Opinions on that Fire Emblem Fates character #1 - #65 (Check first page)

[Cyana]

Nina - I quite like Nina. She turned out very well for me as a unit in Conquest, and I found her supports amusing. Also she looks really nice with Azura's hair.

Dwyer - Poor Dwyer deserves a much better father than Jakob. I do like how he one-ups him at coffee making, put Jakob in his place. Unfortunately he didn't turn out all too spectacular on the battlefield, although that may just be because his mother was Felicia.

Kaze - I really like Kaze. He's very handsome, and I like most of his supports that I've seen. Strong, silent, dreamy ninja indeed. I'm not really sure what to make of him in combat though - I think I just don't know how to use ninjas, because they've all been underwhelming for me.

Azama - I haven't seen much of him, but based on what I have, I don't think I'm going to like him much. I'm not too fond of characters being asses for no particular reason.

Gunter - I thought Gunter would have a lot more presence in the story, kinda like Freddy in Awakening, and was very surprised by just how little he was there. Also, is there a reason he can't support anyone in Revelations? I haven't finished it yet, so I don't know if there's a plot reason or not, but shouldn't he at least have the same supports as in Conquest? I really wish we saw more of him, he looks cool.

Azura - Azura... I'm not really sure what to think of her. I agree the writing botched her horribly. Especially on the non-Revelations paths, where she basically just sits back and doesn't even bother trying to let Corrin know about Valla. Yeah, I know there's the curse, but there's so many ways they could get around it. It's worse in Conquest - they were actually *in* Valla for a bit, but she still didn't say anything, because watching Hoshido get destroyed for no reason was fun for her, I guess. Aside from that, though, I don't find her character all that egregious. I can see why people say she's bland, but I kinda like her whole quiet, withdrawn thing. Her singing is always useful in-game. And A+++ for Dark Song, so awesome.

Mozu - I really like Mozu. I never tried her as an archer in Conquest, which is apparently where she really shines, but she was destroying things in Birthright (one of my few units who I could rely on to one-round things), so I'll definitely have to try her next run through. And all her supports I've seen so far have been adorable.

Yukimura - Never used him.

Setsuna - I found myself getting tired of her out-of-it routine pretty quickly. I don't really like stuff like that. Though I found her default line in My Castle kind of amusing (something like "yes, what AM I doing"), mostly because I'd imagine it more as her trying to cover up something sus rather than her just legitimately having no idea. Never used her as a unit, I had no shortage of archers on Birthright and they were all better than she was.

Soleil - Oh, Soleil... I really want to like her. I love her design, her usefulness as a unit, and most of her personality. I really liked when she talked about how her father would tell her to smile, it was kind of like, even though she wouldn't have the same sort of motivation as Laslow (which I think was talked about more in Awakening than Fates, but I digress), she still really believed it, so it's like Laslow's own passion for that belief came through when he was telling her? I don't know, really headcanon-y, but I found it adorable. But then of course, there's the controversial stuff... I don't dislike her for the Japanese support with the Avatar. He's the one who put the stuff in her drink, after all, that wasn't her fault, and the localisation did a much better job with that support chain. But her support with Ophelia... yeah, she really needs to learn about personal space and when to back off. Like, when someone is blatantly telling you to back off, it's generally a good idea to do it. And I really don't like the implication that because they're both girls, it's harmless/not real harassment, which is just blatantly untrue. Overall, if it weren't for that, she would easily be one of my favourites. That said though, I do still like her, she's just a problematic fave.

Reina - She has a really interesting design, and I wanna know more about her. Alas, Corrinsexual.

[RoyLKing]

we got lots of comments for that one eh? Let's see if this one can do the same thing.

Today's characters are Xander and Asugi. What is your opinion on those characters?

Xander: Story-wise, xander is a retard and we all know it. Support-wise, I didn't do much of his supports but I really like the ones that I saw. Unit-wise, he's no Ryoma but he can tank lots of shit, but can't double or do heavy damage, I'll still prefer Ryoma.

Asugi: Never played Awakening so I wouldn't know about Gaius, but I'll judge from what I saw.

Asugi's prologue chapter was good and interesting, seeing the father-son relation ship between Asugi and Saizo, but when we actually get to the supports, ALL HE TALKS ABOUT IS SWEETS. He talks about sweets in his supports, he makes sweets puns in his battle quotes, everything is about sweets it hurts. Unit-wise, I benched him because I'm not a big fan of ninja, and Saizo seemed better than Asugi when they were both at the same level.

