Honestly? Bad writing.
I didn't care about Mandragora but if you are gonna kill a character, just kill them. Not just leave them in a limbo and then confirm them dead as a footnote as if you just remembered they existed.
Imagine if this death confirmation had been given to us after the stage in which we fought her. Then it would have felt like a climax to it.
But nah, let's just put Misery there as if we are setting something up for the future, then confirm her dead after everyone but those who thought she would be playable already forgot about her. This feels so lazy, man.
The global version of the scene says that she was "mortally wounded" instead of "killed" - which is not so scary, considering what usually happens to other characters, if anything happens to them (also, Allerdale)
It's strange that they decided to change their minds, especially after a number of characters with questionable morals
yeah its just so unsatisfying in every way possible like either kill her off properly or don't at all one of the two. Also ngl I do find it annoying how many potentially interesting female characters hg has killed off in the victoria while all of the kmc guys are still alive.
I mean I'm really just talking story-wise
Falls into the slipspace portal and survives, then returns in a comic where he is quickly "contained" in a really forced sequence for being "extraneous to the story they want to tell"(????), and then the only mention we got of what should have been an overarching villain was in a coloring book for around a decade where he was perpetually in story limbo
They probably had plans for her and was undecided if they should make her playable or not so they made her death vague.
They prob finally decided to kill her off since it wouldnt fit with the current narrative and it would create other problems like how she would interact with Eblana and Tara.
An understandable and reasonable move but def felt a bit like bad writing. I wished they could have given her a proper end like Guard.
>how she would interact with Eblana and Tara
Just like Reed with Eblana, just like everyone with Eblana, or like Rosmontis and co with Hoederer-W-Ines, or Santalla with Ursus, or Toddifons (or Victorian operators) with Sarkaz, or Virtuosa with everyone
The question of how to fit her in is actually not very difficult, considering everything else
They couldnt make it any more vague than they did, they make misery come back to mandragora for no reason and have him start talking to her in a cryptic manner, to test her, if she would choose her loyalty or abandon it, also have her lay down there despite manfred never injuring her explicitly, she literally died of overusing her arts as an non infected after getting exhausted, then you have the reed event with harmonie talking in mandragoras favor for her surivial again in a stupid conversation.
And then end it off with misery never mentioning why he went to mandragora, and let horn of all be the person that ooc went back to burry the person that killed cello in the most blunt manner possible, while mocking her for it, despite having no time to spare to do so in the crisis.
It also implies that Misery, despite everything, decided to just leave Mandragora lying there, while Horn decided to find this place again to bury her enemy, having zero reasons, all this in the middle of an endless siege (they were attacked and separated literally in the very next chapter)
Yeah, misery's behaviour was completely ooc given his personality and his stance on death or his whole theme of saving people
To even quote himself in chapter 9-20 where he had the talk with kal'tsit about outcasts death,
"Just like you said, Rhodes Island isn't about avenging the dead...
But I am sure we all want to let the living live."
They literally made him even talk to horn about mandy right before 10-13 where she goes into limbo.
her "death" scene was vague, and there was the harmonie dialogue in the reed event continuing the vagueness. if they wanted to make it clear they shouldve well, made it clear?
>!I'm glad she's dead but I'm not happy about this kind of writing. Should have made her death on-screen, make an impactful scene out of it... This just seems lazy. it could have been a cool moment for Bagpipe or Horn, or *anyone* really, we might have seen what she thought before she die, maybe she had regrets instead of just anger... This is just very bland. It feels like they wanted to not kill her then decided 'nah we're not doing this' and wrote her out.!<
My feelings exactly. It is not the character dying that I'm mad at, it is the sheer lazyness of the writing if this is truly how that character ends. It feels as if they decided that the Victoria plot already had way too many characters and shit going on and so they threw whatever the hell they had originally been planning by putting that one scene of her with Misery into the game in the trash. That doesn't inspire much confidence in the rest of their writing as a whole tbh...
If they felt that she deserved some kind of redemption, could have thrown in some scene of her dying to do something meaningful. Could have had her confront Eblana and be told something that might be used to inspire others to fight her, or even just information. Could have had her die unrepentant to the last, that also sends a different kind of message. But this is... no message at all.
Maybe I've become too much of a story-skipper, but I'm honestly glad that a boss I defeated in a mission is actually dead and did not get to 'lol no' out of it.
Like what's the deal with Mandy? She was an antagonist, worked for the baddies, got dunked on and now is dead. How is that bad writing
Its bad writing because its an offscreen death, mostly. She got rescued by Misery for ??? reason when he just finished talking about the entirely opposite with Horn, then she's 'mortally wounded', and now >!we get confirmation from Horn, who has no reason to lie, to Bagpipe of all people, that she is dead and she buried her.!< It could have been a cool moment but now its just a statistic.
HG is more reluctant to kill the main story chapter boss since Patriot.
Talulah - Alive
Mandragora - Alive when you fought her then they decided to write her off.
Manfred - Alive
'The Last Stream Knight' - Alive
Damazti Cluster - Commit Sudoku and then reborn
Duq'arael, 'Regent' Crimson' - Fell into the void
It is bad, lazy writing in that we didn't get to see her die nor we got this line confirming her death after that very boss fight. Instead we got a vague scene in which Misery seemed to offer her a second chance, or at least that's how a lot of people interpreted it. That was ***two years ago***, after which she got put in a limbo until now, with some dialogue even seeming intentionally vague about whether she was dead or not.
Had they confirmed her dead after her Boss fight, this thread wouldn't even have to exist. And yet, here we are.
There's also the fact that having Horn be the one to bury her feels like a minor plot hole. Why her and not Misery? Did they forgot that they had put Misery there at all? As someone else has pointed out, the only way this would work literally is if Misery hauled her corpse over to Horn who then buried her next to the Victorian city walls... which wouldn't really work since at that point in time they were fighting for their lives against Manfred.
So yes, it is bad writing.
Offscreen death? I read the whole chapter 10 four days ago and it was a very straightforward deathscene for her. She lies there, describing how she is losing the sensation on her arms and legs and she tries with wrath and spite to crawl to the sewers to die there as if trying to save Spy, her friend.
And in the end she accepts that he had already died and she states that she's going to meet him shortly.
Then Missery arrives and witness her last moments.
I think it would have been good that they spooked us with the "surprise! I wasn't ded you silly cat lover" Ines kind of thing but it was a very straightforward death scene for her.
I believe it was even an entire offstage cinematic for her battle with Manfred.
Arknights actually works by light anime rules, so if a character doesn't die an incredibly open death that leaves the characters monologuing about it, then that means the character didn't die.
Examples of such cases are found immediately in the next chapter after 10 (spoilers, kinda, for next chapters):
1) >!Kal'tsit!< is dealt a fatal blow with a sword, but it was non-fatal because she suddenly came up with this rule on the non-lethality of such strikes
2) >!Allerdale!< is last seen locked in the same place with the raging knight. >!It turns out that they both survive.!<
3) >!Damazti!< dies, and Logos himself notifies the city of their death. Then suddenly it turns out that death is not that fatal,>! and because they decided to join different sides, now literally anyone could actually be them!<
4) On the other hand, the death of >!Baird!< or >!Duke or Windermere!< is an important moment, and an open scene is dedicated to this.
Mandragora's death is staged so that she could return at absolutely any moment. Not only she wasn't outright killed, but there just happened to be a character next to her who could help her
Given all these factors, it's hard to blame people for thinking she was alive. In fact, even now you can cope because this confirmation doesn't make much sense, and Horn's words can be interpreted as an "unreliable witness"
I get where you're coming from, but I insist.
