Dily

How about these endings? A standard one I think everyone would like: Soren X Stefan "After the world had settled again, Soren left with his new found branded kin and helped develop the first mixed-race nation." One that exists, yet I thought it would be good to revise it: Astrid X Makalov "After rebeling against her noble upbringing and marrying a deadbeat, Astrid divorced Makalov and took all he had remaining. It is estimated that Makalov will never pay off the debt." :D Elincia X Tibarn "At Reyson's request, Tibarn left the newly restored kingdom of Serenes and married Queen Elincia. To this day, he still gripes about losing his laguz powers" Soren X Sanaki "After discovering his royal heritage, Soren marries Sanaki in order to solidify the treaties between Daein, Bengion, and Goldoa. "A marriage of convenience," the public states." Micaiah X Ike "Despite their differences, Micaiah unites with General Ike. "I'm supposed to be the father of his children!" Sothe objects." Perhaps I'll think of more later...

...what would they actually say? Everyone always says they want things like "I want an Ike X Mia ending!" and "A Zihark X Ilyana support would be awesome!" but no one hypothesizes as to what these would actually say or what the conversations would be about. So, I would like to hear some ideas. Here are some of Mine: Spoilers will probably be rampant throughout the topic Ike X Mia ending "After the world returned to normal, Ike and Mia settled in Crimea. However, before a relationship could develop, they accidentally killed each other sparring." (The way the info conversation went early in part three was kind of scary between them. Poor Rhys ) I always imagined a Zihark X Ilyana support would go similar to the following: Zihark finally approaches Ilyana and demands to know why she's always taking and never giving. Through some slick manipulation and a little sniffling Ilyana turns the subject and Zihark ends up making food for her again. Realizing he's been had, Zihark approaches her with a deal. If Ilyana can go a whole day making her own food instead of scavenging off others, he'll cook her food for a month. She doesn't make it. Through some slick manipulation and a little sniffling, Ilyana turns the subject and Zihark ends up making food for her again. So, got any other fun ideas?

Of all the Branded we see in the game, I think Zelgius is the oldest. We don't have ANY references to Stefan's age, so his is 100% up to the imagination. But, we know Zelgius was old enough to fight under Greil's command while he was one of the Four Riders. That was 20+ years ago, and probably before Soren was born. Maybe slightly after Micaiah was born.

Well, Kurthnaga would be one to speculate. In POR, I think Nasir said he was, "More than 100 years old". Now, this usually mean something like "103", but I bring up the Futurama example again: "This is worth more than $50,000" "How much more?" "$100,000" So, "More than 100" can also mean 500. or 1000. or a hundred billion. Anyway, we don't get very much in RD, except that he remembers Lehran as "a man with black wings who used to sing" (or something to that effect). But, as we all know, Lehran left Goldoa after a falling out. How long ago did he leave? Kurthnaga's comment on singing is intriguing: Was that Lehran singing some sort of Galdr? If that's the case, then Kurthnaga was alive before the first branded was born. I personally think, though, that it was just Lehran singing, like he did with Ashunera.

Most of the Part three has turn limits. Boo! I wanted to take the Greil Mercenaries and do stupid crap and experiment for 5000 turns per chapter. However, almost all of their chapters have freakin' turn limits!

The more I think of this, the more it seems like a continuity error (which it probably is). Ena says in RD, "It's just been three years since we saw each other!" Ena didn't know Ike and co. at the beginning of POR. She knew them at the end! This definitely says it's been three years since the finale of POR.

Very interesting! I never caught that! Quite a wrench to be thrown in my gears! So, only two years pass between the death of Ashnard and the beginning of Radiant Dawn?

