Melle et Felle - Official Post

Heyo everyone! This was one of two fics I wrote for the AU Exchange, written for @the-midnight-post (who has excellent taste, by the way)!

While I was working on my original assignment, I noticed a request for MM Chrom/Robin! You see, that ship is a bit special to me.

Long story short, I wasn't much of a shipper at first. Sure, I was fine going along with whatever was presented to me, but I never really cared much for shipping. And then, FE Awakening and MM Chrobin crashed into my life and I was caught up in everything! It inspired me to actually look more seriously at fandom and fanworks in general. This ship was one of the first dominoes, leading to where I am today!

[As a side note, the other fic I wrote was Ktêma es Aieí, in my Winter Light Verse, based on Twilight and Life and Death. That post is here!]

Title: Melle et Felle

Fandom: Fire Emblem Awakening

Ship: Chrom/Robin, Chrom/Grima (Robin-Grima is the same person)

Rating: Explicit

Category: M/M

Word Count: 1000 words

Summary: Chrom's light is a honey-sweet venom that transcends fate.

Notes: Although no archive warnings apply, this fic is one of my more ambiguous ones. It was written for the AU Exchange, and features an unreliable narrator, possessive behavior, and a descent into madness.

You may be interested? @mrsmungus, @udaberriwrites, @magma-saarebas19, @aislinnstanaka, @lena-hills, @bees-and-sunshine @bleepbloopbotz, @sliebman10, @axolotlsupremacyowo, @0nelittlebirdtoldme, @kayedium-writes, @hylianjo

What other ships do you enjoy aside from Chrobin? Doesn't have to be from Awakening/FE in general!

Ooo! Fun question :) I’ll do some from awakening, some from FE in general AND some others lol. Italicized ships are ones I have read fic for (Chrobin is the only one where I’ve had strong enough brain rot to write for as well)

From Awakening:

- Lissabelle

- Lucisev

- Fredsumia

- Henlivia

- Cherche x Lon’qu

- I ship Morgan and Nah but in like a cute teenagers with crushes on each other and they hold hands sometimes kind of way LOL

From FE in general:

- F!Edeleth

- Ferdibert

- Doropetra

- Hildamari

- Elinini

- Lyn x Hector

- Alfonse x Kiran, also Alfonse x Veronica

- Zeke x Tatiana

- I only got like 10 chapters into PoR before my hardrive wiped and erased my save but I was interested in Ike x Soren and would like to see more of it some day

Other media:

- Aymeric x WoL (FFXIV)

- Asoryuu (the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles)

- Narumitsu (Ace Attorney)

- Sakura x Syaoran (Cardcaptor Sakura)

- Blue x Gansey (The Raven Cycle)

- Adam x Ronan (The Raven Cycle)

- Fire x Brigan (The Graceling Realm)

- Blair x Serena (Gossip Girl)

- Scott x Stiles (Teen Wolf)

I could keep going but honestly this list is probably long enough as it is LOL. Thank you for the ask! 😊

Romance being a big part in the FE verse must be why people insist on trying to find canon ships in games such as Awakening, Fates, Three Houses and so on. You know ? Games where the player can marry whoever they want. You have the choice : Chrobin, Robicina, Robilissa, Robdelia, Corrin/Leo, Corrin/Xander, etc.

Well canon FE ships do date back to the Kaga era as the man notoriously had a bunch of romantic plot lines. Honestly, in the post Awakening FE where you have the choice to pick who you end up with, I think that's better personally. Y'know I'd rather have the power to pick who my MC gets with over who the plot says.

But in the cases of people finding "canon" ships, its really just a facet of fandom. When a bunch of fans like a certain ship or it seems to be the "true one" know that's usually the one that's most popular and will be prominent in fandom. I personally don't care for Robin x Lucina, but many do and as such that's why there is a bunch of art and fits of it which will probably go on to make more fans. But in a series where you can pick who you end up with, there's not really a "Right" ship.

Everyone can ship who they want and that's perfectly valid. Course I know fandom discourse and that's something that's way more than FE in general, so there's always gonna be that subject that's like "Well my way is right and you are just not understanding." But again, that's nothing new. That's just fandom discourse.

hey maple! I was wondering, do you have any book/fic/story recommendations? ❤️

Hoo boy, I can certainly offer some! I’m more well-versed in fanfics than actual books but I think I’ve stumbled across my fair share of good fics over the years.

Also I’ll warn you this’ll be long.

Cycle by RoseGarden

Hot. Damn.

If you’re a Fire Emblem Awakening fan there is not a fic I can recommend to you more than this one. Cycle is easily in my top 5, no top 3, heck my absolute favourite story ever. The updates are slow - I started following it in 2016 summer at Ch 44, and the latest chapter was (at posting) 55 in 2018 winter - but this is not a complaint. This delay is understandably so because these chapters fucking deliver. Each chapter averages about 10,000-25,000 words (by my rough estimate - chapters tend to include a lot of reviewer replies from the author). This is honestly my current inspiration, and has been since I found it. I dream of writing like this one day. I cannot express how much I love this goddamn story.

Okay enough fangirling, time to buckle down to the content. From the beginning, it seems like your average but well-written insert - Robin is an FE fan and baker from the real world who wakes up to find Blue-Haired McGee and his motley crew with no idea how she ended up in the field in Ylisse. But you find out pretty quick that things aren’t quite what they seem. Mysterious unfamiliar characters are popping up, some people know more about events than they’re letting on, and Robin’s gotta figure out all this shit while dealing with her own missing memory and the responsibilities that come with playing tactician for a nation going to war.

It’s amazing. It follows along Awakening’s plot, but honestly I’m on edge the entire time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. The worldbuilding is hefty and incredible and really brings the world to life. The character interactions are gorgeous. The characters themselves are gold. One of my favourite things is that each character has a clear and defined voice - even if there’s no narration to say who’s speaking, you can work it out by their words and tone. The character interactions are charming and even if the ships aren’t your favourite or usual cup of tea, they’re all so genuine and they work. Robin is different from what I think is the general depiction of canon Robin in fics, she’s pretty crass and blunt and the Earth culture she and the readers know shows, but she certainly stands out as her own personality and still fits in well with the Shepards. She’s also got her own issues and problems and she makes mistakes so that’s fun.

