Smasher Dynamo posted:
Challenge #1
Explain to me what the hell 'Vanguard Bandits' are and who in this game is such a 'Vanguard Bandit.'
First, let us examine what "Vanguard Bandits" means.
Vanguard, as you have already said, can mean the forefront of battle. The obvious meaning of bandit is a outlaw that lives off his plunder or a robber. So the obvious answer is that a "Vanguard Bandit" would be whoever makes a living Plundering Forefronts of Battles.
Which makes no gods-damned sense.
(Maybe it's a reference how, in a certain way, all RPGs are like this. Aren'īt we men outside the law, fighting wars of greed against whoever opposes us?)
But let us look at a deeper meaning in their words.
A vanguard can also mean the forefront of a action or movement. In this case, the meaning shifts dramatically. The battlefield of the bandit is no more physical but ideological. And now our outlaws who plunder look out of place. Perhaps we steal ideas from the battlefield of politics? This seems incomplete.
Let us examine, therefore, the word "Bandit" in more detail.
Coming from the Italian Bandito, derived from Bandiere, to banish, a clearer picture emerges. The Bandit is one banished from society, outside the law and society of others, relying on plunder to survive.
His actions have clashed so greatly with prevailing norms that he is forbidden part in society, cast out and forced to be outside it.
Forced to hide from retribution.
But, the title says Bandits, not Bandit, implying that we speak not of a single character, but a group. This meshes well with the concept of vanguard as a movement or action, as few movements are a fellowship of one.
Now, let us combine what meaning we have sifted into a coherent whole:
"A movement, banished from society for it's transgressions, becomes head or important in it's shaping through Ideas not their own"
With this definition in hand I will now claim, without having seen more of the game then these few updates, that this refers to the Main character and his group, who though misfits and outside society, become it's heads through working with the ideas and values they take from others.
We can clearly see that the main character only apes the values of his father and I doubt that it will change later.
There. How's that?
You know? Fuck it, the fact that he's a prince doesn't change a thing. I'm sure He'll still just follow whatever people tell him to do so long as they use simple words.
Also, bandit = banished which is what he is.