Don’t have anything smart to write about counterpoint one. I would say that Leon was being the vocal one at counterpoint two, but then I would start playing favorites.
Also, I never said that Leon can’t be a good king, he has all the characteristics of one.
Alright, here is why I think he did what he did with us, it can all be bullshit but I don’t care at this point:
Summary
Leon is afraid of his future responsibilities, so he rans away with his younger brother and another friend for a more simple life to form an adventuring party. After returning to his home with a new friend of which he knows nothing about, he would much rather prefer to have a 20 minute spar session than to prepare to for his future mantle like his old brother wants him to.
After having his old brother killed by someone who’s his new friend calls “Sister” he decides to put his trust in them, and go to war against Miriel for mostly two reasons: Avenge his brother and Liberate his Kingdom. After winning a two-year war, he realizes that now he will be the future king whether he wants to be one or not. After becoming the new Beacon of Light for paramians and having to live up to his Brother’s legacy, he feels nervous but fine, he has good friends on his side that will he knows he can trust.
Suddenly, his trusted friend/lover decides to leave him without giving any possible explanation. It’s not clear whether they even promised to come back at some point.
Leon has no one to really rely on. Saine also never wanted to have any of those responsibilities and Ilya is too busy with her Saintess training. All he has now is a trusted spymaster, some nobles who are waiting for an opportunity to have this new King do their bidding and an entire kingdom half of which in ruins after the war.
Fast forward a couple months, and suddenly Ante shows up with unconscious body of the Mage, explaining how they just murdered a comatosed Saintess and at least 10 guards who were stationed to guard her.
After trying to get an answer from Mage, he is either met with Plead, Silence or insults. Even if Mage didn’t leave him back then, it is still a very bad and emotional place for Leon to make a logical and proper decision. Right at that moment his only two choices are: Spare Mage and look inferior to his old brother Jullius, both in his eyes and in the eyes of an entire kingdom, OR Kill the Mage to secure his position as King (also a possibly petty revenge against Mage for leaving him but I dont fucking know at this point, i am not very smart)
Luckily for all of us, we can all decide how we want our MCs to treat Leon. We all are basically gods of parallel universes. In one universe, Leon is forgiven. In another, the Mc is plotting revenge big-time.
The golden sun mask in the music video kinda fits the legend of the Ishavak faith of the Arcadians. Especially if you have watched the Yotai opera on the Ishavak legend during the Blue Harvest festival with Yu.
it feels wild to me that anyone in param would be like that eager to go back to war after several years of an incredibly bloody conflict in which you have only just placed your heavenly-ordained dynasty back on the throne but really it seems like the mc doesn’t pay very much attention to the political context leon’s in so we don’t really know much about it. it feels like just guessing. however! honestly i do not think this logic would make me feel better if i was the mage!
“So, you understand, MC, I know that you have fought and bled and suffered for my cause for years with no complaint, but no, I cannot try to figure out why you have done this very uncharacteristic and bizarre thing because, you see, I might look bad for a second.” BROTHER.
imho i don’t think he does it to appease anyone. i think he sincerely believes mc is straight up a murderer i was just shocked to see him come to that conclusion so quickly after everything.
why on isha’s green earth can’t leon do this for us!!!
True. He did say that the MC he knows has died and called the MC “a demon who wears (MC’s) face” in the dungeon the night before the execution. He was rather quick to believe in the worst of the MC instead of thinking there must be more to what happened, like Ilya and Saine did.
In the cell, he could have chosen to punch the MC, yet he chose to punch the wall instead. At the execution itself, he could’ve riled up the crowd with A bit of hate speech or whatever you want to call it, yet he didn’t. Finally, when things got revealed, he went and lock himself into his room. Perhaps his actions was a bit messed up in some sense, but he’s got to feel something.
OH I just spotted song stuff, lemme dump some of my favorites, mostly for the Mage, and 1 for each of the White Fangs.
