Today, we're going to be having a deep dive into genocide. Strap yourselves in, and if you've got experience with being in the midst of so much murder you'd rather not relive, there's a part you might want to skip.
We just started and already it's time for a memory. Apparently our mysterious Memories belong to someone acquainted with the goddess herself.
"...sister". Ellipses can do loads.
Well, that's a lot more context we suddenly need to piece together. The idea is that this is right after the Great Flood. "Expunging" Yune, though... that's a legitimate word.
Ashera doesn't seem to like Yune all that much.
And, to be fair, Yune's existence has caused... let's just say, a lot of death?
How long was this war before Yune wiped it out? No idea, but long enough.
Ashera had a heated goddess moment and wiped out over half of all humanity.
So she'd like to get rid of her emotions and make sure that never happens again.
Yune, 4-3: "I wish gods were perfect."
...I don't know which of you came up with the idea of wiping out half of the goddess, but you are now my least favourite character. I'm assuming it's not Altina, she seems like she's got more sense than that.
そんな……ご自身の半身を除かせるなど…
こんな決断を強いたのは
愚かな私たちだというのに。
女神がその責を
負われることなどないのに……
I think the gist is more that Ashera is bearing this destruction unto herself for the things humanity has done. ie "You shouldn't have to bear the weight of our foolishness" is talking about the war.
[This is Yune. This conversation has four participants, so I was a little stuck.]
Yune in general isn't really as aware of her surroundings as Ashera. I assume her presence as a sapient being capable of participating in this conversation is recent even by beorc calendars.
Yune didn't realise what she had done until it was done.
And this guy comforts her.
"It would be lonely, and I don't like being lonely". This kid is young.
This is Altina, although it doesn't really pop up. She does what I was hoping and offers a sensible suggestion to try and get everyone else off the doom train.
Although she could do a better job coming off as solemn than that.
[It's pronounced "dah-GHIN-zee-ah". Altina's kinda mumbling this line a little, so the intonation's a little weird.]
Ashera doesn't bite.
The plot is going to act like this has absolutely nothing to do with the absolutely insincere way Altina intoned the request, however heartfelt she intended it.
If Ashera was vulnerable to a heated goddess moment...
What hope does humanity have? Can humanity really put away the swords no matter what happens? (Looking at the laguz slaves?)
If humanity starts another war, it's all the way back to where we started. And it's another chance for Ashera to wipe out another 75% of them.
Ashera's solution, to get rid of Yune, is without fault! Never mind the fact she's clearly emotional enough to stick by this decision in the face of all arguments to the contrary? ...Then again, maybe that is cold logic to her...
Our focal character has one last plan.
To seal Yune away in "this medallion". Why this person has a medallion handy is one of those "do you have to ask that question?" questions, but I'm sure the answer could make this scene funny no matter what.
One day, humanity will be better.
And when that day comes, it will be better for all involved if Ashera hasn't made a decision that cannot be undone.
Ashera's down for this plan.
But what about Yune?
We won't give up on humanity. This day will come.
Yune doesn't seem fond of the idea.
That sounds encouraging.
I think this is the main point where it gets revealed, but the point of the galdr that we've been interpreted as "suppressing" Yune's chaotic energy was actually just singing her a lullaby so she'd feel like she was in good company. That's why Mist could do it without any seid power, and why I said I was fairly sure trying to use this seid magic was just a placebo for unleashing her.
Yune's a little more confident in the identity of the person conferring the memories to her. After all, she's clearly met the guy.
We're now just outside the gates to Ashera.
And Yune has no idea what we'll find.
Yune seems fond of this "order and chaos balance" theory. I think the things we've seen (although those might not necessarily be the same as her experiences) are pointing us in that direction.
Ashera, a complete paragon of Order, is likely to be convinced that it's her way or the highway.
And we're more than happy to meet that stubbornness with force.
If Ashera is nothing but Order, though, what of Yune?
It doesn't seem like Yune is complete Chaos, but maybe that's just because humanity's default state is Chaos. It's certainly a difficult thing to judge, because, we, the readers, are just as likely to think of "the right thing" as Chaos as we are of balance. We're human, after all.
Yune seems to think she's not entirely Chaos.
The power of friendship solves all. It's not necessarily friendship here, moreso the sense that You Are Not Alone.
