Why, Alisaie?

[Mysterysword]

So they honor him, quoting him time and again, not simply because they follow his creed but because they believe in his creed.

I am fully aware and cognizant of the fact that the Scions quote Louisoix plenty of times, and why. There is no need to bring them up when the whole reason why I mentioned Alisaie's quoting of Louisoix had nothing to do with them in the first place. But the Scions do serve as a contrast to Alisaie. The problem I have with Alisaie quoting Louisoix's words, as I said before, is because it seems like she's using Louisoix's teachings as her motivation for doing anything, whether it be helping out Emery in her Tale, or re-joining the Scions. Because I get absolutely no impression from her that anything she does is truly of her own volition, as opposed to being of opinions and ideals that she absorbed from someone she idolised. And that irritates me, because if you want to present a strong character, that's not exactly the way to write them.

The rest of the Scions, in contrast, give me no such impression. I can easily believe that they do what they do, not because "Louisoix said it was the right thing to do", but simply because they want to do it.

I find it hilarious how with Minfilia, we had a diplomatic female character who stayed out of the action because she lacked combat skills. Now, with Alisaie, we have a combat-trained female character who stays out of the action because... she lacks diplomatic skills. Can we ever win?

The reason why the poor handling of Alisaie bothers me so much is: From the new outfit, the minion, and the buildup of the 3.4 story between 3.0 to 3.3, I conclude that SE wants to present Alisaie as a main member of the supporting cast. All well and good, except why does her character development seem so out-of-focus compared to the rest of the Scions? She had an entire patch to shine and yet it just fell flat. Instead of allowing her, as a character, to shape and drive the plot, the plot just forged on ahead, with her tagging along because she's "not the girl I once was". I suppose poisoned arrow wounds come with a side of Instant Character Development(TM).

Compare to, say, Thancred. Throughout 3.1 to 3.3, he had a handful of scenes and interactions, both to the player and the WoL, but in those few scenes, managed to show off just how he'd changed as a character, and provide a solid, simple, and clear explanation for why he'd changed. But try as I may, I cannot find a clear explanation for why Alisaie has suddenly changed from the way she was back in 2.0 (and let's put aside the Coils storyline, because if her Tale is canon, then Coils seems to have affected nothing at all), to joining the Scions in 3.4.