Jotari

Saying we're at the mercy of the system is perhaps a bit too dramatic a statement. But I think it should be undeniable that advertising and ease of access absolutely influence what we choose to do and see. Those things are there and aren't too troubling to get, but it is still easier than sitting down on Netflix or Youtube and watching just whatever is suggested or whatever everyone is talking about (whether they're saying good things or bad things). If I'm completely wrong then what's the alternative? That the media we choose to consume is purely meritocratic and that this is the best of the best even though we spend half the time complaining about it?

He pretended to be her uncle or something, didn't he? She was only pissed when she found out the truth during the generation skip. I think. And by then he was already pretty damn committed to the whole continent spanning war thing that was going on.

Pyrathi is the only obvious choice for the country to live in. No matter how powerful your Monado and Yoshi riding skills are, the simple truth is that three days is not a lot of time to cross a continent. Pyrathi, however, happens be right on Akaneia's doorstop. To get there on time you'd would also want to be the unit with the best capacity to move around, which is a Wyvern Manakete. Monado can hurt humans. What it can't hurt is sentient life from Bionis. Which skull kid is almost certainly not.

My point wasn't that it's impossible to ignore such stuff, in fact it's rather the opposite, it's all there and easily accessible. My point is that the vast majority of people simply won't.

I was feeling energetic, so in addition to the "What if Miletos didn't exist Chapter 10 map" I made above, I also made this "What if there were a Chapter 9.5" This one has you start at Luthecia from Chapter 9 and end at Peruluke where Chapter 10 begins. And because that's the way the Geography works out, it features Melgen again, in the north, which the enemy could take offscreen while you're busy with the rest of Thracia. That would be a nice way of showing that the empire isn't passively waiting for you to just come to them and that they actually are attacking and trying to reclaim your previously conquered territories. Unfrotunately in the wider scale of the world, to fit into one chapter, this does require much of Chapter 7 Yied Desert and Chapter 5 Yied Desert to overlap in non matching ways. But it wouldn't really change anything in chapter 5 if Yied's geography there was changed a bit. You never have any cause to visit the south eastern part of Chapter 5 anyway. Of course, if Gen 2 were to be 1 chapter longer (and it probably shouldn't), then Gen 1 would have to be as well for the sake of cosmic balance. So, the question is, could you fit a chapter between Chapter 3 and 4 where you actively run from Reptor's troops? Well, no, actually. Silesse and Grannvale are actually really close together. In fact, the western coastline of Silesse should be just visible in Chapter 3, but it's not (but, surprisingly, a very tiny portion of the east coast of Agustria is present in the final map, it's amazing how perfectly imperfect the gameplay map of larger Jugdral is).

I tried to mock up a Chapter 10 where Miletos doesn't exist. I wanted to start from Luthecia (the chapter where Coirpre/Sharlow is held) and end up in Edda, to have continuity between the maps, but the distance is too far both vertically and horizontally to fit on a standard Genealogy sized map. I could just about fit a chapter in where they start at Melgen (Ishtore's castle) and reach Edda. Zero attempt was made to actually design a map with functional gameplay. It was purely tossing geography together to make a coastline connecting the two spots (and without any care for palette either). This would have Alvis be in Edda randomly instead of Chalphy and would then make you begin in Edda for the final chapter, which is also kind of random. There's definitely a full circle theme starting the final chapter at Chalphy. So, yeah, while I'd definitely love for their to be continuity between the chapters (the easetern part of Jugdral can't be connected to the central and western parts, if there was a little bit more care given to the Yied desert they could, but none of the ridges line up exactly), creating Miletos for that thematic refrain was probably the best decision.

Oh, also to add to this is that we just sort of appear in Miletos with no continuity between castles. Which probably hurts it a bit. The only other time this happens is with Silesse and the generation skip, both of which are choreographed a lot more than an optional conversation about shopping and an off screen battle in the map intro. We don't even know how Seliph got there since there's an ocean in the way. Did he have ships? Did he appropriate Travant's wyverns from occupied Thracia and parachute all his troops in? EDIT: oh wait, it's connected to Thracia via land. I thought there was a coast all around you on the gameplay map...I still like the parachuting wyverns idea though. I said s(he) since I think social knight is a male only class while Queen, is unplayable, but surely a female exclusive.

