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Ana Does a Character Study: Elincia


Anacybele
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So, I did a character study on Frederick a long time ago, and I had decided a while ago that I wanted to do one on Elincia as well. But I forgot about the idea until today. I don't know if I'll do anymore character studies after this one though. Depends on if I ever feel like it, I guess. Anyway, I did one for Elincia because I think she's one of the most underrated main characters in the series and deserves much more love than she gets. And I absolutely adore her, she's my favorite female in the series. Hopefully this helps her out! I forgot that I'd made a little banner for the Frederick study though, and so I didn't make one for this one. Maybe in the future though.

I do have one rule in here, and that's no shipping wars or anything, please. This is about civil discussion on Elincia, not arguing over who her best lover is. So let's get started!

 

Character Study: Elincia

Welcome to my next character study! This one will focus on Elincia, the kind princess and later queen. Elincia Ridell Crimea is the princess of the kingdom of Crimea, on the continent of Tellius. She first appears in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and then its sequel, Radiant Dawn, and in both, she is a type of main character known as a pseudo-lord (these share some characteristics with actual lords, but not enough to be considered true lords). She wears a long orange dress in Path of Radiance and keeps part of her long green hair in a bun, until she takes to the battlefield and sports silver armor and puts all of her hair up in a bun instead. She also has striking auburn eyes. In Radiant Dawn, she naturally takes on more of a queenly appearance and this time wears elaborate silver armor with a white tunic, a long translucent cape, and a circlet around her head. In Path of Radiance, she is a princess and recruits Ike and his party to help her take back the fallen Crimea after she managed to escape from the invasion alive. In Radiant Dawn, Elincia has been crowned her kingdom’s queen and is saddled with a brewing civil war, the primary reason of which is the opinions of the Crimean people on her ability to rule. In the end, she will lead Crimea to a golden age of peace and prosperity, and can be wed to Geoffrey if they reach an A support. In terms of gameplay, she is a unique unit in both of her appearances in these games, having her own class of Princess Crimea in Path of Radiance and Queen in Radiant Dawn. In both classes, she rides a Pegasus and is able to use swords and staves, a combination that was typically unseen in the series at the time. Stat-wise, she seems to be oddly switching between specialties depending on game appearance, but generally, she is typically speedy with mediocre attack strength and lacking in defenses.

Elincia also appears as a DLC character in Fire Emblem Awakening in the Falcon Knight class, where she is now strangely using lances instead of swords as well as staves. She can reclass to Dark Flier or any class available to females in this game and due to Awakening’s generally higher growth rates compared to previous titles in the series, she has beefed up compared to her Tellius appearances. For awhile after that, her only other appearance in a non-Tellius game was the trophy of her in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Elincia’s next playable appearance would be in fall of 2017 in Fire Emblem Heroes as a 5 star exclusive summonable unit. In this game, she returns to using swords and is a speedy, hard-hitting flier with the potential to hit her opponents four times thanks to her prf weapon, Amiti. She also got a second version in the game where she is a refresher with the dance ability, and is a green dagger wielder with a weapon called the Cloud Maiougi, a fan-like weapon that is able to slay dragons.

Her latest appearance in a Super Smash Bros. title is SSB Ultimate as an advanced shield-type spirit, where she has two spirit forms. Her princess form spirit is able to be enhanced to the legendary rank Queen Elincia spirit form at level 99.

Between all of these appearances, however, and her major role in both of her main games, she is often overlooked or overshadowed by her fellow main characters, Ike and Micaiah. With Ike, this comes as no surprise to myself and surely many. But Micaiah, at least to me, is another story. She is very popular. Yet, both her and Elincia are major characters in the Tellius saga, which not many people get to play because of how rare and high priced they are these days. Neither have much exposure beyond their playable appearances in the Fire Emblem series. Elincia even has a bit of a step up on Micaiah here by appearing in Smash in some form long before Micaiah does, and having a large role in two games rather than one. But why is Elincia still overshadowed and not popular compared to many other lead characters in this series? What is she really like in her games and how does her character development and writing go? What makes her who she is? This character study is here to discuss that, why I personally think she is the best written female in this series, and more. Next, we’ll dive into Elincia’s backstory!

