Unfortunately, I can't find them on my computer. They were likely deleted a long time ago with the rest of the bmp files to save up on disk space. Sorry.
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That's okay. There is still the world map in 1800 from "Chapter 149: The World on the Verge of Modernity". That I can use and it looks similar to what the world looked like in 1914. The only differences that I can see being the Song not being annexed yet nor the last uncolonized regions being filled in nor the Fox solidifying the eastern half of North Emerica. But we can still picture it.
No worries. Look on the bright side, in place of those maps you have the opportunity to make lore appropriate infographics in a definitive edition that won't be held back by gameplay limitations, like the infographics you’ve been making lately.
That might be your best bet.
Yep, I'll have a good opportunity to rework those borders again.
I know this is a late post but there is something that can force the nobility to annex Naples, the military. If they lose to vassals, how are they supposed to fight the real thing?
I don't think that could happen. Feudal armies were loyal to their nobles first and foremost and generally not the king, especially in medieval Western Europe. The entire military wouldn't rebel to annex all of Naples into the HRE. Even if some nobles gave the order, other nobles would immediately order their own troops to crush the rebellion.
Counterattack, Part 12
(Counterattack - Xenoblade 2)
“How can you still fight?!” Elias spat. “Your arm…your back!”
Wilhelmina glanced at her right arm, which still hung lifelessly at her side. She could still feel the air caressing the wounds on her back. Both still hurt like hell. But she persisted. “I know. But I don’t have a choice. I must carry on. ‘Born in a world of strife, against the odds, we choose to fight!’” She lunged at Elias and brought Enonon down for a strike on his exosuit armor.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” Elias responded with his own powerful strike. The two ran past each other and swung with all of their might.
BLOSSOM DANCE! Wilhelmina stopped, bringing Enonon down to the ground. She checked her body to see if Elias landed a hit on her, but he hadn’t. She glanced behind her and saw Elias’ right exosuit arm sparking and short-circuiting. One armor plate fell off. The mad regent stumbled back, while Wilhelmina prepared to attack again.
“YAE SHAUD GAET OEN YAER KNAEHS EAHND BAEG!” Elias had seemingly lost it. “BAEG FAER MAHRCAEY!”
“Never!” Wilhelmina said. “I will strike you down and all that you represent, you madman. And then you will know the pain and suffering you have inflicted upon countless billions, you monster!”
They ran at each other again. Wilhelmina swung out with Enonon, ignoring the size of the energy blade to focus on the real one within, undersanding that the larger one would follow where she directed the smaller one. Having seen Enonon’s power up close and personal, Elias’ new strategy appeared to be avoiding contact with it at all costs while trying to find any openings in Wilhelmina’s attacks. She wouldn’t let him find any, using both Enonon and her power to parry and redirect any attacks that got past her defenses. After the injuries she had suffered, she couldn’t take more. Although she was right-handed, she had no choice but to try and keep up with her left now. Negative thoughts nagged at the back of her mind, telling her to surrender or retreat. She pushed them away. Everyone’s counting on me. I’ve got to win this battle, no matter what.
She looked around the battlefield. The Persians had capitalized on the confusion caused by Wilhelmina’s awakening to launch a new offensive against the Crusaders, who fell back. The enemy abandoned their wounded as they retreated, while the Persians were willing to slow their advance to evacuate their own wounded to safety. Turning back to the task at hand, her duel with Elias raged on. It seemed like her opponent was constantly yelling and screaming stuff in his thick accent, but Wilhelmina couldn’t understand him. All of his blows were crude and unrefined, emphasizing brute strength over skill. The only strategy Wilhelmina could see in his movements was to avoid contact with Enonon at all costs.
Wilhelmina remembered how important it was to win this battle. If she fell here—for real—then all hope for the restoration of the old Reich would die. In addition, Persia would fall to Jerusalem and suffer the same fate as Russia. The last hopes of the free world would die out, and humanity would be stomped under the dual boots of Jerusalem and Han’s China. So for the sake of the future, she couldn’t lose. Because it was a heroine’s destiny.
It was her destiny.
Elias attempted to kick Wilhelmina’s lower leg. “What the hell even is that power?!”
“I don’t know, but I’m not complaining!” Wilhelmina jumped over the kick and slashed down with Enonon. “With this power, I can change things!”
Elias shifted to the right, and Enonon slammed against the turf, charring the artificial grass. “Changing things…what is there to change?!” With Enonon still lodged in the ground, he punched at Wilhelmina’s face.
Wilhelmina mentally deflected the punch to her left. “Everything you’ve done, you frakking psychopath!” She freed Enonon and pointed at Elias. “I’m going to end you and take back my country!”
“And then what?!” Elias swung out with his other fist in an uppercut, aiming for Wilhelmina’s stomach. “Bring back the old ways? Return everything to how it was before?”
“Do you even need to ask?!” Wilhelmina parried the uppercut with Enonon, and its energy blade managed to graze the exosuit’s right arm, leaving a deep cut in its armor, although it failed to break through. “Obviously!”
