Thoughts, Comments and Speculations

[Rewjeo]

What is there that makes you think that the character that looks exactly like Marth isn't Marth? Do you also think that Sirius and Camus are different characters?

Um, the two have similar hair and both wear similar clothing. There's a significant difference between "similar" and "exactly." For instance, looking at Marth's OA from FE12, the tiaras are different, the cape wraps around his neck differently, the broach is different, below the waste and the shirt-thing is entirely different, and the body type is different. That comment about lack of breasts could be explained by her being flat chested, which seems entirely possible to me based on that picture. Also notice the hips. And the fingers. And the legs. Given Etzel and Lucius, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a girl, though.

I know the character design *could* have changed, but that is hardly conclusive.

Also, what is up with their shoes and what Krom is wearing below his belt in general?

[Othin]

"Marth's" hair is purple in that picture.

What exactly is there that makes people think this is not a new continent entirely? A person who resembles Marth with a mask and a portion of the map that sorta fits part of Archanea?

The two most conclusive pieces of evidence are the depiction of the Shield of Seals and Krom's description as a descendant of the "Hero King" - Marth's title at the end of FE3.

[Biabarr]

Really? Women with small breasts exist. "Marth" could be a flat-chested woman, or she could be binding her breasts.

Yeah but this is IS we are talking about. When have they ever designed an important female who has small breasts or who binded her breasts?

The theory I am sticking with is: a portal that passes time/space. So Marth can travel to the future or to another world to meet Krom (and Jugdral characters would have to travel much further forward to arrive in Krom's time, which begs me to wonder, shouldn't technology in Jugdral be much more advanced (like guns and such) now since it happened much before Arkanea?)

[mai]

Yeah but this is IS we are talking about. When have they ever designed an important female who has small breasts or who binded her breasts?

What? I think IS are pretty reasonable about that particular subject. Most of the female characters in Fire Emblem have reasonable-sized breasts, and most of the time you can't even see them because they wear armor, and there's loads of lolis (like Sanaki), so... yeah.

This is kind of a weird conversation.

[Othin]

A comparison worth making:

Masked Guy definitely has some similarities to Marth, but looking at Marth's actual appearance, I can't possibly believe that the character actually is Marth himself, and I can no longer think it's likely that he/she is an incarnation of Marth, either. The similarities are certainly no coincidence, and as Krom is a descendant of Marth, Masked Guy almost certainly is, as well.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Othin

[General Banzai]

I don't buy the descendant theory. It's too similar. The differences can be accounted for in that we have a new character art person (a person, mind you, who is known for ridiculous character designs).

[Othin]

Let's look at them next to each other:

Similar? Yes. "Too" similar? Hell no. Characters don't change that much just as a result of design changes in a sequel made two years later. And I believe you already pointed out the characteristics shared with Caeda.

[Anouleth]

A comparison worth making:

Masked Guy definitely has some similarities to Marth, but looking at Marth's actual appearance, I can't possibly believe that the character actually is Marth himself, and I can no longer think it's likely that he/she is an incarnation of Marth, either. The similarities are certainly no coincidence, and as Krom is a descendant of Marth, Masked Guy almost certainly is, as well.

And once upon a time, Marth looked like this:

Art styles change.

Masked Guy does not have "some similarities to Marth". He has the same hair, the same clothes, and wields the Falchion. Sure, there's a possibility that it could just be Marth's identical twin brother, in the same sense that FE12 Marth could also be FE11 Marth's identical twin brother, but such a suggestion is utterly facetious.

Really? Women with small breasts exist.

Masked Marth does not have small breasts. He literally has no breasts.

"Marth" could be a flat-chested woman, or she could be binding her breasts.

Oh, and maybe his hair isn't actually blue either, it's just dyed blue. Maybe that sword he's wielding isn't the Falchion despite looking IDENTICAL to the Falchion. Maybe Liz is actually male, maybe Krom is actually an axe using boss, maybe pigs will fly in this game.

I mean, I'm pretty sure it'll end up being Marth, but come on, that's a ridiculous argument.

Given that people are somehow saying that this character is a woman because of "waist-hip ratio", I feel perfectly comfortable calling bullshit because of a complete lack of breasts.

And /my/ argument is ridiculous? I'm not the one who is suggesting that IS sat down to create a new, original lord character who just "coincidentally" ended up having the same hair, cape, clothes, tiara (seriously how many FE characters wear a fucking tiara), Falchion-wielding propensity and then changed the sex but forgot to give her breasts. Talk about insane.

[Marthur]

I don't buy the descendant theory. It's too similar. The differences can be accounted for in that we have a new character art person (a person, mind you, who is known for ridiculous character designs).

Yusuke Kozaki is perfectly able to draw realistic designs. You don't know what you are talking about. It's more probable that the new art direction was IS' decision.

