Best thing from Zadnor

[Y2K21]

Because instead of everybody asking "Why didn't anybody hunt him down before now!?" when he shows back up again, it gives us a reason ahead of time...everybody thought the man was dead. It's future proofing the storyline, and also allows them to integrate him into the story without us even knowing its him.

...that actually makes no sense since you can do this without killing/"faking his death" storyline, since it was already believed that he had no loyalty to the falling Garlemand and was going his own way. That was the entire point of the high loyalty thing because he had his own ideals for the IVth Legion.

Why make the story so convoluted with the freedom of Dalmasca, the dissolution of the IVth, faking his death, and Lyon betraying him all in a side-lore Field Note IF you are just going to use him later? Especially since this all happens off screen with no real story-timing at all.

[RyuDragnier]

...that actually makes no sense since you can do this without killing/"faking his death" storyline, since it was already believed that he had no loyalty to the falling Garlemand and was going his own way. That was the entire point of the high loyalty thing because he had his own ideals for the IVth Legion.

Why make the story so convoluted with the freedom of Dalmasca, the dissolution of the IVth, faking his death, and Lyon betraying him all in a side-lore Field Note IF you are just going to use him later? Especially since this all happens off screen with no real story-timing at all.

Because as he saw with the Bozjan Resistance, their leader was somebody who believed in the same ideals Noah had but was willing to take another path, and just took out the Dalriada so Bozja was a lost cause. He needed Bozja initially just to take Dalmasca, which was now going to be sandwiched between Doma and Bozja, leading to an easily lost fight (you can't easily defend in a war on all sides). Him and his entire Legion were going to be slaughtered, and any lives lost were going to be pointless here, Noah was likely aware. Faking his death results in the IVth Legion having no chain of command, effectively handing over Dalmasca to the Resistance with little effort and limiting casualties.

If what Menenius suspected in his Part II field notes was true, Noah likely has somebody high up in the Dalmascan Resistance who can help steer the country towards his ideals from the inside, and with the Bozjan Resistance leader also talking to the leaders of Dalmasca, that becomes almost a certainty, so Noah doesn't have to personally be there for it. Lyon looking like he betrayed Noah makes it so no Legion members will follow Lyon, who likely knows exactly where Noah actually is, and he can lead any people after him far away from Noah. Noah as we've seen up to now is a master manipulator, so this convoluted plot is something you'd expect from him, because he has effectively won his war if both countries strive towards their people being equal. The only uncertainty is if Noah can beat his current illness or postpone his death long enough to come back onto the world's stage.