User blog:Jester of chaos/PE Proposal: Lord Mathia/Chancellor Bartlow (anime version)


 * Original:

Hi there, new contributor here. This is a candidate I proposed not too long ago on my TV Tropes account, and he actually got approved by the forum, so after checking out the basic guidelines and creating an account here, I thought I would try proposing him here too and see what happens. Yes, on his page, he is filed under a couple of categories that would seem to contradict his qualification for this, namely "Affably Evil" and "Grey Zone". However, having seen the anime adaptation of the game he originates from, I can confidently declare that these categories don't apply to him there (I haven't played the original game, so they might apply in that version). With that out of the way, here's my proposal:

What's the work?

Tales of Zestiria the X is a Japanese anime television series based on both the Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria video games (primarily the former though) that debuted in 2016 and ran for two season and 25 episodes (26 including a prologue episode titled "episode 0"). It follows the same basic storyline as the game, but with quite a number of specific differences in terms of exactly what happens, and how it happens. The story follows Princess Alisha, the princess of Hyland from its capital city of Ladylake, who is investigating the increased presence of "Malevolence", a powerful contaminating force that corrupts those who are overcome with negative emotions into mindless monsters called "Hellions". She is also investigating the disappearance of the "Seraphim", a spiritual race who used to keep nature running smoothly and in balance, with the few who have appeared lately being corrupted by malevolence as well and morphing into mindless dragons, capable of widespread destruction. Finally, she's trying to find out if the "Shepherd", a regular person who could wield the sacred sword and be able to combine their powers with that of the elemental powers of seraphim to counter the malevolence and purify hellions, really exists.

Early on, after a tragic incident where she loses many of her friends, she discovers Elysia, a village full of seraphim (who are invisible to her and most humans) where she also meets a reguar human named Sorey, who has grown up with them, and unlike most others, can actually see them. While the seraphim are in no mood to help her, since despite her pleas, they believe humanity is too corrupt to be saved, Sorey, after listening to her story regarding how bad the corruption is getting in the world, and being the kindhearted person he is, decides to help her, and follows her back to the capital city of Ladylake along with his best friend, the water-based seraphim Mikleo.

Who is he and what has he done?

Lord Mathia Bartlow, Chancellor Bartlow, or, as he's most often addressed as, just plain Bartlow, is the scheming leader of the Ladylake City Council. He is consistently at odds with Alisha over how to best protect the city, with Alisha advocating for a more peaceful and pacifistic approach when it comes to dealing with the neighboring land of Rolance, while he wants to enlist soldiers from the upcoming Sacred Blade Festival (an event to find the aforementioned prophesied Shepherd) to build up their forces and launch a so-called "preemptive strike" against them.

Wanting her out of his way, Bartlow secretly enlists a group of assassins called "The Scattered Bones" to assassinate Alisha. While they only target corrupt individuals, Bartlow convinces them it's an honorable mission by telling them that her foolish idealism would lead to them eventually being invaded and cost them numerous civilian casualties, and outright lies that there are existing rumors of her secretly being allied with Rolance. They make their first real attempt on her life during the Sacred Blade Festival, which fails due to Alisha competently defending herself.

Later on, he has Alisha sent away with a decent battalion of Ladylake soldiers under the guise her father, the king, is sending them to provide medical supplies for the plagued city of Marlind. Bartlow, with much freer reign to exercise his authority now, starts having the soldiers prepare for a large-scale war. It is later reported by Lady Maltran and Sirel (the former being Alisha's mentor/instructor and the latter being a member of her personal cavalry who she had keep an eye on Bartlow's activities while she was sent away) that he has amassed an enormous battalion of approximately 20,000 soldiers (from not just Ladylake, but all of Hyland), and sent most of them to the border of Glaivend Basin to attack Rolance with the supposed intention of raiding them for supplies for the needs of cities like Marlind. Of course, as pointed out by Maltran, it's really just the convenient excuse he needed to finally pull off his "preemptive strike".