“And then what?” Elias drew back and clutched his arm, assessing the damage. “What next?!”
“What are you trying to say?” Wilhelmina lunged forward.
“The old Reich was rotten to the core!” Elias crossed his wrist blades. “The party cartel controlled everything! Your family ignored the suffering of their fellow citizens! Sentinel murdered us! Our way of life was being destroyed! I had to do something!”
“Liar!” Enonon clanged against the blades, and Wilhelmina’s strike was stopped in its tracks. “You did this for yourself! You pursued your mad quest for vengeance, and all that did was kill billions!”
Elias pushed back against Wilhelmina’s force, but neither of them could break the deadlock. “And you’ll be different? Are you doing this for the world or yourself?”
“Of course I’m doing this for the world!” Forced to rely on her left hand, Wilhelmina could only maintain her current position.
“Don’t lie, you’re a vulture too!” Sparks flew from the joints of Elias’ exosuit. “Everyone’s either a vulture or roadkill! Once you get the power I’ve had, you will eat the roadkill!”
“That’s not who I am!” Wilhelmina pushed back with equal force, and she heard the exosuit’s servos whirring loudly. “I’m not going to take and kill like you have! I’m doing this to stop more people from dying!”
“And if you take the throne, what then?” Elias pushed harder. Wilhelmina felt her feet being pushed back. “What happens after this war is over and you’ve taken over?!”
“I’ll change things!” Wilhelmina grounded her feet. “Like I promised!”
“How do you know that?” Elias pushed even harder. “How do you know you won’t just build a new party cartel?”
“Because I won’t!” Wilhelmina tightened her grip on Enonon. “Sentinel killed my parents. I’m not bringing them back, or building anything like them! I’m not a vulture! There’s no such thing!”
“And what happens after you die, what then?!” Sensing an opening, Elias pressed the advantage. Wilhelmina felt her feet slipping and her stance weakening.
He took the bait. “Isn’t that what people like X-Division are for?”
Elias’ eyes narrowed.
“Yes, X-Division. Law enforcement agents and journalists—ordinary people—working together to find the truth and build a better future. That’s the dream Friedrich the Great had a thousand years ago. They embodied that dream. And you killed them. You destroyed them because you hated what they stood for. You hated that they represented the Reich’s ideals better than you ever could. So you wiped them out. But you forget that the truth will always come out. As long as there are people like X-Division and me to stand against you, humanity will remain free. And when I’m no longer around to carry the torch…”
Wilhelmina suddenly stopped resisting. Elias pushed forward, putting all of his strength into his arms, but now there was nothing pushing back, and he stumbled forward. Wilhelmina repositioned herself, getting back into a proper stance. She concentrated all of her willpower into her hands and drew Enonon back, then imagined everyone she had come to know guiding her slash. For a split second, she thought she could feel the gentle touch of her parents’ hands, as well as the firmer touch of Gunduz’s.
“SOMEONE ELSE WILL!” Enonon sliced clean through the armor plate over Elias’ chest, shattering it into pieces.
Critical hit!
The fragments of the shattered plate flew off the rest of the exosuit, taking broken wires and circuits with it. Elias fell, cursing all the way. Lowering her sword, she approached his prone body. With another slash, she cut through the battery pack and cables powering the exosuit, rendering it useless. All it would do now was pin Elias against the ground with its weight. She then used her power to flip Elias over, revealing a gash across his chest from where the energy blade had cut into him. Blood spurted from the wound, but it didn’t look too deep.
I could end this right now… Wilhelmina lined up tip of Enonon with Elias’ heart. Elias’ breath was raspy and infrequent as he gasped for air. His eyes went wide with fear. You feel it now, don’t you? The despair you wanted me to feel. The pain and suffering you inflicted on so many.
Elias grunted. “What are you waiting for?”
“What do you mean?” Wilhelmina said.
“You’ve won,” Elias said, “You defeated me. Now kill me.”
Kill him. Kill him now. You know you want to. Wilhelmina’s hands shook. She had been wanting this for so long, but… You already decided this long ago. This man truly deserves to die by your hand, after what he did. Franz and Joseph and Vasily and the others demand justice. The dead demand their tribute.
Justice…like what Elias was saying? Was this what he felt? All this rage and anger? Was this why he made a big deal of avenging Ellie? Because he wanted justice? Just like she did right now?
The voices in her head grew louder. KILL HIM! YOU MUST! END THIS NOW! CLAIM YOUR JUSTICE!
Is…is this right, though?
YOU WANTED TO KILL HIM FOR MONTHS! YOU MADE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY! YOU CAN’T BACK OUT OF THIS NOW!
But what if…
WHAT IF WHAT?! HE’S RIGHT THERE! YOU CAN PUT AN END TO EVERYTHING! THIS IS THE MAN WHO KILLED YOUR FAMILY! NOW YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO RETURN THE FAVOR!
