In my defence, I had just woken up, and then got hit by a recollection of a quest wrap-up from Sims Medieval that said something like “Did the ends justify the means? Of course. Those were some pretty good means.” 
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I mean, in a situation with no consequences (like a time loop) or to prevent unspeakable earth ending tragedy I’d hardly agree. Heck I’d justify pretty much anything on basic survival. But make it like the world and ending and as long as you save the day you’re a hero. I mean a popular example would be death note, most people consider L a hero despite using a guy as bait.
Or Shepard killed a large portion of Batarians even on a good playthrough to slow down reapers. Plus the ending choices in general besides one did a genocide.
I’m very much of the philosophy of “you don’t owe it to anyone to accept your death” so I can forgive following orders under threat.
I mean the corpses don’t need it and at that point it’s prepping for a fight
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Inferior to pretty good beans.
Prepping for a fight that he started while stopping an end to a literal war. (and then the Kalltlanders hang him out to dry, because lol)
Yeah, Stan made no fucking sense as a legitimate dude trying to save the kingdom from a bad ruling family. Like at worst the mom was ruthless when dealing with other nations but like that’s hardly a reason to put the entire country into a state of civil war and kill thousands (and given how fast Stan turned into a borderline puppet for the north, you probably don’t want a ruler who plays TOO nice). The fact she was willing to get what she wants by trade and let us take care of stuff even if we say we like peace make it clear she can’t be as bad as Stan say, a Tyrant isn’t really known to delegate to others who have different ways of doing things.
Hell, our mom’s willingness to do thing the ‘soft’ way is why he was in power to begin with, he was the carrot and Will was the stick.
I think Stan really just wanted things done his own way and ironically had no patience or tolerance for anything else.
Also unrelated but I’m sad we can’t truly romance our spouse for the military alliance, I can easily talk myself out of it but I’m a sucker for ‘arranged marriage with real feelings’ and a politically savvy spouse sounded fun.
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I keep being told “Stan is a great general and a tactical genius”, but literally nothing I see him do is indicative of it, much the opposite.
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The tactical genius’s greatest achievement is using an overpowered magic shield to win a solo fight after getting his troupes slaughtered with no tactics.
Like sell him as a fighting prodigy instead, it would have made him being so strong a lot more logical both times you fight him.
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Maybe his goal was to make a huge mess of things? I’d say he succeeded in that.
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That’s why he’s Stan the (Bad at Things) Man.
Alright, fair enough. 
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I always though that Stan was being used by Unknown Forces. Because he didn’t come alone. He had guards with him. Someone is playing him for a sucker. And making him do the dirty work.
I betcha they will kill him once he has no use.
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Weren’t those ‘unknow forces’ literally just the north? The story as far as I understand is that Stan got too used to playing nice with the Southern Tribes, who’s problems with your country sound a lot more chill (and somehow managed to fail at getting any actual results for long enough that he got switched with Will), then got sent to the north and got completely bamboozled into switching sides in the name of ‘peace’ (as if an unequal peace treaty essentially saying ‘Okay, we submit, stop hitting us’ wouldn’t just lead to more raids), because apparently ‘peace’ means ‘killing your own people in a civil war instead of defending them from other countries, which totally won’t lead to more wars once everyone sees you’re weakened’, and then got left to dry because the north couldn’t give less of a shit about the weird foreigner who insisted on doing their dirty work as if it would make them like him.
…Fuck, Stan basically had a savior complex.
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Probably how he got sucked in doing this to begin with.
As for who they are…that’s what everyone assumed. But I like to think there is more to it than the ‘North barbarians with some Mojo’.
Maybe even that guy who teach us about Magic…or something.
I just wish the author make a Sequel, there are just too many questions left unanswered.
Like @Dragomer points out, the giards who come with him are the people under his command in the North. This, of course, absolutely does not preclude the fact that he’s a dumbass that’s being played like a recorder by the Kalltlanders, because he totally is.
There’s a sequel in the works.
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really? Wooohooo! Cause last time I asked, she said she will think about it. Haven’t checked since…
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Are the North barbarians? I always assumed they were basically Dwarves with super good steel and industry but a shitty climate, kinda like if the Stark lived in underground castles.
There’s one in the works.
Honestly I liked Arcadie but I feel like the game get a lot less good post-Ariana’s death / a bit after our crowning once we got over her death. Also the whole training arc was really awkwardly done, which is a shame cause I love training arcs.
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I don’t think it got less good, it’s just a bait-and-switch. This was a game where you were supposed to play NOT the heir to throne, then suddenly, guess who’s on the throne.
The Kaltland settlement are described as actual sprawling underground cities, so I’ve always presumed the current definition of ‘barbarian’ does not apply to them, but we don’t really know much about them.
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I was thinking ‘Barbarian’ as in ‘Brute, uncivilised’, not ‘Barbarian’ as in Rage and animal Pelt on their head XD
A bit late to the party, I know… but see, I hated Hayden Winter in Sordwin but absolutely loved him in Lux. I think I couldn’t stand him in Sordwin because I felt like a complete idiot for trying his route - and I thought he was a one-installment character that we’d never see again since the way things end in that book should your MC be naive (and yet devious) enough to try and escape with him lead me to believe there was no way we’d get anything else - but then, Lux happened and since I’m as curious as a cat, I tried playing it with a Hayden-mancing character saved from Sordwin…and lo and behold, that was a revelation ^^
I guess that’s fair, I was having fun finding my place into Ariana’s reign and actually getting her to listen to me until I just became the King and could do whatever I wanted regardless.
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cough Hayden Winter* is an actual literal rapist cough
*the character, not the poster of the same name
Doesn’t mean I can’t like him (I also go for Jun in SoH after all…) xD
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