In defense of Peri

[Ottservia]

Okay so unpopular opinion time! I don't think Peri is a poorly written character. In fact I believe her to be at least decently well written. I mean she's not as deep, complex, or nuanced as say xander, takumi, or laslow but I wouldn't go so far as to say she's a downright awful character in terms of writing. Now to elaborate, what i consider a good character is character I can understand or relate to. I don't necessarily have to like the character or agree with anything they do or say but I have to at least be able to understand why they are the way they are. Now to be fair there are a lot more contributing factors when judging whether or not a character is good like consistency, role in the story, etc.  but in my opinion that is what separates a good character from a bad one at least in the most basic sense. In the case of Peri I think she meets that criteria. I mean she does have an understandable reason as to why she acts the way she does.

She witnessed her mother's death at the hands of one of her servants at a very young age and because she was so young all the servants just kind of looked the same to her so she didn't really know which one to enact revenge on so she she just started killing all of them. It can be inferred through that she just subconsciously associates her servants with the death of her mother so even when she more or less got over the death she continued to do it because of that reason. It then becomes a habit because her father knew and just never stopped her. In fact in a way he encouraged her behavior by just replacing the servants that were lost.  Killing at that point just became a game and something she finds fun. Speaking of her father, we can infer based on what we know from this backstory that he probably never really spent a whole lot of time raising peri which is why she acts so childlike. With Peri, it's important to note that she, mentally speaking, is still a child which is pretty obvious considering her speech pattern, mannerisms, rash judgements, her simplistic worldview, and excessive whining when she doesn't get her way. 

Again I don't have to agree with Peri's actions, motivations, words, etc. but I at least need to understand them and from what we know about her backstory I do understand why she is the way she is. Now that's not to say there are flaws with the way Peri is written. For one her supports with xander are extremely inconsistent with his character and contradicts a lot of things he stands for. Her support with odin makes little sense and is contradictory with her character. Really the main issue with peri that I can see is that she's inconsistent and her role in the story tends to contradict a lot of what we know about other characters like xander and corrin.

However even with all that I can't say she's a terribly written character because again she has a good reason for why she is the she is and with a few exceptions she does remain fairly consistent with what's established about her character. Though those are just my thoughts feel free to disagree.

[Magical Glace]

The thing that makes Peri really bad isn't so much Peri herself as it is the stuff she does to everyone else just by existing.  You brought up Xander and he's easily the biggest example, but there's also stuff like Leo being like "eh, whatever" about explaining why she can't kill innocent people at the end of her supports with him.  The fact anyone tolerates her at all is extremely baffling and doesn't make any actual sense.  

She can have all the explanation for why she's crazy that she wants, but that doesn't change how much damage she does to everyone else by the moral dissonance in how she's treated.  She'd be on the death row in any sane universe.  That's why I, at least, find her awful.

[Sasori]

I think Peri's tragic backstory explains why she is the way that she is, but I don't think it does much to justify Peri's inclusion into the game. The reason I have a problem with Peri is that she makes every character in the game look much worse then they should be. They should't be this comfertable when she talks about looking for people to kill or any other problematic aspects of Peri.

Backstory or no backstory someone as unstable as Peri has no place in any good guy army. She still should't be allowed to wield any sharp weapons and she would still need help, rather then a spear in her hand and orders to kill.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Sasori

[indigoasis]

I guess Peri isn't exactly a poorly written character, per se, but the way her dynamic is executed isn't the best either. The concept of her character might be fun to mess around with in other stories that are better suited for it. Horror is an excellent example. She could be a character that discreetly kills everyone within the group, one by one. Her behavior would have to change in public and around other group members so she doesn't raise suspicion. Her reasons for it could be because of how she was raised, as was... somewhat indirectly mentioned-ish. 

Ideas aside, can Peri's upbringing justify her behavior? The answer may vary depending on who you ask, so I won't divulge here. But if psychiatric wards existed in FE, you could probably find her in one.

[NinjaMonkey]

43 minutes ago, Sasori said:

Backstory or no backstory someone as unstable as Peri has no place in any good guy army.

You are probably the first person I've seen describe the Nohrian army as "the good guys". Even if we ignore Peri, we still have Camilla and Niles in the Nohrian army, neither of which I'd describe as "good".

Quote

She still should't be allowed to wield any sharp weapons and she would still need help, rather then a spear in her hand and orders to kill.

She's good at killing people. What other qualities does a soldier need, apart from being able to follow orders?

[Kurrin]

I too like Peri's character. She's one of the more developed retainers across both paths. I especially find her relationship with Xander very interesting in that it characterizes more than just the two of them. As many have noticed, Nohr isn't exactly the nicest place to live. Upon looking for a new retainer, what stood out to Xander was that Peri was an extremely capable fighter. Unfortunately, she's too extreme, but this didn't seem to matter when it really should. It's a great example of how horrendous life is in Nohr. This is their normal.

