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warchiefwilliams

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About warchiefwilliams

  • Birthday April 14

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    Knight of Bretonnia

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    Castle Bastonne, Bretonnia, the Old World

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  • Favorite Fire Emblem Game
    Blazing Sword

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    Edelgard

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  1. Here is a quick 4 point summary of what drives El: 1. Her hatred for Crests, as the power they represent cost her entire family and who knows how many others. 2. Her hatred for the nobility. Or perhaps more specifically, the power the Crest-bearing nobles wield over those without; non-crest nobles and commoners alike. 3. Her revanchist desire to restore both Fódlan to Adrestrian rule, and also to undo the restraints imposed on her ability to rule by the nobility of the Empire. 4. Ultimately to destroy that what she sees as the root cause of her Empire’s, her continent’s, and her own personal suffering; the corrupt Church of Serios. Like Tenzen and the Eturian Empra pointed out, a lot of her animosity towards the church can be routed back to the role of crests, the role of the church in propagating their acceptance as a status of the nobility (a power that is used and abused as evident with how many crest-bearing females in the cast that society views as little more than marriage fodder like they are a female in CK2 with the genius trait), as well as the church's role in splitting the formerly continent-spanning Adrestian Empire's territory up between the Kingdom and the Alliance. A point as well to remember is that the Church and Empire have not been on friendly terms in the recent decades leading up to the start of the game. I do not know if they ever cite a reason why for the rift, but it may be an avenue to pursue for your fic, at least to give her speech fodder for use when rallying the populace. A thing to also remember is that the Hresvelg family has always been aware of who really leads the Church of Seiros, and that information has been passed from Emperor to Emperor. Now, while I doubt many of her predecessors did anything with that information, her experience undergoing experimentation by Agartha and whatever new information they continue to feed her up until the route split also color her impression of the Church, regardless of the dubious quality of information coming from the likes of Thales and co. Here is something I've been thinking about that could also really motivate El; the weakening position of the Empire, and in particular the power of the Emperor, always weighed heavily on Edelgard's mind, especially since her nation was coming hot off of the heels of a hard-fought war with both Brigid and Dagda. Keep in mind that this is a personal head-canon, and only based off of my readings of the various books in the archives and my own knowledge of political history. Something to consider is that Rhea and the Church have endeavored to keep Fodlan trapped in medieval-stasis since the end of the War of Heroes, as Rhea views an advanced human civilization as a threat to her and the remaining Nabateans. Remember, the game flat out says that Dagda is far bigger than people like to think, probably containing multiple nations, none of which have a cabal of demigods holding humanity back for obscure reasons. Perhaps those Dagdans were more advanced than the Empire's forces. Perhaps they were using pike&shot era tech and tactics as opposed to the obstinately late middle ages level of the Empire. Perhaps the Empire only won that war by the skin of their teeth, and there is no telling when some other nation across the sea will smell easy colonial territory and come knocking. Edelgard already knows of one very hostile organization within Fodlan with technology that dwarfs everyone on Fodlan, what else is out there? The Empire is a shadow of what it once was, it's western territories laid to ruin by the Dagdan invasion, and its power further split by conspiring feudal noble houses. The Kingdom may be rebellion prone now, but all they need is a strong leader and they'll become a force to be reckoned with. The Alliance is (implied) to be undergoing a boon in economic growth, what with all the traders and children of trader families of the Alliance present in the Academy, and its probably safe to assume that a lot of that wealth is flowing out of the increasingly vestigial Empire. All of this because the Church has seen fit to break and handicap the Empire at every crisis, as well as gimp humanity, or at least humanity on Fodlan, by having them constantly try to one-up each other with Crests and the political/social power they bring individuals and families. All courtesy of a Church led by a increasingly degraded individual (who isn't even human) acting on very selfish impulses at everyone's (but seemingly her own people's) expense. I have a few more ideas, if you want to hear more of my ramblings. I look forward to seeing your piece.
