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fatesdeepdive · 6 months

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Entry 123: The Kids Are Good Now!

I’ve saved this DLC for last, out of hope that it will be good. Heirs of Fate was a six-part DLC, focussed on the child characters. I know very little about it, but assume it will be similar to Future Past, an equivalent DLC from Awakening.

Xenologue 15: Heirs of Fate I: In Endless Dreams

The chapter begins with Shigure in Valla narrating about something that happened in another realm. In this realm, the child units weren't recruited. Corrin and company won the war, but on the same day they were victorious, armies attacked the children. The army split up to save their kids and died in battle. The chapter cuts to female Kana walking alone in the rain, saying that, if she was stronger, then maybe Corrin wouldn't have died.

Kana runs into Mitama and Selkie, who've been through the same thing. Kana explains Corrin told her to run and heard screams behind her as she fled. She waited for Corrin to come back, but he never did. Mitama explains that she slept through Azama yelling for her to wake up and that, by the time she awoke, her home was destroyed. She lost sight of Azama and assumes he is dead. She wonders if he would have lived if she woke up sooner. Selkie says she saw Kaden's torn scarf, but no body, and hopes he's still alive.

Vallite soldiers pop up. Selkie wants revenge, but Mitama points out they're outnumbered and tells her she must honor Kaden's sacrifice. The girls spot Hisame and Kiragi fighting Vallite soldiers in the distance. Kiragi has the Fujin Yumi, but misses because he hasn't practiced with it. Hisame says to run away. Kana, Selkie, and Mitama run in to help the others. Kiragi says he needs to save his father by beating the Vallite soldiers. He refuses to run and finally manages to kill the soldiers.

Kana asks him to teach her how to use legendary weapons, so she can rescue her father. Kiragi recognizes her sword as Yato and tells her to keep trying until it works. Yato transforms into Noble Yato as more soldiers appear. Kana kills one with Yato. Hisame realizes that they need to fight together because running would put them in danger. Selkie convinces Mitama to fight too.

The battle begins, reusing the map from Xander's boss fight in Birthright. This chapter is a defeat the boss map. Said boss is Siegbert? But like, a ghostly Vallite Siegbert. Soleil, Ingatius, Percy, and Velouria fight alongside him. This chapter was surprisingly difficult, after having played Revelation. Fates is filled with things like My Castle, Supports, and grinding to cheese the game, but this map forced me to use weak, under-leveled children who can't gain exp. It was actually a really fun map.

After the battle, Azura's ghost pops up. She doesn't say her name but I have eyes. The kids recognize her for some reason. Azura gives Kana a dragonstone and tells her to upgrade Yato into the Fire Emblem. Kana asks if the dads are dead. Azura doesn't know, but says they promised her they would live life to the fullest. She hints at the fact that she faded away at the end of Birthright and Conquest, explaining why she's a ghost. She hints that something is strange about the ghost soldiers.

Back in Valla, narrator Shigure sings the Birthright version of Lost In Thoughts All Alone, saying it's for players who bought Birthright. He explains that the song can grant miracles, but says once you take hold of it, your soul will sink below the waves, unable to be reached by anyone. He says that, despite this, he can't stop himself from doing what must be done...

Fuck that was good! The map was solid and the writing left me intrigued! I want to know more. More importantly, the kids are complex characters! I think the thing that made the Awakening kids work better is the grief, the fact that they lost their parents. This chapter gives the Fates kids that same grief. I love Kana hating herself for being weak, Mitama blaming her sleepiness for her father’s death, Selkie foolishly clinging to hope, Kiragi refusing to give up in the face of adversity, and Hisame being a loyal protector of his liege. This chapter rocks!

Support: Caeldori/Nina

C: Caeldori asks Nina to teach her how to stealth. Nina is excited because Caeldori is super talented. B: The two of them go on a scouting mission together and discuss battle strategies. A: Caeldori and Nina take out enemies by having one of them act as a distraction. Review: Very boring. Nina being in awe of Caeldori could be interesting, but this Support doesn't do anything with it.

Support: Hisame/Fana

C: Kana sees Hisame practicing swordfighting and asks him to fight her. She turns into a dragon because she read a book about knights beating dragons and wants to beat a knight. Hisame refuses.

B: Hisame explains that stories of fighting dragons aren't real and that he couldn't fight Kana with storybook zeal. Kana still wants to fight.

A: Kana calls Hisame a dashing knight, so Hisame decides to instead do a swordfight between two knights. Kana agrees.

S: Hisame sees the storybook and realizes that Kana could also be the princess in the tower. Kana suggests they reinterpret the book so it's about a dragon saving a boy. Hisame decides to write stories for Kana.

Review: Kana wanting to beat up a knight is fun and Hisame is nice and understanding. This one is good.

Support: Dwyer/Ophelia

C: Dwyer makes Ophelia tea. She thinks it's amazing and legendary, which means Dwyer is a chosen one.

B: Ophelia comes up with better names for Dwyer's tea.

A: Ophelia says the name tea is boring, but relents when Dwyer threatens to stop making tea.

S: Dwyer tries to do Ophelia's chuni shit when he tells her he loves her.

Review: A really good S-Rank preceded by three mediocre Supports.

Support: Shigure/Velouria

C: Velouria asks Shigure to paint a painting of her garbage collection because she has to throw some of them out.

B: Shigure paints it in a way that makes it look beautiful out of an attempt to capture Velouria's point of view. Velouria is annoyed, because she has eyes and knows what her garbage looks like.

A: Shigure remakes the painting, this time more accurate. Velouria thinks it's wonderful. Velouria also keeps the first painting, because it was a gift from a friend.

S: Shigure explains that Velouria likes things associated with death and decay. She thinks that things that show nothing in life is permanent are beautiful and embraces the impermanence of life. Shigure finds Velouroia interesting. Velouria insists there is no deeper meaning, but agrees to a date.

Review: I love Shigure's monologue about decay in the S-Rank.

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem #fe 14 #kana fire emblem #shigure fire emblem #heirs of fate #kiragi fire emblem

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emblemxeno · 3 years

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JP vs. Localization in Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

(Okay, for real this time lol)

Again, here’s a link to my sources post.

Fortunately, this route follows suit in terms of good localization quality after Conquest. It’s the shortest out of all the posts, since I don’t really have a lot to talk about. Mostly subtle line changes, references and a few key points of information that were cut out. I also went through Hidden Truths and Heirs of Fate to see if I could add stuff from those on here, but there were no big problems that I found.

Once again, the main part of this post will all be put under the cut. If a chapter isn’t covered, it means I didn’t think there were any differences worth talking about.

I’ll use localized names for characters and locations, unless I feel the need to do otherwise.

I’ll be using she/her when referring to Corrin in this post. (I flipped a coin to decide the gender lol)

Also, note that after Chapter 14, the translation of this route on Fateswartable ends, so I mostly relied on the English patch done by Serenes at that point forward. (I also used PegasusKnight.com as a reference to fall back on if I needed it)

Chapter 7

-A minor gripe I have with localization. The JP version compares Touma (Valla) to hell constantly. To jump ahead a bit, I believe in the JP versions of the End of All Sky/Land/Below tracks are even called The End of All Roads Heaven/Earth/Hell. The Vallites are also often called demons in the JP version, and Anankos himself is known as the ‘Invisible Demon Dragon’.

Another cool thing I just thought of too, is a connection to a popular Japanese short story. Zelda fans might be familiar with the story, “The Spider’s Thread”, which inspired the Ancient Cistern dungeon in Skyward Sword.

The beginning of the story has Buddha walking through paradise (heaven), before coming across a pond. The pond is filled with crystal clear water, and covered with water lilies/lotuses. As Buddha gazes further into the pond, he begins to see the depths of hell.

Sound familiar? “Azura is walking through Hoshido, before coming across a lake. The lake is filled with crystal clear water, and when she gazes into the lake she sees the fallen kingdom of her birth. Valla, the kingdom associated with water lilies/lotuses in the game, has been turned into hell itself.”

This association loses its meaning a bit when the comparisons to hell are a bit toned down, as well as when the Buddhist inspirations were kind of supplanted in favor of Greek renames. It’s not supremely important to the plot as a whole, but it’s something interesting I wanted to bring up.

-In the JP version, while explaining what happened in Valla, Azura eventually says “Using the art of manipulating people’s souls, he (Hydra/Anankos) made the people kill each other.” This bit of the people killing each other was cut in localization.

Chapter 12

-In the JP version, when Corrin asks Flora if she knows anything about dragons, Flora says “Sorry, I don’t know…The ancestral dragon of the Ice Clan has already perished and isn’t part of the legend. I don’t know what role it plays, sorry…” Localization makes her response “I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything... They've been gone so long that we don't even have tales of dragons in the Ice Tribe. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more assistance...”

So, the JP version explicitly says the Ice Dragon is dead (I believe Fates’ second artbook mentioned this as well), whereas the localization only says the First Dragons have been gone for a long time.

Chapter 16

-There’s not really much of a problem that I have with what Ryoma says about Corrin “having leadership qualities at a young age” but I wanted to do comparisons regardless cuz the word choice might lead one to different conclusions. In localization, Ryoma says this:

Ryoma: Huh... So she told us the same thing... I don't think it's in Corrin's nature to lie. And there's a leadership quality about her that just attracts followers. I remember being jealous of her as a child, in fact. Even at such a young age, she displayed the characteristics of a ruler. Silly to be jealous of her, right?

In the JP version, Ryoma says this:

Ryoma: Oh... So, she told you the same thing. …Corrin isn’t one to tell lies. She’s been like that since childhood. She’s always genuine and honest... She has this mysterious appeal that draws people to her. Seeing my younger sister with the qualities of being a ruler... Honestly, it makes me feel envious. …What a ridiculous thing to say, right?

Again, I don’t necessarily have a problem with how it was localized, but some might. The localization version might have people think that Corrin somehow was a fantastic leader at such a young age, but JP is more clear that it was about the qualities she had at a young age that would be valuable as a leader.

Chapter 19

-A minor gripe. In the localization, Azura says that Anankos uses his magic to send Vallites to Nohr and Hoshido to stir up conflict. In the JP version, she says he uses magic, along with the help of a body of water. That’s why whenever you fight Vallites outside of Valla proper, there’s a body of water nearby; Hoshido’s lake (and the ponds shown in Hinoka’s CQ battle which are in the capital) for Chapter 5, the sea for BR chapter 11, the burning falls for BR chapter 21, and the city for Rev chapter 13. Similarly, the consequences of being a victim to the curse are described as “turning into sea foam” in the JP version. Localization as a whole kind of toned down how much water has an influence on the story.

Chapter 23

-Probably the pettiest gripe I have lol. As Arete is fading away from Azura’s arms, Azura has a different reaction in localization and Japanese. In localization, Azura says “Mother? Mother!” while a voice clip of her in-battle pain cries plays. In the JP, she says “*Sob... Sob*…! Mother... Mother...!”, while a voice clip of her crying plays. Her crying voice clip I don’t recall hearing anywhere else.

This is one of the few times in the you get to see Azura express a heavy and heartfelt emotion, since her rough childhood caused her to remain guarded and stoic around everyone. The equivalents to this scene in other routes is her death scene in Birthright, and her crying with Corrin over Ryoma’s death in Conquest; a normally unflinching and aloof character breaking down is a rarity, and indicates that the cause of it is something to take note of for the character as a whole. Localization softened this aspect, and I take issue with it, despite it probably seeming trivial to most other people.