Backstory

Elincia was born to King Ramon of Crimea, and the unnamed previous queen of Crimea. Her birth occurred after her uncle and Ramon’s brother, Renning, had been named heir to the throne. Due to this, Elincia’s existence was kept a secret, and instead of being raised in Castle Crimea at court as a proper princess, she grew up in the royal family’s villa. There, she was raised more like a commoner, being taught to cook, clean, sew, and do other chores. She was also taught to use a sword. While she was growing up here, she lived alongside two milk/foster siblings, Geoffrey and Lucia, who would later become her retainers. She is especially close with Lucia and they think of one another as true sisters while her relationship to Geoffrey is more up to interpretation. The Tellius artbooks state that they are foster siblings and that Elincia does seem to think of him as such. Elincia also treats him very formally in Radiant Dawn and can be interpreted to think he’s like an overprotective big brother in their support chain in Path of Radiance. And yet, as stated before, they can marry each other with an A support in Radiant Dawn. Their true relationship and feelings to one another, at least the way I would describe it, are a little inconsistent, and not established enough. Perhaps even rather complicated. When they and Lucia were children, however, they were all close to one another in some way and sometimes, Elincia and Lucia would even chase Geoffrey around the villa grounds.

One day, Ashnard, the mad king of Daein, had invaded Crimea and attacked its capital of Melior. Elincia had been with her parents at the time, and had watched as Ashnard cut them both down in front of her. As Melior quickly fell, she was forced to flee alongside Geoffrey and a band of his royal knights. She had believed her uncle Renning to have died in the attack. Later on, however, Geoffrey’s group is ambushed as well, leaving most of them dead. Geoffrey disappears, and fellow knight Kieran is captured and imprisoned. Elincia had been knocked unconscious and was miraculously not found by the Daein soldiers. She would later be discovered by Ike and the Greil Mercenaries, and hire them to help her retake Crimea from Ashnard. Elincia eventually granted Ike the title of lord and general of her army and would take to the battlefield herself to help him.

Between the events of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn and after Ashnard’s defeat in what would be known as the Mad King’s War, Elincia was crowned queen and Ike remained by her side until at least half a year before the events of Radiant Dawn would begin. Unrest began to unfold in Crimea as Elincia’s ability to rule is questioned. A noble by the name of Duke Ludveck began to spark a civil war that Elincia would have to do whatever she can to quell.

Personality

Elincia, in my opinion, has a fairly unique personality for a royal, mainly due to how she grew up. She is not like other princesses, having been raised to behave more like a housewife than a noble with all the chores she did, and she appears to enjoy this life more as well. Her favorite hobby is embroidery, which is a form of sewing and craft. In Radiant Dawn, she tells Leanne that she didn’t want to be queen and she also didn’t seem to think that she was the right person to rule Crimea. After all, she was never taught the ins and outs of court life and ruling a country. Even though Elincia has a habit of addressing people formally, with phrases such as “my lord” for even common folk like Ike, she seems to prefer being more like them than a high-class noble. In one scene during the voyage to Begnion in Path of Radiance, she tells Ike and his party to “give them a sound-thrashing!” which Ike remarks makes her sound like one of his mercenaries. She appears to want to fit in and be treated more like another part of the group than as a princess. In her support chain with Geoffrey, she tells him to stop protecting/coddling her, hinting that she may dislike being doted on or coddled period, even though she also does not want him to risk his safety for her.

Elincia is very kind and fairly serious. She does not appear to get angry much or even easily offended, as noted by the scene with Sanaki in Begnion, where Ike blows up and Elincia just sits by and watches it unfold. She was not upset with Sanaki and only appreciated the aid she could get while at the same time appreciating Ike wanting so much to protect her and not see her teased or picked on. She also insists at that point that he just call her Elincia, indicating that she doesn’t want to be called “Princess” or “Your highness” all the time, especially by those she considers her equals. She can also be rather shy, as she was reluctant to talk at first after Ike found her in Path of Radiance.

Throughout Path of Radiance, Elincia is unsure of herself and doesn’t feel ready to rule a kingdom. But she believes she must do so, as Renning is still dead as far as she knows and she is the only other heir remaining. She does not trust anyone else to rule Crimea in her place, since she doesn’t agree with things that many of the Crimean nobles would say or do. She loves her people and kingdom so much that she must do the best she can. She becomes very close friends with Ike and he is irreplaceable to her, so she must have been disappointed to see him step down from his rank of lord and return to the mercenary life, even though she surely understands the decision. In the localization only (unfortunately), she seems to have a bit of a crush on him as well, remarking things like him using his cape as a blanket to be delightful while giggling, and also having giggled at him in a few other scenarios. Regardless of the version of the game, though, during the final cutscene, she also takes his hand, places it upon her chest,  and then holds hands with him as they step out onto a balcony in Castle Crimea to greet the people after having been victorious in the Mad King’s War.