[blinkingbrave]

Xander: Actually perfect. Or perfectly imperfect I suppose haha. Any rate, he's my male fave. Gets a nice blend of internal and external conflicts to resolve, plenty of story focus to give him that extra boost, the sort of writing I really like, complicated relationships, and a personality type I'm generally just really partial to. Gimme tragic princes and writing that doesn't beat you over the head all day err'yday. My only real complaints are that 1) I liked him even more unlocalized than localized and 2) the nature of his personality type means he gets a lot of kinda... unrevealing supports, which is a good and bad thing. He's got a lot he could reveal, but it's well established it'd be out of character for him to confide in anyone except Corrin (and maybe Nyx) with some prodding so not blabbing junk is probably best anyways.

Any rate, he's refreshingly well-written (or... written in a style I like which is the crux of the well-written argument anyways haha).

Asugi: Shrug. He's here. I liked the Saizo support, but generally speaking, he's kinda unremarkable to me.

[Book Bro]

Xander

Oh boy.

My least favourite royal and probably one of my least favourite min characters in the series. It's heartbreaking because he was my favourite based on his design, but he turned out so disappointing.

Let's take this one path at a time, starting with Birthright which is probably the worst for Xander. His whole deal is that he's the crown prince of Nohr, so his loyalty conflicts with his morals. Except, we're only told this. We never see him be a good person or question if he's doing the right thing. He blindly follows Garon despite all the plainly evil things he does, yelling angrily at Kamui the few times he shows up.

This is slight headcanon, but the way Xander just goes completely immature towards Kamui when he points out Garon is an evil dude plus the fact that we know from story and supports that the other royals all look up to and also feel like they have to live up to Xander, makes me feel like a big part of why it takes Leo, Camilla, and Elise so long to do what they know is right and why when they do they don't do more is that they're scared of Xander. He's a bully, he's a terrible big brother because if his siblings don't obey him he will throw them in the trash without hesitation even if he's in the wrong.

When Elise directly opposes Xander, he refuses to dialogue. He ends up accidentally causing her death. And he STILL won't consider he's wrong. All he can do is whine about how he doesn't have a choice, he has to be a blind follower to Garon, wahhh I'm the victim guys.

Conquest Xander can basically be summed up as "justice is an illusion except when it's convenient for my interests to claim injustice". Then he actually threatens to murder his siblings if Garon isn't a literal monster, just after having helped him bloodily conquer an innocent nation for no actual reason. In other words, all the horrible things he just spent the whole game doing was fine and dandy but suddenly he feels betrayed and ashamed of what he's done just because Garon is a slime. Wtf?

He's supposed to be a Camus but he only really fits the bill in Revelation. He still needed to hear Garon laughing evilly and monologuing about destroying the world before doubting his allegiance, though. Also he still never actually acted against Garon, because then they all go to Valla and that whole story thread is dropped. He is at his best in Revelation, though, but like, his best is still completely dull and uninspired. Oh yeah, he threatens another sibling in this path, Camilla. What a nice brother.

People love him because he's a "flawed" character. Yeah, he is. The problem is he isn't treated as a flawed character. He's treated as a wise, mature, chivalrous prince when he's actually a bratty hypocritical coward.

Asugi

I love Gaius, we didn't need to shove him into this game.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Book Bro

[Ertrick36]

I start finally reverting to a normal state of mind and we come upon another goddamn controversy?! Man, RoyLKing, you sure know how to pick 'em...

Xander

I think he's fine, but I honestly want to actually hear the defense people have for him as far as story goes. To me, he just seems like a worse Camus as far as BR is concerned; I won't go into it because everyone knows the deal, and Book Bro already spoke in great length about it. Aside from story, his supports are okay, I guess. I can only think of some of his familial supports and his supports with Charlotte as supports that I actually like. But he never really grows as a character, which I guess isn't particularly necessary, but... I dunno. He clearly has flaws, but not many of them are even worked on.

Asugi

Asugi: Never played Awakening so I wouldn't know about Gaius, but I'll judge from what I saw.

Well, obviously, Gaius had a thing for sweets, but it wasn't so bad. It was just a joke that came up sometimes, though his battle quotes do have a lot of puns about sweets.

I don't know enough about Asugi to really have an opinion.

[Thane]

Finally time for Xander, huh?

I'll start by saying what I've been saying for a while now: Xander is not one character, but two. In his supports, he's everything the game tells us he's supposed to be: a taciturn, serious, conflicted man who's always trying to do what's right and make sure his soldiers are in high spirits even though he's trying to hide his own worries. Xander generally has high quality supports, showing a lot of depth and even has the only really good sibling support with Corrin.

Then we have his main story version, who's supposed to be the same character, except everything he does and says goes against what's established in the supports. He blindly follows his father, who's an obviously insane man who's already tried killing his supposed precious little sibling in front of his very eyes - by asking HIM to do it! He then unquestioningly leads an invasion of Hoshido the second their little friendship bubble of pacifism breaks and essentially tells its crown prince to eat shit and die - what the hell, is the game trying to tell me this guy is a hero? He then asks Corrin to come back to the warmongering nation which leader wants them dead, using the argument that fewer people will die if Corrin joins their side. He doesn't seem to consider Corrin's feelings at all over having discovered that they're not really related.

