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Edelgard and the goddess seem remarkably similar.


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I'm going to make a wild claim, and try to call the theme of the story. I think it will be about power corrupting people.

Let's look at the trailer.

Spoiler

Firstly, there is the dramatic irony of the "mother figure" of a goddess standing unfazed by the horrors of war, and how she doesn't seem to care about the plight of the mortals. I think this could be showing how power can corrupt anyone into apathy, even one as revered as a literal goddess.

Next, we cut to Edelgard in a training mission. She seems enthusiastic to get into the fight, with the quote "go ahead, give me orders. It's time to measure your worth as an instructor." seeming to imply that she sees the fight as a positive thing. We then see Dimitri ad Claude in seemingly the exact same situation, but with "kingdom soldier"s as the enemy. Perhaps juxtaposing the training battle with a real war?

However, we then hear Edelgard say "such a brutal, irrational world we live in", condemning war. To me, this looks like Edelgard is paralleling the goddess here. Saying that she doesn't want to fight, but when on the battlefield her morals break down.

Next, she says "some believe the crests, tokens of the goddess's power, are necessary to maintain order. But they're wrong, teacher. The crests are to blame." Firstly, this tells us about the 21 magical maguffins of this game. However, more importantly, it cements the irony a third time. The crests are supposed to create order, but fighting over them causes chaos.

Then there's an instrumental portion that shows off the fact that you can move around your own land in full 3D, like Tokyo Mirage Sessions. However, there aren't any major story details here. The only real thing of note is that you fill the role of her teacher.

Then, we return to the story. We see the goddess hugging a falchion-esque sword (again, it's that irony). Then there are a few battles with the goddess singing sombre music in the background. We also see a man who looks to be a boss. This looks to show how cruel war can be on a large scale, even when it looks like the going is good on the small scale.

Edelgard then says something very interesting: "do you dare to walk this path with me? One misstep, and we fall to our ruin." This makes it sound like she's the one initiating the war. This is also linked to a literal iron maiden.

She then says "So take your first step (avatar crits) it's now or never!" At this point, Edelgard and the avatar are both fully involved in the war, and are determined to win, just for the sake of winning.

Then, after you crit, the music stops and we cut to the goddess sleeping, unaware of the horrors going on around her.

At this point, we see the moment that really convinced me of this theory. Edelgard speaks from the perspective of the sleeping goddess: "I will return here someday, my teacher. Promise me that you won't forget me." and the trailer ends.

Another major detail is the fact that Edelgard is an axe wielder. The only other lords who wield non-sword melee weapons are Ephraim and Hector, both characters who are very eager to get into a fight! Meanwhile, all the other female lords (except maybe Lucina) are fighting for peace and want the war to stop as quickly as possible. This idea of war for peace, and how flawed it is, could well be the driving force of the story as a whole.

So here is my prediction for the story.

It starts off with the Edelgard being involved in training battles, and also defending herself against some bandits. However, she doesn't like the fighting, and fights only if self defence. Eventually, she ends up defending against a crest-holder, and taking the crest. At this point, she decides to not only protect herself, but also protect others using her newfound power. This eventually causes the story to a larger and larger scale, as Edelgard makes larger and larger battles for the sake of peace. The other two houses join her side after being saved. This eventually comes to a peak when Edelgard kills the goddess and takes over the country. However, unlike most fire emblems, where that would be the end of the story, there is a new plot twist. Edelgard does NOT produce order by killing the goddess. Instead, her soldiers sow chaos by abusing their power and killing innocents in her name. Like Sanaki but she's the protagonist. She then has to restore order by fighting her own army and tearing apart the very unity she created. The story eventually ends with order being restored, as laws are created to prevent people from abusing their power.

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That, or maybe IS is doing the thing where Edelgard and the goddess are related?  Probably Mother/Daughter, but I always thought that twist in Fates was interesting, just poorly executed (since you had the whole "choose your side because of family" dynamic going on, and then it turns out you aren't related to any of them, but I digress), so if they are going with this angle, I'd be tentatively excited.  Edelgard causing more problems than solving by killing a god(dess) would be VERY interesting though, since the impression I got from the trailer is that she was going to be kind of dangerously motivated?  And maybe even a radical thinking in-universe, since she wholeheartedly believes that these crests that everyone seems to put a lot of stock into should be destroyed; that sounds like a really good way to set up conflict.

