(Source: https://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2020/12/top-10-villains-list-honorable-mention.html)
Michalis may have invented the archetype of the enemy leader doing bad things for the sake of his people's prosperity, but Travant perfected the archetype. So who is Travant, and why is he rated so highly on this list?
Travant is the leader of the kingdom of Thracia, a nation whose land is barren. Throughout Fire Emblems 4 & 5, we see Thracia consistently portrayed as a nation where it's citizens are poor and starving. The only thing Thracia has going for it is that it has wyverns, and a king willing to do anything to make his people prosper.
Another major characteristic of Thracia is that it has been constantly trying to invade it's northern neighbor, the Munster District. The Munster District (formerly known as the Manster District aka the place where Quan, Leif, and Finn are from) is Thracia's northern neighbor whose land is fertile. In addition to wanting his people to prosper, Travant has another major goal:
“My fondest wish is to return this land to what it was in the days of Dáinn and Njörun. ...Even if it damns me to the deepest pit of Hell.”
Travant also wants to unite Thracia and Munster into one country. When you combine his two motives together (Munster has resources that Thracia doesn't, plus he wants the two kingdoms unified) you get why he wants to invade Munster. Sure, Munster is Quan's home, so naturally you see Travant as a bad guy since he's trying to invade it, but to his credit his reasons make sense for why he'd want to invade his northern neighbor. And this becomes a major reason behind why Travant is an excellent villain: His motivations make perfectly good sense.
Another fun tidbit about Thracia is Munster comes from a conversation in Chapter 8x of Thracia 776:
When viewed in this light, it makes even more sense why Travant would want to invade Munster. But wait, there's more. Travant doesn't merely get to invade his neighbor, he actually gets to win. In Chapter 5 of Holy War, you the player have to watch both him and his army ambush and destroy Quan, Ethlyn, and their entire force. It's a gut wrenching scene. And it also helps to set Travant apart from most of the villains on this list. Travant is one of the few villains in the franchise who actually gets to kill a playable character. That's a pretty big deal. Not many other villains get to say that. As if that wasn't enough, Travant also takes Quan's daughter, Altenna, and raises her as his own. After killing Quan and Ethlyn, he destroys Leonster and effectively takes over the Munster District for a short period of time.
By the time the player gets to fight him in the Second Generation of Holy War, he's already caught between a rock and a hard place. His reputation as ruthless and opportunistic proceeds him so Seliph and Leif know better than to turn their backs on him. While both Seliph and Travant are enemies of the Empire, they really can't come to a truce either. In spite of the fact that they have a common enemy and would have both benefitted from a temporary alliance against Grannvale, you still have to fight him in Chapter 9 of Holy War. In a move that seems fairly weird for him, Travant decides to rush toward Leif and Seliph. He even hands the Gungnir to Arion. This might seem weird for him, but there are two lengthy posts on reddit that explain why he would do that:
Areone: “…Isn’t this the Gungnir? Father, what’s the meaning of this? You’re not going into battle without it, are you?"
Trabant: “I’ve had enough, Areone. It’s me they’re after anyway. Do as you see fit after I’m gone, okay?
Areone:“Are you suggesting I call for a truce!? You know I could never do that!”
Trabant: “Like I said, do as you see fit. I only ask that you see an end to the people’s suffering. Farewell, Areone!”
Notice how he never really tells Arion exactly what to do and trusts him to come up with the best solution on his own (unfortunately it takes him a while as well as Altenna convincing him to finally come up with it). This tells me that at this point (right before he enters the field) he's not wholly committed to this conflict, but at the same time there's a bunch of factors that's keeping specifically Travant (not Thracia, and not Arion) from calling a truce.
Travant's and Thracia's reputation. A Thracia led by Travant was known for behaving almost like vultures, relying on underhanded, ruthless, or shady tactics. While Seliph would probably be willing to give Travant a chance, the rest of the crusaders may not be as willing. The possibility of Travant backstabbing them exists. A cynical man like Travant wouldn't even fancy the idea of acceptance or forgiveness. Arion's reputation however, is at least less tainted.
And this brings us to Leif and the rest of the Northern Thracians. There is so much bad blood there. Leif, Finn, and Nanna may not be so eager to welcome Travant into their ranks. Travant murdered Leif's parents and kidnapped and brainwashed his sister (and even resulted in her "death") and they've murdered a few of his men as well.
And yet he's probably way too prideful to just go up and apologize since in his eyes, he probably still thinks that everything he did was justified for the sake of his people and kingdom. He's also probably not ready to have his sacrifices amount to nothing as ruthless as he is. His pride probably drives him to try and be the one to unify all of Thracia.
