How can Lucina use the Falchion?

[Glass_of_Milk]

In Shadow Dragon they mentioned that only men are capable of using the Falchion.

[Ottservia]

Looks like Naga has gotten a little more progressive over the last 2000 years

[Von Ithipathachai]

The cynic in me says to chalk this up to a continuity error.

However, it should be noted that the Holy Weapons of Jugdral also appear in Awakening.  Unlike in Genealogy of the Holy War, where they can only be used by people with Major Holy Blood, they can be used by anyone with sufficiently high Weapon Ranks in Awakening, albeit with drastically reduced stat boosts.  It is believed the wielder restrictions simply wore away over the millennia.

[Eltosian Kadath]

I am curious if you have a quote from Shadow Dragon to back that up, but it does match with the impression I get that sexism in the era added myths about how the holy blood of Marth (and its link to the Falchion) that weren't strictly true.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Referring to this line?:

Malledus:
“You are Anri’s last male descendant, the only one who can wield Falchion. You must find the blade that was taken, and put an end to Doluna and its misguided Manakete rulers.”

First, it at this time it's assumed Elice could very well be dead. Second, being male is not outright said to be a prerequisite of Falchion use. Third, though Midia and Macedon and Caeda existed in FE1, it's still very much a male-dominated world where women probably shouldn't be frontline fighters, mostly clerics and a rare mage.

 

As for FE11, where Elice could technically Reclass to a Sword-using class, yet Marth still has exclusive Falchion use, there is one simple explanation. Keep Marth the main character special by making the Falchion exclusively his. Not like Elice is likely to be used for anything but Aum and maybe a Heal or Warp, she is extremely underleveled with no Str to speak of.

[Alastor15243]

The Fire Emblem is also now something that needs to be kept apart instead of something that needs to be kept together, and dragon degeneration/sterility isn't a thing anymore except that dragons still need to use dragonstones for some reason despite the entire point of that being avoiding the effects of dragon degeneration.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is "they didn't care".

Edited April 18, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Lightchao42]

It might have been the intent that Falchion could only be used by men when the first game was released, but the answer now is "Falchion could always be used by women, Archaneans just weren't very progressive and thought women couldn't wield it."

[Acacia Sgt]

I'm pretty sure this has been asked before, and someone brought up that the male line was added in localization. It's not there in the Japanese script. Wish I could find that old thread.

That said, regardless of the conditions, the blood bind was changed with Naga and the First Exalt. One important detail to keep in mind is that Gotoh was the one who blood binded Falchion to Anri. The fact Lucina's sibling can use the sword shows the conditions are much more lax than Falchion pre-Nagabind or the binds of Jugdralian times. It took two thousand years but they finally learned you don't make it so it's just one person per generation!

Edited April 18, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Eltosian Kadath]

The fact that Owain can't use it despite the brand makes me think this is a holy blood like scenario, where only one each generation has the strong holy blood to wield it, and the single male heirs (Marius, Cornellius, and Marth) just so happened to be the wielders of Falchion, leading to the wrong conclusion.

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, right, forgot about Owain.

Regardless, there's still that detail regarding Lucina's sibling. At this point I'm pretty sure we can rule that the Falchion is... in some way... alive. So the answer is clearly Falchion is a sword scorned because Owain only has eyes for the Mystletainn. 

When you consider the Loptyr and Forseti tomes... it ain't a wild speculation.

[Nym]

I might be wrong, but wasn't it explained in Awakening (in Lucina's B support with her sibling, I think?) that not all members of the royal family can use Falchion. That's why Owain, Lissa and Emmeryn can't use it. Same for Elise in SD.

[Anacybele]

Isn't the Falchion Chrom and Lucina wield technically a different one though? From what I remember, the Falchion was reforged at some point. And I mean, it DOES look completely different anyway. So any restriction that would've prevented Lucina from using it was probably removed in the reforge.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Anacybele said:

Isn't the Falchion Chrom and Lucina wield technically a different one though? From what I remember, the Falchion was reforged at some point. And I mean, it DOES look completely different anyway. So any restriction that would've prevented Lucina from using it was probably removed in the reforge.

According to Lucina and Owain's support, the hilt is different, but the blade is the same blade.

[Anacybele]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

According to Lucina and Owain's support, the hilt is different, but the blade is the same blade.

That's weird, considering that the blade of Awakening's Falchion looks longer/bigger to me.

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

That's weird, considering that the blade of Awakening's Falchion looks longer/bigger to me.

Well, nothing excludes that the blade got morphed when Naga reforged it Saint Seiya style. She did replaced Gotoh's old blood bind, and the sword is one of her own fangs, so... yep.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

That's weird, considering that the blade of Awakening's Falchion looks longer/bigger to me.