Peri's problem is that she suffers a similar situation to Camilla: they're both great characters, but their presentation gives them a bad image, for one reason or another, and a lot of people are too stubborn/ignorant/whatever-you-want-to-call-it to look past the crazy and notice that there's a lot underneath.

That being said, crazy is still crazy and that doesn't create a safe environment to be around. Peri's actions as an unrepentant killer should be understood, but not excused. However, due to the combination of the time period and the current state of Nohr, it doesn't look like she'd be getting real help any time soon. The best thing she currently has going are her supports, but gameplay and story segregation is a thing so there's only so much going for her until the epilogue where she eventually gets better, so that's good I guess.

[Ottservia]

1 hour ago, Glaceon Mage said:

The thing that makes Peri really bad isn't so much Peri herself as it is the stuff she does to everyone else just by existing.  You brought up Xander and he's easily the biggest example, but there's also stuff like Leo being like "eh, whatever" about explaining why she can't kill innocent people at the end of her supports with him.  The fact anyone tolerates her at all is extremely baffling and doesn't make any actual sense.  

She can have all the explanation for why she's crazy that she wants, but that doesn't change how much damage she does to everyone else by the moral dissonance in how she's treated.  She'd be on the death row in any sane universe.  That's why I, at least, find her awful.

yep I agree with this and it's probably the weakest aspect of her character. Honestly Peri is just one of those characters that suffer the most from the "everyone marries everyone" support system because with a character like hers in a cast of mostly morally good people there are only so many interactions one can write for them before it starts getting repetitive. However I think that this issue is overstated because really not everyone is okay with her behavior and try to "fix" her and the support is usually fine until the end where they just sort of say they were wrong for no particular reason. Honestly though I have no problem with her being Xander's retainer it's how she got to be his retainer that bothers me.

1 hour ago, Sasori said:

Backstory or no backstory someone as unstable as Peri has no place in any good guy army. She still should't be allowed to wield any sharp weapons and she would still need help, rather then a spear in her hand and orders to kill.

I mean as ninjamonkey and kurrin say this is nohr we're talking about you know the place where hans is an army general. I mean if she's good at her job and follows orders I don't think they really care all too much. and with xander watching her I doubt there's too much to worry about. 

38 minutes ago, AlmondJuice said:

Horror is an excellent example. She could be a character that discreetly kills everyone within the group, one by one. Her behavior would have to change in public and around other group members so she doesn't raise suspicion. Her reasons for it could be because of how she was raised, as was... somewhat indirectly mentioned-ish. 

I honestly don't like this idea because that would sort of imply that peri actually knows that killing people is wrong which as established she doesn't. Like I said she has the mentality of child and because of that her view on what is right and wrong is very simplistic. Killing to her is just a hobby or coping mechanism. Unlike hans, peri doesn't know she's doing anything wrong all she knows and cares about is that its something that brings her joy for whatever reason. She doesn't really kill her allies because well she views them as friends that are kind to her and she knows them well. She has no problem killing strangers because she has no reason not to that's just it.

44 minutes ago, AlmondJuice said:

Ideas aside, can Peri's upbringing justify her behavior?

as @Kurrin says Peri's backstory DOES NOT by any means excuse her behavior but it does explain her behavior and that is the most important aspect when writing a character. Like I said you don't have to like Peri or agree with anything she says or does you just have to understand it for her to be at the very least a decently written character. Peri is not a likable character but to me she is a fairly well written one there's a difference.

[Sasori]

1 hour ago, NinjaMonkey said:

You are probably the first person I've seen describe the Nohrian army as "the good guys". Even if we ignore Peri, we still have Camilla and Niles in the Nohrian army, neither of which I'd describe as "good".

She's good at killing people. What other qualities does a soldier need, apart from being able to follow orders?

Well I would't call the Nohrian army good guys, but the game attempts (attempts being the keyword) to portray Corrin and Xander as upstanding moral people who hate needless killing. Its a bit hard to take them seriously when they condemn the actions of certain characters when they allow Peri in their army. 

 

[Nym]

I think it mostly due to her supports and her place at Xander's side.

I don't like her either but if there's one thing I find it strange is how she even manage to be Xander's retainer. I can understand that Xander was impressed by her strength but anyone with common sense wouldn't trust someone who can't even tell the difference between killing as a duty and when to show mercy, especially if you trust them with YOUR LIFE.

And another thing, if Charlotte in Xander' support with her had to change her behaviour because she needed to be a good example for the common soldier, then how come Peri is even his retainer in the first place? That's some big hypocrisy right there.