  2. Flayn is easy to explain, as others have done. With the other saints being impossible to capture, whether due to being too smart (Seteth/Rhea) or too dangerous (Indech/Macuil) to approach, what sounds easier? Trying to subdue actual monsters or two of the strongest beings around, one of which we definitively know can shift into a massive dragon and both occupying high-ranking positions, making their absence for any length of time too noticeable, or trying to capture a (seemingly) quite naive child who can be manipulated a lot easier by a (masked) trusted face? Which one places your underground evil organization at less risk, both materially and in terms of your cover? For Cornelia, I'd say its a combination of the presence of Rhea and the Knights in the capitol along with what I interpret as shifting Slithers priorities in the route as a whole. While it is not explicitly stated, it feels like the Empires is far less reliant on Agarthan tech and tactics, and it shows. In the other routes, the Empire has almost completed its conquest of Fodlan by the time the timeskip ends, while in Crimson Flower, other than a few locations in Western Faerghus and whatever the pro-Imperial Houses in the Alliance are up to, the Empire has made negligible progress after 5 years of war. An interpretation of this could be that during the purges undertaken by Hubert against noble houses that would oppose El's ideology, the first strikes against the slither bois were launched. Realizing that their supposed puppet was no longer under full control, it would make sense that they would change their plans regarding Fodlan's conquest. Both the Empire and the Agarthans need each other to defeat their mutual foes, but they are always circling each other, waiting for the other to blink. Hubert's paralouge, where the surviving slither mages/scientists were extorted for their equipment after the Black Eagles put down their prototypes could exemplify the skirmishes you would see in the Shadow War; short fights where on the surface seem to be allies assisting each other, but in reality are trying to undermine one another. Back on topic to Cornelia and why she helps the kingdom in this route instead of flipping, despite obviously being a Agarthan plant. The self-reliance showed by El and the Empire show to Agartha that she can not be as easily controlled as anticipated. Thus, in order to slow her down, they do not enact their plan to have Cornelia turn on the Kingdom and rather have her bolster it's forces. Going so far as to give her access to a few Titanus magi-tech mechs; weapons I'd imagine they do not want Rhea to hear about, as she would most certainly know what they are and where they are from, highlighting the Agarthan's desperation to inhibit El. When Cornelia was killed during the invasion of Arianhod, which as we all know was the actual primary objective of the attack; everything else was secondary, this represented a major escalation of the war. To deny the resources/location/connections provided by Arianhod, along with some petty vengeance for killing one of their top members and to remind those in the know (El, Hubert, Byleth) that Agartha still has the technological edge, Thales went ahead and nuked the fortress. The ultimate problem with the Agarthans is that they play such a critical role in the background and the main stage in some routes, but they are hardly explained anywhere, and ultimately come off as "evil for the sake of evil" villains we all know and revile. We see their methods, but we never really know why they do a lot of what they do, and what little information we gather comes from biased parties. This forces us to do a lot of reading between the lines, which is like trying to assemble a 5000 piece puzzle without a picture of what we are looking at. This piece of rambling was just my attempt to try and assemble a small corner of this puzzle, so take it with a grain of salt.
  3. Agreed to one, but not so much the other. The Alliance and Kingdom biting it so quickly definitely felt rushed, especially since El and the rest of the Eagles spent over five years beating their heads against both factions with minuscule gains only to steamroll both factions once Byleth woke up from their cosmic power nap. I get that in pseudo-late medieval/early modern warfare (only saying that because the ship models all have cannons, so there has to be gunpowder somewhere) the slightest shift in momentum in a war can be enough to push a faction to capitulation, but still, it feels way too quick compared to how long it takes to topple the Empire in the other routes. For the other point, I disagree. While I do concede that the battle in the ruins of the capitol definitely does capture the image and feel of “the final battle”, my thought process upon striking down that dragon was as follows: “Success! Dragon is dead