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Best Written Characters


Mandokarla
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Who do you all consider to be the best written characters in the mess that is Fates? There aren't a lot of them, but the few good ones stand out much more as a response. 

I personally find Leo's supports to be pretty damn good on average. He brings out a lot of good in other characters, which develops them as well -- and does so without sacrificing his own development. His support with Charlotte reveals why shes a gold-digger, but also he encourages her to be herself, and not the weak damsel-in-distress BS that she thinks men want. With Nyx, Leo helps her work through her insecurities and guilt. With Xander, his inferiority complex is shown and addressed in a reasonable, and human, way. He is simultaneously very capable, and flawed -- the former as a result of the latter. He is one of the only voice of reason in all of Conquest, being able to be pragmatic in the face of a difficult situation or decision. I don't think there are many characters that are as well handled as Leo.

I think some characters are overhated/underappreciated (Niles, the Awakening trio, even Camilla to a much lesser extent), but I think Leo is actually well written. 

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I think Nyx/Leo is one of Nyx's weaker supports.  Not quite as bad as the one with Subaki, though (that one could've used another three convos).  So I guess my answer is Nyx.

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Takumi's pretty high up there. He has unpleasant traits but also enough moments of either warmth or vulnerability that his moodswings don't come off as unsympathetic as they could have been. He greets the player with typical tsundere rudeness but him and his retainers being presented as such a close bunch is an early reminder he also has his soft spots. And when Takumi's won over he generally stays that way unlike other tsunderes who keep insisting their friends jump through hoops to please them. 
Takumi has a lot of issues. He's got an inferiority complex, nightmares about his mother dying and anxiety in general but its not like he's being a crybaby about them. They come up when they are relevant(only once in the case of his nightmares) and when they aren't Takumi is shown to function just normally without bringing them up or complaining about them the entire time. He's not defined by his issues but just happens to have them. This makes it easier to sympathies with Takumi and take his issues seriously. 
 

There's also Forrest if you're willing to overlook the deeprealm nonsense. Forrest's gimmick is actually handled pretty maturely and respectfully. Occasionally its played as a joke when people don't believe he's a boy but its also shown people being quite accepting while people who don't know Forrest can react poorly which gets to him. The writing also scoffs at the assumption Forrest must be gay or any less manly because of his interests. 
Forrests looks as well as him playing the damsel in distress would indicate he'd be meek and fragile but Forrest is anything but. He's very strong willed, can be forceful to his wacky retainers and can defend himself aggressively when he thinks he's being wronged or cuddled. Forrest is also shown to have leadership abilities in Heirs of Fates as he's the one who takes charge of his group.

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Leo legit gave me Conquest would be a better game if this was the main Lord vibes.

Leo.

Benny I also found to be an exceptionally well written character, and a clever play on the "gentle giant" archetype.

The moment that really sells his character for me is the Benny/Beruka conversation where he has his: "You're good at talking--you don't do it because you don't like it. I like talking--I don't do it because I'm bad at it."  moment.    

I thought that was one of the cleverer pieces of writing in Fates 

Edited by Shoblongoo
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I do think some people exaggerate how many "bad" characters there are in this game, but that's neither here nor there.

You all know who I gotta give it to.  It almost feels like her initial concept was designed to make her one of the least appealing and most vapid characters in the game, but she winds up being one of the more layered and consistently written characters.  I've written scores about what I like about the 'Boro...  She, to me, is just a well rounded character with a fairly real character flaw that's actually quite relevant in this age, qualities/supports where that flaw is redeemed, and some neat points where she subverts the whole "love for beauty" thing into a body-positive message.

I also like Mozu.  It's just impossible for me to find a support line with her I don't like, and I feel she's sorely underrated.  And I believe Shiro's coming-of-age story could've made him a really good main character/protagonist for this story.

There's several other characters that I feel are well-written too - such as Forrest, Leo, Takumi, Saizo - but the ones I've listed before are the ones that immediately come to mind and are my personal favorites.  And coincidentally, they're all spear users.

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Can someone elaborate on Shiro? Seems like a lot of you like him -- I only played BR once and Rev once, (and I intend to never play them again, if I'm to be perfectly honest) so I'm less familiar with most of the Hoshidan cast.

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19 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

Can someone elaborate on Shiro? Seems like a lot of you like him -- I only played BR once and Rev once, (and I intend to never play them again, if I'm to be perfectly honest) so I'm less familiar with most of the Hoshidan cast.

He is one of the more difficult characters to acquire, with you basically needing to use a Rescue to save him from getting himself killed by an army of enemy master ninjas and heroes, so I understand why you might be less familiar with him.

