Is Fordola the monster Lyse says she is?

[Aquaslash]

I think someone had mentioned that Fordola couldn't envision a future where Zenos is defeated, and I think that's actually a very valid point. I think it was implied by her words when she was captured that she knew about Zenos having Shinyru under lock and key. That is to say, she knew that Zenos was basically withholding a nuke, and that the resistance really had zero chance of survival. Zenos had multiple opportunities to utterly wipe the resistance and everything about it clean off the map. Furthermore, he had already bested the so called slayer of gods not once, but twice! With that kind of firepower at his disposal, what's the point in defying his order to fire the cannon? He's certainly going to kill you, and fire the cannon himself anyway, further making all the sacrifices in vain. It kinda ties into an earlier point that she honestly believed that Lyse and friends had damned Ala Mhigo to destruction.

It really is truly only by both sheer dumb luck and gross incompetence that Ala Mhigo was liberated. I hope more than anything that in the inevitable posturing about how Lyse's path was "right" and how Fordola "made the wrong choices"; that their "victory" was only made possible by the WoL and no one else. They can say all they want about how they helped set the thing up, but the fact is had the WoL jobbed to Shinryu, it would have all been for nothing, and they'd have all died anyway. I feel like they won't touch on this, and that Lyse will likely go on about how her path was the right one and yada yada.

I wouldn't say Fordola's a monster yet, at least not for the cannon incident. To me she was acting under duress and a bit of self preservation (seeing as she knew she cheated death several times, and would certainly be killed for failing this last time). However, I think that she could possibly become one. I can see the redemption going horribly wrong and she becomes one out of pure spite, similar to how Ilberd lost his way. There are a number of directions this story can take, but I firmly believe that it's gonna be a downer ending no matter what.

I also believe that Ala Mhigo is gonna destroy itself via civil war, but that's for another thread

[Alleo]

But if she had known that he has such power and such a beast behind him, why should they even care that they might lose that one place to the alliance? I mean the only one that stands a change against such a beast is the WoL which Fordola probably did not know either so why taking out a part of your military when Zenos could wipe them out anyway? I mean yes we knew the reason why Zenos did not do that but did Fordola really knew it? (That he would not wipe them out completely to ensure that they will hate him even more) Also not sure if Zenos was even near the cannon so I cant believe that he would have shot it himself. Anyway in the end this might have been her death but that all falls back to the question if its still a right decision to shot because your own life is in danger or if you should die and protect others from being killed.

And I agree that its quite obvious that the only reason Ala Mhigo (and partly Doma too) was only liberated thanks to the WoL but also because of Zenos. Thus I am honestly do not feel great about that victory because it only happened thanks to them writing Zenos in such a way..it just feels to me, that the only reason he existed, was to give us a chance to liberate them and I honestly find that just bad writing. (But thats just my opinion on this)

[Kallera]

Same reason why American troops fight even with weapons that can decimate the populace wholesale, they only know they have it, the decision to use it is not theirs. Fordola cannot order Zenos to use his trick with Shinryu, now could she? But she did know he was known to decomate his opposition easily, and using Shinryu was certainly one way to decimate the opposition easily...had it been used in ANY OTHER WAY IMAGINABLE.

[Alleo]

Fordola cannot order Zenos to use his trick with Shinryu, now could she? But she did know he was known to decomate his opposition easily, and using Shinryu was certainly one way to decimate the opposition easily...had it been used in ANY OTHER WAY IMAGINABLE.

I still wonder if she even knew about his power. At least the story never showed us this so we can only assume. Also till the very end she believed that Garlemald would not lose (and they would not have if we were not there) so its still a big question why they wanted to keep that one post with all costs? And it still remains if she should just have risked her own life in exchange for the lives of all the other soldiers (and her own comrades). But that probably depends all on personal opinion. At least ingame the alliance was more than shocked by such an action.

[Daralii]

I still wonder if she even knew about his power. At least the story never showed us this so we can only assume. Also till the very end she believed that Garlemald would not lose (and they would not have if we were not there) so its still a big question why they wanted to keep that one post with all costs? And it still remains if she should just have risked her own life in exchange for the lives of all the other soldiers (and her own comrades). But that probably depends all on personal opinion. At least ingame the alliance was more than shocked by such an action.

It's probably just that Zenos wanted to see how far he could push Fordola until she broke while also wanting to keep fanning the Alliance and rebellion's hatred of him. It'd be easy enough to rationalize to the sane, since it stalled our offensive(and could have stopped it if not for Estinien) on Castrum Abania.

[Kallera]

One could probably make whole threads questioning the sanity of continually letting the fate of military offensives, nations, and even standing up for yourself, rest on whether one particular person is moved to violence for or against.

[Kallera]

As far as to whether Fordola is a monster, consider the devestation one shot did to the offensive, it killed the resistence commander and put the attackers dead to rights. 2-3 would have stopped the offensive entirely, leaving the Resistance crippled and key officers/ the WoL dead. So I'm not going to judge it too harshly, especially since:

1. It took Estinien, the most Ala Mihgan of Ala Mihgans, to show up From the plot hole he came from to stop it.

2. We're kind of a load bearing boss of Eorzean superiority/morality as it stands.

[Jandor]

Monster, not a monster, what confuses me is why she was kept alive. Hacked and slashed our way through hundreds of conscripts to get at her, why does her life matter so much?

[YianKutku]

Monster, not a monster, what confuses me is why she was kept alive. Hacked and slashed our way through hundreds of conscripts to get at her, why does her life matter so much?

Because while we kill in battle, I'm not sure we ever execute the captured.

[Draxxion]

Lyse I am afraid still fails from a hard-headedness that is going to take a long time to break. She things clearly to black and white of "us" verses "them" when we know as the hero of light and experience it is not that easy. Lyse has a lot to learn I think and needs to stop jump to conclusions or getting so angry all the time. Tge Fordola case is an indication of this. Yes she is Ala Mighan, but she was born and grew up in Garlemald controlled Ala Migho and deal with the psycho path that was Zenos, which I question at times if he too was simply the way he was due to how Garlemald operates and the experiments done on him, as well as all the "pure-blood" Garlemald generals. Anyone born in that atmosphere doesn't now any better and would go to extremes to be recognized as being a valuable asset to the Empire because if she didn't Zenos would have kilked her. We have extremely effective, or was, brain washed soldier Fordola verses very black & white, needs to grow up quickly leader Lyse.