So Xander wants Corrin to join him in killing fewer people than necessary. That's his brilliant plan. The game later tries to paint him as someone who doubts his father's intentions, but...his reasons for fighting seems to be to show off Nohr's power. How is that going to help anyone? What does it take to convince this guy that what he's doing is wrong? How can the crown prince be so easily manipulated and lacking in a moral compass?

This is all before the path split, mind you. Six chapters in and main story Xander is already unsympathetic and coming across as a clueless idiot. I'll try focusing only on Xander and not the black and white overall story, but the two are rather connected after all; Xander's stupidity is one of the components necessary for there to be three different paths as they are now.

Birthright

In Birthright, as has already been mentioned, Xander doesn't join Corrin even though he knows what his father is doing is wrong and the opportunity to fight against him and save his country presents itself on a silver platter. Not even accidentally killing his own little sister is enough to sway him, so he opts to spit on her sacrifice, ignore her pleas and lets himself be killed off by Corrin, ignoring any emotional damage it might inflict on his younger sibling - this guy really doesn't care about other people, does he? He kills Elise and takes the easy but most disturbing way out, forsaking his people and his duties which he claimed to have been fighting for up till that point.

"But Thane, you sexy sexy man, he just wanted it to be all over!" - Right, he wanted it all to be over, so why didn't he free the country he claimed he was fighting for? Why did he let himself be killed by his sibling rather than taking his own life? Do you even realize how selfish that makes him seem? A lot of games in which a character asks someone else to kill them should X occurs, it's often portrayed as an incredibly egotistical request and people object vehemently, yet here it's skimmed over and we're supposed to feel bad for the guy who spat on his little sister's last wish?

"But he couldn't forsake his duties!" - His duties were to the country and the people, right? That's all he thinks and talks about, so why would he forsake them when he was given the opportunity to free them and reform the country? What happened to his doubts about his father? They just led nowhere.

Conquest

In Conquest, he's portrayed in an even worse light. He actively takes part in an invasion of a country that had done nothing to deserve it as far as we know, and he even goes against his original argument he used to persuade Corrin, opting to kill Zola who wanted to end the war quickly by killing the four Hoshidan royals, effectively prolonging the war because that's clearly the honorable thing to do.

See, that seems to be a recurring theme with main story Xander: everything he does seems to be for his own selfish needs and desires, yet the game doesnt portray it as such. Prolonging a conflict? Honorable. Committing suicide instead of helping his nation? Honorable. Standing still and doing nothing as people in front of him are being slaughtered, choosing instead to tell himself that justice doesn't exist even though he was so against Zola killing the Hoshidan royals? Honorable.

I've said this so many times recently, but I'll mention it here again: main story Xander is a lot like Hetzel in Radiant Dawn. However, the games treat these two so, so differently. Whereas Hetzel is portrayed as a sniveling, opportunistic coward who didn't step in alone to try and stop conflicts when he had the chance, and is forced to beg for forgiveness from Sanaki, Xander, with Azura, Corrin and the other Nohrian royals backing him, takes an active part in making sure the conflicts are happening. Xander has more power, influence and allies than Hetzel, yet he's portrayed as a hero at the end of Conquest.

Here's where the real mental gymnastics begin: why would people cheer for Xander ascending the throne? He has shown he's easily manipulated, lacks a spine and a moral compass and is willing to go to extremes as long as he's convinced of what he's doing, which coupled with said lack of moral compass is an incredibly dangerous trait. He took an active part in the invasion of Hoshido, and supported it until he saw Garon being made of slime, yet Garon's physical appearance doesn't change anything in the slightest; he's still directly responsible for a lot of people dying. The only difference is that Garon turned out to be a literal monster as opposed to only a metaphorical one. The people of Nohr and especially Hoshido should be bloody terrified that he's crowned king at the end of Conquest.

Revelation

There's little to say about his role in Revelation. He needs a literal evil monologue spelling everything out for him to convince him that maybe daddy dearest isn't the best ruler, then he joins Corrin and fades into the background like every other character. The main conflict is forgotten and it's just padding and pandering until the end, which has less to do with Xander and more to do with the writing and mindset of the writers in general.

Summary

In two out of three routes, main story Xander is a bad guy but is portrayed as heroic and wise, and he's only saved because of a plot device in Revelation. He's shown to be incredibly dangerous, selfish and frankly downright stupid, but the game wants me to like him and even feel sympathy for him.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Thane

[FrostyFireMage]

Xander: Worst FE character in the series... outside of supports. Everything he does in the story is so hypocritical and braindead I'm surprised the writers didn't notice (or didn't care). Support-wise he's a much better and more multi-faceted character - but the fact still remains that he's a massive tool with no will of his own.