Ashera had nothing but herself to live with. Herself, and her thoughts of Order. She locked herself in a 780 year echo chamber.
...And the doors are actually locked.
Hello, I was wondering who we'd be fighting for Round 4.
SEPHIRAN?
Well, we've got ourselves someone who we can... actually...
Sephiran's glad to be back.
And Sanaki, on being called Apostle, immediately tells him, without judgement, not to call her that anymore. And apologises for making him believe otherwise. Despite not having any control over that last part.
Sephiran was aware, he just loved Sanaki like a father and figured it was about as worth knowing as the fact her eyes are gold.
Sanaki reciprocates that affection.
...Oh yeah. There's kind of an elephant in the room. And also a mammoth. And possibly a bull. But let's talk about the elephant.
Sanaki starts with him being dead.
He's also a double agent working for Daein the whole time. That bit's important too.
Ike, for once, is one step ahead of Sanaki, cutting the music. This was hinted at in the Base conversation before Deghinsea.
Ike understands men like Zelgius better than Sanaki. After all, he is one. And Zelgius is not the sort of man to serve two conflicting interests of his own accord. Even when the Senate forced itself to be one of those interests, Zelgius rarely took on their causes all the way.
Zelgius was fiercely loyal to one master. That doesn't mean that the master can't have conflicting causes. If Soren wanted to bat for two teams, Ike would be following Soren, not either of those teams.
With that explained to her, Sanaki fits this idea into her mental map of the world, and realises Sephiran was working behind her back helpfully.
Sephiran does just enough to confirm Zelgius was a spy.
It's not like it was hard or anything.
The man was insane enough to drug and hire the general of the army he just fought. Zelgius, the foremost knight in all the land? Ashnard's asking what time he'd like his breakfast.
- Sephiran:
- ……王は、漆黒の騎士の忠誠が
自分にないと知りながら、
傍に置いていたようですね。
ゼルギウスの話では…
間者を傍に置き、常に己の命を
危機にさらすことを楽しんでいたとか。
- Sanaki:
- まこと、狂王と呼ぶに
ふさわしい男だったのじゃな。
The fact that the Black Knight had the potential to go rogue at any moment made things more tempting for Ashnard. He loved having to sleep with one eye open. They didn't call him the Mad King for nothing.
Now then, that leads us to one unfortunate little snag in this whole discussion... good guy or not, the Black Knight still killed Greil.
Now whose fault was that?
Sanaki desperately tries to stop Ike from killing Sephiran while still being morbidly curious what's going on here.
Greil's death was all on Zelgius. That was him trying to get the satisfaction of having bested his master and nothing else.
But Sephiran did send Zelgius to Greil's position with the intention of stealing the medallion he possessed for Ashnard's cause.
- Ike:
- ……漆黒の騎士は、俺の親父から
メダリオンを奪おうとしていた。
あれは、あんたとアシュナード…
どっちの指図だ？
- Sephiran:
- メダリオンを取り戻し
アシュナード王に渡すよう…
私が指示しました。
- Ike:
- 何故だ！？
そんなことをする意味は……
- Sanaki:
- …漆黒の騎士が、自分の意のままに
動いていると王に思わせるため、
あえてそうさせたのじゃろう。
アイクの父上については
最初は殺めるつもりなどなく…
そ、そうじゃな？ セフェラン！
- Sephiran:
- サナキ様のご推察は…
半分正解で、半分間違っております。
アイク殿のお父上については……
ゼルギウスが師との対決を望み、
命を奪う結果になってしまいました。
ですが、メダリオンについては……
デイン王の信頼を得るために
必要としたのではありません。
- Sanaki:
- では、何ゆえ…？
- Sephiran:
- メダリオンは元々、私が
あの者に与えたものだったからですよ。
セリノス王女リーリアと共に
２３年も前に……
The order of reveals is a little different in JP. Sephiran first reveals that he did send the Black Knight to retrieve the medallion, which gets Sanaki to guess everything he did that night was to gain Ashnard's trust. Sephiran confirms that Zelgius had no need to kill Greil here, and then admits that yeah, he legitimately wanted the medallion in Ashnard's hands. After all, he gave it and Lillia to Ashnard in the first place. This is never really fully implied in the INT script.
