I agree with this honestly. The rebellion wouldn’t have gotten off the ground let alone been able to fight Sister even with Leon’s broken powerful swordif not for them taking the walking nuke that is The Mage, saying “Go crazy” and patching them up after.
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Now that you mention it, those guys have like no chance right now. A squad of trained arcadian mages just as, or even more skilled than MC is on the precipice of invasion, each with their own phantasma capable of turning armies into bowling pins, and the only one who could possibly stand a chance against them (MC) is working for them, may or may not have a huge chip on their shoulder for being executed, and is more powerful than when they died. Hell, even if MC was never executed, they wouldn’t stand a chance considering they nearly permanently cut off their magic last time they used an incompatible phantasma.
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Yup, now that my MC supports Arcadia… Param is well and truly fucked.
I love it that they did it to themselves though.
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I forgot to add that I do think Leon might have let MC slide on phantasma usage at the start of the war, but the further they get and the worse things look, I have no doubts that he’d pressure MC into using their phantasma.
The way he looked to MC for ANY kind of answer when they were escaping from Sister after she killed Julius? Finding out that it’s possible MC’s ill fitting phantasma would kill them and still having them use it almost every battle? Param treated MC like a legendary pokemon.
Edit: Another messed up realization is that MC sacrificed everything they had. Eli’s sacrifice, family in Sister and Salantir mages, potentially their own life, and it still wasn’t enough. No one lost more than the mage. Killing their sister was okay. Killing old acquaintances was okay. All the killing was fine until it was the “wrong” person who MAY have understood it was for the best even as she was dying.
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In one of my intended playthroughs, the first chance I get Imma make my MC escape with Eli, leaving the Arvanand continent altogether if I can. I mean, technically, the MC is already dead, and there’s no need to let anyone know that they’ve been brought back to life. But not before tracking down and assassinating that pest Ante, both for personal vengeance and as a last gift for Arcadia.
After that, I just want my MC to live the rest of his life with Eli in peace. Param, Salantira, and Arcadia can go for each other’s throat for all he cares.
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The only go it alone option for the mc that we know about is the insanity/destroy everything one and my mc refuses to take up the exact same position Mireil once did, particularly since the mc has got a very short leash…so they’d just end up being Thalia’s little puppet in Salantira.
Besides while mc may have been born as noble he knows absolutely nothing about living as one and at this stage mine has zero interest in learning or much of anything else, except getting rid of the parasites always causing him pain.
Speak for yourself, my mc wants to be rid of the useless parasites…whatever it takes.
Besides I don’t think they are really lost they’re some form of immortal spirits and I think it may take a couple of centuries for their essence to reconstitute but in the end they’ll probably be fine…unlike mc at present.
My guess is that is Isha…and my mc wouldn’t take her, unless it is the only way to expel all the others…and even then he won’t use her beyond the endgame as he hates all the parasites and since, if we get her at all, it’l likely be literally five minutes before the end-game she’d come too little too late to change anything about my mc’s opinion of the parasites.
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Tahlia said they don’t know what exactly the phanthasma are, she may be lying tho, but also the BBEG in book 2 said phanthasmas die together with their weilder and she was from original Arcadia so i guess she knows what she’s talking about (Sidenote: kinda weird team SnakeFace don’t try to take her in alive since shes West Arcadia, born and raised, she is a gold mine of information crucial to Tahlia) Not to mention that whole hustle to preserve Earthsworn. So as it is not knowh what they are, the phanshasma can surely cease to exist.
As for the perfect phanthasma for the MC, if it isn’t Earthsworn, I bet we will again have the option to chose, like when chosing the main one from the 4, but as those were corresponding with MC’s magical disciplines I think the perfect one will be personality based. It may even be chosen automatically based on what kind of person the Mage is.
Maybe then we can have a conversation with them coz im dying for them to communicate like other Arcana users seem to be able to do.
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Well, we’re about to get a look at Ilya and Leon in the next update, so I’m holding tight for that one.
We also know that there’s more ‘plagues’ going on, so there’s stuff happening without MC’s involvement.
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these to me are the two things leon has to square during the campaign: the fact that it is not going to be possible for them to take back param without using phantasma and the knowledge that doing so will always hurt and one day likely kill mc. this is the sort of choice the leon of the white fangs would have really balked at, but i think he felt like he failed julius by not being able to stop mireil from killing him; failing to take back param would be the final, ultimate failure of everything julius believed in, and it’s his express responsibility as king not to let that happen.
i think, without either of them really knowing it, something fundamentally broke in leon and the mc’s relationship after leon became king. before the ball, if you’re doing the leon-mance, a big chunk of what he and the mc have in common is they’re both huge bleeding hearts who want to save everyone. leon approves of them doing some truly dangerous bonkers shit (i.e. some adventurous uses of spirit gates at the bandit encampment, saving everyone at the plague village but passing out) if it helps people.
this comes from a good place from both him and mc. mc’s martyr complex is very interesting to me though bc with only two notable exceptions, every important person in mc’s life before the white fangs treated them like a resource. i don’t think they have any idea of how to set healthy boundaries of what other people should demand from them. i think subconsciously they anticipate that all relationships are extractive on some level.
so while the repercussions of overextending themselves are fairly minor and short-lived, this is all well and good. but that changes dramatically after mireil shows up. we have a hideous intersection between leon’s need to avenge julius and knowing that phantasma is the only way to do it and the mc’s expectation that if you want to be valued/loved/safe, you have to be providing something.
