I’m not romancing Ignis so I’d never pick up on this, but man, Gloria doesn’t miss a single chance to be the biggest dick he can at every opportunity, does he?
Like, Stratton IS just like Trump, isn’t he? He doesn’t do anything different from the rest of the party, he just says the quiet part out loud, meaning that the rest of the party (like Gloria) isn’t any better, they’re just being quiet about it.
I never noticed this before, I don’t know if I just glossed over it when I was doing Ignis route just to see it, cuz I tend to always go for Aki whenever I come back to reread it.
But god damn what an asshole. Like that whole situation is going to be complicated for awhile I’m sure. Those two got a lot of shit to sort through before people who actually want to go for Ignis get their pay off on that.
But damn dude. Saying that right to their face. Like it’s none of their business, it’s like he’s intentionally trying to ignite jealousy in your player character and to like… dump gasoline on that fire and make you pissed off at Seeker, or Ignis, probably both of them. And it makes me wonder why?? Is it just cuz he doesn’t like Seeker?
Current theory, no contradicting evidence so far.
I mean… sure. He could just be a dick. But he doesn’t strike me like the kind of guy to just be a dick for no reason, he probably has a reason for saying that to your face. And I doubt it’s out of concern for the situation.
Why, yes.
Almost like it could lead to drama and fractures in the one group that isn’t loyal to the US and that, by virtue of having Seeker in it, is more than willing to tear an empire apart if there’s a big enough disagreement. 
Gloria’s view of the League is basically summed up by that one Jefferson quote about slavery and the Missouri Compromise.
I have one question. Will I be able to punch him in the face at some point? For any reason? 
Well, yes, assuming you can find a different employer right after. 
But where would you find a rich country, not affiliated with the USA, that’d love to strengthen its forces? 
Okay, I’m going to be real with you right now.
If you are aware of an extremely sensitive situation between a group of people, and you intentionally attempt to manipulate that to get them at each others throats. Having dealt with that shit multiple times in my life.
You deserve a lot worse than a punch to the face. The fact I restrained myself to just that. You should be thankful.
Wow. Gloria’s a dick.
The “we have the wolf by the ear” quote? If so wouldn’t it make more sense not to try and antagonize
the members of the league?
Not from Gloria’s point of view.
See, the thing is that, unlike… a frankly terrifying amount of people in it, Gloria is perfectly aware that the United States is an imperial power. Imperial powers don’t stay as imperial powers by being nice and helpful, they do so by imposing their will on their weaker neighbors and some times (though he doesn’t personally relish it), abusing or doing other hostile acts against these ‘weaker neighbors’.
He doesn’t see this as bad, or as good. It’s just the way of things, and, since Gloria would very much like America to remain a global superpower, he knows this must be a trend that continues.
But that’s where the problem comes. Let’s take stock of the League, eh? We have:
An incredibly curt man who seems to detest one of America’s two major parties, has more military experience than approximately 80% of the US Army, and who, as of Chapter 5, seems haunted enough by PTSD from his past to just go nuts at any given time.
The prodigal child of the largest arms-making empire in human history. That alone gives her a ludicruous amount of power, but then connect it with the fact that she repeatedly and consistently denounces the ‘evils of American history’ and makes it perfectly clear she will never support America’s ‘abuses’.
The heir to a legacy thrice as old as the United States. Heir to a legacy that built itself opposing empires, and, in the last global conflict, matched the efforts of not one, but two superpowers (the US and the USSR) on its own, and is so uncaring about what these powers could want that it half-ruined the most destructive and secretive operation in the entirety of World War II, simply because the self-assigned values of the title ‘demand it’.
A super genius from one of those very states that Gloria thinks the US must, at some point, once again abuse or oppress for America to remain in its position.
An insecure child, half-afraid of her own shadow, whose sole political position is ‘follow what Forlorn/Ignis/Seeker’ say.
From Gloria’s PoV, there’s absolutely going to be a point where the US and the League are on opposing sides of a situation, and he won’t have any way to command them to follow the US’s orders, or even stop them from turning into opponents. At which point, the question becomes ‘Are we going to war with the powered?’.