Return the favor… Wilhelmina thought about those words. Exact justice…
NO HESITATION! DIE!
“RAAAAA!” Wilhelmina stabbed down with all of her might.
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We finally reach the moment that explains why these parts are called “Counterattack.” I used Engage the Enemy from Xenoblade 1 during the Yavdian bunker assault and a few chapters ago since in the game that track plays during desperate situations where the protagonists feel outmatched and overwhelmed, but they have no choice but to keep on fighting despite the odds. It’s somber and bleak and gives you a feeling that you might not make it. But Counterattack, the equivalent track in Xenoblade 2, is its thematic opposite. It plays in similar circumstances as Engage the Enemy did, but it’s upbeat and hopeful, and it reuses many of that tracks motifs in new ways. The protagonists might be outmatched and overwhelmed, but they can make it. Even though the odds are against them, they will overcome it in the end if they keep fighting. Perfectly matches Wilhelmina’s situation here.
A Heroine’s Destiny was supposed to be put here, but I moved it up to the beginning because it clashed with the music choice.
Wilhelmina quotes Dunban from Xenoblade 1 and, to a degree, Rex from 2.
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Wilhelmina went from having an ambiguous cliffhanger on her fate to inflicting the cliffhanger on Elias (through I think he’s alive through the hero purposefully missing the blow trope), look how the turn tables.
That said, the fact that her internal monologue towards the end sounds a little bit like Elias scares me, lets hope she doesn't prove Elias right when the time to restore the Reich comes.
Great music choice btw. I heard that song recently and I agree it really fits here. I’ve also been listening to Xenoblade X’s ost lately since I’m a Hiroyuki Sawano fan.
That said, the fact that her internal monologue towards the end sounds a little bit like Elias scares me, lets hope she doesn't prove Elias right when the time to restore the Reich comes.
Great music choice btw. I heard that song recently and I agree it really fits here. I’ve also been listening to Xenoblade X’s ost lately since I’m a Hiroyuki Sawano fan.
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Elias gets his own taste of the cliffhanger medicine.Wilhelmina went from having an ambiguous cliffhanger on her fate to inflicting the cliffhanger on Elias (through I think he’s alive through the hero purposefully missing the blow trope), look how the turn tables.
That said, the fact that her internal monologue towards the end sounds a little bit like Elias scares me, lets hope she doesn't prove Elias right when the time to restore the Reich comes.
Great music choice btw. I heard that song recently and I agree it really fits here. I’ve also been listening to Xenoblade X’s ost lately since I’m a Hiroyuki Sawano fan.
Just because she’s won this battle doesn’t mean the greater ideological war is won as well. That’s still something within her she has to address.
X’s OST is great too. I have a great use of Uncontrollable planned in a future chapter, though I won’t be writing it for a while yet.
I see this going into many interesting ways. It can end with Wilhelmina controlling Jerusalem behind the scenes and after all threats of Rome are gone, Willhelma introduces herself and brings back meritocracy, or Elias escapes, and the fight continues.
I don’t think Wilhelmina would let Jerusalem stay as it is if she’s in charge.
I believe what @Orror SANESS is implying is that because Jerusalem's brainwashing is so extensive through social programs like the 1105 Commission, many Romans would be hostile to Jerusalem being disbanded instantly, so Wilhelmina would need to ease the transition to meritocracy and tolerance in incremental steps, kinda like what the Commitee did to rise to power but in reverse. Granted, I think it would be more like a direct deradicalization program like Denazification or the democratization of Japan after WW2 than a shadow government.
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It would probably take the Democratization of Japan approach, considering how conservative Rome is.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Oh okay then.
True. Not to mention all of the economic, social, physical, and psychological damage inflicted on the nation and its people slowing down reform even more.
Also…
Now on to Index/Railgunbecause I really would like to get back an anime with understandable subs and an actual dub
I finally get this reference after almost 7 years. Just finished bingeing all of LOTGH for the record and what a ride.
Now on to Index/Railgun
Nice. Mind if I ask what the show would be like in TTL here now that you know more about it, since I asked this question before and there some references to the show in the Annionaverse?
I’m still thinking it over. I might have something out later today or tomorrow.
I’m also searching for a comment someone made here or in one of Dragoon’s or my other threads. It’s about a woman in LOTGH or a related space opera ascending to power as an empress consort while acting meek and helpless, but that’s a front, and she secretly outplays all of the other aristocratic factions to keep herself and her husband in power. I think it was in relation to my recharacterization of Caeda but I couldn’t find the comment there. And that kind of characterization didn’t quite happen in the anime as I was expecting. It was one of the reasons I decided to commit to watching it, unfortunately. I think it was said by either @TWR97 or @HIMDogson, but I can’t confirm that. Sorry for the pings.
Hmm, I recall mentioning a similar idea for Ida and compared it to Caeda, but I don't remember saying this exact idea you're referring to since I haven't seen LOTGH, so you're probably looking for a different comment. Sorry I couldn't help you find the comment.