everhoping | 000 • running away

• and on running away at Tinto •

This one is a complicated segment in the third quarter of the game and because it stands to break the fundamentals of Riou's character, it deserves an explanation.

First of all, the setting of this segment are as follows: Riou agrees to help the Lampdragon Bandits of Tinto against the zombies of Neclord. This is shortly after Riou finds out that, not only is the war not ending after the defeat of Luca Blight, but now, as Leader of the Dunan Army, he must go against his best friend... who is now conveniently King of Highland. For a good chunk of the game, while Riou and Nanami know that Jowy is working for Highland, for all intents and purposes, the true enemy is Luca Blight.

With this in mind, the Peace Treaty at Jowston Hill after the defeat of Luca Blight is really a wake up call. Jowy actually prepares a firing squad for him and threatens to kill him, Nanami, and Terasa Wisemail there and then if he refused to surrender to Highland. It's at this point that Riou realizes that Jowy has turned from being just one of his enemies, someone following a greater evil, to the obstacle standing before him and peace between the City State and Highland.

It's really hard to to come to grips with, especially for someone as optimistic as Riou. It just doesn't compute why his best friend, after Luca Blight's death, wouldn't want to work with the people of the City State for peace.

Now, it's implied in that segment that Riou is only allowed to take a break from going against Highland and focusing on Neclord because it's a breather- with some perks if he succeeds in winning the favor of the Mayor of Tinto.

At this point, if Riou is jarred by the turn of events, then Nanami is even more. And this state Nanami is in really forces Riou, because Nanami is literally his only "family" left, to question what else he is in here for. When before he was fighting to end the war and live a normal life with Nanami and Jowy, where does he stand now that Jowy is literally his enemy. Then, in addition, there is that overwhelming truth that they can die in this war. If he died, what would Nanami be left with?

And he forgets and thinks that, maybe, Nanami is right: that's he's no more important than the other leaders of the Dunan Army, that there are others that can become leader easily, that he's not obligated to stay. Not really.

So he chooses to run, much like Genkaku and Han Cunningham did in the figurative sense as they sealed their runes at the shrine in Toto Village. That he would choose to run away with the knowledge that at the very of this war, he'll have to fight Jowy somehow and that the outcome may not be happy at all... it fits with their predecessors' choices. However, even with that logic, this cowardly act can't be forgiven easily as it couldn't have happened at a worst time. That very night Neclord's zombies begin their take over of the Tinto Region.

Since this part is optional in the game - you could refuse Nanami's offer to run away and wake up the next day with Tinto attacked - it's really the kind that might be better off disregarded from being part of the canon. The option to run away, and what happens afterwards, really casts a bad light on Riou's character. At the end of the day, the fact remains that in the game, the option to run away is given right before a battle with a powerful near-immortal undead being. It's a douche move then and there.

But at the same time, choosing to go through that path really adds another dimension to Riou's character. Makes him more human instead of a cut-out Tenkai. Nothing can possibly excuse that cowardly act, but it's certainly something that Riou could have learnt a lot of valuable things from... albeit at the cost of human lives. It's debateable which path cost the Tinto Region more life, since we never see/know what on earth was happening in the surrounding towns and villages if you choose not to run (and Riou is unconscious for two days in that path).

In any case, by choosing to run away in the Tinto segment of the game, Riou will have learnt the difficult side of leadership: that is, that a leader must make hard choices, choices that will benefit more people than just someone, from time to time. That not everyone can be a leader, and you can't replace a leader so easily... not when people's hopes have been placed on that one person.

That running away isn't the answer at all. This, above all, would tie-in with the dillemma Han Cunningham and Genkaku were faced with. Instead of facing the destiny tied to their runes, they sealed it and... just forgot about it. You can say that it's possible that it's through this segment Riou really learns to face the harsh reality with true optimism, rather than veiled denial.

Finally, he will have learnt that while, in the end, nobody is obligated to do anything they don't want to be a part of... you finish things. Tyr may have run away from his responsibilities after the war, but he was done with that. Running away at Tinto, and not seeing the war to the end just because his best friend is quite possibly the last boss is just not the way to do it.

Anyway, so that's that...