So About Byleths Father, Jeralt...

[Hawkwing]

I haven't seen this topic made yet, but he have information that Byleth has a father, Jeralt, and that he's the leader of a band of mercenaries. Since this was only mentioned at the beginning of the trailer, we don't have much information about how they're involved in the game yet. And while Fire Emblem doesn't have the best track record of keeping parents of the protagonists alive, cliches are subverted all the time.

So, do you think Jeralt will follow the grand tradition, or will he be among the few to avoid such a fate? Will he be playable? Involved in the story at all? Will it be the players choices and actions that determine his fate? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions.

[HappyHawlucha.]

I'm getting heavy Mycen vibes from him, I'm pretty sure he is taking care of Byleth for someone's ulterior gain, so maybe he takes an absence after Byleth starts teaching and comes back with his mercenaries later on and becomes playable, much like our guy Mycen.

[Stroud]

Would be pretty lame if he just dies. Might be playable might be not. I would not mind him not taking too much of a role. Just let the daddy life and be a nice support. 

[omegaxis1]

If he does die, then just as he looks similar to Greil according to others, he dies after we get to know him. Thing about FE parents, barring Hector, Eliwood, and Sigurd, depending on the timing of their death, you really don't feel that much for them. 

A prime example of a wasted death that tries to be nice, but hardly impacts the player is Mikoto's death. You meet her, and then she dies. Wow. I knew her for 5 minutes, and she dies. Like I'm supposed to care about that? Even on her second death in Revelations, it's hardly impactful.

Now, Emmeryn is handled a little better, but her death, in itself, is not as impactful. That's because what hits us isn't Emmeryn's death, but the reaction of Chrom and Lissa experiencing her death. That along with the next chapter that has Awakening's more sympathetic character, along with the song "Don't Speak Her Name" ends up making Emmeryn be a lot more feelsy, but had we gotten to know Emmeryn a little more, cared about her a bit more, at least for another few chapters, we could have REALLY been struck by her death. 

Greil's death does hold significance because we know Greil from the very beginning, where he is the leader of the Greil Mercenaries, Ike's father, etc. We see how great of a man he is, where he is also someone that is rather noble-hearted. And the decision of helping Elincia was ultimately decided by him, even though he stated that the choice was removed from their hands because of what they were doing. And we see how strong he was when he took on Petrine, one of Daein's Four Riders, and then the Black Knight shows up, and then Greil goes off to confront him alone when everyone else was asleep. Though the cutscene where he is defeated by the Black Knight has disappointing voice acting, it still did hit us. And made even worse when Greil speaks his last words to Ike.

His death also hits us harder when we also see how other characters are like in response to his death, such as Mist, Titania, and Shinon. Mist hits us the fastest because it's immediately after. Titania's follows soon when Ike sees her grieving by herself. And Shinon's actually hit me too because of how the guy got drunk and ranted at Ike at how he's not in Greil's league, which threw me off guard because this is the same racist asshole that we've known for some time, and now we're seeing how vulnerable he was at that moment, and really shows that even Shinon held immense respect for Greil.

[vanguard333]

He's going to die at the hands of a peasant mob with a pitchfork. Then he'll be brought back only to lose his memory, at which point he'll become the protagonist of both this game and the next two.

…Oh; Jeralt. Never mind. 

[Maimishou]

We see him arrive with Byleth and the others at the academy in trailer. I think he'll be with us up until we get to the academy and then he'll leave to do his own thing. So my guess is that he won't die but he won't be around for the story or playable either.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Maimishou

[Zangetsu]

He gonna die

 

Fire Emblem hasn't exactly been creative with their tropes

Edited February 17, 2019 by Zangetsu

[omegaxis1]

10 minutes ago, Zangetsu said:

Fire Emblem hasn't exactly been creative with their tropes

Eliwood?

[Zangetsu]

1 minute ago, omegaxis1 said:

Eliwood?

Barte too if we gonna go that route, but if I'm being completely fair Fire Emblem isn't exactly the only series or franchise that this problem

[omegaxis1]

Just now, Zangetsu said:

Barte too if we gonna go that route, but if I'm being completely fair Fire Emblem isn't exactly the only series or franchise that this problem

In regards to Lords, though. Eliwood is the ONLY father of a Lord that didn't die. And this was before Eliwood was a lord himself.

[Zangetsu]

1 minute ago, omegaxis1 said:

In regards to Lords, though. Eliwood is the ONLY father of a Lord that didn't die. And this was before Eliwood was a lord himself.

