#those guidelines only exist because people were shoving their own theories and opinions AT me without it actually being a discussion

[bluerosesburnblue]

I hope you don't mind this ask, but... Any theories / speculations about the most recent story update for KHUX?

Oh, I don’t mind at all! I’m glad you asked, actually, because I’ve had some thoughts, though not many new theories of my own, unfortunately. That being said, I can definitely go over how some of my old theories and some of the fandom’s hold up and my thoughts on a few of the new theories I’ve seen floating around

One thing that I’m consistently proud of is how my old guesses about Darkness’s true nature just keep ending up almost right barring some slight details. I made the claim back when Re:Mind first came out that Darkness could be a hive mind of entities that plant bits of themselves in others, and then refined that back in July of 2020 by likening it to a parasite that worms its way into people’s hearts and incorporates itself into them to control them. This past update confirmed that the Darkness we’re fighting is one part of the hive mind that wormed its way into Ven to force him to act out, and that by doing so it detached itself from that hive mind and became incorporated into Ven’s being (which Ven can then shape). So I gotta say I’m pretty pleased about that part

All that’s left to be seen from the July post is if Darkness has a connection to Verum Rex/Quadratum, but I doubt that that will be touched on by the KHUx finale. Though I will say that it’s pretty interesting that the Master of Masters tells Darkness about “a world [he] can’t even conceive,” which seems like it could easily be referring to Quadratum, which also means that Darkness knows about it

That’s pretty much all I have to say on the Ventus/Darkness/Vanitas connection, but there’s still more to cover in this update

One thing that I’ve been trying to figure out is who the cloaked figure right at the start of the update is, Luxu or the MoM. Measuring the sizes and my old guess based on the KH3 Secret Reports both say Luxu, but this brings into question “when,” exactly, the True Dandelion scene takes place as it doesn’t have the dark haze around the edges that they give flashbacks, but is clearly the real-world set of pods as they’re not destroyed AND it’s missing the pod that Maleficent already used. The True Dandelion scene has a lot to unpack, but this scene at the start does make me wonder if Luxu and/or the Master have a way in and out of the datascape that doesn’t involve the pods, otherwise the numbers don’t add up

Also related to the post of mine I just linked is the idea that the Black Box is the datascape. I believe that this might still hold true. It’s interesting to note that they show the scene from Back Cover where Luxu is given the box in the first place just prior to the reveal that using the lifeboats to escape starts the process to seal it off and have the real Daybreak Town fall to darkness, and the Master’s “hint” to Luxu involves this very process. Why would Luxu be forbidden to open the box? Quite possibly because it contains the infected datascape meant to seal off the vast majority of the Darkness hive mind. And several Dandelions. It is both the “hope” mentioned in KH3 through those Dandelions, as well as a trap to keep Darkness out of being able to interfere for quite a long time

Now, the questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s minds are “who is the True Dandelion,” and “who are the ones who use the lifeboats?” Let’s start with the True Dandelion, as there’s far less moving pieces involved in that one

I won’t take credit for coming up with any of these options, I’m just going to discuss the logistics of them. So the candidates for the True Dandelion in, what is in my opinion, the least likely option to the most likely option, are:

Kairi: I’ve seen this one floating around and... honestly don’t believe it at all due to the sheer amount of logical contortions that you have to do to make it work. To wit:

Where the hell would she even come from if it was Kairi? As can be clearly seen with Ven, is stated to be true with Subject X, and is implied to be true of Lauriam/Elrena, those who travel to the future using the pods will regenerate their bodies at the age they were when they used the pods. Which would make Kairi at the oldest a four-year-old. Four years prior to KHUx was when Brain was told that he was a Union Leader. So she either would have been just born immediately prior to the war and was just... stolen or something? And we never saw? Or just after the war, where she would probably have to be the child of a Dandelion that got teen pregnant because they’re supposed to be both kids and the only survivors? Or Luxu and Ava’s kid somehow? Like, what? The timeline is just insane with that

