years and years and years of buildup he's allowed to just have his sunshine and rainbows ending where he gets to go to heaven with Lianne because the Curse made him do it? They had the chance to surpass Weissman (in the grand scheme a very archetypal mad scientist villain who still works cause he actually owns his villainy) and they just didn't commit. It sucks so bad. I don't need a mustache-twirler and I don't hate the idea of Rean reconciling with his long lost father but what I wanted was a Character, an actual person, who felt like he left an actual impact in the plot equal to the years of hype built up around him instead of Just Another Unfortunate Soul that Ishmelga manipulated. Now this guy who's barely on screen whose presence is spoken of far more than actually felt just disappears from the plot with little to no impact because he was barely a character. Bad! Shame on you! Do better! I'm begging you!

me on monday: im getting my bellayyyy scratched