However, looking at how they designed the Goddess, and looking back at how Fire Emblem usually treats gods and goddesses, it's more likely that this goddess is going to be a Naga/Mila sort of figure, and that bone-whip-fire guy is going to warship the War God of Evil Darkness (trademarked) because that's IS' comfort zone.  STILL if we got IS breaking their habits and tropes, that would make for a really good story.  I still think though that, with all the ironies you mentioned, that Edelgard could very well likely fall into the same traps as that goddess, and it would be a "following in her mother's  footsteps" sort of angle if they were related.

Also, I don't think the probably dragon lady sleeping on the chair is the same person as the goddess figure holding the Falchion-like blade - more likely, the girl sleeping on the chair is a Tiki-like figure.

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Im cautiously pessimistic about the plot of this game, since all the things said in the trailer have yet to be fully or even REMOTELY expanded upon due to the game not even being out, that and the looming vagueness in the trailer about what the "crests" or what they define as order and chaos.

basically, i think your reading into this a little to hard @The_antithesis and that you're filling in holes yourself, to create what is basically a fanfic. honestly, the ideas aren't bad, but edelgard looking like not-mila doesn't mean anything, i feel anyway. 

yeah probably was a bit of a dick there, but i can't really think of any other way to explain how i feel about this. anyways, im just hoping for an actual goddamned STORY from the game, as opposed to other pieces of media. 

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32 minutes ago, (s)ad touch said:

to create what is basically a fanfic

Oh Naga damn it. Now I just look silly, don't I?

Anyway, I think I'll continue to be optimistic about the story, on the premise that I may end up really happy if I actually end up calling it!

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was there any confirmation on important lady being the goddess, because I didn't get any of that from the trailer, important lady was likely the one speaking about the goddess, and she looks nothing like the goddess in the mural, my guess as to her role, would be more in line with high priestess of the religion and not the goddess herself.

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I know a lot fanfics that are bad, but geez, I like this so called 'fanfic' of his. What's so wrong about being fanficy ?
Food for thought, lot of fanfics, fanficy ideas or predictions about Fates people had were better than the final product, and continue to be better.

Kind of have a problem with the stigma fanfictions have, it's understandable, since, most are bad quality, but still.

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4 minutes ago, B.Leu said:

I know a lot fanfics that are bad, but geez, I like this so called 'fanfic' of his. What's so wrong about being fanficy ?
Food for thought, lot of fanfics, fanficy ideas or predictions about Fates people had were better than the final product, and continue to be better.

Kind of have a problem with the stigma fanfictions have, it's understandable, since, most are bad quality, but still.

A little off topic, but I actually really don't think fanfics deserve the reps they got - sure, they can be filled to the brim with wish fulfillment, and poorly implemented wish fulfillment at that, but that doesn't mean there aren't good fanfics out there.  Personally, I like to look at fanfics like...folklore?  Or mythology.  Ik that sounds weird, but it's taking a story you heard, and adding your own spin on it defines folklore and mythology.  So I think people should look at it more like that - people's own spins on a story that they heard, and making it into something of there own (sometimes it doens't fit, but hey, natural selection exists within fanworks too, so)

More on topic, @thecrimsonflash brings up a good point that the lady figure might not be a goddess - I at least made that assumption due to her design similarities to Valentia Mila and Awakening Naga.  However, it's possible that she, while likely having an association with the goddess, may not be her herself?  With the design similarities @The_antithesis brought up, I'm going to propose that she could be the Queen of Eldegard's kingdom (since Edelgard is likely to be a princess).  So, Edelgard's mother.  No way to confirm this outside of design similarities, but it could be very interesting from a story standpoint, since if this woman has faith in the gods and the church, that would put her in direct opposition of Edelgard, and I don't think we've really seen political in fighting in a Fire Emblem game - or at least, nothing really outside of war flavoring (FE6) and as far as I know, nothing within your character's own kingdom (Excluding Zofia, since Alm is more of the main character than Celica is, and he had no idea what was going on in the political sphere; and even then with Celica as a protagonist, she never got involved politically either until like...the end of the game).  So a game focusing on religious headbutting with a family that shares different opinions would be fascinating since it could lead into flatout civil war.  And maybe Edelgard could get one of the other two houses to side with her, try to get the other, and find out it's already on her mother's side.  This is p farfetched, and only really going off of the designs of the two characters and Edelgard's seemingly radical ideas, so it's not likely, but I still think it could be a really interesting turn of events.