Chapter 24

-When Corrin is questioning the phantom Mikoto, an exchange happens. In localization, part of it goes like this:

Corrin: But this can't be... Are you truly my mother?

Mikoto: I am. Even as a puppet of Anankos, my spirit at least remains my own.

Corrin: I... I believe you.

In the JP version, it goes like this:

Corrin: It can’t be... …Are you really my mother?

Mikoto: Yes... I became an Invisible servant, controlled by the Invisible King... Even so, I am your mother.

Corrin: …………

Again, a minor thing that I don’t personally have issue with, but replacing Corrin’s silence with an admittance of belief could make some believe she has “reverted” back to being too naïve.

Chapter 26

-While Gunter is relaying his past, an exchange happens. In localization, it goes like this:

Gunter: I ask myself that, every day. I cannot understand the minds of royals. To you all, we commoners are little more than pawns in your schemes... Or weeds to be killed on a whim.

Corrin: That's not true...

Xander: Is that how people view the royalty?

Ryoma: Such an impression would easily breed powerful resentment...

In the JP version, Corrin, Xander and Ryoma don’t say anything. They just remain silent.

Endgame

-Not a major problem so much as a general thing about the game, but I can think of like... at least three memes that Treehouse inserted into the localization. Now I like memes, but there is no better way to date your media nowadays. One of them was Kana’s “That’s dragon for I love you” which tbh, is kind of cute and isn’t the most well known meme so I guess I can let it slide. Another is Felicia saying “I had one job!” when she messes up in the dining hall, which isn’t that big of a deal since the dining hall is very optional.

The last one I can think of is why I put this specific grievance here, and it’s during Corrin’s speech before facing Anankos.

Corrin: We won't back down! This is my... This is our destiny! Ready your weapons! Fight for your friends! With the Seal of Flames... With the Fire Emblem on our side! We fight for our world!!

Yeah, she says “Fight for your friends” which is everyone’s favorite Ike line from Brawl. Now, this isn’t even a totally inaccurate translation either, but it kind of just... makes the moment funny for the player when it’s supposed to be commanding and serious I guess.

But yeah, not the most important issue by far, but something I’d thought to mention. Hell, it’s not even that bad compared to how they made Peri’s, Effie’s and Hisame’s quirks into exaggerated and tired jokes. And the Beruka-Saizo support. Never forget.

-When Azura and Corrin are by the lake and discuss the latter’s plans to rule, Corrin says this in localization:

Corrin: I'm going to make Valla a wonderful place! In honor of the true last king and for Queen Arete. And everyone who fought... I promise to make them all proud.

In the JP version, she says this:

Corrin: I’ll make the Invisible Kingdom (Valla) into a great land. For the previous monarch, Queen Shenmei (Arete)… And for all of my allies who fought beside me. I promise.

So, JP version only mentions Arete as the reigning monarch of Valla. Which makes sense, cuz unless there was some wild “keeping the bloodline pure” shenanigans in Valla, Arete being the Queen keeps in line with what we know about the rest of Valla’s history. Arete was royalty from birth, as was her sister Mikoto. Arete is the one who passed down Lost in Thoughts and the pendant to Azura.

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clif08 · 3 years

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The Owl House season 2 is on the way, so it’s time to make your predictions before it’s too late.There are four main mysteries so far:

What Belos wants to do with the portal

King’s origins

Bat Queen’s origins

Who sent letters signed “Lus” (this one is less important, but still)

My prediction method follows two rules:

1. The simplest explanation is the best (Occam’s razor). 2. It’s always someone you know.

Let’s get to the predictions then.

1) Belos is planning to do something with the portal on Unity Day. He says it’s not the conquest and I choose to believe him because otherwise, it would look bad from the show’s perspective - you can’t just straight-up lie to your audience like that.I don’t think he needs the portal simply for traveling - in this case, he could have simply rented the portal from Eda. It looks like he needs full control of the portal to redesign it somehow. It’s safe to assume that all main plot lines are going to converge at one point, and the only other major plotline is the Titan. So he’s going to use the portal in a way that is somehow tied with the Titan; since it’s dead, the most obvious explanation is that he wants to resurrect him (or become a Titan, or merge with him, whatever).

2) Examples of Adegast and Snaggleback show us that a demon shrinks into a lesser form after sustaining critical damage. The shape of King’s horns resembles that of the Titan, so I think King is a shrunken form of the Titan, who most likely forgot just about everything about himself, other than that he used to be the King of demons.

3) Bat Queen is an ancient palisman, and the only real candidate for her master is the Titan (I can hear pk2317 facepalming right now). The major counterargument is that BQ should have been the size of the city to match the Titan’s size, but since we have magic, I assume she simply shrunk in size. The main issue is the age, not the size, and there is literally nobody else old enough. While we do not know Emperor’s age, the fact that he came to power 50 years ago - within a lifespan of a human or a witch - implies that he is not old enough to be BQ’s owner.

4) Rule 2 implies that letters from Lus were sent from the Demon realm since we do not know any characters from Earth other than Camila (who is the recipient) and Luz (who knows not about the letters and is unlikely to misspell her own name). The only known character from the Demon realm who has the means to send letters to Earth (portal) and who knows what to write (from the pamphlet Luz brought with her) and who has a motivation (cares about Luz and wants to cover for her) is Edalyn Clawthorne, the Owl Lady. As for the camp, they could have lost the papers and never expected Luz to show up.

There are some lesser questions, like who is Golden Guard and who wrote Azura books, but I don’t think they have any significance. I am notoriously bad at predictions. Last time I tried this method to predict Steven Universe I ended up with a theory that Pink Diamond’s shards are buried on the Moonbase, that Bismuth rigged Rose’s sword to specifically target Diamond’s gems, and that Steven’s powers are due to his organic form acting as a secondary incubator to his gem. As you can see, I couldn’t have been more wrong if I tried, so I have very low expectations about my predictions, but I have to make them nevertheless.

#THE OWL HOUSE #the owl house theory

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fayesdiary · 3 years

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Corrin for the character ask thing?

You didn't mention any questions you wanted me to answer, so I'll just pick those myself! 1- Favourites thing(s) about this character?

Their kindness and mental fortitude!

Way, way back when I first started playing Fates I mentioned how astounding it was that Corrin went through all the shit in the first six chapters that take place around what, two weeks at most? And

2- What song(s) remind you of this character?

To quote @good-beans, 😐

4- Would you write about this character?

I am daydreaming about planning a Fates sequel featuring the two versions of them from Birthright and Conquest, which also includes a Revelation AU with a fallen Corrin who's under constant threat of degeneration.

Honestly, the real question is not "Would I", but "Will I actually write about them?"

Eh, that's up to the executive dysfunction demon to decide. help me

8-Do you think this character is underrated or overrated?

Underrated, absolutely!

They get a lot of undeserved hate from the fandom that's become pretty much self-sustained by this point, but the truth is there's a lot of endearing stuff about them that you can see if you just give them a fair chance!

9- What’s your favourite headcanon(s) for this character?

Post-Conquest Corrin spends most of their free time at the nearest lake, hoping they'll see Azura again, since they don't want to know she's dead. Sometimes one of their siblings joins in, but more often then not they're on their own, talking to Azura, hoping she can hear them wherever she is. Eventually it became a habit to self-reflect and voice their thoughts out loud as a way to vent.

10- Who do you like to ship with this character? (If you do of course) Is it another character from the cast or is it an OC?

I paired them with Felicia in Birthright because I think they're really cute together (also the idea of Princess Felicia fascinates me for some reason, especially in Birthright since... Flora), with Silas in Conquest because I kept pairing them up ingame anyway and with Annabelle in Revelations, mostly because I found the idea of Corrin's family becoming even more comically large really funny😂 Also I feel they make a good couple!

11- Who do you not like to ship with this character?

Their siblings, for starters (and yes, that includes Azura). But also characters whose age difference is too much from Corrin's alleged age, ranging from literal children to people old enough to be their parent.

But besides those big no-nos that have been beaten to death by literally everyone... I can't think of anyone, at least not right now.

16- What do you think would improve this character? Like, character-arc wise?

I really wish they weren't an avatar.

I made a whole essay about the narrative implications of Robin being an Avatar and it was lots of fun, but honestly? I don't like the way Fire Emblem handles avatars. At all.

Either they make it so that they're barely even a character with Dora the Explorer-level interactions or a fully fledged character that feels directly at conflict with being an avatar.

And then there's Byleth, that from what little I know about 3H is a mix of both, and that's just gonna be lovely when I play it /s But both variants feel incredibly jarring, and they break my immersion when they're meant to do the opposite, the first one with characters suddenly turning to the screen and addressing you, the latter because you can't choose how you talk or what to do, so they do a terrible job at being "you". Just look at how people love to complain about Corrin being "dumb" or whatever.

Just adding an avatar makes you lose so many things, both minor like the camera bending over backwards to not show their face in CG cutscenes since it's customizable or awkward 1st person POVs, characters not being able to call them by name.

And this is more debatable on how much it affects the writing, but I definitely won't deny that FE games with an avatar tend to have the problem of revolving more around the protagonist and needlessly complimenting them even when they fuck up, or them feeling a bit more generic or at least subdued to make them more relatable.

And while I feel Robin wasn't affected by this (...mostly, but even them I'd say them being an avatar worked really well considering the series' state by that point and... well, just read my essay above I'm too lazy to repeat myself), I think Corrin got hit hard.

Mind you, I still really like Corrin and I think most criticisms of them are overblown at best and disingenous at worst, but they're a terrible avatar, since the only choice you can make that actually matters is the route split, they have a backstory and family that "relatable" is the last word I'd use to describe, and in general they're really unique in the way they talk and act, so the avatar thing feels like a huge detriment to the character.

If they weren't an avatar, they'd probably be more open in their personality and we'd have more flavored character interactions, they'd get called out more when they mess up (then again, the fact that they don't is what makes the latter half of Conquest feel "wrong" in a way that fascinates me, because it feels like someone constantly reassuring themself everything's fine while the world's crashing down around them) and also we'd be able to actually see them emote in cutscenes!

Oh, and also we wouldn't have shit like them being able to marry their family and literal children.

17- Have you ever had a crush on this character…?

On male Corrin? I don't know, probably? On female Corrin? Absolutely, but then again I crush on so many FE/fictional women it's honestly embarassing😳

19- What would the show/book/movie game be like if this character wasn’t present?

IT WOULd Be BETtEr, fATes bAD lMAo

But seriously, it's so out there to imagine it could be its own big AU! Lilith would be Anankos' only child, and since she doesn't go to Nohr to watch over Corrin she would go to Hoshido to join Mikoto's side and pretty much get adopted.

So:

Princess Lilith being a Diviner

Mikoto bonding with her adopted(?) daughter and the two quietly going to Valla just to talk about... you know, together whenever they can

Yato and the prophecy don't show up and that's good because I hate prophecies (well, that or Lilith's kid could wield Yato?)

What's not to love? And yes, I will take every excuse to give my babey fish dragon the spotlight she sorely needed

Not sure where it would go after that, like: does Azura still get kidnapped? How does the war start in this universe? Without Corrin, how would they reach out to Nohr since none of them have pleasant memories about the place or people?

It could take so many different directions and I love it!

21- Wild card! Talk about anything to do with this character! Anything at all!

Why are Corrin's default hair light brown? (Or y'know, whatever their hair color is called)

According to FE logic, they should be either black or blue like Azura's, and while I get why they didn't go with the latter for spoilery reasons I wonder why they don't have Mikoto's hair color.

