Welcome to the Early Modern Period in Europe - a fascinating transition time between the
middle ages and the industrial revolution.
It was from the 15th to the 18th century that many stories and tales became widely known
in Europe and with the invention of the printing press these stories have survived to our age.
Classic fairy tales such as the Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and the Little Red Riding Hood
have become so popular that today they are considered common knowledge in the western
world, making up the core of today's children literature - but you know what's better
than real life literature?
That's right!
Strangeral literature!
And today we will take a look into a masterpiece of Strangereal's literature -
A Blue Dove for the Princess, the in-game book that played a major role in Ace Combat 5.
Today's video is inspired by Play_Future's comment when he asked for a video about the
Strangereal book: A Blue Dove for the Princess, which as he mentioned wasn't well covered
or explained during Ace Combat 5 and I totally agree with him!
The book was mentioned several times and we know the basic story around the legend of
the Demon of Razgriz but people who just played the game might not even know the detailed
story featured in book that was featured inside of a game - I mean how awesome is that?
Project Aces not only made a game, they also made a book inside of the game.
And as a matter of fact, fans in Japan were able to purchase the book together with a
Razgriz patch for only 4,200 yen!
But unfortunately Bandai doesn't sell it anymore.
NOOO!
Anyways, a Blue Dove for the Princess played a major role in Ace
Combat 5 being Nagase's favourite book and explaining some of the legend behind the Demon
of Razgriz - which later became the nickname of the Wardog Squadron after they destroyed
the Yuktobanian submarine aircraft carrier Hrimfaxi - guess where?
In the Razgriz Straits!
Now the book probably comes from Strangereal's equivalent of Europe's early modern period,
the one I mentioned in the beginning of the video, and I believe it is, although not officially
confirmed, from Belkan origin and more about that later in the video.
The book was written by Ellinor Graun and illustrated by Arno Bester, other their work
in this book nothing else is known about these characters, and it contains eleven chapters.
The basic story is a about a dove who was injured but that was later rescued by the
princess of an unknown kingdom.
The princess treated the wounds of the dove and put the bird to live in a cage inside
her bedroom.
After some time the princess suddenly became very sick and the dove remembered a story
told by its mother a long time ago about a magic fruit, called the orion poplar, that
could cure any sickness.
Many noblemen from throughout the kingdom came to see the princess and one of them suggested
that the Demon of Razgriz was the one to blame since everything in the kingdom was going
so well, including the fact that the war with a neighbouring nation just came to an end.
It was said that only Razgriz could have made the princess so sick to the point that she
might pass away.
With the goal of saving the princess, the bird escaped from the cage when the princess'
nursemaid went there to feed it and so the journey in search of the orion poplar began.
After escaping the castle, the dove talked to several different creatures including a
lark, a green worm and a tortoise asking where it could find the magic orion poplar tree.
The dove had some philosophical conversations with each creature but it was the tortoise
who pointed the dove to the right direction - saying that it had to fly to a certain mountain
in order to find the magic fruit.
Upon reaching the orion poplar tree in the distant mountains, the tree told the dove
about the legend of Razgriz.
Back in the days when wars were constant between humans, the Demon of Razgriz brought a storm
that kept on raging for 70 days bringing destruction to the land.
Hailstones devastated the soil, plants and animals died, and consequently humans were
forced out of the area - what remained was a barren, empty land.
That had been Razgriz's evil side, but the tale doesn't end there.
Years later a traveller came to the destroyed land, this traveller cured the sick, resurrected
the soil, founded a village, refilled the rivers and made the soil fertile again.
After some time, this traveller decided to go away but only on his departure he revealed
himself to the villagers as the Demon of Razgriz.
After explaining the legend of Razgriz, the tree allowed the dove to get a fruit saying
that this fruit was only magic if someone believes it actually is.
The dove got the magic fruit and rushed back to the castle facing the strong winds in the
desperate attempt to save the princess, but when the dove finally got there it realized
it was already too late, the princess had passed away.
