If you could change one major thing about the plot in every Fire Emblem installment, what would it be?

[NinjaMonkey]

have Begnion promise Daein it's independence

They already have their independence by the time the Blood Pact shows up. In fact, that was the whole point of Part One.

[NekoKnight]

Does it make much more sense? Ashnard is a power-hungry bully on steroids who lives to fight; that pretty much fills all the criteria needed for wanting to take on one of the most skilled swordsmen that ever lived.

No doubt he'd enjoy it but I think it would strain belief that the leader of Daein has nothing better to do than make private visits to places around the continent. The Black Knight works because he's a mysterious agent who is pursuing some sinister personal agenda.

They already have their independence by the time the Blood Pact shows up. In fact, that was the whole point of Part One.

They defeated an occupation force. The remainder of the Begnion army could steamroll what is left of Daein. The idea is that they would promise that Daein keeps their newly acquired independence.

Actually not really much like Lyon it's more like Anakin Skywalker... no really think about it just replace the force with dark magic and boom you get Negral. That being said I think it is done better that Anakin but that's not much of an accomplishment...

Wait, isn't Lyon more like Anakin? Turning to the dark side because of a grim prophesy? The desire to use the force dark magic to keep his loved ones from dying?

"From my point of view, the Sacred Stones are evil!" -an actual quote by Lyon from the actual game

Edited November 1, 2016 by NekoKnight

[Magical Glace]

Blazing Sword: Also, why does Nils have to leave if Ninian gets to marry someone?

Nils always leaves because otherwise the gate would remain open and the events that caused FE7 could potentially repeat, which could have disastrous consequences.

Basically the writers needed to ensure the gate would always be sealed in the ending no matter what.

The game makes that pretty clear, I thought...

[Locke087]

Wait, isn't Lyon more like Anakin? Turning to the dark side because of a grim prophesy? The desire to use the force dark magic to keep his loved ones from dying?

"From my point of view, the Sacred Stones are evil!" -an actual quote by Lyon from the actual game

Well I mean okay unlike Lyon there is in no literal prophecy, but like Anakin it is fear that starts his problem because that's when his wife goes missing that he puts his children in the Dragon gate... Also Nergal gets corrupted while heavily researching bringing things back to life (or more correctly reanimating people). Starts getting power to get back his children he lost after his wife was gone so he has more familiar motivations unlikely Lyon who wants to save his country in general. Negral gets corrupted purely by the magic and not is not possessed, and his obsession with gaining more and more power is the cause ("I will be the greatest Jedi ever"), eventually forgetting why he did so in the first place. He finds many of his actions to be rejected by other magicians around him, even losing one of his closest friends when he starts going down this path (just imagine it Athos in the final battle with Nergal "you were the choosin one".)

So yeah I would argue Nergal as a lot more common with Anakin.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Locke087

[Papa Wolf]

Does it make much more sense? Ashnard is a power-hungry bully on steroids who lives to fight; that pretty much fills all the criteria needed for wanting to take on one of the most skilled swordsmen that ever lived.

It would seem odd to have the king personally go out alone into the woods to kill a single guy who's not even a part of the Crimean army, without having his army behind him, while he's in the middle of a war of conquest. And Ashnard doesn't really seem keen on getting revenge on certain people, he just wants to cause as much chaos as he can and see who comes out on top. Ash and BK have completely different motivations. A lot of Fire Emblem games suffer from a lack of a good supporting hench-cast, I wouldn't want to take away the most developed evil supporting actor in Path of Rad. If anything, we should have seen more from all 4 Four Riders. Petrine got the most of the remaining 3, and even she could have used more development.

"From my point of view, the Sacred Stones are evil!" -an actual quote by Lyon from the actual game

Didn't Sacred Stones come out before Star Wars 3?

[NinjaMonkey]

The idea is that they would promise that Daein keeps their newly acquired independence.

My point is that they already had their independence by the time the Blood Pact comes up, while you suggested otherwise.