i am kissing you on the mouth for this @Terin_Lost. this is what i would say is the grand product of the change in the relationship that mireil brings about. by the time of the pyre, leon had been ready to sacrifice the mc for years because he’s the king and that’s what he feels his duty to param is. he feels guilty, but in the end, he never expresses any squeamishness about the toll its exacting on mc (that’s ilya!).
i dont doubt at all that he loves them wholly (platonically or romantically), but after mireil shows up, it’s not a love without expectations. and it’s not like. a super enjoyable way to be loved. and i don’t think he would still love them if they were willing to walk away. but that’s just my take; it is fantastic to see what everyone else thinks.
it is also my great dream for my mc to one day have like a normal relationship with another human being.
also i hope no one interprets this as leon bashing. the rotting of this relationship enchants me. the most divorced couple energy of any if. the mountain goats wrote no children about THEM
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What? Really? Those two are gonna have some screentime in the next update? (Plz be true I’m from “miss Ilya” to “desperate for Ilya” almost half a year already)
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This is a fascinating analysis and reading it was sort of like finally getting to the weekend after a very, very long week! 
I agree with most if not all of your points, and I think it is especially fitting for non-pragmatic MCs.
Honestly, even for pragmatic MCs, they seem willing to sacrifice… a lot of things that they probably shouldn’t be, as long as they believe it will somehow benefit those around them. Most often it’s their own health. Later on, it’s, somewhat the lives of others, like with the duke.
I think you can also make the MC a clear mirror to Eli in this way, as they are both routinely shown as being willing to go through horrible shit for the good of the many/those they hold dear. It’s almost like the MC learned how to be this way from Eli, albeit unintentionally. Just like Leon feels like he has to make something up to Julius, it’s like the mage feels like they have to make something up to Eli for their sacrifice.
I am frankly terrified (positive) for how the MC will do with Arcadia, and how their constant self-sacrifice will impact their relationships with the characters there, and their own future. 
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Not weird at all…god Empress Thalia does not tolerate potential competition. Besides old Arcadians were jerks who didn’t even share info crucial to sustaining their own civilization with their own friggin’ kids so they’re not going to share anything at all with complete strangers.
Maybe she doesn’t know either, from old Arcadia she may be, but if the policy of the elders not sharing a lot of crucial info was already in place for her generation it may simply be that she doesn’t know either.
I do think separation without the silly ritual can be harmful to the Phantasma, I just doubt that it is lethal to them.
It’s pretty clear it isn’t, if anything using the Earthworm is even more debilitating than using the other one.
The mc cannot, because they cannot sustain any summoning for longer than five seconds or so and at great pain at that. Technically I suppose the mc could “talk” with them for all of those five seconds, but those won’t be long and conducive conversations.
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first and foremost: 
secondly: OH MY GOD youre right they learned it from eli! and the parallel between eli/mc and leon/julius 
i was thinking about how mireil in particular might have taught the mc that friendship/love is something that can be withdrawn once they aren’t useful anymore. to mc, it probably seemed like she loved them until she didn’t need them anymore. after that, she was happy to get rid of them. if i were in the mc’s shoes, i think i would see a parallel between mireil and leon, even if that was unfair.
but i think you’re completely right that eli, who was like the great guiding light for mc in their childhood, was just as much of an influence on them! eli’s way of loving the mc was being willing to take on their burdens, first in the lab and later when they died so mc could escape. this is pretty much their only positive role model pre-bess for how you should act in a relationship. it’s incredibly selfless but in a way it teaches mc the same thing they learned from the altiniers, except this time, it’s their idea. BRUTAL.
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I’m pretty sure he meant the update after the next one in October.
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This Tumblr post was written before the poll, so it’s very likely that the October update includes the Ilya content given how large the update will be.
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I know Eli said they don’t regret what they did and that they’d do it again in a heartbeat for MC, but I’m pretty sure Eli knows that MC picked up the “I’ll kill for you. I’ll die for you” attitude from them and wishes they hadn’t.
Depending on which dialogue choices are made, Eli is either happy that MC is willing to be a bit more selfish or unnerved that MC somehow stayed the same despite everything.
I’m glad someone else picked up the parallels with Eli/MC and Julias/Leon. I’d go further and say it extends to even Mireil and Saine. Saine has essentially traveled a similar road to MC. The oldest sibling who had the most expectations of them and was willing to push them into a role they didn’t want. The middle sibling who whisked them away from “danger” so they could live in relative freedom for a while.
As the youngest sibling, Saine is alienated from what’s left of his family and left to fend for himself. Leon may love him, but he doesn’t know or understand what Saine is going through. Imo, Saine and MC are kindred spirits. It’s no wonder he’s a wreck after the BBQ and to see him that way, coping considerably worse than MC just… Oof.
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On that note, what would your first words/reaction be to them after everything?
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For Illya, probably give her a huge hug, talk about how good it is to see her again, and explain how I’m alive, followed by a sales pitch for our evil plan.
For Leon I was thinking something like-
“Oooooooohhhh. ooooOOOOOOOOoooohhhhh! Leomar of Param! I am the embodiment of your sins! Your time has come Leone!”
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My Reborn Mage would get sarcastic about the statue. Note- He has a scarred face.
Leon- “A statue, really? Couldn’t have done something actually productive with the money? Feed and house war orphans? Education? Treating veterans maimed in the war? Oh no, must make an ugly statue to frighten children and scare pregnant women into early labor. Is this an emotional self flagellation thing, forcing yourself to look at an ugly statue?”
Ilya- Being the love interest, probably a hug first, and congratulations on the promotion to Saintess.
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