Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
Poor example. Sohr Khai was literallly not battles to the death. Explicitly stated by the moogle first boss. We also don't succeed in killing Hraesvelgr. Sure he says that he needs to fight with us seriously, but it was to make sure we could withstand the full might of a Great Wyrm. Which he clearly wasn't using, since Nidhogg is much more powerful, and Hraesvelgr had to give us one of his Eyes after proving ourselves in Sohr Khai as well.

But yes, it does make Hraesvelgr a minor antagonist. Forget not that he gave Nidhogg one of his eyes so that he could enact the Dragonsong War. This caused us to face many dragons as antagonists. Some of who would later become good and help us.
I was just pulling close examples from the same story we've been talking about. We're told to fight seriously but you're insane if you thought we were going to kill moogles or that Hraesvelgr wasn't going to stop the fight before dying. Considering we know it's a test, just like with Hydaelyn, and everyone is on the same side, Hraesvelgr is not an antagonist. I wouldn't mark him as one for giving his dying brother one of his eyes either.


Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
Also it doesn't help your case to switch from the more flexible version of antagonist in one post, and then switch to a hardline Greek tragedy definition in the next.
I didn't switch anything up. I didn't think "foe of the protagonist" needed to be clarified before because I thought it was an understandable concept, but then people took that and and suggested that anyone we fight in a battle is an antagonist.

There are some characters who actively switch their role in the story. Nero for example goes from 100% trying to stop us, to being on our team more or less, to basically being a full contributing member but pretending he's not. But we don't see the characters treat Hydaelyn any differently from ARR to the end of EW and is never maligned by anyone after the fact.