That or have Sumeragi have Corrin's default hair color as a red herring to mock the very convention, it would have been funny.

It's not a criticism or anything, it's just... a nitpick, I guess?

When I replay Fates with the Team If translation I'm definitely making Corrin's hair black! Character ask game

#fire emblem #fire emblem fates #fe14 #corrin #ask replies #anonymous #character ask game #you know i wasn't planning to do a whole dang essay but got carried away

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 3 years

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If Fates' child mechanics could be improved, story wise, what would you do? Because I do genuinely love the kids as characters but they were done DIRTY by the excuse plot and reasons for them to be there.

That reminds me of something else I’ve meant to say about how the Fates child mechanics really really doesn’t work. Actually several things, one big one and a bunch of other little ones.

It’s obvious that the thought process was “well, people liked Awakening and Awakening had XYZ, so let’s add it in again!” without taking into account that Awakening built its story around time travel. Even if you didn’t get any S-supports, Lucina is still there. It’s a major plot point. Grima is still there, also having time-traveled. You can’t separate the time travel from the main plot, so from there it’s natural that Lucina would have some friends who came back with her, and thus you get the kids.

We’ve discussed how Fates’ baby dimension is silly. Yeah hang on let’s all just have kids during a war and throw them into an Outrealm pocket dimension where they’ll grow up real quick and we can have more soldiers for our army. If a tree falls in a forest and nobody’s around to hear it - if a situation so fantastical happens that it couldn’t have been written about in any human rights documentation, is it still a war crime? Several other issues I have with it before I get into the big one I wanted to talk about:

Even if we presume that the ladies are spending the duration of their pregnancy also in a pocket dimension where time passes differently in relation to the outside world, that’s still the equivalent of nine months that they are experiencing. That’s (equivalent to) several months that they’re not going to be able to train when the pregnancy is far along or when they’re recovering. Even if it seems like just a few days passed outside, they’re physically going to be lagging behind where they were when they entered the outrealm.

Azura and fCorrin would do that twice.

After they yeet the first of their female friends into a pocket dimension off the astral plane so that she can time-lapse her pregnancy, you would think that someone in the army would figure out some sort of birth control spell/concoction/herb/something so that they don’t have to worry about this again. That’s just good common sense, something we know Corrin lacks, but somebody else surely would suggest it. I feel like Camilla would have that under control - not to insinuate like that she’s a slut or something, but I mean that her older sister vibes tell me that she has the knowledge and supplies to dump on her three younger siblings to inform them how to have relationships safely without fear of unwanted children “and if anyone tries to pressure you otherwise, tell me and I’ll cut their head off” ;3c. She’s like that, I think.

And then the other big and uncomfortable problem with this setup is: some of the character ages.

Like, in Awakening, you’ve got Donnel, Ricken, and Lissa who seem the youngest. Depending on Robin’s gender and how the pairings fall, I think you could end up with two unmarried guys, so you could just have Donnel and Ricken not have children, but if you want to get every character you’ve got to have Lissa get married. I put her at 16/18 during the two parts of the game. Not a great age to have a kid at - but the thing about Awakening’s time travel is that she’s not having a kid at that age. Owain’s from the future, and the only child born during the events of the game is Lucina. It still felt a little weird to see those younger ones getting married, Lissa might be getting a ring now from someone just as young as she is (in the middle of a war) but kids are still years off. That...somewhat lessens the discomfort.

And then. sigh. then there’s Fates. Where no pocket dimensions and strange flow-of-time can get around the fact of character ages, because their children might be growing up fast but they are not from the future. Those kids are born during the course of the game. And like! Elise and Sakura! They’re my baby sisters! I don’t want my baby sisters to be teen moms during a war! That’s just weird and gross and uncomfortable! They’re my baby sisters. I want to find my siblings good partners but I’m not going to matchmake for my baby sisters if that’s the result.

So looping all the way back around to your question - I have no idea, honestly. Anything except time travel/coming from an entirely alternate timeline in the future has all of the above problems baked in, and then future-kids is just an Awakening rehash. Like I was about to suggest that it’d be interesting if for Birthright/Conquest, the kids came from an alternate timeline of the other path, where their side lost the war, but firstly that’s just Awakening rehashed again, secondly Corrin spares as many people as possible so we don’t have dead parents, and honestly it’s not even a dark dire future in Awakening. Like for Nohr in Birthright, Leo gets crowned king of Nohr, his kid is going to have no drive to come back and change the past because it’s fine, there’s holes in the family where Aunt Elise and Uncle Xander are missing, but this is not dire enough to need to find a way to change fate. And thirdly, for the few characters who do die - since we’re using Birthright as the example, Elise and Xander - that would mean that their kids were born before the end of the route, which runs into that same Elise problem! If you wanted “the kids as refugees from a dire timeline” it’d have to be one where Garon won and then again, just play Awakening for that plot.

Conceptually I think it’s interesting to draw the kids in from a different timeline where Corrin made the other choice - “Roddy what about Revelation?” I don’t fucking know man - and see how they react to Corrin being on that side, fighting for their country, with their parents, but... then that runs into the problem of spoiling the other route. Like if you played Conquest first and Xander’s kid says he died before they were born, well, that’s awkward. And again, Elise - in Conquest you could pair her with like, Kaze, who was with Corrin the whole time, always on Corrin’s side no matter what, and then that creates a plot hole of it having been literally impossible for that kid to have come from a Birthright-esque timeline because they couldn’t have existed then because Kaze could’ve even died before Corrin reunites with Elise. No, that concept can’t work. Too much potential for plot holes and stretching too weirdly to try and cover it.

I don’t know. I don’t know if you can fix it without becoming an Awakening rehash or turning Fates into something entirely different...which, it’s Fates. Might not be a bad thing to do that.

#fire emblem chatter tag #jakeun-kangajii

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princeazurathepathetic · 4 years

Note

Do you have any Azura headcanons?

Thank you for sending an ask, and yes I do, quite a few.

But they’re all under the cut because some of them are spoilery and I have some followers who have never played Fates

1. She did not know about her and Corn being cousins. (they never state in game if Azura knew, so Imma say that she did not)

2. Out of her Hoshibros, she was closest to Hinoka. (I rlly like their supports lmao)

3. In her first few days in Hoshido, she was convinced that they were lying about not wanting to her, and every time they wanted to help her or give her food, she was convinced they wanted to kill her.

4. She actually had a decent relationship w/ Garon before he became possessed and shit. Especially when Arete and Garon were courting.

5. She barely remembers this, though.

6. She had one friend in Nohr, (one of her step-siblings) but they were one of the first to die in the concubine-wars

7. This sibling liked to tell ghost stories, and that is where her love for ghost stories came from

8. She’s a crazy cat lady at heart lmao

9. Her favourite memory of her memory of Arete was when she got to sit in the audience at one of shows in Cyrkensia. This is what inspired her to become a singer just like mama

10.Her and her wonderful nephew (Kiragi when will u be added in Heroes?) have a really good relationship, and he makes her feel wholesome and good.

10. She’s terrible with kids due to most of the kids she knew growing up tried to kill her at some point.

10. She actually did have retainers for a short while in Hoshido, but they didn’t trust her due to her being “Nohrian” and eventually betrayed her. And she hasn’t wanted to have retainers since (bc of her amazing trust issues)

11. She truly and deeply thinks nobody loves her lol (not really a hc but whatever)

12. Sometimes when she’s in Valla, she visits her fathers grave, placing flowers even tho she doesn’t remember him

13. Although she likes Hoshido in almost every way better than Nohr, she doesn’t enjoy the fashion as much, and that’s why she doesn’t wear Hoshidan clothes

14. Mikoto made her the dress she has right now, making sure to make it look Vallite and not Nohrian

15. She tried to learn how to ride a pegasus while in Hoshido, but failed miserably.

16. For a while, she asked what Corrin was like, and tried to be like them, in hopes to raise her Hoshibros’s spirits

17. It didn’t work at all, and just strained her relationship with Pineapple more.

18. Upon meeting Mikoto for the first time, Mikoto asked if her mother was in good health. When Azura answered with the fact that her mama was dead, Mikoto almost started crying. Azura never knew why until she finds out they were sibs

19. Her and Oboro have a pretty terrible relationship (i’m sure u can figure out why)

20. One time in Hoshido, she lost her pendant, and made everyone stay up looking for it.

21. She hates tomatoes. Her and Leo will often argue about whether they taste good (it never goes anywhere but u know Leo, he needs to be right about everything)

22. She tried to save Arthur when he defended her (see their supports)

23. The guards at Castle Krakenburg hated her guts cuz they would always get in trouble when she ran away.

24. She knows about Sakura’s dolls (see Kaze and Sakura’s supports) and actually helped her make a few of them

25. She never knows how to react to physical affection

26. Like when someone hugs her, she just awkwardly pats them on the back and tries to get them off of her

27. She was very suspicious of Jakob for a while when she first met him.

28. His over the top love of Corn reminded her of her retainers shortly before they tried to kill her, and she was convinced he was buttering Corn up and was going to hurt them at some point

29. She does not get along very well with her wonderful nephew Shiro. She finds him too loud and brash.

30. She supports Forrest with every bit of her living soul and would die for him.

31. She doesn’t really know how to talk with Sieggy, and most of their conversations are really awkward small talk.

32. She finds Kana, like Elise, a handful, and far too much energy for her.

33. When she dies in Conquest and Birthright, she thinks of Shigure, and how he must be experiencing the same thing that she did when her mama died

34. She absolutely hated having to put Shigure in the deeprealms, since she didn’t want Shigure to have to grow up without parents there, like she did

35. She only ever wears clothes that match with her pendant. That way, people are less likely to notice it.

36. She wasn’t originally planning to stay with Corn in conquest. She planned on just staying with them untill htey were near enough to the border for her to get back to Hoshido

37. But then she started to like Corn, and opted to stay

38. It was incredibly hard for her to have to watch Pineapple’s descent into insanity.

39. And she stayed up crying about it a lot.

40. She’s babie.

41. Also she doesn’t actually know how to swim, she just kinda uses her pendant to drift thru water (like in the first cutscene u see her in)

44. She actually likes her Nohrian Dance outfit more but will never admit to it.

Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head lmao.

Thanks for the ask! Stay safe and wash ur hands ya’ll

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under-the-white-star · 4 years

Note

The Fire Emblem Fates routes especially revelations make a lot more sense after reading TV Tropes Fridge Brilliance section but Conquest is still the most idiotic route in the game. Anyway did you know that in Japan it is common practice to adopt non related and even adults for influence or one without a capable for centuries! So it makes sense it’s called birthright and not bloodline.

It maybe would have been more interesting if Sakura had been the daughter of Mikoto and Sumeragi. (she’s the youngest, so she is born after Mikoto’s arrival in Hoshido.)

Yeah conquest has not a lof of senses.

I mean since when a invasion is a peaceful solution? and people says that Birthright is the same but no, they don’t invade Nohr, they attack for stop Garon and his madness, they try to reason Xander, Camilla and Leo.

They have a plan. They try to reach the capital with not a lot of deaths.

But in conquest, how much people are dead for Azura’s stupid plan? Especially when Birthright shows us ANOTHER WAY to show the truth, when Azura uses it on Léo. Without killing anyone for get to a throne.

Ryoma is willing to give FREE food to Nohr (and people are angry about that)

yeah he didn’t do before. why? Why he should have done it before? When Norh has KILLED the king and kidnapped one of the royal children? That’s a freaking casus belli.

