About a certain Prince......

[Birdman]

So I've just finished recently, it was great, gonna NG at some time in the near future.

But during the whole play through whenever Cedric would pop up I'd be left dunno..indifferent?

The previous 2 games, with the little screen time he had, established that he's sickly but a nice kid.

This game kinda bangs you over the head with how much he's transitioned into a semi competent, up himself prince.

I guess my issue is that it goes straight to telling you about his change without ever showing the why and the how.

I mean, yes the conversations between Osborn and The Emperor kind of allude to as to why, him being an Ironblood and all, and the whole thing with Testa Rosa , but it still feels like it's not enough.

Hoping he actually get fleshing out in the CS4, because with how he was written kind of just comes across as "Oh I'm bad now".

[stm8022]

Originally posted by Birdman:

I guess my issue is that it goes straight to telling you about his change without ever showing the why and the how.

Ehh, you get to hear pretty detailed reason he felt the need to change from the guy himself when he first shows up. Whether he's telling the (entire) truth is debatable, but the explanation is there, and is quite plausible.

As for the how, same way every other character in the game gets stronger -- offscreen training montage. We aren't really shown how most of the series' powerhouses got where they are, and how they were before, either.

[Mistfox]

There is also the sneaky suspicion that he did not advance "normally" and that his "competency" only took 2 months to come about.

Sure, he had an incredible drive to not be weak anymore so that he can't be used as a puppet again, but the character change makes it feel like he sold his soul to the devil for power, which I suspect was intended.

[Id3alistic]

He's a dumb, annoying, and poorly written character and just another misstep in CS3.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Id3alistic:

He's a dumb, annoying, and poorly written character and just another misstep in CS3.

Nah, my opinion is that he got hit really hard by the curse and went nuts. I mean, he had a double whammy, his bloodline is weak against the curse and he got fused into what was literally a cursed mech.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Cedric wants validation.

He's only ever been treated as a sideshow. When the royal family shows up onscreen, who actually matters? Alfin is the one the masses adore. Olivier is the one who knows all of these great heroes and keeps getting involved in big operations that change the fate of the world. The Emperor leads the nation. Cedric? No one cares about Cedric. All people know is that he is the crown prince... and that's it. It's telling that in CS1's chapter 5 Imperial Chronicle recapping the Summer Festival, Cedric was only a footnote in the report. Hell, his name is hardly ever mentioned outside of Erebonia.

The Infernal Castle seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back. He was kidnapped by the big bad evil ursurper, and shoved into a demonically corrupted hell robot which had an epic show down with the great hero of Erebonia, with a heroic sacrifice involved. That should be a legendary tale, shouldn't it? Shouldn't people pay more attention to him after that? No. People only talk about Rean did this and how Rean did that. Cedric's savior, and the hero adored by the masses, Rean Schwarzer, never even talked to Cedric. When people talk about Rean's exploits during the war, they hardly mention how he saved the Crown Prince. Oh no, it's all about how he saved the Emperor and the cute princess.

So now Cedric was become relevant. He wants to feel important.

Saved by Rean Schwarzer, who is now hailed as the hero of the Empire.

Wants to become a hero of Erebonia as well. Wants to go to class with his hero, but arrives a year too late.

Osborne whispers sweet nothings into his ear about only he can save this country.

Finally goes to the academy the Empire's hero and his savior went to. Constantly hears stories from the Thors faculty and the Trista townsfolk about Rean and Class VII.

Hears that Rean has become an instructor at Thors... at the branch campus.

Tries to convince the Empire's hero and his savior to become his instructor. Is refused.

Everything he is doing is in pursuit of trying to become a "hero" - a powerful warrior, respected and feared - like Rean. He wants to gain Rean's respect. He wants to become like Rean. Everything he is doing is in pursuit of either trying to get Rean to tutor him so Cedric can become like Rean, or Cedric trying to emulate Rean and beat him at his own game (in his mind).

At this point, Cedric begins seeing Rean as an obstacle to overcome. "I will become an even greater hero than him".

Cedric views Rean's refusal to come teach at the Main Campus as an indication that Rean values New Class VII more than Cedric. He is determined to prove himself better than New Class VII, so he and his buddies roll up to the Branch Campus to try to defeat New Class VII. They fail.

