#cotc critical

I'll note that this is all most likely just be a "my personal taste" thing, but what makes Lyblac so compelling to me in the original game, despite how little screentime and writing she gets, is that she is more or less directly the source of everything that goes wrong in the game because of her mission to revive Galdera and end the world.

She's the one who gives Matthias and Simeon longevity because she knows the type of trouble they'll cause will directly benefit her goal and that she can also use them and their cohorts as she sees fit; she's the one who strings Lucia along with promises of forbidden knowledge, and in turn Lucia drags Yvon down with her--and the two of them could probably have done serious damage to the Atlasdam kingdom if Lyblac had commanded Lucia to do so in exchange for more forbidden knowledge; Lyblac's directly responsible for making sure the right people (mainly Werner, but probably others as well) had the right type of power to topple the entire kingdom of Hornburg just so she could get access to the Gate of Finis; and of course the entire thing with Graham where she nearly managed to open the Gate of Finis before the game even starts by using his grief to puppet him along. The only traveler she doesn't have an obvious direct connection to is Therion, since there's nothing to directly tie her to the death of Cordelia's father (whether directly or through the Obsidians) and theft of the dragonstones, although it's technically not impossible she got her hands on one or two stones long enough to weaken the seal on the Gate of Finis.

This is all to say that, despite her lack of screentime, the original game's writing makes it clear that she is a dangerous threat, and even Galdera's two boss themes are named after Lyblac's epithets rather than his own ("The One They Call Witch" and "Daughter of a Dark God"). It is made abundantly clear that she is the main antagonist, and that she is wickedly smart, very careful, calculating, and extremely resourceful.

In CotC she is...none of these things, to the detriment of not only her own characterization from the original game, but to Ceraphina's role as a major antagonist as well. Now, a lot of CotC's writing doesn't, to me at least, feel like it lines up well with the established canon of the original game, which is crazy since the lead writer is the same for both games...but also a lot of the writing just, isn't very strong in my opinion (i.e. the same plot twist gets used at least six times in the main story route), but that's neither here nor there. However, Besower of Fame is probably one of the weakest of the main story routes.

What really irked me about Bestower of Fame was just how much it doesn't make sense with any of the pre-established canon. Rinyuu being Graham's bastard daughter doesn't make any sense, this was the man who was so desperate to save his wife that he left on a years-long trip, and was so beset by grief of her death that he was easily manipulated into cracking the Gate of Finis open in the hopes of seeing her again--he simply would not have a child with another woman. Ceraphina attempting to ascend to godhood to fulfill her revenge is fine and all, and actually kind of refreshing since her arc doesn't pivot on her being a sexy woman, except if she stole the First Flame before the events of the original game, then nothing about Ophilia's arc in the original game makes any sense (Ophilia shouldn't have been able to get into the Cave of Origins easily, she would have been aware of the entire fiasco caused by Ceraphina's betrayal, the lingering scars of that would still be being dealt with, etc.); so the plot execution there is shaky and could have been written differently with just as much impact, and possibly more to Ceraphina's benefit if Lyblac simply hadn't been included in the story at all.

For Lyblac, nothing about her writing in CotC makes sense. The idea that Lyblac had somehow "suffered a fatal wound" (how? from whom? where? when? why?) and hid herself in Ceraphina to recover...only to be smacked down again by the Chosen One and Co. (But she still recovers in time for the events of the original game? somehow? Also if she was recovering inside Ceraphina, just when the hell did she entice Werner to take down Hornburg?) Like? Is that the same woman who quietly plotted the downfall of one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world, and deftly manipulated all the people around her like pawns, and was clearly smart enough to evade any detection right up until she led Kit to the Gate with false promises of finding his father (and even then she was only found out by the main travelers because they had been helping Kit all along, and she still managed to temporarily revive Galdera). Like, I dunno, it weakens Ceraphina's character arc by robbing Ceraphina of the agency to be the main antagonist of her own story, and it spits in the face of the original game's canon Lyblac, who was terrifyingly cunning and extremely calculating, by making her act really stupid.

The impression I get of the original game's canon Lyblac is not of a woman who would ever put herself in a position where she could get harmed even a little, never mind lethally harmed (and she's also literally part-god, a mortal should not be able to easily harm her never mind fatally harm her), and she certainly wouldn't hedge her bets hiding away in some mere mortal who she definitely was using as a puppet and probably thought of as little more than a useful insect. CotC Lyblac simply does not make any sense with the original Lyblac's characterization, and it's a shame because Lyblac's role is really interesting in the original game, and her influence is felt across every traveler's story to some extent.