Oh, that reminds me, also be prepared for a heck ton of feels. Laughter and heartbreak in equal helpings. Always a good time.

Queen of Hearts by Circuit

One of the first, and one of my favourite, Persona 5 fanfics that I’ve come across so far. Queen of Hearts retells Persona 5 but with Makoto Niijima playing the role of Wild Card. The change in protagonist brings a few new interesting changes, the big one being the Confidants Makoto hangs out with, including people such as Shiho and original characters in the Student Council. It’s cool to see the changes caused by a Makoto-led Phantom Thieves and also the struggles she herself has with being in that position of leader.

This feels small in comparison to the wall of text for Cycle, so I’m just gonna throw in another P5 fanfic, Crimson. This one’s closer to a retelling of P5′s canon than Queen of Hearts but tackles it with a lot more realism of kids messing with the law and the big bads of P5 and includes quite a bit of Questionable And Morally Ambiguous Choices:tm:. It’s one I’m honestly losing a little interest in, hence why it’s only got this small section here, but it’s still a good fic. I remember liking the beginning and certain scenes that are thrown around here and there, but this fic starts off pretty depressing and gets even more morally ambiguous in more recent chapters. Still a good read. Queen of Hearts is just a lot lighter in comparison and that’s why I recommend it a little more.

Worm by Wildbow

Okay this one’s a little different but hear me out. Technically a web serial, Worm is an original story written on Wordpress. I found it when I read a crossover between it and Okami (also a good fanfic in and of itself, has a pretty different tone from Worm but it’s very entertaining. I’d recommend reading Worm first though since I read the crossover first and, it’s fine to read through itself, but I understood some of the details and nods only after reading Worm). Honestly, I’m still not done with Worm. There’s a lot of story to get through. But what I’ve seen so far is pretty interesting.

The story follows Taylor, a teenaged girl with superpowers, called parahumans in this universe. It starts off pretty dark, though, and honestly it stays that way. Taylor’s bullied at school and feels pretty shitty, but she wants to be a hero. So one night she tries her hand at some vigilantism. Result? Nearly gets killed by a superpowered gang leader, gets saved by a small group of supervillains her age, they think she’s actually a supervillain too. They offer Taylor to join them and she figures it’s a way to go undercover, but over time she faces an internal dilemna since she finds herself actually enjoying their company.

There’s more to the story beyond that. Like I said, I’m not actually done reading it. There’s like 30 arcs, with each arc having about 8-10 chapters, each chapter about 5000 words?? and I’ve only read up to Arc 11. It’s an interesting take on a superpowered world, though, where villains aren’t so evil, good guys aren’t so good, and there’s a whole lot of morality and gritty details that come with it.

Through Her Eyes by Peroth

A RWBY fic that actually has a remastered version currently being written. The story’s about a Ruby that actually has a different semblance than the one we’re used to. This Ruby has the power to summon Grimm - and that’s it. She can’t control them whatsoever. This leads to Ruby being stuck at home for most of her childhood and gives us quite a different personality than canon Ruby - she’s a lot more shy and nervous around people and usually speaks with a stammer. Still the badass little scythe-wielding Grimm slayer we love though. Ruby’s also got eyes pretty similar to Salem’s, which also come with a fear factor, inciting primal fear in anyone who looks at her eyes, which means she has to wear big goggles.

So there’s a lot of changes, but it still mostly follows Volume 1. Ruby goes to Beacon because she still wants to help people -  with some focus on the catchup work Ruby has to do as a result of her missing school as a kid - teams up with WBY, makes friends with JNPR, usual kind of stuff. The original fic ends where Volume 1 ends, but I can’t say what changes the remastered version will bring. It seems to mostly be following the original with a few details changed or added, though. 

The Shrouded Throne by Iburtide

Okay yes it’s another FE Awakening fic, sue me I’ve been through a massive FE faze. Chrobin is near and dear to my heart. Iburtide has actually written more Chrobin fics, both male and female, but I admit I’ve only read this one, The Heart of the Moon which is also a good one, and Crown of Shadows which is almost the same as Shrouded Throne but told with Male Robin (and also explicit so u18′s don’t look at it you hear me).

So Shrouded Throne (and Crown of Shadows) tells the story of a Robin who fled from a Plegian civil war to request aid from Ylisse. By the time the story starts, they’re in the employment of the Shepards, and after some words shared during a battle, Chrom offers to get Robin an audience with Emmeryn, which pretty much kicks off the story. Kinda follows Awakening’s plot but Robin knows they’re from Plegia and the civil war is between Gangrel and Validar.

I guess I’ll talk briefly about Heart of the Moon too since I mentioned it already. The Shepards get sent out to a village where a monster is stalking the woods. When they meet the creature, Chrom gets challenged to a hunt, one-on-one, with the beast. In the middle of this, Chrom comes across an old abandoned castle - or not quite so abandoned, as a young woman lives there, one who claims to be prisoner to the beast.

Both fics include fun new things like Henry being Robin’s little brother - not by blood but their relationship is cute and precious and gives me new life - and a normal Grimleal religion practiced by normal people and Validar just takes it to an extreme.

Those are a handful of ones I can recommend. I read a lot of fics though so I have skipped over some of the ones I wouldn’t say are my favourites but are still quite high on my list. These are all also multi-chaptered fics, a few of them being unfinished as well. There are more fics I wanted to talk about but they’re either one-shots or don’t have enough chapters for me to definitively recommend them. I dunno, if people want more recommendations or recs from specific fandoms like DR (which surprisingly I haven’t touched upon at all, wow it’s been a while since I’ve read a dr fic), I could do another post or something. One covering a lot of one-shots or short stories, but not speaking in as much detail as I have here oops somebody gets distracted and goes on tangents

OH AND BOOKS. Quick book recs are Percy Jackson and How to Train Your Dragon. I’ll be honest, I don’t read a lot of books these days. And I think these are popular enough that they don’t really need a big ol’ explanation from me.