In Radiant Dawn, Elincia is more serious, but has become unsure of herself again as unrest over her ability to rule grows in Crimea. She falls to her knees before Leanne pleading that she never wanted to be queen or asked for anything that was happening. Duke Ludveck has turned some of the Crimeans against her in an effort to take the throne from her himself, claiming that she is not strong enough and that he can lead Crimea to a better future. Elincia does not believe this to be true, especially from someone willing to cause so much trouble. She highly dislikes war, violence, and fighting and would rather settle conflicts with words than with weapons. Ludveck was not going to negotiate that easily, however, and Elincia had no choice but to send the now-General Geoffrey and the Royal Knights to fight. She exhibits a little bit of naivety when, after Ludveck himself is brought down and imprisoned, Lucia is captured after Elincia had sent her on a mission, although she does not appear to be as naïve as other female protagonists in FE such as Eirika or Celica since this is the only instance we see of it in her. Lucia is then put on a noose for public execution, and Elincia could only watch as her best friend and sister was about to die before her. Ludveck claims he would let her go if Elincia would give the throne to him, but Elincia refused. Whether she was truly decisive on letting Lucia die or not, however, is unknown. Knowing how much she cares for her loved ones, in her heart, she very well could have still been unsure that she was doing the right thing or that there was something else she could have done. Either way, this was Elincia’s most prime moment and showed how strong of a person she had become. Strong enough to do whatever she had to in order to ensure the safety of her people, even if she didn’t like it, and strong enough to know what was best for them, whether it was herself on the throne or another.

Elincia is a person who makes up for any lack of real combat ability with her strong resolve and powerful desire to see her dream for her country blossom. She strives to rid her kingdom of prejudice towards the laguz and further build on the alliance with Gallia that her father had started. She desires peace for her people, no matter what it takes to get it.

Strangely, her close bond with Ike is no longer prominent in Radiant Dawn, though there are still a few remnants of it to be found. The first one is when Elincia more or less says that she would rather the Royal Knights’ reputations be soured than that of Ike and the Greil Mercenaries. After Ike and his party rush in to rescue Lucia from execution, Ike offers to clean up the rest of Ludveck’s supporters, but Elincia turns it down, saying she would have the Royal Knights do it instead, even though some may not like them for doing so. And, of all places, the rest of these remnants are found in Elincia’s defeated quotes. If she is defeated in Part 3 when she disarms herself versus the Begnion army, she tells Ike to look after Crimea instead of, say, Geoffrey who is present and would’ve made more sense to take up that job. If Elincia is defeated in Part 4 Endgame, she again speaks to Ike even though Geoffrey is again there, and says “My noble Ike… All your plans…” Which is significant. A person doesn’t refer to someone as “theirs” in any way except if they cared about that person an awful lot. Despite that their friendship is not prominent in Radiant Dawn like it was in Path of Radiance, whatever kind of affection Elincia held for Ike is still there in some form in the sequel, and she holds him in much higher regard than at least most others. As also with her sisterly bond with Lucia and whatever bond she has with Geoffrey, when Elincia deeply cares for someone, she makes sure to show it, even if it isn’t always clear whether she views that person as just a friend, a sibling, or a potential romantic partner.

After Renning is discovered to have been alive all this time and is cured of the effects of the feral drug that he’d been forced to take, Elincia accepts his assistance in ruling Crimea, and is happy to have her uncle with her again. Next, I’ll talk about how she works in gameplay.

Gameplay

As stated in the introduction, Elincia is rather inconsistent as a unit, with her best uses differing between appearances. In Path of Radiance, her best stats are Mag, Res, and Spd while sporting great growths in Luck and HP as well. In Radiant Dawn, she basically flips her Mag and Str around and now has a better stat in the latter. Her Mag growth has halved and her Spd growth has shot through the roof to a whopping 70% and her Str growth rose to a significant 65%. The only growths that did not change between the two games are Luck and Res. Elincia must’ve been unsure of her priorities as a warrior or something, eh?

She is not nearly as good in Path of Radiance as she is in Radiant Dawn, however, and the reason why can easily be seen. Elincia does not join the playable party until near the end of the game and she joins horrendously underleveled at level 1. She requires a lot of babying to be viable at all. She’s not entirely terrible, however, as she is actually the best healer in the game, coming with an automatic A rank in staves and being able to use just about any of the available staves. Her support pool is unfortunately small, probably because she has little time to build any supports, but she can thankfully still reach an A support with someone easily, by simply being deployed together with that character. For gameplay, Geoffrey is her best support option, though mainly due to her lack of many options in the first place. The attack and accuracy boost his Fire affinity gives is still very beneficial if the player wants to use Elincia offensively though. Ike’s avoid boost from his Earth affinity can still benefit her too, since it would, of course, make her dodge more hits. The player also wants to make sure Geoffrey, Lucia, and Bastian are kept alive, otherwise Elincia will not come with Amiti, she’ll join with an obviously inferior slim sword instead. Amiti is effectively a more powerful brave sword.