Asugi: Gaius except totally unnecessary with the candy maymays cranked up to eleven. Don't like.

[joshcja]

Xander: I should probably use him someday huh. I actually like CQ Xander buuuuuut....

His role in birthright was great, I loved the part where Elise one shot him in ch26 then took a nap as his liquefied brain escaped through his eyeholes.

Asugi:

Son of Saizo, not named Saizo 0/10

Edited August 10, 2016 by joshcja

[Bowbow]

Xander: Thane said it best to be honest.

Asugi: I like him. He's like a younger, less jaded and a bit less cynical version of Gaius, which makes perfect sense because Asugi hasn't lived a life of crime or been imprisoned and marked for a criminal like Gaius. He has a good bromance with Shiro going on and I like his relationship with Saizo because it highlights whether he should continue the family lineage under the Saizo name or be his own man. Sucks how people just give him crap just because "muh Awakening rehash!"

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

Xander: I'm so sad I can only post from my phone so I can't say all I'd want about him. First I was quite indifferent to Xander, but after CQ chapter 21 I started to really love him. I haven't finished BR yet so I may be biased, but he reminds me of Zelgius in a lot of fields: both are wise, right and forced to do awful things under the command of a mad man (Garon and Valtomme). All his speeches are awesome, well-writen (the comparison between the sky of Nohr and the future when he became a king, the speech on justice where he states that everything is not black and white in the world are just a few examples of that) and seem perfectly natural. He's a born leader. My heart was broken when I had to side with Hoshido after all he did for you in Conquest's last chapters.

For the unit part I'll just copy/paste a long post I made about his spotlight, because Mangs didn't even had the decence to answer or take it in consideration, so I'm glad to share it so I didn't write it for nothing.

Back to Xander. Your spotlight gives the feeling that he has no role as a unit. The way I see Xander (which is maybe not the only way to use him, I may be wrong, but it worked perfectly on my CQ file until the endgame, included) is the following. I'll try to make a "mini spotlight" too. Xander is an incredibly good offensive unit for your team. He is made to deal incredible damage without putting himself in danger. He's indeed mostly made to initiate an attack thanks to his might and accurate personal sword, Siegfried, not let the enemies hit him during their turn, even though he's perfectly able to passively tank thanks to his already good defense, increased by 4 by his sword even when he's not using it (or even cannot use it) which can reach 40 with his statue and a +2 Defense meal. For now, we could think he's kinda similar to Effie. And the answer is effectively... NO! His high mobility combined with is 1-2 range personal sword allow him to safely strike very hard from very far on the map: as a Paladin, his very high luck growths, 75% and caps, 34 (second highest of all Nohrian classes behind Strategist) combined with Siegfried's Dodge+10 effect annihilate enemies' chance to crit on him (except Killer Weapon, great club, etc those efficiency will be lowered), when most of them won't even be able to counterattack. Furthermore, his correct speed (45% growth, cap at 29) is perfectly enough to avoid getting doubled by most enemies, except Ninjas and Swordmasters, while being able to double some tank-y enemies such as Generals, Great Knights, Oni Chieftains. All these effects prove that his starting class perfectly fits his particularities, so he will immediately be operational to fulfill his role: delivering massive damage in one blow to any enemy that could stand in his incredible range while keeping him perfectly safe thanks to his ranged attacks, high defense and critical evade. His correct speed even allow him to deliver roughly the same damage on all enemies, regardless of their defense. His personal skill, Chivalry, grant him +2/-2 damage dealt/taken against full-HP foes, while Elbow Room will give him +3 damage dealt if he stands on a tile with no terrain effects. . That's why he's particularly useful against bosses or strong enemies that you'd need to weaken without taking any risks, or frail units such as Mages, Ninjas, etc that he will be able to defeat in one blow. And that's not all: his reclassing options further underpin his already incredible potential. As a Great Knight, he will keep using Siegfried and exchanging some Spd/Lck/Res and one movement point for more HP/Str/Lck. If this will improve his "tankyness", I highly recommend not to keep him as a Great Knight because of the reasons I have already outlined, but instead to reclass him for a few levels in order to get the Great Knight's skills, Luna and Armored Blow, which are probably the two skills he needs most. On the one hand, Luna is a great skill to improve his already massive damage: with his very respectable skill (50% growth, cap at 29), he will be able to proc it quite often even at 2 range, resulting in even better damage output against tougher enemies, leaving them at the mercy of your other units or a Dual Strike, and one-hit-KOs against frail foes. One the other hand, Armored blow is probably the best skill to give him, because it will decrease physical damage he receive by 10 each time he initiates an attack, which is almost all the time, pushing virtually his defense up to 50 during the fight. These two skills further improve his already amazing offensive abilities, as he will now be able to strike even harder while reducing the damage he will receive around 0, negating the effects of double attacks he could sustain by fast enemies, which makes him even better in his role to deal massive damage safely, which is particularly useful against bosses and tough units. Furthermore, Xander can reclass into Wyvern Lord and Malig Knight. If there's strictly no point reclassing him into the first, the latest offers at least two valuable skills, Savage Blow and Trample, but be aware that Xander will not be able to use Siegfried as a Malig Knight and will start with a E rank in Axes, which kinda painful to use; nonetheless he will still benefit from Siegfried's +4 Def as long as he carries his sword is in his inventory though. Savage Blow reduces by 20% the HP of all enemies within a 2 tile radius after a fight he initiated, which is kinda good when he'll be back as a Paladin because he'll able to attack from 2 tiles and it will leave the injured foe with really low HP, if he survives. Trample, on the other hand, increases by 5 the damage Xander will deal against unmounted enemies, which is a really good skill for Xander because it increases further his damage output, allowing him to OHKO most foes he will encounter in the Conquest path, or a least help him deal more damage against tough unmounted enemies such as General or Oni Chieftains, that's why I highly recommend to give Xander utility weapons such as Beast Killer and Wyvslayer in addition to this skill.

