[Spoiler] Kuon is a poorly written character

[Lapu]

This might be a controversial opinion but let me explain. I think that Kuon is the most mediocre main character in this whole series and I would even go as far as to include Prelude to the Fallen. There may be people out there to whom she is their favorite character and I assure you, that I don't want to attack your preferences or anything but I just want to expose why I think she is badly written from the get-go.

When we begin in Mask of Deception, we have our amnesiac protagonist. People always complain about Amnesia plotlines and not without reason. It's a very convenient way to build the world and character relations from scratch because the protagonist is a blank slate just like we are; they know nothing about the world, just like we know nothing. He comes the problem however, somehow we have to expose this innocent character to the world and the information. The easiest way to achieve this, is what was used here: introduce a support character that seems to know everything important and gives exposition dumps, withholding anything too important (later plot twists). This however is very very poor writing because a situtation like that is not really likely and not really believable. Kuon assumes this very role in MoD. As a traveller, she seems to know everything important and solely exists for the protagonist (and us in extension) to learn about the world. Her own character suffers in this process. Think about it. What's a characteristic trait about her person? You have Nekone who hates the protagonist but has a sweet spot for her brother, Rulutieh who is very timid and polite, Nosuri who is dumb but has her heart in the right spot and even Ougi has this mystery theme going for him. Kuon is the only one where nothing comes to mind at all. I feel really conflicted that in the end, we ought to feel attached to a character that I couldn't care less about. If Nekone was the one that has to be saved, I would be extremely motivated. But it felt just weird for Kuon when not much really happened to make me care about her.

I think the only moments that gave her character and that made her a little more important were when she was heartbroken at the end of MoD and the scene when she showed Haku where she found him (which was beautiful, best scene in the whole script imo) But that is still undermined by the depth of other characters and as soon as you get back to a laid back scene, Kuon reverts to this undefined character without much purpose.

[Minneyar]

Since we're on the MoT board and this already has Spoiler in the title, I'm just going to assume this topic is a free-for-all and not bother blacking out anything...

On the contrary, I'd say that in a long-form, serious story like this, a character who only exists for a metanarrative purpose or whose entire personality can be distilled into a single phrase is poorly written. In that regard, Uruuru & Saraana are by far the worst of the main cast in Mask of Deception, where they only exist for sex jokes and as a deus ex machine for getting into and out of the mausoleum, but Entua's the worst in Mask of Truth, where she only exists to be a viewpoint character for Vurai's segments and doesn't even have a discernible motive beyond that.

I also don't think it's fair to look at this story as an "amnesia plotline." Haku has amnesia, but it's not really important to the plot; his lack of memories is never a motivation for him, and he recovers them partway through the game, after which it's never an issue again. This is the second game in the series, players should already be familiar with the overall setting. We're in a new region compared to the first game, but Kuon isn't much more familiar with it than Haku is. She acts as Haku's guardian and takes care of him, but it's not her purpose to teach us, the players, about the world.

With all that in mind, I think Kuon is very well written because she fits naturally into the plot and her relationship with Haku changes subtly over time; she's never used solely for a metanarrative purpose and can't be reduced to a single trope.

First, she's the driving force that starts the plot. She runs away from her responsibilities in Tuskur and is exploring Onvitaikayan ruins in Yamato because she loves history and ancient technology (there's a distinctive personality trait for you, if you need one). She finds and awakens Haku, and at first she's hopefully that he'll be some godlike being that she can learn from, but she's immediately disappointed to realize that he's basically completely helpless, so she decides to act as his guardian and take care of him.

For a while, she's something of an overbearing motherly figure (because she was raised by several mothers like Karulau, Eruruu, and Ulthury who were also overbearing) -- note how when you first meet Rulutieh, Kuon comments about how she's her first friend, distinctly excluding Haku from that category. She's not just being mean there; she considers Haku to be her ward, not her friend. Eventually, as he demonstrates that he learns quickly and is capable of doing impressive things when he puts his mind to it, she softens up to him, but she also becomes fairly critical of him (and a little abusive) because of how lazy he is.

The fake kidnapping incident in the middle of Mask of Deception is a big turning point for her character, although it's not obvious the first time you play the game. When the other characters berate Anju for running away from home and abandoning her duties without thinking about how that would affect other people, Kuon realizes all of that is true about her, as well, and there's a significant shift in her behavior toward Haku and Anju afterwards. (I'd have to double-check, but I think there is only one instance of tail-around-the-head grabbing in MoD after that compared to several times before)

In the latter half of MoD, she becomes a lot more serious about her decision to protect Haku. When Dorry and Guraa come looking for her, she basically tells them that she won't go home until Haku will be fine without her, which is a bit ironic during the invasion of Tuskur; she decides to accompany Haku & co. on their mission to Tuskur specifically because she knows Yamato doesn't stand a chance and she has to protect Haku.