In Radiant Dawn, Elincia needs a bit of tweaking before she can be used seriously, even though her growths are better and she has more availability. She has good base stats, but also starts off with poor offense since she doesn’t have Amiti right away, instead starting off with a slim sword. When she does gain Amiti, she’s much more usable, even though she still isn’t top tier. She’s the only healer present in Part 2, making her vital as support in that part of the game. When she’s forced into the Hawk Army in Part 4, she’s still a great healer without much investment, but will need some if she’s be used well offensively. She starts with the Mercy skill here and that…literally prevents her from killing things. Which is only useful if you want to baby a weaker unit. Otherwise, it should be removed. As a flying unit in either game, she is useful for being able to pass over certain obstacles that other characters cannot and in both games, she has the Heaven affinity which grants a significant accuracy boost. Anyone that gives an attack and accuracy boost with their affinity helps Elincia the most offensively.

In Fire Emblem Awakening, as a paid DLC unit, her initial growths are all excellent, over 50% except for Def and Res which are just 30%. Built up, she is an excellent unit and should be good in just about any class the player can put her in. She can be acquired by clearing the Smash Brethren 1 DLC.

In Fire Emblem Heroes, the original version of Elincia is very speedy, even with the -2 to Spd that her weapon, Amiti comes with, and she can hit fairly hard as well. Her Spd is high enough to allow her to hit many enemies four times, making her one of the best sword fliers in the game and a good user of the Galeforce skill. She comes with the assist skill Ardent Sacrifice, a nod to her also being a healer, as well as, ironically, Death Blow in her A slot. I guess Elincia realized how counterproductive Mercy is for her? Anyway, she also comes with Flier Formation, making her good to have on a flier-based team, which are also what many Galeforce teams are, making a Galeforce Elincia even more valuable there. Since she’s a unit from 2017, her base stat total and skill pool have been outclassed since then, but with the proper investment, she is still a good unit to have even today. Her best assets are +Atk and +Spd and ideally, she wants either -Res or -Def as her flaw or merged to remove the flaw entirely. Elincia’s second version in the game has her use daggers instead and places her in the green color pool. She is a seasonal unit only available at certain times of year, but is valuable to have simply for her being a refresher unit, able to grant an extra action to allies. She comes with Cloud Maiougi+, Dance, Atk/Spd Push, Rockslide Dance, and Drive Res. She also has use offensively, as her weapon is has effectiveness against dragons, and though her Atk stat is a bit low, she can still be a pretty decent dragon killer with the right builds and setups, as she has high Spd and enough to double most of them since many of them are slow, even without a +Spd asset. Ideally, she probably wants +Atk and no -Spd flaw the most in order to be the best at killing dragons that she can be.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Elincia’s spirit, as said before, is an advanced shield-type and naturally grants higher defense power than attack. She grants two support slots to the character that equips her. However, she should be enhanced as soon as possible to get the most use out of her. Her enhanced form as the legendary shield type Queen Elincia grants an additional midair jump as well as two support slots and her stats increase significantly. At level 99 after being enhanced, she has a total power of 12,103 which is pretty good. And as a Fire Emblem spirit, she will be best equipped onto a Fire Emblem character.

Conclusion

I of course, conclude that Elincia is a very well-done character in this series, and as I said before, she tends to be overlooked in favor of Ike and Micaiah. I already established that it’s obvious why Ike is far more popular. But what about the gap between her and Micaiah? Truly, to me, it still doesn’t make a lot of sense for what I stated on this in the introduction.

But, as unfortunate as it is for me to admit, I do have one small idea now. I’m thinking that it may have something to do with first impressions. Those who played Path of Radiance before Radiant Dawn, and most players probably did, or just don’t know much about this saga at all, might at first see her as some damsel-in-distress type character which are generally pretty overdone for females. Despite this, she’s not that much of one in reality, since she’s never kidnapped or held hostage and can still defend herself if she needs. She’s only a damsel in the sense that she’s a female that flees danger at first and then gathers help for her cause, and…well, that kind of thing happens in many stories for many characters, not even just females. And we don’t get to see her support conversations until late in the game. And those few who played Radiant Dawn first get to meet Micaiah first, and being a unique lord in that she’s a mage and all, she will spark interest in the player. Only playing further into the game will the player encounter and get to know Elincia more.

