you aren't supposed to feel bad for quintus this is true but you are "supposed to" feel sorrow for the tragedy of his death if that makes sense. His death meant a complete loss of the hope that his little crew in the station had in the things that had kept them going (their belief in the fact garlemald will rise and be great again and etc.) until now, and then their only choice becomes to surrender to the hope the alliance...provides ig. this is all throughout the garly arc where no they don't ask you to feel "bad" (minus the part with the "omg innocent young pure girls DIED alone and cold in the snow") for a person rather but for the entire tragedy of it. but unfortunately I won't stop here because I'm a garly arc hater and it's le long post time

it is a tragedy that garlemald was indoctrinated, it is a tragedy that they conquered and killed under the tragic banner of the superiority the ascians convinced them of, it is a tragedy that everything sucks basically! Just like how it is a tragedy when a man beats his wife and dies in a ditch, or when a serial killer commits suicide in prison: it's about the sorrow and horror of the amalgamation of circumstances which lead up to it. it's inane and nothing good happened, everyone walked away with a loss. which is where the whole line gets blurred and the differences pop up. because you've made a statement that ok this thing is tragic and terrible, but then what does this narrative argue?

some people think they handled it with genius and nuance, and that the story isn't arguing anything at all, it's just saying and only has to say: damn, look at the tragedy! this is so sad! what an ugly end for a terrible, unfortunate, warped nation! there is no glory! Now we just have to think of The Human People. (It does say this.) Some people think it does argue this: the snake will always eat its own tail and etc., all imperial warmongers are doomed to self destruction and bitter ends, with the pointless deaths of both the powerful and the powerless (it does argue this). and some people think it comes off as cheap and heavyhanded because of what it asks you as the person to invest in towards this narrative about imperialism & fascism. which is. You are wrong for violent resistance (because now you suddenly have nothing to resist, because there's an evil wizard tower), you are narrow-minded not to consider that YOU are a threat and perhaps the original threat that drove these imperialists to subjugate your people (lol the whole "defensive imperialism" thing that is just taken at face value by most the com), you have to consider perhaps we are not to blame because this is just how we are taught and ideology is as born-into and out of our control as race, if you were truly compassionate and good of heart you would be a hero for these people as well. Be the bigger person, turn the other cheek...it hands us a sort of power that says "now YOU wield the axe to this scattered mass of helpless people, so use it to do THE RIGHT THING": and this right thing is, chasing these people down, making it our responsibility to enforce our goodness and hope to these people no matter what. To exemplify your own good, your character and you by proxy have to experience a ton of weird video game racism and then rise above it. prove you are not a savage. We'll show you people killing themselves, making strange rape-analogous insinuations towards you, starving, dying; we've always watered down the suffering of the provinces but here we'll show you as much as we can within the rating to REALLY drive it home that this is THE ULTIMATE tragedy. Don't leave them to the tragedy of their fate.

ok. but maybe to some people they don't believe in the need to prove themselves as good, civilized, and respectable to people who hate them. and maybe there actually is justice in leaving those who insist on continuing down the path of this tragedy to their ultimate end. (no this is not "we go out there and KILL EM ALL OURSELVES, it's, things have lead to this, we can save whoever wants to be saved, and whoever doesn't- then that's that. we still have us and the people who want to change to continue forward from here.) We do nothing to challenge the garleans' thought of us except BE GOOD and somehow this will PROVE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE PREDUJICED AGAINST YOU that you are not worthy of their hate. Then what about when they meet the people who refused to join the contingent? What about when the people we chose to save meet people who hate them and can't forgive them for what they did as imperial garlemald, how they benefited and lived off of the subjugation and destruction of their homes? Are those people now in the wrong? Are they to be vilified and seen as obstacles to a happier future?

Of course in our happy little jrpg they'll be like "oh yeah, I was so racist, but then these guys helped me out when stuff was going to shit, and so I admit was wrong! Yay! Now I get to live!" but is thaaaaaaaaat really the ultimate nuanced writing about how prejudice works. is it really like all we need to do is be the better person and shit will work out. is it really always correct to try to save everyone, and let everyone "have their reasons" without argument. is it ALWAYS wrong to simply let the snake eat its tail and all your energy must be directed towards saving what little humanity is left of those who hate you instead of helping the people they hurt. and of all the tragedies in the game, this one gets the most attention and care? anyway