Missed Oppertunities *spoilers for both games*

[Snowy_One]

There were a LOT of missed opportunities in these games that simply irked me to no end. Not just things like the lack of supports/endings in RD and the like, but minor things. I'm curious to see what some other people think were missed opportunities. Here are my own.

1) No Mist/Ike support. Okay. A serious big one here. Ike and Mist's father just died before them. They are now alone in the world with no family left to help them. Mist holds the only memento of their mother and sings their song, Ike is the heir to his father and, later, the hero of all Tellius. And they DON'T SUPPORT?! Mist may as well have just been another girl in the GM's for all Ike seemed to deal with her. Honestly, it's almost as if Elincia was supposed to have the emblem originally, but they decided to change it at the last moment and realized they didn't have a valkyrie in the game, so they knocked Elincia from the player list and shoved the medallion off onto Mist before tacking on a few supports.

2) Petrine. Another one that irks me. Petrine is a unique character to be sure. We find out that she's branded (Raven it seems) but works for Daien despite that they would probably kill her if her branded nature ever became public. Despite that, she fights for Ashnard... And dies before long and doesn't even get mentioned again. Ena? Survives. Bertam? Survives. Not Petrine. They could have done a lot with her too, like have her be Vika's niece and the reason Vika is even out in the first place. Or even going cliche and having her become a good guy. But nope. Evil.

3) Fiona. Not for the reasons I'm sure people think though. Just... Why the heck wasn't she in FE9? Seriously! A Daien noble becomes conflicted, especially with the hostile nature her kingdom has taken, and in a moment of confusion, lets Ike pass in the hopes of doing some good/retaining honor? Could have been a GREAT plotpoint! Instead she gets shoved to the side in FE10 and isn't really worth mentioning on any level beyond how bad she is.

4) Anything with Ranulf. I kind of get the feeling that Ranulf was designed to have joined early on in place of Lethe and to be a main player in the series but got shafted at the last moment. That shafting though turned him into an annoyance. More of a denied opportunity than a missed one. He almost seems to exist to hamper the plot or reveal plot-points at times. Seriously, WTF Ranulf!

5) Ike/Micaiah/Sanaki. Okay. They do interact and all that, but there is at least an implication that they might be distantly related through Ragnell's former wielder/Sanaki's ancestor. So... Why didn't this get built on? Why not have Ike overjoyed, or at least confused, after finding out Sanaki may be his cousin as is Micaiah? Once again, missed oppertunity.

6) Mia in general. Hey. What happens when you get an energetic but enjoyable swordfighter girl, stick her with a group of professional mercs, have her have a great skill, even be one of the best characters in RD, and then NOT BUILD HER UP AT ALL? You get Mia. Mia is a great character who had a LOT of potential. Just seeing her interact with the GM's more in both games would have been nice, but the only one she does so with is Rhys. Seriously? Okay, Ilyana is cute and Lardo is understandable, but no other GM's? REALLY?!

[ZemZem]

No siblings support in FE9, actually. A huge shame.

[Kon]

No support between Tormod and his foster father made me incredibly sad. ;~;

[Paper Jam]

I would have liked to see more about the Reyson's, Leanne's, and Rafiel's relationship to Lehran (and by extension, Micaiah and Sanaki). Even the character relationship diagram at http://serenesforest.net/fe10/relation.jpg doesn't say anything about it, and I think that was a wasted opportunity.

[Aether911]

I agree with Petrine and mostly Fiona being underdeveloped characters, and character development being inexistant in RD (that's the reason why PoR is better for me), but i don't think there's any blood-relation between Ike and Sanaki/Micaiah.

[Quick]

Units like Mia in the Fire Emblem series that are good but underdeveloped, like Guy from FE7. Can't expect a unit to be well-developed just because she's good.

Also, she's not even close to the best unit in RD and she's overrated as hell. So many more units worth training over her in Part 3 and they are 3 other Trueblades that are kickass in Endgame so it doesn't matter, but I guess I shouldn't go too off-topic.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Quick

[Snowy_One]

I would have liked to see more about the Reyson's, Leanne's, and Rafiel's relationship to Lehran (and by extension, Micaiah and Sanaki). Even the character relationship diagram at http://serenesforest.net/fe10/relation.jpg doesn't say anything about it, and I think that was a wasted opportunity.

