Building a better Alphinaud

[Raven2014]

Hell, I'm not even a huge fan of Fordola myself other than I would recruit any "realist" to balance out the idealism in the group. Estinien said the world has enough realists, but not from where I'm sitting.

There is a very common theme that used a lot in JRPG - those who can dream are the one who hold the future. It's used a lot in Japanese writing, be it light novel, mange, video game or anime. The realist vs idealist is more of a translation to make it more easy to understand in the west, but realist here is not the same as pragmatism.

Realist in this context refer to people who focus on the immediate presence, while idealist is more about having a dream rather than principled idea. That's why Estinien refer to himself as realist, as both he and Fordola only focus on the present, and that's why they both accepted and get trapped in the cycle of conflict. Realist here mean they see a conflict, and accept the only resolution is the complete annihilation of the enemy. Whether someone like Alphinauh dare to dream about an actual escape route.