We're actually okay on the culture front for Miletos. In fact, far better than some of the nations. We know it's a rich mercantile nation with exotic trading stuff and that it was a bunch of mostly independent city states (I think Kaga's notes say that somewhere, though I might be making it up) before the empire took over. And we know it was the site of child hunts in the original Lopt empire with massive sacrifices there and it's enduring this horror again.We even get a tidbit that Quan and Ethlyn visited there once. What we do lack for Miletos is representation (seriously no black trans women at all) and a role in the wider world. Fire Emblem nations get their characterization through three main methods. The characters from there and what aspects of the society they represent. The role they play on the war and the types of classes they usually deeply. Miletos has none of that. We have loads (okay more like a few, but far more than most countries) of small details about it's culture and history, but none of those central three. Not only are there no characters from there, but they have no agency in the conflict and don't even get enough of a face to have generic enemies or NPCs to give flavor. I contrast to Gra, which also has pathetically small representation being just Sheena and Jiol (and Mr Captain). We feel like there should be more characters from there, but, even though there's not, we still have a good grasp of how Gra feels about things and it's motivation for doing things. Even though we see zero suffering Gra commoners, I feel like that countries misery is more palpable than Miletos just because we can understand it better, have Sheena to act as a vehicle for it and actual soldier troops to identify with that work better than the child hunts, ground we've already covered in the Leinster arc. On the subject of random arena enemies and the Queen class, Indra, the Queen you fight here is also fought at the start of the previous chapter where s(he?) was a social knight. How's that for a class change! Outside of the final chapter this is the only time you fight and arena enemy with the same name. The final chapter arena enemies also retain their classes. Which makes me think someone fucked up and accidentally used the same arena name twice for two different enemies. I do wonder where she's Queen of thou? Maybe she's actually Travant's wife! Overnight! Are you insane!....that would require making a night palette!

Don't worry, I'll balance out your (actually not at all) toxic positivity with some toxic cynicism. You are absolutely right. Not only do we have access to various genres easy, we have access to world wide media, almost of all of it translated as we have the good fortune to speak the lingia franca (and probably have the knowledge to be a pirate of Netflix and the like is falling short). Not only do we have that, but we also have a hundred years worth of visual media from the past century, and several thousand years of written works from before that. If there was a complete and total ban on new content tomorrow there would still be enough high quality stuff out there to take up more than a life time's worth of consumption. And here's where the cynasicism comes in. Because all that is true. And it's also irrelevant. Because you are absolutely not going to watch the latest Iranian drama no matter how good it is. Unless you have a friend who's really into it and recommends it. And while you might read the best book sold in England in 1878, you're not going to read the second best book because only scholars with a specific interest in the period are even going to know about the second most famous stuff. We are, as we've always been, at the absolutely mercy of the capitalist system and what they want to show us. All of it is there, but you're only going to watch what's put in front of you and pushed by the algorithm and marketing titans. Which means a bit of your local stuff, a bit of Britain, and lot of America, and any noteworthy foreign language work these days will almost certainly be Japanese or Korean. I think we have all seen far too many movies that are well known to be bad, well reported to be bad and then watched and found subjectively bad, but watched anyway just because they were the trend everyone's talking about.

Oh! What! Oh no, I was, eh, talking about her, uh, Volcannon. I mean Bolganone. Yeah, that's one hot book.

Hmm...Should I confess to thinking this collection of pixels is hot or not? She's probably a few years shy of fifty if you think about it. Assuming Bloom's marriage was a result of Chapter 5 and not something that happened earlier, Ishtar is at most 17, possibly younger. And assuming Hilda was a hot young bride of about 22 when she was an eligible bachelorette, that would but her in her late 30s now. Well maybe an extra year for Gen 2 having taken place in to put her in her early 40s. Unless she was older when she married because she was putting herself through Sorceress School first or something. I think perfectly legitimate cadet family is the Occam's razor answer. She says her family is from Velthomer, like the royal family. That kind of suggests it's not the royal family. And you'd think she's either be bragging about a close family connection to Alvis or denying it completely if she were a bastard. Instead she's bragging about a loose geographical connection. I personally headcanon one of her parents are Thracian. Since for some bizarre reason they accidentally gave her Dainn holy blood in the final chapter. Hmm. How could this be fixed? I say we leave her in this chapter as normal until you seize Miletos. Throughout the chapter she's given lines suggesting she's starting to remember her past (maybe she can have a battle quote with Hilda, since those two have probably met before, even if neither might realize st first). And it all comes rushing back when she see's Julius on the battlefield. Unlike the brother she knew, but a haunting reminder of the way he looked the last time she saw him. She then leaves Miletos on her own volition because she simply has to speak to Alvis, whom she here's is at Chalphy. She has to appeal to daddy to put an end to this and stop Julius. And then things play out the same way. We get out dramatic scene and Julia falls into Manfroy's lap because he just happens to get lucky. This shifts it from Manfroy just being super naturally capable (until he isn't) to Julia being an idiot. But I think it's okay for her to take the idiot ball for this one to make the plot happen. Because even if abandoning the army to speak to Alvis is misguided and foolish, it could still be brave and a strong character beat for her, taking things into her own hands. And let's face it, Julia needs a moment like that because she is a bit fat nothing as far as characterization goes. She exists for the gameplay situation she provides for the final chapter first and foremost. And this way we only lose her for one chapter instead of two.

But Alm very much was raised as a commoner in the same way Ike was. He grew up in a tiny village without servants or feudal responsibilities. And Ike likewise is treated specially because of his connection to Greil. That's what Shinon was so pissed about.