One thing I like to do, just for fun, is to pick out little clues left regarding the ages of all the characters (and sometimes find very contradicting clues ) So, here are some of my theories, which could be farfetched, but I like to read other's theories, too. I'd like to mention now that there will be many, many spoilers. Too many for a spoiler tag to NOT be annoying, so proceed at your own risk. I'll start with Micaiah, because she's a weird one. We know that Micaiah was not present in Bengion during the Serenes Massacre. She had long past out of anyone's memory. In both POR and RD, they say the Serenes massacre happened "20 years ago", which of course can't be true as the games are three years apart. Assuming that the characters were rounding in one of them, we can assume that, in POR, the Massacre happened 20 years ago, and in RD, 23 years ago. (We also know that 1 year passed between the beginning and end of POR. Let's assume the "20 years ago" was around the end of the game). So, Micaiah is AT LEAST 23. But, we also know that according the special base conversation In Part 4 Endgame if Micaiah and Sothe have an A support, Micaiah was already a teenager/adult when she met a pre-pubescent Sothe. So, it would be safe to say that Micaiah is 10-15 years older then Sothe. So how old is Sothe? There's not very many clues as to Sothe's age, except that he probably went through puberty between POR and RD. So, let's assume that Sothe was 13 in POR and 16 in RD. This would put Micaiah's age between 26-30 years old. We know Sanaki's age is 13 in RD. This is one of the only ones they do state specifically. It would mean that Micaiah and Sanaki are 18-20 years apart. Definitely NOT inconcievable. We'll tackle some of the Greil Mercenaries next. Ike's easy. I think they state somewhere in the Japanese version that he's 17 in POR. Even if they didn't say that, it's a safe age to assume. 99% of male heroes in RPGs end up being 17 years old. <_< Anyway, a year passes in the span of the game, making him 18 when he fights Ashnard. Three years pass between games, so Ike's RD age is 21. Titania's a bit harder. They have vague allusions to her age, but they never state anything specific. We know she's been around the Greil Mercenaries since the beginning. We know she knew Elena, and was around when Ike was a small child in Gallia. We know she was a Crimean Royal knight and quit to study under Greil, which probably all happened before Ike was born. So, to get some kind of estimate of her age, let's say she joined the Crimean Royal knights when she was 16 and quit when she was 18. Let's also say Ike was born soon after she quit and joined Greil. Assume 19 now. In POR Ike is 17. 19+17= 36. One year later, 37. Three years later, 40. So, my guess is that, in RD, Titania is between 36 and 40 years old. Oscar's easy, He's 26 in POR. (The support conversation happens toward the end of the game, so let's assume he was 25 at the beginning.) So he's 29 in RD. Shinon's easy, too. He's 27 in POR. (See Oscar parentheses above) So, he's 30 in RD. Soren is another fun one, like Micaiah. The only clues we get in POR are in support conversation. "When I was about four, a nearby sage came by and asked to take me in." and "When the sage died two years later," One thing we have to consider though, is that Soren didn't know he was branded until much later. That might have affected his opinion of his own age. Maybe he thought his was four, when he was really seven? That point is moot right now, let's get to the other evidence. Almedha said to Elincia that she had been seperated from Ashnard for "more than twenty years." Assuming that Almedha had a normal nine month pregnancy, and not the freakish 10 year pregnancy that Ena had, that would also make Soren more than 20 years old. Izuka tells Pelleas that Almedha hadn't seen her baby in more than 15 years!" I wondered if this meant the Soren was chronologically 5 when he was taken from Daien, but, "more than 15" is very vague. How much more than 15? Futurama joke: "This tiara is worth more than 50,000 dollars!" "How much more?" "100,000 dollars." Ike also mentioned, in the Part 4 Endgame(5) conversation that he saw "a raven-haired boy that looked the same age a me" So, Soren LOOKED the same age as Ike when he was discovered. This doesn't give us a number, but it does tell us something: Soren ages slower than beorc, so if Ike and Soren LOOKED the same age, then Soren MUST be older. (Ha! Take a few minutes to figure THAT one out! ) Based on everything previously mentioned, the only thing we can conclude is this: Beginning of POR: older than 17 (probably around 20) End of POR: Older than 18 (probably 21) Radiant Dawn: Older than 21 (probably 24) I think I'll stop there. Any thoughts?

As militaristic as the Daein citizens seem to be, I'm surprised they didn't hang Pelleas for impersonating the King's son, even though it wasn't his fault. I was certainly waiting for it. :o

I would have made the Branded more of a third race rather than "When Laguz and Beorc combine powers, they create a beorc with a mark on their body." It kind of downplays Yune's message at the end, when she tells Ashera that it's possible for beorc and laguz to come together and create something new. Not really. They create a beorc with a mark on their body. Even the status pages of Micaiah, Stefan, and Soren says "Beorc". I think they did well with Micaiah, though, giving her the "sacrifice" ability. They should have give Stefan and Soren a special ability as well.

Exactly. How would that solve the problem if the only text I read is "Severly wounded in part Blah"? It still doesn't mention the existence of her baby! How would a first time player know anything beyond what is in the text?

Well, a funny thing happened to me my first few playthroughs... Ena always died on most of my playthroughs, especially against Ashera. Usually, I would say, "Screw it! She's outlived her uses!" and leave her for dead. And, as we all know, with a dead Ena, you get no Ena-ending. However, Gareth's ending doesn't change if Ena is dead. It still says, "Gareth was put in charge of Kurthnaga's new nephew." Now, imagine my confusion, 1st playthrough. "That doesn't make any sense! Pelleas is dead! What, is he going to guard his grave or something?!" Second Playthrough: Ena dead again. I still had no idea she had anything to do with the Gareth ending. This time, however, it is revealed that Soren is the nephew. "Well, that makes a little more sense," I thought. But not much more. I mean, Soren didn't know he was Kurthnaga's nephew-- how is Gareth going to guard him? *hypothetical situation* Ike: Uh, hey, Gareth. Thanks for stopping by... I guess. What's up? Gareth: I was sent by the king to protect his nephew. Just ignore me and carry on with your daily activities. I keep watch over the Prince. Ike: Uh, Gareth, that doesn't make any... Gareth: IGNORE ME! Soren: Oh, Ike, I have someth....what's he doing here? Gareth: Prince! Get down! You'll draw attention from the crushing mandibles of evil dragons hell bent on assassination!!! Soren: Uhh...what? Ike: I don't know, just ignore him. *hypothetical ended* Ok, so third playthrough: Ena lived! The truth revealed! She had Rajaion's baby! "Finally!" I thought. "Some answers...wait a minute... that makes even LESS sense!" Soooooooooooooooo, everything aside, I think they just wrote a happy ending for Ena, which is the most likely theory in my book. But the kid being Kurthnaga's is a good theory. Never thought of that. OOOOhhhh, scandalous! EDIT: Okay, here's the actual ending: "Gareth was named chaimberlain to the king's new nephew, and taught him with both strictness and love." So, now you see my confusion. *hypothetical situation 2* Gareth: Now, Prince, I'm going to teach you with both strictness and love. Soren: ... ... ....Get away from me.

In POR, Stefan said his mark was on his forehead.

I think the people who didn't like it couldn't get past Part one. "Deeer! This is exactly like the previous game!!! DEER!" (I heard a couple critics say that...well, a less exaggerated form of that) When, in fact, if they would have progressed, they would have seen that Part one was SUPPOSED to be similar to Path a Radiance, setting up the whole Pelleas-being-set-up storyline. It's just like people who watch the first ten minutes of a movie and automatically run to their dumb blogs and "critique" it.

I kind of feel that way too. It would have been cool to have a hybrid story line where Pelleas dies, but Almedha still somehow finds out the truth. That would have been an interesting issue to dance around.