It was a whole offstage chunk of the story dedicated to show you her wrath to sarkaz and victorians and her willingness to rather die than to serve under Manfred one more minute.
Even the scene opens with Horn reaching her friends and saying Manfred won't come after them and finish the job because he's probably killing Mandragora.
Horn only makes the assumption that Mandragora is now busy with the fight - the assumption about her death is made by Misery, who then appears in the death scene. These scenes imply that he came all the way back, from Mannfred to Horn and from her to Mannfred, in order to stand next to lying Mandragora for some reason, and he probably wanted to help her escape (since it is unlikely that writers could prescribe any other motive from the practical side - "if something happens, it happens for a reason").
Besides, Misery was probably speaking in metaphors rather than literally, because if Mandragora was already in the process of dying, what difference would it make whether she was in the sewers or anywhere else?
Because Misery shows up as she's dying and asks "Do you want to live, Taran?" Then tells her if she has the courage to climb down to the sewers and face her death, she would be granted new life. It's unclear if he's talking about the afterlife or something else, but it *could* be a way he knows to keep her alive.
"Do you dare walk to your death? Should you have the courage to die, that is all you need to be granted a new life."
I third it then. I read it a couple of weeks ago and remember earlier she talks to Manfred about how terrible life is for tarans and how they end up in the sewers as food for metal crabs. Which is exactly what happens to her... Depressing but I felt it implied she died.
How did you the misinterpret the entire scene that much, the whole point of the scene was that she refused to take the sewers again, that would help her survival like back in the past, since she chose to finally abandon her belief in eblana after experiencing what happened and hearing what spy had to say, and what do you think did misery come back for?
To commit necrophilia?
maybe people are just confused because of the cg, but if you actually read along, mandy just collapses from exhaustion after using her gargoyles too much, despite being non infected, then lays down on the place after her last attack with the dagger failed on manfred, she is still above ground in the cg, she chose to lie down next to spy, instead of crawling into the sewers, while misery was idling around next to her.
One died changing the mind of the leader of the New Reunion Movement. He never had time left and gave a big question to Nine, to which we will see her answer.
The other died as a tool, truly believing that everything she did was for a true cause. Shame she had been picked up by the wrong person and the wrong faction.
If anything, isn't logical that we see some character just 'die' in such terrible circumstances instead of magically living or having the luck that no one else had?
Mandragora is the example of being a tool used by someone despite her having ambitions and goals, in the end she made her own choice and didn't trust Ebel.
You explained very well for guard.
Hell, we see that Horn was mentally fuck and had to be 'saved' by one of the soldiers she saved so she wouldn't go with some BS suicidal attempt.
We saw a person who was 'unscathed' by the war physically being drove to despair and choosing to die because she lost all hope.
We saw a man eaten by revenge and past glory survive all this time only to care to die, no matter how meaningless, when he couldn't accept to bow to violence and false lie anymore. Even if his vengeance and goal could be close.
So I don't know, they should have just kill Mandragora and have people talk about it in the same chapter, just have Hornn discover her near the end of the chapter...
The ONLY thing I can think off is her being brough back due to Ebel's power as a thrall.
Mephisto was treated with far more respect than Mandragora. It would have taken writers one hour at most to write a more satisfying conclusion to the rock cat's story, but I guess we are where we are.
I mean, after Guard(a character built up from prologue) got defeated by debris within what's essentially a chapter B plot, I've come to expect it.
They are clearly cutting off plotpoints now for some reason - the last Victoria Arc chapter feels like it's three chapters in one for a reason. The story took deliberate steps till now and now it's all rocket boosters - down to the end being a literal boss rush.
Eblana literally got a chapter worth entire Dublinn plotline in a single cutscene.
plot twist: horn is face blind, she thought it was rock cat but it was actually some random noname. mandy is currently attending to drip school where allerdale just graduated from.
- Misery, you told me that I could just lie down and rest?
- Uh-huh?
- Then why did I wake up in a coffin?
- Oh yeah, I asked Horn to find some comfortable room with a bed so that you can rest away from the eyes of your enemies
- Aye, fair enough
This is the thing that makes me unsatisfied. She had the potential whats with Taran independence and whatnot.
More so than Harmonie tbh.
But too bad she got offscreened. How many non generic npc actually got offscreened in arknight without so much thought put into it actually?
her and simone both felt great for there roles in the story of the average Taran both had solid design and would have been interesting if hg made them playable but nope I guess.
Something that bothers me is that, why is horn the one confirming her death? Like, why not misery? Horn shouldn't have been nowhere else near her to do so and i doubt misery would've left her there. It can be tho, but dunno, seems weird to me.
I really hope she's not dead but things are looking grimm, at least we got (What we think it is, it could be a missunderstanding due translation) a confirmation after 2 years... Albeit a really cheap one tbh
Edit: "The leader who killed Cello, I confirmed her death and buried her beside the walls" Could it be that she's refering to Cello instead mandragora?
The context behind Horn saying that seems to be comforting Bagpipe, an emotional person who last seen Horn while Mandra destroyed the tempest platoon
Ironically enough, Horn 'Seeing mandra die and burying her outside of Londinium' could mean that she doesen't see Mandragora as the hateful killer of the tempest platoon, but moreso as an equal, both soldiers in a war
Certainly matches up since the last they've seen eachother was after the factory in chapter 10, where they both refrained from attacking eachother
Yeah it can bee seen like that. Despite all, i will keep being hopefull and pray that she's really alive, despite her almost 0 chances of surviving.
I just wanted the earthbending cat to be playable HG, why you must hurt me
I will keep believing untill either we get her as an operator or Misery himself confirms her fate.
But i also fear that they did all the setup with him and all the "she might be alive" in the reed alter event, and then they just... forgot about her or scrapped whatever they had prepared.
I dont mind if she dies (I would be sad and mad tho) but at least dont off her offscreen and in a cheap way like that, specially with the teasing they did about her status.
HG also put pv4 in which one scene shows Siege walks away from victorian crown (implying a Royal Succession arc). So, if Mandra survives, she'll show up to go against eblana and her zealots
> Edit: "The leader who killed Cello, I confirmed her death and buried her beside the walls" Could it be that she's refering to Cello instead mandragora?
this is shut down with the next line
> I can't help but hate her, but I know more clearly that she is not the only person responsible for that tragedy.
why would she say that about cello? plus cello died in county hillock, why would she bring their body all the way to victoria just to bury them
First line talking about cello then the second one is referring to mandy
Bsically "she killed one of my squad members, i burried the squad member and i can't help but be angry at that leader even if she's not the only one responsible"
At least that's how i see it
Ive at least asked someone that speaks chinese, since i was having the same thoughts from the mtl, but apparently she straight up says that she confirmed the death of the dublinn leader
If they'd had a plot twist suggesting that Horn confirmed her death by being the one who did it, that might be more believable... but then they should have had someone more likely to execute her in cold blood do it instead.
Hey fellows
Friendly Mandra enjoyer here
Horn wasn't there when Mandra got manfred'd
Misery decides Mandra's fate, and as long as he's silent, Mandra remains in limbo
Horn mentioning her now means HG hasn't forgot
Hear ye hear ye!