In fact, Yusuke Kozaki has mentionned on his site that IS has expressed that they really wanted the series to evolve with this title, and I think he meant it both visually and gameplay-wise.

Similar? Yes. "Too" similar? Hell no. Characters don't change that much just as a result of design changes in a sequel made two years later.

The Falchion has had the same design for 20 years. Surely the swords Krom and "Marth" are wielding can't be Falchions!

Edited March 4, 2012 by Marthur

[Byte2222]

The Falchion has had the same design for 20 years. Surely the swords Krom and "Marth" are wielding can't be Falchions!

Not only are the Falchion from FE1/3/11/12 and the Falchion from FE13 obviously not the same sword (no word on FE2's Falchion though) they're actually nothing like a real falchion; just do a google search, a real falchion has one edge and increased weight. I'm actually perplexed as to why they called Krom's sword Falchion when it's not the same sword and the name's already been used twice.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Byte2222

[Othin]

And once upon a time, Marth looked like this:

Art styles change.

Masked Guy does not have "some similarities to Marth". He has the same hair, the same clothes, and wields the Falchion. Sure, there's a possibility that it could just be Marth's identical twin brother, in the same sense that FE12 Marth could also be FE11 Marth's identical twin brother, but such a suggestion is utterly facetious.

This is not a matter of "once upon a time". Of course Marth's design changed since the image you posted. It's been over 20 years, which is plenty of time for styles to change and designs to improve as technology improves. And yet in just two years, the FE13 character has changed even more, at least more fundamentally.

The biggest difference is the hair. You say they have the same hair, but that's false Marth doesn't just have blue hair. He has bright blue hair. That's constant between the two Marth designs. This new character? His/her hair is bluish, but it's much darker. Clothes as a similarity is not only false as well, but inconclusive. If those really were Marth's clothes, anyone could put them on, especially a descendant. But they aren't his clothes. Another constant between the FE3 art and the FE12 art is that Marth has armor around his neck and shoulders, which is completely absent with Masked Guy. Masked Guy has something that might be some sort of upper-arm guard (as should be apparent, I am no armor expert), but it's entirely different from what Marth has. Speaking of upper arms, every Marth design ever has left his elbows uncovered, while Masked Guy covers his/her elbows. There's also the red brooch-thingy on Marth's cape, always exactly the same in the appearances of the real Marth, but it's replaced with something else now. It's a similar style, and it's likely that Masked Guy is copying Marth's style for some reason, but it's not the Marth design the past games have established.

That you would bring up the Falchion is simply laughable. Not only is it unclear what role the Falchion plays in this game (especially why there appears to be two of it now), but the Falchion is used by Anri's bloodline. If Masked Guy is a descendant of Marth, then he/she is also a descendant of Anri, and therefore of course he/she would use the Falchion.

FE12 is set a few years after FE11. If FE13 was set a few years after FE12, then your comparison would be accurate. However, when a dose of reality is added, your comparison falls apart. Krom is a descendant of Marth. That means that in FE13, Marth is either much older than in FE11/12, or more likely, long dead. So it's not a question of "is this Marth or a lookalike", because being the original Marth is impossible. So we have to consider, do we expect that some circumstances have created Marth to appear a few hundred years after his death, looking substantially different but regardless set back to the age of a teenager? Or might there just be another descendant who looks kinda similar, as fictional descendants often do?

The Falchion has had the same design for 20 years. Surely the swords Krom and "Marth" are wielding can't be Falchions!

Something's up with the Falchion, there's no question about that. Apparently it's been merged with the Sword of Seals and also there's two of it. Looking at the original:

That's pretty similar, except now there's a hole in it for some reason. And surely there's a reason for that, but don't ask me about the differences or what they mean. All we know for now is, that sword's name as displayed in the game contains "Falchion", therefore it is a Falchion. We have had no information whatsoever as to Masked Guy's name, making it a different matter entirely.

[Raven]

I think they are both descendants of Marth. I'm actually leaning towards the idea this masked unit is actually a female character. That body frame, including the legs, arms and the hands themselves, are very slender. Krom doesn't look much bigger than this unit, and his hands are rather large compared to the masked unit. Also, girls with near enough no breasts do exist.

Krom and masked unit might be related in some way, like a lost sibling or relative, or something along those lines.

[Celice]

This doppleganger doesn't really match the physique of other female units we've seen, at least, to me, so far (in FE13). Its design seems to suggest a slender otherworldly-ness more than gender. It's more of a haunting spirit. Reminds me of that baddie dude from Skyward Sword.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Celice

[Marthur]

That's pretty similar, except now there's a hole in it for some reason. And surely there's a reason for that, but don't ask me about the differences or what they mean. All we know for now is, that sword's name as displayed in the game contains "Falchion", therefore it is a Falchion. We have had no information whatsoever as to Masked Guy's name, making it a different matter entirely.

