fe-bruary, post 六: why tibarn didn't kill naesala

[queenlua]

So after the little stunt Naesala pulls in FE10, Tibarn makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he fully intends to get revenge:

Naesala: Now, now, Tibarn. I know you're angry, but we'll work it out when this is over.
Tibarn: Not a chance, Naesala. I hope you've said all your prayers and farewells. After I break every bone in your body, I'm going to rip your wings off and feed them to you before you get to die.
[...]
Tibarn: Hmph...fine. You get to live now, Naesala. Once this is done, though, you're a corpse.

And that's not just a throwaway scene. Tibarn repeats this threat a bit later (something "I'll be wearing your beak as a trophy" something, man I love his colorful threats).

But then come the end of the game, Naesala's alive and well and diplomat-ing it up. I have zero doubt that Tibarn was fully intending to kill him, and I've got a few theories on what made him change his mind, with various levels of plausibility and interesting-ness:

• Leanne talked Tibarn out of it. Probably the most obviously plausible option—Leanne is the one who pipes up on Naesala's behalf against Skrimir, and they do have their adorable paired ending with wittle babbies. Also I'm pretty sure I read a fic with this premise somewhere? Anyway, this works fine, though I think it's a little less fun than some other options just because it does seem so obvious.


• Tibarn decided against it on his own. My gut reaction to this thought was "lawlnope" —but actually, having thought about it a bit, I think it's a rather neat, plausible possibility. Even though Tibarn's a rather combative/justice-driven/etc king, he's still a king, and likely has more political savvy than what we generally see in the games. We're told at several intervals that Naesala's considered a good king (Sanaki and Dheginsea both admire him), and maybe Tibarn decides killing the ravens' beloved king would be too big of a diplomatic blow—either because of the risk of retaliation (Phoenicis may well not have the manpower to withstand a full-on Kilvan assault after the big war), or because for whatever reason he's decided that uniting the bird tribes is a higher priority. He'd be super-grudging about letting Naesala off the hook, of course, and would likely force him to abdicate the throne (though Naesala'd go along with that demand pretty willingly, I think), but it'd be cool to see Tibarn in a position where he's forced to put aside his desire for revenge in the name of the Greater Good ^TM.


• Reyson talked Tibarn out of it. Rather unlikely, but worth considering. I think it's unlikely because (a) Reyson looks up to Tibarn so much, and it seems like he'd be unlikely to go against Tibarn's wishes even if he did have some misgivings, and because (b) Naesala's stunt in FE10 directly breaks the promise he made to Reyson in FE9 ("never again enter into combat against your fellow laguz") to earn Reyson's very grudging, one-time-only forgiveness. However, it may be hard for Reyson to completely ignore their shared history/childhood/whatever (especially if you read Reyson/Naesala as a former ship), and there may be a difference between "wanting nothing to do with Naesala," "hating Naesala," etc, and "standing by and doing nothing when someone's fully intending to kill Naesala." (See: some cheesy scenario where Reyson intervenes in the middle of Tibarn beating the shit out of Naesala because like that's just kind of hard to watch okay, something something.)


• Rafiel talked Tibarn out of it. Okay this one's implausible just because there's not much Tibarn & Rafiel or Rafiel & Naesala interaction seen in the game, and thus it would seem sort of out of left field. Buuuut seeing as Naesala/+Rafiel is my latest pet cracky ship-ish thing, I actually find this one pretty compelling. Last time Rafiel saw Naesala, Naesala was the herons' beloved caretaker. Then Rafiel comes back just a couple decades later—not that long in laguz terms!—and suddenly Reyson loathes Naesala and wants him dead, Naesala's fucked up an awful lot but Rafiel's mostly seen the part where Naesala feels shitty and hasn't seen all that happened while he was gone—he's got to wonder, how the hell did we become enemies, again? I think he admires how strong Reyson's become, but I also think he might be a bit alarmed at how harsh/bloodthirsty/etc he is (it's well and good for Tibarn and Nailah to do their thing, but he may find it a bit unsettling coming from another heorn). And, presumably, Rafiel sees whatever it is Leanne sees in Naesala's soul ("Naesala suffers, too. Very, very much..."). All this may compel Rafiel to try and encourage Tibarn to be merciful—and I think Tibarn would take Rafiel's input quite seriously. I mean, it's almost like a ghost has come back—everyone thought Rafiel was dead!—and when a ghost as demure and unassuming as Rafiel comes back with just that one request? I think Tibarn'd be inclined to listen.


• Sanaki talked Tibarn out of it. Naesala explicitly tells Sanaki to stay out of it, and she seems OK with that. But she is a bit of a selfish prat; if she's decided that she likes Naesala / finds him useful / etc, she'd probably care very little about Naesala's own wishes. The problem here would be getting Tibarn to listen, because, you know, random beorc chick shouldn't butt into laguz business—but if she were so determined, she does have the weight of the largest country in the game behind her, as well as probably enough politically savvy to do the appeal indirectly. Could happen, though I probably find it the least likely of the given possibilities.

Comments

[amielleon]

Lol at option Hirohito.

This are all pretty awesome musings though. I kind of wonder if "but his death would be hard to watch" is a bit modern, but eh they're herons, it's probably pretty tough.

[rethira]

I tend to think it's probably the politics of it (after all, they're suggesting a radical new idea and the Kilvans would probably be a lot less amenable to the idea if Tibarn had just offed their king) but I also wouldn't put it past anybody to have told Tibarn that Naesala was under a blood pact.

I mean, quite a few people see Micaiah find the two pacts, and then Naesala claims one as his and tears it up, so even if Tibarn hadn't actually witnessed that - which he totally could have - there's a bunch of people who could just go and tell him. I don't imagine Naesala actually saying it himself - he has his pride - but Tibarn's an honourable type of person and he'd probably at least want to talk to Naesala about it before killing him.

[queenlua]

I think if Tibarn were to find out about the blood pact, it'd certainly give him pause—but I'm not sure if that alone could convince him to give up his vengeance. Regardless of Naesala's motivations, half of his country's still dead, something something old-school sense of justice, arguably Naesala's had it coming for a while anyway, etc.

But knowing about the blood pact combined with considering political repercussions could certainly do it.

[rosage]

I think the Sanaki and Politics options work together pretty well. Like, Tibarn had been considering the political repercussions but he didn't want to let go of revenge, Sanaki approaches him and he doesn't want to bend to her wishes but their meeting convinces him that the political repercussions really could be bad, etc. Actually, a lot of these options become more plausible if they're combined, I think (One heron trying to talk him out of it? 'Come on Reyson he's already fooled you 2423 times'. Three herons trying to talk him out of it? 'Crap.'). Also, I never considered Rafiel+Naesala before, and considering Rafiel's past with Hetzel and his reaction to that it has some interesting potential.

[queenlua]

The Sanaki and politics one probably just depends on how much you think Sanaki cares about Naesala at the end of RD, which is open to interpretation (though I kind of adore the ship so it totally works for me), and also depends on how discreetly she could get away with it—I get the feeling she'd rather Naesala not know she's the one saving his ass :P

and omg I have such irrational Rafiel+Naesala feelings at this point you have no idea