Gloria’s under the belief that the League is just a ticking time bomb (see, this is part of why he hasn’t started hammering Crete for anything, he thinks the League will throw a stink unless he has actual proof of any wrongdoing [he is absolutely right. Seeker and Forlorn will never say yes to war on Crete, and Ignis won’t go against Seeker, ditto with Aki & Forlorn]), and so the more fractured it is (and the less camaraderie there is between the members), the less chances there are of them all deciding to tell the US to shove it.
… Which is all to say, yes, he’s cognizant of the fact that Ignis and Seeker have the hots for each other, and he’s twisting that knife in your stomach, on the hopes that you’ll grow to dislike the League, and hopefully come to side with the man and government that pays your bills and hasn’t been playing you for a ‘cuck’ (NOT what is happening, and by god, i hate that word so much) in front of the whole world.
Are you saying that Gloria is really expecting us to fight the League single handedly if that even worked out for him? Lol no I’m sorry but even I wouldn’t do that even if I want an actual match with Seeker and Forlorn to test out the progress but nothing hostile. And we all know how everyone feels about a certain broody guy that nearly got his ass kicked by Seeker.
That’s not really what it says, it’s more like he wants you to be one more guy on his side when the conflict starts rather than one more guy on the enemy side.
Not necessarily. This goes back to something I said yesterday, and it’s that Gloria doesn’t see war/battle as a good event or something to engineer. War is an incredibly destructive and expensive act that, at least in the modern era, just means the US will be shackled with yet another ‘nation-building’ project that he has no interest in starting.
As far as Gloria’s plan in this particular aspect goes, he’s hoping that the idea of having to fight old friends/allies/comrades will cause whoever doesn’t stay loyal to him and the US Government to be dissuaded from actively opposing them. Gloria’s intent is not to throw you (or the armed forces in general) into a conflict, it’s to use the possibility of that to avoid it.
Think of it as something like… I dunno, MAD, or the like.
His conclusion is slightly flawed, of course. The only League members Seeker (for example) won’t ever hurt are Ignis and Aki, both of which would never put him in such a position anyway, but Gloria isn’t omnipotent. He has no way to know that, and so is acting under the belief that your team members aren’t so callous as to kill each other over their ideals/promises/oaths.
He greatly underestimate how goddamn single-minded superheroes can get about those things.
Seeing how Japan went with the terrorist group and the possibility of Crete coming into the picture in the future, that intent probably will backfire on him.
Most people in this setting do!
The Blitz Queen straight up warned Phokas that she’d break him in half if he sacked Chandax after the people surrendered and agreed to rejoin the Empire.
He didn’t believe her, because the Byzantine Emperor promised he’d make her and the King nobles for helping conquer the island, and obviously, “that dumb broad isn’t stupid enough to throw that out in favor of some foreigners she doesn’t even know.”
cue a few tens of thousands of corpses later…
And that wasn’t even entirely because of ideals. She just thought Phokas was a sexist asshole.
Oh, in the most horrible of ways, yes, but that’s how we get a story, isn’t it? 
This was the first thread I read today, and it’s great to wake up to a half-confirmation that I’ll get to paste Gloria.
Aww…don’t Lat and mc and Mars merit a mention…or are they just too insignficant at this point?
At this point the only one of his team members my mc is willing to fight and possibly hurt would be Forlorn…but at this point that also seems to be suicide, of course that could change in the future.
Sure, he’s a dick, but not a dick my mc has a personal grudge against, like Forlorn or Stratton and pasting everybody who’s a dick means going up against about half of humanity.
Mars isn’t part of the League, he’s a government stooge. Even Dark Star would merit a mention sooner, because he’s both. There’s a non-zero chance of Mars taking DS’s spot as the government-mandated stooge in the League, seeing as DS is now bodyguarding Stratton full-time, but until such a moment comes to pass, Mars isn’t a Leaguer.
He’s not JUST a dick, he’s a dick who knowingly and willingly puts innocent civilians in ground zero of a terrorist attack of unknown means.