All in the name of exterminating all sapient life.
...
Wait what did I just say?
Ike is taken for shock, same as basically everyone.
Time for the monologuing.
Sephiran's not making this stuff up. He wants Judgment.
He wanted to cause a war big enough to awaken the goddess and put an end to all of humanity.
And Ashnard? Ashnard was just the guy to do it. Ashnard was the one person on this continent both crazy and powerful enough to want to start a world war.
And Sephiran put a carrot on the stick to get Ashnard to concoct his crazy scheme. And may or may not have given him a hand with some of the details.
As long as a war was an option, a war the goddess shall get.
Sanaki can't fit this into what she knows. Sephiran's a good guy. He's the good guy. He wouldn't do this.
...Would he?
Yes he would. He has lost his faith in humanity.
We had 780 years to do what the goddess had in mind. If we haven't done it now, it's never going to happen.
Sephiran leaves luck to heaven.
And as much as that wears on his soul... he did have to betray Sanaki to do it.
As if Lekain telling her she was a puppet all along wasn't bad enough, as if finding out she had a double agent right under her nose wasn't enough, her dad had to turn out to be trying to cause the end of all of humanity.
She falls to her knees with this line. I'm impressed she kept her top half upright.
Ike, on the other hand, has very little emotional attachment to this whole situation. He sees an enemy, he starts treating him like one.
It wasn't just Sanaki he betrayed, although that one hurt the most. Everyone in Begnion thought he was as good as his word. In the end, though, I suppose they were right. They just didn't realise his word was worthless.
Sephiran doesn't try to hide it. He knows exactly what he's done.
Which just leaves one question: why would you WANT that?
Ike is just too mortal to see things Sephiran's way. Honestly, he has a bit of a point.
The rest of Ike's dialogue with Sephiran until the next bit is exclusively available if you did the Secret things and unsealed Ike's memory back in E-2.
He recognised Sephiran in that scene.
And Sephiran notices this shouldn't be happening.
And we're back to this rhetoric.
Ends with Ragnell in his face either way.
Sanaki tries to stop the conflict. That's her father we have to kill!
But Sephiran's gone and hid the key to saving humanity in his own magic. It's kill him or let humanity die.
This has got to be sobbed as messily as possible in a voice acted version.
Yune's finally caught on.
One obstacle to a Radiant Dawn remake would be that Sephiran getting a voice actor would instantly spoil he's Lehran as soon as we start getting the Memories. As a matter of fact, Ike's unsealed memory being voiced? And having Sephiran run around with his face? Yep, same voice.
Sephiran insists that he is no longer Lehran.
And he insists that he and all humanity are allowed to die out at last.
Yune is of a different mind.
Sephiran actually has a neat Rewarp animation where he jumps up as if to do the "cross-legged hover meditation" pose you see cool monks do in movies all the time. It's even got a matching "leaving that pose" animation when he reappears.
Sephiran reminds everyone there's a ticking clock if they want to save everyone they love.
It's time to put up a fight.
- Sephiran:
- さあ、もう時間がありませんよ。
あと数時間で女神アスタルテの気は
満ちることでしょう。
戦いを始めましょうか。
たとえ私に勝てたとしても…
あなた方が女神アスタルテに敵うとは
とても思えませんが……
- それでも、せっかく
ここまで来られたんですから。
- 私のたくらみを
知ったのですから……
- 最後まで足掻いてみては
いかがです？
Sephiran specifies that they have hours left before Ashera is fully prepared for her second Judgment, and his tone is overall... maybe a little different?
Well, first there's one Base Conversation to look in. Ancient History is, of course, the conversation we saw with Deghinsea's analysis. You only get it if you're on a second playthrough and both Nasir and Gareth are alive.
"Forgive and Forget" is a conversation you get if you spared both Nasir and Gareth, but it's on first playthroughs too. You get alternative conversations called "Nasir" and "Gareth" if only one of them is alive. They're basically the same thing, except only one of the dragons talks.
Ike forgives the dragons for taking Deghinsea's side earlier, if they're willing to take ours now.
Gareth fights who the Prince fights.
Ike suggests they should probably Bless themselves, because they're only going to be embarassing themselves otherwise.
They've got that covered.
