The po bidau characters we have been introduced to this arc have had varying degrees of intrigue. I think SIU introduced too many arbitrarily and failed to give most proper development. Tiara was brought in with a lot of hype and bloodlust. Despite this she hasnt particularly been successful in anything she set out to do. Her current objective to target bellerir/revolution is also seemingly a dead end because Gustang is almost certainly aware of or backing the revolution. Based on how SIU has been handling fights, we most likely cant even look forward to her massacring the branch leaders at the chess game. Speaking of Gustang, his wanton disregard for his own family has been bizarre. We know the family heads decided to draw a line between themselves and the regulars, but what has the family he started done to deserve annihilation ? His seemingly complete distaste for traumerei in particular seems strange, especially considering they both lost what seems to be similar memories. If Jahad had sent arie hon after him, would his actions be the same? Gustang/Bellerir’s misinformation to the family members has been quite bizarre as well. Hugo and Guiscard were both very short of information on what they were to do or the purpose of their missions. Tiara has seemingly only been given parts of the mission. All that was done to deceive robadon could have been solved with sending Dumas and Richemont after him. Dumas strength and richemonts lightbearing should have been enough to execute him.
In terms of character strength, Dumas was very impressive and is clearly in the top tier of high rankers. Tiara is hard to scale, she should have been able to kill Yuri, and wasnt afraid to take on Kirin. Richemonts lighthouse skills were impressive but i believe if left 1v1 bam would have been able to execute him. Guiscard was a bit disappointing and if Yama and Yasratcha had started off better he would have been one shot. We havent seen Ruini fight but based on Varane being utterly outclassed by Garnac we cant expect him to be that powerful. Gir/Erno seem to be average at best, their minuscule hype of cleaning up pudidy and perseus has long since worn off and Bellerir seems to be nothing more than a front man with no real combat ability.
On another note, I like how closely alligned the po bidaus seem to be with the workshop. (Gustangs ship, fake fit bit) It ties in well with the potential link to headon, fug, revolution and all entities seeking change in the universe. The families usage of ancient technology is also interesting as well as how all of Gustangs highlighted army members seem to have been specially equipped (dumas’ carrier, tiaras pen, michel’s shipwonryu, etc) . Proust and Dumas’ designs and seemingly longstanding existence makes me wonder if Traumerei and and Gustang collaborated in the past on beastification or humanizing towerfolk. I refuse to believe that Gustangs number 2&3 are a reindeer and a cyborg. Ironically both designs would probably fit lo po bia more.
The most interesting thing for me though has been richemont. If Gustang can indeed write people into existence, he could raise up a whole new army if needs be. The workshop was able to produce rule breakers like aria, Gustang should be capable of far more than that. Also if richemont fulfilled his purpose by delivering the book I do wonder what Michel is meant to fulfill.
All in all, I have found the po bidaus underwhelming. Thats perhaps intentional as they are supposed to be the nerds of the tower. I guess thats also why SIU threw in a few wildcards… Tiara and Hugo to name a few. Overall, at the end of this arc, im not sure many of the characters will be remembered barring Gustang and Dumas. The lo po bias have a similar problem as most of the branch leaders have been utterly forgettable as well. It does beg the question of how SIU is going to build hype for the other families.