At the end of the day, Xander is one of the strongest units in your team at the chapter he joins, and will likely remain so until the end of the game. His high Strength, Luck, and Defense combined with his powerful personal sword and right skills allow him to be an incredible offensive force in your team; safely leaving the enemies dead or deadly wounded in one blow, without taking any risk, that's why he's maybe more broken than his Hoshidan counterpart, in his own way. If his speed gets really RNG-screwed, it might be a good idea to use one or two speedwings, but his bases and growths should be more than sufficient to avoid that. Furthermore, it's up to you to equip Aegis or not, just be reminded that his high range and strength should avoid him to stay into Mages' range or being hit by a magic user during a fight he initiates, most of them being really frail (except Dark Mage). Finally, you could consider reclassing into a Dread Fighter to get Agressor that makes him even deadlier during your turn, while being able to use Siegfried and not killing his growths during the 4 levels he will spend as a Dread Fighter.

[Ebony]

Xander

Not gonna say a thing because Thane did it. I don't get why so many girls want to romance him.

Asugi

Gaius except it focuses mostly on candy. Gaius had his candy obsessions but I never remember him dragging it out to this extreme. Don't like him.

[Hunter Nightblood]

Xander: Suffers the same problems as Corrin and Azura.

Asugi: A less interesting Gaius. At least Rhajat is an improvement over Tharja.

[saisymbolic]

Xander

The tihs storm has arrived from over the horizon.

On a lighter note, I prefer Xander's Dark Paladin aesthetics, his VA, his personal weapon and a lot of his supports are pretty good. Unfortunately, his role during the narrative more often than not overshadows that. It doesn't matter that much to me—I still like the character, overall.

Asugi

Meh.

I never really got the hype for Gaius—I was more of a Lon'qu/Yen'fey kind of girl. I haven't really used Asugi, though I do like Ninja!Gaius, in terms of design. His VA does sound a little off but I do believe he is trying to sound a smidgen younger than Gaius. I like the dynamics he has with his father and mother; he (somewhat) rebels against his father but secretly likes being coddled by his mother.

But, yeah, I'm most neutral.

Edited August 10, 2016 by SaiSymbolic

[Etrurian emperor]

Xander I very much like. He's incredibly baddass, well voiced and very useful as a unit. How good he is in the story does depend on the route but his issues aren't really something that no Camus hadn't had before. I'd say he's more justified then most of them. Xander has his reasons....not GOOD reasons but much better ones then his peers who follow kings selling their pretteen children to mad mages, fight for kings that locked them up for no reason and then get killed like a loser or those that flood the home of the people who adore him for the sake of people who just admitted they don't give a toss about him. Compared to that I find ''But daddy can't be evil'' at least a little bit rational.

Xanders supports tend to be good and he's not only a good dad but one of the few fates characters that has the looks to actually be a dad, even if Siegbert looks for to old to be his son.

Asugi I hate. He's probably my least favorite character in the game because he has the least right to be in the game. He doesn't belong in the game like the real Fates cast does, doesn't get a suitable justification like the Awakening trio and unlike the other two Awakening kids his predecessor really didn't do much to deserve a clone. Tharja and Cordelia were one of the most popular AND most talked about characters but Gaius? Who the heck is Gaius supposed to be? He's hardly hated but compared to those two you hardly ever heard anyone especially praise Gaius for either his character or utility.

Gauis did rank as one of the most popular males in a Japanese poll and there lies the problem. Its merely a Japanese poll and not a global one. There's nothing to indicate Gaius was ever as popular in the west as Tharja or Cordelia and if the West was taken in consideration it would probably have been Henry who got a successor.