and My character’s humanity has been restored. Now to give the Bear of Varley this ring and time to go deal with a faction that seems to have nukes. Let’s do it.... wait what?” They did a bit too good of a job setting up the Shadow War only to end it offscreen and it kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As for the paralouge copy, I interpreted it as such: Almyra is invading, House Goneril is having trouble holding them back, they didn’t official support Claude and they have reason to be upset with their new overlords Plus, by defending the Throat, El can use that win to help bolster support across Fódlan by showing her commitment to defend the entire continent, not just her interests. (though it could just be the devs being lazy and copy/pasting the chapter)
  4. That is a hard negative, ghost-rider. Adding a "golden ending" will, in my view, run counter to the main themes presented by each route, ruin the development of each respective route's lord and from a gameplay perspective, cause the roster to become incredibly bloated. As people have said already, Revelations was supposed to be the "golden route" for Fates where everything is sunshine and rainbows, and people work together but all it did was make the already nonsensical plots of Conquest and Birthright even more absurd in retrospect. Alternate endings/routes for the other houses (since BE already have two) or having the routes expanded perhaps, but a "golden ending"? One that would almost certainly be paid DLC? No, absolutely not. If they do that, and pull it off, I would be impressed, and perhaps it is the situation to hope for, but you know what they say about hope...
  5. @wissenschaft put it far better than I could. Ultimately, the light that you view Edelgard in, like with historical figures like Napoleon or Caesar, will depend on your own ideals that you hold true to, and from whose perspective you view the events of Fódlan’s Great War from. Regrettably, I feel like we only saw one half of El’s story on her own route, and I am not talking about the perspective given from doing the church route. The game could have easily gone on for several more chapters detailing the early part of her reign as well as dealing with TWSITD. That would perhaps have provided the ultimate judgement for her character, rather than a piece of art and a text blurb.
  6. Yeah, authority is important, and I didn’t train it till endgame like a loon. I have all these high-tier battalions with lore background from being holy orders of various saints to the elite retinues of various houses across the Empire and aligned territories. But what does the elite BE Strike Force use? Motley collections of bandits and militia.
  7. No El route expansion? Well consider me thoroughly annoyed. They spend so much time hyping up the shadow war that I was more excited Criticisms aside, any speculation as to what side-stories they will add? We thinking more paralouges or chapters exploring the history of Fódlan?
  8. Church route is the same length as all the other routes. El's is slightly shorter for some reason I still don't understand. Definitely take your time though with whichever route you pick to do first. I feel like a lot of people here finish one route, read a few spoilers, and quickly leap to conclusions. Nothing about the plot of this game or it's characters is clear-cut or black-and-white.
  9. Though we certainly assist the actual monastery counselor a lot...
  10. To be honest, I feel like this is the first Fire Emblem where there are no characters I actually despise, so good on you writers. As for characters I like, I have a soft spot for cripples and the broken, people hurting who I would love to see develop and heal. Even more so if they actually do heal during the story. Naturally, I really enjoyed going through the arcs of characters like Bernadetta and Marianne. I also admire Raphael’s ability to keep his chin up despite all that has happened to him. Edelgard, contentious as she may be, also stands out, coming pretty close to becoming one of my favorite lords, thanks to her grey-gray nature. Gameplay wise, coincidently, those 4 were my MVPs on my first playthrough. I don’t think I’ve had an objectively bad character on my roster so far.
  11. @IzzyFresh While this is a trope I normally dislike invoking, with Edelgard, the idea that she “isn’t as bad” on her route compared to the other three is the classic “you were there to stop me”. This very much be my own bias talking, but how I played Byleth, it was as a teacher who while still pushing their students to their ultimate goals, they also were there to rein them in and guide them onto, if not the right path then a better path. The way El talks to Byleth during her later supports and on her route, it’s clear that this was how she views Byleth’s role; as someone who restrains her worst impulses and counsels her against poor choices. While we do not know if she held true to those ideals during the time skip, at least during her route, I would still call her actions one of a well-intentioned extremist but not one of a monster. Though depending on your view of her vision and especially of the actions she took, she may yet still be a monster and I can understand why you might hold that view. El isn’t (the term “wasn’t” a bit more appropriate for the other routes) a good person. Her goals may be noble, but we all know what the stones on the road to Hell are paved with.