Cedric hears about how the Branch Campus has been going on adventures and heroing, just like how the Old Class VII did. Cedric, not wanting to be left behind, orders that the Main Campus go on field exercises as well. And then his field exercise in North Ambria turns out badly.

Cedric is really desperate, and I think it is at this point that he is inducted into the Ironbloods. Being apart of the Chancellor's inner circle as one of his elite agents - something Rean isn't apart of - really strokes Cedric's ego. He is brought into the plan to capture Calvardian agents in the capital.

Because Cedric is in the know, he challenges the Branch Campus to a competition to capture the most Calvardian agents, thinking he's going to win because he knows everything. Then he misses the party that slew the legendary Dark Dragon - the very dragon that killed Cedric's ancestor, Emperor Hector, and corrupted the Testa-Rossa in the first place. The very dragon that was responsible for mindscrewing Cedric at the Infernal Castle.

Nevertheless, he still desires validation from Rean, so he tries hooking Rean up with his sister. "Aha! Now I'm brother to the Empire's hero! Together we will be mighty and powerful!"

This is Cedric at his lowest point, and you can see it when he blows up the Courageous and starts choking Altina. The Courageous was a symbol of everything Cedric wasn't. The Courageous was a ship built by Olivier's connections, connections Olivier had forged across his adventures. It was the ship that Rean and the Old Class VII used to save the country. It was a constant reminder hanging over Cedric's head.

After the Courageous blows up, he's starts taking out all of his frustration - towards his own inadequacies, his frustration towards Rean and New Class VII, his frustration towards Olivert (who was the prince the public loved, the man who went out and about heroing, the brother who favors Rean) - out on Altina. The dude is straight up power tripping in the ending, exerting his power over a hapless little girl, and then getting to control of a Divine Knight. Not a soldat, not a pale of imitation of Rean's Valimar - but a true Divine Knight just like Valimar. Doesn't help that, from Cedric's perspective, he was just robbed of yet another moment of glory, as Rean killed the Nameless One - the beast that corrupted Zoro-Agruga in the first place, which in turn created the Vermilion Apocalypse.

What a pathetic little man.

[stm8022]

Originally posted by Val the Moofia Boss:

What a pathetic little man.

I was about to reply to the last part, but i see you've realized yourself it was excessive (the summary itself i think it's largely spot on)

Cedric is desperately crying out for a Solemn Head Pat. That part at the end when he tries to "join in" the cool kids with the knights by boarding "his" knight, it's one of the (unintentionally?) saddest things in the series.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Val the Moofia Boss:

.....

Spot on but there is one thing I want to add. I suspect he was also doping. He did not reach his current level of skill in the year and a half that we did not see him. He got his level of skill within the 2 months that he joined the main campus. He himself said that when he joined, he could not even lift a sword but just 2 months later, he's power tripping and acting all He-Man. That is not a normal rate of progression. I suspect that was the time he really "turned" and merged with Testa Rossa.

[PhantomMaster18]

My best guess for the entire thing with Cedric is the same thing as the other IronBloods.

Osborne helped Cedric through a tough time, and now Cedric looks at Osborne like a role model, which would explain his heavyhanded tactics at the very beginning of the game being reminiscent of Osborne.

The sudden growth from 2 months of training is possibly related to his connection to Testa Rossa and his strong desire to be stronger. I think the curse might have built up over time inside Cedric ever since he was forced to fuse with Testa Rossa in CS2, which is another factor to his personality shift.

I think somewhere during the time between CS2 and CS3 and potentially just after the new Thors Year started, Osborne may turned Cedric into an Ironblood, thus giving him the same powers as the other Ironbloods and explaining his growth.

Here's a small excerpt from Cedrics page on the Kiseki wiki.

After the Testa-Rossa incident, despite medical treatment, Cedric's health continued to lag behind. He enrolled at Thors Military Academy in S.1205, but let his first year slip through his fingers. In S.1206, he once again appeared before his instructors, this time as a radically changed person. It was not only the Civil War that had affected him, but something happened during his medical treatment as well.

So his "medical treatment" probably also included his IronBlood Transformation and his edgy puberty phase.

but that's just a theory