The pommel is different. The grip is different. The cross-guard is different. The blade is different.

If this is your concept of "similar". You might as well call the old and new Marth identical.

The point was: if the Falchion's design could have changed this much within two years, it's perfectly possible for a character design to change as much within the same time frame.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Marthur

[Othin]

This doppleganger doesn't really match the physique of other female units we've seen, at least, to me, so far (in FE13). Its design seems to suggest a slender otherworldly-ness more than gender. It's more of a haunting spirit. Reminds me of that baddie dude from Skyward Sword.

Ghirahim? Hmm. If it's a spirit/demon/whatever-thing that's taking on Marth's form for whatever reason instead of actually being Marth, it could explain the differences.

One thing that stands out to me is the similarity between Masked Guy's hair and Marth's, especially the color. If they're relatives as two descendants of Marth, that could explain it, although the similarity isn't as apparent in other images, so I'm not sure if it matters.

The pommel is different. The grip is different. The cross-guard is different. The blade is different.

If this is your concept of "similar". You might as well call the old and new Marth identical.

The point was: if the Falchion's design could have changed this much within two years, it's perfectly possible for a character design to change as much within the same time frame.

I don't know what time that Falchion design is from, but it doesn't look like FE12 art to me.

The grip and blade are similar, but appear to be redesigned. I mentioned the pommel and cross-guard already, and the missing gem on the grip - the only difference there - fits with the changes there.

And the key thing here is that the new Falchions are clearly not the same as the old Falchion, as I already explained. Something's up with them, and all we know is they they're called Falchions - and we only know that because the game has told us.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Othin

[Raven]

I really like the idea that all (or at least several) of the Fire Emblem worlds may be connected via Dragon's Gate-style gateways, as mentioned in the main site speculations section http://www.serenesforest.net/fe13/speculation.html.

It could lead the way to awesomeness in future FE titles.

[Hazuki]

I was recently looking at Krom's artwork and found that the marking on his shoulder reminds me a lot of those things on Tiki and Nagi's heads.

Comparison:

I know that it's not entirely precise, but the form is similar enough to be adequately compared, yeah? I didn't see anyone mention this before, so I figured I'd bring it up. If this is what it looks like, I think this should count as evidence that Krom's marking is definitely a "symbol of the dragon" spoken of in the logo text.

[Othin]

I really like the idea that all (or at least several) of the Fire Emblem worlds may be connected via Dragon's Gate-style gateways, as mentioned in the main site speculations section http://www.serenesforest.net/fe13/speculation.html.

It could lead the way to awesomeness in future FE titles.

Hmm, that could be very interesting, if it's done well.

The evidence that the Dragon's Gate connects Archanea and Elibe seems especially convincing. And we already know that FE1-5 all take place in the same world, so this just adds 6/7 to that list. The only question, then, is where 8-10 fit in.

I was recently looking at Krom's artwork and found that the marking on his shoulder reminds me a lot of those things on Tiki and Nagi's heads.

Comparison:

I know that it's not entirely precise, but the form is similar enough to be adequately compared, yeah? I didn't see anyone mention this before, so I figured I'd bring it up. If this is what it looks like, I think this should count as evidence that Krom's marking is definitely a "symbol of the dragon" spoken of in the logo text.

Those two symbols definitely look like they have to be at least associated with each other. No way it's a coincidence.

[Dark Sage]

FE9-10 could take place long after the other FEs. In that game, all the continents were destroyed by a great flood caused by Yune IIRC.

That or it could be an alternate universe.

[Lord Raven]

Or it's a massive prequel, and afterwards the branded have faded away, the dragons placed their power in dragonstones, and the rest of the laguz dead.

[Brave Lord]

I think that you guys are over thinking..... Didn't you guys see how similar Krom and the Masked person are ? and for 2 falchions to exist in the same place ?..... I'm pretty sure my Mirror world theory is the closest thing to the truth......Both these guys are Krom....

[Raven]

And we already know that FE1-5 all take place in the same world

I did not know. Where can I read up more of this?

[marth.25]

now call me crazy, but what if the masked man/woman is a decendant of eiphraim or eirika?

unlikely i know :)

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I did not know. Where can I read up more of this?

Japanese guides and such confirmed that FE4 and 5 take place long, long before FE1-3 in another part of the world.

[General Banzai]

I think that you guys are over thinking..... Didn't you guys see how similar Krom and the Masked person are ? and for 2 falchions to exist in the same place ?..... I'm pretty sure my Mirror world theory is the closest thing to the truth......Both these guys are Krom....

Lol

They aren't even the same height

Edited March 5, 2012 by General Banzai