What would you like to see from an Awakening prequel?

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Uh... obviously, Robin's Mother escaped with her child to one of the Babyrealms, thus speeding up their growth.

Damn, you got me there. We have precedent.

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Yeah yeah, I didn't consider this, but honestly I'm invested in the notion of Validar and Robin's (potential) mother being playable. Maybe Robin was born after Lissa, but part of Validar's machinations caused them, as a vessel of Grima, to grow up weirdly fast?

Well we could have Robin's mother and Validar as both playable and Robin as a toddler or young child, with her deciding to run away at the end of the game. I don't think the game specifies exactly how old Robin was when their mother absconded.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well we could have Robin's mother and Validar as both playable and Robin as a toddler or young child, with her deciding to run away at the end of the game. I don't think the game specifies exactly how old Robin was when their mother absconded.

One complicating factor - does Robin even have a fixed age at the start of Awakening? Given their various possible builds, they look like they could be anywhere from 15 to 25. The medium builds (which I would estimate in the 18-20 range) get all the representation outside of their game of origin, but within the confines of Awakening, no one variant is more canon than any other.

Curiously, babyrealms would actually "fix" this. Robin could have a fixed date-of-birth, while still having a varied apparent age, based on how long they were kept in a pocket dimension. And dammit, why am I giving so much credit to Fates' awful narrative contrivance?

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

One complicating factor - does Robin even have a fixed age at the start of Awakening? Given their various possible builds, they look like they could be anywhere from 15 to 25. The medium builds (which I would estimate in the 18-20 range) get all the representation outside of their game of origin, but within the confines of Awakening, no one variant is more canon than any other.

Curiously, babyrealms would actually "fix" this. Robin could have a fixed date-of-birth, while still having a varied apparent age, based on how long they were kept in a pocket dimension. And dammit, why am I giving so much credit to Fates' awful narrative contrivance?

Well, as you've also stated already, Grima genes could also explain a variable physical age...along with why he's white (looking) while his alleged father is black (looking).

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well, as you've also stated already, Grima genes could also explain a variable physical age...along with why he's white (looking) while his alleged father is black (looking).

True - so Robin could have been born after Lissa, while still bearing any of their possible appearances in canon. I've always interpreted Robin's Mother as noping out shortly after the birth, so I'd rather her not already be an established parent when the game begins. Other hypothetical parents, like Tharja's Mom or Kellam's Mom, could already have kids though.

And of course, Validar's skin is dark because he's the bad guy! Ever wondered why Jedah is blue, while Sonya is pale-skinned? Duma is one hell of a drug, and so's Grima.

Not an endorsement of this terrible trope btw, just noticing it.

[genesis]

Ok, I think a prequel of Chrom's father would be very interesting, I was actually thinking on it. Other details of Awakening original timeline could make a game, I mean, everything if done well can turn it's own story, but imo the children's story are more fitting a DLC in a possible remake one day. I suppose Lissa turned queen regent of Ylisse once Chrom and his wife died, and Lucina didn't have enough of age to rule yet.  Would be nice to see how exactly Chrom died I mean the events surrounding it and what was happening with Robin among all those years, but I think a DLC similar to the Ashe Wolves in Three Houses can answer it, specially because of all the variants in the game, like Robin's second child, Lucina's siblings and Lissa and Chrom's spouses: A dlc could adjust to that; while a totally new game would need to play with too many variants like letting vague who was the previous queen of Ylisse; Lucina's sibling; Morgan's gender; or if Robin had more children... hiding such details will hurt the plot and will result in another disjointed story.

For example: Lucina being Robin's child would change the story substantially, and ignoring this would make the plot weird. Morgan being sister of any of the other children aka for example, dunno, Cynthia being child of Grima's vessel who brought destruction to the continent gives another layer to the character that shouldn't be ignored.  That's why a DLC covering other stories in future will be the answer.  

As for Awakening direct prequel covering the Crusades: 

* The protagonist is Plegian. The story is in the point of  view of a Plegian, but here's the thing: Grimleal can't be shown as the good guys since it's basically a satanic group, so I can see two things happening: the protagonist is a reluctant member of Grimleal born into the cult but disagrees with it therefore it's a great opportunity to show the insides politics of Grima's church and that there was nice people there too who wanted to reform the institution, despite everything. Or protagonist a mercenary hired to help his/her country Plegia when it's being invaded and is very critical of both sides. It could be a very gray and political oriented story if done well. 

* Chrom's father is the antagonist but a complex one. He could be a sympathetic protagonist, or a fanatical religious but with good points 

* The game starts in Plegia and ends on them marching to Ylisse's throne or something like that. 

* Robin's mother appear but as a major NPC, show how she escaped  away and her role in the Grimleal. Robin appears only as a child, but with ambiguous gender, maybe even with their hair covered by any headpiece Young Validar appears too. They would be the "Zephiel", "Hellene" and "Desmond" of Awakening's prequel. 

* Someone from Tharja's family as playable character. Small Tharja could make a cameo as well. 

* Other than that, on "enemy's side" Chrom's mother, members of Maribelle and Sully families would be a great nod, probably their parents or uncles/aunts.  

