[WIP] Arcadie: Second-Born (Demo updated: Dec 3rd)

[Beth]

@Rinaja I haven’t exactly analysed the WIP like you did, so some stuff I remembered might be off. I do like the points you brought up, especially with those

about the queen hinting about a war with Kaltland after the treaty. To me, it felt more like a certainty- that they’re just biding time with the treaty to get info about the layout of the land so that victory will be more certain when they do launch the war, and get a hold on lucetium. It felt to me that war had always been on the queen’s mind from the start, and their treaty with Kaltland is the first official move in their war effort to finally defeat their neighbours- and this idea kinda made sense to me since they had been in a somewhat stalemate situation from north and south sides, and being able to get lucetium while having Ariana who was the most gifted user of Aether in so many generations? It would finally give them the edge in winning the war the d’Arcadie dynasty has been waging for so long, especially since no one else but their family could use it.

like, if lucetium magnifies the impact of Aether, imagine fashioning a canon and canonball out of it, and then channeling Aether into it pre-launch.

[Moonbreaker]

I think ariana’s more antagonistic than bloodthirsty, being constantly taught about wars and conflicts it’s like ariana’s constantly given the narrative that she will always people that will oppose her and that she has to be prepared to fight the people opposing her.
Even if there was a situation where there is no need for it. She’s constantly exposed to battle too, and that limits her perception on how conflicts can be dealt with.
One of the main problems i have with her is that she exercises this philosophy onto mc; in that war room(?) If you play an mc who has a bad relationship with her, she immediately assumes that you’re jealous of her and wants her power, no matter your reason and actions.
She feels the need to exert physical pain onto mc to put them back in “place” which is a big yikes, ik that a majority of the relationship decrease involves fighting her in the yard, but when i played an mc who disagreed with her opinions and was honest about disliking her but never harmed her, ariana in the scene made me feel the big ehhh.

[Wesker22]

It’s interesting to read this. My mc normally disagrees with her in some areas but since their relationship is high she doesn’t take it out on them. She is a bit condescending with the mc at times though. But overall she doesn’t go off on them.

It’s interesting hearing/reading how jarring the differences are between an mc with high relationship and one with low. So much so that I’ve actually been confused when some people talk about them cause i never experienced many of those things.

[StarlitOpal]

Unpopular opinion here, but I like Ariana at least my MC Vivianne does. I agree I’m worried for her and am afraid I’m gonna need to stage an intervention before the end of the story, but this is kind of my thoughts on why I haven’t given up hope for Ariana being able to be reasoned with. Sorry if I repeat anything anyone has already said!

From the beginning, it’s made clear that the MC was more of an afterthought, with Ariana raised as heir. Obviously this gives Ariana more power and influence, but this also gives MC certain level of leeway in being able to form their own independent decisions and opinions, something that Ariana didn’t necessarily have. She was always the heir—the golden child, the one to lead the kingdom in the future—so it would make sense that in focusing on her more, they would have also drilled things into her head that the MC was able to avoid by virtue of being “the spare”. It seems like a very martial-oriented culture, so Ariana’s “war is the answer” vibe could come a lot from how she was raised.

Does this absolve her of any future responsibility? Certainly not. My intention isn’t to defend Ariana’s actions—I think it’s very clear that this path of revenge (and possibly future warmongering) is unsustainable, even if it is borne out a very understandable anger at seeing her parents murdered in front of her and a desire to see justice served. And it’s not right, the ideas that the parents expressed prior to…you know. But that doesn’t mean Ariana has to follow exactly in their footsteps—with other moderating voices I think that could help her a lot. She’s grieving and probably traumatized (I mean, she did also see our parents die). I really do hope that an MC with a good relationship with her can serve as a voice of reason when she’s going too far in her quest for revenge. But we’ll see, I haven’t gotten any of her low-relationship text

Seriously, though this is such an interesting story! I love the setting, the characters are all so wonderfully fleshed out, and I’m genuinely intrigued by all the plot threads I’ve seen so far. I cannot wait to see what comes next!

[Mango_Pirate]

The problem with the “moderating voices” solution is that she doesn’t listen to you even if you have a high relationship with her. It’s something lampshaded numerous times in game, Cyril proposes it, even Arianna proposes it - next scene, she’s condescending at the war table, refuses to make any concessions regarding Thomas and overall you can’t affect anything or change her mind. MC has truly been powerless so far. And outside of MC there aren’t any moderating voices around.

Maybe things will change once she has her revenge but right now this doesn’t look like happy ending If the author wanted to show Ariana as redeemable, she’d show that MC has the ability to change her mind sometimes, even on unimportant things.

[StarlitOpal]

Good point! I personally think there’s still hope because we’re still reasonably early in all of this going down—and honestly it doesn’t feel like very much time has passed, so I think it’s possible things can take a turn for the better as Ariana finds herself outside of her “parents avenger” and “heir to the kingdom”, as the MC continuously attempts to make their voice heard. Of course, they could also take a turn for the worse…that’s what makes playing this game so fun, a lot of twists xD