Knowing that it will not lead to anything good, Alisha resolves to ride out with the soldiers sent out and aligned with her to try and stop them from engaging in combat with Rolance's soldiers and escalating the conflict between the neighboring nations. However, having anticipated this, Bartlow has already sent out Rose and the rest of the Scattered Bones to intercept and kill her, who arrived previously under the guise of providing additional supplies for the people of Marlind. However, after engaging in a tense standoff with her, Rose and the rest of of her troupe see how genuine and noble her resolve really is, and agree to ride out with her to stop the conflict.

By the time they arrive, Glaivend Basin has already turned into a massive battlefield with hundreds of Hyland and Rolance soldiers locked in combat. However, with a large amount of help from the aforementioned Sorey, who, of course, turned out to be the prophesied Shepherd and now wields the Sacred Sword and the ability to purify malevolence alongside his team of contracted seraphim (including Mikleo), they are successfully able to purify all of the soldiers on both sides from the malevolence corrupting them in the heat of battle, greatly reduce the number of all-around casualties, and put a stop to the conflict/budding war.

However, the foiling of this plot only causes Bartlow to sink to lower depths. Having used his established trust to falsely accuse Alisha and all those associated with her of treason, Bartlow sends a huge battalion of Hyland knights to ambush Alisha and her squadron, resulting in all of them aside from herself and Sirel being brutally massacred. They soon meet up with Ian, another member of Alisha's personal cavalry, along with a small number of soldiers that got away with her, and discover that a bunch of others have been falsely arrested under the same pretense of treason, including Maltran.

Lying to the king himself that he simply sent soldiers to bring her back to be punished and that they were met with violence, Bartlow is given full authority to deal with her and any who are sided with her. When he hears from soldiers that they're on the outskirts of Ladylake trying to get back in (to take back the city), he proceeds to have Maltran crucified in the main square to tempt Alisha into trying to save her before she dies (likely of dehydration), and has set up a bunch of soldiers there to ambush and overwhelm her remaining forces.

Not wanting to let her die or attempt to save her and sacrifice many to do so, Alisha and company instead sneak into Ladylake and head straight for the palace to inform the king of Bartlow's treachery. Catching onto this when they take too long to reach him, Bartlow heads there himself and confronts Alisha just after she's reached her father, and tries to paint her as being there to kill him. Refusing to take up arms against him, Bartlow attempts to kill Alisha himself with his sword... only for the king, despite being corrupted by malevolence, to take the blow instead, fatally wounding him. While shocked for a moment, Bartlow then commands the mourning Alisha to rise to her feet since "they're not finished yet". Alisha again iterates that she won't fight and kill him, but declares she will tell everyone about his murder of the king and that he will be sent to prison for regicide, but Bartlow simply retorts that no one will believe a traitor like her over a trusted chancellor like him. When she asks if he means to keep spreading falsehoods to keep himself in power, he replies "why not? It's been a good strategy so far."

Unfortunately for him, this ends up being an engineered public confession since her lieutenants and small troupe have been standing just outside the door along with the soldiers who were guarding the king, who have overheard everything. Outraged at his murder, as well as the lies he told to convince them to fight and kill their own fellow knights, Bartlow finds himself completely backed into a corner. In desperation, he runs out onto the balcony, and declares that if Alisha won't have him killed, but sentenced to life in prison, "there's still a way for him to win after all"... and commits suicide by leaping to his death, putting an end to him and his part in the story.

Does he have any redeeming qualities or a valid excuse for his actions?

The first important point that should be brought up is that while many humans and Seraphim alike commit their worst actions when taken over by malevolence, Bartlow is never shown to be explicitly influenced by it, nor does he ever seem in particular danger of losing his senses and turning into a hellion, which is especially illustrated by his last scene, where Alisha, having gained the ability to see it due to making a contract with Sorey as his "Squire", doesn't see any such aura surrounding him. I think it's safe to say his actions and motives are completely his own with little to no influence from the malevolence.