Edited November 1, 2016 by NinjaMonkey

[blah the Prussian]

I wouldn't mind more characterization for Ashnard, but I don't think the Black Knight should or needs to be removed for this to happen. What I'm defending is the narrative structure of having the protagonist gunning for a lesser Big Bad. It makes more sense for the BK to be going on his personal quest of dickery than for Ashnard to be chasing after random mercenary bands.

Fine. Then have Ashnard chasing after Elincia. Ashnard fights Greil while Elincia escapes. Ashnard kills Greil, but is wounded himself. This also removes the BK's ridiculous motivations from the picture.

[Topaz Light]

• Non-FE12 Archanea: Add real support conversations.
• Tellius: Either make Zelgius someone who's actually interesting or make the Black Knight's true identity be someone else.
• Awakening: Work Gangrel and Walhart's motivations as explained in their support conversations into the actual plot.
• Fates: Axe the curse on talking about Valla and make it more of a sort of unsolved historical mystery (i.e. "This nation completely vanished, leaving scars on the landscape, and nobody knows what happened" or something) and an actual fleshed-out nation with citizens who are alive (or at least still "themselves", so to speak, rather than essentially mindless zombies) instead of just a source of Revelation maps and advertisement.

  Also, some Vallite classes would be cool but that might be asking too much.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Topaz Light

[Dinar87]

fe9: Flesh out the characters more and make one note characters like Ilyana actually interesting. Also, remove the black knight and have ashnard be the main antagonist that kills Greil.

fe10: Make the entire game about the dawn brigade fighting the corrupt begnion senators, eventually ashera and have the Crimean knights, apostles army and the greil mercs join in. This would prevent any characters from being nearly totally unusable if done correctly. And again, either develop or remove characters like heather entirely.

fe13: Instead of having three separate arcs all tied together by the gem mcguffins why not focus on the one of those arcs instead? It'd give IS the ability to develop people like gangrel as more than one note villains and actually make them interesting for me. Also, remove the time travel aspect and just have the game take place over a longer period of time.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Dinar87

[Rezzy]

Fine. Then have Ashnard chasing after Elincia. Ashnard fights Greil while Elincia escapes. Ashnard kills Greil, but is wounded himself. This also removes the BK's ridiculous motivations from the picture.

I think that the Ashnard could be built up without taking anything away from what the BK does. I actually think one way would be to play up Ashnard as Elincia's nemesis.

I think a great way to this end would be to make Elincia playable a lot earlier. At the same time that Ike gets his promotion, Elincia could become playable. However, she wouldn't be the Pegasus Healing Queen, she would be a Troubador-like mounted healer. Sanaki would saw that Elincia should be leading her troops and serving as a rallying point, sort of like Joan of Arc, while not actually yet fighting. She could also get the "Rally" skill like the 3DS games, which is a skill unique to her. It could be in line with Rally Spectrum, but maybe nerfed a bit at +2 or +3 rather than +4 to everything. But that would would be up to the playtesters, it serves as more of a story point here. Since once she's recognized by Begnion, she is ready to be Crimea's Queen.

Elincia could then get her forced story promotion at the point you get her in the original PoR, being able to wield Amiti. Her reasoning being that she's now ready to fight to defend her people, not just support.

To go with the Rally idea, I figure at some point, Elincia could pick up a horn blessed by the Goddess that removes Ashnard's armor's blessing when she blows into it. It always bugged me that only two and a half of your units can actually kill the final boss. If I want to kill him with Kieran, why can't I?

I think having Elincia for longer would also mean she has more supports. This would be a great way to flesh her out some more. She should really have more than two supports. I think giving her Lucia and Bastian is a no-brainer. Her and Lucia are practically sisters.

I think Kieran would be another good choice. Kieran is all about being the best knight he can be. I can imagine him wanting to be like Lancelot to Guinevere, minus the adultery. This could be a great example of courtly love, as Kieran takes it upon himself to be her personal body-guard. Maybe he could even get a bit of character development, as he learns to be less reckless around her.