If she was born before the war... you would assume that the True Dandelion would be, you know, a Dandelion. Which would mean that Ava handed a Keyblade to and recruited a literal toddler. This would also retcon Aqua being the one to accidentally pass the ability to wield a Keyblade down to Kairi and I refuse to make theories predicated on “the author will retcon this.” You just open up a huge can of worms doing that

The body wrapped in white looked a hell of a lot bigger than a four-year-old to me

I am sick to death of “this character was secretly from the Age of Fairytales~” being employed by the narrative. It’s happened at least three times already (four if you count Luxu). Enough already

Ventus: Ven has some hints, though some notable contradictions to it being him

On the one had, the sheet that the True Dandelion is wrapped in is extremely similar to the one that Xehanort wrapped him in when planning to leave him on Destiny Islands in BBS and there’s a possibility that Xehanort may have found him in that very sheet if he regenerated wearing it

On the other hand: Ventus might not have even been a Dandelion in the first place (he definitely wasn’t a Union Leader, but I don’t know if it was ever said whether he was selected as a regular Dandelion or not), and there’s the timing of the scene that I mentioned above. It’s definitely after Maleficent used her lifeboat but before anyone else used theirs (when you would expect Ven to remain with his friends) and, since the scene doesn’t have the flashback effect, it’s implied to be happening concurrently with everything else, so Ven should still be fighting Darkness in the datascape while it’s happening and eliminating him from being this particular person

Strelitzia: Oh, boy, have we got some nice old hints to Strelitzia, but still a few logical contortions, just like Ven

The white sheet is coming back up again. Namely, the fact that we still have an unexplained scene where Strelitzia appears to Lauriam in a dream wrapped in a white cloak, though it’s of a different style than the one that the True Dandelion is in. That scene also featured flower petals being blown into the wind, much like a dandelion seed (though, notably, the petals that are blown aren’t Dandelion seeds)

The question is, yet again, one of timing. How would Luxu get her body? While she was only introduced in KHUx, her scenes are all flashbacks to before the war, so we know that she was struck down in the real world, not the datascape. We see her body dissolve into light and her heart be released. Now, technically you only need a heart to time travel (actually, a heart is the only thing that can time travel), but Luxu is clearly seen putting a body into the machine. A machine that only allows for time travel because it destroys the body. If he had her heart, he wouldn’t need to use the lifeboat because she’s already in a state to time-travel on her own and this eliminates the possibility of him putting her Nobody into the machine, because without a heart it would just evaporate her body leaving... absolutely no heart to go to the future with

Now, Luxu theoretically could have grabbed her heart. We know that he was hanging around Daybreak Town at the time while observing thanks to his fight with Ava, but Strelitzia is struck down just after the fight with Ava starts so it’s very likely that Luxu was too preoccupied to retrieve her heart before it was gone. Speaking of Luxu’s fight with Ava...

Ava is my current top pick for the True Dandelion candidate due to the sheer number of questions it answers and how few it raises

Ever since KH3 came out, the question of “where the heck is Ava?” has been buzzing around as a major mystery. Her last chronological point of appearance is the same as the other Foretellers: the Keyblade War itself, where she’s shown leading her Union to battle. Notably, she seems resigned to her part in this, and this is the first and only time we see her after her battle with Luxu where he reveals to her the Master’s true plans. Melody of Memory seems to imply that the other Foretellers managed to skip to the future by going to another world, Quadratum (or at least this is the most likely explanation as there’s not enough pods to send all four of the other Foretellers AND the characters that we know end up in the future to their destination). However, Ava isn’t with them and Luxu knows what happened to her

It would be easy to write this off as them trying to drop Ava from the narrative or her not being important, but her chess piece is included in the “Eraqus and Xehanort foreshadow the next saga” chess game on the far right of the board and Nomura confirms that they represent the Master’s six apprentices, i.e. the five Foretellers + Luxu. So, Ava is necessary in the upcoming saga and yet, she didn’t get to the future the same way as any of the Master’s other apprentices leaving her open to get there via a lifeboat