Now they're on our side.
Yeah, uh, you go in the corner and not fight, we're doing a challenge run!
Oh, but first, surrender your Skills. Nasir also has a Laguz Gem and Gareth a Laguz Stone. That Nihil is probably the best thing in the bunch, though.
White Pool is good for Magic and Speed. In a normal playthrough, the main point in bringing Nasir and Gareth around is to use their buffing skills on your other units. It's a really nifty thing that I just... won't really be doing at all with some exceptions.
Both Nasir and Gareth are exactly what you expect out of their respective heritages from the last map. High HP, high Str/Def on Gareth, high Mag/Res on Nasir. They're also slow as hell. Gareth has 7 Speed and Nasir has 8, and both cap at 10- for whatever value their caps are around now. They come with S Strike and are level 30+ units without Ire- making them capable of using Satori Signs. For whatever good Ire is worth now.
Ena caps out her Defence with BEXP, because I can.
Nasir and Gareth don't come with their own deployment slots, so you have to choose two people to bench for them. Sothe is an easy one, but Sanaki, Kurthnaga, Ena, or one of the ten people you were forced to bring? That is a tough call.
Into the Convoy with their stuff. Not sure who's going to get that Laguz Gem. We have more than enough already.
I had enough BEXP, time to level up everyone to 20. Or 40, for Lyre. The only person still concerned with her stats is Elincia, who did get pushed to 99 for Blossom.
Sephiran has dug up some help, but before we talk about them, we must discuss him.
Unlike usual for "evil masterminds", Sephiran seems to be able to back up his cunning with some actual spellcraft. Hurts like hell (Creiddylad is 1 Mt shy of Rexaura), pretty damn good at pretty much everything else... except worrying about his HP. Despite his high-ish speed of 36, he's not very strong, and he only has 32 AS- you can double him if you have 36. Anyone with 28 Speed or less is best served not fighting this guy, though- that means you, Ena, Nasir and Gareth.
There's just something kinda weird about Sephiran, the evil bad guy subverting everything, actually being a Chancellor. It doesn't really feel like this is an Evil Chancellor situation.
Oh yeah, that +10 Defence is coming from this. What is it? No idea, but Sephiran's keeping it. Incidentally, his terrain tile is also good for even more Defence, meaning it's technically a better idea to hit him magically.
Pretty much everything you were expecting to see is here, and nothing more.
Hey, remember when we bumped into Sephiran in PoR? Yeah, he had Mantle back then, too. PoR Mantle makes him immune to enemy attacks and also has Fortune. No Nihil or 29 HP regen, but does he really need those anyway? I suppose he would be weak to poison/map damage, but... Repeat, the only reason for Mantle to be in PoR is to give it to Sephiran here for continuity with this later reveal that he's Lehran and got Mantle from Ashera centuries ago.
Oh neat, he has a Bond with Sanaki. Not visible, but he also has one with Zelgius. Not the Black Knight, though, the under-the-hood Zelgius that fought Ranulf and Skrimir in Part 3.
Sephiran's tile here is good for 10 Defence and 15 Avoid, judging by the numbers in the corner. I'd trust them more than my word if I were you. Sephiran himself won't move, but he will Rewarp sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean I've seen him do it once.
Say hello to the Spirits. Are these the same things that grant Pelleas his dark arts? Doubt it, but maybe. They're tricky little blighters that attack exclusively with magic, but should be pretty easy for any of our units to pop. If not, the second one will do the trick.
The Tails are categorically one Mt shy of the SS tome of that type and are incapable of critting.
??? Race, that's what we're going with? By the way, that 20 Move doesn't tell the whole story: these things can teleport where they want to go. Can they only teleport 20 squares away? Possibly! These maps aren't really the sort of maps where that would actually matter. This is why I wanted Stillness on Ike: Nowhere to hide him here.
Although speaking of, important note: The Spirits categorically will not attack Micaiah or the herons.
No Skills whatsoever. Not like they're Shoving us with 0 Con. This is also technically a lie, too.
Sanaki opens fire. Spirits are still beholden to the anima triangle, not that Sanaki gives a damn about this one's WTA.
And she promptly drowns our entire team in lava. For some reason, Spirits don't have battle animations at all.
Here's the Tail in action.
