Bozja: enjoyable lore, a GREAT start...

[Iscah]

IWhat The Queen does is a more radical alteration than any transformation we've seen thus far: the Blades aren't even remotely recognizable and their souls are merged.

Nitpick: their bodies are merged but their souls seem to be separate and switching around which one of them is in control.

But I agree, it feels too far beyond what we've seen tempering do in other cases. This isn't just individuals being warped from human(ish) form into monsters, or even somehow getting entwined into one monstrosity with the three people tangled together, but completely merged into one new form. It isn't satisfactorily explained or foreshadowed by previous cases of tempering.

[Cleretic]

I agree Misija is spiteful and hateful - which is why it makes no sense that she didn't temper Bajsaljien and Marsak right away, which wrecks the consistency in-story.

She tried. We stopped her. Also, her first angle was more of a poetic justice thing; temper Gunnhildr's Blades to make them what she feels they're meant to be, which is 'servants of Gunnhildr'. Bajsaljen and Marsak were priority two (possibly also because they aren't as capable in combat), and yes, it probably would've been smarter to just swing at them first, but again: she's not smart. (Also while I'm not about to check the cutscene, I'm pretty sure B&M were behind the Blades, so there's a few people in the way.)

Lyon is technically her commander, but remember that Lyon is also not a perfect rational actor. He clearly keeps Misija on a loose leash and thinks she can handle herself, and is also clearly someone who thinks what Misija's pulling is, in short, cool as hell--he does not disapprove, even if he recognizes it's shady. He wouldn't have told her not to do that because he thought that it was a good idea, he recognizes fear tactics and that she's pretty capable; really, his only mistake was thinking she'd win. But even then, he's also someone who believes in acceptable losses; if Misija falls while achieving something, even if that thing is just buying time for the Dalriada to turn up, then that itself is acceptable.

Ironically, it feels like your disagreement about Misija turning the Blades into perfect robots is because you want different characters to be different kinds of perfect robot. A lot of what you're saying is... well, correct, they are doing things that make no logical sense and making mistakes that they could've easily just not made. that's the point; they're not perfect, they're not geniuses, they made mistakes.

[HaveAltWillFun]

Nitpick: their bodies are merged but their souls seem to be separate and switching around which one of them is in control.

Ah, I misinterpreted that or mis-remembered someone saying they were merged into one soul.

She tried. We stopped her. Also, her first angle was more of a poetic justice thing; temper Gunnhildr's Blades to make them what she feels they're meant to be, which is 'servants of Gunnhildr'. Bajsaljen and Marsak were priority two (possibly also because they aren't as capable in combat), and yes, it probably would've been smarter to just swing at them first, but again: she's not smart. (Also while I'm not about to check the cutscene, I'm pretty sure B&M were behind the Blades, so there's a few people in the way.)

Lyon is technically her commander, but remember that Lyon is also not a perfect rational actor... he recognizes fear tactics and that she's pretty capable; really, his only mistake was thinking she'd win...

Ironically, it feels like your disagreement about Misija turning the Blades into perfect robots is because you want different characters to be different kinds of perfect robot. A lot of what you're saying is... well, correct, they are doing things that make no logical sense and making mistakes that they could've easily just not made. that's the point; they're not perfect, they're not geniuses, they made mistakes.

Bajsaljen and Marsak are part of the Blades - they're wielding the reforged weapons, they're the commanders of the unit.
As for the positioning - the same point could be raised for the Blades themselves: they're in a staggered formation, so some of them are behind the others - Bajsaljen and Marsak are no more protected from The Queen than about half the Blades are, from what I can tell (also, the tempering blades are guided, they don't fly in straight lines).
I did have to check the cutscene, because you raised a good point that I couldn't recall precisely, Cleretic.

As for rational actors and perfect robots... as we have seen, both in-game and in lore Garlean soldiers obey orders from superiors even if they don't want to (Julles being a recent example). That is how the Empire tends to employ their troops, as robots. But even so, considering Noah's plans for Bajsaljen to take up his cause, Misija's attempt to or success at tempering him because of her prettiness and spite would be an enormous mistake and would fit because she wouldn't necessarily care about how capable Bajsaljen and Marsak are in combat. The use of fear tactics can be better employed by having the Blades themselves do the attacking, not unknown abominations - which Lyon would probably recognize, rational or no, because it's one of the oldest military tactics around. I don't expect geniuses, but consistency of character is important.

[Cleretic]

Oh, but we did recognize them; we recognized EXACTLY what they did, and it genuinely upset at least Mikoto. By all appearances, the fear tactics worked, they just didn't work well enough. But again, you're falling into the same mistake: you're declaring that they could have done better, rather than that they would have. I think they're perfectly consistent, it's just that every member of the IVth Legion is consistently flawed. Misija would've transformed them because it makes them 'better' while also being pretty horrifying, and Lyon would've let her because he broadly approves and kept her on a loose enough leash that he wouldn't have been around for that decision anyway.

Also, Bajsaljen and Marsak actually aren't in Gunnhildr's Blades! The Blades were a small group of the Resistance, basically elected entirely for political reasons. Bajsaljen is the leader of the Bozjan Resistance as a whole, but not a member of the Blades, and Marsak is his right-hand man. They also don't wield the resistance weapons themselves (which would for their respective jobs have been Ingrimm and Crownsblade). Apparently, their weapons are actually custom models we don't get at all, but I believe there's 'close enough's. The Blades themselves don't appear to have an internal leader, probably because a lot of them were solo fighters, but the most capable of them at leading would probably have been Adis, who was a commander before being tempered and became the Queen's Knight (the PLD among the Queen's Guard).