And people say “but it’s Garon’s fault, not Nohr’s fault” Yeah but Garon is still king of Nohr and want to invade Hoshido. If Nohr has problems, it’s because of Garon. So if they had removed the problem and give back the kidnapped child, Hoshido would have re-opened the commerce.

Hoshido is the PACIFIST nation and it’s CANON!! (it is said by the creators of the game themself) they never wanted war or stufff.

Also they may have kidnapped Azura but remember that Nohr has kidnapped Corrin FIRST. They kidnapped Azura in the hope to exchange her for Corrin. So then you can blame Garon to not have accepted to return Corrin, because if he had done it, he would have had his daugther back.

(Also this kidnapping may have saved Azura’s life seen how she was treated in Nohr!)

Also

1) Takumi is racist ONLY in the localisation, not in the V.O but seen what nohr did to his family, can you blame him? Also after have begin to knew them in Revelation, he has a changement of opinion and becomes more open and friendly.

So it’s was just anger and distrust? Yep.

The localisation has madea lot of nonsense XD

People say “but Corrin abandon her family in Birthright!! They grow up with them!! THEY’RE her family!” Yes but she not lived with them and we don’t really know how much Corrin could see their siblings. (The fortress seems to be far away of the capital)

And Yes! Leo and Elise didn’t know the truth about her and they really believe that Corrin was their sister. Elise accepts Corrin’s choice in Birthright and in Revelation and gets along nicely with the Hoshidians in Revelations too, but acts like a spoiled brat in Conquest....toward Sakura who never deserved that. Same for Leo.

But Camilla and Xander KNEW since the beginning and have lied to her. They say that it change nothing for them. Yes but it change a lot for Corrin because the trust is then shattered. And then come the doubt. And then the anger.

It’s easy to not see it, or easy to not think about it, as player, and just choose what we prefer, but if we think about Corrin’s feelings? they lovedtheir nohr family, they believed in them, they trusted them and then?

Xander says that he knew their origin since the beginning, that they had been kidnapped and all. He knew about Mikoto’s murder (so the murder of Corrin’s MOTHER) too since he was here just after the queen’s death. (he must have been aware, Léo must have understood it and told him)

Can you imagine what Corrin has felt at this moment? “How much they have lied to me then”? Corrin could even doubt about their affection since they lied since the beginning. “did they really loved me?”

It’s the point. I think. In Birthright, this shattered trust is so strong that Corrin can’t accept these lies from Nohr anymore. They are angry and they have all right to be. In Revelations, they suffer and refuse to fight their two family so they run away. Here, sadness seems to be stronger.

Yeah some things have no coherence and some routes contradict the others.

“we must invade Hoshido, and let Garon sits on the throne and then our siblings will see the truth” (conquest)

“hey Leo, look at the ball of glass! You’ll see the truth” (Birthright)

okay Azura okay

#Anonymous

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markoftheasphodel · 5 years

Text

FE Conquest Part 2 (Chapters 5-7 + Mozu Paralogue)

So Mikoto has a plan that involves having Corrin sit on a magic throne to get her memories back, and since I played FE16 before playing this one I already know that’s not gonna work. :P

…and now that I’ve detected a parallel between Mikoto and Rhea, I notice that Yukimura with his green hair, stubble, and strategizing appears to be a dry run for Seteth. Hmm.

1) So Mikoto goes BOOM because of course she does and then Corrin turns into a legendary Pokemon, which is a more effective moment for having been foreshadowed when Gunter got thrown off the bridge. And then we get to fight a battle as Dragon!Corrin against enemies packing Wyrmslayers which is pretty cool tbh.

2) There’s just so many moments in which it’s obvious this could’ve been better/stronger/more engaging. Mikoto’s death making Corrin go feral makes sense as the climax of a very, very, very fucked-up week, but not so much as an event in itself. Like, she’s known Gunter for HOW long compared to Mikoto? Whatever.

3) And then Corrin ends up with her memories, the Yato Sword, and a Dragonstone. It’s chapter five. On one hand I appreciate how since FE13 we get holy weapons pretty damn quick and it’s not like poor Roy waiting ’til endgame for the Binding Blade, on the other… WHAT. Too much, too fast. Again, this seems to be a structural thing built around having a route split at this precise juncture but it’s still poorly paced IMO.

4) So now Corrin gets to make The Decision, which is framed in terms that I already know to be bullshit. In terms of characterization, Takumi being hateful makes a hell of a lot more sense than anyone else on the scene in Hoshido. Let’s see…your “sister” just showed up after many years under sketchy circumstances and now your mom’s dead following an incident involving said sister, who by the way turns into a dragon, is absconding with your kingdom’s holy weapon, and has an immediate bond with the Nohr hostage girl you don’t like. Yes, I think going ballistic is absolutely called for. Small wonder Takumi and Leo got a fanbase as they each stand out immediately as Actual Characters instead of IDK cardboard cutouts.

5) The less said about Ryoma the better. God.

6) So then we fight Yukimura and the Hoshido sibs, Azura bids us farewell… and then the opening credit sequence plays again? HUH?

7) Wow, I wasn’t expecting Anankos to be name-dropped this early. Huh. That was kinda interesting TBH. Nice stunt, Garon.

8) And now we go on our “solo” mission against the Ice Tribe, which can’t possibly go well…

9) Oh hey, an entire level of Faceless, who as opponents are boring af but they sure can grind you down, especially when they Pair Up on your ass. So yeah, that was challenging and I ended up breaking Elise’s Freeze staff to get through that level… which was kinda screwed up because the portraits covered the map to an extent I couldn’t see what units she was even targeting! Was definitely pleased to have a wave of reinforcements on my side.

10) The contrast between Mozu’s Paralogue in which this poor child watches her entire village get slaughtered and the hijinks of Elise&Arthur&Effie is tonal dissonance whiplash on a grand scale. OW.

I have to say, despite finding the writing pretty abysmal, Nohrrin is unexpectedly charming as a protagonist. Everything is so cartoonish and over the top that her sweetness and innocence almost succeeds as a contrast, like a small child presenting a plan for World Peace or Stopping Climate Change that might actually work except People Suck. Now we get to finish this Ice Tribe mission, which I’m sure will go just fine...

#mark joins the conquest #fates spoilers ahoy #all the salt under detroit #fe16 spoilers

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decideroffate · 5 years

Text

Valla/Royal Family Headcanons

Also including Lilith because I wouldn’t know where else to put her.

General

Their culture is a mix of Indian and Greek. Likewise their naming customs mix between the two.

A typical Vallite has olive skin (fantasy Mediterraneans) The common eye color tends to be red and green. Gold color tends to be a bit rarer. (Red eyes is essentially the real-world equivalent of having brown eyes. Gold is the equivalent of having blue eyes). Common hair colors tend to be brown, black and varying shades of blue.

All Vallite’s have the ability to waterbend. However they can generally only do it in about a three meter range. The pendant allows for greater range.

Because of this, and the fact that there’s so much water, fishing is a common trade in Valla.

Valla is sometimes known as the ‘Hidden Kingdom.’ It is not nearly unknown as it is in canon.

Likewise, there is no curse on Valla and no one acts as though it exists.

Royal Family Cadros

First king of Valla, and the only one to ingest dragons blood, giving the family line the dragonvein ability.

His wife was one of the contents first Kinshi Knights. She hated Anankos and resented the Vallites for taking an easy way out when things on the surface got too difficult.

Though alchemic magic a piece of Anankos’ dragonstone was infused with Cadros’ blood allowing those of his bloodline to use the pendant.

He’s probably the only Vallite ruler to use the pendant without any strain.

Possibly reincarnated as Shigure. I haven’t fully decided if I’m totally for the idea or not, but the possibility certainly is not off the table.

If I had to make a voice claim…Ramin Karimloo

Arete and Mikoto’s Father

The Vallite king Anankos killed in a fit of rage.

Azura was barely born when this happened.

His second grandchild came to be as a result of his death

He is a rarity amongst Vallite royals in recent years in that he lived as long as he did. Not many could say they lived long enough to see their heir inherit the throne.

Was a Sniper which is passed along to his grandson (See; Mikoto)

Arete

Her first marriage was more of a political marriage but was amicable due to being childhood friends with her husband.

Garon was her love.

Was a talented singer, which was how she made a living for herself before marrying Garon after Valla’s fall. Her voice, however, was damaged after an attempt on her life which was arranged by Camilla’s mother. Unable to sing anymore, she tried to put off giving the pendant to Azura for as long as she could. But…

Because there is no Vallite curse in this her death was a conscious effort on Anankos part. It’s still his dragonstone, so he has some influence over it. Arete just made the mistake of overlooking that fact. So once she started taking action, all Anankos had to do was use what influence he had and activate the stone.

Azura only had the dragonstone that became Corrin’s because of her. Arete could hardly trust her sister to actually think things through.

Never actually knew what became of her sister and nibling in life.

Arete’s First Husband

Slightly older than Arete. Childhood friend of both princesses.

Mage class.

The Only Sane Man once Valla starts going to shit.

Possibly ace.

From one of Valla’s noble houses.

Basically exists to die. Not as interesting as his father-in-law.

Mikoto

Not her real name.

Also the mother of Takumi and Sakura. Technically making them Vallite royals as well.

Takumi gets the Archer line from his late grandfather. Archer is also her secondary class.

Was not raised to be the heir to the throne and it shows.

Has a very Never My Fault and Us vs. Them mentality. Because of this, she’s a very controversial figure outside of Castle Town.

She’s less about peace and more about compliance.

Basically, she’s a mediocre Empress.

Corrin gets their eye color from her.

Does not think things through, which is kind of how Corrin came into existence.

Does grow to hate Anankos, both human and dragon versions (the game more-or-less implies she’s still fond of him).

She doesn’t have foresight (seriously, it comes out of nowhere in the game), but did have her death foretold to her by Orochi’s grandmother and the human Anankos. So she knew an early death was in store for her, but never knew when.

Did not know Arete married Garon until Hoshido abducted Azura by pure chance.

Once Azura is in Hoshido, however, she starts emotionally manipulating the girl. Made easier when Garon seemingly never made the trade. Seemingly being the keyword.

Met Sumeragi and Ikona the winter before Ryoma’s birth. Ikona had been dead a few years before she returned to Hoshido

Azura

Doesn’t realize that her life in Hoshido was just barely a step up from Nohr.

The only one in Hoshido to really bond with her was Sakura.

It never actually occurs to her that Mikoto was Vallite until Sakura awakens her waterbending abilities. But never actually learns of their relation until Revelation.

Cuts her hair when she starts having children.

Corrin

Has black hair.

Get’s their eye color from Mikoto

Outside of ears, their curly hair comes from the human Anankos

Figures out that their not Sumeragi’s child on their own.

Also figures out that Anankos is their father on their own in Revelation.

Birthright or Conquest, Corrin pretty much shouts ‘A plague on both your houses!’ for their dumbassary.

Or ‘Y’all are stupid!’

Could theoretically use the pendant since it’s not their dragonstone

The pendant barely works on them because it’s not their dragonstone

Retainers are just Felicia/Jakob and Kaze. Unless Kaze dies in Birthright then it becomes Felicia and Jakob. Otherwise, Felicia/Jakob remains their attendant.

Does not like Silas much. They find it creepy how he expects things to just pick up where the left off despite not seeing each other in like ten-ish years.

Lilith

Looks about 15 to 17. She’s actually five or six.

Original dragon form. Adhering to canon, what’s that?