On his own I do think Asugi is slightly better then Gaius because of his daddy issues but that just shows how little I think of Gaius which in turn furthers my belief Asugi shouldn't exist because Gaius isn't interesting enough have things based on him.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Etrurian emperor

[Raguna]

Xander: Cool sword but I agree with an aspect Thane introduced to me that the man is pretty much divided into two people written by different writers. The incompetent bully in the main plot Xander and the support Xander who comes off as reasonable and fair except for the Peri S-support and a maybe one other I can't place. Being a royal means he's a good unit and anything else would be fluff.

Asugi: I never think of Asugi but when I do I always go back to the popularity poll that included him in. Right after candy boy was Lon'qu who for all intents and purposes was much more universally loved than Gaius and actually looked Japanese so he'd fit in well as Hoshidan He also seems like the kind of guy Saizo would father since he was serious but also a huge dork when it came around to women not to say he should have gotten an Awakening expy. I just think he was more probable considering Tsubaki while pretty distinct from Cords basically made two expies for one character and Lon'qu could have taken Caeldori's position in a way.

So sadly my opinion on him is just switch him in for Lon'qu since Lon'qu did also have an assassin promo as his second choicie and it wouldn't look that weird on him.

[DragonFlames]

Finally time for Xander, huh?

I'll start by saying what I've been saying for a while now: Xander is not one character, but two. In his supports, he's everything the game tells us he's supposed to be: a taciturn, serious, conflicted man who's always trying to do what's right and make sure his soldiers are in high spirits even though he's trying to hide his own worries. Xander generally has high quality supports, showing a lot of depth and even has the only really good sibling support with Corrin.

Then we have his main story version, who's supposed to be the same character, except everything he does and says goes against what's established in the supports. He blindly follows his father, who's an obviously insane man who's already tried killing his supposed precious little sibling in front of his very eyes - by asking HIM to do it! He then unquestioningly leads an invasion of Hoshido the second their little friendship bubble of pacifism breaks and essentially tells its crown prince to eat shit and die - what the hell, is the game trying to tell me this guy is a hero? He then asks Corrin to come back to the warmongering nation which leader wants them dead, using the argument that fewer people will die if Corrin joins their side. He doesn't seem to consider Corrin's feelings at all over having discovered that they're not really related.

So Xander wants Corrin to join him in killing fewer people than necessary. That's his brilliant plan. The game later tries to paint him as someone who doubts his father's intentions, but...his reasons for fighting seems to be to show off Nohr's power. How is that going to help anyone? What does it take to convince this guy that what he's doing is wrong? How can the crown prince be so easily manipulated and lacking in a moral compass?

This is all before the path split, mind you. Six chapters in and main story Xander is already unsympathetic and coming across as a clueless idiot. I'll try focusing only on Xander and not the black and white overall story, but the two are rather connected after all; Xander's stupidity is one of the components necessary for there to be three different paths as they are now.

Birthright

In Birthright, as has already been mentioned, Xander doesn't join Corrin even though he knows what his father is doing is wrong and the opportunity to fight against him and save his country presents itself on a silver platter. Not even accidentally killing his own little sister is enough to sway him, so he opts to spit on her sacrifice, ignore her pleas and lets himself be killed off by Corrin, ignoring any emotional damage it might inflict on his younger sibling - this guy really doesn't care about other people, does he? He kills Elise and takes the easy but most disturbing way out, forsaking his people and his duties which he claimed to have been fighting for up till that point.

"But Thane, you sexy sexy man, he just wanted it to be all over!" - Right, he wanted it all to be over, so why didn't he free the country he claimed he was fighting for? Why did he let himself be killed by his sibling rather than taking his own life? Do you even realize how selfish that makes him seem? A lot of games in which a character asks someone else to kill them should X occurs, it's often portrayed as an incredibly egotistical request and people object vehemently, yet here it's skimmed over and we're supposed to feel bad for the guy who spat on his little sister's last wish?

"But he couldn't forsake his duties!" - His duties were to the country and the people, right? That's all he thinks and talks about, so why would he forsake them when he was given the opportunity to free them and reform the country? What happened to his doubts about his father? They just led nowhere.

Conquest

In Conquest, he's portrayed in an even worse light. He actively takes part in an invasion of a country that had done nothing to deserve it as far as we know, and he even goes against his original argument he used to persuade Corrin, opting to kill Zola who wanted to end the war quickly by killing the four Hoshidan royals, effectively prolonging the war because that's clearly the honorable thing to do.

See, that seems to be a recurring theme with main story Xander: everything he does seems to be for his own selfish needs and desires, yet the game doesnt portray it as such. Prolonging a conflict? Honorable. Committing suicide instead of helping his nation? Honorable. Standing still and doing nothing as people in front of him are being slaughtered, choosing instead to tell himself that justice doesn't exist even though he was so against Zola killing the Hoshidan royals? Honorable.