Fish in a Birdcage
For Eli, Sister and the Mage! Fish in a Birdcage [Official Video] - YouTube As I breathe into our silence There’s a voice that comforts me It’s a voice of understanding It’s the voice of empathy
Wings of feathers, tails and fin tips We feel it works so differently You gave me more than I could ask for Indistinguishability
The Moon Will Sing
The Mage and Leon The Moon Will Sing - YouTube Name your courage now We could have had anything, anything else Instead, you hoarded all that’s left of me Swallowing your doubt Like swords to the pit of my belly I want to feel the fire that you kept from me
The moon will sing a song for me I loved you like the sun Bore the shadows that you made With no light of my own I shine only with the light you gave me
Black Pear Tree
The Mage… Esp a resigned one who slowly turns bitter about what happened. Black Pear Tree - The Mountain Goats and Kaki King - YouTube I set the sapling in the hole Started gently tamping down the dirt I saw the future in a dream last night Somebody’s gonna get hurt, somebody’s gonna get hurt I hope it’s not me But I suspect it’s going to have to be
+ And when its time came I could see it happen Blossoms black and sweet as Texas crude I saw the future flowering like a ruptured vessel Somebody’s gonna get screwed It won’t be me Someday I am going to walk out of here free
Theseus
A more forgiving mc for this one! The Oh Hellos - Theseus - YouTube Maybe that’s what it’s all about We keep fixing what we know is only bound to break What’s worth saving is never worth letting go to waste I want to mend what I’ve got, instead of throwing away
Ain’t nothing come easy No, nothing comes quick It’s gonna hurt like hell to become well But if we set the bone straight It’ll mend It’ll fix And we’ll be well
Hebrews 11:40
This is just like, the Mage after the barbecue in my head, esp one with a positive relationship with the Arcadians (and possibly also with the White Fangs!) The Mountain Goats Hebrews 11:40 - YouTube Build fires to keep the beacon flashing Where the earth lies flat Blood calls to blood as the hours draw down Invent my own family if it comes to that Hold them close, hold them near Tell them no one’s ever going to hurt them here Steal the treasure and try to leave town Fight my way back down Don’t want to hurt anyone Probably gonna have to before it’s all done
Take to the hills, run away I’m gonna get my perfect body back someday If not by faith then by the sword I’m going to be restored
Creature
This is an Ilya song to me for some reason? half·alive - creature (Audio) - YouTube Look inside of me and see that I am not afraid To walk inside the void like a kid inside a cave Discovering the patterns of my soul and where it’s placed I’ve been mapping many caverns but it still feels like a maze
+ I am creation, both haunted and holy Made in glory Even the depths of the night cannot blind me
See the Day
Saine. This song is just Saine to me. See the Day - YouTube The sleeping slip has begun to fray I never thought I’d see the day The pious hunter stops stalking prey I never thought I’d see the day
Spent too much time writing all the lore I can’t quite tell what I’m hoping for So I’ll live my life being so unsure 'Cause I can’t quite tell what I’m hoping for
Parrot
Stepdad - Parrot [HQ] - YouTube
This feels very Leon to me. I’ve said a fair share of stupid things that I can’t hide My wonderful friends just roll their eyes, stay by my side
Sometimes I even realize that I might risk physical harm That’s when you glare into my eyes and clench your teeth and squeeze my arm Then I feel like a pet store parrot ever spouting words And when I’ve had a few too many I get quite excited I start talking very loudly and this is when Sometimes I get obnoxious, my ego gets the best of me
I think Buy the Stars by Marina is also a very Leon/MC song!
I believe it happens when you pick “Insist on your innocence” option and then “…I will never forgive you for this” Doesn’t have much to do with personality stats, but I may be wrong.
I picked Leon I understand. Well, now I also understand why Leon will smack you across the face if you choose the other option. First you plead your innocence, then you start issuing threats? Ahem lol.
Bruh, it’s hardly a threat. And my main character WILL NOT be apologising for protecting Leon’s kingdom at the cost of his own life.
I swear you Leon apologists know no bounds lmao
The more I’m thinking about MC’s execution, the more I’m start thinking that the main problem is a meta one. Very first scene in Book One - our walk to a stake, MC’s fate is sealed from the very beginning.
If Leon was more reasonable, or MC tries to put more effort in showing that there is something wrong, then I don’t think that the execution would happen. Like, even if he thinks that MC is 100% baddie, MC still can possess valuable information. MC, in their turn, don’t try to put more effort in showing that they under spell. Like, try being more dramatic, try to show that it’s physically painful talking about motive, try Yes/No questions, anything.
Problem here, I believe, that he is Out of Character for plot. Because the REAL story begins in Book Two, and if MC don’t die in the end, then it kinda TIME PARADOX, SNAAAAAKE!
Maybe it’s would works better for me, if MC had to be executed not by Leon, but his older brother & previous king (forgot his name), because it’s make plot about revenge work (for me, I mean) and don’t make Leon so dirty.
It may be a mercy in comparison to what the other side may have in store for us. They could for example kill your character, resurrect your character and kill them again and so on.
I mean yeah, we are in a story and you really shouldn’t waste a story’s space with irrelevant things. The investigation would be irrelevant, because what is there to uncover? There is a witness, there are bodies, there is a drive who drove you to some old lab of an Arcadian crazed enthusiast… None of this looks good. And who would lead that investigation? Ah yeah, the spymaster who saw us doing the deed and hated us for a long time. What people really want here is to stall for time, because in two months Ilya will crack the code, but guess what - in the parallel universe with investigation she’ll crack it in half a year. And the end result will be the same anyway. Because there is a story to tell about a Mage who died.
So there is that too. Leon’s still a bit of a dumb-dumb tho.
