What Went Wrong With Asimov?

CAUTION: Spoilers from the true ending of Azure Striker Gunvolt ahead. Read at your own risk.

You really can't help but admire Asimov as a character. He's a real hero. He founds the organization Feather to fight the iron-fisted regime of Sumeragi; he saves GV from the clutches of Sumeragi and raises him as his own child; he acts as a father figure and leader to the members of Feather, offering helpful advice during missions; he narrowly saves Gino's neck on the battlefield at one point in the story (JP version); and at the end of the game, he declares war on the human race and attempts to kill both GV and Joule. He comes off as a truly honorable man who'd willingly take a hit for his team at a moment's noti-

...Wait, what? Declares war on the human race and attempts to kill both GV and Joule?! Now where the heck did that come from?!

Honestly, that was pretty much my exact reaction when I came to the end of the game. To this day, I still can't figure out what went wrong with Asimov, even after reading through all the cut text. Throughout the entirety of the story, almost nothing appears amiss about him, even if he does have his eccentric moments. On the contrary, his actions only lead you to believe that he's a real hero and honorable leader. Sure, at the beginning of the game, he persists that GV kill Joule even after learning she wasn't hostile, but he doesn't take any drastic measures against GV after he disobeys the order. GV simply just has to leave Feather. And further showing that he's a fair guy, Asimov gives orders to hold off the enemy reinforcements to allow GV to escape the Sumeragi facility. And further than that: he still allows GV to work for him, even if he's not an official member of Feather anymore.

Asimov's betrayal at the end of the game is overall just a really, really weird plot twist to me, as there's no notable event that leads up to it, not even a hint. To all appearances, it just looks like Asimov woke up on the wrong side of the bed one morning and decided to take his frustration out on the whole human race. I get how Inti Creates wanted this turn of events to be a surprise, but it ends up being a surprise that really makes no sense. Asimov never expresses a bitterness towards normal humans such as Monica and Joule. When you're writing a story, it's just good storytelling to narrate the circumstances that lead up to a character's betrayal, otherwise, the situation just turns out awkward. I get how Asimov may have felt overly resentful towards Sumeragi's treatment of Adepts and that may have led him to such drastic measures, but again, that's not mentioned before his betrayal. The end result is a bunch of people wondering when they get to this part in the game, "Wait, did I miss something somewhere?"

The thing is, I can't help but think this situation could have been easily remedied. There were a lot of conversations in the Japanese version of Gunvolt. Why couldn't Inti have dedicated one of those conversations to providing a "link" of some sort to make Asimov's betrayal seem more logical? It's hard to say, but who knows? Maybe we'll receive an explanation of some sort in Gunvolt 2.