Been making time in between assignments to jot down some sappy Awakening stuff -- in honor of the valentines banner, have some thoughts on my top 5 playthrough couples! It's mostly just me gushing about dynamics and details, and disregarding the support convos as how they fell in love lol

(No chrobin ones, sorry, but I’m so happy for you all 😭😭😭)

Robin and Frederick: (stay tuned because I'll be posting an extended collection of thoughts on them eventually) I love the slow burn of Frederick not trusting them, the gradual relationship building to love and trust, only for Frederick to be right all along, but they’ve gotten so close that he still loves and trusts them despite the facts. I think Robin would be so caught up in the memory loss and fast pace of the war, Frederick offers much-needed consistency and stability. Frederick would be so straight-laced, having a partner who brings him a little fun and relaxation while caring just as much about their duty would do wonders for him. He also loves the fact that they’re a predominantly fire-wielding mage... And come on, what’s a better aesthetic than a romance between a great knight and a dragon he was supposed to slay?

Cherche and Lon’qu: Cherche quickly figures out she has feelings for Lon’qu upon meeting him, and takes all the first actions in the relationship. They’re an extremely low key, private couple. They have as full and true a love as any, but rarely show public comments and displays. Because of this, they master the art of communicating by looks alone. They both are incredibly observant, and can read the other’s body language and tone instantly. They made a pact at the beginning of the relationship that they wouldn’t let emotion for the other make them sloppy on the battlefield (but they both slip up now and again). They strike me as a happy ace couple, but if they do end up having Gerome, he definitely gets his brooding drama from his father.

Henry and Olivia: I actually think this is a common one in fandom, I just love their dynamic. Both keep to themselves normally – whether from shyness or being the creepy outsider – so when they gravitate together they’re enamored with the other’s company. They both see a side that no one else gets to know. Olivia sees Henry’s softer, calmer side that no one takes the time to know. Henry sees Olivia’s true and vulnerable self that she never allows to show. Their relationship isn’t very obvious at first, they’re just excited to have found a friend and confidant for a while. It isn’t until Olivia gets seriously injured that Henry’s smile drops and he feels genuinely panicked for her safety, cueing them both in on their feelings. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when they find out they’re a couple, because Henry will finally have a sweet influence. Instead, Henry’s mannerisms start to rub off on Olivia, and she develops some morbid interests and dark humor… (I also think that Inigo picks up on that, which is why he can genuinely connect to his fellow retainer Peri in fates!)

Lissa and Donnel: There’s something so sweet about young village boy on a hero’s journey falling in love with the princess ;-; There’s none of the cliche having-a-ton-of-trouble-adapting-to-farm life/courtly life, since they’re both so eager to learn about the world. Lissa easily gets her hands dirty and helps with the chores, which impresses Donnel. Meanwhile, she is surprised with how well he cleans up and speaks properly to other royals and diplomats. They don’t think about marriage for a long time after the war, but Lissa realizes she has feelings for him immediately. Donnel is totally awestruck by her, but chalks it up to meeting a beautiful, strong princess in person and doesn’t think much of it. It isn’t until his defending her on the battlefield feels a bit more than a sense of duty that he reevaluates himself. When they meet Owain for the first time, Donnel cries at being a father, even though his son is a grown man.

Cordelia and Gaius: I like the idea of a playful thief and a duty-focused knight finding balance in the other. They’ve got the enemies to lovers dynamic – they despised each other at first because of their opposites. Over so much time being stuck with one another, they turned their annoyance into aid. Cordelia coaxed Gaius out of some of his dirty/dangerous habits, and he may have helped her loosen up in some not-so-legal ways. While I hate her mother-ness in their support, there is something so beautiful and intimate about her cleaning him up and cutting his hair…

i love chrom!inigo and his dynamic with his dad but unfortunately i cant express my feelings in any other way than shitposting

The Ylissian ruling family

Model of the Morgans done by SimplyAChair on DeviantArt

*this isn’t an edit or a screenshot, it’s 3d fanart*

She did not, in fact, know it. AU where that whole “blood/heart of Grima” thing is very literal, and Robin is, in fact, a manakete. (As would be Validar.) Featuring my Robin and one of her occasional moments of dense brainlessness. I had lineart of her that I’d never posted so I just repurposed that to edit the ears and then color it. I tried out the alternate green hair just for the sake of it, but decided against it because I also figured she’s at least part human. Manaketes aren’t common, after all, and the Grimleal couldn’t have enough of them in their ranks to keep a pure dragon bloodline going. And then I cut out and edited a portrait of my Robin because I was too lazy to draw her and Chrom for the joke, but I still liked the stupid joke too much to not include it. 

15, 21, 27, and 36 for the FE ask meme!

FE Ask!

15. What are your favorite musical tracks?

The Shackled Wolves (Thunder), At What Cost (Rain), The King of Lions, Bubbles, Different, Lilith, Main Theme (Fates), Love, Enishi/For Sakura and Elise, Don't Speak Her Name, Main Theme (Awakening), Id ~ Serenity, Mastermind, Id ~ Purpose

whooo I know it's alot but I LOVE listening to soundtracks ;w;

21. Any rarepairs/crack ships you have?

I generally don't know which ships are rare or not, but honestly does ANYONE but me care about Vaike and Cordelia?? 😩 I adored their supports so much, they're one of the pairs I started doing every replay of Awakening, and I normally like to switch it up-

36. Share a funny FE-related story, either ingame or not!

OH! The one, singular time, I chose to not marry Niles so I could meet Nina, I was doing her paralogue right? And this moment, to this day, absolutely kills me

Nina: You can't make me! And you can't CATCH me!