I've said this so many times recently, but I'll mention it here again: main story Xander is a lot like Hetzel in Radiant Dawn. However, the games treat these two so, so differently. Whereas Hetzel is portrayed as a sniveling, opportunistic coward who didn't step in alone to try and stop conflicts when he had the chance, and is forced to beg for forgiveness from Sanaki, Xander, with Azura, Corrin and the other Nohrian royals backing him, takes an active part in making sure the conflicts are happening. Xander has more power, influence and allies than Hetzel, yet he's portrayed as a hero at the end of Conquest.

Here's where the real mental gymnastics begin: why would people cheer for Xander ascending the throne? He has shown he's easily manipulated, lacks a spine and a moral compass and is willing to go to extremes as long as he's convinced of what he's doing, which coupled with said lack of moral compass is an incredibly dangerous trait. He took an active part in the invasion of Hoshido, and supported it until he saw Garon being made of slime, yet Garon's physical appearance doesn't change anything in the slightest; he's still directly responsible for a lot of people dying. The only difference is that Garon turned out to be a literal monster as opposed to only a metaphorical one. The people of Nohr and especially Hoshido should be bloody terrified that he's crowned king at the end of Conquest.

Revelation

There's little to say about his role in Revelation. He needs a literal evil monologue spelling everything out for him to convince him that maybe daddy dearest isn't the best ruler, then he joins Corrin and fades into the background like every other character. The main conflict is forgotten and it's just padding and pandering until the end, which has less to do with Xander and more to do with the writing and mindset of the writers in general.

Summary

In two out of three routes, main story Xander is a bad guy but is portrayed as heroic and wise, and he's only saved because of a plot device in Revelation. He's shown to be incredibly dangerous, selfish and frankly downright stupid, but the game wants me to like him and even feel sympathy for him.

Xander: Worst FE character in the series... outside of supports. Everything he does in the story is so hypocritical and braindead I'm surprised the writers didn't notice (or didn't care). Support-wise he's a much better and more multi-faceted character - but the fact still remains that he's a massive tool with no will of his own.

Pretty much this for Xander, which is why I hate the dude so much I'll make sure to kill him off when I get him on my next Conquest/Revelations playthrough. Sadly, he'll only retreat. *rages in German*

Asugi: Eh, he's there, I suppose.

Edited August 10, 2016 by DragonFlames

[The Draco Knight]

Xander

The tihs storm has arrived from over the horizon.

On a lighter note, I prefer Xander's Dark Paladin aesthetics, his VA, his personal weapon and a lot of his supports are pretty good. Unfortunately, his role during the narrative more often than not overshadows that. It doesn't matter that much to me—I still like the character, overall

I pretty much agree with this.

Plus, for me, as a unit, Xander has never failed me, becoming always one of the most useful unit in CQ and he would still be so even if he didn't have Siegfred.

Asugi:

I still have to see many of his supports, but I can safely say that, thanks to his paralogue and his supports with his father, he seems to be a little more interesting than Gaius, for me.

[Loki Laufeyson]

HONK HONK

Setsuna: You know what? No. I dont like you, Setsuna. You arent even funny. You make a good match with Azama Asshat, cuz you just suck, ok? Your derp isnt cute, its annoying. As a unit, shes really mediocre. Good speed but bad output. Meeeeeeh.

Soleil: Oh look, its the most controversial character in the game. I dont actually mind her, but i do not like her support with Ophelia at all. Thats really the only moment she really bugged me. Other than that, shes cute enough. As a unit, shes never been shit for me so...eh. I just dont always recruit her. I think its cute to put her in Great Lord.

Reina: Blood Knight. Im ok with her personality and stuff. She doesnt stand out too much for me though. As a unit, shes a good filler.

Xander: Super fond of him. Hes super hot and his character is kinda layered. I dig how his biggest flaws are being really stubborn, and also being really indulgent to those he cares most about. As a unit, hes bomb af. Siegfried that good and ive put him through Swordmaster line and O M G. Shit whomps. Xander/10 would husbando again.

Asugi: Uugghh... why on earth does this guy even exist? I never use him, i very rarely even have him exist. I just....No. Hes too shameless as an expy and much less interesting than the character hes expying. As a unit, MEH.

[Drarky]

Xander: There's nothing I can really add to what othe people have said. The character is just awful in the story, and nice in supports.

Asugi: Ok so let me be clear. I'm not the biggest fan of Awakening's cast, but Gaius was one of my favorite characters, even my favorite I would say. His class being my favorite in the FE franchise and his personailty were awesome.

