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Sothis is Azura Written Well


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I'm about 7 chapters into the game (BE run), and so far I'm very impressed by the way Sothis is written. She was the character that worried me the most because she ran the risk of falling into very annoying tropes. I was especially worried that she'd just be there for exposition dumps. But at least thus far I find her very intriguing. The best thing about her is that she does not know what's going on. The fact that she does not know why she is in your head and why certain things are the way they are creates a very interesting dynamic between she and Byleth. They're both in this ride together and are learning things together.

In a way, I feel she is what Azura was trying to be. The problem with Azura was that she knew everything that was going on but refused to tell Corrin for no reason. She became very frustrating for this reason and there was no relationship development between she and Corrin.

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A lot of this game is doing what Fates tried to do but with far better writing. This game does a much better job of getting you to care about the leaders of an upcoming war and feeling the consequences of said war.

Yes, the writing is far from perfect but its a big improvement from recent Fire Emblem stories.

Edited by wissenschaft
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If you remove tje fact that she know everything you don't have Azura. 

The whole story of fates is Azura plans to stop a catastrophe she only know about. It's badly made because they use a lot of magic plot bullshit and Azura plans are not exactly smart, buy the intent of her character is completely different than Sothis's. 

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One thing that also helps is that they brought the mid-chapter narration back, which meant we didn't have to listen to stuff like Frederick or Azura constantly having to start every chapter explaining where they were now.

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Why is everybody still bad mouthing Fate, It like with SAO it just beating a dead horse. talk about what the game does better than other older games, other than  fates or Awakening.Maybe talk about similarities to the older FE games. for example maybe how it handle the trio dynamic of three houses to FE 7 trio. or how Arvis and Eldegard are similar yet are different.

Edited by Mikethemaster2018
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I'm not a big fan actually. Forgetting the loli dragon aspect for a moment, the interaction between you and her is entirely one-way. You have a few false dialogue choices which boils down to either slavishly agreeing with her, or being immediately shut down condescendingly. I'd like to actually have some repartee with the voices in my head rather than blithely obeying them. Funny that I end up making two consecutive posts on the same point, but Byleth is a complete doormat when interacting with her and I hate it.

"I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die? Why do they come to me to die?" "

Edited by Humanoid
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51 minutes ago, Mikethemaster2018 said:

Why is everybody still bad mouthing Fate, It like with SAO it just beating a dead horse. talk about what the game does better than other older games, other than  fates or Awakening.Maybe talk about similarities to the older FE games. for example maybe how it handle the trio dynamic of three houses to FE 7 trio. or how Arvis and Eldegard are similar yet are different.

Just because bashing Fates is tired doesn't necessarily mean it's not appropriate to do so. Fates was the most recent original entry, and in a lot of regards, felt like step down from previous FEs in terms of writing. That's why it gets dragged through the mud, and not other FEs.

It, and Awakening, are the bar for recent Fire Emblem entries. Now that Three Houses is out, and succeeds at a lot of elements those two didn't do as well, especially in the story-telling area, it will get compared to them a lot more.

Edited by Slumber
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Eh personally so far not really. Having recently finished replaying fates before three houses, I can say that Azura is definitely the better of the two at least thus far. Then again the differences between 3H's story and fates's are staggeringly high that I don't think it's even right to compare the two. Not to say one story is better than the other. Just that the themes and ideas each story chooses to explore seem to be so vastly different that it is almost impossible to compare the two in terms of writing quality besides very surface level nitpicks and details. 

40 minutes ago, Slumber said:

It, and Awakening, are the bar for recent Fire Emblem entries. Now that Three Houses is out, and succeeds at a lot of elements those two didn't do as well, especially in the story-telling area, it will get compared to them a lot more.

I somewhat disagree with this notion. Really the only thing I'd say 3H does better than awakening and fates is it's world building which was basically nonexistent in both of those titles. As far as actual writing quality is concerned though well....that's where things get tricky. Cause like I said the difference between what themes and ideas each story explores and how they go about exploring them are vastly different. so comparing their quality is a bit of moot point if you ask me. I will say 3H is better in how tightly packed the world is with the storytelling and how the events of the story aren't as hamfisted(?) as fates was at points. But other than that in regards to which is the better story that's a matter of subjective opinion if you ask me 

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2 hours ago, Slumber said:

Just because bashing Fates is tired doesn't necessarily mean it's not appropriate to do so. Fates was the most recent original entry, and in a lot of regards, felt like step down from previous FEs in terms of writing. That's why it gets dragged through the mud, and not other FEs.

It, and Awakening, are the bar for recent Fire Emblem entries. Now that Three Houses is out, and succeeds at a lot of elements those two didn't do as well, especially in the story-telling area, it will get compared to them a lot more.

Uh what? it getting tiring dude. who really cares if they are the newest or recent games there a total of what 16 main games and a handful of spin off. just comparing just two game to a whole new entry in the franchise sound dumb to me.

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7 hours ago, TrueHit said:

In a way, I feel she is what Azura was trying to be. The problem with Azura was that she knew everything that was going on but refused to tell Corrin for no reason. She became very frustrating for this reason and there was no relationship development between she and Corrin.