Ava is the very founder of the Dandelions, who all of the others look up to and defer to and was spoken of heavily in the scene just prior to the True Dandelion reveal. That’s grounds for being called the True Dandelion if I’ve ever seen one

Luxu would very easily be able to ensure that Ava would be able to make it to the future. Just like with the Master of Masters, he already has the memories necessary for her to use to regenerate a body, and either her Keyblade or her mask would make for effective mediums that wouldn’t be too difficult for Luxu to take. If he put her in the white cloth, he probably took her mask off already

Ava hasn’t been around for the events of KHUx, so there’s no timeline discrepancies if it’s her

So, now that we have an idea of who the True Dandelion could be, let’s talk about the rest of the lifeboats and how they might fit together. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that the True Dandelion can’t be one of the Union Leaders and that their battle with Darkness is taking place at the same time as Luxu is sending off the True Dandelion. I’ll be referencing an old theory of mine, while making additions now that it’s clear that there’s two sets of lifeboats: the Data Set and the Real Set

Right now, there’s an equal number of Real Pods and Data Pods: 5 each. For the Data Pods, of the seven that we started with, one was used by Maleficent and one was damaged in the battle between Maleficent and Lauriam. As for the Real Pods, one has been used by Maleficent, and one has been used by the True Dandelion. This leaves us with five each.

We can narrow this down further by eliminating people that we know end up in the future. These are:

Ventus

Subject X, who is most likely Skuld based on her description

Lauriam

Elrena* (of note with Elrena is that we actually have no idea where the hell she is at the moment or how she’s going to get into the pods. Furthermore, while every other lifeboat user sans Maleficent has been shown to have amnesia upon waking and Lauriam/Marluxia directly indicates as such applies to him, too, in KH3, Elrena/Larxene’s KH3 scene and character file short story both indicate that she recalls Lauriam and possibly Strelitzia, though she also seems surprised at the idea that she’s part of an ancient Keyblade legacy. I won’t deny that there’s a possibility that she doesn’t use a lifeboat and ends up in the future by other means based on the discrepancies)

So with three confirmed cases, we’re left with one ambiguous case in Elrena and three more possible candidates: Ephemer, Brain, and Player. Four people, and two pods

I want to make it clear that despite what I brought up against Elrena, I do think that she’ll be using one of the lifeboats if only so that KHUx has narrative consistency. They introduced Elrena, they made her part of the investigation on Strelitzia’s whereabouts, so it only makes sense that they need to show us where she ended up for a satisfying conclusion. So let’s slot Elrena in for one of the lifeboats. That leaves one between Player, Ephemer, and Brain

My best guess is that Player won’t be using a lifeboat at all. Not only are they a create-a-character that would be a HUGE pain to try and incorporate into future entries in the series without making a “canon” version and thus ruining their appeal as an avatar, but we haven’t seen or heard mention of them at all in the games set in the present-day. There’s zero indication that they made it, which makes them the most easily eliminated as a lifeboat user

That leaves Ephemer and Brain, and I still believe that Ephemer will be the final lifeboat user, and for the same reasons as stated in the theory I linked at the start of this section. Not only does Brain have the same facial sprite as Eraqus, but he wields the Master’s Defender which will be later passed down to Eraqus and I believe that this eliminates him as a time traveler, despite the fandom’s popular opinion that it confirms it

Because I don’t believe that Brain is Eraqus’s grandfather, but rather his distant ancestor who inherited the No Name and passed down both Keyblades through the ages

So let’s resolve some plot threads taking everything I’ve stated and linked to above into account

My Big Guess for the KHUx Finale

Ventus will use the fact that Darkness is tied to his heart now to give it a physical, but still mostly amorphous form that he, the Union Leaders, and Player can finally take down. Darkness will be sealed inside Ven’s heart, where it will lie dormant until he reaches the future. Eventually, Xehanort will extract it in the form of Vanitas and it will follow Vanitas’s life cycle, ending in him being reabsorbed into Ven at the end of BBS. Darkness, now back in Ven’s heart, will make brief contact with Sora during the events of Re:Mind