As for redeeming qualities... yes, early on, he claims that the reason he's opposed to Alisha's pacifistic methods is because he believes that they will lead to Rolance invading them and killing numerous people that they could save by attacking first. However, he only said this while he was speaking privately to the Scattered Bones alongside using blatant lies like there being existing rumors about Alisha being secretly tied to Rolance. So it's pretty obvious, especially in retrospect, that he was just saying this to convince them that assassinating her was the right thing to do. It's also pretty hard to buy that the well-being of the people is high on his priority list when he's willing to sink to lows like pitting Ladylake's own soldiers against each other for his own benefit (who are, you know, the ones tasked with protecting their city). Even after accidentally killing the king, the one you would think he'd be the most loyal and respectful to, he was only momentarily shocked before continuing with his plight to kill Alisha, and had every intent to use his good publicity to frame it on her without a shred of remorse. He even pretty much outright admits with that above quote that he has no problem with spreading falsehoods to keeps himself in power. So in the end, it's pretty clear he knows he's in the wrong, and securing his own power by building a good image with the people is what matters more than anything else to him.

On a side note, he's also very good at acting affable around certain individuals like he did with Sorey, who didn't know him very well, but seeing as how he was just trying to manipulate him into serving his purposes and expressed that he was willing to eliminate him if he had to... yeah, it's all just a "Faux Affably Evil" facade. When it's all said and done, he comes off as a a hypocrite at best, and a power-hungry warmonger at worst with no real redeeming qualities.

Is he heinous by the standards of the work?

Admittedly, the heinous standard is a little on the high side since the attempted destruction of entire cities happens on more than one occasion. It's important to note, however, that most, if not all cases of this, are caused by Seraphim who are corrupted and turned into dragons by malevolence, so they're not doing it of their own volition. Also, Heldalf, better know as the Lord of Calamity, and the main antagonist of the series, intends to drown the world in malevolence, but we discover later that he's far more of a vessel for the malevolence itself to use, rather than him being in control of it (that, and he's turns out to not be nearly as malicious as he lets on).

Even taking those things into consideration though, Bartlow has a pretty hefty amount of crimes considering he's just an ordinary human; apart from his multiple attempts to have Alisha killed and removed so he can seize authority/power, there's his ordered massacre of her squadron, which results in a considerable number of soldier's deaths (and soldiers of Ladylake no less). And most significantly of all, his attempt to start a war which resulted in the massive battle at Glaivend Basin could have led to thousands of deaths on both sides if Sorey hadn't purified most of them in time. Also, while Bartlow's not the only one who's willing to wage war, he's the only one who's motives and character are really fleshed out beyond soldiers and generals who are simply eager to employ whatever they can to win once the battles have started. Compared to other notable antagonists in the series like Lunarre, Symonne, and even the Lord of Calamity himself (who all have mitigating and/or sympathetic traits anyway), he comes off as far worse with actions like these.

I'd say the only other human in the series who's possibly as despicable as Bartlow is Prince Conan, but he's only a minor character who is reviled by Rose, Dezel and the Scattered Bones for backstabbing them and their former leader, Brad, but even that's addressed pretty vaguely. And even if we were given an exact count of how many members of their group got killed, it would be nowhere near the thousands that could have died in the massive battle/conflict that Bartlow initiated.

What's the verdict?

While I wasn't so sure when I first watched the series, upon re-watching certain key scenes and episodes before posting my initial EP on TV Tropes, I've been a firm "yes" on my personal opinion of him counting ever since. He's got a bigger rap sheet than pretty much any other character in the show, and even if he's rarely ever involved in the action personally, he's clearly the main orchestrator of the attempted full-scale invasion/war on the neighboring country of Rolance and the one who ordered Alisha's squadron killed. By the end, he pretty much outright confirms that it's all primarily to secure his own power, with his supposed good intentions really not holding up in the end. So... what do other people think?

[villains.fandom.com/wiki/Lord_Bartlow]