Mostly there is a large tendency from the player base to down play all of Hazō's victories and constantly highlight any potential risk to an excessive degree. I find it all incredibly exhausting.
I'll readily agree to being amongst those who often call for caution and wariness in our action plans. Hazou's said and done things --such as the Kabuto Killbox Incident and the Akatsuki Killbox Incident --where we've come
very close to having a Bad End. So, I usually opt to err on the side of "slow and safely" because of that. I can sympathize with how frustrating it must be to want to sprint when you have weights tied around your ankles. I disagree, because I view the added "weight" as more akin to a kevlar/protective vest than ankle weights, but I can see where you're coming from and sympathize with the situation it puts you in.
Also I strongly object to both of your responses. I fundamentally believe that we can successfully play on the highest level. For your comment on the Minami plan I just incredibly dislike how you minimize mine and Faflec's work. We wrote an amazing plan but you seem to want to give us no credit.
I, personally, don't think Hazou-as-a-character can play on the highest levels of politics just yet --it was just a few updates ago where we-the-hivemind were panicking at the thought of Ami knowing FOOM right now, because Hazou-the-character is already so vulnerable to her potential social manipulations. But I suspect that's just a characterization issue that we'll have to agree to disagree upon.
As for your secondary qualm? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trivialize either of your efforts in crafting the line of discussion. Indeed, if I hadn't preferred giving EJ an action scene for that particular update, I would've voted for it. We just had different priorities for that specific update, that's all. It was a thoughtful plan of action that will have a genuinely positive impact in the story later on. Even if the Minami initially refuse, only to join the Trade Network later on, the groundwork that you and Faflec laid will go a
long way to making the transition a far easier one than it would otherwise be.
As I said, that wasn't my intent to disparage your efforts. My points about Hazou's reliance on "Mari's instruction and his bloodline," that he was "batting out of his league," and that "we did as well as we possibly could have" was directed at the
internal narrative of the story, and
not the game's meta-narrative (the plans) that shape it. I never meant to cast doubt or scorn on either of your efforts, and I'm both embarrassed and ashamed that I might have led you or Faflec to think otherwise. I genuinely,
sincerely, apologize. My comments were
never meant as a critique of your combined efforts, but rather, as an observation of Hazou's internal character and the game's story as a whole.
If you'll allow me, let me try to explain just what I was trying to say. I meant that
Hazou, as young and unaccustomed to politics as he is, has come a long way from housing game nights to try and dispel rumors of wild orgies. But Hazou's not a perfect politician just yet. He's a young man in puberty, and although he's vastly more mature than many of us were at his age, there will be times when his patience breaks where our own patience might have endured.
Luckily, Hazou's received advice on politics and manipulation from
Mari, former Heartbreaker of the Mist. And that training gives him a leg up, much in the way that Rock Lee's training from Gai, the Green Beast of the Leaf, gives
him a leg up on taijutsu. Furthermore, Hazou has a bloodline uniquely suited for political manipulation. It allows him to wear masks and act out roles with an ease that he wouldn't have otherwise. So that allows Hazou-as-a-character yet another boost when navigating political waters.
However, he's still relatively new to the world of politics. Hazou's mounting frustration slips through the Iron Nerve's clutches and reveals itself, leading the Minami Summoner to offer him political advice --a gesture of goodwill and flaunting superiority --which Hazou is forced to accept and then immediately implement --thus accepting her goodwill and acknowledging her superiority.
Hazou, as much as we-the-hivemind may occasionally forget (myself included), is a character who exists somewhat-independent of our own plans. We could make a
theoretically perfect action plan for a given moment --and I would even argue that the plan that you and Faflec put together is as close to a perfect solution as we could have possibly made --but Hazou may not necessarily be able to
execute it, as we see in the Minami debate chapter.
That's what I mean when I said that we "did as well as we could have." We had a theoretically perfect plan and the only missteps that occurred in its implementation were the result of Hazou, as his own character, possessing flaws that are both critical to his characterization and independent of the hivemind's planning.
Edit: minor grammar corrections.