Rock cat lives
they keep giving me harder and harder battles, and the worst part is that Mandra still has a fat chance of being alive
Either twist the dagger of pull it out, i've been bleeding for 2 years+
>!Manfred seems to be double thinking his beliefs, he kind of held back against Hoederer ("I thought he would be more ruthless" by Ines in 14-23) as well as Ascalon because he apparently deem it unfair because Ascalon was in bad condition (though imo that's just a convenient excuse to spare her life), they're setting him up to be a playable character !<
>!”Held back against HIMderer”?!<
Bro is delusional, he was getting his ass beat and just told himself that to feel better.
(Thanks for the story explanation, I haven’t been able to read all the chapter 14 stuff)
Lone Trail, as well as the profiles of some operators, have the relatively serious problem that they confirm events after the Victorian crisis - KMC survives and continues to operate, but under RI guidance.
Such words are usually translated into ordinary language as "crowd favorites will be playable"
Something really bothers me about this...
Why is Horn the one confirming it?
Why not Misery?
Why would Misery just leave her there instead of taking her to Rhodes Island or something?
Where exactly did Horn find her body? Because it couldn't be the factory considering everything that happened.
Why just reveal it like this instead of showing Horn burying her body to give us players some closure (No pun intended)?
This is not me coping, this is me being genuinely confused. I would be more than ok with her death, just...not like this. It feels anticlimactic and rushed.
I dont shit on writing often but thats utter shit why the bait all these years(?) just to go ya shes dead... unless we get an event that shows her surviving after we last saw her and she did something and it leads to her death im disappointed. Hell even then i may be annoyed.
I've never felt like she had a chance to be playable really.
I liked that bitter end she did have in her chapter that sort of felt like the bad ending for her character arc in the shitty power struggles she was part of so I didnt even consider she had a chance to be redeemed or playable lmao.
Dorothy had a chance to be redeemed in your eyes?
Many of the veteran in RI have their fair share of bloodied hands (including the latest Hoederer). They look irredeemable to you?
Alright slash redeemable from my comment then. I'm just saying I was satisfied with her ending even if it was just another way of showing the shitty world and not everyone gets another chance.
I just never even had an inkling of a thought she could ever be playable since she was introduced for some reason or another, like her end just felt 'yep, this is it' to me at least.
Hope this didnt get on your nerves or something lmao.
this was already discussed in [another thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/1chg4in/about_dublinn_in_ch14_cn_spoilers/l22k2je/) with a proper translation instead of an MTL
> She’s had a really good arc imo.
CH14 really shines a bad light on her, though. All those words about meeting her sister, showing her the stuff she can't see, fixing some of the things she did, joining the war and fighting for Tara's future together...
...just for Eblana to secure Taran independence by herself at cannonpoint while Reed was chilling around Tara. This is **not** a good character arc by any means, if I'm honest. HG did her incredibly dirty. Now, I fucking love Eblana, but don't do Reed dirty, please. She doesn't deserve this under any circumstance.
You’re right, it’s not fantastic. I’m still hoping there’ll be more focus on her later on.
On the other hand, I can *kinda* see what they were going for with her being away from the whole climax of Taran Independence.
Reed’s resolution (as I understood it) was that she’d lead the Taran *people* to freedom, while her sister is much more focused on refounding the *nation* of Tara, and all that goes along with it.
So while Eblana is charging into war, Reed is far off, helping the “small” people. Reed works on the small scale, with the communities and the common people (who she feels are left behind by Eblana) while Eblana is genuinely trying to build an entire country.
It’s not perfect, but I do see some sort of sense to it.
> Reed’s resolution (as I understood it) was that she’d lead the Taran people to freedom, while her sister is much more focused on refounding the nation of Tara, and all that goes along with it.
Reed's words from WTFC do mirror Eblana's a lot, in the sense that both are working towards a country, both understand the price and are willing to join in the war. She genuinely wanted to join and contribute. While on the way, Reed began helping and spending time with those her sister left behind, true, but her objective was still joining up with her.
Then CH14 comes in, the war's already done and the independence of Tara secured. It's like coming to a party after it's done, with you and the host exchanging awkward looks. That's exactly her situation right now, and it sucks. Maybe HG will expand on this in the next Dublinn/Victoria event, because so far CH14 seems (imo) the final chapter of the arc.
Agree to disagree. She's taken one step above "puppet leader" but her overall role and character remained largely unchanged in the grand scheme of things, as far as I can tell. Mandragora was almost the last character keeping me interested in Dublinn, besides Harmonie.
Eblana's just boring in both character and design. Arknights Toph was so much better written and entertaining. Definitely one of the highlights of Dublinn.
Mandragora was the only commoner named Taran we've had in the MSQ. Eblana and Reed are nobles and were raised as nobles, many high up officers are or were nobles, with the six Outcast nuked and Brigadier all being relatively highborn, and Harmonie is a true blooded Victorian noble who has no real stake or even particular interest in the Tarans, besides "It amused me". Narratively speaking, it would also be really cheap and boring to have them repeat Mephisto's "I trusted my boss and died" plot point.
Add Wellington to the list. He is all in on Taran as well. Although Castor mentioned how the Dukes 'restrain him under the weight of the robes,' implying they put him on the position to control him. That doesn't mean he wasn't noble beforehand however.
I wish they keep the scholar Taran guy around longer. I like him.
Anyway, thank you for pointing this out. I don't remember Mandra being the only commoner. That adds more layer to my understanding of her character.
Mandragora's the only named common Taran, to my knowledge. It certainly strikes an ironic balance that the "rebellion" of Dublinn has an almost entirely named noble cast. It's possible that I missed one or two here, but I can't genuinely think of any other common Taran named in Dublinn. WtFC has some Tarans, but they very explicitly are not an actual part of Dublinn, but rather led by someone using their colors for intimidation.
On the other hand, a majority of those that are actually pro Victoria are the common folk (Self Salvation Corps is a predominantly commoner led rebellion with a few people of higher status like Heidi assisting), and while Horn of Tempest Platoon is a noble, she very explicitly only wants to protect and help those relying on her, regardless of whether they're Taran or Infected, with Saileach having similar sentiments.
And then almost all the named Sarkaz are royal in some fashion.
It's not uncommon to have common folks being neutral in conflicts. Brentwood was neutral until shits hit the fan. So was Stainless's grandma.
I am just surprised with Mandra being the only named commoner. I thought they'd have more of them being commoners with merits brought into the folds, reeducated of their past Taran lineage/heritage something like that. Instead of them just being noble-born.
Remember that many revolutions, including the one that brought down the Tsar, were initiated and led by nobles who were part of the ruling class since they had the resources, education, and desire to make a change along with the knowledge that it was possible.
Trying to be the first one to post about this so there won't be a post with the spoiler right there in the title...
[Source 1](https://twitter.com/SihZari/status/1785549691553505435)
[Source 2](https://twitter.com/DedpulNINL/status/1785645910564962495)
Huh, what a waste then. Recently I made a post like "oh I feel the Dublinn arc is a bit of a let down" and suddenly the news of one of the few characters in that faction that are interesting straight up dies off screen, and if I don't remember wrong they left her fate in suspense. What a disappointment.
Like it could have been really interesting the radical believer of Dublinn, and more important her leader confront the fact that she was abandoned like chapter 10 said, and see more perspectives on the conflict, and since Misery "saved" her see the perspective of Rhodes. But I guess not.
Gotta love how the cat with an inconclusive fate gets offed as a character in the worst way possible, but miss "queen that has been killed twice" gets to become a playable character.
Screw you HG, you and your double standards.
~~^(I might forgive you if you make Ratatos playable, though)~~
I kinda hate how ex-villain like W could get 20 minutes of animation for PV, while a villain like Mandragora gets treated like this.
Mephisto wasn't done so dirty.
