Bethany Plays: SS Chapter 20 Ephraim Part 2: The Dark Arts

We begin with something never before seen in this chapter: Ross doing something.

Knoll keeps at it back here.

Oh, that's just mean.

Infantry walks through forest best, so Artur ought to stay behind and get this guy.

Most selfish use of Dance ever.

Ephraim wants to get to Morva. Turns out this doesn't help as much as I thought.

Everyone file in where necessary.

Smash!

Welcome to the reinforcement waves.

L'Arachel doesn't oneshot these ones.

And Tethys dances her out.

Now I start putting Innes and L'Arachel together. This map ends when they get their A Support.

Gerik gets a rank in Swords.

And we finish off the last of the Mogalls.

Still Gargoyles, though.

Zappy zappy.

L'Arachel's level ups just can't be as impressive as they used to be, although I would like a few more points than just Res.

Annoyingly, Myrrh cannot really fight her dad on this file. Her high Def/low HP build is a poor choice for the job. She does have a boss convo, though.

Myrrh: …Urrgh… I’m… sorry…

...Well, she has dialogue.

This is a smarter choice.

BERSERKER!

Avoid and Strength. Also Skill.

More Mogalls spawn. They're easy to take out whoever I throw at them.

That heal was necessary, if he still needs healing.

Support with Innes/Joshua achieved. One down.

Luck!

...Wow, no Avoid at all?

Tarvos spawns. This is where things start getting different from Normal Mode.

Lucky.

I needed the Longbow for L'Arachel shenanigans.

Cormag finishes the last one.

These just keep coming.

I can get EXP again.

Power of the Phantom!

And they're back here.

Innes couldn't reach. Stupid forest in the way.

Eirika and Tana did a rescue chain just for that adjacency.

It's so convenient when I get those.

One wave down.

Another to go.

...Tana gets a crit.

BOLTING!

That's going to be a pain.

Now then, can you say "this has gone from boring to meep"? Imagine if I hadn't finished the map already and you were dealing with extra dogs and spiders?

I think we actually haven't seen their promoted forms yet, we're supposed to be introduced next map.

First, I've got this guy to get through.

The spiders are going to be so difficult to deal with.

Even L'Arachel doesn't one-round. Why are the cyclopes easier?

Dangit, Eirika.

...When did that dog get there?

Ephraim fires an attack off from his seat.

There's a dog down here, too?

That's going to be more helpful.

Artur will be a lot more helpful. Although this wall isn't much of one.

...Prepare ourselves.

We didn't need that, right?

Go Phantom!

And we are introduced, with an alarming situation to get into, to the power of the Gwyllgi, the Dog of Darkness (from Wales). It is fast, and it is not unexpected that it will dodge your attacks or avoid getting doubled. Its name also sounds like you're cheating at Scrabble.

We're gonna need a lot more bait.

Please stop that.

Knoll is having a fun time surviving this turn. I suspect he may actually have died at some point up there. Thank goodness for save states.

I'm going to have a thing on my hands.

Annoyingly, a single crit doesn't oneshot. Maybe if L'Arachel moved first.

Then again, she needed this square.

Phantom can chip.

Good for Bolting.

...Really, I could've thought things through better, but I clearly didn't need to.

Anima rank for L'Arachel!

Myrrh's gotten this much EXP even not being used in Chapters 16-19. Maybe don't bother with that stage.

Imagine needing a Silver Lance for a regular enemy.

Joshua can double just fine.

Eirika needs the Shamshir for the one-round for lack of double.

And poor Ross is inaccurate.

Now there are more of them.

Axes, go!

L'Arachel doesn't double?

POWER OF EGO!

Should've expected that one.

...Did you not ORKO?

He didn't one-round!

Ross can always roll a crit.

These guys?

Chumps.

Tana can secure a double!

And it looks like L'Arachel missed.

Poor Ephraim, missing out on all this EXP. I think I expected Innes/L'Arachel to be right around the corner.

...Not like we're getting a ton of good levels to show for it.

Still going?

That last frame of wind from the drop-down. Cool, but a mite odd.

Artur: "You guys are worried about doubles?"

If I wasn't in this for something other than levels, I'd be long gone.

Convenience!

Pain.

What do I expect him to be doing?

Probably chip.

Now that's a badass frame.

Now you crit.

...I'm not sure if this one's good for Josh.

Finally. You have no idea how long that was on my end. The fact this update has, so far, been dedicated to some of the battle should give you a hint.

(The worst part was, I thought I was close enough to finishing the whole time that I could put off dinner.)

One more Heal for the road.

But we're done. And Ephraim has some good stuff in the aftermath.

First up, Myrrh.

Ephraim is going to be on therapy duty.

...Ephraim?

Myrrh taking cues from Ephraim and not revealing her feelings.

Ephraim figures out what's going with Myrrh.

Myrrh denies.

Myrrh tries to pretend like it hurts less for her than what's going on with everyone else. She says "you all", but of the permadeath-proof cast, I think it's just Eirika and Ephraim with Lyon and Fado that really count as "suffering" recently- L'Arachel's trauma's been with her since childhood and Innes and Seth seem just fine.

