Dracologist Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 I ended up playing Radiant Dawn before Path of Radiance because I was 12 when I started playing, so I wasn't allowed to play T rated games at the time. I was so used to nations being presented as monolithic forces of good and evil in fiction that I had just assumed that to the case here. Begnion was evil, Daein was good, and that was just how things were. Imagine my surprise then when characters in later parts began to mention Mad King Ashnard. Suddenly, Daein wasn't just a good kingdom being subjugated by and evil empire for no reason. They had started the war that ended with their subjugation and they had started it for no other reason than a lust for power. Daein wasn't inherently good. I adjusted my neat little boxes of good and evil so that Begnion was the evil empire and Daein was the kingdom of good people that were being punished for the evil king they used to have. This was far more nuanced than just about anything my now 13 year old mind had encountered, but still very neat and simple. Then I saw Sanaki for the first time. This completely shattered the neat little boxes I had everything in. Not only was the empress of Begnion not evil, she was a 13 year old girl just like me. Begnion wasn't evil. As the rest of the game showed me the growing war from the perspectives of the different nations, I gave up on trying to decide who the good guys and bad guys were. It clearly couldn't be categorized so neatly. Everyone had their own reasons for fighting against each other and none of them were evil. It was just a clash of nations with their own interests. This was the first time I'd ever seen war presented as a clash of nations with no clear good guys and bad guys and it gave me a new perspective on real life history. Sure my history book says America was the good guys and whoever we were fighting were the bad guys, but doesn't everyone think they're the good guys? What about the other countries? Didn't they also think they were the good guys? What were they fighting for? TL;DR This game taught me that war is a clash of national interests, not a fight of good and evil. Anyways, I just felt like sharing my thoughts and memories from when I first played this. Do you guys have any memories from this game that have stuck with you over the years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver-Haired Maiden Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 It's amazing to me how so many people refuse to adjust those "good" and "evil" boxes, especially when it comes to things like media. I also find it odd that many people seem to blame the country as a whole for actions their leaders took that they likely knew nothing about. It's been a long time since I first played the game, but something that's stuck with me through all my playthroughs is that there's always someone bigger and badder than you, no matter how big and bad you may think you are xD Also I failed to recruit Haar on my first playthrough. I thought he would join in on his own. So I lost one of the most OP units in the game. Yay..... lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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