Wraith wrote:Well what are the facts that we know of Hugo's father?
-Black hair
-Strong man probably
-probably older than her.
-Was in Dunan at the time of the war.
What else?
It is listed that Lucia had Hugo a year after the war ended. However, how timelines go, there's no rounding up. That means from the moment the clock hits new year to one second before the next year ends is the timeframe. That's really two years. Anything could have happened between those points, she could have traveled the world.
Most likely scenario is that since she was the successor to the Karaya clan, she had to go back home as soon as her dealings were done in Suikoden 2. She is a very mature and calculated person, so I doubt she'd allow conception during a heated battle.
Most likely all events leading to Hugo's birth happened in Karaya. So since the father had no dealings in The Karayan hierarchy, and I highly doubt she'd have a child with Beecham or Wyatt and then keep them basically as Hugo's subserviants and never reveal that his father was under his nose the entire time for no particular reason, the father is most likely either a traveller she had a 'fling' with, or dead. I believe she'd easily tell him if he was dead, so then the prior.
Lucia is a very in-control woman. She'd have no problem keeping a secret, even to the extent of barely acknowledging the man who fathered her only child. If it was an understanding between the two that he couldn't stay, or something along those lines.
Now, a lot of the guesses are quite plausible. But how many of them have genuine facts other than generic things like 'timeline fits!' Or 'Hair is black I'm pretty sure'. How many characters have been CONFIRMED to know her outside of the SoD event? I can think of a pretty good one:
Geddoe.
1. During the Fire Bringer War, he wasn't just representing grassland, Thomas' documents say at the time he was FROM grassland. And if it he stuck around Grassland for a short while, this wouldnt exactly be the first non-Karayan True Rune bearer Lucia harbored.
2. He was a great man. Riou, Tir. Can't think of many other characters whose career accomplishment rival Geddoe's (a member of a three true rune triumvirate that basically rounded up a militia and defeated the most powerful nation in the known world.)
3. It is confirmed he knows Lucia, as he has a personal meeting with her, as he did with his friends Zepon and Salome. Could have simply been a political endeavor, but it's a hell of a lot more than any other theory made thusfar. He KNOWS her beyond the battlefield.
4. Black hair, check. Age works, he's ageless, but not too old.
5. Timeline works, Since the firebringer war up until he joined the HSFDF 10 years before S3, he was basically a nomad, as Jimba became after his wife died. Perhaps Jimba replaced Geddoe's post in Karaya. Unlikely, but neat symmetry regardless.
6. If Lucia and Geddoe 'had relations', it's not out of the realm of possibility that they'd stay tight lipped. It seems like Geddoe doesn't care if anyone knows anything about him. How he and Jimba nonchalantly acknowledge each other seemed even more shocking than if Geddoe didn't even say anything to Lucia.
7.Relations to other people in the universe. Other than to her son, do you see Lucia acting anything but diplomatic to ANYONE else? Her best friend Luce, Lucia almost acts as her mother, giving advice, but they don't squeal and go shopping together. The lizards are her friends, but she stays diplomatic around them too. She's calculated in everything she says, but she's chief, she has to be. If the father is a secret, who woul be better at keeping it? And why is it a secret? I'm sure Hugo wouldn't be too thrilled to find out his pop was a Harmonian mercenary.
Geddoe mirrors this personality. Throughout the game Queen pretty much acts like the only character who really KNOWS him, but he doesn't say two words to her beyond the mission at hand. It's only in chapter 3 he opens up his past to 'Wang' that we see any intimate conversations from him. This also shows that he only really knew Joker previous to his members joining the SFDF, as Kidd also figured out Wangs real name, but no one has a clue who Ace or Queen are. So that makes Jimba, Lucia, Zepon, Joker, and Salome as people he's confirmed to personally know. If there were two people in all of suikoden who could keep a little secret like this, few would be more tight lipped than L and G.
8. Could explain another Suikoden mystery. Now I admit this one is fully of my own accord, no facts to base it on. Lucia, by her personality, position, etc, probably wouldn't go around sleeping with a Wan Fu type guy who'd be gone in the morning. So it's likely the father knows he has a child. Now if the father was a 'great man', yet he had to leave, wouldn't you think he'd take steps to ensure his son's upbringing? How else would a Zexen knight be able to live amongst the Karayans unless Lucia's significant other gave his word this was a good man. Why would Jimba join an enemy clan during his midlife crisis unless one of his best friends in the world needed him to protect something?
9.And this is the big one. Geddoe treats everybody the same, much like Lucia, with the exception of her son. Even the people Geddoe spends every day of his life with are in the dark, whereas Joker Ace and Queen squabble like siblings. Except, as Speilman pointed out, he doesn't treat Hugo this way in the manga. He's informative and backs Hugo on his dealings, leading Ace to say 'you act like his father!'
Now, when you play Hugo as the flame champion, Geddoe has more private advice for him. And AGAIN, Ace says, 'You'd think you were his father!' Why would Konami repeat such a meaningless expression, at least up until Murayama left, these were extremely well written games with deep subplots and intertwining characters thought out YEARS in advance.
So why would they blatantly repeat something as foreshadowing as that? And why does Geddoe treat NO other character the way he treats Hugo? Men he's spent every waking hour with for the last decade are shocked by it, and even an old friend like Jimba he simply gives a throwaway line and doesn't say two words to him the rest of his -short- life! This is more than just 'he's got black hair!'