Headscratchers / Radiant Historia

• What happens to the Alternate History? Without Stocke, the Ritual can't be completed there.
  • I just assumed that the AH collapsed into the Standard / True History. Stocke threaded between the two timelines enough that they might have just merged somehow. Or, you know, everyone in the AH eventually died after the desertification enveloped Vainqueur. But that would be sort of depressing, you know?
  • Open the White Chronicle before you fight the final boss. Notice how the timeline you're in is in the middle? It can be said that Stocke had indeed threaded the Standard and Alternate histories together, creating the True Timeline mentioned oh-so-long ago.
• Kind of a meta Headscratcher: How is Stocke referred to as a Red Oni and a stoic on the same page?
  • Red Oni isn't always indicative of personality; it can just as easily refer to behavior, especially compared to the likes of Eruca and Raul. Stocke's actions (jumping headfirst into danger, quicker to go with his gut, etc.) suffice to characterize him as the Red Oni in most comparisons, while his initially cold and withdrawn personality characterized him as a Stoic. It's actually quite possible for a Red Oni to also be The Stoic or for a Blue Oni to be Hot-Blooded (though the latter would be more difficult to successfully pull off).
  • That, and the relationship where he's the red half of the pair was under a different name, and with different memories. During the game's time period, when he seems to be much more withdrawn, he plays Blue to Rosch more often than not.
• So is everyone a massive hypocrite, or am I missing something? Later on in the game, it's revealed that the Ritual requires a sacrifice to be completed. Everyone reacts to this with shock and horror, and the conversation culminates in Stocke saying, "No matter how you look at it, it's wrong." Perhaps it does seem cruel, but none of the characters are that torn up about the full-scale WAR going on. How is sacrificing a single person in the name of saving the world worse than sending countless troops into battle in the name of expanding Alistel's territory? That whole cutscene just felt totally out-of-character for everyone.
  • The way I see it, it's because people signing up to be troops have a choice about it, they made a decision to risk their lives, while the Ritual basically requires someone to be a sacrifice with no option on the matter. Worse, it's not just some random person grabbed to be a sacrifice, it's someone who was raised for the purpose and only the purpose of being one. Less dangerous to bystanders, but in terms of being morally horrible... The war still isn't that great for civilians, who didn't have a choice on the matter, but from the point of view of the non-power-grabbing governing parties, they are trying to defend their civilians. Even for those who initiated fighting, they're doing it to get more arable land so they can support their population. So while I doubt any of the main characters are happy about the war, it's understandable why they aren't as upset by it.
• Why did Fennel build himself with a self destruct function? Why would he ever need that?
  • Because he's insane. Don't you know anything about SCIENCE?
• At the end of Chapter 3 of Standard History where the party is drugged and separated... Considering there's a node literally right before that happened, couldn't Stocke just go back and warn everyone about the gas, preventing everyone from getting knocked out and separated in the first place? Granted, it may have been for the best since things ended up going in Stocke's favor because of what happened, but the fact it wasn't even brought up as a possibility is odd.
  • Because taking that action, would have derailed History a ridiculous amount from the True Path...basically, they would have had to add a Bad Ending.
• If the Royal Family is needed in order to prevent the desertification, why did they not breed in massive numbers to prevent the possibility of the bloodline dying out and thus making the ritual impossible?
  • Because the ones who WEREN'T idiotic assholes kept getting sacrificed.
• If the desertification seems to only be affecting this continent, why has no one tried making ships to sail out and search for other, more greener continents?
• How did Heiss not realize Stocke had activated the White Chronicle earlier on? It's outright stated by Lippti and Teo that the wielder of the Black Chronicle was meddling in both timelines. Surely, if Heiss could meddle in both, he should thought something was wrong if two existed to meddle with in the first place...
  • He did figure it out eventually, Stocke just had an early lead on him because Heiss took Stocke at his word at first that the book did nothing.