Niles, hitting that mf crit: You can't hide from me!

and proceeded to 1 shot his own daughter- I just sat there for a good 5 minutes like

ngl i would love to draw this moment but i don't trust my ability lol

27. Any fanfics/fan content you’d recommend? (You can plug your own stuff it’s fine)

this one going under cut in case it gets long-

You're Beautiful (yuri/byleth), To Put an End to Strife (a 3h golden end rewrite, ft. yuri/byleth), honestly i recommend checking out all of sevarix's stuff- I've loved everything I've read, tons of ace positivity and headcanons. I need to catch up on new fics but these are some I had bookmarked ;w;

Caecus / Tacitus a 3h rewrite of sorts (vw/am mashup), dimitri can see possible futures and tries to use this to set things down the right path, can be a tad confusing at times but very fascinating imo!! main ship is dimitri/felix

Still Dreaming - corrin/niles, plays around with the idea of alts in feh, its been a while since I've reread but I remember really liking this one ;w; cute and fun

Stay Close, Solitary Thoughts, Three Simple Words - uuhhhhh some more corrin and niles stuff- i haven't read in a while but i have them bookmarked so they must be good-

A Very Chrobin Comic - i remember loving this SO MUCH back when awakening was the newest game omg- im glad its still up, honestly going to reread it all later

Awakening Shepherds +10 Project!

Since my favorite FE game is Fire Emblem: Awakening, I’ve been working on this project for a while now and I figured it would be nice to share my progress. I’m working on getting all the Shepherds (first generation, and the ones who can marry other people aside from Robin, so I’m not including characters like Tiki or Anna) to +10 with semi-premium kits, at the least

Builds for the completed units under the cut!

Chrom & M!Robin (they come as a pair :D)

The Chrobin pair, or as I like to call it, the WoM-bo Chrom-bo

The gimmick is simple: Robin takes damage from combat/fury to get into Wings of Mercy range, and then Chrom flies in and utterly annihilates whoever hurt Robin. I used to run the original Awakening Falchion refine on Chrom for even more synergy, but Sealed Falchion is just way too good. Chrom stacks attack and speed, receiving +26/+31 to attack/speed from being adjacent to Robin, while also targeting the lower of defense or resistance. Robin meanwhile offers support through his tome and C skill, while being quite good in combat himself once he hits the threshold for his brazen and desperation to activate.

F!Robin

Two builds on her, an offensive and a supportive one!

Build 1 is pretty standard. Sturdy Impact to prevent follow-ups given her low speed, a lull to help her hit harder, and a little support with her drives. Build 2 goes all in on the support with spectrum Tactics in Tactical Gale, a Rally Up+ and Ruse skill, and TA3 to punch her way through green foes. I mostly run build 1 nowadays, since there are better support options than Tactical Gale.

Frederick

Good old Freddy Bear :3

He does one thing and that is hit people very very hard. Before his refine came out, I had him as +Res and was making him into a tanky unit, but I decided to lean into the refine effect and have him go all in on smacking people, and especially armored people, really hard.

Stahl

Ah, Stahl. He and Sully have not had the greatest luck when it comes to their prf weapons. Still, he works very well as an anti-axe unit, and is decently tough thanks to the guard effect from Steady Stance 4

Sumia

Ah, the love of my life. Sumia has 3 builds because she deserves only the best, and because I inherited everything I could onto her before her refine dropped so there’s a lot she can do. Note that she is summoner supported so she does get a few extra stats that way.

Build 1 is with her refine and what I currently run on her. She makes an excellent galeforcer with her better Wings of Mercy and inbuilt Canto. Build 2 is her previous player phase build, relying on Lofty Blossoms to stick with the floral theme. And Build 3 is her enemy phase build, my first build on her. She was unexpectedly tanky, and I’ve had her survive through archers initiating on her without Iote’s Shield with this build.

Donnel

Budget Duo!Ephraim and L!Dimitri, except not budget because guess which two units I sacrificed to turn Donnel into this? The impact effect from Hewn Lance is really appreciated and helps keep him up.

Lon’qu

The very first dodge skill I pulled went on Lon’qu, and the extra survivability from that makes him a really nice galeforce unit.

Nowi

She’s an excellent tank due to her prf and Dragon Wall helping her out a ton. She hits hard, and Sol helps her keep sustained enough to keep taking advantage of her refine’s effects.

Henry

A good crow boy who takes 0 damage from pretty much anything and then hits back with a big, big, bignis. Even with the lull and attack smoke, it’s very easy for him to activate Corvus Tome’s effect, and he’s very difficult to kill. I also like to swap out his seal for Mystic Boost for even more sustain.

Since I just can’t bring myself to slog through part 1 of Three Houses again for a while, I plan to start up Awakening again. I haven’t played in probably at least 2 years. So here are my pre-replay thoughts of stuff I remember that I wouldn’t mind talking about:

The supports between F!Robin and Chrom are entirely awful and for that reason I dislike straight Chrobin. The supports between F!Robin and Lucina are also stupid for the same reason. The supports with M!Robin on the other hand, are good.

Tharja is a terrible mother and wife and I feel bad for Noire and anyone who married her.

Libra and Virion should have had an S support.

I’ve heard that the localization changed the supports between Walhart and Morgan such that Walhart is abusive towards him, does anyone know if there’s any truth to that? If so, I dislike this localization change.

The 2nd generation units were better integrated and more memorable in Awakening than Fates.

I wish there had been more acknowledgement outside of the supports themselves of the S support you chose. Chrom and Lucina have this, but AFAIK none of the others do (aside from maybe DLC, which I didn’t play, but this time I likely will).

Awakening as a whole was a more cohesive experience than Three Houses.

I’d like the next FE game after Three Houses to bring back a similar avatar to Awakening and Fates (ie. has customization and has an actual personality) if there has to be an character. No repeat of something like Byleth, which I consider the wrong way to do an avatar character.

Fire Emblem: Awakening Thoughts

As of the date May 20th, 2020, I finished my playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening on its one year anniversary of when I got it. It is now June 5th of writing this. This post will be my thoughts and feelings on Awakening, much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post last year. Let's get into some history between me and Fire Emblem before I go into Awakening.

