T w e n t y S i d e d

The captured party is brought aboard the Dreadnought Leviathan, flagship of Archadia’s 8th Fleet, and presented before the commander: it’s Judge Ghis! I missed him; now that he doesn’t wear the helmet anymore, we can admire that great Archadian hair. Grand Moff Ghis greets Ashe glibly, and demands that they hand over the nethicite. Penelo is reluctant, clutching Larsa’s gift in her hand… but Ghis protests, and clarifies that he wants the deifacted nethicite. He asks his lackey, Captain Vossler Azelas, to clarify for him.

Yep, Vossler’s gone all Lando on us. At some point it struck him that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of driving the Empire out of Dalmasca through force of arms, and the best plan now is to regain whatever primacy they can for Ashe by cooperating with the Empire, after the model of Ondore in Bhujerba. To this end, they will restore the sovereignty of the Dalmascan line if they but hand over the Dawn Shard, which they reveal is a shard of unthinkably powerful nethicite. Ashe hesitates, struggling to come to terms with the sudden developments, so Ghis makes it simple for her: consent and become their pet queen, or vacillate and he starts lopping off party members’ heads. With a sword at Balthier’s throat, she hands the Dawn Shard over.

Ghis, nethicite in hand, remarks on how glad this will make Doctor Cid, once again causing Balthier to nearly throw a shitfit. Real subtle there, son. The Judge orders them transferred to the light cruiser Shiva, after which they shall shortly be returned to Dalmasca safe and sound. With the party gone, though, Ghis desires to test the stone somehow, not wanting to hand a fake or powerless Dawn Shard to his superiors.

Aboard the Shiva, Vossler tries to discuss the future with Ashe, recommending they make an ally of the young but idealistic Larsa Solidor. But Ashe, disgusted by his two-timing, has no ears for him, regardless of his conviction that he acts in the best interests of their nation. Worse troubles are brewing, though: lacking more precise equipment, the engineers of the Leviathan have elected to load the Dawn Shard into the ship’s own drive, and gauge its power output with the dreadnought’s telemetry. Not exactly precise, but good enough to prove the stone is genuine before it’s handed into the care of Draklor Laboratory.

As soon as the Shard is loaded, however, a shudder runs through everyone, even the party aboard the Shiva; everyone can tell something is wrong, but Fran in particular begins losing her shit. The power of the stone is beyond all expectation, and Ghis couldn’t be more pleased. After all, if all it takes to rule the empire is an Archadian with beautiful hair and a magic superweapon, why not Ghis instead of that pretty boy Vayne?

With the power of the Dawn Shard spiking ever higher and higher, Fran can no longer take the strain and flips entirely the fuck out, smashing her bonds and leaping around, wrecking Imperial shit left and right. Balthier uses the chaos to pirate his handcuffs off and release the rest of the party, but Vossler is too committed to getting Ashe onto the throne to let them fuck the plan up for him now. Basch isn’t having it, though; Princess wants Imperial blood, so that’s what Princess gets.

Now, I’ll level with you: I think Vossler has a case. Sure, things will work out for Ashe whatever she does because she’s the main character and Vossler isn’t, but Vossler has put up with this shit right alongside Ashe for two years now. Dalmasca is still just as much under the heel of Archades as it always has been, perhaps more now than ever, and their Resistance hasn’t made a damn bit of difference, right up until losing most of their manpower in the failed assault at Vayne’s fete. If anything, the recent negotiations with the Bhujerban resistance will just get Ondore in hot water and fuck up Bhujerba’s deal right along with Dalmasca’s.

If Ashe was more cunning, she might take the deal and learn Ondore’s game. Bullshit resistance movements are one thing, but Dalmasca and Bhujerba combined? Bhujerba’s been funneling resources into a navy to rival the Empire’s since the war ended, and that’s just two years worth of scheming. Give that guy a bit more time, with Ashe playing the same game with Dalmasca, and you might actually have some weight at the bargaining table. Or you can keep fighting the Empire and their magic superweapons out of your comfy little warehouse in a fucking sewer.

It might not be a foolproof plan, but I’ve got to ask here: what exactly is Ashe’s plan, again? After getting her buddies slaughtered and being captured by the Empire, she seems to be set on going public, finding some way to back her claim to the throne for a formal declaration of at least some degree of Dalmascan sovereignty. Technically we’ve already had our hands on two nethicite superweapons, but we didn’t know that at the time and we’ve given both of them to Archadia. So what’s Ashe’s plan for the day after she formally re-declares war on the Empire? She has no army and no allies but Ondore, who’s already declined official aid. Will the much-aggrieved Dalmascans rejoice or resent the redoubling of Archadian attentions on their city? Vossler has a lot to answer for, but we can’t really claim in good conscience that he hasn’t thought out his obligations to Dalmasca better than the party seems to have.

