#ix;

Though it’s canonically stated that Queen Brahne was once kind and well-liked among her people, I feel her character has always been underlined with some grey-zoned morality (her husband, too), considering Garnet’s changeling complex.

I mean, they lose their only daughter to illness, then just so happen to find a resembling horned six-year-old girl via shipwreck who can’t remember a thing about herself and bam. Promptly have her horn painfully removed and give her their late daughter’s name and life, like holy moly??  Just, geez.  Sure, it was a scramble to fill an emotional hole, but that’s still one heck of a reaction to such a tragic loss, and manipulation of a child’s life.  By the least, I don’t think Brahne ever properly mourned her biological daughter’s passing, and that might of subconsciously influenced her lack of empathy towards Garnet’s safety and well-being during her decisions in-game, when she’s an openly disturbed woman.

I think sometimes how incredibly difficult for Garnet it must be to have to upkeep a lie about her being a true-born heir to her subjects.  Though the importance of royal blood to Alexandrian society was never specified, it’s pretty obvious they function assumingly on a more old-world ideology than it’s sister-city, Lindblum, for example, where Cid is regent instead of king and publicly adopts Eiko post game (one of the many things about the game’s ending that I love).  Even an NPC notes early game how surprised they are that someone like Garnet could be Brahne’s daughter, showing that the public isn’t without notice but still unaware that their lovely princess is a doppelganger.

// Insists to help in acquiring an antidote for Blank out of genuine concern and feeling partly responsible for the outcome of events leading to his petrification.