Lauriam, upon learning that the world will be sealed with the use of the lifeboats, will attempt to rescue his partner, Elrena. Both will take lifeboats out of the datascape and into the future, whereupon they will be recruited into Organization XIII by Luxu’s current incarnation, Xigbar, likely to keep an eye on them. I believe there might be a squabble among Ephemer, Skuld, Brain, and Player among who will use the final lifeboats (each person nominating others besides themselves), but ultimately they will settle on Ephemer and Skuld

Skuld will wind up amnesiac in the future Radiant Garden and is discovered by Ansem the Wise and his apprentices and dubbed Subject X. She becomes Xehanort’s favorite test subject due to the similarities in their amnesia and possibly some lingering memories that he has that don’t quite belong to him (KHDR Xehanort certainly seems to want to meet his “old friends” very badly)

Ephemer’s heart will wind up in the Keyblade Graveyard as I mentioned in an old theory, unable to manifest a body due to the lack of a medium present. Through this state of being just a heart (and possibly related to those old talks about him being “unchained”), he will be able to enact the Light of the Past moment from KH3, and may very well be revived for future events in the series

This leaves Brain and Player behind in the datascape. However, you may remember one detail that I brought up, but neglected to fully expand on until now. There is a difference between the Data Pods and the Real Pods. While all of the Real Pods have been used up at the time of my proposed sequence of events, the Data Pods have not been. One was never used, only damaged. This leaves open the possibility that it can also be repaired (Also, I’m just gonna say it. Player’s met someone recently who has a magic hammer that can repair anything... might not come back but also totally could). Brain and Player could then repair the final pod and, in a callback to when Player was sent to Game Central Station, have them both agree once again that Player is the more expendable person in the scenario. Brain will take the repaired pod, leaving no way out of the datascape for anyone else, while Player stays behind to be sealed away for the time being (this could also be a callback to the original KHx, where Player also stayed behind to take part in the war instead of fleeing with the Dandelions, as they refused to leave their party behind)

When Brain escapes, however, he will be met with a Daybreak Town with no Real Pods left, as Luxu used one on the True Dandelion. Now that the seven pods have all been used up and the real Daybreak Town is falling to darkness, Luxu will take a corridor out as the Master instructed, but bring the newly appeared Brain along with him (either that or Brain emerges after Daybreak Town falls, either is possible) and bequeaths the No Name onto him. Brain, stranded in the past while all of his friends have been sent to the future, will be Luxu’s new apprentice and rebuild the fallen Daybreak Town as Scala ad Caelum, then pass down both of his Keyblades: Master’s Defender to his biological descendants, and No Name to his apprentices

As for the Master of Masters? I think he’s already taken an eighth lifeboat (you’ll note that there’s space right in the center of the cluster where one more could theoretically fit) and had done so before the start of the original KHx. He’ll be revived at some point in Xehanort’s young adult life to goad him into his insane plans as seen in Re:Mind, then duck into Quadratum to hang out until the next arc in the franchise, as hinted at with his appearance in the KH3 Secret Movie

(He is most definitely not Sora. He’s clearly bound to the same rules of time travel as everyone else which means that Sora couldn’t go back in time to become him as that would be long before the point in time where Sora was born and that breaks KH time travel rules. Not to mention that the Master talks about Quadratum in this update like he’s never seen it before until it came up in the No Name’s range of vision. Sora is literally in Quadratum right now, he’d definitely know what it was already if he was the Master)

And I do believe that should cover everyone’s whereabouts by the end of the game and into the next arc of Kingdom Hearts with minimal plot holes

This is just my best guess, putting together details that I’ve been accumulating for the past year and a half or so into what sounds like a coherent sequence of events that bridge the gap between KHUx and KH3 and beyond. There may be some details I get wrong, obviously. Nomura has been known to be... unpredictable. But I think, based on the evidence we have at hand, that this is the most logical series of events to end the game on and I’m really interested to see how close this gets to the actual finale we see

[lilietsblog]

anyway I’m just going to put this here.