Counting permadeath people, you get Joshua, Cormag, anyone from Grado, possibly a few Renais knights who liked Orson, and in general add enough weight to sorta agree with Myrrh, although "losing her guardian" is a huge event in her life and hard to brush off.

Ephraim, blunt as he is, puts more effort into prying into Myrrh, and is highly worried about her when he does.

...Although the pot does call the kettle black.

Myrrh keeps trying to be Ephraim and is much worse at it.

And Ephraim gives her advice that neither Tana nor L'Arachel offered when helping him feel better last map. While Tana's advice is helpful, it was more about setting your feelings to one side and focusing on the task at hand- which is the opposite advice to this.

Ephraim is a good big brother.

Lyon's turn.

And this is new: Eirika route saw no flashback here. Playing Eirika route -> Ephraim route leaves this as probably the last significant piece of lore- although the final battle still has a few bits. It's also surprisingly important.

We're going to see Vigarde's last moments.

Any last requests, old man?

Lyon's got faith he can undo this. Because, you know, power over life and death.

You know how Knoll mentioned how Lyon foresaw a great calamity befalling Grado?

He did tell Vigarde before now.

No matter how many times he asks.

The scope of this is a little less clear, but we know all we need to know: This will fundamentally and irreversibly change Grado forever.

Not exactly what you want to die knowing.

We're not telling the people yet, of course- we need a plan first if we don't want to cause a calamity of our own out of the panic. But I did just say "we need a plan".

At this crucial juncture in his life, Lyon turns to his father and begs for guidance.

Now's not the time for this, dad.

Says the man currently serving as Emperor. You don't have anything to help your boy?

Lyon's life is nothing but great expectations. Self-imposed and "suggested" by Vigarde and MacGregor alike. And now, in the most tumultuous time of his life, he gets met with the greatest expectation of all.

Lyon needs to come up with an idea, and fast.

And he comes up with the correct solution: Ask for help. A disaster requires reconstruction, and after that's done, a country can continue being self-sufficent.

Vigarde shoots him down.

To be fair to him, this is a valid reason for his conclusion. But for a man praised as being so kindly- and for a man who actually performed as such tangibly (Glen and Selena's backstories), it says a lot that he has a limit on altruism and it stops here. It also, rather arguably, presents the conclusion that his "altruism" in these previous two examples wasn't as great as it appeared- after all, he got legendary knights out of it. Now, did he know saving Selena's village was going to get him a Fluorspar in the end? Probably not, but...

Lyon is in no hurry to believe Eirika and Ephraim would not choose him. Renais or Lyon wouldn't be a pleasant pick, and perhaps they would hesitate to go full open borders, but they would do everything they could to at least try.

It's all up to you. If anyone could have done it alone, I can see why one might put their faith in Lyon, but...

No pressure! No pressure at all!

I feel like the role Vigarde had to play in how all of this waves vaguely happened goes understated in analyses of Magvel. Lyon's problems were caused by his low self-esteem and the high expectations placed on him as a Prince of Grado and an overall swell guy, and it can be argued that him going too far with the Sacred Stone was always a when (my bets are he wanted to do something extravagant for his proposal to Eirika), but Vigarde taking his last moments to tell him that the greatest disaster in the history of disasters is on his head and he can't ask for help from his most trusted friends is quite possibly the worst thing he could have said and it's no wonder how this mess happened as a result.

...Can we blame a dying man? I don't want to say yes, but considering Fado's response to being invaded was to ask "what did I do wrong?" and Hayden throws around cash for our reckless war efforts like candy, he has vastly misread his neighbours.

So long, old man. I can't express my disappointment any more thoroughly than I already have.

Lyon comes to the realisation that, no matter what he does, he and he alone can't save Grado.

And he moves on elsewhere.

Fomortiis.

An interesting consequence of this scene is that it actually presents a narrative contradiction of sorts- Knoll's reaction to Vigarde's initial revival are more positively awed, and yet he's more knowingly apprehensive about Lyon's state of mind here. It's not impossible for the two scenes to coexist, but I feel like adding Knoll to this one was an error. I could argue it was a different mage, but Lyon's already named him.

I'm also not entirely certain we've been led to believe Lyon is basing this conclusion on a scroll, rather than playing by ear as he goes. Mostly because the latter requires basis in... evidence. Anyone who used the Demon King for good was probably being used and isn't interested in bragging about it after the fact.

...Although the scroll does mention that second part.

Lyon is prepared to choose Grado over himself. The major reason Lyon comes out of this looking as good as he does is because he wants what is best for other people, even if he's not on the right track when it comes to figuring out what that is.

Because, well, the fact he's aware he's playing with the Demon King's power isn't helping him.

The rewards are great, but the perils...

Unfortunately, the very strength of will that makes him admirable is the same strength of will that's causing the problem in the first place.

This is referring to his feelings of inadequacy. Foreseeing the disaster did not cause it (although there is a non-zero possibility that awakening the Demon King does).