As I've said before, Awakening was both my first Fire Emblem game and my first Tactical RPG. Smash Bros. was where I had heard of Fire Emblem but it wouldn't be until Ultimate came out that I would start to get interested. It was because of my friend's preference for Lucina that got me into playing as her in Smash and that's pretty much how she became both one of my mains and a favorite. It honestly wasn't till I listened to the Smash remixes of Id, Conquest, and Lost in Thoughts All Alone that I decided to play Awakening and then Fates. So thanks go out to both Smash and my friend Eric for converting me to Fire Emblem trash!

Much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post, I'll be going over every aspect of Awakening I can think of, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. I'll even include a Best/Worst Girl and Boy of both generations because that kind of thing seems to matter to some people, along with my reasons for why X is Y. Keep in mind that whoever I choose as those categories, it is just my opinion and you're free to disagree with me. I say this because I know that, no matter what I say, some diehard fans will get pissed at me and come at me for daring to shit on their favorite character. I already know some people are gonna get mad because they think X should be Best/Worst and that'll be fun to see (You can interpret that as sarcasm if you want).

Listed below are Awakening spoilers, so if you want to play the game and don't want to be spoiled, now's your chance to stop reading. I know Awakening came out in 2013, meaning 6 or 7 years ago, but there may be some people who haven't gotten around to playing it yet so I want to be courteous to them. Here are my thoughts on Fire Emblem: Awakening!

First off, the graphics. I think they looked really nice for a 3DS game that came out in the early 2010's and I believe this was Fire Emblem's first fully 3D game as well so that's really impressive. The in-game models were nicely detailed, the in-game sprites were nice looking, and the prerendered cutscenes were beautiful. This doesn't mean they're not without their faults, though. I wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated because it's easy to tell when an animation's been used over and over again, I feel as if the in-game sprites have some dissonance with official art, and there are times where expressions or animations for the prerendered cutscenes have looked pretty awkward. In terms of the first and last point, I'm giving IntSys some slack because, as I stated earlier, they were developing a game for the 3DS, a powerful handheld device but it's still a handheld, and this was FE's first 3D game so there may have been issues transitioning from 2D sprites to 3D models. I'll explain what I mean by my second point. I've looked at Cynthia's official art and when I see her face, I tend to see what I'd call a baby face, pudgy cheeks and all. Her in-game sprite, however, her face is sharper, more mature, if that makes sense. Maybe it's the pigtails throwing me off or it's just a difference between two art styles, I don't know. I'm not an artist so there's not much weight behind this but I'm just saying there's somewhat a dissonance between official art and in-game sprites.

Secondly, gameplay. I loved how easy it was and how I could switch between a simple and complex UI if I wanted to see which attacks could hit or what the enemy's stats were. This may sound stupid but I honestly thought it'd be way more difficult due to this being a Tactical RPG. I know strategy's a big part of Fire Emblem but strategy's not a big problem if you're like me and you grind to hell and back. Speaking of which, I played on Easy Casual mode so that might be why it seemed so simple from the get-go. Just to give you an idea of how much I grinded, I put in 200+ hours and that mostly consisted of buying a shitton of Reeking Boxes, spawning Risen on some of my favorite grind spots, and fighting them over and over again. I went through the 3 basic classes each character could have, maxed out their default class one last time, promoted them to their advanced class, and maxed out those classes 2-3 times over. I have a video on my Twitter that shows the stats of these characters and most of them are over 220 (The shapeshifters 300). Needless to say, I loved each and every fucking crit I got. Cordelia even got what I call a miracle crit, which means she got 2 crits in one round and after the enemy attacked, she got another 2 crits. Level grind ain't a joke in this game.

Thirdly, the music. Considering it's part of why I got into this game in the first place, I loved it. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the OST and it sounds so much better when you don't have the ambient sounds and you're not listening to it through the 3DS speakers. The song that hit me the most and just gave me the overwhelming feels was Id~Sorrow as it played in Chapter 21. It fit so well with the tone of the scene and I just sat there for a few minutes, letting it play in the background as I did shit. Other notable mentions are Id~Purpose, Destiny, Conquest, and the song that is just ellipses. If the music is this good in Awakening, I can't wait to see what's in store for Fates!

Fourthly, the voice acting. For a game where most of the voices come in forms of clips, I thought they were good. Each of the actors tried their best to convey their characters in the clips they were allowed to have and I think it shows. The only critique I have, and it's not the actors' fault, is that some of the characters' voices don't fit them. I'm not saying they miscast these characters, it's more like the direction was off, if that makes sense. Let me bring up Cynthia, Kjelle, and M!Morgan as examples. I don't think it's a stretch to say that, sometimes when you look at a character, you kinda imagine what they'd sound like before you hear their actual voice, right? I already brought up Cynthia's looks so I imagined her voice to sound very high-pitched and maybe a little childlike. I hear her voice and, while she's high-pitched and some of her voice clips do go into that childlike territory, she's nasally sounding and more mature. Kjelle is a complicated case in that, her voice fits her appearance (minus the armor) but not her personality. Her personality is similar to Sully's so I figured her voice would sound gruffer and not...cute, if that's the right word. M!Morgan's, I think, everyone can see the problem with. He's supposed to be the youngest of the kids, right? Since he's the only third generation character and all that? I think he just sounds a little too old for the supposed baby of the kids. Again, I'm not saying the voices are bad or that the delivery/emotion was bad, I just think the direction in which they were voiced don't fit some of the characters. Maybe I'm just thinking in terms of archetypes or something.