Full text copy-pasted under the cut.

I've put 'tinfoil' in the title, because I find it highly implausible that I actually cracked Erratic's intent here, but... still: I can't believe it took me this long to put this together. We've had the pieces for a while now.

Bard is an utterly unscrutable entity, whose intentions, plans and opinions are as opaque as they are confusing. We do, however, know of two things that were explicitly the results of her plans, and intended ones at that:

- Second Liesse; - the formation of the League of Free Cities.

Second Liesse is an event that Bard engineered both the formation and the outcome of. She prevented the elves from killing Akua before she could implement it, and she fucked with Black's head in the Free Cities to ensure the exact thing happens as a result that, in fact, did.

(I believe there's more to her intent with Black than that, but more on that later)

The immediate direct result of Liesse happening, and ending the way it did, was... the crystallization of the idea of Liesse Accords: an utterly unprecedented pact between Good and Evil, allowing Evil's continued existence yet limiting the damage it can do to its surroundings, borne out of the unique circumstances post-Conquest and Catherine's unique position between Callow an Praes and between Good and Evil.

Except is it really? Unprecedented, that is?

Book 3 Epilogue

“Oh, that touch was probably just a drop of arsenic in the wine,” Aoede shrugged. “But I made your Name, sweetcakes. Back in the days before I knew better.”

“Prokopia Lakene was rightfully elected,” the Hierarch frowned.

“Right’s a pretty broad word, when it comes down to it,” the Bard said. “She was silvertongued like you wouldn’t believe, true, but that’s where I went wrong. The moment the tongue was gone, so was the Name.”

“The League survived her,” he said.

“The League’s skin deep,” the Bard said. “None of the forces behind moved any differently after it was formed.”

There has already been an attempt to bind Good, Evil and Neutral to work together. The League of Free Cities is a unique entity on Calernia, with polities of multiple alignments forming a single larger one ready to defend itself from outsiders and willing to all listen to one Named if such emerges.

And Bard's problem with it? It's too ineffectual for her tastes.

I believe Catherine's plan, and her currently being well on her way to achieving it, to be Bard's second attempt at doing the same thing. Oh, she'll butt heads with Catherine yet: not only does she have a knack for manipulating people into doing what she wants by positioning herself as an antagonist, but also her methods are... Catherine would much have preferred had Liesse not happened at all, and all that. That's going to be interesting to see.

I'm aware this theory has a lot of questionable points, and I'm going to address those one by one.

Q: Isn't Bard "the sound of lash in the dark"? Didn't Hierarch say that?

A: He did, and I'm utterly unsurprised at that. We know Bard has extremely mixed allegiances and extremely questionable methods. This is some of her chickens coming home to roost, and the universe finding a way to turn the whole free will thing against her as it has against every single other player at the table. It doesn't mean she doesn't have good intentions; Anaxares isn't exactly a paragon of clear thinking and infallible reason, god bless him and his sleeping hole.

Q: What makes you think Bard has the free will to do things like this? Isn't she a servant of Above and Below at the same time, and thus twice as bound as every other Named?

A: First of all, see: League of Free Cities. That's not my theory that she made that, that's canon text. Second, Above and Below are fairly hands off with their representatives, as we've seen. They apply tentative pushes - Above's moral guidelines, Below's propensity for strife - to prevent their Named from actually promoting the philosophy of the other side (though Catherine manages to anyway, god bless her), but don't interfere much beyond that. Choirs are distinct from Gods Above and fairly independent, or Neshamah wouldn't have said Bard's the closest to those, considering Heroes of Mercy are known to get literal constant whispers from Ophanim in their ears. Meanwhile Bard serves both Above and Below, and so doesn't even have those limitations. We've seen enough of her POV to know that while she chafes at her external restraints, all her will and saltiness are her own. Having to run errands for Above and Below doesn't preclude her ability to do shit on her own, she is a Named for a reason after all. They're known for pulling off the impossible.