I feel like this is route specific. I admit that I only played Birthright but not once in my playthrough did I feel like Azura was holding things back for no good reason. As for relationship development, as much as I love the protagonist of Fates and Birthright as a game (It is what got me into Fire Emblem after all.) I wouldn't say they got relationship development with anyone, at least on the Birthright route. Likewise, I love Sothis and her relationship with Byleth but I'm 11 chapters into the game and I wouldn't say they've had much relationship development either.

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Azura served the following roles:

1. Provide exposition.

2. Give Corrin an excuse to invade Hoshido but don't without being the villain and lower responsibility.

More of a device than a character.

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I pretty much agree with Humanoid. I really don't like Sothis as a character or plot device so far, and I don't like the onesided nature of the interactions. I really hope it gets better - I haven't reached the timeskip yet. 

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15 hours ago, Ottservia said:

I somewhat disagree with this notion. Really the only thing I'd say 3H does better than awakening and fates is it's world building which was basically nonexistent in both of those titles. As far as actual writing quality is concerned though well....that's where things get tricky. Cause like I said the difference between what themes and ideas each story explores and how they go about exploring them are vastly different. so comparing their quality is a bit of moot point if you ask me. I will say 3H is better in how tightly packed the world is with the storytelling and how the events of the story aren't as hamfisted(?) as fates was at points. But other than that in regards to which is the better story that's a matter of subjective opinion if you ask me 

I disagree that the world building is the only thing the game does better than Awakening and Fates. The character writing is so much better it's almost on a different level. To the point where I'd argue if the difference in writing quality is even subjective.

Compare Sothis or Flayn to Nowi, Dorothea to Camilla or Edelgarde to Xander. The improvement in the characterization and character interactions is massive.

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50 minutes ago, EJ107 said:

I disagree that the world building is the only thing the game does better than Awakening and Fates. The character writing is so much better it's almost on a different level. To the point where I'd argue if the difference in writing quality is even subjective.

Compare Sothis or Flayn to Nowi, Dorothea to Camilla or Edelgarde to Xander. The improvement in the characterization and character interactions is massive.

Here’s my problem with that. I find comparing two characters in terms of writing quality to be an almost completely moot point. Cause they’re y’know different characters with their own unique backstories, arcs, and personalities that are deeply intertwined with the world and stories they’re involved in. The only time I find it appropriate to compare characters in this way is to prove a point as to how one character pulls off a certain trope or archeatype better than another (like comparing two tsunderes for instance) but even then you’d have to ignore a lot of the fundamental differences and nuances in how they’re written. Saying one character is better written than another(for the most part anyway) is very similar to saying that I’m a better person because I deal with trauma by smiling through the pain instead of someone else who would deal with it by completely secluding themselves and being anti-social. Both are perfectly understandable forms of dealing with trauma cause different people deal with problems in different ways cause again people are different. Characters are just an abstraction of real people meant to fulfill roles in a story so it’s only natural that logic extends to characters as well.

the same is true of stories. Different stories have different ideas and messages they want to explore and different ways of exploring those ideas. To say one story is better than another when they explore completely different ideas and themes is just not gonna work.

Edited by Ottservia
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One of my favourite little writing touches in the game so far is how even the tutorials are given characterization, because it’s usually a house leader or Sothis explaining things to you. And after a bunch of info screens with her breaking down Demonic Beast mechanics, there’s a tutorial heading that’s just “How do you know all this, anyway?” And she responds with something like “What?? Focus on the task at hand!” A nice little crossover of game UI and characters.

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I don't really understand the comparison... Azura knows everything and uses her knowledge for nothing and without logic, unlike Sothis, who start with nothing, but eventualy gain/regain her memories and actually do things with it. They couldn't be more differents.

20 hours ago, Humanoid said:

I'm not a big fan actually. Forgetting the loli dragon aspect for a moment, the interaction between you and her is entirely one-way. You have a few false dialogue choices which boils down to either slavishly agreeing with her, or being immediately shut down condescendingly. I'd like to actually have some repartee with the voices in my head rather than blithely obeying them. Funny that I end up making two consecutive posts on the same point, but Byleth is a complete doormat when interacting with her and I hate it.

"I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die? Why do they come to me to die?" "

I agree so much, you have no idea.I'm also happy to see I'm not the only person who talk about how annoying it is how Byleth's a doomat with her. Seriously, having haughty loli brat that you can't tell to screw off is not a great feeling. But it's a good thing she die, relatively quickly and disappear.

Midna is a mean piece of snark... at first, because she doesn't care about you, after that then it's just some slight, friendly, snark, not that.
 

20 hours ago, Mikethemaster2018 said:

Why is everybody still bad mouthing Fate, It like with SAO it just beating a dead horse.

Fates and SAO are terrible, and they're examples of what you shouldn't ever do in a story, that's why.
And beating a dead horse is funny. 😛

Edited by B.Leu
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Literally every character in the series is better written than Azura ('cept Xander, who is as terrible as her). So it's not even a contest.
I personally like Sothis a lot, so I'll just go ahead and agree with the OP.

It's just a shame she disappears so early into the plot. I already miss the snarky voice in my head.

13 hours ago, B.Leu said:

And beating a dead horse is funny. 😛

Ain't that the truth? XD

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