He is...  A fairly reckless, competitive kid who is trying to figure out what it is to be King (or at least, what it will be like for when he takes the throne).  In fact, up until you actually recruit him, he didn't even know his father was of royalty.  In his supports with Corrin, he even considers the possibility of transferring the power he might inherit to Corrin or someone else more suited because he doesn't believe it should be due to divine right that he'd rule Hoshido, but rather strength and virtue.

He's kind of a knucklehead... but a knucklehead with some layers.  He's a knucklehead in the process of discovering what it means to be royalty after believing for most of his life that his father was merely just a "major deal".  And he also genuinely cares about everyone he interacts with, so he's just a real pleasant guy to boot.

What I say about him makes him sound like a typical shonen "coming of age" story, but I swear he's not so cut-and-dry as that.  Nor is he as... irritating.

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40 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

He is one of the more difficult characters to acquire, with you basically needing to use a Rescue to save him from getting himself killed by an army of enemy master ninjas and heroes, so I understand why you might be less familiar with him.

He is...  A fairly reckless, competitive kid who is trying to figure out what it is to be King (or at least, what it will be like for when he takes the throne).  In fact, up until you actually recruit him, he didn't even know his father was of royalty.  In his supports with Corrin, he even considers the possibility of transferring the power he might inherit to Corrin or someone else more suited because he doesn't believe it should be due to divine right that he'd rule Hoshido, but rather strength and virtue.

He's kind of a knucklehead... but a knucklehead with some layers.  He's a knucklehead in the process of discovering what it means to be royalty after believing for most of his life that his father was merely just a "major deal".  And he also genuinely cares about everyone he interacts with, so he's just a real pleasant guy to boot.

What I say about him makes him sound like a typical shonen "coming of age" story, but I swear he's not so cut-and-dry as that.  Nor is he as... irritating.

That does sound interesting. I did get him on my BR run, but I only saw his father support. That does sound interesting, and I did see some of that. I like the "maybe someone else should do it" angle.

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Characters I enjoyed a lot for serious writing reasons include all four of the Nohrian siblings (on both Birthright and Conquest), Niles, Oboro, and Beruka. There are also several other characters I found very funny, like Arthur, Selena, Odin, Azama, and Nina. Overall it's probably my favourite FE cast.

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I like Caeldori as my second favourite FE character in the serie, the support conversations and her character at all are really good.
For me is it fine to see how hard Caeldori is working to reach her goal,  she is knowing she will never be able to reach the perfection, but she is still working at her.
Aside from her perfection is she rounded out with some flaws making her just a kindful human.

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Takumi is pretty cool because his are among a handful of stories characters that don't bend to Corrin's mary-sue pheromones, and for what Etrurian Emperor said about him. Leo's pretty great for reasons the OP mentioned. Oboro is an interesting character who, unlike much of the Fates cast doesn't take her quirks to an egregious level. I like Benny for being such a sweetheart and Arthur, while almost entirely a joke character is a great guy. While I don't think their inclusion was necessary at all from a story perspective, I appreciate the wizened and introspective Awakening trio, specifically Lazlow, who I think really shines through in his supports. Shiro is probably one of my favorite Fates characters for being such a bro. He's a bit of a hot-headed dingus, but he's a really down-to-earth guy with some great interactions (Dudes literally Smokey Bear in his Caeldori support), and one of the few kids who I think stands apart from his father in terms of uniqueness. While Fates certainly has its annoying characters, It also has its good chunk of characters whose supports are heartwarming and fun.

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Nyx. Full stop.

Her backstory is actually tragic, not pretend-tragic, like some of the others, and it is actually a VALID justification for her refusal to really bond with anyone, because she thinks she doesn't deserve love yet still wants it deep down. She's also really nice to the female characters she can support with, especially Mozu.
Her confession and My Room quotes are also the only ones that actually manage to make me tear up a little.

A shame most people only see her as lolicon-bait, though.
She's arguably the most overlooked character from Fates' roster when it comes to popularity.

Edited by DragonFlames
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3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Nyx. Full stop.

Her backstory is actually tragic, not pretend-tragic, like some of the others, and it is actually a VALID justification for her refusal to really bond with anyone, because she thinks she doesn't deserve love yet still wants it deep down. She's also really nice to the female characters she can support with, especially Mozu.
Her confession and My Room quotes are also the only ones that actually manage to make me tear up a little.

A shame most people only see her as lolicon-bait, though.
She's arguably the most overlooked character from Fates' roster when it comes to popularity.

I agree with your evidence, she is a fantastic character. It's a shame that trying to user her as a unit is equivalent to playing Russian roulette. I personally still like Leo more, but Nyx is top 3 for sure in terms of characterization. She's written more on a pre-3DS writing quality, where characters were less tropey and more maturely handled. For the most part. 

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