And I will admit, Elincia’s first impressions as a character are something I’d improve about her. I’d make her playable in PoR sooner, for starters, and improve her growths and stats at that too. I’d also add at least a couple more support options for her and up her relevance in story scenes a bit. She’s the biggest driver of the plot, sure, but she could stand to actually have a bit more literal presence. And in RD, Part 2 could stand to have a bit more relevance to the overall story and Elincia’s friendship with Ike should get its prominence back (though not to the same degree as in PoR since there’s obviously other stuff going on too).

Still, Elincia is a deep, definitely a strong-minded woman who truly cares for those she cares about. Even after she witnesses the bloody deaths of her parents at the hands of Ashnard, she presses forward to find a way to stop him and regain her country. She does not simply wallow in grief or mourning. I think she is one of the most powerful females in this series, not so much combat-wise, of course, but more in her personality and mind. I also really like that she is unique among princesses and royals in general, not having been raised like one and knowing how to do chores and fight. And her character development and writing, despite a few hiccups, is second to none for females in my opinion. She goes from very unsure of herself and inexperienced to a more confident leader and icon for her people. She’s got plenty of tastes of the world beyond the castle or villa walls, knowledge of everyday work, and is excellent at healing the wounded. Elincia is so kind and full of love as well and I can only appreciate that. I admit she benefits from Tellius’s overall very good writing as well. I see a bit of myself in her in her insecurities, being unsure of whether or not I can truly be successful, and hopefully I can be just like she did! I just love her personality in general and think she’s very beautiful inside and out. Seriously, who else can make an orange dress look that good? (No offense to those who like orange, it’s just not my favorite color at all.) Her flowing green hair and her outfit in Radiant Dawn are gorgeous as well. She even has a pretty name. Honestly, I don’t think I’m going to see another name as pretty as Elincia. It just sounds so nice. I have just seen nothing to dislike about her at all…except for obviously not getting an ending with Ike and not being playable in PoR sooner, but yeah. I hope this was a good read and has shed some light on Elincia for some others. And perhaps even endeared her to them!

Edited by Anacybele
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Elincia is a very well written character in Path of Radiance... She is definitely the key thay makes the plot advance. Sadly, I cannot say the same about her in Radiant Dawn.

In Radiant Dawn, she has that Chapter about her which is interesting at least, but after that she basically disappears.

Honestly, I agree with ShaneBrained's opinion about Elincia (and also Ike) in RD.

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5 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Elincia is a very well written character in Path of Radiance... She is definitely the key thay makes the plot advance. Sadly, I cannot say the same about her in Radiant Dawn.

In Radiant Dawn, she has that Chapter about her which is interesting at least, but after that she basically disappears.

Honestly, I agree with ShaneBrained's opinion about Elincia (and also Ike) in RD.

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I kind of agree with you and that part of the video here, but also kinda don't. I think Elincia is one of the few PoR characters to still go through some growth in RD. But maybe not enough, yeah. I can agree there should've still been some more for her and others. Particularly Ike, for how much actual presence he has compared to Micaiah, a new face in the game.

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2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I kind of agree with you and that part of the video here, but also kinda don't. I think Elincia is one of the few PoR characters to still go through some growth in RD. But maybe not enough, yeah. I can agree there should've still been some more for her and others. Particularly Ike, for how much actual presence he has compared to Micaiah, a new face in the game.

Yeah, Ike doesn't grow that much (or at all) in RD, while Elincia's growth is visible in the game... I just don't think that her growth needed to be the part 2 of the game. They could make this growth during the game, which would make her relevant for more time during the game

Anyway, if you didn't watch the full video before, I totally recommend. I also recommend the Path of Radiance Retrospective, and the others videos of this series too.

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Just now, Diovani Bressan said:

Yeah, Ike doesn't grow that much (or at all) in RD, while Elincia's growth is visible in the game... I just don't think that her growth needed to be the part 2 of the game. They could make this growth during the game, which would make her relevant for more time during the game

Anyway, if you didn't watch the full video before, I totally recommend. I also recommend the Path of Radiance Retrospective, and the others videos of this series too.

Yeah, that's fair. It's why I said Part 2 could've had more relevance to the overall story instead of feeling more like filler content, even if it is still good writing besides.

Well, that video is over an hour long. I don't know when I'd feel like investing that amount of time in one video, tbh. Still, I bet it's a good one anyway, so maybe someday!

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1 minute ago, Anacybele said:

Well, that video is over an hour long. I don't know when I'd feel like investing that amount of time in one video, tbh. Still, I bet it's a good one anyway, so maybe someday!

Well, since the video shows gameplay while he talks, you could just listen it as a podcast. I do it during work, for example.

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2 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Well, since the video shows gameplay while he talks, you could just listen it as a podcast. I do it during work, for example.