That brings Elincia to 5, I think it would be easy enough to round her out to 7, assuming that is the max, though not totally necessary. Some possibilities...

Ranulf: They don't have a ton of dialogue together, but I think it would be nice to have her talk with someone about King Ramon and is dealings with Gallia, maybe get a bit of backstory in the department and give her some more interaction with the Laguz. Ranulf seems the best choice for this, since he's the most diplomatic of the cats.

Titania: It would make sense, since Titania is one of the de-facto leaders of the Greil mercs and I could see Titania as a comforting mother figure to Elincia after losing her family, and maybe bond over their shared losses in the Mad King's War. In the end Elincia comforts Titania after she realizes how much Greil meant to her.

Jill: This might be a bit of a stretch, but Jill and Elincia are of similar age. I just really like both characters and want to see them interact, but this is probably the weakest option of the ones I've listed.

I think getting Elincia earlier and giving her supports could do a lot to flesh her out and make us care more about her beating Ashnard. 90% of most character's personality is seen in the support convos. I know I wouldn't like Soren nearly as much as I do without the Ike/Soren Support chain.

[Alazen]

Fates: Get rid of Camilla, one of the younger sisters, Hinoka, Iago, and an Ice Sister.

The game struggles to keep what are 8 siblings relevant to what's happenening and it shows from how Elise's big moment comes in Birtright, with the moment being dying a death that doesn't shift anything about Xander. Iago's an unneeded villain who really amounts to having a way to get gimmicky maps.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Alazen

[blah the Prussian]

I'm all for making Elincia more relevant to the plot, but again, the Black Knight remains essentially pointless. If Elincia and Ike had two separate arch enemies, it would make the story feel disjointed and disconnected. Plus, it's simply easier to flesh out one villain than two; FE9 simply picked the wrong one.

[ping]

I'll probably just echo a lot of posts with most of my points, but here goes:

• Binding Blade: I quite like the plot of the game and can't think of anything I would want to change there, but the pacing of the game is just terrible. Jahn's huge exposition dump is probably the worst part, but in general it feels like they noticed while doing the Bern arc that they were suddenly out of disk space. I mean, after liberating Sacae/Ilia, Roy has to fight exactly one battle to reach Zephiel's castle (not counting the quest for Apocalypse). So yeah, I'd love it if the game would expand more on the war in Bern, even if they had to shorten some of the previous arcs.
• Blazing Sword: Make Nergal's backstory less obscure. As is, he's basically little more than a cackling, powerhungry dude with no clear ambitions other than more power without any idea what to use it for.
• Sacred Stones: Hm, good question. I actually like how Eirika's and Ephraim's routes basically have two different Lyons / DKs. I wouldn't mind some changes in the characters (Eirika just being naive during the whole game is a bit painful, for example), but I really like the plot as a whole.
• Path of Radiance: I agree that Elincia should have been an active combattant much earlier. Maybe shortly after Mist and Rolf decide to join the fights she could decide that she can't stay at the sidelines when even those kids fight for her cause?
  I'm OK with the BK being the primary antagonist for Ike in this game. He's not very interesting as a character (duh - he hardly has any), but imo, he works well as a menacing thread and a seemingly unbeatable foe for most of the game. The game throws enough hints that I (knowing that there is a sequel) am very interested to learn more about his motivations. Only too bad that he's mostly disappointing in RD. :/ I especially hate the "my final teacher" bullshit Ike pulls after finally defeating him. Instead, I would have liked if the BK would actually have died in PoR, but in RD the player learns his identity (did it really have to be Zelgius) and through his connection to Greil maybe even something about Ikes father. But that's more about
• Radiant Dawn and I only put it in the last entry because my main grief with RD is the Blood Pact (very creative, I know). I agree with NekoKnight that the plot point of Daein being forced into an alliance with Begnion could easily have benn constructed without it - just make Begnion threaten to completely eradicate Daein if they don't comply, either by military power or if that wouldn't seem suffenciently overkill enough, through some magical nuke. But having people just drop dead because their king (or even former king in the case of Kilvas, iirc) was tricked into buying a vacuum cleaner signing a piece of paper puts my suspension of disbelief to its limits. ;)