Well he objectively does get a noble title, and then throws it away. Better question is why should anyone really care? None of us are believers in the divine right of kings and the rightful place of feudalism. Nobility literally doesn't exist (though super genes do exist in some Fire Embelm settings, not Tellius though...unless you're Micaiah). People like Ike in this regard not because he's a commoner, but because he's different from other Fire Emblem lords. But it is a bit of a misconception that he's unique or unprecedented in that regard, as he hits a lot of the same plot beats as Alm. And later Byleth too as commoner raised mercenary protagonists. It's the less common of Fire Embelm's stock character tropes, but "Seemingly ordinary guy raised by a gruff old dude of renowned martial skill with a secret origin" is one of the two Fire Emblem protagonist along with "Lordling with responsibilities". Kris even follows that archetype, minus any significant secret backstory (and we never get to see Mac Lir, sounds like a cool guy though).

Only legitimate opinions on Genealogy's artstyle are those who've played it on a 1990s CRT TV with a RCA composite connection XD

The female paladins (and princess) even get an extra weapon type.

I think that's something that definitely can be argued though. Because Greil no doubt was a noble being a general in the pre-Ashnard regime, with it specifically being noted that Ashnard made it possible for commoners to achieve such ranks ergo someone from before had to have been a noble. It's more deductive than fanfiction. But then maybe I'm exactly the kind of person who was being called out, lol.

Don't forget distinct female versions of most of those classes too. Which I don't think the previous game had for knights and cavalry (though they did for mages). And this is in a game with a relatively small pool of available units compared to other games.

I guess we can presume from that one poll, which let's not forget was significant enough to influence the game, that he was a bit of a phenomenon in the Japanese fandom. Though he certainly hasn't had much staying power. In the first CYL poll he was below Nowi, Lon'Qu and Donnel, among the more widely viewed popular Awakening characters. What's also a shame is that Asugi is a fine character all by himself. At least from what I remember. He has hang ups about his family legacy and a distaste for Saizo that doesn't rely on the Gaius character gimmick at all.

Or the age old method of combating power creep. Replace "Dragonite" with "Emblem Ike."

The intent wasn't to darken Travant's greyness. It was actually a little the opposite. The point being that he's acted so treacherous for so long that people just plain won't believe him if he tries peaceful cooperation.

I see this a lot in the A Song of Ice and Fire community. Theories built upon a foundation that's only true if a multitude of other theories are correct. It's an inevitable consequence of the writer releasing only one installment of the series in almost 20 years. Fans have over analyzed stuff so thoroughly that evolving their own fanfiction into their view of the series in lieu of any actual forward progression is the only avenue of new conversation, if nothing else. But, what I really wanted to ask is examples from the Fire Emblem series. Who, or what, or when is fan ideas being treated as fact (well aside from the very wrong headcanon that Edelgard is a good person).

It's actually pronounced Nikolaj. How to improve Chapter 9. Step 1. Have Travant be the one to propose a peace treaty right from the very start. Seliph (and idk, Shannan) wants to take him up on this, but Lewyn and especially Leif, if he's still alive, argue against it saying they can't trust Travant and that he'll renege and seize North Leinster the moment they leave the continent. At Thracia castle Areone even suggests this very idea to Travant "I see what you're doing father, the moment they're gone we'll take all of the north ourselves. Thracia will be reunited at all." To which Trvant answers "...Maybe." Step 2: Travant dies the same way. All that stuff is fine. We can add the extra line Ping wanted, and also make it clear that Areone's lines supporting treachery against the Heroes his motivating him. Not only is his daughter killed or seemingly killed, but his son is turning out like him in the worst ways. Step 3: Now, with Travant dead, Seliph can argue for peace with a still belligerent Lewyn and Leif. Step 4: Use the suggested interpretation where Areone is listening to the 99% of the time Travant and not the 1% of the time. Instead of referring to Travant's last lines as the reason for his rejection of peace, he makes a statement that he literally cannot understand what Travant was trying to tell him because it's so contrary to what he's always been told. Maybe have Julius show up earlier to observe the battle and give Areone someone he can talk to to explain his motivation (and provide some subtle threat against turning on the empire). Step 5: If Julius has to rescue Travant, then let Julius and Seliph actually talk to each other a bit. Make a moment of it instead of an out of nowhere WTF.

I guess to more clearly put what I wanted to say, would be that I wouldn't mind a huge surge in multiverse stories of they consistently engaged with and utilized the idea well.

I wouldn't say there's any individual tropes I'm sick of seeing in of themselves. And multiverse is a really good example of this. I'm sick of seeing it done poorly or for no real reason. But Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is a genuinely great movie that properly engages with it's multiverse premise to tell a genuinely heartwarming and philosophical story (fight scenes could drag on a little long though). I wouldn't want to see something like that not made just because the market is saturated.

Well... you're probably not wrong....but why in the world are you replying to a post from seven years ago that's buried in the 1380th page of a thread over 3000 pages long XD