But Asugi... he's another story. He feels so uninteresting! I know that Gaius wasn't deep or anything, but Asugi feels extremely redundant since he's thinking about sweets every damn second. It reaches a point where it just gets annoying.

And he's a ninja. One of my least favorite classes in Fates because they replaced Thiefs (yes I'm salty about that). No-no.

[Bowbow]

And he's a ninja. One of my least favorite classes in Fates because they replaced Thiefs (yes I'm salty about that). No-no.

Ninjas are really amazing units and are pretty much better theives tho. What's not to like? They still preform the same function + more.

[Naturesshadow]

I've only done one run through of birthright and conquest and currently working my way through revelations atm so I haven't read alot of supports at this point but I shall give my 2 cents on my impressions so far.

Xander - He seems decent in his support conversations but his reputation definitely gets a hit in his story involvement, which I did notice, especially with his unpopularity being vocally clear amongst discussions here and there. His commitment to serving his father did get me scratching my head considering how unsubtle Garon was with his evil intentions, I just thought at the time he was just doing it for the good of the nation and for fear of execution (just like the other Nohr sibling). In the end though I still would have preferred him as the protagonist than bloody Corrin (Can't wait for him to come around in this thread again, I've got an inkling to tear him/her into tiny little pieces).

His celebration at the end of Conquest felt bizarre, considering that Hoshido was in such a wreck and all I could think was that Xander's gonna have to be prepared for another potential war what with the amount of people over there that'll want his head on a platter...But of course the hoshidan royals had to be all positive and happy about all this despite what happened to them. Realistically they would not have shown up to his coronation at all and they would be well bitter about the aftermath. It should have been a bitter ending with him questioning his choice to follow his fathers plans and feeling guilt over the hoshidans that died during the war. Damn, Conquests story was alot of crap.

At least as a unit he was decent. While not as killy as Ryoma he was alot more durable in DEF, which along with Effie and Keaton made for a good wall that would not break. He could have used a bit more speed though to increase his killing power.

Asugi - Literally a character who should not even exist. When I first saw him along with NotTharja Rhajat and NotCordelia Caeldori in leaks before its release I was not happy to see IS stoop so low into Awakening pandering (Not helped by Inigo, Owain and Severa's inclusion but at least they WERE the actual awakening characters and not "original" characters). I can't recall ANY other game in the franchise that has done this and I could not buy that these characters were they're own character. Gaius 2.0 from what I've seen so far REALLY wants to remind you he likes his sugary snacks and it really started to annoy me. I did like Gaius in Awakening as he wasn't all sugar and shit, He did have other traits to go along with that and they were pretty good (I just wish he did better as a unit. Average growths did him no favours). I just cannot acknowledge him as a character and I'm glad he wasn't that popular in the character poll. Hopefully that'll discourage IS from doing this shite again.

And pandering to a game thats not even that old...Cmon IS, your better than this. Leave it behind and let Fates be its own thing.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Naturesshadow

[warchiefwilliams]

Xander: There is little I can add at this point. I still really like how he is presented in the supports, but the story... gods damn it. This is why we don't split the writers into two separate teams! I will say that I do prefer him to the lobster lord still.

I still would have preferred him as the protagonist than bloody Corrin

That... would actually be interesting, I'll keep that in mind for latter.

Asugi: Just going to copy what I posted on a different thread.

Asugi: A one dimensional Gaius. Outside of eating more candy, his only other trait is trying to live up to his father. While interesting, it doesn't make up for the many other traits I felt that Gaius had, whether it was his desire to show sheltered royals like Chrom the reality outside of their glittering towers, helping people get over their troubles, e.c.t. Yeah, Gaius is more reserved than Asugi, but that is because Gaius has been doing his job for far longer, and has likely seen a lot of dark things. Overall, Gaius is simply a better character.

[Emerson]

I don't think much more of Xander than anyone else here. Same for Asugi. I'm in the majority on this one.

I can't recall ANY other game in the franchise that has done this.

*Refering to the Awakening Clones

Pokemon. They make a Pikachu clone every gen.

Granted, I don't mind this as much as everyone else does. 3/6 are actually pretty unique and different.

I guess Pokemon did it first AND did it right.

[Naturesshadow]

I don't think much more of Xander than anyone else here. Same for Asugi. I'm in the majority on this one.

Pokemon. They make a Pikachu clone every gen.

Granted, I don't mind this as much as everyone else does. 3/6 are actually pretty unique and different.

I guess Pokemon did it first AND did it right.

I was referring to the Fire Emblem franchise specifically. None of the characters in the previous games felt like clones of another previous game.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Naturesshadow

[Emerson]

I was referring to the Fire Emblem franchise specifically. None of the characters in the previous games felt like clones of another previous game.

Ah, ok. Anyways, it's because all other FEs are either completely separate or direct sequels. They don't have any connections like Awakening and Fates.

Doesn't excuse it, but still.