One thing I really liked when playing Esoteric Ebb was that it really captures the experience of being young and politically involved.
Starting with Modissa of the Azgalist Youth who has lots of ideas how the world could be better, who does the reading, who puts in the work, yet is still told to slow down, be more socially acceptable, be more marketable by the prominent people of her party.
The Azgalist in themselves are shown to be structured and heavily passinate about their cause. You see them first at the lichhouse trying to hold their ralley. Then you find the printing press and the Chant. You talk to their members and all of them are heavily invested in it.
Then on the other hand we have Rollo and the Norvikan Restistance. He proclaims them as a Nationalist movement of the Party of Norvik yet they are shown to really only be reactionary. They get their information from a man they do not know the name of and take his "hints" on what they should do. Usually violently. They meet in the tavern and instead of talking about their ideas and politics they talk about girls. Rollo really is the only member shown to have any political interest and in the ending before you go vote, Rollo tells you he didn't vote for anything at all as a form of resistance.
That is because the Norvikan Resistance never really was about anything at all. It was a bunch of boys trying to play men by living out the violent ideal they have been taught. But in doing so they took part in a hierarchy that put them at one of their lowest ranks but gave them the feeling of being something important. Yet they still managed to slow down the Azgalist Youth until the Cleric shows up.
Rollo’s character is pretty interesting, because his grasp for masculinity makes a lot of sense for someone who has to try to be the “man of the house” for his younger brother. He’s a genuinely decent person that’s being manipulated, but when he actually gets the chance to make change (if you steal the freestrider documents), he compromises on basically everything in order to resist the plot to buy out the city. He’s still a nationalist at the end, but he seems a lot more tolerant and willing to change, which is about the most you can ask for a young adult like him.