I definitely love like… Meta stuff like this. The tragedy of a character’s fate being decided from the very start, the sadness of “it would end like this no matter what, but the MC’s kindness mattered, their choices meant something” just make everything feel so cathartic to me. MC’s story really starts where it ends: Someone dies because they made a selfless choice for another person/a group of people.
It’s sort of why I feel so strongly about MC and Eli’s relationship, too! The love and care they had for each other didn’t change anything, Eli still died to keep them alive, MC was still executed in the end, but it did matter. It affects MC the whole way through, and I think it is part of the reason why they decide to save Param no matter the consequences.
A Mage Reborn seems like… Entirely based around the concept of selfishness/selflessness to me, and how the horrible, cruel choices made by other people will inevitably result in someone else making a good, kind choice.
I mean, I doubt Tahlia is that cruel, and it’d be a major waste of resources for them. It also isn’t like Leon didn’t… Well… Burn the Mage alive. He has reasons that can explain it, yes, but I think trying to excuse him murdering his best friend/lover isn’t possible,
Leon granting the MC a swift execution by fire and without a humiliation parade is indeed a small mercy. But it still doesn’t negate the fact that he acted emotionally and hastily assumed the worst of the MC and killed the MC in one of the most painful ways possible.
For a soft-hearted person like me, that small mercy may make it easier for me to forgive Leon and not take revenge on him. But that doesn’t mean my MC will still see him as a friend from there onwards. The sting of betrayal is too strong to overlook.
What I find fun about this series is the fact that the heroic sacrifice isn’t the end, but rather the beginning, and we get to experience the repercussions of it – for better or for worse.
Edit; done writing now after a minor mishap with posting prematurely LOL.
unsure how aggressive to be with tagging spoilers so I'll just hide it all LOL; spoilers abound
I think that’s the reason I like Leon despite how book 1 ended; you so rarely get to see crippling flaws of characters introduced as the “golden boy”. They might have flaws, sure. Pride, wrath, etc, but the repercussions of those flaws are rarely (if ever) explored, because, at the end of the day, you’re meant to like that character.
He’s introduced as reckless, self-righteous, and oblivious. Interestingly enough, the fate of our MC ends up painting even some of his positive traits as a flaw – self-assurance/confidence is rarely a negative trait, but in context of the ending/beginning of book one, it actually works against him. His own self-assurance is part of what leads him not to consider alternative options. He’s not the type to stop and think – not when people’s lives can be saved. If indeed the MC is dangerous, something needs to be done before something worse happens. In the snippets of his life that we are privy to, that sort of thinking never backfired on him in any meaningful capacity. The stakes are higher now, and I think that feeds into the recklessness that is displayed in him from the beginning. What’s great about him, I think, is how all of his flaws play into his decision, ultimately.
It’s also rarely explored in media, what comes after the heroic sacrifice. The story ends when the main character dies, and it’s assumed that people live on happily ever after. Those close grieve, but ultimately the grief of a few matter less than the greater repercussions.
That’s probably why I’m personally keen on getting back to Param. We get to see some of the repercussions of grief and heroic sacrifice in what Eli did for MC, and the MC does the same for Param and the crew there. I’m excited to see how everyone is coping (or isn’t) after the execution. Grief is part of growth, and what the MC did for the Param crew is, with certainty, something that will change each character. Being able to ask Ilya to forgive Leon being a conscious choice at the end is fascinating, because of the implication is that she may not even consider that a possibility if you don’t ask that of her. Despite being the “healer” (a character archetype often recklessly giving), she’s always been far more grounded and practical than Leon. Saine, we’ve seen, is taking things rather poorly. Being the youngest and most impressionable of the crew, I think he had the greatest potential to bounce back positively or be affected disastrously by the loss of a close friend.
All this is to say – the book 2 demo is delightful so far, but I’m itching to see my old friends again ;O;. And Leon I guess LOL. I’m so keen to see how he grows and changes from the MC’s death, whether he leans even harder into his flaws or truly works to change them; whether the MC’s final moments and how they acted would have an effect on his character trajectory.
Tahlia is also easy to dislike but at the same time she’s an incredibly compelling character. The further tragedy that the MC continues to be a tool on someone else’s chessboard even after death is so fun. Regardless of how the MC feels upon death, whether they swore revenge or sought to forgive, the MC is once again being used. One can argue that she is a convenient tool for vengeful MCs to achieve their goals, but ultimately, the MCs dependence upon her means that they’re still ultimately collared and lacking agency. I’m curious to see how the MC ends up taking their agency back after being so firmly shackled to someone as Tahlia did by resurrecting the MC (potentially against their will).
It’s a fun story and I can’t wait to see where it goes!
It also isn’t like Leon didn’t… Well… Burn the Mage alive. He has reasons that can explain it, yes, but I think trying to excuse him murdering his best friend/lover isn’t possible,