I guess that finally finishes the "birth of a nation" arc

But today there are more history writer than the victor, so many people outside of this war, in the Larkison Clan and of course the readers themselves can see that Ves took a moral shortcut to satisfy his greed. And that Ves isn't willing to acknowledge this, just makes me sad.

Everybody is the hero in their own story. And the victor writes history

That sounds like fun

Who wouldn't love to have a emperor like him?

Do I?

Yeah, power hungry is not the right word. I could find a word that fits what I wanted to say. But also, to make it clear. I approve how Ves uses the system. What I meant was that he tunnel visioned a lot on his prescious ore. After Ves leaved the Vulcan Empire, he thought he had only two options. Leave the ore behind or the nuklear option of destroying the vulkan empire. He didn't even consider outer more peaceful options like: Barging with the MTA for actual protection. Not probable to work, but would have cost anything to a least try. Try negotiating with the conservatives. He would be invaluable for them to make there case before the MTA and with is statues he could have helped them a lot. So he had a lot of negotiation power. But he didn't even mentioned other possible solution and went for the most extreme one because he thought that this method had the highest chance of letting him get his precious ore. Not really caring about the carnage that would inflict. That is what I mean with tunnel vision. His goal of getting the ore and with that the power that the system would give him, made him blind to the consequences of his actions. That is my interpretation at least.

I can see were you are coming from. Lately I also want to see Ves squirm a bit. But it doesn't feel satisfying for me, because I don't think he is squirming for the right reason. He is squirming for decision he made years ago, were he essential traded a starting a dwarfen freedom revolution against a rare rock and Rion's life, which was, depending on your perspective, a fair trade. What I wanted to see, is that Ves is squirming for the decision he made a few weeks ago where he kicked suffering on a sand war scale just so he can get his rare rock. Because till now he got away with making a few excuses why his actions were justified to appease his guilt. To see Ves get a big slap on the wrist for this would be really satisfying. If not that, at least I want to see that Ves realizes that this was a line that he shouldn't cross again. And a little sidenote. Something I just realized. Ves always claims that he has grown independent of the mech design system. But has he noticed how far he just went just to satisfy the systems power hunger?

I'm not really a fan of this new twist. I don't know, but it feels like it's lacking, for the loss of a better word, the impact that it should have. The ace pilot lacked any tension, since for the sake of the story a complete annihilation of the fleet wont happen. And because Rion was busy with the exposition of the twist instead of leaving the reader with sense of mystery, we didn't really got a lot of characteristion of this potentially really interesting character. The twist hasn't recontextualize any past events. The MTA still doesn't really know what really happened during the revolution, the vulcan empire is still a doomed nation which was built without the support of it's first hero's. The only change is that Rion is still alive and held a lot of power in the empire for decades and now finally decided to use it to put Ves in a pickle. Really not a fan. But let's wait to see how the rest of this twist plays out. Maybe in the end this twist will turn out better than I fear. Wouldn't be the first time that happened ^^

Enabling the rise of a possible future gid pilot is also something that is on the list

Two wrongs do not make a right

I mean ... have you ever thought about bonking anything except the head? If you want to keep its symbolism, try your right hand or your heart. Just an idea!

People need more than sugar coated words. Ves needs to show them a real victory/success to rally his people again. What worth is a victory if the losses far outweigh the gain?

That is simply not true. The vulcans didn't gave any fucks about the fact that the golden skull alliance was under MTA protection. The strongest authority in the local region. But it didn't matter because the MTA thought they aren't worth protecting if they can overcome this trial. The vulcans also wouldn't have given any fucks about a connection to any state. Any nearby second rate state nearby are just future enemies, so it doesn't matter if they are gonna piss the of. The only thing that would have prevented this engagement would have been: Not venturing in the province in the first place, or having significantly stronger military power (which maybe would have come with its own problems).

Clixies future outlook

"Everything went exactly as planned!" he said. Well, that might actually be true. But the plan was a bit flawed when you decided to create a dwarf god version of your self and linking it directly to you. Congrats Ves! You have (partially) become, what you always despised. A mighty little dwarf!

You think too much, Ves