Q: So what the fuck do you think is up with her and Black?

A: I believe a large part of Bard's current plan is to push Team Practical Evil away from the "Evil" part. She can't flip Cat, but she can with a bit of effort flip Black - he's too efficient a servant of Below to be allowed to continue to be such, and pulling him over to the side of Good will not only help right the balance - which has recently been skewed in Below's favor so badly heroes are going for "let it go all the way and wait for the inevitable backlash" as a strategy - but also help cement the alliance/cooperation, given that he and Cat are going to keep being the same side in this regardless of what their Names are.

This hypothesis explains a lot of Bard's seemingly random alignment/attitude flips by binding them together as parts of a fairly specific plan.

Villainous Interlude: Calamity III

“I’d say sorry, but you brought this down on yourself,” the Bard said. “I could probably destroy you in full, big guy, but that would take time. And effort. So I’m going to give you advice, instead.”

The Wandering Bard leapt down from the rooftop, half-falling. She came close, kneeling at his side.

“Go home,” she said. “Murder your little friend in the Tower and reign until someone puts a knife in your back. You’re not as good at this game as you thought you were.”

Hatred, Amadeus thought, was pointless. A bias that brought no benefit. And yet.

“But you won’t, will you?” the other Named sighed. “You don’t negotiate.”

She rose back to her feet, brushing away walnut shards.

“I doubt we’ll meet again,” she said. “And fucking Kairos slipped one by me, so I’ll have my hands full.”

The Wandering Bard looked down at him, shoving her hands in her pockets.

“This one feels like a sin, doesn’t it?” she mused. “Remember that, when the gears start turning.”

Giving "advice" to him to be more evil, that he's now even less likely to follow than before just because she said that, then planting the suggestion for him to be more aware of the concept of "sin" and allow it to influence more of his thinking?

Yeah. Yeah, that's planting the seeds not just for his reaction to Liesse, but also for further alignment drift down the line.

Book 4 Epilogue

“Catherine got herself killed again,” the Bard casually said. “And let me tell you, now that was a show. You don’t often see that calibre of foolishness slugging it out no holds barred.”

His fingers tightened. Breathe in, breathe out. Control. The moment he lost control, the creature would make use of him for whatever purpose she needed. It might be time to consider smashing his head into the ground until he fell unconscious.

“It’s fascinating, watching you take that paternal feeling by the throat and just…” Marguerite snapped her fingers, “There goes the neck. Back into the box it goes.”

This comment of Bard's is not exactly accurate. What part of "okay, I don't know for sure that she's telling the truth, nor do I think it necessarily means Catherine isn't okay even if she is, but I'm -this- close to just smashing my head against the rock until I fall unconscious again and miss my one chance to escape, just because of how much emotion hearing this is making me feel" is "taking paternal feeling by the throat and snapping the neck"?

But it's influence. It pushes Overton's window, subtly nudges Amadeus's own frame of reference - towards being more emotional, away from the cold rationality of gears.

And it's entirely in line with what she said last time they met, when you look at the direction it pushes him in and not what she literally said.

And, y'know...

“Claimant,” the Wandering Bard said. “You can have your second shot at it, you’re owed that. But if you really want it?”

She drank deep, then wiped her mouth.

“Well, there’s always a price isn’t there?” she shrugged. “So tell me, Amadeus of the Green Stretch…”

She smiled, crooked and wide under moonlight.

“What do you think is right?” she asked.

She leaned forward.

“How far are you willing to go, to see it done?”

I don't think the "it" that he is owed a second shot at and the "it" that she's hinting he might really want are the same "it", considering the "but" there.