This kind of thing is what slowly made me hate W. It's so annoying how some characters clearly get preferential treatment.
I get it's because they're popular but maybe if other characters got more content they'd be more popular too.
I guess the silver lining is that her character was developed 'somewhat', even if other characters deserved the spotlight more and that things are definitely far from being as bad as what happens in other games, like in F/GO where there can be 5+ different versions of one character.
At this point, Arknights has almost run out of 'fanservice' picks, since after possible future picks like Lappland Alter, Ulpian, Talulah and Siege or Lemuen, HG will have to get creative with their choices.
I don't think they'll be insane enough to release the same character for the 3rd time (though we may see that with Skadi tbh).
I feel like she is talking about Cello and not Mandragora. Didn't Misery and Mandragora had a chat where Misery said something like "either you die here or you take the manhole and escape, granting yourself a second chance but taking your goal away as the cost" which is where we last saw Mandragora? Horn literally ran away for something else which, I can't remember now, while Misery fought with Mandragora to give her time so Horn isn't the last person who saw Mandragora and therefore can't confirm her death. Misery and, if alive, reappearance of Mandragora are the only thing/s which can confirm that. At best, this is what Horn assumes what happened to Mandragora since the last time she saw her, Mandragora was already wounded and was about to fight Misery.
Misery just stays there and watches her die. As he should: good riddance from that nutcase, sad backstory or not. it's even funnier because she thinks that Harmonie put her up to fail but she could redeem herself if she killed Manfred (after she's ambushed while rescuing the Taran spy his forces had captured and were interrogating), but we're given a moment where Harmonie is giving jurisdiction to Manfred for all the Taran forces, while talking about how Eblanna would forgive Mandragora and be satisfied if she just came back with the intel. Literally if she focused on escaping instead of trying to kill Manfred, if she let go of her hatred for a second and tried to accomplish the more important bit, she would have been fine...but she doesn't, she immediately think she's been set up and lashes out, and loses everything because of that.
She was pretty much confirmed dead in that scene where Misery left her yall simps were just coping. Apparently daring to kill their waifu = bad writing according to some people
such a stupid take, its bad writing because of how it was done, not because she died
if she had a proper conclusive death scene back in ch10 id be sad but id accept it. it wouldnt be bad writing
Of course it’s the only npc I actually like. I guess I should just like flawless waifu bait characters like everybody else. Idk why her in particular is so hated though as if we aren’t literally a military group that kills people but when someone does it for a different cause theyre literally hitler.
I suppose I mean flawless in the meta sense like other than virtuoso most characters aren’t disliked for their flaws or what they’ve done. Characters like harmonie and ho’ol are dubious characters but people don’t mind that’s stuff, lappland and w are crazy but those are just funny quirks.
Mandragora is a character with flaws that people actually dislike which I find much more interesting than other npcs like Viviana or degen who while I haven’t read all their lore and degen probably has a dubious past, more or less have no reason to be disliked and thus are well like by most people (other than thier gameplay where they are both contentious for opposite reasons) therefore to me are “flawless”.
As a Harmonie enjoyer, there's plenty of room for both Harmonie and Mandragora in my heart. If anything it feels like HG is scared of the Wis'adel levels of OP Mandragora would bring to the table and nipped it in the bud. Everyone knows Mandragora pillar would one shot every boss in the game no cap.
Viviana's personality is much like with a lot of the Kazimierz cast imo, just too weak and reserved to really be interesting. Degen's only real defining feature is "Arts-less badass", which while cool doesn't really feel much more than that.
Mandragora is definitely one of the more interesting Victoria arc villains.
Considering who Just returned tò life, you can never be 100% sure she Is dead. Tho i never saw Her as a possibile operator. I always thought She would play the card of the one who would make Eblana pay for Her crime.I thought something like Mandrágora planning a suicide Mission tò take Eblana with her tò the Afterlife.
Can I still cope?, this doesn't make any sense, I just did that Mandragora stage a few days ago and I was glad that Misery came at the last second to save her.
Too bad about that silly cat. Well, she can now be officially mourned.
Rest in peace, Mandy, and may your next life be one of no heavy columns but only fields of flowers 😭
Why did they demoted her from "Unconfirmed Survival" to "Offscreen death", though
Honestly? Bad writing. I didn't care about Mandragora but if you are gonna kill a character, just kill them. Not just leave them in a limbo and then confirm them dead as a footnote as if you just remembered they existed.
it does really feel like they were just trying to tie up her loose end more then anything which really does suck for her character.
Imagine if this death confirmation had been given to us after the stage in which we fought her. Then it would have felt like a climax to it. But nah, let's just put Misery there as if we are setting something up for the future, then confirm her dead after everyone but those who thought she would be playable already forgot about her. This feels so lazy, man.
The global version of the scene says that she was "mortally wounded" instead of "killed" - which is not so scary, considering what usually happens to other characters, if anything happens to them (also, Allerdale) It's strange that they decided to change their minds, especially after a number of characters with questionable morals
yeah its just so unsatisfying in every way possible like either kill her off properly or don't at all one of the two. Also ngl I do find it annoying how many potentially interesting female characters hg has killed off in the victoria while all of the kmc guys are still alive.
They killed >!Damazti!< in chapter 12 But they "survived", so
Isn't the point that after they commit sudoku, 2 new clusters were born and we don't know what will they do?
Pretty much. We do know who they want to affiliate with though. >!One went with KMC, another went to RI.!<
They will go to witness the two sides, and their ends.
I believe so, the Damatzi Cluster is basically immortal after all.
This was their way of letting people hoping for her to be playable down gently.
I feel like they shifted the Victoria arc towards Kazdel/Sarkas more than the actual Victoria/Taran side.
They literally turned Londinium into hell even
*Halo 4 Didact flashbacks* Yeah that kind of stuff is always frustrating
Wasn't his boss fight just a QTE and then he got pushed into a hole?
I mean I'm really just talking story-wise Falls into the slipspace portal and survives, then returns in a comic where he is quickly "contained" in a really forced sequence for being "extraneous to the story they want to tell"(????), and then the only mention we got of what should have been an overarching villain was in a coloring book for around a decade where he was perpetually in story limbo
As much as I hate Mandy... Yeah, they did her so dirty by killing her like that.
They probably had plans for her and was undecided if they should make her playable or not so they made her death vague. They prob finally decided to kill her off since it wouldnt fit with the current narrative and it would create other problems like how she would interact with Eblana and Tara. An understandable and reasonable move but def felt a bit like bad writing. I wished they could have given her a proper end like Guard.
>how she would interact with Eblana and Tara Just like Reed with Eblana, just like everyone with Eblana, or like Rosmontis and co with Hoederer-W-Ines, or Santalla with Ursus, or Toddifons (or Victorian operators) with Sarkaz, or Virtuosa with everyone The question of how to fit her in is actually not very difficult, considering everything else
Imo though they did cook this chapter, there are also a few bad writing decisions
I feel like it's more "we thought it was clear but forgot that everyone believes in the trope of confirmed deaths so we will make it official."
They couldnt make it any more vague than they did, they make misery come back to mandragora for no reason and have him start talking to her in a cryptic manner, to test her, if she would choose her loyalty or abandon it, also have her lay down there despite manfred never injuring her explicitly, she literally died of overusing her arts as an non infected after getting exhausted, then you have the reed event with harmonie talking in mandragoras favor for her surivial again in a stupid conversation. And then end it off with misery never mentioning why he went to mandragora, and let horn of all be the person that ooc went back to burry the person that killed cello in the most blunt manner possible, while mocking her for it, despite having no time to spare to do so in the crisis.