I do agree. It actually would have been very interesting to have them also be confronted with the possibility that Leanne, their sister, may be the only way to preserve their race and have to choose between dying out, or trying to live on as a possibly inbred and minor group. Course they kinda coped out on that. Really irks me that it works that way for Laguz. I mean... I like the 'babies ever after' trope, but to find out that, basically, the only thing stopping a dragon from having kittens is finding the right parent?

I agree with Petrine and mostly Fiona being underdeveloped characters, and character development being inexistant in RD (that's the reason why PoR is better for me), but i don't think there's any blood-relation between Ike and Sanaki/Micaiah.

A lot of characters got under-developed in RD. I think the only 'new' character who wasn't a main character to get anything more than minor development was Heather and that was 'lesbian'. However, it's also safe to say that some characters simply had a LOT more to gain/lose than other. Laura, while charming, didn't likely lose much by being in RD alone. Fiona got shafted bigtime. Heck, I was fully expecting her to be a major player when I first saw her.

[Paper Jam]

I mean... I like the 'babies ever after' trope, but to find out that, basically, the only thing stopping a dragon from having kittens is finding the right parent?

You mean, a dragon laguz having kids with a beast laguz? Stefan said the different types of laguz can't interbreed like that.

But we knew back in PoR that, for example, a white dragon and a red dragon can have kids together (since otherwise Nasir, a white dragon, couldn't have been a grandfather of Ena, a red dragon); and raven laguz are about as different from heron laguz as red dragons are from white dragons.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Paper Jam

[Snowy_One]

Yet all breeds can breed with Beorc (or it at least seems that way). So, technically, it's totally possible for a being to exist with descent from every race on the continent. Human, cat, tiger, lion wolf, hawk, raven, heron, and dragon all rolled into one. Granted, it would have to be VERY specific and unlikely to happen without external control, but still...

[Fenrir]

I think the whole concept of the branded people was just a bit off. At times it seemed like one of the main points in the entire plot, 'help the branded become less discriminated.' But there's really no resolution whatsoever in either of the games. Why was this? We had so many central characters who were branded or of Laguz and beorc decent who went out of their way to hide it.

I'm glad you brought up Ranulf. This guy is the main characters BFF, seems to be the glue that holds the Gallian army together, and he maintains good relationships with all beorcs and laguz. Most likeable character in the entire game, why don't we get more development??

Whenever he was talking with Ike there was this, 'yeah we're bros and we love each other but you don't know why because IS is too lazy to make our dialogue.'

I'd also lump Geoffrey into this category because he has nearly no scenes in RD but is treated like one of the guys.(He really isn't around that long in PoR either, should've been more of him)

General characters and plot lines I think they needed more of were, Nasir, Bird tribes,(Seemed like a cool dynamic) Skrimir, Boyd, Stefan, Gatrie's speed cap in RD.

[Snowy_One]

Like I said, I think in PoR they originally planned on having Ranulf join in place of Lethe. A lot more of the interactions make more sense if you mentally switch the characters around. My best suspicion is that they replaced Ranulf with Lethe to appeal to catgirl lovers along with, maybe, showing a *slighty* racist Laguz character. Course, that doesn't explain why they didn't make it Ranulf/Lethe joining instead of Lethe/Mordi (seriously, in terms of plot, Mordi is meaningless. So why not?).

The only other explanation I can think of is that they felt Ranulf was too strong to join that early so they switched him out for a weaker character. Course, that doesn't explain why other characters who joined earlier are so OP'ed, why Laguz weapons don't upgrade and remain stuck at 'steel', or the transform gauge hampers so much (can only fight half the time, no buyable gems, only one band and it reduces stats).

What really irritates me is that the games could have been VERY much improved with either his removal (no more hovering over our shoulders and spoiling plot-points) or full integration, but they waffled on it half-way.

[Quick]

What really irritates me is that the games could have been VERY much improved with either his removal (no more hovering over our shoulders and spoiling plot-points) or full integration, but they waffled on it half-way.

I think Ranulf spoiling plot points made the game feel a lot more realistic. I don't know about FE9 well enough to speak for it, but when Ranulf spoiled stuff about the Black Knight it definitely felt more realistic for Ike to be told where he was at rather than revealed at the last minute.

[Garteam]

Without counting the Laguz Royals, Laguz were just to weak and gimmicky (not even having a good gimmick to boot) and even when there was uses for the non-royal Laguz it was never a combat based strategy (Mordicai being a shove and rescue bot for example.)