Extremely tired from its journey, the dove went on to rest beside the princess while
holding the fruit on its beak.
On the following day the nursemaid found out that the dove had also passed away and decided
to bury it on the castle's garden together with the orion poplar.
It is said that today a tree has grown in the garden and from the top of the tree one
can closely see the princess' room and the cage that was home for the bird.
And that is the end of a Blue Dove for the Princess.
If we analyse the events of Ace Combat 5 with the perspective of the tale we can consider
the Hrimfaxi as the evil demon of Razgriz since the submarine was literally making death
rain upon the land with its burst missiles until it was destroyed by the Wardog Squadron.
After a period of slumber, when the Wardog Squadron officially vanished from the Osean
military, the good Demon of Razgriz returns as the Razgriz Squadron on the later part
of the game.
According to Ace Combat 5, the tale of the Demon of Razgriz was well known in both Osea
and Yuktobania, but the book also appeared in another game implying the legend is very
famous in Strangereal as a whole.
And other game I'm talking about is Ace Combat Zero.
We can see the references to a Blue Dove for the Princess in Rainer Altman or Gelb 2's interview.
A couple of illustrations from the book can be seen on his desk and on the right wall.
Altman is a Belkan citizen that after the Belkan War remained in Ustio and the illustrations
of the book present in his office mean that the book is also known in Ustio, Belka or
the two countries.
Talking about Belka, many fans believe that the story of A Blue Dove for the Princess
takes place in the surroundings of Stier Castle, the castle we see in both Ace Combat 5 and
Ace Combat Zero, and so I read the book again with that in mind paying attention to the
geographical clues in the story.
The first thing the book mentions are the mountains near the castle, that fits perfectly
with Stier Castle since it's surrounded by the Waldreich mountains.
Next thing is a forest north of the castle - check.
A nearby lake - check.
A village nearby - check.
Wheat fields…
I guess we can consider these as wheat fields - so check.
A River… there's this tiny river that feeds the lake - so check again.
And lastly, the tortoise mentions there's snow in winter - check
So according to everything in the book,
Stier Castle is the perfect place for a Blue Dove for the Princess.
It even matches with Belka's history since Belka is a principality and the war mentioned
in the book might be a reference to the wars happening around Belka during the ages of
the Belkan Knights.
There's just one problem with this theory though:
What about the Razgriz Strait?
Isn't it located north of the Anean continent?
This opens up two possibilities, either sailors from Belka, or another country, named that
place "The Razgriz Straits" or the legend of Razgriz was already known in Emmeria, making
it the fifth country in our list where the legend is known.
Before we finish our video I would like to also point out two characters from Ace Combat 5
that are named after important individuals related to fairy tales.
This first one is Hans Grimm, he shares his surname with the Grimm Brothers from Germany.
The Grimm Brothers played a major role in collecting, researching, publishing and popularizing
tales during the first half of the 1800s, many of those that are very famous today like
Rapunzel, The Frog Prince and Cinderella.
The other character besides Grimm is the commander of the Sand Island air base - Orson Perrault.
He shares his surname with the French author Charles Perrault who is considered the founder
of the fairy tale genre in literature way back in the late 1600s.
As you can see, Project Aces really did an amazing job with A Blue Dove for the Princess
and how this classic piece of Strangereal literature was featured in the game.
As we usually say in Brazil: Ace Combat é cultura.
Meaning: Ace Combat is culture.
But even though I summarized the book in this video I highly suggest that you read it yourself.
I have posted the links in the description to where you can read the complete book.
You can either read it online on Acepedia or read the PDF file I made in an attempt
to recreate the book.
When I uploaded this video the books were available in English, Japanese and Portuguese
but I've also attached a word document that anyone can edit if they wish to translate
the book to another language and if there's a new translation I will update the description.
Anyways guys, thank you for watching this video and please do read the actual book -
enlighten yourself because Ace Combat is culture!
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