The jewel on her forehead is fused to her head. It’s where she gets her powers as an Astral Dragon. Her current dragon form is not what Astral Dragon’s look like

She didn’t have the gradient in her hair until she gained the power of an Astral Dragon.

Kind of her Uncle Moro’s pet.

Is fully aware of her relation to the Rainbow Sage.

Kind of crushes on Xander

#headcanons #arete #arete (fire emblem)#mikoto #mikoto (fire emblem)#azura #azura (fire emblem)#corrin #corrin (fire emblem)#lilith #lilith (fire emblem)

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gascon-en-exil · 6 years

Text

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Conquest Part 3

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Conquest Part 1

Conquest Part 2

Chapters 21-Endgame, in which this turns into the end of a Pokémon game.

Chapter 21

This may just be the worst filler chapter in Fates, dull and forgettable in pretty much every way. This isn’t even the first time in Conquest that Iago has pulled his Faceless stunt against Corrin, and it’s still a dumb and poorly-developed source for a conflict. Why does Iago hate Corrin so much on this route anyway? Lilith also dies here, her death even more random and pointless than the one in Birthright. I actually had an idea for how they could have killed her off in Conquest and have it carry some actual emotional weight: have her take a killing blow from Takumi in Chapter 23. It would emphasize just how far gone Takumi is and tie Lilith’s sacrificial love for Corrin back into their Nohrian siblings’ love, particularly as Elise does take an arrow for Corrin back in Cheve. But nope, death by random Faceless it is.

Even the experience of playing this chapter is less challenging and more highly annoying, between the beefy Stoneborn stunning units and the Faceless hordes clogging the road to the end. I also hate how the rubble blocking certain paths up the stairs can be hard to see; at least once several of my units got stuck in a dead end because I couldn’t tell at first that the way I was sending them was impassable.

Before moving on, I should probably explain the Pokémon thing. Conquest’s lategame has always felt conspicuously methodical to me when compared with the other routes and with FE lategames generally. It reminds me very much of the typical (and infamously formulaic) experience of a Pokémon game, which end with a long and tedious trip through a cave that forms a physical bottleneck to the final area of the main story (this chapter) followed by sequential challenges against the Elite Four (22-25, with the four Hoshidan royals even faced in ascending order of age), a “surprise” fight against a regional Champion (26, with “surprise” in quotes because, just like with Hans and Iago, it’s rarely surprising that you have to fight them at some point), and then often a challenge against one or more otherworldly legendary Pokémon in the postgame (27 and Endgame, in which Corrin faces off against two incarnations of an insane dragon from another dimension). To contrast, Birthright’s final confrontations are more spread out and don’t even feature half of the Nohrian siblings, and the true climaxes are those that have been built up throughout the route. Revelation does throw multiple antagonists against Corrin in sequence, but in its tradition of imitating the endgame of Radiant Dawn each of them represents a different story thread getting hastily wrapped up to make way for the fight against Fates’s overall antagonist. This is not to suggest that Conquest’s lategame has no effective moments, but the deliberate scripting doesn’t help this route’s reputation for lazy plotting.

Chapter 22

I have two problems with this chapter, although one will take just a few sentences to resolve. The Dragon Veins on this map have their action described as “flatten a levee,” when what they actually do are destroy walls separating the different sections of the field. A levee is not a wall on land but an artificial embankment against a river or other body of water built to prevent flooding. They’re kind of a big deal in New Orleans, and their appearance and function do not remotely resemble the walls in this chapter. Weird word choice, localizers.

The other, more substantial problem I have here concerns Sakura and her supposed innocence. In a sense I appreciate that Sakura does here what Elise refuses to do in Birthright and takes up arms against Corrin; it highlights her resolve in spite of her characteristic timidity and helps differentiate the two little sisters in a more substantial way than the fetishistic anime tropes that they each apparently embody. I also appreciate that Sakura’s reluctance to fight comes through in the way this chapter is structured, in that she’s enclosed behind...”levees” healing her forces from afar and that you’re not required to fight her to end the chapter. What I take issue with is how easily the game casts her in the role of innocent victim after the battle, simply because Garon and his minions show up (from where?) and kill all the surrendered Hoshidans. Yes, this is a war crime and yet another demonstration of how terrible these people are and how we’re obviously going to be killing them later, but Sakura and even more so her retainers and Yukimura were earlier attacking the Nohrian army. This would have been a good point to demonstrate some genuine moral greyness in someone who gets nothing of the sort of otherwise (and that’s not even getting into her standing alongside Yukimura, a man revealed earlier in the route to be a bit sketchy himself), but thanks to Garon the scene is skewed in favor of flat villainy and justified outrage again.

Chapter 23

...Alright, I’ll be the one to ask it. Why does Hoshido have a Great Wall? It’s my understanding that, in contrast to Nohr pulling from over a half dozen Western European cultures, Hoshido is meant to be representative of solely Japanese culture - and yet when I think of East Asian countries with oversized walls I’m obviously not thinking of Japan. Perhaps some projecting on the part of the writers of the kind of defenses they think Japan would have had if it had been a large continental territory like Hoshido?

Regardless, I don’t have much to say about the specific content of this chapter. I’ve already remarked that Takumi’s arc in Conquest is well-executed, and his last stand atop a great wall overlooking a gorge in the setting sun makes for a fittingly dramatic end even before it goes all possession-assisted suicide. The deaths of his retainers have a bit of punch to them too, particularly since it’s become so customary on this route for Corrin to spare defeated opponents.

This policy along with the scope of this battle do however bring up a larger point I wanted to make when comparing routes. Both Birthright and Conquest end with Corrin’s army invading the enemy nation, conquering their capital, and deposing their sovereign along with various others who get in the way. There is though a strong contrast between the presentation of these two invasions, and they happen to involve this series’s varying representation of the scale of its wars and the forces under the player’s control. In some cases it’s understood that the characters that make up the playable cast, plus a few major NPCs like merchants, literally represent the entirety of their side of the conflict. In other cases the playable cast are implied to be merely the vanguard of a much larger army. This can sometimes get awkward, but most of the time it’s fairly clear-cut that, say, all of Blazing Sword follows the first model whereas Gaiden and its remake are evenly split between an army of the first type (Celica) and an army of the second (Alm post-Deliverance Hideout).

For basically all of Birthright and Revelation and even parts of Conquest Fates uses the literal one-to-one scale model, and that manifests clearly in Birthright’s endgame. Corrin’s army sneaks into Nohr, passing through a supposedly abandoned fortress and a river of lava to reach a succession of two secrets passages that allow them to infiltrate Castle Krakenburg. They could not be feasibly marching with a whole army at their backs, and as such the conflicts they face in Windmire play out either as ambushes, Corrin’s personal family drama, or quick surgical strikes against enemy commanders who are unambiguously killed off. Not so in Conquest, where even before Garon’s army joins up with Corrin’s there’s enough of a rearguard to secure the major military installations that they seize on the way to Shirasagi and also keep prisoners of war. Azura also alludes to rebellion among the army’s ranks, a concern that would be completely baseless were the player not meant to assume that their visible army was being followed by legions of unnamed soldiers. The effect of this is that Conquest feels much more like a, well, conquest, and there’s a greater consideration for the standard rules of engagement in wartime (and Garon’s callous disregard for them) to match the larger scope and less personal conflict. Sure, the Hoshidan royals are still crying that Corrin has betrayed them and they can’t be a family, but since Corrin doesn’t really know the Hoshidans in the same way as they do the Nohrians I don’t find that to be at the emotional core of these chapters.

Chapter 24

As natural as it is to feel sorry for Takumi for what he goes through in Conquest - exacerbated even further here after this chapter when Hinoka apparently forgets about him entirely when contemplating whether Corrin can keep their family together - Hinoka might be even sadder on a meta level. Here she is, a woman whose life has been defined since early childhood by the kidnapping of her beloved sibling forced to fight that sibling now siding with their own captors as they invade and conquer her home...and yet for the small amount of time the main story spends building up her character and motivations this confrontation carries all the emotional weight of a single-chapter boss and little else. The biggest character moments on this map are less about her and more about other royals: Azura steels herself to march on her adoptive home, Xander doubles down on the pragmatic rationalization of an abuse victim, and Camilla gets to do her performative violent flirtation routine with a side of Corrin smothering that actually manages to be kind of funny. Even the retainer banter that Hinoka excels in elsewhere feels bland in this chapter.

As such I don’t really have much more to add. This map’s gimmick is a clever expansion of one used in an early Birthright chapter at least. And, uh, the Hinokacopter I guess? I suppose the question of the day is whether that’s more or less silly than Camilla’s catwalk strut.

Chapter 25

Now that’s a less fine hunk of obnoxiously self-righteous man right there.

Intriguing foil and bara porn potential aside it’s not that I hate Ryoma, even in Conquest, but it frustrates me how unsubtle the writers were in their love for him. I recall reading meta once that Ryoma fails as a proper Camus because there’s never any acknowledgement that he’s fighting for the wrong cause, and I have to agree. Corrin tells him that they’re working to save Hoshido too in spite of appearances, but Ryoma’s suicide is still presented as an honorable tragedy that spares Corrin a painful choice that’s ultimately pointless since Iago and Garon try to kill them in the next two chapters anyway. Also, while Ryoma finally abandons his desire to drag Corrin back into the Hoshidan fold after being told that Hinoka is dead (but no reaction to Takumi’s apparent suicide - sensing a pattern there?) the rage that replaces it lacks the well-intentioned antivillainy of the traditional Camus. He’s just pissed off enough to kill Corrin in revenge for killing his sister...or rather stand there for ages waiting for you to finish the rest of the chapter. At least Xander’s passivity and nerfed stats in his final Birthright confrontation make sense in context.

The strange thing is that I have no moral problem whatsoever with the concept of honorable suicide, but this particular scenario makes me kind of hate that Ryoma does it anyway. He dies a hero for Corrin and Azura to cry over, nothing like the flawed but honorable (in his own way) individual Xander is acknowledged to be in Birthright. Ryoma’s final stand and death flatten his motivations from earlier in the route to the point where the player is not encouraged to examine them. His controlling and manipulative behavior from Chapter 12 go completely forgotten, and it’s not until this very chapter that he accepts that Corrin truly cares about and wants to be with his Nohrian family - because Corrin claims to have murdered Hinoka. (Side note: this is arguably the most Hinoka ever matters to the plot of any of the routes, yet another sign of the serial neglect of her character.) Ryoma is every bit as flawed and complex an antagonist or even an ally as Xander, but you have to dig at the story to understand that. This leaves me with a deeply unsatisfying impression of imbalance, not only because these two are the most clearly established foils among the royal siblings but also because it perfectly encapsulates the prevailing creator bias of Fates, a bias that the players were seemingly meant to accept at face value.

Chapter 26

*yawns*

This chapter and the last two may throw almost everything Conquest has to offer at you to really amp up the difficulty, but in terms of story Chapter 26 is just a speed bump to get to the big reveal at the end. Iago and Hans are still not remotely interesting villains, and nothing interesting comes of them here. Leo even gets the honors of killing Iago just as he does in Birthright. Actually, there is one good bit - the moment when all the siblings stand up to Iago and Hans and announce their intentions to kill them and how they’re going to get away with it, turning one of Iago’s usual tactics against him. It’s the most satisfying showdown with these two in any of the routes, in my opinion.

I think this would be a good time to bring up a theory I heard recently from a YouTube critic explaining how Iago and Hans’s obvious two-dimensional villainy could plausibly exist in-universe: as Anankos is using Garon to destroy both Hoshido and Nohr, it benefits his long-term goal to give high-ranking positions to destructive individuals who will not only gleefully kill off the opposition but will cause dissent and disruption among their own ranks through their blatantly awful behavior. This is likely a case of giving the writers credit for more than they deserve, but the Fates fandom is no stranger to having to do most of the worldbuilding work itself.