Yet… Yet I have to ask, how long has it been since he started playing for both sides? I’m inclined to think he first shook hands with the Empire between busting Ashe out of the Leviathan and reconnoitering with the party at the Sandsea, but there’s really nothing to indicate when exactly he turned. It’s important, though; if he had gotten fed up with the struggle and started working with the Empire after securing her momentary freedom from the Leviathan, that makes sense. Ashe has momentary leave to act without the Empire’s hold on her, yet Azelas will work with her to secure the Dawn Shard, keeping the princess safe and, in his mind, working to satisfy the aims of both sides. He will have to turn her back over once they have the Stone, but then they can get her on the throne and work from there. Right?

But if it was any point before that, things stop making sense in a hurry. And there’s one tantalizing shred of evidence to suggest that it goes very far back: the sword. The sword Dalan had Vaan deliver to Vossler, “to remind him of what [the Dalmascan Knights] once meant.” They never reveal what that meant at that time; narratively, it was to get Vaan in the room to witness the events there, but given that Dalan seems to be omniscient and Vossler turned traitor, those words become portentous. It suggests either that Vossler’s faith in the Resistance had dissolved after the failed assault on Vayne, or that he had turned even earlier and could conceivably have been the mole that tipped Vayne off about their attack in the first place.

But if that’s the case, why let Basch run free? Wouldn’t Vossler have a lot to gain by tipping off the Imperials about their favorite jailbird strutting around trying to get the insurgency back on track? And, more importantly, why spring Ashe from the Leviathan? Vossler claims he begged Marquis Ondore to help free Ashe from the dreadnought; if he had, that means the Empire has some serious new blackmail material to use against Ondore, but they don’t seem to know.Or maybe they do, and are doing nothing about it at present. After all, we see Vayne confronted with Ondore’s resistance involvement and he balks. And, of course, that little prison break nearly saw Judge Ghis dead, and would have also tipped off Vossler about Larsa’s extracurricular activities… Not that he would have told the Empire about these things, or that he wouldn’t have told them later even if he hadn’t turned at that point yet. Actually, all probability seems to point to him keeping everything under wraps for Ashe and Dalmasca, going only so far to help or inform the Empire as it took to retake the throne for Ashe. It’s hard to get any solid evidence about the specifics of his Imperial involvement one way or the other.

But while I somewhat sympathize with Vossler, all things considered, I do have to side with Ashe and Basch here. The fact is, regardless of how much I like Vossler, he’s done at least three things that long ago marked him due for an ass-kicking: he gets the Telekinesis technick from the start, whereas I won’t have that shit ’til near the endgame; he gets a fucking greatsword by default, while I have to dick around with sword-and-board for entirely too goddamn long; and on the Leviathan, that Imperial disguiseOne of the many foreshadowings of his double-agency! clanked and clattered just like the real deal with EVERY. FUCKING. STEP. Captain Azelas, your dedication is admirable, in its own way, but… do you really think you can win this fight?

Did you forget we have a fucking Gigas?

After watching Belias grind and incinerate the former Captain Azelas into beefy cinders,As I recall, I used Belias here to test the changes IZJS had made to Espers. I found it pretty satisfying as the description here probably implies, but I still rarely ever bothered with Espers or Quickenings. Basch and Ashe are nonetheless remorseful to have battled with a man who had been— and in a way still was— their staunchest ally. Shit is going majorly wrong aboard the Leviathan, though; nethicite absorbs magic, and putting it in the ship’s drive was a grave error: it’s absorbing all the vast magical— I’m sorry, magickal— power of the vast dreadnought!

Vossler speaks one last time with Basch. Whatever his motives were, his days at Ashe’s side are over. With his plans once again fallen apart, he can only wonder how— or if— it could have gone differently. Basch respects his old friend, though, and will honor his loyalty by guarding Ashe to the bitter end in his place. As the calamity aboard the Leviathan begins shaking the fleet, the party flees for their lives, but Vossler Azelas holds his position, and awaits his doom.

As the Dawn Shard reaches some critical threshold, it consumes the dreadnought and unleashes a titanic conflagration, utterly consuming the 8th Fleet. The party outrides the explosion in a small fighter craft, and, as the mist subsides, are amazed to see the Dawn Shard floating serenely amidst the carnage, no worse for wear.