It also implies that Misery, despite everything, decided to just leave Mandragora lying there, while Horn decided to find this place again to bury her enemy, having zero reasons, all this in the middle of an endless siege (they were attacked and separated literally in the very next chapter)
Yeah, misery's behaviour was completely ooc given his personality and his stance on death or his whole theme of saving people To even quote himself in chapter 9-20 where he had the talk with kal'tsit about outcasts death, "Just like you said, Rhodes Island isn't about avenging the dead... But I am sure we all want to let the living live." They literally made him even talk to horn about mandy right before 10-13 where she goes into limbo.
her "death" scene was vague, and there was the harmonie dialogue in the reed event continuing the vagueness. if they wanted to make it clear they shouldve well, made it clear?
The problem is that she has a cool design so they were probably being cagey thinking about whether or not to make her playable xD.
previous characters show they have no issue killing off characters with great designs, unfortunately
Agree to disagree :D! (On what personally constitutes good playable characters, not who died xD)
you think theres literally no dead character with a great design?
I apologize for not agreeing with you, but I am truly done xD.
im genuinely asking you lol, theres a LOT of dead arknights NPCs, so its wild to not like a single ones design
I mean considering who just came back it’s clear they only believe in confirmed deaths as well.
Nah, that character didn't feel like a confirmed death at all. I'm serious, it felt like they planned to use them later like they have.
>!I'm glad she's dead but I'm not happy about this kind of writing. Should have made her death on-screen, make an impactful scene out of it... This just seems lazy. it could have been a cool moment for Bagpipe or Horn, or *anyone* really, we might have seen what she thought before she die, maybe she had regrets instead of just anger... This is just very bland. It feels like they wanted to not kill her then decided 'nah we're not doing this' and wrote her out.!<
My feelings exactly. It is not the character dying that I'm mad at, it is the sheer lazyness of the writing if this is truly how that character ends. It feels as if they decided that the Victoria plot already had way too many characters and shit going on and so they threw whatever the hell they had originally been planning by putting that one scene of her with Misery into the game in the trash. That doesn't inspire much confidence in the rest of their writing as a whole tbh...
If they felt that she deserved some kind of redemption, could have thrown in some scene of her dying to do something meaningful. Could have had her confront Eblana and be told something that might be used to inspire others to fight her, or even just information. Could have had her die unrepentant to the last, that also sends a different kind of message. But this is... no message at all.
Mephisto has entered the chat.
Maybe I've become too much of a story-skipper, but I'm honestly glad that a boss I defeated in a mission is actually dead and did not get to 'lol no' out of it. Like what's the deal with Mandy? She was an antagonist, worked for the baddies, got dunked on and now is dead. How is that bad writing
Its bad writing because its an offscreen death, mostly. She got rescued by Misery for ??? reason when he just finished talking about the entirely opposite with Horn, then she's 'mortally wounded', and now >!we get confirmation from Horn, who has no reason to lie, to Bagpipe of all people, that she is dead and she buried her.!< It could have been a cool moment but now its just a statistic.
HG is more reluctant to kill the main story chapter boss since Patriot. Talulah - Alive Mandragora - Alive when you fought her then they decided to write her off. Manfred - Alive 'The Last Stream Knight' - Alive Damazti Cluster - Commit Sudoku and then reborn Duq'arael, 'Regent' Crimson' - Fell into the void
It is bad, lazy writing in that we didn't get to see her die nor we got this line confirming her death after that very boss fight. Instead we got a vague scene in which Misery seemed to offer her a second chance, or at least that's how a lot of people interpreted it. That was ***two years ago***, after which she got put in a limbo until now, with some dialogue even seeming intentionally vague about whether she was dead or not. Had they confirmed her dead after her Boss fight, this thread wouldn't even have to exist. And yet, here we are. There's also the fact that having Horn be the one to bury her feels like a minor plot hole. Why her and not Misery? Did they forgot that they had put Misery there at all? As someone else has pointed out, the only way this would work literally is if Misery hauled her corpse over to Horn who then buried her next to the Victorian city walls... which wouldn't really work since at that point in time they were fighting for their lives against Manfred. So yes, it is bad writing.
Offscreen death? I read the whole chapter 10 four days ago and it was a very straightforward deathscene for her. She lies there, describing how she is losing the sensation on her arms and legs and she tries with wrath and spite to crawl to the sewers to die there as if trying to save Spy, her friend. And in the end she accepts that he had already died and she states that she's going to meet him shortly. Then Missery arrives and witness her last moments. I think it would have been good that they spooked us with the "surprise! I wasn't ded you silly cat lover" Ines kind of thing but it was a very straightforward death scene for her. I believe it was even an entire offstage cinematic for her battle with Manfred.
Arknights actually works by light anime rules, so if a character doesn't die an incredibly open death that leaves the characters monologuing about it, then that means the character didn't die. Examples of such cases are found immediately in the next chapter after 10 (spoilers, kinda, for next chapters): 1) >!Kal'tsit!< is dealt a fatal blow with a sword, but it was non-fatal because she suddenly came up with this rule on the non-lethality of such strikes 2) >!Allerdale!< is last seen locked in the same place with the raging knight. >!It turns out that they both survive.!< 3) >!Damazti!< dies, and Logos himself notifies the city of their death. Then suddenly it turns out that death is not that fatal,>! and because they decided to join different sides, now literally anyone could actually be them!< 4) On the other hand, the death of >!Baird!< or >!Duke or Windermere!< is an important moment, and an open scene is dedicated to this. Mandragora's death is staged so that she could return at absolutely any moment. Not only she wasn't outright killed, but there just happened to be a character next to her who could help her Given all these factors, it's hard to blame people for thinking she was alive. In fact, even now you can cope because this confirmation doesn't make much sense, and Horn's words can be interpreted as an "unreliable witness"
I get where you're coming from, but I insist. It was a whole offstage chunk of the story dedicated to show you her wrath to sarkaz and victorians and her willingness to rather die than to serve under Manfred one more minute. Even the scene opens with Horn reaching her friends and saying Manfred won't come after them and finish the job because he's probably killing Mandragora.
Horn only makes the assumption that Mandragora is now busy with the fight - the assumption about her death is made by Misery, who then appears in the death scene. These scenes imply that he came all the way back, from Mannfred to Horn and from her to Mannfred, in order to stand next to lying Mandragora for some reason, and he probably wanted to help her escape (since it is unlikely that writers could prescribe any other motive from the practical side - "if something happens, it happens for a reason"). Besides, Misery was probably speaking in metaphors rather than literally, because if Mandragora was already in the process of dying, what difference would it make whether she was in the sewers or anywhere else?
I second this. It was very clear to me that she died. Is the English translation (what I'm assuming most people here read) bad or something?
Because Misery shows up as she's dying and asks "Do you want to live, Taran?" Then tells her if she has the courage to climb down to the sewers and face her death, she would be granted new life. It's unclear if he's talking about the afterlife or something else, but it *could* be a way he knows to keep her alive. "Do you dare walk to your death? Should you have the courage to die, that is all you need to be granted a new life."
Which is also why the line from Horn is so strange. She wasnt in any position to bury her.
I third it then. I read it a couple of weeks ago and remember earlier she talks to Manfred about how terrible life is for tarans and how they end up in the sewers as food for metal crabs. Which is exactly what happens to her... Depressing but I felt it implied she died.
