What was your reaction to Sothe being a main character?

[SSbardock84]

So in PoR, Sothe is an extremely minor character. However, in RD he rises up as one of the most important characters. I didn't play PoR first, so I didn't get to have a reaction. But I was wondering for those of you who did play in order how you reacted to see a minor character rise up to be this important? I know I was kind of expecting him to be more major in PoR and I was completely shocked to see Volke was as big as he was in PoR.

[Punished Dayni]

Well, I certainly didn't play without not knowing he had a bigger role in RD, so I can't say I had much of a reaction either. But I didn't play RD until last year.

I did find it funny that he essentially went all in on stomach tanktops and blanched when I learned the extended script showed Michiah was into it.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Dayni

[Light Strategist]

I played it in order but the games were out for years and Smash spoiled me so it was more in understanding than anything else.

[NinjaMonkey]

I wasn't happy about a Jeigan that I can't bench.

Edited May 7, 2020 by NinjaMonkey

[Dragoncat]

It's been awhile, so I don't remember, but I think I was like "cool".

[Anacybele]

I didn't like his role much. He was written okay, but as a unit, he was only useful in part 1 and that was it. He sucked in late game because dagger classes are just not good in general, at least compared to a lot of others. And he was certainly way outclassed by several other units in the game, including some others that are also forced for the Tower of Guidance.

[vanguard333]

I think my reaction to learning that Sothe was going to be a main character in Radiant Dawn was something like, "Huh... neat. Does this mean we're going to find out who he was searching for?"

[Fire Emblem Fan]

With Micaiah being their, not super surprised given his supports/little background in PoR. Definitely one of the weakest main characters in the series, though, if not THE weakest.

[DarthR0xas]

1 hour ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

With Micaiah being their, not super surprised given his supports/little background in PoR. Definitely one of the weakest main characters in the series, though, if not THE weakest.

One of the weakest, sure. The weakest? No, we still have the lemon twins and Itsuki for that. Even if you don't count spin-offs, combat wise Roy still beats him for worse (Sothe is a god early-game, where that strength is important to have, meanwhile Roy is a weakling who does nothing. Sure Roy becomes a late-late-game god, but at that point you're already set). Character-wise, I'd say he has better development and growth than someone like Eirika, and more personality than either of the NES lords, FE3 Marth, Roy, or Corrin. 

As for my surprise, I wasn't. Since I went straight into RD without playing POR, I was clueless. I liked him quite a bit, even if he did leave a bit to be desired combat-wise. At least he has the beastkiller to keep up with that Laguz enemies, which is pretty useful.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

6 minutes ago, DarthR0xas said:

One of the weakest, sure. The weakest? No, we still have the lemon twins and Itsuki for that. Even if you don't count spin-offs, combat wise Roy still beats him for worse (Sothe is a god early-game, where that strength is important to have, meanwhile Roy is a weakling who does nothing. Sure Roy becomes a late-late-game god, but at that point you're already set). Character-wise, I'd say he has better development and growth than someone like Eirika, and more personality than either of the NES lords, FE3 Marth, Roy, or Corrin. 

As for my surprise, I wasn't. Since I went straight into RD without playing POR, I was clueless. I liked him quite a bit, even if he did leave a bit to be desired combat-wise. At least he has the beastkiller to keep up with that Laguz enemies, which is pretty useful.

I wasn't counting any spin-offs, yeah. And I meant purely in terms of character, not gameplay; for me, Sothe is the weakest main (non-avatar) character.

[Sasori]

I think the idea was pretty good. Having this very unimportant and weak character in fe9 suddenly turning out to be important was a fun surprise. It also did't come completely out of nowhere with Sothe already having mentioned looking for someone.

However I don't like Sothe more in fe10. I like him less and thats mostly because I don't find him interesting around micaiah. He's micaiah  guard dog and other then a brief run-in with Tormod here and a reunion with Astrid there he doesn't really get the chance to be more then that. Actual supports would probably have helped out there.
 

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I wasn't counting any spin-offs, yeah. And I meant purely in terms of character, not gameplay; for me, Sothe is the weakest main (non-avatar) character.

Sothe isn't actually the lead character of Radiant Dawn by any measure though. He's always second fiddle to Micaiah. So if that's our level in which we're coparing against, then I say Sakura is pretty dang meh as a character in the plot.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

None because I played FE10 before 9.

I don't like his personality or rather what the game did to him by being Micaiah's bodyguard. Every second like contains I will protect you, Micaiah. It's really tiresome and I don't learn anything else about him.

Gameplaywise he's one of the very few prepromoted non paladins who can carry the entire party pretty much through the entire first part. Though in part 3 he starts to struggle at lot by being very squishy. The main problem is that he has very few uses in part 3 and 4-P. It's not enough time to give him enough levels till his forced promotion. And in 4-3 he will see like no combat at all thanks to the terrain. Meanwhile he's absolutely useless in endgame. He only is used till the third map (then replaced by Nasir) to shove people. 

[SSbardock84]

I remember when I was replaying PoR and Sothe mentions how he was talking to his friends in the past about the Daein army and/or perhaps King Ashnard. And it made me wonder if he was possibly talking about Edward and Leonardo or completely random characters.

[Boomhauer007]

"Hopefully he's not the worst unit in the game this time"

And hey, he was actually useful in part 1.

[samthedigital]

I didn't have much of a reaction, but I don't put much thought into the plot of Fire Emblem games in the first place.

Quote

"Hopefully he's not the worst unit in the game this time"

If we're talking about his combat maybe, but his thieving utility isn't all that bad.

[NinjaMonkey]

On 5/7/2020 at 11:46 PM, SSbardock84 said:

I was completely shocked to see Volke was as big as he was in PoR.

I don't know what version of PoR you've been playing, but that's not true. Volke in PoR only has two story scenes: One where he tells Ike that he was hired by Greil, and the other where he gets hired by Ike. The rest of the time Volke's presence in the story is non-existent, especially after Ike hires him half-way through the game.

Sothe however is in practically all of the Dawn Brigade scenes, especially if Micaiah is involved.

[SSbardock84]

17 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

I don't know what version of PoR you've been playing, but that's not true. Volke in PoR only has two story scenes: One where he tells Ike that he was hired by Greil, and the other where he gets hired by Ike. The rest of the time Volke's presence in the story is non-existent, especially after Ike hires him half-way through the game.

Sothe however is in practically all of the Dawn Brigade scenes, especially if Micaiah is involved.

His role is far more important than in Radiant Dawn. Him telling Ike about Greil's story is huge to the game. Few scenes, but largely impactful. He's isn't impactful in Radiant Dawn. I wasn't trying to compare him to Sothe though.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

I don't know what version of PoR you've been playing, but that's not true. Volke in PoR only has two story scenes: One where he tells Ike that he was hired by Greil, and the other where he gets hired by Ike. The rest of the time Volke's presence in the story is non-existent, especially after Ike hires him half-way through the game.

Sothe however is in practically all of the Dawn Brigade scenes, especially if Micaiah is involved.

I think they meant Sothe and Volke were as about as important as each other in Path of Radiance (though given that second story scene is pretty damn important I'd personally elevate Volke as more important even though Sothe might have a bit more screen time in base convos, I think).