Chapter 27 + Endgame

I’m going to step back a bit on my criticism of Conquest’s formulaic lategame, because despite the rigid structure leading up to this finale and some shared story elements with Birthright’s endgame - the Yato power-up, the shattering of the Yato reversed by a conversation with the dead and the power of friendship, Azura’s death and continuing mystery, an all too quick smoothing over of the political situation following the battle - these chapters and Conquest’s ending are substantially better than I remember them from earlier playthroughs.

Let’s start with Xander. He goes from threatening to kill Corrin if their claims about Garon turn out to be a ruse to the first of the Nohrians to defy the newly-revealed slime monster masquerading as his father - for precisely the reason that he’s lambasted as an idiot with daddy issues on the other routes. Alone among his siblings he knew the real Garon long enough to understand what he was truly like, so it’s fitting that he’s the one to understand that they’re facing a monstrous imitation of the real man and then rally the others to join him. That’s a profound turnaround, and as such Siegfriend powering up the Yato really lands as a strong moment.

Then there’s the resolution of Takumi’s arc, which unlike with Ryoma’s two chapters ago doesn’t tidily push the reality of his feelings of loss and resentment under the rug because of the current circumstances. Corrin and Takumi get to reconcile in the setting’s equivalent of limbo, each acknowledging that their mistakes led them to this point. This does not, however, then resolve itself with the conclusion that Corrin chose the wrong path in the end; instead, they validate their decision in the face of a bright future for Nohr and peace with Hoshido (which will presumably involve a hell of a lot of diplomacy and trade agreements, but details...). I believe this was an important writing choice to make for the player, to allow for Conquest’s ending to feel like a proper resolution instead of a monstrous lie as Xander describes the war in the final cutscene.

And that cutscene, and the scenes in the Nohrian throne room preceding it - actual acknowledgement in the story of Nohr’s culture and class system at last! There’s even an oblique hint at the resource scarcity that Birthright spells out, that the Nohrians feel they must make war to support their country. As much as I would have preferred all this worldbuilding to be sprinkled throughout Conquest rather than crammed into the ending I’ll take what I can get. We have to live with friendship superpowers and easy diplomacy and, er, Camilla’s bouncy breasts to get there, but all the same the finale is a strong one.

Oh, and Azura...it’s easy to forget about Azura, considering she never explains in this route what her song will do in the endgame and she dies offscreen immediately thereafter. It’s frustrating that she has so much less presence on this route compared to Birthright when here she’s the one who directs Corrin on the path to invading Hoshido instead of coming up with any other kind of solution. Way to completely dodge any kind of responsibility for that decision, Azura.

Next time: ending and final thoughts on Conquest

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #Fire Emblem Conquest #FE14

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crystalelemental · 5 years

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FE Fates Replay - Part 5

I was having such a good time. And then...

Chapter 9 starts out with Corrin returning successful from her mission to suppress the Ice Tribe’s rebellion. Even Garon is impressed, and makes some hesitant comments about being proud of her. Honestly, this is the Garon I want. The one that’s slightly unhinged, but generally does care about the well-being of his children. You know. The one with any level of complexity at all. For a moment all is well, until Iago decides to be the way that he is and announces that Corrin didn’t do it alone as commanded. Xander’s response here is kinda funny. “That’s really shitty, Iago, even for your slimy ass.” Or something to that effect. Anyway, Garon’s slightly miffed, but let’s it go because damn, she did a real good job on suppressing the rebellion without taking lives. Again, the Garon with some level of complexity. Instead of just murder man, he commends her specifically for not taking life in the suppression, which would be cool if that mentality of “not taking life in the conflict is a good thing.” Shame about the way this game handles villains.

You’re immediately given another assignment: go to...uh...shit. I can’t remember how to spell the place. Basically, he wants you to go capture a territory. Chapter 9 involves going through a fortress that’s the remains of a dragon, which is held by the Hoshidans. This is a fairly fun chapter. Not too difficult. Mostly Effie and Silas carry the day. You also recruit Azura and Nyx, making this the best recruitment chapter so far! I really like both of them. It’s a shame that Nyx is at level 9 when you get her. Her stats are, uh...pretty terrible. Okay, really terrible. Skill, Luck, and Defense are all abysmal, with Magic and Speed being her only worthwhile stats. They wouldn’t be as bad if she showed up a few levels lower, but at level 9, a lot of her stat spread is unsalvageable without stat boosting items. Which means if you’re gonna use her, you have to invest. And I absolutely intend to use her.

The map is your standard Seize map, after clearing everyone out, so not much to report on in terms of combat. After the fight, Azura explains that she’s stuck here because the Hoshidans, wary after Corrin’s decision, turned on her too and had her locked up here. So I guess that proves I made the right call. So much for family, am I right? Fuck Hoshido. Azura instantly joins up with you, since she’s got nowhere else to go. As for Nyx, just to give a bit of info on her, she’s apparently a really old magic user who, for reasons unknown, is in the body of a child. Honestly, if it weren’t for her outfit, she’d be perfect. She’s sassy and fun, and admittedly I like her hair.

Chapter 10 has the group arrive in some port town looking for passage to this territory they’re to take. At first, it’s assumed this port will be safe, but unfortunately for them, it’s now crawling with Hoshidans. Fortunately for me, Takumi is leading the charge, meaning it’s finally time to kick his ass. He goes on about Corrin being a traitor and all that, but what’s interesting is he mentions that some Hoshidans took Azura away, and that Ryoma was worried about her. He wasn’t, obviously, but what’s neat to me is that the eneimes from last chapter were apparently in active defiance of Ryoma, who is essentially their king now that the old queen is dead. At the very least, the Hoshidans are very disorganized. So that’s funny. Good job, idiots.

Honestly? This is my favorite chapter so far. I mentioned last time, I think, but while the developers of this game were insistent that Awakening’s weak point was its story (don’t ask how one can be so out of touch, I don’t know either), its actual weak point is mostly its maps. It’s been a while since I’ve fully played Awakening, but I remember about 90% of it being “route the enemy,” with very little else aside from standard Seize and Defeat the Boss. There aren’t too many weird conditions or gimmicks. Fates, at least on the Conquest route, has given some more interesting stuff. This one in particular is really fun. You’re defending the territory, so you have four squares at the far north of the map, where your units start, that the enemy can’t reach. If they do, you lose. To help out, you get a bunch of ranged weapons near your position to help weaken, but not KO, foes. There are also a lot of homes around the area that you can access to get some items. Naturally, as with any defending map, there are tons of reinforcements. What really makes the map interesting to me is that, so far, we’ve been using a lot of Dragon Veins. Allegedly. I don’t use them that often. They’re not always as helpful as they think. But in this map, Takumi activates one, and dries up all the water, allowing the enemies to traverse around the paths you’ve been defending. It’s incredibly frustrating, but a neat surprise that the map pulls to make your attempts at defense even harder. I know for me, I had spread out my units by this point. We’d managed to put a dent in their forces and were alerting the houses and trying to push south. But as soon as that happened, a bunch of reinforcements came in. The only one who could continue to move forward was Dragon Corrin. Everyone else had to start back-tracking to defend.

Chapter 10 also introduces three new units to our party. In order of least to greatest importance, we first have Beruka, one of Camilla’s retainers. She’s quiet and doesn’t talk much, but honestly was pretty funny in her debut. Selena, or Severa for those of us who played Awakening, is the same as she ever was, so you kind of expect her to tease Corrin about being heartless for not remembering them, but Beruka joining in was pretty good. Speaking of, Selena’s the other character who joins, and just like as Severa, she’s a lot of fun. She’s a bit more mellow here, if only slightly. A little more in tune with herself, perhaps? Then we have Camilla. She arrives, and is surprisingly intense about murdering dudes. Almost a bit Faye-like, only instead of the love of Alm, it’s for the love of her sister. It’s a bit disconcerting, frankly. I go back and forth on really liking Camilla and really disliking her. They just go a bit too heavy on some of her more intense traits, you know?

The map is pretty tough, but Corrin and Azura wound up kicking Takumi’s ass no sweat. In fact, I first had Corrin do it, and then with save states thanks to Casual, went back and had Azura finish him instead. Both of their dialogue reveals about what you’d expect. Takumi’s just a butthurt baby. After you win, he whines about Corrin’s betrayal again, and then gets a migraine or something and fucks off. This is one of those “Camilla is great” moments, because as Takumi is throwing insults as Corrin, Camilla just goes “What a rude boy. Perhaps I should beat some manners into him...” Corrin stops her and says no violence, but we really should’ve allowed it. Takumi mentions the Rainbow Sage, which is apparently our objective that I don’t think anyone has mentioned until now. He says Ryoma got the blessing so it’s all over for you fuckers now. Camilla lets us know that it’s fine, Xander also got the blessing ages ago, so the Hoshidans are really just one step behind. Though depending on time frame of Xander getting this blessing, this would mean that Ryoma could potentially be considered stronger, based on them being “even” in Chapter 6. Though in fairness, my run involved Xander immediately getting a crit and taking Ryoma out in one shot. So that was fucking hilarious.

Chapter 11, we finally arrive in this territory. We meet a nice lady who tells us about the dangers of the mountain the sage lives on, and that he’s been taken captive by the Hoshidans. Corrin naturally hurries to his rescue, and the fight is on! This time, it’s against Hinoka. The map itself is alright? It kinda forces you to take two separate paths and gets a little cluttered, but not too bad. Azama is, without question the worst part of this map. Staves don’t count as a weapon, so his special ability means you continuously take counter damage equal to what you deal to him, and he has some bullshit Hexlock Staff that cuts the HP of anyone hit by it to half for the remainder of the map. It’s such garbage. Thankfully, Jakob is very fast, so haha, idiot. I did get special dialogue with Hinoka, though. Camilla is just...so incredibly petty here. “She’s my sister now, you lose, bitch.” The amount of pettiness on display is unreal. Corrin, by comparison, actually has a pretty touching conversation. Hinoka seems to understand Corrin’s resolve, and doesn’t really pressure her the way the others did. She’s not happy with Corrin’s decision at all, but ultimately accepts Corrin’s decision and lives with it. This automatically makes Hinoka the best Hoshidan sibling in my book. I don’t regret siding against the others, but I do regret siding against her.

After the battle, Hinoka recognizes they need to retreat, and makes a comment about gathering their dead later. She is then informed that there are no dead, only wounded. Corrin gave the command to not kill anyone in this fight, and announces that she wants to end the war peacefully, without bloodshed if possible. Hinoka is taken aback, but flees quickly after. Kaze, however, remains behind to speak with Corrin. He’s impressed by her devotion to peace, and pledges loyalty to her. Another new ally! And a ninja at that!

We meet the Rainbow Sage, who activates something with Yato. He tells us to seek out the Nohrians who will activate the blade’s true power and awaken it as Grim Yato, the ultimate blade of darkness or whatever! Given that we already have two Nohrian siblings, I wonder who the two we need could be. Honestly, I’ve been holding on to this complaint, but now’s a good time: it’s bullshit that the female siblings don’t get unique weapons. Xander and Leo get unique, powerful weapons, as do Ryoma and Takumi. But the sisters? They have to make do with generic weapons. That’s such utter horseshit, and frankly, kinda sexist.