  12. This is a classic case of “no, but technically yes” and also serves to highlight one of the many questionable moves Edelgard has made on her road to the end. Throughout her route, it is pretty clear that she had a tenuous control over TWSITD at best and at its worst, the shadow conflict would spill over into the actual war, even on her route with severe collateral damage, like at Remire or at the Fortress City. The aftermath of the Battle of the Ruined Chapel is yet another example of the consequences of her choice to side with TWSITD, causing the deaths of multiple students and of someone that is really important to someone who (in her own route at least) is incredibly important to her. El’s speech at the end of that chapter felt just as much as a speech to herself as it was to Byleth, asking herself what is she going to do about this rouge group that she is forced to depend upon for support but at the same time is working counter to her goals. So is Edelgard to blame? She is in the sense that she is permitting TWSITD to operate with a high degree of autonomy, collateral damage be damned. She may not directly order or even sanctioned the group to carry out their experiments but the blood they shed technically goes on her hands as well. Is she personally to blame? Ultimately that depends on how Byleth (and by extension, the player) views El’s actions, if they feel fault lies with TWSITD alone or if they feel the one who unleashed this shadow group is responsible. Like for many things about Edelgard, I feel like everyone’s (including my own) opinion will be slanted based on which route you played first. I played her route first, and I find myself often leaping to a (hopefully nuanced and non-rambling) defense of her actions or acknowledgement of her questionable yet not completely unreasonable choices. For those who played other routes, I see the opposite. I’m glad we can have conversations like this as opposed to the ones we had post-Fates.
  13. I’m on mobile, so I can’t say too much now, but here is a short version of my view on her. Probably will expand on it later. Edelgard is one of the many well done grey-morality characters for a well done grey-grey morality story. Her back story is compelling, her motivations engaging, and her means-to-the-end as controversial as you would expect. Broadly she is motivated by the following four things: 1. Her hatred for Crests, as the power they represent cost her entire family and who knows how many others. 2. Her hatred for the nobility. Or perhaps more specifically, the power the Crest-bearing nobles wield over those without; non-crest nobles and commoners alike. 3. Her revanchist desire to restore both Fódlan to Adrestrian rule, and also to undo the restraints imposed on her ability to rule by the nobility of the Empire. 4. Ultimately to destroy that what she sees as the root cause of her Empire’s, her continent’s, and her own personal suffering; the corrupt Church of Serios. Honestly, she reminds me a lot of many controversial figures from history. Individuals who’s actions brought great progress but also great suffering, and which one is highlighted the most is based on whether the figure won or lost their struggle. Overall, I admire her. I feel that she isn’t motivated by some blind list for power, that she has some idea of what her ultimate end goal is going to be. But in the process of trying to realize her dream, she makes plenty of poor or otherwise evil choices. Ranging from the allies she keeps in TWSITD to assassinating potential allies because she views them rivals. And like so many of those historical figures, she can (and will) be consumed by her desires in all but one route. I honestly thought that IS was not capable of writing characters like this any more. I am happy to have been proven wrong.
  14. Warchief has been my online handle for a while. As for the Bretonnia motif everywhere else, well got to honor my old Warhammer Fantasy Army somehow, especially since they were unceremoniously axed in Age of Sigmar.
  15. To be completely honest, so long as your support with Edelgard is high enough (both C levels) and you talk to her every month in the BE route, it is impossible to miss the conditions for her route. But otherwise, just make visit Jeralt's office when prompted to, as for paralouges, the pre-timeskip ones can be done even if you have only one character if it is a paired one, but the post-timeskip ones will need both of them. That's all I got for right now. Still trying to dig up more details.
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