Now we move on to the story. I can't say as to whether it was good or not, mainly because I spoiled myself on it way before I decided on playing Awakening, so I don't think I can say much to the quality. The least I'll say is it's serviceable. I'll admit, the one thing I was shocked by was the appearance of the Grima Avatar because I thought Grima was inside Robin the whole time and I didn't think he'd have a separate vessel. I straight up thought Grima!Robin was either my mother or a twin I wasn't aware of so I'm giving credit to the writers for surprising me. Anyway, I think the only flaw I have with the story is with the pacing. I thought the first half was fine, it wasn't too fast or too slow. It was the second half that the pacing couldn't find a middle ground. Now I'm going to say that this half was stretched out over months of my playtime so whatever I say next might be exaggerated because of my procrastinating ass so... I feel like the Valm arc was way too slow and the Grimleal arc had so much trouble finding a middle ground. The beginning of the Grimleal arc was quick but Grima himself decided that I had to finish 2 and a half chapters before I finally got to beat him and you have to deal with constant reinforcements before you kill off the target. I think if it weren't for my overleveled as fuck units, I wouldn't have finished Awakening in time for my birthday.

Just for shits and giggles, I'm gonna say what I picked for my choice with both Luce's judgement and Grima's fate. I picked the self-sacrificial choices, which means I accepted Luce's judgement and allowed her to kill me and I dealt the final blow to Grima so Chrom didn't have to. While I knew the outcomes of both choices and them ultimately not meaning anything, I wanted my Robin to reflect what I would've done and I'm a very self-sacrificial person. Because I made Chrobin happen in my playthrough, which meant Luce was my daughter, I believe that, if my child who came from an apocalyptic world told me I was the reason for that happening and that she came back through time to stop that future from happening so she and the others wouldn't suffer, I would've let her kill me. Parents would and should do anything for their kids and if my death possibly gave my daughter the chance for a better life, I'd take it in stride. As for me dealing the final blow to Grima, if it was to save everyone I loved, I would've done it. Although there's some feelings of wanting to give a big "Fuck you" to Grima and to permanently end the problem so any future descendants wouldn't have to deal with it. This section may sound more philosophical and personal than I usually write but I think it deserved it.

Now we're on to Supports and who I chose to be together. I don't think it's wrong to say that this is where the characters really get to shine and it's because of the Supports I love these kids and how much I'm going to miss them when I move on to other FE games. As for the "canon" couples, I mainly went with characters that I thought would complement each other and this was one of the few things I tried to choose for myself. I tried my best to go for pairings that weren't fan favorites but I'm also not very connected with the fandom as of writing this so I may be completely wrong in which ships were favorites or not. So here are the pairings I got for my playthrough!

Chrom-Robin

Frederick-Sumia

Virion-Miriel

Vaike-Nowi

Stahl-Sully

Lon'qu-Cordelia

Ricken-Lissa

Gaius-Maribelle

Gregor-Cherche

Libra-Panne

Henry-Olivia

Lucina-Inigo

Owain-Cynthia

Brady-Nah

Kjelle-Laurent

Severa-Yarne

Obviously, there are some characters missing from this list and I can explain why. I didn't recruit Kellam and Tharja and it's because your girl is a dumbass. Kellam, I thought, was already on my team, he was just labelled as an ally so I didn't need to recruit him. They really should've made that clear. Tharja, on the other hand, was an even bigger dumbass than me because she decided to charge after Robin, who happened to be in front and was way overleveled, and got her ass promptly beaten with a crit. I regret not getting Kellam but after hearing how awful of a person Tharja is and how many fans are willing to put aside emotional abuse and stalker-like tendencies to have a chance to fuck her, she can stay buried in the sand where I electrocuted her ass. Unfortunately, this does means Noire didn't pop up in my recruitment list and that fucking sucks. The only characters left I didn't have a pairing were Gerome and Morgan. I think Gerome wouldn't really care for a romantic partner because he's all about not wanting to create ties in this time and shit and, since I see Morgan as the baby of the kids, I figured he'd be a little too young to be in a relationship. Despite that, I wish I got him and Nah together because I found out after she was shipped with Brady that Morgan's the only S-Support she'll say "I love you" to and I was immediately filled with regret.

Before I move on to the Best/Worst contest, there's something I need to bring up because I can see what sensible fans have shown now. This game is HELLA gay. Like, holy fuck, how many instances are there where you have two characters of the same sex and they have dialogue that seems to have been written with romantic intent but the writers decide it's meant to be platonic? Maybe I just have this weird line of thought on how straights are because there's no fucking way some of these gay moments would be a thing with even the most accepting straights. Maribelle calling Lissa darling and other pet names, Robin blushing from some of the girls and even mistaking Flavia's proposition for a marriage proposal, Severa looking at Kjelle's abs, the list goes on. I'm not straight because I'd be doing some of this shit with a potential girlfriend if I could! Why did it take IntSys until 3 Houses to implement LGBT+ pairings when this game is right here?! At least this game doesn't have the weird student/teacher relationships 3H has and believe me when I say that, if it weren't for the fact I could give less of a fuck for 3H, I wouldn't play that game for that reason! Anyway, Awakening is hella gay and it should've been the first LGBT+ FE game instead of 3H.

The Best/Worst contest... As I said in the beginning, there'll be a Best/Worst Boy and Girl for both generations because that's fun and it seems to matter a lot to some people. Repeating what I said, this is just my opinion and you're free to agree or disagree with me. One rule I'm putting in is I will try my best to not pick fan favorites. Don't get me wrong when some of the crowd pleasers are good but there are other characters that deserve just as much love as the fan favorites so this is why I'm putting in this rule. Without further ado, here are the rulings!