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Hmmm... this is a pretty good analysis, and an interesting way to analyze- linking the quotes and the clips shown. I haven't seen others do that with this trailer.

I think your story predictions to be good guesses.

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I think the important woman from the trailer is actually a descendant of Seiros, the prophet who is mentioned in the legend at the beginning of the trailer. Mainly because she has a sword that looks like the one the woman who is probably Seiros is holding in the mural of the Goddess. Either that or she could be Seiros herself if it turns out Seiros is a Manakete. Either way, I really doubt she's the goddess.

Edited by Troublesome Knight
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16 hours ago, thecrimsonflash said:

was there any confirmation on important lady being the goddess, because I didn't get any of that from the trailer, important lady was likely the one speaking about the goddess, and she looks nothing like the goddess in the mural, my guess as to her role, would be more in line with high priestess of the religion and not the goddess herself.

She looks like Mila from Valentia, and has the same hair color as Naga/Tiki from Awakening on my screen.

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5 hours ago, IonicAmalgam said:

She looks like Mila from Valentia, and has the same hair color as Naga/Tiki from Awakening on my screen.

that means nothing in the grand scheme of things, godhood is not decided by hair color, if that were the case jill could be considered a goddess.

and, general looks don't really account for much else, I've been noting for a while, that the mural is the best idea for the goddess's looks that we have, the hair is way off between the two.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mural was never meant to be realistic portrait of the actual character. Remember in FE3, the mural depicted Naga as giant blond man killing dragons with a sword? It couldn't be further from the truth. Barring from the non-canon drawing tome in Heroes, FE series hasn't have anything like a camera yet.

Furthermore, the trailer clearly state the goddess doesn't live with her people (watching over Foldin from her kingdom on the sky), the mural was very unlikely created in the same generation with Saint Seros, so the artist was based on oral tradition and their imagination when depicting the goddess.

 

On the other hand, the trailer strongly indicated the woman was the goddess, not only both wear the same flower, they alternated the mural and the woman when narrator was addressing the background of goddess.

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On 6/18/2018 at 4:23 AM, Soleater said:

A little off topic, but I actually really don't think fanfics deserve the reps they got - sure, they can be filled to the brim with wish fulfillment, and poorly implemented wish fulfillment at that, but that doesn't mean there aren't good fanfics out there.  Personally, I like to look at fanfics like...folklore?  Or mythology.  Ik that sounds weird, but it's taking a story you heard, and adding your own spin on it defines folklore and mythology.  So I think people should look at it more like that - people's own spins on a story that they heard, and making it into something of there own (sometimes it doens't fit, but hey, natural selection exists within fanworks too, so)

More on topic, @thecrimsonflash brings up a good point that the lady figure might not be a goddess - I at least made that assumption due to her design similarities to Valentia Mila and Awakening Naga.  However, it's possible that she, while likely having an association with the goddess, may not be her herself?  With the design similarities @The_antithesis 

I don't think we've really seen political in fighting in a Fire Emblem game - or at least, nothing really outside of war flavoring (FE6) and as far as I know, nothing within your character's own kingdom (Excluding Zofia, since Alm is more of the main character than Celica is, and he had no idea what was going on in the political sphere; and even then with Celica as a protagonist, she never got involved politically either until like...the end of the game).  So a game focusing on religious headbutting with a family that shares different opinions would be fascinating since it could lead into flatout civil war. 

I don't think this is an aversion to fanfics in general, rather, this thread is speculation that relies too heavily on invented facts to create a theory.

I don't think the dragon crown lady is the goddess either, and suspect she's the head of the church and either Seiros (the fact that Seiros' hair and face are hidden in the mural makes it seem like they're using it to hide the fact that she's the same person of legend) or a descendent of her.

As for political infighting, we have Zofia and Crimea in Radiant Dawn.  So far the conflicts have just been about power, so it would be interesting if there was an ideological battle going on with different factions.

---

Re: OP

I think the story idea has promise. I think it's a bit grimdark for her followers to start slaughtering Innocents in her name, but I could see a point made about the country destabalizing because you have a bunch of groups that never got along suddenly forced to serve one ruler.

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