The Tower of Guidance is the final chapter of Radiant Dawn, split into five pieces and tasked with providing a coherent ending to a plot that has multiple stories to tell and mysteries it keeps clutched to its chest. It does a surprisingly good job at meeting that task, with each stage of the Tower being focused purely on a specific part of the story. The order in which everything is resolved follows a narrative structure that compounds on this satisfaction, and is worthy of further unpacking.
The first floor begins with a battle against Lekain and Hetzel, the ringleader of the Begnion Senate and the culprit behind the story of Part 1, Part 3, and built up towards throughout Part 4. By this point in the story, the player is very prepared to take down Lekain, with a whole host of pretexts to choose from. Lekain, somehow, manages to expand upon this even further, revealing that he was subverting power from the Apostle all along by manipulating her will for his own ends before she was old enough to comprehend what she was doing. Disposing of Lekain, however, is not necessarily as satisfying as this buildup suggests.
Lekain is the only villain in the Tower to not end the map immediately upon his defeat. In addition, Lekain is the only villain to lack a post-humous soliloquy about why he is the way he is. Micaiah and Sothe immediately mug him for the Blood Pacts (in the Japanese version, this a plot point that hasn't been mentioned for so long it's almost quaint that this is what becomes of his death), and the closest thing to a soliloquy he gets is exclusively on Hard Mode, where Yune observes that Lekain did not die happy, despite having stole nearly everything one human could ever want. The big post-Lekain conversation is not about how happy everybody is that such an evil man is no longer alive, but how much further everyone still has to climb, both literally and metaphorically. Lekain is no longer important, everything he ever fought for is meaningless to the story of Part 4, and while he could not be allowed to be alive to resolve the story, the plot has long since disposed of him and Ike even laughs about how clueless he is about what is going on. Sanaki hits the nail on the head: Lekain is one man, and one man can be replaced. To truly defeat Lekain, you must fight his successors. You must make sure their paths to power are blocked at every turn.
A society where Lekain is power is not at risk of crumbling. A society where Lekain is in power has already crumbled.
The next villain to fight is the Black Knight, and this battle is a climactic spectacle to resolve unfinished business with Ike, personally. At the same time, this is also a battle with Zelgius, a general whose role as the competent bone in Begnion's army has been a looming shadow across the beginning of Part 3. Zelgius is a simple man- what you see is what you get. But he is also the Black Knight, a man who is Zelgius in demeanor only. The Black Knight served the Mad King Ashnard, murdering Ike's father in cold blood over an artifact of peril and kidnapping Leanne for twisted rituals. These crimes, while nominally fitting Ashnard's plans, do not match his methods or philosophies, and his defeat in PoR raised only questions- especially if that defeat did not come about at Ike's hand. To see the Black Knight stand on the field of battle again, fighting for Daein without any regard for the changes in social policies Pelleas and Micaiah have from Ashnard, makes the Black Knight inherently mysterious in function. What does he want? Why does he only sometimes work to achieve it, if his very existence could bring him anything he desired?
Defeating Zelgius answers none of those questions. Like PoR, the only thing beating the Black Knight won was the satisfaction of Ike living up to his father's legacy and a lot of more questions. We do get satisfying answers here- we know how the Black Knight and the medallion intersect, and we know what, personally, drove Zelgius to become the man he is, but his motives and goals remain in shadow, driven by his Master. The Japanese version enhances this, by leaving Zelgius with the cryptic last words "...ran", hinting that this Master may not necessarily be Sephiran as we know him. The Black Knight is more satisfying to beat than Lekain, but his defeat is not tainted by long, arduous battles yet to come- his defeat is tainted by a single soul, one who we know is still waiting for us here in the Tower.
A soul that once more remains... alone.
The next villain up is Deghinsea, and the change in tone is readily apparent when Yune precedes the fight by outright saying "you can't win without my power". Unlike Lekain, who was a paper tiger, and the Black Knight, who seemed insurmountable but is beatable by one man making it his life's goal to surmount, Deghinsea is outright a massive obstacle over the continent. 3-13 was brought to a sudden halt by the miraculous appearance of his son, a pacifist who is repeatedly said to be smaller and weaker than the real deal, and whose playable appearance in the Tower has reflected that unwillingness to fight. Deghinsea, meanwhile, has been by design unknown by the party. Ike's team encountered him once escaping Kauku Caves and the Laguz Kings have extensive and mostly-offscreen history, but his presence is something that is felt in leaves of history not yet unfurled. He is the one responsible for distorting the myth about Ashera and Yune, obscuring the existence of the Covenant and muddling its aims, which stands against Elincia and Caineghis's attempts at peace. He also upheld the destruction of the Branded, a legacy that strikes into the heart of Soren, Micaiah, Sanaki, and a trickle of supporting characters who, up until now, have thought their miserable existences were at the fault of no one in particular.
Defeating Deghinsea is far more satisfying, and knowing what he did provides a clear path to undoing it- rewrite history once again, but for the right reasons. This is not an overnight goal, as Port Toha proved, but it is an important ambition. His defeat also frees Goldoa from his stifling Vow of Neutrality, while also burdening that very same desire upon every other leader present. Deghinsea shouldered the burden of the Thousand-Year Covenant alone, a burden designed for all the people of Tellius, and now it has been returned to its proper place. Once again, to uphold the values of the Covenant, the leaders must take active action to stamp out the prejudices that threaten to tear it down. We have seen Elincia send the Royal Knights after Ludveck's insurrectionists, we have seen Sanaki use Ike to find and destroy an arm of Begnion's slave trade, we know this can be done.
