More like Peony LIE-DEN

[sincere]

I'm not sure what to make of the Peony Gaiden. I read it and it doesn't quite jive with what I understand to be canon and/or logical, and then it doesn't help that the romantic-centric plot could've been dreamed up by a preteen girl. (Which is so strange, it's so utterly different than the intrigue and characterization at work in the Asch and Ion Gaidens.)

First, I note that it opens with a 16-year-old? Nephry and a therefore-22-year-old Peony talking about Jade, who has been missing for a while and presumed dead. Only according to this timeline -- which, while admittedly unofficial, makes sense canonically (I threw together a translation if anyone is interested) -- Jade was adopted by the Curtiss family the same year as Professor Nebilim's death... which happened when he was 12, and the following year he moved to Grand Chokmah to attend the academy there.

This implies that he was "missing" for eight years, by living in the capitol city hanging out, going to a prestigious school, collecting replica data, etc. the whole time. Uh, really? No one thought to look in Grand Chokmah in all that time? They were just looking under rocks and in garbage cans? (Unless of course he was living in the capitol city and then vanished and then turned up in the exact same place he'd vanished from.) And why didn't Nephry tell us, when she was telling Luke horror stories about her brother, that he vanished for years, during which time he did more and more horrible experiments with replicas?

Also the gaiden sort of implies that Peony becomes emperor very shortly after her marriage (at 23, which makes him 29) but it's still three years before he actually took the throne. *shrug*

Secondly, later in the storyline someone apparently calls her "Nephry Curtiss". Now, wait. The Curtiss family adopted Nephry as well as Jade? Besides the fact that this makes his vanishing e.g. being adopted for years really improbable, now I'm having some real difficulty getting my head around this. The Curtiss family adopted Jade because he was a goddamn genius; Nephry is smart, but never, ever on his level, and probably not even on Dist's level (well -- Dist is an idiot, but I'm speaking purely intellectually here) so why would they have adopted her, or her over Dist, who actually did go to the capitol with Jade and attend school with him?

And then, further disbelief. The Curtiss family adopted her -- but then left her in Keterburg for years? They didn't try to bring her to the capitol? But let's say the Curtiss family lives in Keterburg, so it makes sense that she wouldn't move. But I was under the impression that the Curtiss family was noble... which would negate the entire issue of her being unsuitable for Peony's bride. Certainly they're implied to be very wealthy, well-known, and prominent in the military. Are they the Hiltons or are they genuine aristocracy?

I don't know. Adoption is virtually never a take-all sort of deal; I assumed that Nephry was Nephry Balfour until she married. Furthermore, I assumed that the Curtiss family, being wealthy and noble, adopted Jade and then imported him to Grand Chokmah so that he could be taught to his full potential and develop replicas for the military. There's still no part of this assumption that does not make sense internally, except that the Peony Gaiden just sort of muddies up everything.

Well, for my part, I'm going to take the gist of it -- tragic romance -- and I'll bring that to my own RP as Peony. (Although man, he was kind of a dick back then. It was all very romantic, but he was still kind of a dick! I'm glad he got over himself.) But I'm definitely not taking the specifics. XD

Comments

[libekory.livejournal.com]

Re: Peony being kind of a dick in the Gaiden -- god, tell me about it. I don't think he has two words of dialogue that aren't either undisguised slightly crazy rage or self-centered whining about how unfair it all is. And the part where he opts to just throw away his country so that he can be with his girlfriend -- and she tells him he can't do that because she knows he's a kind person (based on nothing, if this is the Peony she knows) -- was really disappointing. I'd pictured it as more of a noble, unspoken sacrifice than a "I totally wanted to ditch all my responsibilities but my girlfriend talked me out of it" thing.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I mean, it's one thing to be upset when you're told that you can't marry the girl you love, okay, but -- he had this expression of animal rage, literally comparable to Arietta's fierce expression in the Ion Gaiden, when his advisor told him he couldn't marry her. I would not have been surprised if Peony had physically assaulted the poor bastard. And when he learned she was marrying someone else, he was literally physically violent, wild-eyed and teeth bared with his outrage, and he fled the castle without a second glance.

It really does seem to me like he was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from launching a revolution against his reigning council in the name of his girlfriend. He was crazy. He looked like he was equally as ready to play tyrannical ruler as he was to give up his throne. It was like obsessed!Sora only without the excuse of being brainwashed.

But I'm not especially fazed regarding my characterization of him. It seems to me like there is a clear change in personality from that shallow prince to the Emperor he became. Peony of the canon era would never try to sacrifice his throne because of a girl, in the same way that the shallow prince would never have claimed responsibility for atrocities committed by the previous regime -- the way Peony does when they have to face the music about Hod. The nobility did come... it was just later. First he had to be a shallow spoiled brat. XD

[melting.livejournal.com]

I don't like the gaiden so much, either, and I, uh, don't really take it into my characterization of Peony, either. xD ♥;;

As for the timeline, I wouldn't mind taking a look at your translated version? I guess could go in and translate it myself, but I'm just 3rdyear and I kinda suck at translating ljksdfj. MADA MADA DESU.

Anyway, uuhhh, I think I'll just.. shrug the Gaiden off and count just what I see in the actual game as canon. That's the thing to do, in my eyes. I doubt Jade would have wanted to be friends with asshole!dumbass!throwawayyourcountry!Peony, anyway, tbh. |D;;

Why didn't I hit post comment hours ago

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, why is he such a dick. D: I attribute it to callow youth and am very glad that the Peony I know in canon is awesome, and not a dick. I really agree -- it's hard to imagine someone so self-centered really making a dent on Jade. Even if he managed to convince him that fomicry was wrong, how could he

Libby made it pretty. (http://never-wake-up.net/toa_timeline.htm)