Then, of course, at the end of MoD, she's crushed when she thinks Haku died, both because it was her job to protect him and because, as Oboro points out, she had fallen in love with him. She also realizes that she could have protected him if she really tried; she was too dedicated to keeping her identity a secret and not using her real powers. After her promise is broken, she doesn't have any reason to stay in Yamato, so she goes back home.

In Mask of Truth, she acts as a foil to Anju as the princess of the enemy country (by the way -- for reference, the Japanese title here, "Futari no Hakuowlo", is referring to "the two white lords", i. e. Kuon and Anju, not Uta1's Hakuowlo). After the brief amnesia fakeout at the beginning, she recovers her memories and decides to protect her friends in Yamato, but as the princess of Tuskur, not Kuon; after she finds out about Anju and the state of Ennakamuy, she tries to make them dependent on supplies from Tuskur so that she can claim them as an ally when she conquers Yamato. When that starts to go badly, she then tries to break Anju's spirit (physically), which of course accidentally has the reverse effect and instead gives Anju the resolve to fight for her throne... and also makes Kuon realize Haku is still alive, so she runs away from home (again) so she can be with him.

To be fair, now, one complaint I have about MoT is that Kuon really takes a back seat during the middle arc of the game. After you reach the point where Ennakamuy is gathering allies and all of the other characters are having their own development arcs, she doesn't do much for a while.

Her next big scene is near the end of the war, when Haku and Mikazuchi are fighting; she quickly realizes that this is going to go the same way as Oshtor vs. Vurai if she doesn't stop them, and this is the first time that we see her intentionally channel Uitsualnemetia's power in order to break the apart. Again, her #1 goal is to protect Haku, and this time she's willing to risk exposing herself to do it.

I know I'm talking mostly about Kuon and Haku's relationship here, but it's worth keeping mind that there's also a constant thread of development going on between her and Nekone; Kuon effectively treated Nekone as a younger sister in MoD, and at the end of MoD, she abandoned her because she was heartbroken. The realization becomes worse in MoT when she discovers Oshtor is dead but Haku is alive, and after that there are several scenes with her bonding with Nekone as she regrets leaving her and eventually promises to never do so again.

After the war is over and "Oshtor" can slip out of the spotlight, that's finally Kuon's chance to really reunite with Haku, which turns out to be harder than she expected because he genuinely abandoned his previous identity and has been Oshtor longer than he was ever Haku. She takes him on a tour of Yamato as she awkwardly tries to reveal her true identity to him -- and it's worth noting that this is another scene where the game shows off her fascination with ancient technology when she accidentally activates the Abh Kamu.

She then takes the back seat for a little while again when Woshis' character arc starts up, but her big personal climax finally happens after Woshis has transformed and she's briefly separated from the group. The story recapitulates on her dedication to protecting her friends one more time, except this time she doesn't hold anything back -- she shows up with a team of Abh-Kamu (there's the love of technology again) dressed in her princess robes (no longer hiding her identity at all) in order to save everybody from the transformed yatanawarabe.

Shortly after that, Haku sacrifices himself to defeat Woshis, and in her grief at being unable to protect him, Kuon loses control of her powers and Uitsualnemetia's dark side tries to take over, although the final battle is really more the final defining moment for Haku than Kuon; after Haku takes Uitsualnemetia's powers and rescues her, she's able to let go of her grief and accept that he doesn't need her protection any more.

Anyway, this is getting really long. tl;dir version: I think Kuon is a great character and is very well written because she's a core part of the story without being used for a metanarrative purpose or falling into any common tropes. The only character who gets more nuanced development than her is Haku.

[Dudu(C)]

Minneyar said pretty much everything I wanted to say, and much more too, really puts into perspective A LOT about her character & what she does in the plot.

I played Prelude to the Fallen last, and one thing I noticed (had noticed a bit before on the sequels, but it becomes very clear here) is that Kuon has quite a bit of personality traits from her "mothers" and "sisters" too, which makes a lot of sense since they all took care of her. Stuff like Eruruu's kindness and affection, Touka's diligence and determination to work, Ulthury's motherly nature and graciousness. You can't help but see a bit of them in her sometimes. I also think she's one of the most well written characters in the series.

That said, I will agree that... There are moments that I expected more of her in MoT, mostly I think they dropped the ball quite a bit with her character after she rejoined the party, things that I think should have been obligatory to happen simply...didn't, as well as her overall participation 'till the end of the civil war arc was...weird, like you can definitely say she did her part, and the game showed it enough, but at the same time it gave me the "... I expected a bit more" feeling. I also wished we could've had more moments where the POV changed completely to her, it is a narrative thing that I appreciate a lot when done right, and it was cool seeying that in the very beginning of the game.