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Meta Month 5 - Ashnard, Mad Genius
I didn't really give a shit about Ashnard until it was revealed that he was Soren's father. I mean, look at the guy. Is he usually the kind of character you take seriously?
But once that was revealed, I started pondering nature and nurture. Soren's not just street-smart, he is ~the most brilliant strategist on Tellius~ or something, which takes a little something innate. Almedha doesn't really display her intellect in the games -- more or less all her decisions are made emotionally, actually, so I suppose it's hard to judge -- and I'd wager to say she was probably not some kind of calculating genius.
Ashnard? He's just crazy, right?
No, I don't think it's all just crazy in there.
Let's make one thing clear: his goals.
My attention turned to the young Daein prince... I could use the fiery Ashnard for my purposes. He was ambitious, a fierce warrior, and more than anything, he had an earnest desire to change the world. When I allowed him to know of the goddess sealed inside the medallion, he became determined to set her free. - Sephiran, 4-F-4
Reyson: If the dark god is awakened, the
world will once again be flooded.
And this time, even our continent
will fall.
You will not survive that event...
Do you truly desire such an end?
Ashnard: I do. Oh, how I do...
It's true. The world may be destroyed
by the coming of the dark god. Then
again, it may not.
I question the way in which our
society is designed.
No matter what strength a person has,
it is the station he is born into that
controls his destiny.
And you cannot control where you
will be born.
Do you believe that a person of low
birth should simply endure the curse
of his station?
I think not. If you are stronger
than those around you, you
should benefit from your strength.
This is why I will use my strength
to remake this world.
Class and rank will not matter.
Human and sub-human will not matter.
The strong will possess everything.
The weak will submit to their will.
Is this not the meaning of peace?
Reyson: Are you saying that the lives of those
without strength have no value?
Ashnard: That is the natural order. The only
way for the weak to survive is to
cling to the strong.
Our discussion is over. Tell me, frail
little bird who cannot fight; which do
you choose? Submission? Or death?
- From battle convo with Reyson, PoR F (I think the majority of you are too careful to have seen this. :P)
Yes! Ashnard once told me he'd considered killing the man who created his father's blood pact instead! I didn't know why until now... This means that we could kill the senator who signed the pact instead of Pelleas!
- Almedha, 3-F
Ashnard was an instrument in Sephiran's plans, in a sense. Sephiran did not manipulate him so much as he found a willing grunt in Ashnard... a grunt who had his own ideas about what he would do once the god of the medallion was set free. Yes, in a way, Sephiran misled Ashnard about Yune, but he did nothing more than play upon the fabrication that Dheginsea had already set down. Setting Yune free really would mean the end of the world, after all -- and Ashnard is surprisingly correct in that there might be some world left.
And we see that Ashnard, a man with his own ambitions, considers killing Sephiran (assuming Sephiran provided the pact, which I think it's logical to say that he did). Perhaps so that he would be under no one's thumb. Perhaps to prevent any potential problems Sephiran could cause. He decides against it however, and there are good reasons to do so. For starters, Sephiran is a powerful force within Begnion, and as such he is a valuable coconspirator if Ashnard recognized him (which I think he did). Additionally Sephiran, who had such knowledge of the medallion, might be seen as a source for potentially more information after the god awakens.
Besides, Ashnard needed his father dead anyway.
So, that is his main goal: to set the god of chaos free, and thereby create the world of his liking. He does not give a shit about Daein as it is, nor conquering Crimea, nor eradicating laguz. In fact,
This is why I will use my strength
to remake this world.
Class and rank will not matter.
Human and sub-human will not matter.
The strong will possess everything.
The weak will submit to their will.
Is this not the meaning of peace?
... although he has the least PC mouth on the planet, he does not mind the laguz so long as they have primal strength. His complicity in Izuka's experiments was perhaps not out of sheer racism, as Izuka's was, but because of his twisted views on strength and self. After all, he fed it to Renning too.
(Note: I do not mean to argue that Ashnard is not racist. Very telling is the fact that he uses laguz as expendable tests for beorc warriors, and not the other way around. I mean to say that racism is not a driving motivation.)