1st Gen

Best Boy-Lon'qu

Best Girl-Panne

Worst Boy-Virion

Worst Girl-Miriel

2nd Gen

Best Boy-Owain

Best Girl-Cynthia

Worst Boy-Inigo

Worst Girl-Severa

Let's see how many people I piss off with these judgements. So, my reasoning: Best Boy for 1st gen was a big toss-up. I kept wanting to choose between Chrom, Frederick, Stahl, and Lon'qu because they really endeared themselves to me but I chose Lon'qu in the end because he's honestly such a dork (I mean, all of them are) and I gotta admire how he tries to overcome his fear of women and try being there for his wife and daughter if he happens to have one. There's also the fact he has to literally psyche himself up to talk to women if you check in with him in the Barracks and I'm just like "Fucking hell, that's adorable and I GET it". Best girl is Panne because believe me when I say that the moment I see this woman and hear her voice, I'm immediately gay for her. Then she transforms into a giant rabbit, kicks so much ass, and I'm in love. Funny story, I'd talk to my friend about my progress in Awakening on Discord and the moment he asks me who best girl was and I answered Panne, he called me out for being a furry. Granted, I would've automatically said Luce but I'm trying not to pick fan favorites so I get his criticism. If a woman like Panne existed in real life, bunny ears and tail and all, I'd probably become a furry for her, no questions asked. As for worst boy and girl, Virion and Miriel are characters I honestly don't give much of a fuck about. Not that they're bad, I just don't care about their archetypes, if that makes sense. Miriel I found to be boring and Virion's of the Casanova archetype and I've always kinda hated that archetype so that's why they're on the ranking.

Oh boy, 2nd gen. So, best boy being Owain. This boy is going to kill me. He's so adorable and sweet and he's just a good boy. There are literally Tweets on my Twitter where I just gush about him and he deserves so much love. He's just a sweet boy who loves his parents so much and is so proud to be their son and how he manages to rope his cousins (Luce and Morgan) into going with his fantasies and how they just go along with it! Owain is a cinnabun and I want to protect him and love him. Anyway, best girl being Cynthia is sorta the same reason as Owain. She's just so bubbly and happy and just adorable. Yeah, she may get carried away with showboating but I just love her earnest desire to be a hero. I think everyone can see why I paired Owain and Cynthia up. Now for the worst. Inigo and Severa are probably the only characters in this whole game that straight up got on my fucking nerves and for different reasons. Outside of his supports with Olivia and Henry, Inigo's constant flirting with the girls and Robin and inability to take no for an answer just rubbed me the wrong way. I actually put out a Tweet saying how Inigo's like an r/niceguy and I still think he is one. Course, this doesn't mean I didn't have my fair share of laughs from him. I fucking died at his and Gerome's A-Support where he ends up pathetically crying after the emo loner got more game than him and Gerome has to comfort his ass, that was hilarious. It also helped the fact that Liam O'Brien, who I've only heard him as the brooding emo loner role, voiced Inigo as the complete opposite of that and I had a blast. Severa, on the other hand, was...really unpleasant. There's a reason I hate Tsunderes with a passion and it's because they're unnecessarily bitchy towards everyone they know, even if they have no reason to be. Severa, however, was somehow worse because she went out of her way to be horrible to people. My dislike for her was cemented the moment I saw her and Cynthia's C-Support and she chose to make fun of her, despite Cynthia minding her own business and Severa just going "fuck it". However, I should express that I understand why Inigo and Severa are the way they are and that's why I'm not being as harsh on them as I could be. They still have their good moments and I can appreciate them while also raking them over the coals.

So that concludes my review/experience of Fire Emblem: Awakening! Despite some moments of frustration and annoyance, I had fun playing this! I mean it when I say I'm gonna miss these kids but I had plenty of time to spend with them so it's time to move on to newer lands. Next up on the list is Fates and I think I'm siding with Hoshido first. It's funny how, despite me spoiling the story for myself 3 separate times, I still can't remember much, if any, of it so that may say something about the quality. I also know Fates is pretty divisive among the fandom but the thing I know it for is the weird pseudo-incestuous ships it has so that's going to be fun! Hopefully, I'll get around to playing as one of my other mains in Smash, my water horse dragon Corrin, sometime soon and I'll be sure to let everyone know when my journey will start!

fandoms tag (?) (redux)

 RULES: choose any three fandoms (in any order) and answer the questions and tag ten people you want to get to know better

tagged by: @w-ingsofwords​

tagging: @kalinary @lanakomheda​ @unseeliedyke​ @thequibblingking13​ @wildgrown-roses​ (again, don’t needa do it if you don’t wanna)

my three chosen fandoms:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Star Wars

the first character you loved:

Dude, I was chugging that Edelgard loving juice before the game even came out and I have never stopped agshdlakghsksks

Sumia, iirc. Her shyness and love of books was rather endearing to me, with how she used them to escape to a world where she felt more useful, which was... exactly what I was doing with that game lmao

Me, looking at Princess Leia, age 10: I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me

the character you never expected to love so much:

Dorothea tbh. I had very low expectations for flirty female characters after the travesty that was FE Fates with Camilla. Then I started getting her supports and now I would die for Dorothea, I love her. Her conversations with Ingrid? This girl is going around giving all the girls in Garreg Mach their lesbian awakenings. Though it was a bit of a misunderstanding that caused it, her roasting Ferdinand is always fucking hilarious.

Back again with the flirty character with INIGO/LASLOW. I was ready to slap him at all times before I started getting B and A supports and??? How GAY he is for Owain and Gerome??? How he cares deeply for his friends??? God bless. I love this idiot philanderer. Ngl tho his fight with Owain in their C-support had me fucking ROLLING the first time I saw it.

Ahsoka tbh... when I first saw her in the Clone Wars movie, I was expecting another whiny brat character and like... I was right for the most part agslkdjhgkslks But then I started watching the tv series as well, and like... seeing how much she grows over the course of the Clone Wars? Being brave enough to straight up leave the jedi order because she see’s how much it’s fallen from the path it’s supposed to be on? Brave, strong, intelligent, a baddass, what more do you want.

the character you relate to the most:

Tbh it’s kinda a mix of Byleth and Edelgard. the Byleth part is mostly the struggle with like... actually understanding and feeling strong emotions or sometimes just emotions in general lmao. Not understanding facial expressions are a thing half the time and weirding everyone out with my near constant neutral face. Did U kno, I got marked down for an English presentation in High school because the teacher didn’t like how my voice was deadpan the whole time despite that just... being my voice. With Edelgard I can relate cuz PTSD. The putting on a mask so people thing things are alright, shoving down emotions, having trouble trusting people etc. It all struck a chord with me and is part of the reason I love her so much. I want her to be happy, let me hug her.