The darker grey tiles forming diamonds around the blue tiles are Wardwood, and are a good place for nearly everyone to park if they can. The lighter grey tiles including the one this guy is standing on are Cover. There's a lot of Cover, and all of it benefits them more than it benefits us.
Meg takes on this one just fine.
Lyre needs to transform before she can act, of course.
And Elincia needing all four hits to take one out.
Sure, that's a Blossom level. I think she could still gain four stats here?
[Hmm, how do I say guard me in the New Tongue?]
Sanaki presumably doesn't speak Old Tongue, but if she did, that would be one hell of a political gambit.
Leanne boosts Sanaki with Vigour to already be right up against Sephiran, but she focuses on the Spirits.
Urvan crush puny Spirits.
Florete, less so.
Although it will pull anything out of the bag of tricks it needs.
Who's up for deep-fried Thing From Beyond?
Ena also takes the time to transform, too.
Sigrun picks off the cheap kill. You may notice she's stolen Nephenee's Wishblade.
And Elincia takes out another Spirit around Sephiran.
Ike stands here, for the sake of standing somewhere.
Sephiran, too, has a Judgment attack. This thing has 25 Might and hits Resistance, but is otherwise identical to Deghinsea's.
Since we're in his face, we actually take damage. Pictured: Sanaki taking damage on this map.
Leanne mocks him from over here.
Speaking of Leanne and Spirits, they won't attack any herons at all. So much for her newfound awesomeness defensively. Elincia, though? She's very tempting.
The Spirits will also make sure to occupy all four sides of Sephiran. This is by design- if Sephiran is about to die, they'll proc a hitherto-unmentioned 100% Guard Skill to take one for the team.
Elincia heals up with Renewal to cover what the Spirits did.
...Hm... of course she can't. Do note that Ena's not worried about Effective damage from the Thunder Tail, either. Same for Wind and Fire againsts Birds and Beasts.
Time to weaken a Spirit. Mist coming in handy.
Jill runs over and finds something to smash.
Ena gets a kill.
And Sanaki Talks to Sephiran.
Sanaki can't believe he lied to her. For eight years.
Sephiran's gotten a little sentimental. Lying to Sanaki?
He just... didn't mention all his plans to wipe out humanity, including everything and everyone Sanaki ever loved. And possibly Sanaki herself.
Sephiran has told Sanaki a single lie, though.
We don't actually get to find out what it is.
Sephiran cries as he accepts it is time for one of them to die.
Sanaki hasn't.
Sanaki and Sephiran are actually completely mutually non-hostile.
I was curious about whether Bonds work across teams after the Jill/Mist thing in 3-13. If they do, I should have a printed crit rate here, albeit one that is roughly 3.
These two somehow have a conversation.
And Ena gives +5 Str/Skill in addition to the Support bonuses.
Ilyana'll have Sanaki patched up.
Weakening a Spirit for Leanne, and...
...Is that even Wardwood? Only proper Wardwood should be giving Res, and I'm fairly sure this stuff isn't. Not 100% sure what it is, though.
Leanne instead gives Ena and Sanaki more kills.
"All I have left is family" feels weird to bring out here. Lyre seems surprisingly ready to be Ena's new social circle, though. New headcanon, honestly.
Micaiah takes out the Spirit in Sanaki's range.
And some more clearing out of Spirits down here...
[What did you say? Oh, dear, I guess I’ll just smile and nod again.]
Poor Leanne. Although I never took her for having problems understanding New Tongue.
Sanaki finds other targets.
Taste the goddess's judgment, you...
...
...shut up!
Turn 3, and the only action on enemy phase was some Spirits took up Sephiran's sides again. Sanaki blocked one of them! Time to take them out.
Meg gets to take one low enough for Leanne.
[You… It… it can’t be…]
...I think Leanne is recognising Lehran's nature.
[Go back to the forest. This is not where you should be.]
The heron tribe seems pretty safe from Ashera's Judgment, as avatars of Order.
[No! I’m staying here with everyone! These people are my friends… my family! I will not leave them!]
Sanaki, Naesala, whoever, Leanne has chosen her cause and she's sticking with it.
And I say bollocks to that.
Watch your precious heron clan murder a...
...Can Spirits be murdered?