I like seeing the gameplay sometimes though, and I'm not allowed to listen to stuff in my job, unfortunately. So I'd have to use my free time...

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14 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Elincia is a very well written character in Path of Radiance... She is definitely the key thay makes the plot advance. Sadly, I cannot say the same about her in Radiant Dawn.

Honestly I kinda feel the reverse. Elincia is fine in Path of Radiance, but does little to stand out. Her story is fairly generic; the villain stole her country from her and killed her family, and she wants it back. Very straightforward. On the other hand her story in Radiant Dawn, while relatively short, is compelling, as we see her grapple with the realities of rule, of navigating her own nation through a potential civil war where she has to balance her own desire to hold on to power with her desire not to hurt the people rising against her more than necessary, and not to mention balance those against the life of her friend. Part 2 of RD is some of the stronger writing in the series IMO and that's where Elincia gets elevated from "Nyna/Guinevere 3.0" to something more, at least in my eyes.

Anyway, I like Elincia, if it's not obvious; I enjoyed this read, @Anacybele.

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2 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Honestly I kinda feel the reverse. Elincia is fine in Path of Radiance, but does little to stand out. Her story is fairly generic; the villain stole her country from her and killed her family, and she wants it back. Very straightforward. On the other hand her story in Radiant Dawn, while relatively short, is compelling, as we see her grapple with the realities of rule, of navigating her own nation through a potential civil war where she has to balance her own desire to hold on to power with her desire not to hurt the people rising against her more than necessary, and not to mention balance those against the life of her friend. Part 2 of RD is some of the stronger writing in the series IMO and that's where Elincia gets elevated from "Nyna/Guinevere 3.0" to something more, at least in my eyes.

Anyway, I like Elincia, if it's not obvious; I enjoyed this read, @Anacybele.

Yeah, that's a reason I thought Part 2 was so good myself. It elevates Elincia more and it was just really interesting and stuff.

And awesome to hear! ^^

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I really liked Elincia as a character in part 2 of RD. Her appearance in PoR was kinda substandard to me personally but to be fair the emulator crashed on me before I could completely finish the game.

That was a pretty interesting read. I've always enjoyed the dichotomy between her characterization in RD and Micaiah's. That honestly leads me to a consideration. How cool would it have been if the story of RD had focused more on Elincia, Micaiah, and Sanaki? A trio of female leads, exploring the difference in their mindsets and how they rule and how they respond to situations. Sanaki as the established Empress dealing with centuries of corruption in her nation, Elincia as the newly established queen having to prove herself, and Micaiah as the fanatically supported but still entirely green ruler of Daein who has to suddenly fly by the seat of her pants in a continent wide war... that's a touch off topic but I feel it could've been really cool.

Anyway a lot of Elincia's usability suffers in Part 2 of RD simply because Haar exists. Him being there (and frankly being a much better unit) a lot of the time relegates Elincia to healbot duty. That seems to be a pattern here... But yeah, I would've loved if they'd beefed her up a tad to make her more usable in the chapters you have her.

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3 minutes ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

That was a pretty interesting read. I've always enjoyed the dichotomy between her characterization in RD and Micaiah's. That honestly leads me to a consideration. How cool would it have been if the story of RD had focused more on Elincia, Micaiah, and Sanaki? A trio of female leads, exploring the difference in their mindsets and how they rule and how they respond to situations. Sanaki as the established Empress dealing with centuries of corruption in her nation, Elincia as the newly established queen having to prove herself, and Micaiah as the fanatically supported but still entirely green ruler of Daein who has to suddenly fly by the seat of her pants in a continent wide war... that's a touch off topic but I feel it could've been really cool.

You know what, this would've been cool! Though I'd be disappointed not to see much of Ike, it'd still be a fun story, I bet.

3 minutes ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

Anyway a lot of Elincia's usability suffers in Part 2 of RD simply because Haar exists. Him being there (and frankly being a much better unit) a lot of the time relegates Elincia to healbot duty. That seems to be a pattern here... But yeah, I would've loved if they'd beefed her up a tad to make her more usable in the chapters you have her.

Oh yeah, Haar does exist, provided you recruit him. I actually missed him on my first playthrough. I have no idea how. But he is a massive help when you get him and would overshadow the others in that playable party.

Edited by Anacybele
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3 minutes ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

That was a pretty interesting read. I've always enjoyed the dichotomy between her characterization in RD and Micaiah's. That honestly leads me to a consideration. How cool would it have been if the story of RD had focused more on Elincia, Micaiah, and Sanaki? A trio of female leads, exploring the difference in their mindsets and how they rule and how they respond to situations. Sanaki as the established Empress dealing with centuries of corruption in her nation, Elincia as the newly established queen having to prove herself, and Micaiah as the fanatically supported but still entirely green ruler of Daein who has to suddenly fly by the seat of her pants in a continent wide war... that's a touch off topic but I feel it could've been really cool.