Immediately after this, Iago shows up and again, decides to be the way he is. Garon gave a command to kill the sage. Corrin outright refuses, stating the obvious: Ryoma already got the power, we’re not preventing anyone important from getting it because everyone already has said blessing, you’re doing this for nothing. The Rainbow Sage thanks Corrin for wanting to spare his life, but proclaims it was time for him to die anyway and just dies out on the spot. So I guess Mission Successful? Weird.

I was gonna cut here, as the natural end to a particular thread of the game, but I’m kinda having fun, so let’s keep going. Chapter 12! Elise takes ill from a weird virus thing in that territory, and we need to find help! Garon gives another command, specifically, to go to this one place for rest and relaxation. Oddly kind. It also turns out this place is the medical hub of the world, so suspiciously fortuitous. They group hurries there and fucking surprise, there are Hoshidans everywhere. Led by Ryoma. Amazing. Corrin begs him to let her pass, telling him about Elise’s condition. He offers the trade: Corrin comes with him, and they’ll let her pass without a fight. Corrin, of course, refuses. As she should. Listen, I get that it’s war, but by now they know what Corrin’s about. She’s aimed to prevent the death of their soldiers in every battle. They know she’s shown mercy where protecting life is concerned. So what does Ryoma do? Insist on fighting, potentially allowing Elise to die. Bastard.

Thankfully we get reinforcements in the nick of time, in the form of-oh fuck me. Laslow, listen. You’re cool. I’m glad you’re here. I liked Inigo too. But Peri. Motherfucking Peri. She is the worst character in the entire series for me. There’s no question. Not even a close second. Even Tharja doesn’t come close, because some of Tharja’s supports were at least endearing in some way. Peri is just a little sociopath who can’t shut the fuck up about murder. Xander, where the fuck did you find her, and why is she not in jail? I honestly feel it’s hypocritical to complain about Hans when you hired Peri on purpose, you asshat. Honestly, for your belief in doing right by people and wanting to protect others, I cannot believe you thought putting Peri in charge of anything was a good call. This is actively a blemish on your record.

Fuck, I can’t do this now. I can’t deal with Peri. We were having such a good day, then this little freak-ass gremlin shows up and prattles on about stabface of whatever the fuck, and now I’m just angry. I’ll deal with her later.

#fire emblem fates replay #fire emblem fates

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fatesdeepdive · 3 years

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Entry 58: Convenient Suicide

Class Profile: Spear Fighter

A lance wielding Hoshidan class, rival to Nohrian Knights. They’re kinda this game’s version of the Soldier class, specifically the actually usable version seen in the Telius games. Soldiers do exist in this game, but they’re trapped in their canon fodder role. Class of Oboro, Shiro, and Haitaka. Spear Fighters have fairly balanced stats, with only resistance and luck being bad. Seal Defense lowers an oponnents defense after fighting them, while Swap is a movement skill that can be used to reposition the user and allies. Design wise, Spear Fighters are fine, but basic, with stupid hats.

Class Profile: Mercenary

A sword wielding class and Nohrian rival to Samurai. Class of Selena, Laslow, Soleil, and Zhara. Mercenaries have great strength, skill, and speed, with decent HP and defense, making them fantastic all arounders. Good Fortune gives them a chance to recover HP, while Strong Riposte boosts damage if the enemy initiates the battle. I love the design of Mercenaries in this game; the padded armor helps show that they’re both fast and tough. The single piece of shoulder armor, returning from Awakening, is a bit odd, but does at least make them look cool.

Class Profile: Wyvern Rider

A flying axe-wielding class and rival to Hoshidan Sky Knights. Class of Beruka and Percy. Wyvern Rider’s have fantastic strength and defense, plus the ability to fly across the map with ease, making them a great class. Strength+2 does what it says, while Lunge gives Wyvern Riders a new attack command that allows them to swap places with enemies they attack. I groan at the exposed cleavage on female Wyvern Riders, but other than that their design is good. The armor is cool and the helmet used for generic Wyver Riders is intimidating.

Conquest Chapter 11: Rainbow Sage

The gang arrives in Notre Sagesse. Silas worries that they've wandered into a trap because there aren't any Hoshidan soldiers around. A local woman explains that the Hoshidans kidnapped the Rainbow Sage and brought him to the Sevenfold Sanctuary. Moron decides to pursue them, even though it sounds like a trap, because they know Garon will execute them if they don't find the Rainbow Sage. And that's bad because Moron can't end the war Garon started if Garon kills them for not being good enough at winning Garon's war. Azura promises to follow Moron to the end.

This chapter has us fighting through the same map as Chapter 19 from Birthright. Different rooms of the sanctuary are guarded by Hinoka, Setsuna, Kaze, Azama, and Rinkah, all of whom have special dialogue when fighting Moron. Azama calls Moron out for fighting a defenseless monk, Rinkah tells Moron she doesn't want to fight them because she owes them her life, and Kaze says he respects Moron too much to hold back. Moron and Hinoka both say they don't want to fight each other. Hinoka asks Azura to come home with her. Camilla rubs it in Hinoka's face that Moron chose her and says she'll make Hinoka beg.

After all is said and done, Camilla allows the Hoshidans, none of whom are dead, to retreat. Camilla asks for permission to chase after the fleeing enemies and murder them, but Moron says no. Kaze stays behind and asks if Moron really wants to bring peace to the world. Moron explains they want to change things from the inside and points out that the Nohrian army would kill indiscriminately without them, causing a cycle of hatred that Moron must end. Kaze decides to betray his family and country to follow Moron.

Moron asks the Rainbow Sage for strength and the Sage explains that fighting Hinoka and cheekily grinding up Elise to level 20 made Moron stronger. The Rainbow Sage tells Moron that they will unlock the seal of flames and bring peace to the world. The Sage unlocks our sword, but tells Moron that it won't do anything different until we recruit Leo.

Iago, that prick, shows up and gives Moron a new mission: killing the Rainbow Sage. Moron refuses, so the Sage kills himself to protect Moron. Gotta love not actually being forced to do anything evil in the story path where we're forced to do evil shit.

Support: Corrin/Niles

C: Niles teases Corrin to ensure Corrin doesn't trust him. Corrin says they still trust Niles.

B: Corrin asks about Niles's past and Niles reveals that he was forced to steal and kill as a child to survive.

A: Niles asks Corrin to oil wrestle as an excuse to connect with them as a person.

S: Niles asks Corrin if someone with a broken past can have a good future. Corrin, who has their own shitty past, says they hope so. Niles and Corrin get married and swear to build a new future together.

Review: The S-Rank is great, but the Supports leading up to it are weird and don’t flow together very well. It’s worth noting that you can get Niles’s S-Rank regardless of Corrin’s gender. I already said my opinions on the LGBT representation in this game back in Entry 51, but to recap: having openly bi characters is nice, but it's hampered by the fact that they fall into negative stereotypes about bi people. Rhajat is an obsessive stalker and Niles is a creepy pervert. Plus the fact that the Supports are reused between genders makes it feel like a very lazy and last-minute inclusion.

Before I get into this next Support, I’d like to talk about why I like Odin as a character in Awakening and why he isn’t that great in Fates. Odin’s backstory in Awakening, which isn’t really touched upon too much in this game, is that he’s an orphan from a country turned to rubble by an evil dragon god. Odin’s boasting about him being a legendary hero, although annoying, works because the player understands that he’s a scared kid pretending to be something he isn’t so he can keep fighting.

The chapter that made me love Odin is the DLC mission The Future Past 2, part of a trilogy delving into the backstory of Odin and his friends. In this chapter, Odin and his allies are being chased by an army of enemies over a rope bridge stretching across a canyon. Odin tells his friends to run ahead, then cuts the rope, sacrificing himself so his friends can live. This is why I love Odin as a character; at the end of the day, he is genuinely the selfless hero he pretends to be. That chapter also does a lot for Laslow, who we haven’t recruited yet; when he realizes Odin’s plan, Laslow also stays behind to ensure his friend doesn’t die alone. Laslow may be a douchebag womanizer, but he’s still a good man loyal to his friends.

The reason I bring this up is because Odin’s Support with Azura actually references this aspect of his backstory.

Support: Azura/Odin

C: Odin does his dark wizard schtick. Azura tells him that she's been dealing with bad memories and his weirdness cheers her up. Azura asks if Odin has bad memories and Odin cryptically mentions that he has a lot of them.

B: Odin meets with Azura at a suspension bridge, despite the fact that he's terrified of heights, referencing The Future Past 2 from Awakening. Odin says that he's trying to face his fears and be brave and mentions that he tries really hard to put up this cool image. Azura says that no one thinks he's cool; Odin ignores her and walks across the bridge.

A: Azura says that Odin was pretty cool in the B-Rank and says he helped her cope with her bad memories from her abusive childhood in Nohr. Odin begins doing some dark magic shit to help Azura and Azura internally monologues about how terrible it will be for someone to see her hanging out with Odin.

S: Odin tells Azura to close her eyes as he casts a spell to ensure a happy future. When Azura opens her eyes, Odin is on his knees with a ring.

Review: This one is fantastic. It gives a ton of depth to Odin, showing him traumatized by the events of Awakening and acknowledging that he acts like he does to force himself to be brave. This one is also really funny, with Azura treating Odin like a normal person would and being utterly mortified by his Odinisms.

Support: Beruka/Camilla

C: Camilla asks to have a friendly chat with Beruka. Beruka says that she doesn't want to talk unless she's ordered to.

B: Camilla brings up her and Beruka's first meeting; a young Beruka was sent to assassinate Camilla, but Camilla paid her more money to be her retainer. Camilla asks if Beruka would betray her, if someone paid her enough. Beruka replies that she would, if she trusted her new master.

A: Beruka explains to Camilla that she betrayed her old boss because she couldn't trust him, and will never betray Camilla because Camilla is trustworthy and kind. To her specifically; Camilla is not kind to most people even slightly. Beruka swears to follow every order Camilla gives her and Camilla orders her to take care of herself.

Review: Pretty good. It gives good insight to Beruka’s past as well as her relationship with Camilla.

Support: Arthur/Selena

C: Selena weirdly insists that Arthur is a jack of all trades. Selena offers to form an alliance with Arthur and help him avoid his bad luck in return for him carrying her shopping.

B: Arthur takes Selena shopping and loses his sword that he cannot wield without promoting. Selena tries to save Arthur from a runaway cart, but he is struck by a random bolt of lightning because god hates him.

A: Selena becomes paranoid of potential threats to Arthur and desperately tries to keep him safe. Ultimately, Arthur is fine. Selena claims it's because she neutralizes his bad luck.

S: Selena asks Arthur to join a new alliance: a marriage alliance.

Review: This Support is great. Arthur is at his most absurd and Selena has some great dialogue, insisting on calling them the SelenArthur Alliance and Arthur B.

#owain fire emblem #odin fire emblem #rainbow sage fire emblem #kaze fire emblem #fire emblem fates #fire emblem conquest

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sea-owl · 6 years

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Fates Royals Soulmate au

Why haven't I seen this? The only fates characters I've seen in the soulmate au is Azura and Corrin, and I'm sorry I honestly don't mean offense, but I ship others.

Think of the angst we could pull on Birthright and Conquest routes, your soulmate is either dead, or the siblings who outlived the others can't ever forgive the other side, and never finding that "true love."

So what if when you have either the name of your soulmate, their first words, or something like that, it's in the soulmates native tongue.

For this we'll use the names, and Revelotions route, cause we can get a happy ending in this one.