His conversations with the various laguz kings can be described as, THIS FIGHT IS GOING TO BE GLORIOUS. He treats them with more respect than Jill. In fact, he has plenty in common with the laguz kings -- see his remarks on birth and station.
Which brings us to his secondary goal...
Heh heh...excellent...
Excellent! So good!
More...more, I say!
At this time of ascension,
it's not enough...not enough...
- Ashnard's death quote
... which is to have a fantastic time while this is all going down. It's practically a birthday party for a battle-loving sociopath.
Now that we know his goals, we ask,
Did he achieve them?
Secondary: Hell yes.
Main: No.
Were his methods sound?
Nasir: Ashnard needed Goldoa to get involved in his war. That's why he did
everything in his power to provoke King Dheginsea. Most of you have never
fought in a war, but even more than other laguz, the dragon tribe loses
control once they taste battle.
Kurthnaga: Oh...
Nasir: Near the end of the war, we found out that Prince Rajaion could not be
saved. I thought the king would surely go on a rampage. At the time, we had
no idea that Lady Almedha was still alive. The king thought he'd lost not
only dragon soldiers but also his children.
Ena: ...
Nasir: If the war had ended any later... Had Ike not killed Ashnard... Goldoa
would have joined the war. And we would have started killing. We would have
destroyed the Daein army, its coconspirators, everyone. We would not have
stopped until the continent was ashes. Then the spirit of chaos would have
spread across Tellius, awakening the goddess and destroying the dragon
tribe. That was the danger we faced in the Mad King's War.
- 4-F-B Base "Dragons"
Nasir certainly thinks so!
In any event, Ashnard doesn't seem to mind his death too much. He died of his sociopathic equivalent of dying from an orgasm.
Is he crazy? In a way. He's mad in the sense that he derives pleasure from what most people find reprehensible. In that his ideals are extremist.
However, when it comes to the way he went about his war, there was nothing crazy about it. He did what he did to bring about his goals, and he went about in an efficient way. The loss of Daein to Ike's band was not important to him. The uniting of the entire continent against Daein would not have been important to him -- in fact, that would have brought about his goals. I have not gone through a play-by-play of Ashnard's orders, but I think the results make it evident that his decisions were intelligent and efficient, and he always got exactly what he wanted.
If he had put off the orgasmic satisfaction of having a close match with Ike and crew, he might have even accomplished them. But the risks of that last stand was in his favor. If he wins, he gets to continue to wreak war and attempt to draw the god out of the medallion. If he loses, he would have died in the most pleasurable moment of his life.
In summary: Ashnard knew exactly what he was doing, and he made smart choices about it.
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Then again, FE could just be hand-waving all of that. Or it could be that in the senatorial class, Branded aren't terribly rare after all - more of an open secret that everyone politely ignores.
I was under the impression he just randomly showed up in Misaha's room or something, though, when he saw her, and that later he just randomly showed up in the senate. And now that I think about it, I'm assuming Ashnard grabbed the Medallion around the time of the Massacre, which I suppose isn't a given. If he found out about it later, maybe Sephiran being on the senate, and therefore being a representative of the pact, isn't as crazy as I thought it was just now.
I'm glad someone else is thinking along the same lines I was about Ashnard's character. I'm not crazy after all. Maybe. :/
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I get the impression that Lehran gave the medallion to Ashnard, especially with his comment of "It appears the medallion was too much for King Ashnard" in Ike's memory scene.
Lehran would not have been a senator at the time -- my bad for suggesting otherwise. He was made a senator and Prime Minister when Sanaki was 5, so that's only six years before PoR.
And for any aging funkiness in the span of six years: beauty cream.
I bet Valtome harasses him for his secret all the time.
EDIT: Wait, fuck it, if Lehran were only a made senator six years before PoR, and Zelgius was with him at Ike's memory scene (10 years prior), what kind of position was Lehran in when Zelgius came to him?
But then I guess that explains why they all called him "Lord Sage" - perhaps that was his wiseman get-up.