darkness-and-starlight:

ifyouwanthim:

What upsets me is that there are Barbariccia/Kain shippers but no one calls it hurrikain

Oh my god.

ryuuuuzaki:

sevdrag:

Rydia baby :(

sevdrag:

Very interesting foreshadowing from Kain if you check the thought bubbles regularly.

Fits with the theory that Golbez just let Kain out on a long leash, waiting to reel him back in…

sevdrag:

Very interesting, Golbez.

sevdrag:

Cecil: DUDE YOU ARE DUMB. Didn’t Golbez legitimately just say that Kain was BACK UNDER A SPELL. He didn’t betray you; he was pulled. By magic.

Rosa: an interesting thought; what did she see in the Tower of Zot? Did Golbez try to put a leash on her as well? What an interesting game this would have been had Rosa been the unwilling spy …

Rydia: oh my darling. She doesn’t know what to do. MONSTER LAND DIDN’T TEACH ME HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS

Edge: HAHAHAHAHHA you didn’t like him because he called you on your bullshit bro but sure blame it on this

sevdrag:

I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS HERE.

This whole part of the game has always - confused me? - because I seriously don’t understand how anyone can consider anything that happened Kain’s actual fault. I really don’t. Dubcon Mind Control and Serious Trickery are epic themes in this game - the King of Baron / Cagnazzo, Kain, Yang, Golbez - so like, how is there still an argument to be made here that Kain is at fault?

I feel like its a weirdly complicated thing to make the player “suspicious” of Kain, as if we’ll ~never know~ his true intentions and how much was mind control and how much wasn’t, but — it doesn’t really work for me. Plain and simple.

I can recognize that feelings of rivalry and jealous existed between Kain and Cecil over their military places in Baron and the King’s regard. I can also see how their mutual feelings for Rosa - you know, never minding the fact that Rosa has her own agency and made a pretty clear and obvious choice for herself - might have fed into this negativity. That’s a thing, okay, I see it.

However, if a Lunarian as magically powerful as Golbez (and we’ve seen him pull out lots of black magic, withstand Meteo, and even Summon) was ensnared by Zemus’ powers, how the fuck could a normal dude like Kain who has absolutely no magical abilities at all be expected to overcome it?

Edge’s anger is perhaps understandable because he hasn’t known Kain for very long. But I agree with Rosa in this scene. None of this can really be considered Kain’s fault.

I know there’s a lot of headcanon how Kain was mostly in control of himself, and Golbez/Zemus tempted him with things that he wanted and he took a greedy leap to try to get recognition and Rosa, and that’s okay - I just - my interpretation is and has always been that Kain didn’t have control over his anything. I feel like many other scenes show Kain as a loyal and noble friend who’s devoted to both Cecil and Rosa; I find it really hard to believe he’d willingly strike Cecil down for glory without Golbez/Zemus having a more significant grasp on his mind.

Fandom’s allowed to disagree - that’s why fandom is fun - but them’s my thoughts.

sevdrag:

THIS SCENE: PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS ESSAY

this is the first half of a scene that I’ve always had very complicated feelings about.

First I just want to brush on that small tacit passage between Kain and Edge: Edge is suspicious, doesn’t trust Kain; Kain makes it clear that he doesn’t want to live any longer as Golbez/Zemus’ shiniest puppet. I honestly think they have a mutual understanding here. Edge is on the side of good, but he isn’t made of light: he’s a ninja, a son of shadow, he executed his parents when they asked him to; he could totally take out one angsty Baronian Dragoon if he needed to. It’s always felt important to me: this one tiny exchange of sentences, but it’s so significant. Kain isn’t asking Cecil.

Now, okay, on to the rest of it.

You can almost - almost - understand where Cecil is coming from here. You don’t have to agree with him, but you can understand it at least. He just found out he’s Moon People, his dad sacrificed his own life energy to turn him shiny, and his brother both is and isn’t the enemy they’ve been facing this whole time because he has been at a dubcon mind control party since he was like four or something: Rosa is the one remaining thing that he has left from Baron, the one thing left that he knows, Cecil’s last safe haven: she is his everything. And Rydia’s still the child he made an orphan in Mist; she’s a walking manifestation of his guilt, of his mistakes, of all of the things he couldn’t save: he wants to protect her this time. He wants to protect them both. Again, I’m not saying I agree with it, but I understand it: from Cecil’s point of view, I guess, I can see it.

Edge and Kain don’t even try to argue. In fact, the three gentlemen resort to some harsh tones and insulting language to actually get the girls to go away. This is a team effort here.

(I’ll also note that this is one significant reason why the Kain-as-actual-traitor thing doesn’t work for me: Cecil takes Kain to the moon but leaves Rosa and Rydia behind? Really. Cecil’s not the brightest Moon Kid on the school bus, but I do not think he is that dumb.)

Essay continued in part two of this scene…

sevdrag:

I absolutely adore the thoughts of the Baronians.