Sure & Eliwood is certainly better for it. Even though I'll never use that as an argument  on why he's the best lord in the series.

[Cysx]

The one thing I'll say is that there's an assumption that Byleth's powers come from his mother, when I see little reason to think Jeralt doesn't have them too; time rewinding sounds pretty useful in becoming the successful mercenary he seems to be.

Also I don't want him to just die off because that's boring. But I said that about Mikoto as well.

[Lynsanity]

He's going to throw himself off a cliff in order to die as a martyr. But he'll survive it with no explanation and be recruitable in a Paralogue chapter, now with amnesia and a speech impediment. Also the player will be able to romance him.

[Azz]

I would like for him to not die since it would be a nice twist if the MC's parent were not to die in an FE game. Literally, the only main lord's parent who survives is Roy's, so it would be a nice change.

In the unlikely chance he doesn't die, I can see him being the Gotoh of the game, in that he joins super late.

Also, he's definitely not Byleth's biological father, or he just so happened to get it on with some kind of magical woman of some kind because their father-child resemblance is 0

Edited February 17, 2019 by ΔZZ

[Etrurian emperor]

Oh he won't die. Jerald will be keeping a letter from his wife to explain to Bayleth and the player he's not their actual dad and can thus be safely romanced. 

[silverserpent]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Oh he won't die. Jerald will be keeping a letter from his wife to explain to Bayleth and the player he's not their actual dad and can thus be safely romanced. 

No. I would sell my game in a heartbeat if it came to that. Not every character has to be romanceable.

Even then, pretty sure Jeralt will die mid-game, quite possibly even during whatever event sparks the war into fu swing.

[YingofDarkness]

He will leave at first, but then join you as a Jeigan or Gotoh later once the story gets going. He will then die towards the end of the game too make you feel bad.

[Lewyn]

Jeralt will be the man that raises you.  An very manly guy, super tough, incredible fighter with a heart of gold.  However later on you will find out he is not your biological father, an evil king or emperor will come to you and say "Byleth, I am your father".  You will be shocked cause throughout the game you have witnessed this individual commit atrocity after atrocity and comes across as a cruel selfish conquerer.  

[Enduin]

I very much dislike Jeralt's design, so I hope either he turns on us or refuses to abandon the church so we have to fight him. 

As a Mercenary leader with seemingly close ties to the Church it wouldn't be unrealistic that he was contracted to do a lot of dirty work for them over the years if they are in fact up to now good. And seeing how Jeralt and the Byleths look nothing alike he may not be your real daddy anyway, though I'd prefer if he was. Maybe he was contracted to kill your real family and kept you, or some other cliche, seeing at it seems we are quite special with our connection to Sothis and all that.

[Nanios]

Greil 2 or a green unit lol

[Kiran_]

I think realistically he'll probably die.

But I really hope they keep him alive and he joins in the second half of the game (I'm just assuming there will be a second half after the school portion). I have a feeling he's not actually our father, but like a step-father or someone who took us in as a baby and that will either be revealed up front as a way to explain the vast difference in looks, or be a "surprise" late in the game (or as his dying breath).

 

[Shadow Mir]

I think he's likely to die, and rather early at that. After all, other than Eliwood (though this was before his tenure as a lord), every other FE protagonist had their parent die at some point in the story, assuming they weren't already dead before the story began (the only one I can think of that WASN'T early was Rudolf, and maybe Elbert)).

[Dandy Druid]

I think he's going to die, but it would be nice to see him live not because we need more daddies

If he does live, I wonder what his role in the story would be. Will he also become a professor at the academy? Will he continue to do mercenary work?

[Kori]

If he's our biological father, I'm betting on his death. If the speculations are right and he's not (though the apparent lack of family ressemblance might not mean anything; Ike looked like his mom), he'll probably stick around at least long enough for an explanation.

If he does die, though, I'd expect some people in his mercenary group to resurface sooner or later. We'll be too busy teaching to succeed him, so either somebody else does and we run into the whole band later, or they disband and we'll maybe get to recruit a few of them at some point, when we start taking the students out of the school.

[Zhilai]

My two cents is that he'll get killed off once the game moves past the academy arc/act 1 of the story to raise the stakes. Who knows, IntSys seems to want to shake up things with TH, maybe he'll just spend the entire story doing mercenary things on one of the other continents and show up at the ending.