And so here's my interpretation of this chapter. I don't think Travant is thinking 100% rationally here. A part of him still wants to hold onto Thracia and wants what's best for Thracia and that means unifying it, but those two are not necessarily going to go hand in hand and it drives him to make some crazy, suboptimal decisions. So in a desperate attempt he tries to take all the precautions to push Seliph's army out by blackmailing Hannibal, petitioning Grannvale for help, and sending Altenna with the Gae Bolg out at the enemy, even if it's a stupid idea since Grannvale's just going to sweep in and grab all the loot anyway.
But once Altenna learns the whole truth of her birth I think this is where Travant gives up on even holding onto the kingdom of Thracia for himself. This moment feels like where his mindset finally shifts. She was most likely his key pawn in unifying the subcontinent, but with her lashing against him, he knows that his goals are now even further away. And once Arion "kills" (knocks out) Altenna, he's just done. Maybe he feels a bit guilty for exploiting her and then having her meet such an early end and that he needs to pay for all of his crimes. Or maybe it's finally hit him that his brutal tyranny will never accomplish his dreams. Either way, he does point out that Arion didn't need to kill her which is probably his indirect way of expressing that he didn't want her to die. Kinda like how he indirectly tells Arion not to follow his lead. And so, he passes on the Gungnir in hopes that Arion would lead differently, and goes off to his death, with the intent of ending this conflict immediately."
To complement /u/AiKidUNot excellent post about his characters motivations, I would also add that the regional politics meant a conflict was most likely inevitable.
First is the Empire. Thracia actually almost managed to unify the Thracian peninsula after Quan's death, but Leidrick and Conote's army betrayed him (just like earlier they had betrayed Quan's father in his defence of Northern Thracia) and gave the region to the Empire. This means Thracia is in a very shaky footing with the Empire, in which any misstep could end with them easily being wiped out of the continent; in fact, they're the only independent nation remaining besides the Empire. This is why Thracia and the Empire are 'allied', even when Thracia 776 shows Trabant using almost every dirty trick in his book to undermine the empire.
This brings us to the crucial moment, his attempt to capture Manster. Thracia 776 gives us a lot of context for this, because we can see that what they attempt is basically the same they did with Tahra just in a larger scale. Its very likely Trabant actually didn't want to engage Seliph's Liberation's Army directly for Manster; what was there was Sety and the Magi group, and they were at all effects independent of Seliph's army. Thracia 776 even adds to that by making their army NPC units (as in, separated from the Empire) who only attack you after Sety takes Manster. Trabant's hope was probably to get Manster, and then let Seliph go to Grannvale while he would snipe the rest of the peninsula from his back once the fighting there got messy. However, Leif itself was allied to the Magi group and Seliph would never let innocent civilians die, so the takeover devolved into war. Overall however, with Leif as one of Seliph's most important allies, there was never a chance for peace between them; they knew that the moment they turned their backs to him Trabant would attempt to get the rest of Thracia, and getting sandwiched between Grannvale's central armies and Trabant's dracoknights would be the worse situation possible. Even while allied, Grannvale would never send much forces to help Thracia, and the desert would make a theoretical Imperial invasion of Isaach and Northern Thracia very slow, so at that moment it made the most strategic sense to tackle Trabant.
At this point, Trabant's only choice is to strengthen his alliance with the Empire, as he knows he himself alone has no hope against Seliph. He probably still thought that there was space for a comeback if he managed to get the entire Thracian Peninsula from Seliph. But I think he never envisioned the war lengthening so much. With what he tells Arion he seems the imply that he wants him to make peace after his death, but Arion's pride doesn't allow him to forgive the Liberation Army for the death of his father.
On Hannibal, again Thracia adds a lot of helpful context. It turns out Hannibal was the one sheltering a Lenster resistance group to undermine the Empire. While Trabant would likely agree to it (anything to weaken an enemy), it is as expected that a paranoid like him would fear that the general maybe got too attached to some of its members and would betray him now that the situation looked grim. That besides Hannibal obvious hate for the Empire.
As if all this wasn't enough, Travant's goals become realized after his defeat. What's even more crazy is that they're realized through Leif. After the end of the war, Leif united Munster and Thracia together. Knowing what we know about Leif, it's safe to assume that Thracia prospered under his reign. So in the end Travant won even if he didn't live long enough to see his goals ultimately realized.
- His motivations make perfect sense. He's not evil, just a dark shade of gray pitted against our heroes. As a result, we know where he's coming from.
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