Yeah, I don't buy it either, but I just checked, it is indeed what the game says:

Owain:
Heh! All right. I'll speak, and you can practice translating... Hark! Your partner fang resists the remorseless arrow of time! It is infused with the breath of gods and the passion of ages. Should a thousand thousand years pass, it shall never know the red sleep!
 

Lucina:
That one is simple. Falchion's blade will never dull or rust no matter how much time passes.
 

Owain:
But where fang meets sinew, Falchion remains a mortal work. Even genius cannot hope to stop the turning of the great wheel! And so it is reborn with each generation; transformed, but ever the same in spirit.
 

Lucina:
Hmm... But parts of the sword other than the blade DO wear out over time. The guard and pommel have been replaced over the years, changing its appearance. But it remains Falchion still.
 

Owain:
Perfect! That was exactly right. You're amazing, Lucina.

 

Again though, as I mentioned before, Awakening's attitude towards foundational elements of canon is... well, it wishes it could merely be "questionable" in its wildest dreams.

[Acacia Sgt]

An interesting observation is that, black/gold band aside, Awakening's Falchion can still kinda resemble the original design (not the DS remake's redesign of the sword). The red orb (which is supposedly a dragonstone, as per Kaga's original intents) can be where the hole is in the Awakening falchion. The gold around the red orb is part of the hilt, so it can explain where the widened area around the hole from Awakening Falchion also came from. It was simply covered by the gold hilt.

[Nym]

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Again though, as I mentioned before, Awakening's attitude towards foundational elements of canon is... well, it wishes it could merely be "questionable" in its wildest dreams.

*Cough* The Taguel *Cough*

I like Awakening and even I found this concept didn't make sense.

15 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

That's weird, considering that the blade of Awakening's Falchion looks longer/bigger to me.

You are correct, Marth's Falchion looks like a fancy Rapier.

Meanwhile, Awakening's Falchion looks like a normal sword, which means a bigger blade.

[Interdimensional Observer]

I don't have a source on hand unfortunately, but it could have been stated in an interview that while to us the design has changed, it didn't in the universe itself. Marth used the modern design and Chrom and Lucina used the old design, and in FEW they see their blade as being visually the same. It's an excuse I'd buy, not wanting to stay stuck to old styles but reusing the same old object.

[Anacybele]

Oh, I knew about what it says in Awakening. But it wouldn't be the first inconsistency the game is known to have. As mentioned, the taguel are inconsistent too, with how Panne says in one conversation that she was a baby when her mother died, but completely contradicts that in another conversation. 😕

[omegaxis1]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

That's weird, considering that the blade of Awakening's Falchion looks longer/bigger to me.

You can chalk that up to artwork differences. Here's a PRIME example:

You see these two guys? It's the EXACT SAME character. And meant to be the EXACT same APPEARANCE.

It was stated that it was the artwork that changed, but the appearances you see here are, storywise, intended to be the exact same appearance.

This is also why Tiki looks like a normal kind of dragon in Shadow Dragon, but different in Awakening. It's the same appearance storywise, but simply different artwork,

[Anacybele]

9 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

You can chalk that up to artwork differences. Here's a PRIME example:

You see these two guys? It's the EXACT SAME character. And meant to be the EXACT same APPEARANCE.

It was stated that it was the artwork that changed, but the appearances you see here are, storywise, intended to be the exact same appearance.

This is also why Tiki looks like a normal kind of dragon in Shadow Dragon, but different in Awakening. It's the same appearance storywise, but simply different artwork,

Well, I'm surprised that devs let two artworks of one character be so different if they're intended to be the same appearance lorewise. Weird.

[omegaxis1]

1 minute ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I'm surprised that devs let two artworks of one character be so different if they're intended to be the same appearance lorewise. Weird.

Sometimes the devs themselves want the design to be different, and just express that it's still the same lorewise. It happens. 

But this is why Falchion's blade appears different. The one thing we do know changed is that the hilt design changed, along with the Fire Emblem's design.

[Anacybele]

13 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

Sometimes the devs themselves want the design to be different, and just express that it's still the same lorewise. It happens. 

But this is why Falchion's blade appears different. The one thing we do know changed is that the hilt design changed, along with the Fire Emblem's design.

So I guess it's sorta retconning? I think I see then.

[Miminako]

Awakening has done questionable things with the canonical lore that at this point, I'm like 'never mind asking questions cause there is no direct answer'.

What I can say is like everyone else. It just so happens that all previous wielders were male so its assumed only men can wield it, until Lucina was birthed and shattered that belief.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Miminako