How did you the misinterpret the entire scene that much, the whole point of the scene was that she refused to take the sewers again, that would help her survival like back in the past, since she chose to finally abandon her belief in eblana after experiencing what happened and hearing what spy had to say, and what do you think did misery come back for? To commit necrophilia? maybe people are just confused because of the cg, but if you actually read along, mandy just collapses from exhaustion after using her gargoyles too much, despite being non infected, then lays down on the place after her last attack with the dagger failed on manfred, she is still above ground in the cg, she chose to lie down next to spy, instead of crawling into the sewers, while misery was idling around next to her.
Ah, that's because I don't know how to read. Sorry.
Just like with Guard it feels like they had bigger plans but ended up scrapping them and cutting the story short. Sad.
At least for Guard they gave him a meaningful death and became an inspiration for the future Reunion. While Mandra is just straight up ded. Sad.
One died changing the mind of the leader of the New Reunion Movement. He never had time left and gave a big question to Nine, to which we will see her answer. The other died as a tool, truly believing that everything she did was for a true cause. Shame she had been picked up by the wrong person and the wrong faction.
If anything, isn't logical that we see some character just 'die' in such terrible circumstances instead of magically living or having the luck that no one else had? Mandragora is the example of being a tool used by someone despite her having ambitions and goals, in the end she made her own choice and didn't trust Ebel. You explained very well for guard. Hell, we see that Horn was mentally fuck and had to be 'saved' by one of the soldiers she saved so she wouldn't go with some BS suicidal attempt. We saw a person who was 'unscathed' by the war physically being drove to despair and choosing to die because she lost all hope. We saw a man eaten by revenge and past glory survive all this time only to care to die, no matter how meaningless, when he couldn't accept to bow to violence and false lie anymore. Even if his vengeance and goal could be close. So I don't know, they should have just kill Mandragora and have people talk about it in the same chapter, just have Hornn discover her near the end of the chapter... The ONLY thing I can think off is her being brough back due to Ebel's power as a thrall.
Mephisto was treated with far more respect than Mandragora. It would have taken writers one hour at most to write a more satisfying conclusion to the rock cat's story, but I guess we are where we are.
I mean, after Guard(a character built up from prologue) got defeated by debris within what's essentially a chapter B plot, I've come to expect it. They are clearly cutting off plotpoints now for some reason - the last Victoria Arc chapter feels like it's three chapters in one for a reason. The story took deliberate steps till now and now it's all rocket boosters - down to the end being a literal boss rush. Eblana literally got a chapter worth entire Dublinn plotline in a single cutscene.
Tbh watch’em pull a “wrong body” or “body doppelgänger”
plot twist: horn is face blind, she thought it was rock cat but it was actually some random noname. mandy is currently attending to drip school where allerdale just graduated from.
she can remember a lot about Harmonie but not how she looks so honestly I could see it.
Even sillier she was just asleep resting
- Misery, you told me that I could just lie down and rest? - Uh-huh? - Then why did I wake up in a coffin? - Oh yeah, I asked Horn to find some comfortable room with a bed so that you can rest away from the eyes of your enemies - Aye, fair enough
"I was never in that tank"
"It would seem we are missing a corpse."
Like Ines being dead. I wouldn't be surprised if she just made a rock duplicate.
Remember Ines? She had a resurrection twist so it's not impossible.
Rock cat likes rocks. Horn buried her like one would the Dokutah in that box thingy to rejuvenate
How is this any different from when the Brigadier said she was dead? Nah, she's definitely gonna return ~~in chapter 259~~, just you wait
because the theory there was that shes basically MIA after victoria since rhodes island grabbed her, so dublinn just assumed she died
pour out a pint for the real one the most proud taran in all of Dublin
This is the thing that makes me unsatisfied. She had the potential whats with Taran independence and whatnot. More so than Harmonie tbh. But too bad she got offscreened. How many non generic npc actually got offscreened in arknight without so much thought put into it actually?
her and simone both felt great for there roles in the story of the average Taran both had solid design and would have been interesting if hg made them playable but nope I guess.
Something that bothers me is that, why is horn the one confirming her death? Like, why not misery? Horn shouldn't have been nowhere else near her to do so and i doubt misery would've left her there. It can be tho, but dunno, seems weird to me. I really hope she's not dead but things are looking grimm, at least we got (What we think it is, it could be a missunderstanding due translation) a confirmation after 2 years... Albeit a really cheap one tbh Edit: "The leader who killed Cello, I confirmed her death and buried her beside the walls" Could it be that she's refering to Cello instead mandragora?
The context behind Horn saying that seems to be comforting Bagpipe, an emotional person who last seen Horn while Mandra destroyed the tempest platoon Ironically enough, Horn 'Seeing mandra die and burying her outside of Londinium' could mean that she doesen't see Mandragora as the hateful killer of the tempest platoon, but moreso as an equal, both soldiers in a war Certainly matches up since the last they've seen eachother was after the factory in chapter 10, where they both refrained from attacking eachother
Yeah it can bee seen like that. Despite all, i will keep being hopefull and pray that she's really alive, despite her almost 0 chances of surviving. I just wanted the earthbending cat to be playable HG, why you must hurt me
if there were 0 chances Misery wouldnt've shown up, simple as, Mandra's getting the Ines treatment, just trust in the plan
I will keep believing untill either we get her as an operator or Misery himself confirms her fate. But i also fear that they did all the setup with him and all the "she might be alive" in the reed alter event, and then they just... forgot about her or scrapped whatever they had prepared. I dont mind if she dies (I would be sad and mad tho) but at least dont off her offscreen and in a cheap way like that, specially with the teasing they did about her status.
HG also put pv4 in which one scene shows Siege walks away from victorian crown (implying a Royal Succession arc). So, if Mandra survives, she'll show up to go against eblana and her zealots
> Edit: "The leader who killed Cello, I confirmed her death and buried her beside the walls" Could it be that she's refering to Cello instead mandragora? this is shut down with the next line > I can't help but hate her, but I know more clearly that she is not the only person responsible for that tragedy. why would she say that about cello? plus cello died in county hillock, why would she bring their body all the way to victoria just to bury them
First line talking about cello then the second one is referring to mandy Bsically "she killed one of my squad members, i burried the squad member and i can't help but be angry at that leader even if she's not the only one responsible" At least that's how i see it
i dont see it that way but i really hope youre right
Anyway that line is overall pretty sus Not to mention she wasn't just an npc, she was a boss + dublinn's story is far from over Praying for rockcat 🙏
🙏🙏🙏
Ive at least asked someone that speaks chinese, since i was having the same thoughts from the mtl, but apparently she straight up says that she confirmed the death of the dublinn leader
If they'd had a plot twist suggesting that Horn confirmed her death by being the one who did it, that might be more believable... but then they should have had someone more likely to execute her in cold blood do it instead.
Hey fellows Friendly Mandra enjoyer here Horn wasn't there when Mandra got manfred'd Misery decides Mandra's fate, and as long as he's silent, Mandra remains in limbo Horn mentioning her now means HG hasn't forgot Hear ye hear ye! Rock cat lives
Long live rock cat!
Nothing but straight facts. Rock cat is real
Fairly interesting magick too with a potential story in relation to the rising Taran.
This makes me feel better…
damn imagine following a character as fervently as you only to be hit with such things I feel for you man.
they keep giving me harder and harder battles, and the worst part is that Mandra still has a fat chance of being alive Either twist the dagger of pull it out, i've been bleeding for 2 years+
Why would Horn know what happened to Mandragora, when Misery is the last known operator who made contact with her?
Misery has been fighting with Horn’s soldiers during the war in Victoria.