All Ivalice is shaken by the destruction of the fleet that had served as the Empire’s enforcement throughout the Galtean Peninsula; seizing the opportunity, Ondore claims sudden illness to secure some me-time and contacts every revolution-minded military and political leader in his Rolodex. The goings-on of the next few days are narrated by Ondore, just as he narrated the infodump during the prologue.This is another excerpt from his memoirs.

Ashe returns to Rabanastre with the Dawn Shard, but declines to seize the throne just yet, instead choosing to keep hidden as she had before. The game is running with the dubious logic that Ondore would be discredited if Ashe were to appear alive and well, yet at the moment the Marquis is the best hope for assembling and running a legitimate counter-Imperial armada.

Under the circumstances, any attempt on Ashe’s part to seize the Dalmascan throne without Imperial cooperation would definitely set off another conflict before any counter was prepared, and the 8th Fleet, while mighty, was only one arm of an immense military force.

Meanwhile, Rozarria (Ivalice’s other immense military force and perennial rival of Archades) has certainly taken notice of Valendia’s loss. At once they began massing and moving their own forces under the pretense of “routine exercises,” and the Archadian Senate is sure that they’ll launch a full-on assault no later than they perceive the opportunity. What’s more, the lost fleet was Lord Vayne’s to command, and therefore its loss and the perilous circumstances resulting from it is his to answer for, placing him right at the top of the Senate’s shitlist. They immediately demand the Emperor punish him in some capacity.

Gramis is wise to their game; he’s already let on to Gabranth that the Senate doesn’t want Vayne on the throne, and this disaster gives them the perfect political cover for completely sidelining him and shooing in Larsa for the position, whom they believe they can control. At this point, the Senate is openly contemptuous of the dying Emperor, and he of them. He sarcastically wonders aloud who could guide Larsa’s rule, and they needle him right back, reminding him of his role in orchestrating his first two son’s deaths at Vayne’s hands. The Emperor resents his situation, but the balance of power compels him; he tells the Senate he shall recall Vayne to Archades at once, and the matter is closed.

With the party convened in Rabanastre, Ashe has a waking vision of the wasteland surrounding Nabudis. Surveying the destruction, she turns to see the specter of Lord Rasler, who hands her the Dawn Shard. Clutching it to her chest, she sees Vaan step into her sight, and she awakens. This is yet another go at the old “Ashe and Vaan are connected” bit, and it still amounts to nothing. The dream seems to imply that Vaan is taking Rasler’s place, somehow, but he… uhh… isn’t? Ashe never has the first inkling of romantic attraction to Vaan, whom the game has clearly already paired up with Penelo anyway, so unless someone steps out of the wings to declare him rightful heir to the Nabradian throne, I have no fucking clue what the writers were going for with it.

Oh, nevermind, it’s a transparent ass-pull to try and legitimize this hanger-on running around with people who actually have some connection to the plot. You know, I might have the first fucking scrap of respect for people who try and stand up for Vaan and say, “Oh well of course Vaan has no meaningful role in the game, the writers are just using him as a window into these events,” if the writers didn’t repeatedly peddle this weak shit pumping up Vaan and yanking him into all the most important inflection points in Ashe’s story while she’s busy actually leading this fucking game.

Back in the waking world, Basch is having a bit of exposition. He recognized the disaster at the Leviathan as the same force which must have destroyed Nabudis, capital of Nabradia. It would seem the Midlight Shard, which had been left to House Nabradia by the Dynast-King, was activated in the city as the Empire invaded, incinerating both sides and leaving behind a wasteland filled with undead and all manner of monsters attracted to intense mist and intense suffering.

However, it seems the unleashing the Dawn Shard’s power has left it a powerless gray rock. Even if the Empire recovered the Midlight Shard from the capsized city— and it seems all too likely this was their object in invading Nabradia— they would likewise need some way to recharge its unimaginable reserves of stored mist to make any use of it.

Though they do have the fully-charged Dusk Shard, and, as Balthier points out, they have learned to manufacture their own nethicite, as well. Ashe makes a resolution: if the Dawn Shard is a weapon, then it’s her weapon, and she is going to leverage its might to make the Empire sorry they ever fucked with Ashelia B’nargin Dalmasca. (*snicker* B’nargin)

After this dramatic declaration, Vaan gets one of the best lines allotted to him:

*sincere golf clap*

No, it turns out, we fucking do not. Fran, font of all knowledge and occasional berserker madwoman, claims the garif might know. The garif, she says, are a tribe to the south in Kerwon that has been around since antiquity, and magicite of all kinds is an important part of their lore. If there’s anyone in the world who might know the finer points of the care and feeding of nethicite, it’s the garif. Ashe requests that Fran help guide her to the garif, but Balthier immediately interjects that it will require a bit of compensation. Still sore about getting shorted at the tomb, are we?