The Nohr siblings recognize that the lanague is Hoshidan, having seen written versions of it once or twice, but they all know better than to show enemy names in a power hungry court.

In private is another story.

Xander ponders over what this could mean for Norh's future, after all he was to be king, but to have a Hoshidan as queen? Or would she be forced to the role of concubine? Or would the other nobels rebel knowing that his soulmate is part of an enemy nation?

Elise is the most curious about what their Hoshidan soulmates are like. She and Camilla have regular talks about it.

Leo will never admit it, but he has tried to translate the four names. He's never successful because the Hoshidan language is so confusing and by the dragons why is this so hard?

The Hoshidan siblings can actually read their soulmates names, because Mikoto ain't letting those kids go be uncultured little shits. Sadly with the death of their father and the kidnapping of their siblings (I'm making this a twin au too) the Hoshidan siblings covered their wrists and forgot about them.

When everyone finally agrees to the twins cause they are forced to interact. Counterparts start bonding until they are close enough for the Norh siblings to ask for a translation of their soulmates' names.

The Hoshidan royals agree, but their shocked to see the name of one of their siblings on their Norh counterpart. Suddnley they feel a burn where the name of their own soulmate is tattooed on their wrists.

The Norh siblings are confused when they're traded to another sibling of the Hoshidan royals, but immediate understanding comes when they see their own names tattooed on their new companion.

They all decide to wait to tell Corrin and Kaumi, they all could just hear the teasing from the two.

Corrin and Kaumi already knew, having easily picked the Hoshidan language back up again. Right now they're a little busy convincing a certain maid and butler that status doesn't matter when it comes to soulmates.

#fe 14 #fire emblem #fire emblem fates #hinomarx #ryomilla #takulise #leosaku #soulmate au #nohr #hoshido #xanoka #xander #camilla #elise #leo #ryoma #hinoka #takumi #sakura

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faerypieces-blog · 6 years

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laurent really can’t stand sleeping alone. he doesn’t really need someone in bed with him, just in the same tent. so long as he doesn’t wake up alone, he’s okay. this is because of his years in the desert- he’s usually disoriented when he wakes up, and sometimes he panics and thinks he’s all alone again.

however, laurent also doesn’t want to show just how badly his isolation affected him, so he won’t…straight up ask someone to stay with him. this is part of why he has such trouble sleeping- he either straight up won’t go to sleep, or his sleep is fitful.

laurent is always willing to listen to everyone else, no matter how small of a concern it may be or they might feel it is. he’s always there for his friends.

but naga FORBID he should talk about his own problems and insecurities and “”””burden”””” his friends with his issues.

laurent craves affection; please, be affectionate with him. he’s awkward and touch starved, and doesn’t know how to ask for affection. please, let him to stay with you overnight- it’s easier for him to ask if he’s helping someone (”do you want me to stay with you since you had a nightmare?”). show him physical affection- he’ll melt in your arms.

the future children had to burn all the dead bodies they came across, or all the people that they lost, because if they didn’t, they’d turn into risen. this resulted in more than a few children witnessing their parents bodies being burned. the one who did the burning was laurent, since he was the only mage of the group and i headcanon that he has a natural inclination towards fire magic anyway.

having to do this really messed him up, and the smell of a burning human body is something that will always haunt him, even if it was necessary.

this is why he wields an elwind tome in his paralogue. wind tomes, unlike thunder and fire tomes, have no smell. the wind cuts like a blade- it’s ‘clean’ in laurent’s mind, and he believes that it’s less painful.

he also really likes hoshidan scrolls once he actually masters them. they aren’t really linked to one element or another, and again..there’s no smell.

quickest way to lars’ heart in his pre-game/birthright verses? buy him some fucking tomes oh my god

post birthright and conquest, if lars married azura, he brings emilee and shigure to ylisse with him. not because everything reminds him of azura, no matter where he turns, or how, in conquest, he can’t bear to look his brother or other hoshidan aligned future kids in the eye, but because he’s terrified of his children having azura’s fate befall them.

considering he knows anankos isn’t dead and that azura’s song is necessary to defeat him, he’s essentially dooming that world if corrin’s bloodline can’t perform the song. and he’s aware of this.

the guilt of it all- of everything- haunts him for the rest of his life.

MAIN HEROES VERSE :: if you’re not familiar with laurent’s echoes verse, in the initial time jump, laurent was sent back way too far and wound up in zofia, just before the start of the game. he joined the deliverance and struggled with the knowledge that he was stranded over thousand years in the past, and would most likely never see his loved ones again. nor would they ever know about what happened to him.

after fighting grima in thabes labyrinth, laurent finally confides in clive ( @deliverant ) about where he’s from and what they just fought.

the rest of the verse is that laurent joins marth’s army in an attempt to meet tiki, hoping she can relay a message to the other future children for him.

that was the old ending. now, laurent is summoned to askr after echoes’ post-game but before the start of new mystery. in askr, he is reunited with the future children and his father (and mother, but. y’know. miriel isn’t in heroes yet), and to his delight, he finds that he can go home to ylisse after the war is over.

a side note: because laurent was in echoes, he is never found during awakening in his normal paralogue.

i’m torn between having him arrive back in ylisse either right before the start of the last few chapters, or post-game. if it’s post-game, then he probably goes with @seaknighted‘s irene and @murdermage‘s corbett to hoshido.

post-fates, laurent returns to askr, permanently joining the order of heroes and traveling between worlds frequently- in particular, he goes to valentia, ylisse, and hoshido to visit his loved ones. when he’s not traveling or busy with order stuff, he becomes a popular author in askr.

anyway laurent is a bit oblivious when it comes to love and how his bonds with others might appear; lucina and irene in particular.

i’ve always hc’d laurent as having an adviser role to lucina ( and/or seraphina ), and one of the chroms has mistaken his closeness with lucina as being romantic interest when it’s…really not.

as for irene: after being the one to turn her hair blue like lucina’s so she can be a decoy in the bad future, laurent is wracked by guilt and makes it his mission to make sure irene is happy as much as anyone can be. so his over-protectiveness can definitely be mistaken as romantic interest

#long post //#ʰᵉᵃᵈᶜᵃᶰᵒᶰˢˑ ; laurent.

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fayesdiary · 3 years

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Since I finished Birthright, I might as well dump a bunch of random Fates Intertwined ideas I came up with in the meantime (which are all basically “oooh wouldn’t it be cool if...”) Heavy spoilers for all Fates games as usual!

I mentioned in the original ask that the original idea was to have Corrin and Kamui meet in Askr before I ended up scrapping it, but now I came up with an idea... What if it’s the three Azuras that meet there? That realm is no stranger to Heroes summoned after dying, after all... While they are extremely reluctant to talk about their homeworld at first in fear of triggering the V*lla curse, I feel that once they realize they can get away with talking about V*lla as long as the summoning contract is active (since Breidablik will always revive them, seriously that relic is busted), they’d actually start devising a plan to save all three of their worlds. This would even help explain the three-year timeskip, since beyond having to fight in Askr, the plan itself would be really long and painful to devise, since once the V*lla curse triggers they’d meet a dead end for a while until they come back. Not to mention it’s still extremely painful to vanish. Sure, the curse is not lethal anymore, but that doesn’t make it any less painful, and Azura isn’t really the type to push her luck. Helps that they have a princess from the realm of the dead itself to help them, so once they’re back in their worlds as spirits, they can start nudging the Corrins to meet each other, even if the V*lla curse is a threat once again, because even if they’re spirits, for all they know they could still vanish if they mention the name, and since there’s no contract to protect them anymore, they have to be extra careful. It’s also kinda funny that Azura’s endcard mentions that scholars wondered if she was actually a spirit in human form (which by the way, would have been amazing if that was the case) since she spends all of Fates Intertwined as a spirit trying to save the worlds before she can finally move on.

The sisters of the defeated kingdoms end up inheriting the weapons of their fallen brothers both since they are important relics for both kingdoms and as a way to feel their brothers are still with them in spirit (and, spoiler alert: they are). So Camilla ends up wielding Siegfried, Queen Hinoka Rajinto and Sakura Fujin Yumi. (sure, Camilla and Hinoka can’t technically use swords, but who cares? Weapon levels of their classes are more of a guideline than an actual rule)

And since I always found a bummer that the sisters don’t have their own unique weapons, I want to give them this time! They’re not legendary, but they’re still pretty quality. Camilla inherits Bolverk from her gooey dad (it’s not like he was going to use it anymore), Sakura and Elise get special staffs and Hinoka gets her own naginata! I’m not sure about what the latter three would actually do, though. Maybe giving Hinoka a special Guard Naginata?

Because I hate myself, I decided I want to give the fallen Royals from the failed Rev timeline their own weapons too. It’s not fair that in Heirs of Fate only Takumi gets to have a spooky bow from the Outrealms and the others are stuck with silver weapons, don’t you think?

And as last of the weapons topic, I want Water tomes to be a thing native of V*lla! And like, a whole bunch of them like the Fire, Thunder and Wind lines! I mentioned Lilith can use tomes, staves and her Astral Dragonstone, and I just think it would be really cool seeing her use water magic!

Nyx is an adult! Mostly because I figured that if Corrin can spend most of Conquest trying to get Garon to the Hoshidan throne, surely she can have Nyx sit in there for a minute to restore her true self. Just, uh, maybe clean up the goo first. She spends up the timeskip getting accustomed to her new body, since I imagine she has to learn how to do basic stuff like walking all over again. Remember, she has never been (phisically) an adult, the throne just made her body skip to the age it was supposed to have. She now serves as an advisor of Nohr.

Which makes me think that we never see Nyx in Birthright, so I could have her show up. I think it would be really cool, her realizing she actually can undo her curse, but being hesitant to do so because she feels she doesn’t deserve to go back to normal. All the people she cursed never got a second chance, so why should she?

In both the Birthright and Conquest timelines, Leo is the one maintaining relations with Hoshido, since he learned how to do Iago’s magic that lets him project and teleport wherever he wants in an instant. The only difference is that Leo actually uses it for something useful and not gloating like a self-centered idiot.

While in the Conquest timeline Xander banned the creation of Faceless and ordered the dispatch of any one alive, in Birthright King Leo decided he could put their raw strength to good use by modifying the creation spell, which meant he had the manpower to rebuild Nohr faster than he could have ever done without them. He still ordered the elimination of any hostile Faceless remaining, and eventually decommissioned the worker version once the situation became more or less stable.

Charlotte got a promotion! While I’m not sure if I want her to be a retainer or something akin to her guarding the castle, the point is that she got quite the raise. As such, she doesn’t need to wear the “pure maiden” facade anymore, even if she still tends to hide her more... “unfeminine” traits. Old habits die hard after all, and from personal experience? This kind of masks aren’t the kind you can just turn off. But it’s slowly coming away, she’s more and more earnest with the royals (who she never imagine she would actually become friends with), got more genuine friends along with Benny. Seeing her genuinely smile became way more frequent!

I thought about it, and I think I’m just gonna dodge the whole shipping business and just.. not ship anyone. A bit because so it doesn’t feel forced and I don’t have to force myself to write romantic scenes if I don’t want to, and a bit so that both you and I can imagine our favorite pairings! For all I know I could end up writing some side stories, after all. Especially because I really want Princess Felicia to be a thing in the Birthright timeline, but wouldn’t feel fair to pair just her and nobody else.

#fire emblem #fire emblem fates #fe14 #fates intertwined #my headcanons #it feels SO GOOD to dump a bunch of headcanons at once #and the more i think about this story the more i fall in love with it

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