You know, one thing I noticed when I replayed the chapter recently is that Kari is actually flat out wrong in almost everything she tells the MC. The Alfar refused to listen to the MC when he visited, they didn't regard him as neutral, and the trade route was *significantly* more dangerous to the MC than the city in Neverwhere. The only thing Kari got right is that he could find the Alfar by following the trade route. (Technically, her advice to call the elves 'Alfar' was also valid, but it's possible to miss that bit depending on player choices.)
I hadn't really noticed this the first few times I played through the chapter, but now that I have I'm not sure what to make of it. It's not necessarily surprising that a character within a story could be mistaken, and Medb will specifically call the MC out for being so reckless in his actions. So maybe this is all an intended part of the story. But the MC never reflects on the difference between what he was promised and what actually happened, and the way Kari's advice is framed - both during her encounter and how Finnabair reacts to her name - all suggests her advice is supposed to be generally sound even if it's not perfect. But this was no small mistake, it was a fundamental misread of the whole situation.
I guess you could say Kari didn't know the MC would be taking Durendal with him on the quest, and it was Durendal that provoked such a violent response from Finnabair. But by the same token, it was only in defeating Finnabair with Durendal that the MC persuaded the Alfar to give him the time of day. Without Durendal his trip would have been at best useless and at worst fatal.
As I said, this is just something that struck me. I have no idea if this is meant to be an indication of Kari's fallibility, a sign of how rapidly relations with the Templars have deteriorated, or an unintended writing glitch. But it will be interesting to see how the MC reacts to Kari if and when they meet again.
That seems to have been the idea, but it's not very granular so the choices can get a little weird at times. To be fair, it would be very hard to simulate an in depth conversation with these kind of stakes. What we got was a very creditable effort, at least as far as the MC deciding whether or not to cut ties with his parents.
I just wish we had the chance to pivot to some questions on the Templars as a whole once it became clear the parents would never have a satisfactory explanation for their actions as parents.
That might mean something if they would just tell us what the fuck the Templars actually
do! This is the part of the conversation that drove me up a wall. It's been 3 chapters since Kaija finally browbeat the MC's mom into telling him about the Templars, and yet all we ever hear about them is platitudes. They're the self-styled shield of humanity who are supposedly on the brink of war with the Alfar and we're assured that's bad... but in practical terms we have no idea what difference the Templars make anywhere. I can't even joke that they hang around airports and get sucked up into jet engines because the one time we saw them leave their home they were dead set against hanging around!
Sure, the MC's dad is no great shakes, but did you see how well the council functioned
without him? Linnae had to break the rules to accomplish a trivial task, then insisted on resigning immediately. Meanwhile William wanted to Leroy Jenkins the Templars purely to ensure they didn't get a chance to disband, and the other two clowns couldn't decide whether that was a good call or not. However lackluster Robert is, he's still the most promising of the bunch.