Let's not talk about Xander' support with her, when she thinks she has the qualities to be the Queen of Nohr.

[indigoasis]

3 hours ago, Otts486 said:

I honestly don't like this idea because that would sort of imply that peri actually knows that killing people is wrong which as established she doesn't. Like I said she has the mentality of child and because of that her view on what is right and wrong is very simplistic. Killing to her is just a hobby or coping mechanism. Unlike hans, peri doesn't know she's doing anything wrong all she knows and cares about is that its something that brings her joy for whatever reason. She doesn't really kill her allies because well she views them as friends that are kind to her and she knows them well. She has no problem killing strangers because she has no reason not to that's just it.

But I... damn.

I'm really not good at coming up with ideas. 

[Rose482]

I feel like i might be one of the few people that likes Peri, i mean yes she's not a good person if you want to think about it like that, but really if it's just a game in the end of the day, i really won't care if a character was a good person or not in order to like them.

[SerCaladran]

Peri is an interesting character poorly implimented. There are ways of bettering her, and really the only one who pulls it off well is Laslow.

 

That being said, why does Laslow just seem to make better people of almost EVERYONE he interacts with? Including Peri. Holy crap, he manages to nearly 180 her to the point where Peri worries about Soleil in one of the DLC maps. He does something similar to Nyx. Heck, he ropes even the stoic Azura into being a bit more free-spirited, and helps Felicia to be a bit less awkward. 

Laslow, man. The guy that everyone just seems to build off of. 

[Ottservia]

31 minutes ago, SerCaladran said:

That being said, why does Laslow just seem to make better people of almost EVERYONE he interacts with? Including Peri. Holy crap, he manages to nearly 180 her to the point where Peri worries about Soleil in one of the DLC maps. He does something similar to Nyx. Heck, he ropes even the stoic Azura into being a bit more free-spirited, and helps Felicia to be a bit less awkward. 

Laslow, man. The guy that everyone just seems to build off of. 

you see this is why Laslow/Inigo is one of my all time favorite fire emblem characters. Seriously in fates this man is f*cking magical like as you said he brings the best of almost everyone of his support partners. Really the only bad supports of his that I can think of is Orochi and Hana and that's only because they're kind of boring. Hell he even makes camilla and corrin into a somewhat likable and interesting characters F*cking camilla and corrin like geez. I mean he was already a pretty decent character in awakening but seriously one of the devs must have really liked him when he was brought over to fates. Seriously I can go on all day on how much I love Inigo but that's a topic for another time.

 

On 4/19/2018 at 4:52 PM, Kurrin said:

Peri's problem is that she suffers a similar situation to Camilla: they're both great characters, but their presentation gives them a bad image, for one reason or another, and a lot of people are too stubborn/ignorant/whatever-you-want-to-call-it to look past the crazy and notice that there's a lot underneath.

agreed and this is why I hate it when people call characters like peri, camilla, or severa bad or cliche characters because they're not. While yes, they do belong to overused archetypes and gimmicks, There is an underlying reason as to why they act the way they do and their backstories are nuanced enough into their personalities that it makes sense why their personalities are the way they are. Ugh!! you know its this kind of crap that makes me want to tear my hair out. I mean I have no issue with whether or not you like a character but please for the love of naga do not say a character is poorly written because you don't like them or without really seeing everything the character has to offer. Its just so close minded to me. ugh I could go on but you get the idea.

[eclipse]

Peri's great.

Great for world-building, that is.  Her issue IMO is that she has too many concepts going on at once.  There's so many different ways her trauma could've manifested itself, like being able to cook with everything except tomatoes, because she equates tomato sauce with her mother's corpse (this would make her support with Leo FUN).  Or have Xander take her in as a retainer, after finding out that her father was unable to properly care for her after her mother's death.  Or just have her yell when someone who she thinks is a servant disobeys her (as opposed to actually killing them).

But instead we got some sort of weird childlike killer that just doesn't make sense with the rest of the cast.

[NekoKnight]

As others have said, the issue is less the concept of the character, rather why she is allowed to be with the 'heroes'. Xander is somehow more critical of Laslow's womanizing and Charlotte trying to seduce people (maybe Xander is just a prude?) than he is concerned with his personal retainer who is an active serial killer. Corrin is a messiah figure who is very against needless killing but his response to Peri is "I'll just hire servants who won't die as easily when my wife gets stabby". Poor Felicia.

And this is not "reflective of the state of Nohr" as some people suggest. Hans and Iago are hated by the protagonist party for their needless brutality. The only playable characters who are comparable are Niles and  Beruka, and while they have shady pasts, they're stable enough to only hurt people who are threats as opposed to random innocents.