This is me yapping for a few hundred words about the Dragon Knights of Granblue Fantasy. Ignore me.
danchou: monarchy... is bad...?
(feendrache crew staring in horror)
https://bsky.app/profile/endsream.bsky.social/post/3msgvzqjsxs2p
This is slander but it is true. They would stare in horror. But the degree of horror they felt would be different.
Right after Black Dragon breakup, the most horrified by the idea would be Siegfried. His entire world-view is based on loyalty to his king and kingdom, to hell with everything else, and the only king he'd ever known is a good guy, his paragon of goodness even (also guy he's in love with) (ok that one is headcanon)
By his reunion with the white dragons though (dragon knights events), he might've mellowed out and learned a bit more of the world. The idea of "monarchy is bad" will still be weird to him, but he wouldn't be so horrified, he'd be willing to give it some thoughts.
But, Lancelot! He would still be horrified! He'd pretty much thrown his entire life for his kingdom, and he'd grown up looking up to Siegfried and Josef as singular force for good, one ruler at the top handling everything. In his mind King Carl is still filling that same position, and he's doing his damnedest to fill Siegfried's shoes. The idea that he could be fundamentally wrong about this, it could ruin him.
If there are bad people on top, like Isabella or Aglovale, he'd just assume those are flukes and not a rightful ruler. He'd still be looking for a monarch to fill the empty throne.
(actually I'm not sure what Lancelot feels about Aglovale, I should... I was going to say reread dragon knights 2 but what I should be reading is the saviour of dalmore...)
Vane would properly recognize that he's not equipped to think about this, but also means he won't immediately dismiss the idea. As long as his kids and loved ones are taken care of, he'd be satisfied with whatever form the government takes (and his heart has enough space for A LOT of loved ones).
Now, Percival! I swear I'm dialing down my favoritism when I say this, he probably has genuinely thought about the idea (at least as of his Grand version when aglovale gave him a job, it mellows him out). He wants to be king, but his idea of a king is someone who's fundamentally a civil servant, a leader who serves the people (source: description for Lord of Flames the sword).
So if you tell him "hey it's bad that rulers are decided by their birth" he'd probably agree! He didn't even want to be king just because his father was one (he wants to be a founding king, king by deeds, not inheriting a kingdom (he will probably hates if this happens to him, actually, read my fic that I will totally write one day)). And if you tell him "it's bad that one person controls everything, what if we have a parliamentary system with checks and balances" he will probably want to hear you out, even if he'll be a little combative about it. Statecraft runs in his brain 24/7, you think you can out-debate him? He will be glad to see you try.
Anyway I'm thinking of that scene in... I forgot if it was Dragon Knights 2 or 3, when the knights concluded all this shit is happening because King Carl sucks, but Percival is the only one willing to call him out on it. And then of course Lancelot defended the king, and also the king apologized, and then the people go "noo. king carl is good! he can make amends!" which just shows you how bad things are out there in Feendrache. I fully support Percival wanting to gtfo of that place.
This is all of course predicated on Avalon (or whatever this island is called in the present day) being a technological/political bubble to the rest of the sky realm and every state there is a kingdom ruled by monarchy. The kingdoms of Avalon also have porous borders and delicate political ties that kinda rely on all the kingdoms having similar governmental structure.
Most people probably haven't thought that an alternative system of government is possible. Monarchy is all that they know so if you just fire this idea at them, most of them will be all ???
(there's probably something interesting here about how Avalon can remain its own bubble with the united strength of its feudal lords but idfk anything about the skydoms I haven't read Act III msq. I haven't even real all of the dragon knights!!!)
So out of the four dragon knights, the most horror-struck by the idea that monarchy is bad would be Lancelot, and the least would be Percival.
Out of the extended full cast of the Dragon Knights, though, the one who'd agree the most that monarchy is bad would be Aglovale. For reasons that I may or may not elaborate on on a later date. Thank you for listening to my TED talk.
