I canât believe Iâm doing this but I think I have to announce that I am starting an
Alberian Heirs Defense* Club
*some defending may involve repeated whacking with a stick
By which I mean, I genuinely donât understand why people are writing them off as horrible, unforgivable people after the last chapter, when I thought it did a great job of showcasing their goals and motives for allying with Morsayati. So Iâm going to write up a quick break-down of each of them + some other thoughts, on why I think they are all Super Duper Valid*
*in some cases, being valid may mean they have been validated and approved for stick whacking, specifically
So, starting off with Leonidas. Heâs pretty obviously the person most deserving of a Stick Whack (TM), and also imho the most likely of all the heirs to stick to his villain role... he seems pretty dedicated to it. That being said, itâs worth nothing that he does have a very strong set of morals, and I genuinely believe his joining up with Morsayati has more to do with it being the right choice for his goals than anything else. If he didnât think that pledging allegiance now was the right choice for creating the world he wants later, I donât think he would have done it. Which is interesting! I could see a temporary alliance down the road between him and Euden, if things change and their goals align. Leonidas doesnât care who he is working with, as long as they are bringing him closer to creating a world where people make their way solely through their own power.
Next we have Phares, our resident amoral scientist, and the other contender for the âstrong, but badâ morals crown. Phares doesnât give a fuck about any of this, he just wants answers, as any scientist would, of course. I do think Phares is much more likely for redemption than Leonidas, because his pursuit of the truth is explicitly grounded in his own strange illness/curse. He wants a cure, he wants to know what hides behind the curtain, and he doesnât much care who gets hurt in the process. I donât think we know whether Phares was always curious and vaguely amoral, and that led to the curse, or if he was born cursed and that led to his curiosity, but Iâm sure we will delve into that down the road. Phares is also sort of a representative of the clash between human technology and dragons in the distant past, which Iâm sure will be important & is already implied to be a pretty complex situation. His refusal to take historical accounts at face value could prove very useful to Euden and/or the plot.
Moving down the line, we have Chelle. The story has examined her motivations much more closely than the other heirs, so I wonât go on about them as much here. Besides, much of the point of her chapter was that we donât know her motivations. So suffice it to say for now... we donât know her motivations. Assuming that Chelle betrayed Euden at this point is a little preemptive. She put herself where she needed to be. Now, whether she wanted to be there only for her own sake, or whether she plans to help Euden in the future, remains to be seen. Knowing her, itâs both. But whatever the case is, she certainly wasnât better off trying to stand beside Euden just now. She works from the shadows, and in the shadows she has remained. How convenient for her :3c That being said I will eat my hat if Chelle doesnât have more selfless motives than she lets on
Which leads us next to Valyx, who is an interesting outlier here. Unlike the rest of the heirs, Valyx claims to act not for his own interest, but in order to bring peace to the kingdom. I think it would be easy to just call him a fool and be done with it, but heâs not exactly wrong that giving in to Morsayati will bring peace, while struggling against him will lead to more death and destruction. I hope we get to see more of Valyx, because I think heâs an interesting foil to Eudenâs selflessness. Euden expresses selflessness by choosing to fight for the people he cares about, while Valyx expresses it through choosing not to fight, even against someone like Morsayati. I would love to see what made him believe so strongly in his path, and how he truly feels about his own choices.
And lastly of course that leaves Emile, who explicitly tells us that heâs has chosen to side with Morsayati because he got picked on. Cool motive, still mur- no okay I have to admit I actually think this is interesting and I do feel a little bad for Emile here. I mean, heâs still a spoiled brat, and probably falls into the stick-whack category, but thatâs kind of the point. Amidst all of these larger-than-life personalities and world shaping ambitions, I think itâs great to have someone who just... feels like the world hasnât given him what he deserves. âEntitled kid is radicalized to violence through isolation, ego-stroking, and promises of deserved gloryâ is an especially interesting backstory when the character is teetering just on the edge of too far gone. Which way he tips remains to be seen, because it has more to do with his actions after this point than it does with his choice to follow Morsayati.
And to wrap this up, I would also like to specifically point out that everyone in that room, including Euden himself and all of his allies, did genuinely consider accepting Morsayatiâs offer. They agreed it could be a path to peace. They agreed it could be the only option. What stopped them? Zethia.
Euden loves Zethia. Euden refuses to give up his fight for her. And the moment he realizes that, he also realizes that he doesnât just believe in peace, he believes in a world in which people fight for the people they love. And Morsayati cannot provide that world. So he stands up, says no, and rallies his allies behind him.
But the other heirs? They donât know Zethia. They barely even know each other. They have all lived isolated lives, learning to strive not for other people, but for their own ambitions. In some ways, I would argue that one of the biggest differences between Euden and his siblings is just that he had a Zethia...
They do have a Euden, though. And there is no way heâs letting them go without a fight.
