Lets talk about Ashnard...

[blah the Prussian]

and why he is the best Fire Emblem villain, period.

Seriously. I love Ashnard as a villain. He is the only main FE Big Bad that is not supernatural in nature. Sure, he uses supernatural forces, but only to achieve his goal. And that is where, in my mind, Ashnard gets really good. He has a goal centered around an ideology, that of Social Darwinism, and his backstory supports this ideology: of course he would want meritocracy, being 11th in line to the throne! Ashnard has an understandable goal, is extremely intimidating, and never, absolutely never, strays from accomplishing this goal. He doesn't want to make the world worship a dragon, he doesn't want to conquer for conquest's sake, he is an ideologue, representing a human threat in, IMO, the most human story in FE.

[Etrurian emperor]

I agree with almost all your points. Ashnard is clearly insane but he has logic behind the thing he does and the Begnion arc does show that a meritocracy isn't going to come to Tellius without something extreme happening.

As crummy as the blood pact was I do think it was a nice touch that its show Ashnard has no problem applying his philosophy to himself. He was not one of the signers of the blood pact so he could drop dead just as well as anyone else in his scheme. The apparent thought of ''If the plague strikes me down before its my time then I wasn't strong enough to begin with'' does fit with his character.

But I don't think Ashnard is the best villain. There are some things holding him back. Ashnard is one of those Fire Emblem villain who stays in his(or Elincia's) castle the entire game and only meets the heroes in the final chapter. As a result he suffers from a lack of screentime and he's not at all a personal nemesis that the heroes must overcome. Ike hardly cares about Ashnard the person and aside from getting giggly over Ike's fighting style the feeling seems to be mutual on Ashnard's side. Despite murdering her parents him and Elincia aren't very personal enemies either.

For such a warrior king you'd imagine he'd take to the battlefield a little more to scare the shit out of Ike and Co.

[Sentacotus]

Ashnard is a pretty good villain and all but i always did like the Black Knight more even with the plot holes in the following game.

[blah the Prussian]

I agree with almost all your points. Ashnard is clearly insane but he has logic behind the thing he does and the Begnion arc does show that a meritocracy isn't going to come to Tellius without something extreme happening.

As crummy as the blood pact was I do think it was a nice touch that its show Ashnard has no problem applying his philosophy to himself. He was not one of the signers of the blood pact so he could drop dead just as well as anyone else in his scheme. The apparent thought of ''If the plague strikes me down before its my time then I wasn't strong enough to begin with'' does fit with his character.

But I don't think Ashnard is the best villain. There are some things holding him back. Ashnard is one of those Fire Emblem villain who stays in his(or Elincia's) castle the entire game and only meets the heroes in the final chapter. As a result he suffers from a lack of screentime and he's not at all a personal nemesis that the heroes must overcome. Ike hardly cares about Ashnard the person and aside from getting giggly over Ike's fighting style the feeling seems to be mutual on Ashnard's side. Despite murdering her parents him and Elincia aren't very personal enemies either.

For such a warrior king you'd imagine he'd take to the battlefield a little more to scare the shit out of Ike and Co.

I do agree with most of this; I think that making Elincia more of a character as well as Ashnard would have improved the story; maybe have an actual scene where we see him kill the King and Queen? Speaking of that, I definitely think that the order of the campaign should have been reversed; liberate Crimea first, then push into Daein, maybe after stopping an initial Daeinese(?) thrust into Gallia. As for the Black Knight, he was fine as a heavy/henchman villain, but everything that made him great in POR was the mystery surrounding him, so after seeing his absolutely moronic motivations in RD, coming back to him in POR is a bit... sad. Ashnard is great because he has the best motivation of any villain in the game, while still remaining utterly unsympathetic.

[B.Leu]

Ashnard is awesome, and what make him so interesting is indeed is his social darwinism views of the world. The best part was that it was painfully familiar to that of the Laguz, might make right and everything (or so they claim), so it made you think.
You have that dude, the Mad King, who is obviously mad (duh) and evil, but who had a logic behind his actions, what's more, a logic that is familiar, if not the same, what that of another culture within the universe of the game.

And then you take a look at Sanaki, Begnion and the Beorcs in general, and you realize that they don't do much, beside doing things in the politicaly boring slow way, how fun. unlike Ashnard who do ton of shit.

So we have a villain that make you think, who have a solid personality, and who's not a buffed monster made of plot-device-um of BS to rally everyone to kill him and force peace everything out of nowhere.

Alas, most of it seems to be dropped pitifuly by PoR's end. Or completely by RD. But RD doesn't exist.

[Dragrath]

I agree Ashnard has always been my favorite villan as he isn't some supernatural force of ancient evil like this series has been plauged with time and time again. I do however agree that he could have used more screen time.

Ashnard is awesome, and what make him so interesting is indeed is his social darwinism views of the world. The best part was that it was painfully familiar to that of the Laguz, might make right and everything (or so they claim), so it made you think.
You have that dude, the Mad King, who is obviously mad (duh) and evil, but who had a logic behind his actions, what's more, a logic that is familiar, if not the same, what that of another culture within the universe of the game.

And then you take a look at Sanaki, Begnion and the Beorcs in general, and you realize that they don't do much, beside doing things in the politicaly boring slow way, how fun. unlike Ashnard who do ton of shit.

So we have a villain that make you think, who have a solid personality, and who's not a buffed monster made of plot-device-um of BS to rally everyone to kill him and force peace everything out of nowhere.

Alas, most of it seems to be dropped pitifuly by PoR's end. Or completely by RD. But RD doesn't exist.

I agree with most of this in regards to his charecter I suspect you are onto something in regards to how he differs from the standard political nobles, too slow to weak and too boring. Though I did like Radiant dawn... for its mechanics. The story and character development(support "conversations" lol) were shit and I hated the end fight but the enhanced magic triangle was enjoyable and it great weapon diversity in function (storm swords FTW) as well as in regards to weapon weight... The tier 3 skills were ruined by all doing at least times 3 damage though but other than that the skill system was pretty nice in implementation. Disarm forever, bring back stealing!