[Sylphid]

I'm OK with the BK being the primary antagonist for Ike in this game. He's not very interesting as a character (duh - he hardly has any), but imo, he works well as a menacing thread and a seemingly unbeatable foe for most of the game. The game throws enough hints that I (knowing that there is a sequel) am very interested to learn more about his motivations. Only too bad that he's mostly disappointing in RD. :/ I especially hate the "my final teacher" bullshit Ike pulls after finally defeating him. Instead, I would have liked if the BK would actually have died in PoR, but in RD the player learns his identity (did it really have to be Zelgius) and through his connection to Greil maybe even something about Ikes father.

I just want to point out that that this illustrates my view on the Black Knight pretty much perfectly: most that is wrong with him comes from RD (his lack of actual character in PoR is a concern, but he does his role as a mysterious threat "reasonably decently" as I put it before).

More importantly, the bolded part made me think... Instead of combining BK with Ashnard, combining him with Bertram, thus making his real identity Renning, might have been more interesting. The fourth spot among the four riders could then have been given... To someone else potentially interesting who would remain criminally underutilized like Bertram and Bryce did? Or maybe make Tauroneo or Fiona's dad still be active as member of the group.

Not saying that would have been necessarily good though. I just want to see 1 less mysterious black knight of doom among the four riders, having 2 was silly. Bertram was essentially Black Knight but mad and with less story relevance. And his true identity was actually hinted at, if I remember right.

[Paper Jam]

FE6: Let Eliwood recover from his illness in time to join Roy after the liberation of Ilia and Sacae, and give him a conversation with Zephiel.

FE7: Give Lyn and Ninian more active roles in the main story. I'm afraid I can't think of any examples of how to do so, though, especially without revealing too early that Ninian is an ice dragon.

FE8: Amelia's presence in Eirika's route, and Ewan's presence in Ephraim's, don't make much sense to me. Unfortunately, although it makes more sense from a story standpoint to have Amelia join Eirika and have Ewan join Ephraim in chapter 15, that would make them even worse Ests than they already are from a gameplay standpoint.

FE9: I think the game itself started to overstay its welcome at about chapter 25. Maybe this game should have been about 5 chapters shorter, or maybe the plot just needed a bit of improvement towards the end.

(Side note about the Black Knight... I get people's complaints about his identity and such... but one of the most brilliant scenes in FE9, IMO, was at the end of chapter 11 when Sephiran commanded the Black Knight to stand down, and the Black Knight obeyed. I honestly don't think that scene would make nearly as much sense if the Black Knight WEREN'T secretly an agent of Begnion [though not necessarily Zelgius].)

FE10: Tormod, Muarim, and Vika didn't get nearly as much screentime as they should have, given how crucial their role was in starting the war between the Laguz and Begnion. Also, Ranulf revealing the Black Knight's identity should have been done offscreen.

FE11: My only complaints are about the gameplay: Specifically, the sidequest requirements. In terms of story, I must assume that the plot is faithful to that of FE1 (such as that is), and I think that compares favorably to...

FE12: Too many retcons of FE3, starting with Kris.

FE13: The time travel stuff just bugs me, but it's so integral to the plot that... I guess I just don't like FE13 that much.

I haven't played the rest of the games enough to have an informed opinion about them.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Paper Jam

[Emperor Hardin]

[spoiler=Awakening - Flesh Out Valm Arc]Like Thane has said, Awakening has three main parts. The first is Gangrel getting revenge on Ylisse due to crimes committed by the previous Exalt. I consider this a nice arc as it paints Ylisse in a darker light than being the classic "goody good guys" all the time, even if Chrom and company are the stereotypical heroes. The second is the Valm arc which focuses on Walhart and his conquests. I believe he also actually had a motive on why he was set on conquering everything, which I will get to later. Finally, there's the conclusion with Grima, the Grimleal, and the Avatar. Nothing really outstanding here besides evil cult wanting to resurrect dark dragon god while also finding out who the Avatar is.

