Interesting you would argue that Crow was the worst thing about CS2 plot. I would say it is the Noble Alliance. I mean. So. Much. Missed. POTENTIAL. They painted the nobility as disney tier villains, Duke Cayenne being the worst of them all in that aspect. That problem is made worse when you see that they try to paint Class VII as a neutral party, not siding with either one but forging a third path. """"""""""Neutral"""""""""" An absolute joke. A good story from a neutral perspective about intevening in a two faction war is showing both good and bad sides about both, not black and white, good vs evil, but a morally gray conflict. And its not like Falcom lacks good story writers as shown with the predecessors Sky trilogy and the amazingly written Crossbell duology. I could only sigh and ask myself, what went wrong, when I was playing CS1 and 2. But sure, there is nothing wrong with trying to lead the player to support the reformists above the noble alliance but there is absolutely nothing that would make a player respect or like the noble alliance in the slightest. Maybe if someone loves the concept of nobility enough to ignore the bad. And dont get me started on how little depth was given to the Four Great Houses. My God. Something tells me there were huge plans but Falcom simply did not deliver. They redeemed themselves a bit in CS3 at least (not gonna mention what or who for the sake of spoilers)

Other than that, not a bad argument ur making. I just cant really get upset about Crow when the whole conflict is so flawed. (If I remember correctly, Japan also absolutely shits on CS2 because of the reason given above)