And she's being vague about it for the exact reason she was giving bullshit advice the previous time: Amadeus is likely to do opposite things just to spite her, so let him figure out what he actually wants himself. That's more reliable.

Q: Why do you think Above and Below would allow this? Don't they want the game to continue as it is?

A: Actually, the main reason for us thinking that they wouldn't is Bard's speech to William about preferring Heiress's victory to Squire's any day. Considering how that one went... not exactly a reliable source of information. That entire premise might be wrong.

And whatever their private opinions on how the game should go, I think Above and Below would allow whatever the fuck. Below has spared Black's life as payment for his service, and he's literally devoted his life to making Praes less Evil. Above has Laurence de fucking Montfort and the precious Rafaella. They give general guidelines, have rules about how they themselves intervene, and beyond that allow mortals to do whatever they feel like doing. They're the ones settling the wager of Fate, after all.

Q: But what about the whole free will thing? Doesn't Bard being the ultimate mastermind behind Catherine's actions kind of undermine her as a protagonist?

A: Nah.

Bard's more strictly limited than any other Named. Unlike the rest, she can't make things happen just by wishing so, she's limited by others' agency. There's a reason it took so long between the formation of the League and now: Bard needed a possibility, first, Named who could be influenced to do what she wants. Black's plan to marry Praes and Callow gave her an opening she couldn't make herself, and Catherine was one failed Name transition away from coming up with the Accords - those things matter on their own, and they're not Bard's doing, they're what she needs. That's ultimately the essence of her limitation: she can only shove around things that were already plausibly likely to happen thanks to other players at the table. Catherine's far more potent than her, in terms of agency, and Bard's more a backdrop she acts in front of than anything.

Q: What about "eat the baby"? What the fuck does that even mean, anyway?

A: One of two things, I think.

Either Bard and Neshamah are close buddies who understand each other well and are genuinely straightforward with each other, in which case Bard is giving him advice that he can pretty much go all out here while still remaining a side dish, plot-wise, to the main course of the alliance being eventually gathered to push him back into Keter. He's going to gain more than he loses, and then go back in his bottle, which was inevitable anyway.

Or their friendliness is surface deep, and Bard's giving him "advice" to overextend himself and actually expose himself to being genuinely vanquished by plot backlash on a permanent basis. Which Neshamah would catch and absolutely not do, which Bard would know and have as the actual planned for outcome anyway. Making the whole exchange pointless, so y'know, I favor that first interpretation.

Either way, Bard's advice changes little about the fact that Neshamah coming out is the very reason the Accords have a chance of working. He's the leverage Cat can use to twist everyone else's arm into agreeing to them, and as it always is with Guide and characters in it getting lucky breaks, No Coincidences Were Involved (tm).

Q: What about William? Didn't he want him to beat Catherine?

A: First of all, plans can change. Catherine pre-First Liesse and Catherine pre-Second Liesse are two very different Catherines. Bard thinks on her feet, and the idea could have occured to her after seeing Catherine's "save the city from the devils, then get myself killed for the trouble, then say fuck you to that and get myself resurrected via a heroic story" stunt.

Second, she sentimentally hoped William could survive despite knowing for a fact he wouldn't, because Contrition sucks. That's not the same thing as counting on it as a plan :x

In conclusion, this is going to be fun.

P.S. Found another quote I'd been looking for.

“Seven battles I won on my feet, and lost the war sitting at a table.” – Periander Theodosian, Tyrant of Helike, after the founding of the League of Free Cities

(Book 4 Chapter 18 "Cradle")

P.P.S. I nearly missed this myself, but Bard's Free Cities comment that Amadeus should usurp Malicia and reign as a Dread Emperor himself, followed by a surge of hatred in him? Yeah, that pretty much seals the deal that he's not going to go for Dread Emperor. Even if it's the rational thing to do, Bard has ensured that every single scrap of irrationality he has in him is going to rebel against that, and also incidentally that those scraps are going to have a lot more influence on his actions than they otherwise might have. No Dread Emperor Amadeus in this timeline.