In a similar way, though not to same extent, I hated the dialogue choices w/Rhode. Said this before and will say it again. Her response to my 'conversion' as being a 'Betrayer' was completely without sense.
I think you must have missed the part where "Betrayer" is a title that the Slayers use for Dragons. She's not saying that you betrayed her, but simply that now that Talana 'got' to you, you've become a "Betrayer", e.g. become a dragon knight.
* Second, leaving they task of executing me to 'underlings' would be an entirely irresponsible action of my 'commander'. It would be like some manager telling 3 employees to go off and 'fire' one of their coworkers...
I had a couple thoughts on this while playing the game. . . first, she clearly expects you to commit suicide - she hands you Arben's Sword and tells you to remember your oaths. Secondly, if you do fight back, and manage to win, it would be important to her that *somoeone* gets away to let the rest of the Order know that you have become a new Dragon Knight - such intelligence would be important to the Order. That said, you'd think she'd send one of the Underlings to tell the order, and stay herself - it really isn't well explained why she leaves instead.
It's clear that the developers didn't want you to kill Rhode in this game, but to leave her alive to confront you in the next game. I think a major component of the next game will be being hunted by the Order. Also, arguably, they want Rhode to be a higher-level character - she's supposed to be one of the elite among the Order, and the Order are already supposed to be elite. It would be like being part of an elite unit within the Navy Seals or Army Rangers. Having you kill her at level 10-15 would be too soon for such a confrontation.
* Third, I was initially willing to work w/her & help her. The entire bit about her not wanting to listen to me or anything I had to say was completely illogical. It wasn't as if she and I had been long time enemies -- instead, I was her new pupil, maybe the last to become a Slayer (what need for Slayers if no more Dragons?)
As others have said, the Rhode character is not supposed to be reasonable. That's just who she is - a heartless fanatic. A true believer. You have been 'tainted' by the dragon essence, now you must die, that's all there is to it. You're right that it's not reasonable of her to hold you accountable - THAT's the POINT.
* Fourth, this really bothered me after thinking about it for a while. Since when is it considered remotely 'reasonable' to exterminate all members of a group for the actions of one?
Such behavior is considered backwards at 'best', like punishing 7 generations of a family, or automatically condemning and executing all known associates and relatives of some criminal, w/o regard for how those associates or relatives thought of the actions of the criminal. However, in general, such behavior is a prime example of the bigotry present in racism and genocide -- generally considered to be among the most evil of actions.
Again, you're correct, and again, that's the point. The writers wanted you to think this through and come to the conclusion you have. The Slayers are not at all reasonable. I decided that in Farglow. To hold all dragon knights responsible for one DK killing the Divine, is not at all reasonable. It's why Zalandor is now persona non grata - because he tried to defend the knights against the order, but the order had captured public opinion.
* Fifth, wasn't the real enemy the 'Black Ring'? It wasn't so much that Dragons (Dragon Knights) were enemies of humans, but that supposedly they had betrayed humans. While that might have been true about *some* DK, in the past, it certainly wasn't true of me who was her protégée.
Yes, and several characters throughout the game make that same point - Talana as she's dieing says so, I think ZixZax makes a similar statement, Zalandor, etc - that the humans have become distracted by their quest against the Dragon Knights, and turned their eyes away from the real threat.
In fact, I somewhat expect in the next game that we'll find out that some of the Slayers (probably Rhode), were really Black Ring agents, intended to make sure that the Slayers stayed Polarized, and kept hunting down dragon. Some might have been propagandists whose mission was to keep the population turned against Zalandor and the Knights.
In general, I was bummed about my choices w/Rhode -- I didn't want to fight her -- I really liked her.
Anyway, those were issues that really hurt the story 'immersion' effect, in that they were so unbelievable and infuriating. Except for Damian's actions against all humans as his 'vengeance' quest (which can't be allowed to continue), I felt he was one of the least evil characters considering him w/Rhode (and Slayers in general), and those who executed Ygrna. Those actions felt more like they were the actions of 'evil', rather than 'good'...
It's true that the story doesn't seem entirely believable at times. It's a bit of a soap opera, or a melodrama in most regards. Most of the villains are classic 'comic book villains' - so two-dimensional you could slip them in an envelope and mail them.
Perhaps in the next game, we'll have a chance to try to win Rhode over to our side (it could be one of the moral choices presented in the game - seek revenge against Rhode, or attempt reconciliation).