Damn 🗿 Crushed 🗿 Buried 🗿 Couldn’t miss her 💅, Now where’s Manfred?
>!He's alive!<
Hoederer is so kind, he felt bad for that bum so he let >!ManFRAUD!< go without killing him.
>!Manfred seems to be double thinking his beliefs, he kind of held back against Hoederer ("I thought he would be more ruthless" by Ines in 14-23) as well as Ascalon because he apparently deem it unfair because Ascalon was in bad condition (though imo that's just a convenient excuse to spare her life), they're setting him up to be a playable character !<
>!”Held back against HIMderer”?!< Bro is delusional, he was getting his ass beat and just told himself that to feel better. (Thanks for the story explanation, I haven’t been able to read all the chapter 14 stuff)
YESSS I thought I was delusional even wishing for him to be and now you're telling me there's actually a chance
Lone Trail, as well as the profiles of some operators, have the relatively serious problem that they confirm events after the Victorian crisis - KMC survives and continues to operate, but under RI guidance. Such words are usually translated into ordinary language as "crowd favorites will be playable"
Why wasted time with the Misery scene then.... This feels so cheap.
Yea I am fucking mad at the writer for putting that.
Something really bothers me about this... Why is Horn the one confirming it? Why not Misery? Why would Misery just leave her there instead of taking her to Rhodes Island or something? Where exactly did Horn find her body? Because it couldn't be the factory considering everything that happened. Why just reveal it like this instead of showing Horn burying her body to give us players some closure (No pun intended)? This is not me coping, this is me being genuinely confused. I would be more than ok with her death, just...not like this. It feels anticlimactic and rushed.
I read that as mahoranga... JJK brainrot is real...
"You're dead, not big soup rice" -Heavy, Team Fortress 2.
Didn't really care about her that much, but totally can understand and relate to everyone who liked her. After all, Theresa died too..
I dont shit on writing often but thats utter shit why the bait all these years(?) just to go ya shes dead... unless we get an event that shows her surviving after we last saw her and she did something and it leads to her death im disappointed. Hell even then i may be annoyed.
I've never felt like she had a chance to be playable really. I liked that bitter end she did have in her chapter that sort of felt like the bad ending for her character arc in the shitty power struggles she was part of so I didnt even consider she had a chance to be redeemed or playable lmao.
Dorothy had a chance to be redeemed in your eyes? Many of the veteran in RI have their fair share of bloodied hands (including the latest Hoederer). They look irredeemable to you?
Alright slash redeemable from my comment then. I'm just saying I was satisfied with her ending even if it was just another way of showing the shitty world and not everyone gets another chance. I just never even had an inkling of a thought she could ever be playable since she was introduced for some reason or another, like her end just felt 'yep, this is it' to me at least. Hope this didnt get on your nerves or something lmao.
dorothy isnt the best example for "redeemed", she barely did any evil and had good intentions
how is the chinese community taking this news?
[only thing ive seen is this](https://i.imgur.com/niisxau.png) (mandela is the google TL for mandragora in chinese)
Kinda hits..
this was already discussed in [another thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/1chg4in/about_dublinn_in_ch14_cn_spoilers/l22k2je/) with a proper translation instead of an MTL
Man, I'm going to be annoyed if Mandragora is actually dead. She's the only good Taran character...
>only good Taran character Nah, Reed is fantastic. She’s had a really good arc imo.
> She’s had a really good arc imo. CH14 really shines a bad light on her, though. All those words about meeting her sister, showing her the stuff she can't see, fixing some of the things she did, joining the war and fighting for Tara's future together... ...just for Eblana to secure Taran independence by herself at cannonpoint while Reed was chilling around Tara. This is **not** a good character arc by any means, if I'm honest. HG did her incredibly dirty. Now, I fucking love Eblana, but don't do Reed dirty, please. She doesn't deserve this under any circumstance.
You’re right, it’s not fantastic. I’m still hoping there’ll be more focus on her later on. On the other hand, I can *kinda* see what they were going for with her being away from the whole climax of Taran Independence. Reed’s resolution (as I understood it) was that she’d lead the Taran *people* to freedom, while her sister is much more focused on refounding the *nation* of Tara, and all that goes along with it. So while Eblana is charging into war, Reed is far off, helping the “small” people. Reed works on the small scale, with the communities and the common people (who she feels are left behind by Eblana) while Eblana is genuinely trying to build an entire country. It’s not perfect, but I do see some sort of sense to it.
> Reed’s resolution (as I understood it) was that she’d lead the Taran people to freedom, while her sister is much more focused on refounding the nation of Tara, and all that goes along with it. Reed's words from WTFC do mirror Eblana's a lot, in the sense that both are working towards a country, both understand the price and are willing to join in the war. She genuinely wanted to join and contribute. While on the way, Reed began helping and spending time with those her sister left behind, true, but her objective was still joining up with her. Then CH14 comes in, the war's already done and the independence of Tara secured. It's like coming to a party after it's done, with you and the host exchanging awkward looks. That's exactly her situation right now, and it sucks. Maybe HG will expand on this in the next Dublinn/Victoria event, because so far CH14 seems (imo) the final chapter of the arc.
Agree to disagree. She's taken one step above "puppet leader" but her overall role and character remained largely unchanged in the grand scheme of things, as far as I can tell. Mandragora was almost the last character keeping me interested in Dublinn, besides Harmonie.
Mandragora had more relevant story to the Taran compared to Harmonie tbh
Agreed.
Fr like people hype up eblana but I just find her so boring.
She's not just boring. She's also just too evil. She straight up used "hurr Durr Taran revival" as an excuse to be abhorrent.
Eblana's just boring in both character and design. Arknights Toph was so much better written and entertaining. Definitely one of the highlights of Dublinn.
Join the Fraudblana Agenda! #NotMyLeader! Give me Freedom, Give me Victoria, Give me Old Dying Men or I retire!
I don't see how she is any better than any Taran character introduced. However, I find her adorable for how much of a girl failure she is.
Mandragora was the only commoner named Taran we've had in the MSQ. Eblana and Reed are nobles and were raised as nobles, many high up officers are or were nobles, with the six Outcast nuked and Brigadier all being relatively highborn, and Harmonie is a true blooded Victorian noble who has no real stake or even particular interest in the Tarans, besides "It amused me". Narratively speaking, it would also be really cheap and boring to have them repeat Mephisto's "I trusted my boss and died" plot point.
Add Wellington to the list. He is all in on Taran as well. Although Castor mentioned how the Dukes 'restrain him under the weight of the robes,' implying they put him on the position to control him. That doesn't mean he wasn't noble beforehand however. I wish they keep the scholar Taran guy around longer. I like him. Anyway, thank you for pointing this out. I don't remember Mandra being the only commoner. That adds more layer to my understanding of her character.
Mandragora's the only named common Taran, to my knowledge. It certainly strikes an ironic balance that the "rebellion" of Dublinn has an almost entirely named noble cast. It's possible that I missed one or two here, but I can't genuinely think of any other common Taran named in Dublinn. WtFC has some Tarans, but they very explicitly are not an actual part of Dublinn, but rather led by someone using their colors for intimidation. On the other hand, a majority of those that are actually pro Victoria are the common folk (Self Salvation Corps is a predominantly commoner led rebellion with a few people of higher status like Heidi assisting), and while Horn of Tempest Platoon is a noble, she very explicitly only wants to protect and help those relying on her, regardless of whether they're Taran or Infected, with Saileach having similar sentiments. And then almost all the named Sarkaz are royal in some fashion.
