[Runty]

Originally Posted by Artilleryimbecile

Hear hear.

As a new intruder into this thread, I'm going to go ahead and first say that I don't own this game, much less a PS3.

That didn't stop me from being incredibly impressed with the presentation of this story, Valkyria Chronicles, and soon I had wasted an entire week going through EmoPrinny's playthrough. Yeah, yeah, I skipped past all the tedious combat, but I got all the story telling. And what storytelling. While the plot is rehashed, the characters are refreshing and the interactions full.

Except for one. Guess, go on, I'll wait...

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Isara's death by Newberry Medal.

Seriously? The only thing this accomplished was pushing the Empire over the moral event horizon so that you didn't feel bad in crushing Selvaria and Maximillian later in the game. (Although Selvaria was still a tear-jerker, so they obviously didn't suceed. )

The blatant attempt to dehumanize the Empire was also overblown.

It's rare that I come across with a story so well written that only has one glaring flaw, and so, I ask you folks:

What would you think of a story to continue the plotline of Isara, told from the (main) perspective of the Empire?

The story will not be a complete AU - rather, Isara will get (apparently) offed in a less "YES THAT'S RIGHT SHE'S ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NEVER GOING TO COME BACK DEAD" manner, to allow for her to pop up somewhere else. Ironically, this would most likely require an additional, new protagonist, as a Darcsen Gallian wouldn't last too long in the Empire... circumstances will mean that Isara will not have a canon-breaking reintroduction into the main plotline - but, after the war, well, that's when I can let my pen/pencil/keyboard/mentalprocessors run free.

Also, I can humanize the Empire, add in some details, connect some dots, and add in some theories that could cause some serious tension after the war...

Perhaps something like this:

Spoiler for Brainstorming, this is nuts!:

The story will begin with an Imperial child, who experiences EW1 through the letters of his parents' deathes. Both were doctors (as opposed to medics) who were operating a hospital for all, Federation or Empire, which was promptly raided by the Federation, resulting in their demises.

This child grows up to enter the medical field himself. He has various foibles that give him unease about the use of Ragnite - it seems so all powerful, best to be used universally, but he finds that Ragnite alone cannot solve all problems. He becomes analytical and adopts theories similar to Nietzsche's, that "super" people can affect the world for the better if they so choose.

As a result, he finds the Darcsen persecutions distasteful, although he does not openly go to lengths to proclaim such. Expect incidents involving the harboring of Darcsens during a hunt - and one incident where he kills a Darcsen who is quite the slimeball. (Showing that the persecuted Darcsens aren't all angelic.)

Upon the start of EW2, he is conscripted as a Trooper - but while he's a competent soldier in training, on the field, he cannot bring himself to kill in cold blood on philosophical terms - he doesn't know them, so how does he know he's not axing a man with similar ideology?

Also, he's the soldier who sees the sights of "medical attention" when the unnamed Imperial squad encounters Welkin and Alicia after they honor the wounded Imperial soldiers in the woods. This shows him that Gallia is not all evil, as claimed by the Empire's propaganda.

His medical background comes through when he gives up the rifle in favor of a field surgery kit, making him one of the first experimental field medics in the Empire. His position soon endears him to his squad, giving him a position of leadership over the whole unit despite being technically subordinate to the lieutenant.

However, as Squad 7's actions begin to turn the tide for the Gallians, he finds himself in more and more compromising situations, although never encountering Squad 7 face to face. The unit flees from the Marberry operation, taking refuge in a nearby village still under Imperial control, one with a heavy Darcsen population.

Meanwhile, the sniper (of another squad) misses Isara - and the retreating squad is immediately tracked to that same village, although with a measurable time gap. This squad is a scumbag, and our protagonist's squad finds themselves at odds with it.

Combat occurs when Squad 7 assaults the village, but soon the Imperials have taken a large portion of the town (including Darcsens) hostage, the scumbags because they want to, the protagonists because they believe they have no choice - the town is under siege now. During the standoff, Isara, Welkin, and Alicia undertake negotations inside the town center. However, said imperial Scumbags decide to cut their losses - after subduing them, the lieutenant attempts to execute them silently, upon which our protagonist takes immediate offense, draws, and shoots him.

This has the unfortunate side effect of causing the Imperials outside of the building to believe that the other has betrayed them. Upon the news that the building is going to be shelled, the commanders of Squad 7 hoof it out - but our protagonist, along with Isara, attempt to rescue the hostages while the rest flee. The building goes down first, though.

Fortunately for Isara and our protagonist, they were in the cellars, so they're alive. Unfortunately, alive is a bit optimistic as they are rapidly suffocating in smoke. Squad 7, believing Isara dead, leaves to attack the Empire forces who have in the meantime just barely spearheaded it out of there - the place is now a ghost town. A long, dramatic struggle to escape later, Isara and our protagonist are safe with the majority of the although I'm not sure whether or not I want to ship these characters now, and put in an awkward scene involving CPR and defibrillation of Isara via Ragnaid. (For those of you who don't know, defibrillation requires the removal of clothing around the chest, and rescue breathing involves lip contact. This could be either really funny or really stupid.)

And now I'm out of ideas for what should happen next.

... wow, that was longer than expected. Give me your thumbs up or down, suggestions, and I'll see what I can do.

And for god's sake, give me a NAME for this chap.

If you need help making up a name, you could try some websites that have random name generators. Here's an example:

http://www.behindthename.com/random/

Also...

Spoiler for An idea:

I once had a situation similar to yours where I ended up sneaking in a "kiss" moment into an old fanfic of mine. Maybe I can provide an idea.

You'd need to make a slight change, though, in that all the Darcsen prisoners are evacuated, but Isara and Protagonist are trapped in the building alone.

When Isara and your protagonist escape into the cellar of the town hall, the shelling ends up revealing a hidden passage that leads to an underground river. Unfortunately, the hidden route is unstable, and Isara finds this out the hard way when the ground gives way under her feet. She ends up falling into the river, which has a strong current.

The bad news? Isara can't swim (this is implied in the beach segment in the game, btw).

The good news? Your protagonist can.

Protagonist dives in, pulls Isara out of the water, and has to resuscitate her via mouth-to-mouth. Isara wakes up partway through this and, thinking Protagonist is trying to have his way with her (or something), she whacks him with her wrench.

Hope that helps you.