Phares: "Nah, I don't really feel like it"
Honestly, though, that meme is probably shockingly fitting during Zethia!Morsayati's reign. Think about it.
Ch.7, he establishes that he is a general.
Still, no soldier of his is anywhere near the chapter. Even the fiends and stuff he riles up aren't under his control or anything. He just poked them with a stick for fun on his free time.
The next times we see him in ch.10 and 12-13, no soldiers of his really are implied to exist nearby. By 12, he's more using his void dragons.
14? Guess what, still no soldiers of Phares. They must be either the most bored soldiers or the most grateful ones, because whatever Phares is using them for, it certainly doesn't seem to be combat.
...Maybe barbecue taste-testing, if the comics are to be believed as canon.
And after 15, Phares (now with Beren) has truly broken away from this little job of general and is doing his own thing. Away.
Even after he's fully regained himself, he's still not leading soldiers. In the Blood That Binds, Phares instead seemed to be assigned more as a Emile minder than the one actually leading anything, and is just there to make sure Emile's not getting up to anything too stupid. He also abandons that post, too, once Emile's established he's not doing anything stupid in the first minute.
All I'm saying is, Phares never once leads any sort of military force in Dragalia. At most he's bringing void dragons or Beren or fiends in the Xenos!Phares ch.23 showdown.
This is already a bit of a dismal state of being a general in a demon lord's reign. He probably should be out there crusading against Morsayati's enemies, or at least doing something useful? Paying proper due diligence to mind his tongue and not anger Morsayati, at least?
Nah. He's got the gall to walk out while Morsayati is still there because he's 'busy'.
But wait, this goes one step further: I cannot think of a single time Phares has actually done any hard work for Morsayati.
The Void dragons, you say? Well...
Implications are that it's less Phares having to go to any effort to capture these powerful critters to then corrupt and more like the Other mails them to Phares. Again, all the work is more being done by Morsayati's forces than anything Phares is having to do any grunt work for himself. And that idea is more likely Xenos!Phares' rather than something Morsayati ordered him to do; the Other just probably signed on because black mana dragons sound good for his forces.
This man just truly does not lift a finger to actually help Morsayati accomplish anything, and that's hilarious. Even funnier is that Morsayati lets him, because I have no idea why. You entrust this dude with so much power and all that, and he's barely doing anything to even pretend he's on your side.
The wildest ideas for why are 'what if Mors was aware of Xenos being the indisputably Bigger Dog in this fight and so was content to just let him be so he didn't upset the Bigger Divinity behind the curtain?' Even more crackish, this actually would somewhat clear up one of Morsayati's strange lines in Valyx's story:
He's talking to Valyx. Valyx indeed has one elder sister. Valyx, however, has two elder brothers, yet Morsayati only says 'older brother' singular. What if he already knew Phares was taken?
Truth be told that line has confused me so much. Is he referring to Phares or Leonidas??? Phares because he's physically close to the Other and thus more 'in danger' from Valyx's POV, or Leonidas as the most respectable dangerous senior??
Anyways.
Yeah.
Phares literally does nothing for Morsayati but drain him for any drop he'll give and it's great. In a narrative way, it even makes sense since Phares sics the Beren Dyson on him the second he finds it convenient, but still remains very funny. The suggestion is that Phares does what Phares wants and if Phares doesn't want to do something, it's not getting done.