I totally agree, actually! I feel like Ike had no reason to be a main protagonist in the story when there were more relevant choices; Ike's massive screentime zuccs up all of the time from the people who needed it for their characters; namely, Sanaki and Elinicia, although Micaiah also needed to have a bit more screentime.

But I digress.

This was a great read!

6 minutes ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

Anyway a lot of Elincia's usability suffers in Part 2 of RD simply because Haar exists.[...] , I would've loved if they'd beefed her up a tad to make her more usable in the chapters you have her.

To be fair, this could apply to basically the whole cast.

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4 minutes ago, Benice said:

I totally agree, actually! I feel like Ike had no reason to be a main protagonist in the story when there were more relevant choices; Ike's massive screentime zuccs up all of the time from the people who needed it for their characters; namely, Sanaki and Elinicia, although Micaiah also needed to have a bit more screentime.

Sure, but Ike being a big time mercenary and highly relevant to Crimea, it wouldn't make sense for him to have anything less than a somewhat big role. He could've been bumped down to pseudo-lord himself while Elincia and Micaiah primarily took the reins and that would've been okay. But given how the FE series has gone and what Japanese mindsets on male and female roles seem to be, they forced Ike into the main protagonist role again because a male absolutely has to be there and women can't be main protagonists all by themselves. 😕 At least that's how I feel and I really dislike it, honestly. I would have loved for Elincia to officially have lord status.

4 minutes ago, Benice said:

This was a great read!

Awesome to know! 🙂

Edited by Anacybele
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10 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Sure, but Ike being a big time mercenary and highly relevant to Crimea, it wouldn't make sense for him to have anything less than a somewhat big role.

Oh, he certainly needed to be IN the story, but I'd give him a Skrimir-level of involvement in the story-Perhaps even being a late-arriving Gotoh. For the third Floor of the Tower of Guidance, Ike and be a level 20 Prepromote green unit who fights a scripted battle against the Black Knight so that it's a Pseudo-Defense chapter. I think that this sort of role would be better for his character anyways; it also prevents being softlocked by having a bad Ike.

Also, I really hope that Micaiah is much better if they do have a remake. I sorta hope they either go total glass canon and actually give her speed or go with a tanky mage build where she's slow but tough.

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3 minutes ago, Benice said:

Oh, he certainly needed to be IN the story, but I'd give him a Skrimir-level of involvement in the story-Perhaps even being a late-arriving Gotoh. For the third Floor of the Tower of Guidance, Ike and be a level 20 Prepromote green unit who fights a scripted battle against the Black Knight so that it's a Pseudo-Defense chapter. I think that this sort of role would be better for his character anyways; it also prevents being softlocked by having a bad Ike.

Skrimir level could be okay, but I'd have to disagree with Ike being totally absent until late in the game. I just don't think he'd really be irrelevant to a big conflict that long.

4 minutes ago, Benice said:

Also, I really hope that Micaiah is much better if they do have a remake. I sorta hope they either go total glass canon and actually give her speed or go with a tanky mage build where she's slow but tough.

This I do agree with though, because right now Micaiah is just too much of a pain to deal with. I always had trouble keeping her alive and that was a reason I didn't like her. Fix her stats and growths, give her more ways to level up when she's second tier, don't make her third tier come so late, and tweak her writing a bit. I could appreciate her so much more if this happened. Because at first, she did seem likeable to me and she has a cool design in all her classes. And mage lord is still unique.

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1 minute ago, Anacybele said:

I just don't think he'd really be irrelevant to a big conflict that long.

Perhaps I misphrased the sentence: I did mean that Ike would be doing stuff in the story, but he becomes playable in the lategame, with perhaps a FEW exceptions sp he's not totally written out. I do think that he should be more be of a behind the scenes/offscreen kind of character rather than carrying the better part of the game like last time; the greil mercs would also work well as bosses for Micaiah I think.

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4 minutes ago, Benice said:

Perhaps I misphrased the sentence: I did mean that Ike would be doing stuff in the story, but he becomes playable in the lategame, with perhaps a FEW exceptions sp he's not totally written out. I do think that he should be more be of a behind the scenes/offscreen kind of character rather than carrying the better part of the game like last time; the greil mercs would also work well as bosses for Micaiah I think.