Sanaki gets the last of Sephiran's guard.
...Huh, Nailah should be able to Shove the guy, he's not exactly huge. How annoying.
I guess dealing with him conventionally it is. Sephiran doesn't seem interested in fighting back against Micaiah, though.
Micaiah feels him... familiar.
Sephiran's wanted to see Micaiah for some time. He even sent the Black Knight to find her.
...And there's something about her that's gotten him...
Whatever it is, Micaiah can move past it. Sephiran can't, though.
And last of all, there's only one choice to finish the job. I brought Sigrun to the Tower and made her good just for this.
Both the Holy Guard get angry at Sephiran for hurting Sanaki, and both of them are actually pretty engaging doing it.
Sephiran takes it knowing he deserves all of it.
Sigrun just... can't believe the sheer audacity.
And Sephiran entrusts Sanaki to Sigrun and Tanith.
This. I saw this line while planning the boss kills for this run and knew it had to be Sigrun to take out Sephiran. I usually use Tanith, because she gets good naturally, but this line.
That also makes the second Sigrun line I looked more closely at for this run and added to my list of favourite lines in the whole game.
And Sephiran is down.
At last indeed.
(By the way, this memory coming up is the one you might want to skip.)
[Woman]
We have a Memory scene in town, so there's a bunch of citizens speaking.
[Old Man]
The information literacy... I know it's an older society, but still.
This is Lehran, presumably the morning after his conversation with Misaha depicted in E-1. He seemed pretty hopeful for humanity back then...
[Old Man]
I can think of one good reason how that might've happened...
[Woman]
Clearly, it was them that did it!
[Old Man]
One accusation was all it took. I mean, I guess laguz racism, but... guys...
Lehran, a heron himself, knows this is nonsense a mile off.
[Old Man]
[Woman]
Well, that went from fifty to a million in record time.
[Man]
And the worst part is... it's pretty easy for these guys to act on that reckless impulse.
Lehran gets agitated and tries to put a stop to it.
[Old Man]
...Although it doesn't seem to have gone spectacularly for him.
...Something's not right at all.
[Woman]
[Man]
Not just any old laguz, but a heron. Lehran was lucky to get out of that conversation alive. Or maybe it was just Mantle.
Yeah, uh... if the goddess wakes up to this, the whole world gets wiped out right now.
And the Serenes Forest is on fire. The Massacre is happening now.
- Lehran:
- メダリオンを鎮めなくては…
たいへんなことになる…！
この娘は……
- Begnion Citizen:
- いたいた。
こんなところに隠れてやがったか。
- Begnion Citizen:
- やれ！ 一匹たりと逃がすな！
神使様の仇だからなぁっ！
Lehran sneaks past people eager to bash in some heron brains on the way here.
Here's Lehran, with Lillia lying next to him. That won't mean anything, I'm sure.
Apparently the Serenes Massacre alone was enough to cause enough chaos to threaten to awaken the goddess.
Although Lehran had no hope of trying to put a stop to it, with an influx of emotion from both the herons and the Begnions. Herons aren't supposed to feel anger.
- Deghinsea:
- 生来に力を失いしそなたに
なにができるというのだ。
- Misaha:
- ですが…あなたにお会いして理解しました。
この血は恥ずべきものではありません。
- Ashera:
- そなたに免じ…
もう一度だけ人を信じてみよう。
- Altina:
- あなた… 誰より優しい、私のエルラン……
Lehran hears the voices of his family and friends as this emotional influx kicks in. I believe Deghinsea, Misaha and Ashera's lines are all from other Memories (although Ashera's line is from next chapter), but Altina's is not. In fact, it seems to be from one of their tender moments, and is along the lines of "you are the kindest soul of all, my sweet Lehran".
But he's certainly feeling quite a lot of it right about now.
- Begnion Citizen:
- なんだ、こいつは？
さっきから呆けてやがる。
- Begnion Citizen:
- すぐには殺すなよ。
たっぷりと苦しめないと……
- Begnion Citizen:
- ああ、こいつらは
すぐに死んじまうからな……
そんなんじゃ俺たちの気がおさまらない。
- Begnion Citizen:
- 神使様の仇だ……
死なないように痛めつけて
痛めつけて、痛めつけて……
それから殺してやる……！
Some passing Begnion citizens complain that the herons are dying too quickly, they're not feeling the suffering that they want them to feel, the suffering that was inflicted on them when the Apostle was assassinated...