Awakening does have its poor points, but the largest problem for me was the Valm arc. It was literally filler and contributed basically nothing to the main plot aside from perhaps a revelation or two near the end.

What I want is Walhart's motivation for conquest to be expanded upon and become the focus of the Valm Arc. If I remember correctly, he is set on unifying the world against Grima (he read the propecies or something, I don't remember) but does it through raw strength instead of diplomacy. So, Chrom and Walhart fight each other over ideologies (instead of liberating the country - this still happens but is not a focus) as Grima gains in power. Eventually, Walhart is defeated and Chrom and company continue to confront Grima and its respective story.

As a minor point, while I love having the characters around to play with, the special paralogue characters need an overhaul. Either expand on why they join the party (including adding proper supports and stuff), make then purely bonus characters who look and play like the real versions but are not, or alternatively get rid of them in the first place. Sure, it's cool to mess around with Gangrel, Walhart, and even a fallen Exalt, but from a story standpoint, why are they there?! It there are bonus characters, treat them as such, otherwise go the extra mile and properly implement them into the game instead of having a couple handwaved lines to justify their existence.

Gangrel was never interested in the past war...at all, he reveals so in the supports.

[SageHarpuiaJDJ]

Nils always leaves because otherwise the gate would remain open and the events that caused FE7 could potentially repeat, which could have disastrous consequences.

Basically the writers needed to ensure the gate would always be sealed in the ending no matter what.

The game makes that pretty clear, I thought...

Really? I must've forgotten then. I feel kinda dumb now.

[Omegaprism]

For the most part I have a live-and-let-live philosophy for the writing in SRPGs, but this is a fun thread, so here goes:

FE10: Chapter 3 is a mess! Oy! I would swap out one terrible "A wizard did it!" explanation for another: Have the Laguz Alliance be forced to march through Daein to reach the Begnion border due to a magical or geographical barrier. Give more chapters to playing the Daein army, and have Sothe and Micaiah disagree with each other more. Use Skrimir's initial pigheaded nature, and let the furry army be all riled up after being spat on by Begnion, so instead of saying, "We just wanna cruise through here, mmkay?" they could say something akin to, "Don't start nothin' or get wrekt, noobs." There should still be a lot of hard feelings on both sides. Micaiah's future vision (if she has to have it) could be clouded because she is letting her own feelings get in the way of the truth. The Greil Mercs wouldn't even be playable for the first several chapters. the Dawn Brigade would have a few more warmup chapters where the crew from FE9 don't even appear as enemy units, but for each early victory won they would recieve reports that the rest of their forces are being crushed. Ike becomes more of an implacable, unstoppable force (kinda like Zelgius), and our poor Part 1 heroes have more chances to gain exp. You could even have a scene where Sothe sneaks into the enemy camp and makes some angst at the Greil Mercenaries, and Ike basically tells him, "We wanted to avoid this, but now shit is whack." Have Begnion offer 'support' in the form of tactical advisors and special anti-laguz equipment. You can still have your terrible, "We are so evil, nyah!" moustache-twirling moments, but maybe keep those conversations a secret from the Dawn Brigade until finally, after wearing down but failing to stop the massive foreign force, Daein can only watch as Ike's hombres reach the Begnion border, where Book 4 should have begun.

There is nothing wrong with your protagonists being fallible, Intsys. Making mistakes and only realizing you were wrong afterward is a compelling, understandable experience that can make an audience root for someone even harder than before.