[Fenrir]

I think Ranulf spoiling plot points made the game feel a lot more realistic. I don't know about FE9 well enough to speak for it, but when Ranulf spoiled stuff about the Black Knight it definitely felt more realistic for Ike to be told where he was at rather than revealed at the last minute.

I agree. There was no way they should've kicked ranulf out of the game. I just wish his combat had been worth a shit in FE10...

[Swordsalmon]

Ike existing in Radiant Dawn. While playing it, I really felt like that the entire game would be a lot more interesting if Ike seriously did disappear, letting the story focus more on Michaiah/Elincia/Anyone else.

[BrightBow]

I have to say, I liked the way Ranulf handled things. He simply had no reason to keep it a secret. And I prefer if the heroes don't get into trouble just because they are being a bunch of fools.

And if there is something I learned from the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts 3D, it's that it's really awkward when the writing goes out of it's way to pretend that something is a big reveal when it's really not.

They wouldn't cheat by suddenly revealing that the Black Knight had been some schmuck we've never heard about. So you ask yourself: Big guy, heavy armor. Master swordsman? Who could it be?

I would guess that most people would probably have figured out the Black Knights identity by that point because no one else is really qualified.

Besides, when the identity of the Black Knight was revealed, it raised a way more important question. Namely, why would a noble knight like Zelgius do all these things?

Edited April 22, 2013 by BrightBow

[Fenrir]

Ike existing in Radiant Dawn. While playing it, I really felt like that the entire game would be a lot more interesting if Ike seriously did disappear, letting the story focus more on Michaiah/Elincia/Anyone else.

You're the worst!! Joking... Kind of.

I have to say, I liked the way Ranulf handled things. He simply had no reason to keep it a secret. And I prefer if the heroes don't get into trouble just because they are being a bunch of fools.

And if there is something I learned from the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts 3D, it's that it's really awkward when the writing goes out of it's way to pretend that something is a big reveal when it's really not.

They wouldn't cheat by suddenly revealing that the Black Knight had been some schmuck we've never heard about. So you ask yourself: Big guy, heavy armor. Master swordsman? Who could it be?

I would guess that most people would probably have figured out the Black Knights identity by that point because no one else is really qualified.

Besides, when the identity of the Black Knight was revealed, it raised a way more important question. Namely, why would a noble knight like Zelgius do all these things?

Yeah I agree. I remember hating BK's character and loving Zelgius and being like, 'the fuck? nooooo'

But really, Zelgius is awesome.

[Rapier]

Ike existing in Radiant Dawn. While playing it, I really felt like that the entire game would be a lot more interesting if Ike seriously did disappear, letting the story focus more on Michaiah/Elincia/Anyone else.

They'd need him for the war, but I kind of agree with this. Elincia should've quelled the rebellion by herself and there should've been more DB chapters than GM chapters (take the DB Desert Laguz chapter away and add two more plot-important chapters, and then take the first GM chapter and the lava cave chapter away). The plot is also in need of sharpening, which is a shame because the story is actually good.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Rapier

[Ashen Tempest]

2) Petrine. Another one that irks me. Petrine is a unique character to be sure. We find out that she's branded (Raven it seems) but works for Daien despite that they would probably kill her if her branded nature ever became public. Despite that, she fights for Ashnard... And dies before long and doesn't even get mentioned again. Ena? Survives. Bertam? Survives. Not Petrine. They could have done a lot with her too, like have her be Vika's niece and the reason Vika is even out in the first place. Or even going cliche and having her become a good guy. But nope. Evil.

Ena and Bertram survived because of their ties to Rajajon and Crimea. But even if Petrine did happen to be Vika's niece, I don't really think she would have gotten her out of her position as a slave because she clearly hate ALL laguz. They even made Oliver survive, and yet, not Petrine. As for the part about Fiona, I think I recall hearing somewhere that Marado was a territory that wanted no part in the war.

No support between Tormod and his foster father made me incredibly sad. ;~;

Sure, they built their individual characters through Path of Radiance supports, but not really much about their past lives together after they met. God, remembering that they have no supports depressed the crap out of me. :'( Seriously though, what could it be that convinced a laguz who most likely resents beorc for enslaving him (and mentally scarring him) to just go and raise a random beorc child? Even if he was most likely found abandoned, it still seems really odd. The dude's a freaking saint.

