Ran'ji > WoD + Oracle of Light + Scorn!?

[YianKutku]

No one is arguing that Ran'jit is in the right, or that his actions were reasonable - and certainly not noble or honorable. He was a broken man, beaten down by fighting an unwinnable war. He could have seen any number of hope spots, times that it seemed like the resistance was making progress against the Sin Eaters, only to have it all fall apart. Minfillia was their best weapon, and they fielded her time and again, and each time her life bought time, and nothing more. Defeat was inevitable. Hope was impossible. Resistance was nothing more than self-torture.

Ran'jit had no reason to expect that some miraculous hero would arise capable of doing the impossible - and when one DID, he'd already fully partaken of Vauthry's kool-aid. In between childish tantrums, Vauthry DID have some seemingly compelling arguments regarding the hopelessness of it all - that even through some miraculous victory against the Sin Eaters, the few remaining humans would destroy themselves fighting over the few scraps of the world that remained. It's a pretty cup-half-empty view of humanity, but for someone looking for any excuse to finally stop fighting, the words would have been honeyed, indeed.

Resistance is too painful. Let us rest, and enjoy what little time we have left. Hope will always be crushed, so abandon it. After a century of fighting, this is what Ran'jit was reduced to. There are other, better men who have endured as much and more - the Crystal Exarch being a stellar example, who never lost hope in spite of losing everything and having fought just as long if not longer - but I feel that Ran'jit is a man to be pitied, not hated.

As mentioned, the issue isn't just that Ran'jit has given up hope. It's that he actively goes out and crushes hope from people who still had it. He certainly didn't "rest"; he was very much busy leading his army and invading other lands to subjugate them and make sure they submitted to Vauthry. The expedition into Il Mheg might be justified in his mind by his chasing after Ryne, but the alliance with the Everlasting Dark in Rak'tika was an obvious power grab.

Magnus from Twine is an example of a broken man who has given up hope. Ran'jit is, at best, lashing out and believing that if he cannot have hope, then nobody can. That is why I personally believe he is a character to be hated, rather than merely pitied.

[LineageRazor]

As mentioned, the issue isn't just that Ran'jit has given up hope. It's that he actively goes out and crushes hope from people who still had it. He certainly didn't "rest"; he was very much busy leading his army and invading other lands to subjugate them and make sure they submitted to Vauthry. The expedition into Il Mheg might be justified in his mind by his chasing after Ryne, but the alliance with the Everlasting Dark in Rak'tika was an obvious power grab.

Magnus from Twine is an example of a broken man who has given up hope. Ran'jit is, at best, lashing out and believing that if he cannot have hope, then nobody can. That is why I personally believe he is a character to be hated, rather than merely pitied.

There's no evidence that Ran'jit was invading other countries until the Scions - and most specifically, the Warrior of Darkness - started stirring up trouble. Remember, the whole reason Alphinaud was investigating Eulmore was because no one knew anything ABOUT Eulmore; what its policies were, what its leader was like - all they knew is that a once-great ally had holed itself up in its castle and stopped talking to anyone. Once we actually got inside, in fact, dialog in Eulmore suggests that the army had been placed on the back burner ever since Vauthry took the throne, since they were no longer being used to engage the Sin Eaters. He and the army WAS resting - up until the point where we actually took down a Lightwarden.

THAT was when Ran'jit came out of retirement, when the peaceful, quiet end he was yearning for was placed in jeopardy. That was when the army was brought back into action and mobilized. That was the point at which he made his move to recover Minfilia, and to make efforts to protect the remaining Lightwardens - the latter, of course, was the main reason for his move in Rak'tika, not Minfilia. Remember, in his mind, defeating the Sin Eaters would NOT spare the world from doom - in fact, it would just make things worse, as the remnants of humanity tore themselves to pieces fighting each other as resources dwindled. Crushing hope WAS one of his goals, at that point - but entirely because it was a FALSE hope, doing more harm than good, setting the survivors of the world up for a painful end rather than a peaceful one.

Ultimately, as Riastrad implies, it's a matter of opinion; we'll have to agree to disagree. I think there's plenty of room for a "tragically broken old man" interpretation for Ran'jit.