i lit rally can't believe i totally just forgot that whole chunk of main plot of ao because wald existed in it aksdukua

real talk to all wald fans he's a perfectly fine character other than some Glaring Writing Flaws regarding his consistency, I Just Don't Like Him

honestly my big critique of most of the villains in the crossbell games is "their consistency"

(crossbell spoilers) some of them are great - mariabell is perfectly consistent, internally and out, which is nice, and even arios' moments of inconsistency feed more into cementing his character than weakening it; the orlandos are perfectly consistent too -

- which is nice, even as i think that for them i think it brings up another flaw (excluding shirley's final dungeon scenes, they're pretty static, but we also never see them enough to get a hold of their characters so they just can...fall flat). regarding ouroboros -

- as much as they end up contributing to the climax of the plot, they're gone by the final dungeon and quite frankly throughout the game they were just kinda...there? but that's a general critique of most of ouroboros that i don't just restrict to their appearances in crossbell -

- with the exception of a few key members in each arc, ouroboros is Just Sort Of There. Lurking. and that's what the member's characters do too, lol. and then with joachim...hmm. he's a bit of a mess, all over, but i think his internal inconsistency is intended, a bit, since -

- lloyd kind of calls him out on it? externally, at least, he's pretty consistent, for all that i think his foreshadowing as the big bad was kinda weak except for "he has portrait, he HAS to be more important than we think," lol. if you dont suspect him from that already, his -

- reveal can probably feel a bit out of left field.

anyway.

And Then There's Wald. being honest, i'm pretty biased against wald; i don't generally like his character type of angry violent man (with heart of gold hidden deep inside). it's just not my thing! -

- in zero, i was intrigued by his character, though, from how we see him treat his gang, to us, to wazy, to the concept of strength itself from his understanding of it; and in ao, i was at first intrigued by how they'd possibly develop it. -

- the problem i have, then, with wald's arc, is that they...*don't* significantly develop it. they lay the foundations, they push forward the plot, and at every turn, right up til the end, he regresses from his development back to his starting core. -

- it's honestly why i was so completely unsatisfied with his arc ending in ao (ditto for...most of the villains except mariabell, ngl) because it just. feels super sudden and unearned from the amount of development he went through that solidified as part of his character -

- because his actions throughout the game seem to say that NOTHING new (that was not negative) became a permanent part of his development and then right at the end, complete 180.

It's possible I'm misunderstanding something in his character but that's how *I* interpreted him.

considering his ending slide in ao implying he left with wazy and abbas, (which is another thing i'm :/ about but i'm willing to give the concept a chance) i'm hoping they'll go more in depth with him in later games, like hajimari

i understand that in ao he was in a vulnerable place and he was being manipulated by mariabell (and that woman is GOOD at what she does, damn) which is why i still have hope for him, but i still feel like his character writing was just weak.

(though that's probably less a wald fault or even a villain fault and more a "ao's fucking whacky pacing" fault)

positive wald things to balance out this thread:

- good design and va!
- downtown race is one of zero's best early game scenes
- when his writing isn't giving me a headache he's a fun character!
- the things the vipers say and believe about him are T^T