[Snowy_One]

Even if they made it so Petrine simply hated all Laguz and would have been a villain pending her survival she still could have added SO much more than, say, Oliver. Think about it. Ashera resurrects her because of her will and gives her a large army, but is tasked to defend the tower along with an army of Dragon Laguz. She struggles with her racism, but in the end, it gets the better of her and she turns on them. The player defeats/captures her for war-crimes after a three-way battle with the fact that she turned on the enemy dragons as the only reason they're not killing her on the spot, maybe even forcing her to fight as punishment for her crimes, and she's only barely able to keep it restrained because of the lower Laguz count in the player army. Could have been a LOT more interesting!

I agree with Ike as well. I mean, I KNOW he's supposed to be the main character, but I REALLY felt the DB and Crimea got shafted badly after part 1. Elincia should have been able to put down the revolt, yes, and Ike should have held a reduced part, least until Ashera goes nuts. Why not have had Ike leave and the GM's fall under Mist/Oscar/Titania's control and, whoever it is, is simply not a capable enough leader to help Elincia out?

As for Ranulf, I think my biggest problem with him is the knowledge in both games that he is a fighter and warrior and he KNOWS it, but doesn't help out despite being 'plot-important' enough to net one of the very few RD paired endings. Especially since no one in their right mind will get his ending barring intentionally trying for it. Casuals would likely end up supporting Ike with Titania, Oscar, Soren, or Lethe for possible romance and early pairing, hardcore players would ignore him simply due to late join time (and other supports simply being better) and, unless someone is trying to fill out the support library or a huge Ranulf fan they simply won't support him, and even if they DO Ike will have to compete with Lethe for the A support (Mordi too, but I can see people picking Lethe for a possible happily ever after much more). Despite that he's arguably one of the more important characters in the game. Just... Why?

[Acacia Sgt]

Even if they made it so Petrine simply hated all Laguz and would have been a villain pending her survival she still could have added SO much more than, say, Oliver. Think about it. Ashera resurrects her because of her will and gives her a large army, but is tasked to defend the tower along with an army of Dragon Laguz. She struggles with her racism, but in the end, it gets the better of her and she turns on them. The player defeats/captures her for war-crimes after a three-way battle with the fact that she turned on the enemy dragons as the only reason they're not killing her on the spot, maybe even forcing her to fight as punishment for her crimes, and she's only barely able to keep it restrained because of the lower Laguz count in the player army. Could have been a LOT more interesting!

To be honest, knowing Ashera, she would've only brought Petrine's body back, not her actual self. You know, like the Order Members you fight in 4-E-1 and 4-E-2.

[Quick]

To be honest, knowing Ashera, she would've only brought Petrine's body back, not her actual self. You know, like the Order Members you fight in 4-E-1 and 4-E-2.

IS might've not done it just because if they did it would've gone FE7 real fast. It's rarely a good idea to implement a plot element to a game of the same series if the two games have different stories/timelines all together. I guess you could say that this I'd unlikely but it certainly seems possible.

[Acacia Sgt]

IS might've not done it just because if they did it would've gone FE7 real fast. It's rarely a good idea to implement a plot element to a game of the same series if the two games have different stories/timelines all together. I guess you could say that this I'd unlikely but it certainly seems possible.

Even so, there was no way to make it reasonable in-story anyway. After all, Petrine had been dead for three years already, not to mention she was in Daein's army. Ashera only "revived" the Begnion soldiers she had unpetrified earlier. Chances are not even slim, the're practically zero.

I don't have anything against Petrine, but I just don't see that happening if she were to had any kind of development in RD had she still been alive. Since being dead... well, it quite the limit on what can you do.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Acacia Sgt

[BrightBow]

There wasn't a lack of branded In FE10, so I am not seeing how breaking the story in order to bring her back would have added anything.

She wasn't very interesting anyway.

She fights for Ashnard because he doesn't care about heritage and she hates Laguz presumably for the same reason as the other branded do. Sure, they could have turned her more interesting, but I see no reason for her of all people to get such special treatment that doesn't equally apply to Aran.

Edited April 23, 2013 by BrightBow

[Mikethfc]

What really irks me is that when you fight the GM in 3-13 if you fight their SW/TB she should have said "Do you want a piece of Mia?" as a pre-battle quote.
Sure giving her a faux-Italian accent for one sentence wouldn't make any sense, and would probably break the atmosphere but goddammit IS