...Well, OK, I'm not going to lie. These lines make me lose a little faith in humanity as it is, even while my race isn't being genocided around me. Part of me feels like they cut this from the INT script for being too intense. This is one of those scenes that only has one version, after all...
All because Misaha tried to do the right thing. And the worst part is, the real murderers are getting away scott-free.
Lehran decides, between the corruption of the beorc and the devastation the laguz have brought to the Branded, that no, humanity really doesn't deserve to live.
The Thousand Year Covenant is not going to be resolved with humanity overcoming their problems.
I suppose having your people drunkenly genocided would be a good way to lose all faith in humanity as a concept.
And back to Sephiran.
Micaiah tries to do something to save Sephiran for Sanaki.
He's... he's still in there. Mostly.
...Yeah... I don't think we're saving him.
And Sephiran is happy to be told he's about to die.
If nothing else... if his own suffering could be alleviated somehow, then it was all worth it in the end for him. Imagine being so ready to die, but being immortal and blessed to be immune to mortal weapons.
Yune's voice is exactly what he needed. Well, no, what he needed was to completely reconsider his worldview, but this would do in a pinch.
Sephiran insists otherwise.
...
And the Rudol Gem is passed down to Sanaki.
If Sephiran could do anything differently... it would be not hurting Sanaki.
At least Sanaki enjoyed the man Sephiran pretended to be...
It's time for Sephiran to go. He has family he needs to see.
So long, you magnificent bast-
Micaiah?
The doors have opened...
And Sephiran is alive?
This is also tied to having unsealed Ike's memory in E-2. For that reason, the secret conditions are often called the "Lehran ending", because in the end, they are so attached to having Lehran survive to see the credits roll.
Micaiah's glad to lend a hand.
In the American version, Yune claims that Micaiah is so utterly exhausted by this Sacrifice that she won't be fighting the next battle. Mechanically, and even narratively, this is just flat out not true. Europe seems to have taken the time to fix that error.
ミカヤは気を失ったわ…
このまま次の戦いまで
休ませてあげないと。
……と言っても、
ほとんど時間はないんだけどね。
I think JP is closer to the European translation?
It's time for us to go to Ashera at last.
So why did Yune want to resurrect Lehran so badly?
Well, we saw how in the opening memory, but that's not really shared with the class.
Yune's been calling him Lehran, but honestly... there's not really much to explain what that means, other than, of course, Lehran's name being in one of the most important items to the story: "Lehran's Medallion".
But Lehran himself can explain that.
Ike is... less fond of the decision to revive him.
Honestly, though, Ike has a point.
Ike goes right to Lehran and tells him he doesn't deserve to be taking a nap right now.
A hard day? Yune, he's had a hard two decades. And change.
Lehran has just noticed his "being alive" thing.
And is as baffled as Ike.
Yune was as attached to him as Sanaki, and declared that Lehran deserved a better ending.
A better ending Lehran just legitimately doesn't see happening.
Lehran just didn't want to introduce more suffering to a world that had way too much of it.
And Yune won't hear a word of it.
Ike's like "oh, so now he's immortal and crap?"
Yune doesn't really like Ike's approach.
Sephiran is more interested. Although I bet he really wishes he were dead. More than usual.
Are you prepared to do what is right, Lehran?
It's time for you to make your choice. Good of the world, or good of yourself.
And everyone files into the door to Ashera.
To Yune's continued protests.
Although everyone else is with him.
Why not Lehran?
“I’m sorry, Sephiran. I once lost hope in the laguz and beorc, too. I can see now that my punishment was far too strict. I was young and naive, and so sure that I was right. I wish I could have shown you the error of my ways, Sephir– Lehran. Good-bye.”
If you didn't spare Lehran, this is the soliloquy you get from Yune. It really has a bit of a point to it. We can say how humanity will never fulfill the Thousand Year Covenant, but really... the real question is "does the Thousand Year Covenant solve things?". The answer is no.
The Rudol Gem actually does go into Sanaki's inventory and gets locked in.
Now what earthly use do I have for that BEXP?
Next time: Oh goddess...
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