What he demands is infamous among players as a total dick move even for Balthier: Rasler’s wedding band. Important note! Originally, I assumed it was Ashe’s wedding band, and didn’t grasp the significance of Ashe wearing two rings. Maybe I’m thick and this was obvious to everyone else; Ashe’s ringed hands have been prominently featured in some of the foregoing cutscenes, particularly the ones involving Rasler, but no one ever outright says it and the creators (I would venture unwisely) assumed that the audience would apprehend the truth from visual allusions alone. Ashe is devastated, but, desperate for knowledge of the stone, hands the band over reluctantly. It’s the one time in the game when Balthier crosses the line from cheeky Han Solo rogue to actual unscrupulous criminal mercenary.

Here’s the thing, though: I don’t just take issue with Balthier’s actions, but Ashe’s as well. Now, hold on, I’m not just being an asshole. Did Ashe even think about turning him down? Or talk him down to something else, maybe? He says, “Compensation… How about the ring?” Got a box of rings somewhere he can root through, princess? When Ashe hesitates, he even says, “No one’s forcing you.” Can’t call his bluff? Try, “Oh, good then. Pick literally anything else, Stretch.” Or is watching you suffer part of his payment?I don’t know how Balthier would actually know the ring’s significance, but the scene certainly implies he knows exactly what he’s asking for. Maybe he can interpret cutscenes more ably than I. If so, maybe cut his throat and be done with him, because here’s the more important point: why the fuck do you need him at all?

The Strahl is too damaged to fly after the calamity over Jagd Yensa,The Strahl was parked at the eastern edge of the jagd, and the calamity occured at the western end of the entire sandsea. How in fuck did the Strahl get damaged by the explosion? If the explosion were that powerful, how did our little Imperial runabout not get blasted to fucking atoms? No, I’m certain that the moogle flight crew got bored and crashed the Strahl into a cliff. You believe what you want, but that’s the real story. so we aren’t flying there. You’re hiring them as tour guides. Now, you argued in the tomb of Raithwall that you had to take your help where you could get it, and at that time, you were right: robbing the tomb of Raithwall is some dramatically dubious shit. It’s not something you can advertise in the local paper to hire help for, and they already knew the over-and-under so you weren’t spreading information unnecessarily. And you were planning on stiffing him for the bill.

This time? He’s squeezing you for something of tremendous sentimental value to you just to be an asshole, for something you absolutely don’t need him for. Has no one else in Dalmasca heard of the garif? I’m pretty sure the Giza tribals know them pretty well. Does anyone have a map, maybe? Hell, if you want someone who can show you the way and put up a fight, too, we also happen to be part of a prestigious clan of professional world-wise monster hunters. They’re literally down the street.For anyone wondering: no, the Clan never intersects with the main plot after your induction during the tutorial phase of the game. It’s unacknowledged and completely orthogonal to the game’s story. So if you really want to hand over your fucking wedding ring to a pair of criminals so they can give you directions and soak up a third of the experience, you go right ahead, Princess.

Not that we should give a fuck what Balthier wants in the first place. We need Fran’s help. She’s the one with a brain like an Ivalician Wikipedia, as she loves to demonstrate from time to time. Hey Ashe, you wanna calmly grab Balthier’s smug little face, splinter the nearest table with it, and ask Fran if she wants to help? Fran, dear, d’you ever get tired of tapping your little digitigrade feetsies under the table because Balthier doesn’t need to use the bathroom right now? As we’ll find out later, Fran’s entire backstory is based on a really difficult decision to go her own way for her own reasons; might be a fun twist if Balthier straight-up declined on his and Fran’s behalf to help Ashe any further… only for Fran to volunteer her own help, putting Balthier in the position of following her lead for a change.

Here’s the icing on the cake: he claims he’ll give the ring back once he finds something more valuable. Vaan tries to call his bluff and asks what that might be. Balthier retorts on the way out the door by asking what Vaan is after at all, to which he has no answer because his utter lack of motivation is canon.

This fucking game. I swear it’s taunting me on purpose.

The Travelog continues next week.

The Rocketeer —PLEASE—STAND—BY—