Fates: Make Corrin from Nohr the only Corrin. Make the playable avatar from Hoshido Azura. That's what I would change. Azura would be an actual character instead of an exposition bot that sings on the side. Well, okay, and no stupid dissolving curse. Azura can start out knowing about as much as Corrin: Diddly. Make her another manakete. Hell, make her gender a choice! Have all the Hoshido bits in the first 5 chapters be from his/her point of view. When the two protagonists meet they can still team up, but maybe have one of them convince the other to come to their side, depending on which side the player chooses.

[Omegaprism]

Double post! Dunno what happened there!

Edited November 4, 2016 by Omegaprism

[Dark Holy Elf]

I just want to point out that that this illustrates my view on the Black Knight pretty much perfectly: most that is wrong with him comes from RD (his lack of actual character in PoR is a concern, but he does his role as a mysterious threat "reasonably decently" as I put it before).

I strongly disagree with this. Black Knight in PoR is the real problem, since he literally has no motivation whatsoever besides wanting to test himself on Greil, which I think we all agree is an idiotic motivation. It's only in RD where we see how him being branded drove him to feel isolated and depressed, and this led him to unhealthily idolize first Greil, then the maniplative Sephiran. Without that backstory, the character is garbage.

[NekoKnight]

I strongly disagree with this. Black Knight in PoR is the real problem, since he literally has no motivation whatsoever besides wanting to test himself on Greil, which I think we all agree is an idiotic motivation. It's only in RD where we see how him being branded drove him to feel isolated and depressed, and this led him to unhealthily idolize first Greil, then the maniplative Sephiran. Without that backstory, the character is garbage.

I don't see why defeating Greil is an "idiotic motivation". The appeal of the Black Knight is that he is menacing and mysterious, both his identity and agenda. Path of Radiance is the set-up and then Radiant Dawn gives him a more detailed backstory. Had you only seen A New Hope, would you think Darth Vader a bad character?

[blah the Prussian]

I don't see why defeating Greil is an "idiotic motivation". The appeal of the Black Knight is that he is menacing and mysterious, both his identity and agenda. Path of Radiance is the set-up and then Radiant Dawn gives him a more detailed backstory. Had you only seen A New Hope, would you think Darth Vader a bad character?

Darth Vader and the Emperor play clear and separate roles in the narrative of Star Wars. The Emperor is a Satanic manipulator trying to get people to turn to the dark side, while Darth Vader is a foil to Ouke; what he might become if he falls for the Emperor's manipulation. The Black Knight and Ashnard play the same role, and therefore two of them is not necessary. I do actually think the opposite of DHE, though: the shitness of the BKs identity retroactively destroyed the legitimate goodness that came from his mystery. Like, if Rosebud in Citizen Kane was his dildo, or something like that, it would destroy the entire movie. Same here.

[NekoKnight]

Darth Vader and the Emperor play clear and separate roles in the narrative of Star Wars. The Emperor is a Satanic manipulator trying to get people to turn to the dark side, while Darth Vader is a foil to Ouke; what he might become if he falls for the Emperor's manipulation. The Black Knight and Ashnard play the same role, and therefore two of them is not necessary. I do actually think the opposite of DHE, though: the shitness of the BKs identity retroactively destroyed the legitimate goodness that came from his mystery. Like, if Rosebud in Citizen Kane was his dildo, or something like that, it would destroy the entire movie. Same here.

They do, but if I recall correctly the Luke/Vader foil doesn't become apparent until Empire and Jedi. Before then, Vader is just a scary and mysterious dude, wrecking everyone's shit and providing a personal nemesis for the protagonist. The point is that PoR!BK doesn't need fleshed out motives for his presence to leave a strong impression. I'd agree with you that the Radiant Dawn characterization left a lot to be desired.

[Jotari]

Oh. Nice topic. Shame I didn't catch it four days ago. Going to throw out my opinions without looking at anyone else first. From the games I've played.