* Talking about Maribelle, visiting Themis while they are entering Ylisse would be a great opportunity to expand the world building. Maribelle seemed to like diplomacy but what about her family? 

* Emmeryn was only a child when it happened. She could appear but it's not like she was plotting to kill people at that age unless she was getting ideas from someone older, I honestly liked this idea of her commiting patricide for the greater good, but the main problem is that the timeline makes this impossible to happen. Frederick was also too young at the time to be a playable character, he is not older than Emmeryn.  

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by genesis

[Jotari]

58 minutes ago, genesis said:

Ok, I think a prequel of Chrom's father would be very interesting, I was actually thinking on it. Other details of Awakening original timeline could make a game, I mean, everything if done well can turn it's own story, but imo the children's story are more fitting a DLC in a possible remake one day. I suppose Lissa turned queen regent of Ylisse once Chrom and his wife died, and Lucina didn't have enough of age to rule yet.  Would be nice to see how exactly Chrom died I mean the events surrounding it and what was happening with Robin among all those years, but I think a DLC similar to the Ashe Wolves in Three Houses can answer it, specially because of all the variants in the game, like Robin's second child, Lucina's siblings and Lissa and Chrom's spouses: A dlc could adjust to that; while a totally new game would need to play with too many variants like letting vague who was the previous queen of Ylisse; Lucina's sibling; Morgan's gender or if Robin had more children, this can hurt the plot.

For example, Lucina being Robin's child would change the story substantially, and ignoring it would make the plot weird. Morgan being sister of any of the other children aka for example, dunno Cynthia being child of Grima's vessel who brought destruction to the continent gives another lawyer to the character that shouldn't be ignored.  That's why a DLC would be the answer. 

As for Awakening direct prequel covering the Crusades: 

* Protagonist is Plegian. The story is in the point of  view of a Plegian, but here's the thing: Grimleal can't be shown as the good guys since it's basically a satanic group, so I can see two things happening: the protagonist is a reluctant member of Grimleal born into the cult but disagrees with it therefore it's a great opportunity to show the insides politics of Grima's church and that there was nice people there too who wanted to reform the institution, despite everything. Or protagonist a mercenary hired to help his/her country Plegia when it's being invaded and is very critical of both sides. It could be a very gray and political oriented story if done well. 

* Chrom's father is the antagonist but a complex one. He could be a sympathetic protagonist, or a fanatical religious but with good points 

* The game starts in Plegia and ends on them marching to Ylisse's throne or something like that. 

* Robin's mother appear but as a major NPC, show how she escaped  away and her role in the Grimleal. Robin appears only as a child, but with ambiguous gender, maybe even with their hair covered by any headpiece Young Validar appears too. They would be the "Zephiel", "Hellene" and "Desmond" of Awakening's prequel. 

* Someone from Tharja's family as playable character. Small Tharja could make a cameo as well. 

* Other than that, on "enemy's side" Chrom's mother, members of Maribelle and Sully families would be a great nod, probably their parents or uncles/aunts.  

* Talking about Maribelle, visiting Themis while they are entering Ylisse would be a great opportunity to expand the world building. Maribelle seemed to like diplomacy but what about her family? 

* Emmeryn was only a child when it happened. She could appear but it's not like she was plotting to kill people at that age unless she was getting ideas from someone older, I honestly liked this idea of her commiting patricide for the greater good, but the main problem is that the timeline makes this impossible to happen. Frederick was also too young at the time to be a playable character, he is not older than Emmeryn.  

 

I would be wary about shoving in too many characters just for the sake of it, but on consideration, Nowi would definitely be alive in some capacity at the time and we first meet her in Plegia. The exact situation of Manaketes in the world of Ylisse is also just non existent so using it as an oppertunity to explain it would be cool. LIkewise of the playable cast, Gregor, whom we also meet in Plegia (but he's actually from...somewhere else) seems like the most natural to fit into a prequel as he'd still be around and age appropriate.

[genesis]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I would be wary about shoving in too many characters just for the sake of it, but on consideration, Nowi would definitely be alive in some capacity at the time and we first meet her in Plegia. The exact situation of Manaketes in the world of Ylisse is also just non existent so using it as an oppertunity to explain it would be cool. LIkewise of the playable cast, Gregor, whom we also meet in Plegia (but he's actually from...somewhere else) seems like the most natural to fit into a prequel as he'd still be around and age appropriate.

I feel you, shoving characters randomly is messy, but Fire Emblem has a playable cast of at least 30 units, and around 40 chapters (counting paralogues), so there's room to make Tharja's parents playable, for example, and have one or two chapters focused on Themis since it's apparently in the borders between Ylisse and Plegia.

Considering Chrom's father would be inevitably a major character,  his wife making at least a cameo is inevitable; and if the  main character is an insider of Grima's church, probably they will know the woman who gave birth to the incarnation of their god aka Robin's mother, it doesn't even need to be a major plot point, she could be a background kind of character like Hellene and Zephiel in Blazing Blade. 

Completely forgot Nowi. Having her dancing in a tavern and no one suspecting that she is actually a prisoner could be a great nod, even though that would be very tragic 😞