But no one man will ever live to see that task to its end.
The fourth villain in the Tower, and the one considered "most responsible" for the story, is Lehran. Lehran engineered much of the entire story, down to being the one to plant the seeds for Ashnard's war as early as the opening of Path of Radiance. Without Lehran, Lekain and Deghinsea's villainy is still felt over Tellius, but it forms a twisted status quo and not a call to action. But at the same time, Lehran is not a villain. He is another victim of Lekain's twisted game, a survivor of a genocide he crafted to cover up his crimes. He is the reason Deghinsea hides the truth from Tellius, a moment of cowardice that has brought misery and shame to his family ever since. These two men are the flaws of the beorc and the laguz alike- Lekain using everything he has to get ahead at the expense of countless faceless victims, Deghinsea being stubbornly focused on a single goal despite not having his own best interests at heart. Lehran knows these flaws, and people using them for ill, will never go away. Lehran's goal is to find a permanent solution to a problem that simply doesn't have one.
Lehran's defeat solves the story of Tellius. He is responsible for everything- every death in the story itself is blood that has splattered onto his hands, even if the most involvement he had was to point a guiding finger at the right man to swing the axe. Everything he did- everything his most trusted lackey did in his name- was done for a lawfully correct cause: Upholding the Thousand-Year Covenant, a promise made to the goddesses that we are legitimately on the wrong side of. But defeating him, saying his solution is wrong, is an expression of commitment to the opposite values. If we do not agree with Lehran's aims- and it is difficult to oppose Lehran on his methods without ignoring his aims, since his influence is so distant- then we must tautologically do so again and again. We cannot defeat Lehran and say we are done.
We must press on.
The final villain in the Tower, and the game's final boss, is Ashera, Goddess of Order and the most divine figure in all of Fire Emblem. Although she has the power to create life, she did not create the idea of humanity, a detail at the heart of her beliefs: Humanity is an imperfection on the world she created. Humanity destroys itself, but it also destroys everything else she has created. And humanity drives her to destroy herself, on frighteningly literal levels. It is one man's desperate plea that spares her the heartless act of destroying her own humanity- the spirit of Yune- and her dedication to upholding her Judgement is because she watched that man turn his back on that plea. If humanity was wretched enough that Lehran, the one who once held the most hope in it, would do so much to destroy it, who is she to disagree?
Defeating Ashera removes the sword that threatens to destroy Tellius. Yune is able to undo the literal harm Ashera has done to the continent in the name of the Covenant- and in doing so return humanity to the statues that were robbed of it. A society where there is no threat of unrest is a utopia- and a society that does not have the freedom to explore why things are the way they are. A stagnant society allows prejudice to fester and innovation to lie untapped, just as it allows civility to reign supreme. Lekain and Deghinsea wanted a society that stayed stagnant, and denied humanity while indulging in their own. Zelgius and Lehran were cast out of society, and willingly cast aside their humanity- Zelgius by becoming a Black Knight and flouting the vows he swore, Lehran by casting aside the spirit of his vows to follow the letter.
While Ike always fought for the right to be human, for himself and his friends.
The Tower of Guidance has a clear pecking order, where each villain belongs in the position they're in because their influence over the continent is greater than the one who came before them, but lesser than the one who will come after them. This progression is clearly obvious to the player through the scope of their actions, but when you look out and rank them holistically, some oddities start to emerge. Lekain, the cornerstone of the emotional weight of much of the story of Radiant Dawn, at the bottom? Deghinsea, a man who largely sat out of the conflict like a coward, is that important? Lehran, the man who set everything in motion, before Ashera, another arm in his schemes? But even when you start to try and shuffle them around, it becomes clear why things must happen the way they do.
Lekain must be fought first- he is a clear and present threat, but overall he isn't actually contributing to Tellius's societal rot, merely profiting from it. Zelgius must be fought before Deghinsea- as Lehran's direct puppet, you would think he could squeeze afterwards, but his life is dictated by his Brand, a curse placed upon him by Deghinsea. Meanwhile, Deghinsea may have created the holes that Lekain exploits, but Lehran is the reason they're there. Both because they were originally drawn to protect him, and also Lehran knows exactly where they are- so when he takes Ashnard's strings, he can point him to the most damaging places to strike. And Ashera, finally, is fought last- not only is she a goddess, but everyone that came before her owes their existence to her, metaphorically as well as literally. They can only get as far as they did because of Ashera's beliefs and actions.
As far as Radiant Dawn's story is concerned, everything wrong with Tellius has been solved. There are no more unsolved problems in the world- or at the very least the existence of problems is merely inertia and can be solved simply by arguing with them. But Elincia, Sanaki, Caineghis, and whoever is ready to assist them have a long way to go in order to fully stamp out those problems. And even if they do, new problems will arise one day- a threat that is made clear in the epilogue, where a revived Lehran observes to Ashunera that after 400 years of hard-won peace, war has once again broken out. However, Lehran is no longer pessimistic about it. War is painful and miserable- but it can be solved. Humanity may fight, again and again, over the many problems it causes itself. But once that fight is over, humanity will step back, understand why it was fought, and will right that injustice. If Lehran and Ashunera are needed, all they must do is point them in the right direction.
Humanity has nothing to fear as long as it is guided by faith, courage, and honesty.
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