Is Fordola the monster Lyse says she is?

[LineageRazor]

In short, Fordola is not a monster..but a terribly misguided and tragic woman. She thought she was doing what was best for her people, but she was oh so very wrong.

I agree - and for extra fun, even now, with Xenos crushed and Ala Mihgo liberated, she probably STILL doesn't think she was wrong. And, scarily, she might not be.

To be brutally frank, the Resistance probably should not have been able to take Ala Mihgo - at least not with the ease that they did. Xenos did practically nothing while the Alliance and the Resistance waltzed up to his front door - a few NPCs even comment on how strangely easy their advance was. Probably most importantly, Xenos did not call for reinforcements from the Empire. All because he WANTED us to have a chance. He WANTED us to make it to him, and give him the personal battle he so craved.

While Fordola did have ultimate confidence that Xenos would defeat us, the fact that he didn't doesn't change the fact that the Garlean Empire as a whole is scarily effective at world conquest. Xenos is no longer around to hold the Empire back from crushing its enemies. In Fordola's eyes, the fact that we "liberated" Ala Mihgo is a hopeless farce. No, in her eyes, we've DOOMED Ala Mihgo. The Empire will not be giving it a second chance or a third Viceroy. The next time they invade, they will wipe Ala Mihgo from the map. They will leave no survivors. She tried to warn us. She tried to explain the futility of our resistance. But we did not listen, and now it is too late. Fordola probably hates us now more than ever.

For this reason, I don't anticipate any repentance from Fordola. She may want revenge, but as far as she's concerned that's all that's left for her. The only way her world view is likely to change is if we conquer Garlemand outright - and if that were to ever happen even that wouldn't open her eyes to the fact that we were right. Rather, she would be shocked, and later bitter, at the fact that we'd done something that should have been impossible. Her faith in the military superiority of the Garlean Empire is resolute.

Is she a monster, though? I don't think so, but the label of monster depends a lot on perspective. She was a human being, who was dealt a bad hand, and did what she thought was her best with it. Is she a monster to Lyse? Certainly - but Lyse's perspective on how one should respond to overwhelming adversity should be taken with a grain of salt. Lyse is more the type to stand against overwhelming odds and be crushed by them - and actually had to be held back from doing exactly that a few times this expansion. It's not reasonable to expect that kind of quasi-suicidal heroism from everyone, and certainly not from the young girl Fordola was when Gaius first indoctrinated her. From that point forward, she'd been saddled with so many "lesser of two evils" choices, that making them eventually became second nature...