FE4: There are a lot of players behind the scenes in the first game who we simply don't see that are crucial to the plot of the game. Reptor and Langbolt should at least get some more screen time and Kurth and Ring should have at least some lines of dialogue. I'd also like if Sigurd actually interacted with his father once before he died. I guess what I'm really saying is there should have been some kind of Gen 0 that dealt with and established all the parent figures during the campaign in Isaac. Maybe that's a bit much to ask from a SNES game that's already pretty big but...remake...Hmm?

FE5: The inconsistencies between Holy War and Thracia bug me far more than they should. Namely Faval and Ishtar should have attacked Leif after he reclaimed Leinster castle and they should have had at least one confrontation with Blume. Even if it was the failed first attack in Chapter 7.

FE6: I do like the plot of FE6 a lot and I think they manage to do well with the characters but even I have to admit it's pretty minimalistic. Roy has some good characterisation but people just don't tend to notice it since so few lines are dedicated to it. So I guess in this case just give me the same plot but changed so that there's more of it.

FE7: I see why they had the final boss be the Fire Dragon in terms of Gameplay but I'd like a better explanation as to why they're fighting it in universe. The only two dragons we see come fully through the gate are chill dudes who don't want to destroy humanity and the entire plot line revolving those dragons are about the refugees from the Scouring. Why then is the final boss treated as a generic beast with no motivations or intelligence. There's really no explanation. Before that point the end game plot is Negral stealing the dragons power to become invincible, nothing (that I can recall) actually suggests the dragons are our enemies in anyway except when they're on screen. At least it gives me the funny head cannon that Athos and Brammiond were genocidal maniacs who were manipulating Eliwood and his party to kill innocent dragons by claiming humanity would somehow be wiped out within months if a single dragon got loose (despite humanity winning that last war).

FE8: Longer. Make it much longer. Or make it so you play through both paths simultaneously (and expand the cast as a result).

FE9: I feel Elincia could have been a playable character much earlier who has a plot based promotion when she would naturally join in game. That's might seem like more of a gameplay thing that a plot based thing but I think it would significantly change how she's viewed in the plot.

FE10: I usually like two minds, one body plots but I don't at all like how Yune was handled in Radiant Dawn. I felt she completely overwrote Michiah's character and regulated her to the backseat of everything. Either make Yune some kind of independent character or at least give Mickey some relevance in the end game beyond burning the blood pact.

FE11: Give Hardain something to do. He's an immensely important person in universe and as a remake the game knew yet he's basically as important as Ogma for all its worth.

FE12: All those extra characters from throughout the series that they throw at you should have been implemented better.

FE13: Tiki should have had some relevance. Her impact on the plot could basically have been replaced with a scroll saying "Go get stones" Given what we see in the Future Past, Tiki and Lucina should have known each other. She should have been a driving force for fighting Grima like Athos or Gotoh before her.

FE14: Basically change all of Conquest so the plot is about deconstructing and breaking the Camus archetype regarding Xander by recruiting the other royals to the path of righteousness one by one. Instead of basically being "It's cool to be evil and slaughter innocents. Oh hey, wait that's not our father. Then all those things are not cool!" It's hypocritical and feels vaguely racists towards demons if that's possible. The plot to actually get Garon to reveal his true self by sitting on the throne is also really forced. To service that removal I'd probably make Hoshido a bit darker in the Conquest route. Maybe by having Xander become King 70% of the way through the plot and actually having him sue for peace but Hoshido refuse due to their anger and sense of loss of honour. Forcing Corrin to conquer (get it) for the sake of keeping his own kingdom safe.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Jotari

[blah the Prussian]

They do, but if I recall correctly the Luke/Vader foil doesn't become apparent until Empire and Jedi. Before then, Vader is just a scary and mysterious dude, wrecking everyone's shit and providing a personal nemesis for the protagonist. The point is that PoR!BK doesn't need fleshed out motives for his presence to leave a strong impression. I'd agree with you that the Radiant Dawn characterization left a lot to be desired.

I agreed that the buildup is good; the difference is that Darth Vader's buildup had a great payoff, while the BK's buildup didn't. I think bad payoff ruins good buildup.