Ohhh. Yeah, that makes more sense then. Though because of my bias for him, I'd wish him playable earlier, but yeah. 😛

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I like Elincia a lot. I have to agree with others that she seemed more like Guinivere and Nina 3.0 in PoR, but in RD she really elevated to a great ruler, comparable to the other rulers of the countries in Tellius, all of which are pretty great characters in my opinion. She really felt human in Part 2 of RD, dealing with the struggles of ruling a country which makes her seem a lot more down to earth. She is also awesome with the Amiti and can make really short work of the Part 2 endgame which is a huge plus in my book. Her voice acting in heroes is also great.

Overall, really great read, thanks for making this Ana!

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You missed out the fact that she's good in killing Mangs's ironmans

 

Joking aside it was a good read overall. I won't say she's unique though. Kind merciful princesses are more than common. Radiant Dawn could have given her more spotligh, same goes for Lucia. I find her boss conversation with Valtomé really authentic, my favorite of her. Gameplaywise pretty bad in FE9, not gonna lie. Since she's forced and her base level is bad, she's basically like Micaiah except for having more mobility. In Radiant Dawn she became from a crappy unit to an outstanding unit. In part 4 she needs paragon to get stats for ORKOing everything (including Ashera's auras).

 

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Good character study here. Elincia is my number 4 favorite character of the Tellius series (Mia, Nephenee and Jill right before her, Ilyana and Ike right behind her). I agree that her story in RD is better, but the generic base of her story in PoR doesn't make me enjoy her less there.

Her late joining time in PoR never really bothered me (plenty of bexp to go around), but I agree that making her available earlier (maybe as an unpromoted staff-only unit) could have made her better as a unit. Nothing wrong with her role in PoR either, this story is really about Ike's journey and she's great as supporting cast here.

When it comes to RD, I would've liked her to have a bigger role. Not in part 2, part 2 is great, but in part 3. RD to me is more about the bigger picture. Part 1 about Daein's liberation, part 2 about the civil unrest in Crimea, and part 3 about the laguz finally being fed up by the Begnion senators. While I enjoy playing with the Greil Mercenaries, I do believe Ike's role should have been reduced in the second half of part 3, focusing more on the rulers including Elincia, Micaiah, Caineghis/Skrimir, Tibarn and eventually Sanaki before the final conflict starts.

But that's just my take, PoR and RD are still great regardless, and so is Elincia.

(Also, while I personally just really like Mia and Nephenee, I do agree Elincia is a "better" character, only Jill beats her in Tellius imo.)

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Thanks, guys! I really appreciate that I did well here. Means a lot. 🙂

2 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

I won't say she's unique though. Kind merciful princesses are more than common.

Yeah, but princesses who cook, clean, sew, and stuff aren't. 😛

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3 hours ago, Anacybele said:

🙂 Yeah, but princesses who cook, clean, sew, and stuff aren't. 😛

Princesses tend to get the damsel in distress cliche at once just because videogame franchises make them become that way. Though there are a lot of other videogames, I can speak of JRPGs in this case, where they have an actual strong personality and also do daily routine tasks like every other normal human does. Elincia is far away from being unique from my understanding at least.

 

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/11/2020 at 9:36 AM, Anacybele said:

Sure, but Ike being a big time mercenary and highly relevant to Crimea, it wouldn't make sense for him to have anything less than a somewhat big role. He could've been bumped down to pseudo-lord himself while Elincia and Micaiah primarily took the reins and that would've been okay. But given how the FE series has gone and what Japanese mindsets on male and female roles seem to be, they forced Ike into the main protagonist role again because a male absolutely has to be there and women can't be main protagonists all by themselves. 😕 At least that's how I feel and I really dislike it, honestly. I would have loved for Elincia to officially have lord status.

Fuck, this is one of the biggest reasons why I hesitate to start playing the Tellius games - well, apart from the PAL versions of the games being in short supply and costing an arm and a leg. Granted, I haven't played the game in its entirety, so maybe we do need Ike in all of the chapters he appears. Nevertheless, what's been mentioned by the more informed people here in regards to Elincia, Micaiah et al being shafted really don't give me a good impression. Especially after playing as Edelgard (and Female Byleth) in Three Houses. I'm Japanese, and I'm ashamed at just how stubborn some people (including myself and my own family at times) are in regards to gender roles, and more generally just how reactionary the country in general has become, even amongst the pressures from the international community. This is also the big reason why I want to see a possibly remake.

And it's even worse considering Ike in Smash failed to save the series, and as some people previously mentioned, Ike didn't seem to have the same level of character as Elincia (or any other major character) when the setting/worldbuilding clearly called for it. At least I would have liked to have seen him having to come to grasps with the complicated politics or something. Also mind-boggling is when the same publisher haven't had a problem with Samus kicking ass.

Edited by henrymidfields
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