[RyuDragnier]

Also, Bajsaljen and Marsak actually aren't in Gunnhildr's Blades! The Blades were a small group of the Resistance, basically elected entirely for political reasons. Bajsaljen is the leader of the Bozjan Resistance as a whole, but not a member of the Blades, and Marsak is his right-hand man. They also don't wield the resistance weapons themselves (which would for their respective jobs have been Ingrimm and Crownsblade). Apparently, their weapons are actually custom models we don't get at all, but I believe there's 'close enough's. The Blades themselves don't appear to have an internal leader, probably because a lot of them were solo fighters, but the most capable of them at leading would probably have been Adis, who was a commander before being tempered and became the Queen's Knight (the PLD among the Queen's Guard).

To add to this, there are exactly 12 Blades (13 technically if you include our character). 10 were transformed into the bosses of Delebrum. The remaining 2? Lovro, and his apprentice Meryall, the only 2 survivors.

[Iscah]

They also don't wield the resistance weapons themselves (which would for their respective jobs have been Ingrimm and Crownsblade). Apparently, their weapons are actually custom models we don't get at all, but I believe there's 'close enough's.

I'm not sure about gunblades, but Bajsaljen's staff just seems to be the Prester from Sohm Al. I haven't compared pictures directly but I don't think they'd changed the colour scheme or anything. Seems a bit strange for them to need custom models.

To add to this, there are exactly 12 Blades (13 technically if you include our character). 10 were transformed into the bosses of Delebrum. The remaining 2? Lovro, and his apprentice Meryall, the only 2 survivors.

Where do you get that number from? If you're just arriving at it by counting how many characters we are aware of, then of course your total can be "all accounted for" because you haven't allowed for any characters that we didn't directly meet.

I would expect the total number to match the total number of weapons, at least.

[RyuDragnier]

Where do you get that number from? If you're just arriving at it by counting how many characters we are aware of, then of course your total can be "all accounted for" because you haven't allowed for any characters that we didn't directly meet.

I would expect the total number to match the total number of weapons, at least.

Meryall's field record specifically says she was the only Blade not Tempered.

When the Resistance stormed Castrum Lacus Litore, a detachment was tasked with cutting off the imperials' Dalmascan supply line by means of a surprise attack at the port city of Kralja. This joint mission was headed by Meryall of Gunnhildr's Blades. With calmness and composure well beyond her years, she led the operation to a rousing success. And it was because of this mission that she is the only of Gunnhildr's Blades who escaped the influence of Queen Gunnhildr.

We've only seen 11 Tempered Blades. 10 of whom we fought and killed in Delebrum, and the last we successfully saved in Zadnor during a Critical Engagement.

[Iscah]

Meryall's field record specifically says she was the only Blade not Tempered.

When the Resistance stormed Castrum Lacus Litore, a detachment was tasked with cutting off the imperials' Dalmascan supply line by means of a surprise attack at the port city of Kralja. This joint mission was headed by Meryall of Gunnhildr's Blades. With calmness and composure well beyond her years, she led the operation to a rousing success. And it was because of this mission that she is the only of Gunnhildr's Blades who escaped the influence of Queen Gunnhildr.

We've only seen 11 Tempered Blades. 10 of whom we fought and killed in Delebrum, and the last we successfully saved in Zadnor during a Critical Engagement.

That still doesn't tell us that twelve was the total number. There could have been additional members captured and/or tempered off-screen - not that it really matters in the end, but I still wouldn't definitively say there are only twelve altogether.

[Cleretic]

I'm not sure about gunblades, but Bajsaljen's staff just seems to be the Prester from Sohm Al. I haven't compared pictures directly but I don't think they'd changed the colour scheme or anything. Seems a bit strange for them to need custom models.

Specifically I got that from checking Garland Tools; if something's not attainable, they list it as 'Custom'. But that's any level of custom, so they wouldn't be able to recognize it if it were, say, an existing model but textured differently, which I think is what happened here.

Marsak's weapon actually looks to be a mashup of the Molybdenum and Nabaath gunblades, which share the same model but different textures; one has a dark blade but colored hilt, the other a dark hilt but a colored blade. Marsak looks to have a version with both a dark hilt and blade. Bajsaljen's Prester I can't really tell, but that might be because all my footage of Bajsaljen with his staff is pretty low-light.

EDIT: Cross-referencing with Gamerescape, it looks like Garland Tools might be getting confused by these two having a weird situation of having weapons but their default appearance not having one, because Gamerescape just lists Prester and the Molybdenum Gunblade. Regardless, neither of them are wielding any of the resistance weapons!

[Iscah]

Cross-referencing with Gamerescape, it looks like Garland Tools might be getting confused by these two having a weird situation of having weapons but their default appearance not having one, because Gamerescape just lists Prester and the Molybdenum Gunblade.

Good point on that, which made me think to check the "alternate instances" tab for the characters.

So it seems that this version of Bajsaljen for example does simply have Prester equipped, and Marsak has the Molybdenum Gunblade.

I'm not sure why they have custom weapons and offhand weapons in the other scenes, though; NPCs without weapons normally just don't have one equipped. Perhaps these characters are still set up as battle NPCs even in non-battle scenes where they don't have weapons visible, but the system needs something in the slot?