Sumia, probably. As stated before, we both use fictional universes (though in her case, books instead of games and such) as escapes to worlds where we get to be the one everyone can rely on. The strong one and stuff.

Gonna be honest, I have no idea. Maybe Legends Wedge Antilles. Content to stay Rogue Leader instead of shooting higher and higher like his friends all around him. Han getting made a General and being given his own Mon Cal cruiser, Luke becoming the fucking Grand Master of the Jedi Order, half his own pilots becoming jedi lmao.

the character you’d slap:

Dimitri. He wants to flip out and go on a murder spree? Torture prisoners of war just because? He better be ready to catch these fucking hands

Grima for being a little bitch. Take that, Dragon

Count Dooku already beat Anakin’s ass for me a few times, but I would totally help out. aghsdlakghsklsksk

three favorite characters: (in order of preference)

Edelgard, F!Byleth (The only Byleth, what’re u on about), Dorothea

Lucina, Chrom, Henry

Ahsoka, Mara Jade, Hondo Ohnaka (lets be real, he’s the tru MVP of the Star Wars universe)

a character you did not like a first but do now:

Sylvain. I WILL still slap him for cheating a few times, but his character is also so much deeper than just Flirty Dude, with the trauma caused by the crest system and the things his family has done as a result.

I didn’t like Virion at first, but he’s actually a bro. Dude would rather surrender his country, run away, and allow his people to hate him and then come back with an entire continent’s army to free them rather than let innocent civilians die.

Gilad Pellaeon in Legends tbh. Dude kept getting handed fucking terrible cards but he somehow was one of the few imp officers with a moral code and managed to hold the imperial remnant together after all the big shots like Thrawn kept getting killed. Y’know, until HE got assassinated, too, cuz people in the Star Wars universe aren’t allowed to have nice things.

three otps:

Edeleth, Petrathea, Ferdibert

F!Robin Robcina, MaribellexLissa, M!Robin Chrobin

I don’t really... have Star Wars ships? Ahsoka’s totally a lesbian tho

Has anyone considered: Robin and Tiki. I know Chrobin is the most popular ship, but Robin and Tiki are honest to God adorable in their supports, reference previous games during said support, and have a HUGE amount in common, especially later on when the whole Grima thing comes to play. Literally the only con I can feel is the fact Tiki, as a manakete (and a divine one at that), is not only several thousand (if not millenia) older than Robin, but is also likely to outlive him for just as long

I didn’t really focus on Tiki too much on in my playthroughs of Awakening, so I don’t know too much about her. And I haven’t really played the older FE games either, so I only have general knowledge. My first thought to this would be that Tiki is in love with Marth? I think? So that may be why they don’t ship her with Robin? Also the fact she’s so much older, but that hasn’t stopped people in fandom before, so that’s probably not a huge problem. That said, I don’t really think about them very much, sorry! But there’s no reason you can’t!

🌌💗💖💔

Munday || accepting || @weiwuxiian

🌌 - What’s your favorite part of rp?

// Being more invested into my muse and other Characters -

Like I'm not joking, rp makes me appreciate some Characters so much more and without the muns, I never would have thoug of said Character's as much. It makes me appreciated Robin even more so cause I think more about them then you would otherwise.

Best example really is @/convxction cause honestly - Even as I shiped Chrobin from the very start ... I never thought much about Chrom as a Character itself...but now I do thanks to Faty. I appreciated Chrom so much more then I did when joining the rpc.

And the same counts for other Characters too, simply how it can change how you view a Character or becoming simply more interested in the Characters you didn't exactly care about before.

💗 - Do you prefer angst or fluff?

// A healthy mix of both or angst with a happy ending ( or neutral at last)

like, as everybody I like angst - their things I want to write with Robin I never really get too, like them being terribly sick, suffering the after-effects of Grima and other things...but I need some fluff in between too.

Something that just ruined my fun in my former rpc was that it was at a point where it was just driven by angst. Only angst hc angst threads...and it was tiring really. Angst is good - if you do not exaggerate it. But this isn't really a problem with the fe rpc...iroincally

💖 - What’s something you like about your muse?

// Oh, there is a lot but I guess how they can stay relatively calm and be patient? Like, just how they handle things, always be there for everyone but are strict if needed. How they are caring and friendly but still ready to fight and even kill ( not something you see in a lot of protas - not when Awakening came out I believe) 

💔 - What’s something you dislike about your muse?

// How f!Robin has different supports to m!Robin and these just utterly destroyed her Character. Especially as most of the chances were jsut...not necessary. Like some changes and other not.

But they just ruined her in my eyes. ( + the western translation screwed her over even more)  In game and in the drama CD she and mRobin are very similar - identical if it weren't for these supports.

Though their some supports who are just general extremely terrible ( Sully's for example which is the same for both Robin's)

Robin's support are just a hit or miss and this is just sad.

🔥fe13?

chrom and lucina are walmart sigurd and seliph. love em but seriously

robin is the most overrated character who’s barely a character. f robin is bland asf but  more ‘quirky’ so the fangirls can relate. those little changes in personality kinda get on my nerves so i prefer m robin because less is more but again… robin is barely a character so the fandom love for them is like. super weird to me

it should have less support options. realistically if you put me in a room with twelve people i might have chemistry with like two. everyone/everyone makes the characters feel like barbies. gbafe got that right imo

also as much as the shipping was the main focus……………. i cared for so little of them. the one i liked the most was gay chrobin and you couldnt even do that so. I Have To Laff

awakening was the beginning of the end in terms of aesthetic imo. i love chrom, lon’qu and lucina’s designs because they genuinely feel like a modern version of the fe lord and myrmidon but everyone else? fashion victims. armour knights and cavaliers were horrid. healers and mages were generic anime. pegasus knights have awkward armour. just not Good