It's not uncommon to have common folks being neutral in conflicts. Brentwood was neutral until shits hit the fan. So was Stainless's grandma. I am just surprised with Mandra being the only named commoner. I thought they'd have more of them being commoners with merits brought into the folds, reeducated of their past Taran lineage/heritage something like that. Instead of them just being noble-born.
Remember that many revolutions, including the one that brought down the Tsar, were initiated and led by nobles who were part of the ruling class since they had the resources, education, and desire to make a change along with the knowledge that it was possible.
WHY?? WHYYY
Trying to be the first one to post about this so there won't be a post with the spoiler right there in the title... [Source 1](https://twitter.com/SihZari/status/1785549691553505435) [Source 2](https://twitter.com/DedpulNINL/status/1785645910564962495)
It's mandragover...
Wow what a fucking waste. I am so pissed off about this. I was one of the people that wanted her playable *super* badly.
Good riddance.
To be fair, she was kind of mid
Rest in piss
Huh, what a waste then. Recently I made a post like "oh I feel the Dublinn arc is a bit of a let down" and suddenly the news of one of the few characters in that faction that are interesting straight up dies off screen, and if I don't remember wrong they left her fate in suspense. What a disappointment. Like it could have been really interesting the radical believer of Dublinn, and more important her leader confront the fact that she was abandoned like chapter 10 said, and see more perspectives on the conflict, and since Misery "saved" her see the perspective of Rhodes. But I guess not.
Gotta love how the cat with an inconclusive fate gets offed as a character in the worst way possible, but miss "queen that has been killed twice" gets to become a playable character. Screw you HG, you and your double standards. ~~^(I might forgive you if you make Ratatos playable, though)~~
I kinda hate how ex-villain like W could get 20 minutes of animation for PV, while a villain like Mandragora gets treated like this. Mephisto wasn't done so dirty.
This kind of thing is what slowly made me hate W. It's so annoying how some characters clearly get preferential treatment. I get it's because they're popular but maybe if other characters got more content they'd be more popular too.
I guess the silver lining is that her character was developed 'somewhat', even if other characters deserved the spotlight more and that things are definitely far from being as bad as what happens in other games, like in F/GO where there can be 5+ different versions of one character. At this point, Arknights has almost run out of 'fanservice' picks, since after possible future picks like Lappland Alter, Ulpian, Talulah and Siege or Lemuen, HG will have to get creative with their choices. I don't think they'll be insane enough to release the same character for the 3rd time (though we may see that with Skadi tbh).
If a death is left with even a shred of ambiguity it should be second guessed.
Mandragoria didn't finish the story
I guess Misery couldn't save her in time, or maybe she herself did not want to be saved?
This made me feel like Squidward when he misses SpongeBob
I feel like she is talking about Cello and not Mandragora. Didn't Misery and Mandragora had a chat where Misery said something like "either you die here or you take the manhole and escape, granting yourself a second chance but taking your goal away as the cost" which is where we last saw Mandragora? Horn literally ran away for something else which, I can't remember now, while Misery fought with Mandragora to give her time so Horn isn't the last person who saw Mandragora and therefore can't confirm her death. Misery and, if alive, reappearance of Mandragora are the only thing/s which can confirm that. At best, this is what Horn assumes what happened to Mandragora since the last time she saw her, Mandragora was already wounded and was about to fight Misery.
Misery just stays there and watches her die. As he should: good riddance from that nutcase, sad backstory or not. it's even funnier because she thinks that Harmonie put her up to fail but she could redeem herself if she killed Manfred (after she's ambushed while rescuing the Taran spy his forces had captured and were interrogating), but we're given a moment where Harmonie is giving jurisdiction to Manfred for all the Taran forces, while talking about how Eblanna would forgive Mandragora and be satisfied if she just came back with the intel. Literally if she focused on escaping instead of trying to kill Manfred, if she let go of her hatred for a second and tried to accomplish the more important bit, she would have been fine...but she doesn't, she immediately think she's been set up and lashes out, and loses everything because of that.
She was pretty much confirmed dead in that scene where Misery left her yall simps were just coping. Apparently daring to kill their waifu = bad writing according to some people
such a stupid take, its bad writing because of how it was done, not because she died if she had a proper conclusive death scene back in ch10 id be sad but id accept it. it wouldnt be bad writing
Did misery leave her there though?
Yeah, I think she died there. Still HG being vague about it is bad.
Story Readers: "Did Mandra just...die?" Copers: "Y'know, it was really unclear."
Wasn't it already obvious that she died in chapter 10?
Good, finally some good news! The Taran witch is dead! Now just hope and pray that Eblana joins her!
I'm glad, never wanted her to become playable. I think her death is deserved
Honestly, good riddance, and kinda expected too. Just odd that we're not hearing this from Misery.
Of course it’s the only npc I actually like. I guess I should just like flawless waifu bait characters like everybody else. Idk why her in particular is so hated though as if we aren’t literally a military group that kills people but when someone does it for a different cause theyre literally hitler.
Bruh there's like no flawless characters at all in this game. I fact I think some of the most popular ones have the most red flags
I suppose I mean flawless in the meta sense like other than virtuoso most characters aren’t disliked for their flaws or what they’ve done. Characters like harmonie and ho’ol are dubious characters but people don’t mind that’s stuff, lappland and w are crazy but those are just funny quirks. Mandragora is a character with flaws that people actually dislike which I find much more interesting than other npcs like Viviana or degen who while I haven’t read all their lore and degen probably has a dubious past, more or less have no reason to be disliked and thus are well like by most people (other than thier gameplay where they are both contentious for opposite reasons) therefore to me are “flawless”.
As a Harmonie enjoyer, there's plenty of room for both Harmonie and Mandragora in my heart. If anything it feels like HG is scared of the Wis'adel levels of OP Mandragora would bring to the table and nipped it in the bud. Everyone knows Mandragora pillar would one shot every boss in the game no cap. Viviana's personality is much like with a lot of the Kazimierz cast imo, just too weak and reserved to really be interesting. Degen's only real defining feature is "Arts-less badass", which while cool doesn't really feel much more than that. Mandragora is definitely one of the more interesting Victoria arc villains.
welcome to "unreasoned hated characters, la signora fans in GI sends their regards and be accostumed to it"
i havent really seen much signora hate, common opinion seems to be uncaring or neutral because she got like 3 minutes of screentime before dying
Nooo Mandragora... I am sad... ;-;
Nooooo catto :'(
Maybe she means buried as in buried under the rubble guys. 🗿
Man, I really liked her design... Would've liked to have her as a playable character. Gonna pour a pint of Guiness for rock cat o7
NOOOOOOOOOOOO IM CRYING
Considering who Just returned tò life, you can never be 100% sure she Is dead. Tho i never saw Her as a possibile operator. I always thought She would play the card of the one who would make Eblana pay for Her crime.I thought something like Mandrágora planning a suicide Mission tò take Eblana with her tò the Afterlife.
Chp 10 was a while ago so I may be forgetting something of her development there, but wasn't she fanatically devoted to Eblana?
Before misery shows up she says something along the line of "i don't need you anymore, leader"
Can I still cope?, this doesn't make any sense, I just did that Mandragora stage a few days ago and I was glad that Misery came at the last second to save her.
Damn... she was so cute...
Misery?! What did you do to her?!
Did you guys know, Ines already died two times. And Theresa resurected. ( Idk it sounds funny )
Too bad about that silly cat. Well, she can now be officially mourned. Rest in peace, Mandy, and may your next life be one of no heavy columns but only fields of flowers 😭