#bartlow

did he try to instigate a war? yes

did he try to murder Alisha through both direct and indirect means? yes

did he try to buy Sorey out and threaten him when he wouldn't agree? yes

was he doing this in the best interest of his country? that's what we're led to believe.

yes, war is terrible and an absolute last resort. yes, Bartlow should have done more to try for a peaceful alternative (assuming he didn't already). yes, he is a trashcan human being and I like to burn him with Lailah's fire every time I go through the meeting scene. but

- Alisha herself testifies to what a crappy state the world is in, with both countries on edge due to dwindling resources. war is risky, war is expensive, and it takes up a lot more of those resources. Bartlow is cited as being good at what he does, so it's highly unlikely that war was his first preference, or that he jumped the gun to try and incite one without (what he believed to be) justification.

- Alisha attests to his value when she begs the assassins not to kill him. she respects him, even after knowing he tried to have her killed. this isn't a man who's driven the country to the brink of ruin to boost his own popularity and ego, like Scar from The Lion King or something. he's someone who has no optimistic delusions about the nature of humanity, is completely devoid of the faith and altruism that drive Sorey and Alisha, and has used whatever means necessary to keep the country functioning in the interest of the majority. "you have to crack a few eggs," as the saying goes.

- as awful as it was for him to target Alisha, the game itself stresses that she's pretty ignorant when it comes to politics and ruling authority. she preaches peace, which is good and right, but she has no real way of enforcing her ideals other than the optimistic outlook that "well if we don't attack hopefully our enemies won't, either." from Bartlow's POV, you're preparing for a "necessary" war to preserve your country, and then you have this woman going around on her soapbox and killing morale among the people. she's a well-known public figure, so of course your first attempt would be to reason with her -- but Alisha is morally hard-headed, so that doesn't go over well. you need to make the problem go away, and soon. murder is bad, but it's effective, especially when you can make it look like an accident.

- and now you have some kid who looks like he's barely through puberty coming in and threatening to do the same thing. he's heralded as the hero the people have been waiting for, the figure they'll all be looking to with religious zeal (and he’s lying, as far as you’re concerned, since you don’t believe in any of the legends) -- and worse, he's close friends with Alisha, so they’re probably conspiring together. what do you do? again, you appeal to him first, explaining what an important influence he is. you try bribing him, even. he turns his back on you and welp, this is another problem that needs to go away

tl;dr Bartlow is not the main antagonist of the game like he is in the anime lbh and with good reason. he's jaded, immoral, ironfisted, and at times cruel (with a purpose). you’re supposed to hate him. but when you consider his office and what's at stake, his actions make a dark, unfortunate kind of sense that can't just be written off as "evil for the sake of being evil.”

yeah, forcing Alisha to deliver the declaration of war was absolutely awful of him, but it was admittedly genius. if she refused, he could have her arrested (and thus remove her voice from the public) and have an excuse to attack Rolance prematurely, which would give his side an edge. he’s a major douche, but an intelligent one.

so, is he a good person? heck no

do his intentions justify his actions? in my opinion, no, absolutely not ("cool motive, still murder")

but at the end of the day I think Zestiria succeeded with Bartlow where Abyss stumbled with Mohs (even though Bartlow abruptly dropped off the map after a certain point and could've had a bigger role than he did while Mohs was hecking constant).

Zestiria doesn't give him too much time onscreen, but with some thought you can figure that Bartlow is smart, but callous, with good intentions (in the interest of Hyland) that you can see when considering his circumstances. maybe he used to be like Sorey and Alisha, bright-eyed and dreaming of a perfectly peaceful society, and that got beaten out of him over the long years of facing reality and hardship; maybe he’s always been this way. we don't know for sure, but we're free to imagine, and the game doesn’t try to force a lesson down our throats with him. either way, he was wrong, but understandable to a degree when you consider his position.

Abyss told you Mohs was sympathetic (several times, to the point of obnoxiousness one of my few issues with an otherwise perfect game), but that's hard to perceive when he's constantly backstabbing everyone, abusing his position as a neutral state, considering no alternatives other than "kill them all," is willingly brainwashed by the Score instead of thinking for himself, dehumanizes and objectifies an entire race of people, and refuses to admit his mistakes even when the very thing he's been obeying straight up tells him he is wrong, at which point it feels like he’s acting in the interest of his own ego before anything else. the game does its absolute best to make you hate his guts with a passion over the course of several arcs, and then abruptly tells you to feel bad for him. NO, THANKS

(disclaimer #1: granted, this is just my personal perception, obviously. maybe other people out there think Mohs was a good dude under all the crazy and Bartlow is the lowest scum of the earth, idk. to each their own!)

(disclaimer #2: I love Abyss, I consider it the best game of the series and my second favorite personally. the forced Mohs sympathy has just always bugged me.)

in hindsight, I wonder if the Zestiria anime was trying to mimic Mohs with the way it overplayed Bartlow, considering all the similarities it decided to make up (kidnapping Alisha's parental figure, turning her true parent against her, etc).