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DefyingFates
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We needed just a couple more scenes, is it seriously too much to ask that the ending has more than one scene? Just one clarifying Ash and Elm's fate, and one clarifying the state of Embla after all of this. What we got was good, Embla kind of hand the Shonen Villain thing where the flashbacks are shown right before she died, but again the writing we got was good, there just isn't enough.

Edit: of course we will get our animated cutscene which I think might have Ash and Elm? So we are getting something more.

Edited by Aedan7479
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18 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

It's weird seeing you compliment FE writing...

Anyway, I agree: taken in isolation, the flashbacks are really well written... but they would have been so much more effective if we'd gotten them earlier in the story, at the very least when she and Askr first appeared: being thrown in at the last second robs them of all their impact. At least Freyja was shown to care for the Alfar to some extent during the story so there was some precedent for her big sacrifice at the end, even though she kept acting like her vendetta against Freyr and humanity was more important (huh, that's just like Embla now that I think about it...)

But again, if you look at them as their own thing, the flashbacks were interesting.

The flashbacks are pretty decent at establishing how Embla's descent into hatred progressed. It's interesting to actually see that she did care about mortals once, and what caused her to despise them. Her state of mind is at least realistic enough to not make me go "oh, come on". And I got a Zephiel vibe from her. Like, the actions of one shitty human being caused an overreaction towards all of humanity in them that just went WAY too far. This kind of helps her out a bit because I did think Zephiel is one of the better written villains who's supposed to have a sympathetic backstory.

Like Zephiel, Embla's actions also aren't excused in the story. It allows her to feel the way she does, but draws the line when she wants to exterminate the human race because she thinks they're all like that one guy. It's not the pinnacle of writing, of course, but it did what it needed to do. Too bad their competence shows only in the writing of those flashbacks 😛

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I don't think its quite all about ''one guy''. More that Embla's reaction to the assassination causes a chain of event where she gets harsher, and whenever she gets harsher mortals start to fear her, and the more they fear here the harsher they get. 

Rather than fear about further assassination it seems more that Embla fears her subjects rejecting and forgetting her. Also her assuming that the chad Askr takes the side of humans over hers probably wasn't helping her state of mind. 

 

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18 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I don't think its quite all about ''one guy''. More that Embla's reaction to the assassination causes a chain of event where she gets harsher, and whenever she gets harsher mortals start to fear her, and the more they fear here the harsher they get. 

Rather than fear about further assassination it seems more that Embla fears her subjects rejecting and forgetting her. Also her assuming that the chad Askr takes the side of humans over hers probably wasn't helping her state of mind. 

 

It wasn't a progression, though. There was one guy who tried to kill Embla, but she killed him instead, and Elm walks in on this scene. At the time, Embla was stunned, and explains what happened. Elm says that the line of reasoning makes sense: that since Embla's blood is the source of power, that there will be mortals who want to try to kill her in order to take her blood in order to gain more power. In response to this (during this same one conversation), Embla decides that she was right before: that mortals (on the whole) can't be trusted. That's when Elm starts warning her against turning her wrath onto them since then even those devoted to her would start to fear and despise her. Taking his warning to heart, she delays bringing judgement down on them until after she's talked with Askr to warn him about mortals' treacherous nature. (It's unclear how long it is between her conversation with Elm and her subsequent conversation with Askr, but she's already formed her opinion against mortals by this point, and it was, in fact, because of the actions of that one guy who tried to kill her.) During her conversation with Askr, she's appalled that even though he (Askr) knows there's a chance they'll turn on him, he wants to trust them anyway. That's when she decides to turn against mortals and that is what lead to the people of Embla (country) fleeing Embla (country) to Askr (country) and begging Askr (deity) to protect them from Embla (deity), which lead to Askr (deity) confronting Embla (deity) about her treatment of mortals. She's unrepentant, however.

So, basically, because one mortal betrayed her trust by trying to kill her, she decided that all mortals were not to be trusted. As for why she became a wrathful deity, though, there are hints that she was trying to protect Askr from them. (I.e., her fearful concern as she said Askr's name after she realized the treacherous nature of mortals, that she went to warn Askr about the mortals before she launched her counteroffensive, etc. So, she does care about Askr a lot (makes sense -- he'd been reaching out to her in friendship for a long time, and he was probably about the only companion she had until she gained worshippers among the mortals.) but she thinks he's too stupid and open-hearted for his own good.) Her actions against mortals, however, led to Askr expressing his disapproval, and Embla interpreted that as a betrayal -- that he was taking their side instead of hers, despite (in her mind) how all the evidence points to them being undeserving of trust or mercy. So, she blames Askr for her loneliness, because he chose the mortals instead of continuing to be her friend, and she despises the bad she sees in mortals as well. This led to her desiring to kill Askr and everyone with his blood, and how she treats mortals' lives as worthless for the most part, but occasionally somewhat useful, but never more than animals.

So, yeah, there was corrosion over time (that's how grudges work) but Embla was the one who isolated herself in the end, and she decided what she thought of mortals based on only one guy's actions. It's sad, but this sort of thing isn't uncommon: going through one bad experience and hating everyone who shares one, singular trait with the offender, whether that be race, ideology, or whatever else. All it is is seeing the worst in people and painting with a broad brush instead of letting each individual's own actions and thoughts define them.

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So we're not getting an ending vid this time around? I recall Hell, Freya and Eitri all got a cutscene devoted to their defeat or its aftermath pretty soon after the book ended.

I'm going to assume the next book will be Feh's version of Ragnarok. All the realms have been showcased and the Veronica arc is concluded, so a big final confrontation is probably all that's left. There's not that much new units to add either. At least not before Engage. Its probably team Askr versus Thor, Loki and the inevitable waifu Odin. 

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6 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

So we're not getting an ending vid this time around? I recall Hell, Freya and Eitri all got a cutscene devoted to their defeat or its aftermath pretty soon after the book ended.

I'm going to assume the next book will be Feh's version of Ragnarok. All the realms have been showcased and the Veronica arc is concluded, so a big final confrontation is probably all that's left. There's not that much new units to add either. At least not before Engage. Its probably team Askr versus Thor, Loki and the inevitable waifu Odin. 

I think they were closer to the end of the month.

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21 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

So we're not getting an ending vid this time around? I recall Hell, Freya and Eitri all got a cutscene devoted to their defeat or its aftermath pretty soon after the book ended.

I'm going to assume the next book will be Feh's version of Ragnarok. All the realms have been showcased and the Veronica arc is concluded, so a big final confrontation is probably all that's left. There's not that much new units to add either. At least not before Engage. Its probably team Askr versus Thor, Loki and the inevitable waifu Odin. 

Honestly, not sure if they're ready for Ragnarok or not. There's room for at least 1 more book before then, especially with Rearmed Lif hinting at new plot events (even hinting that he, himself will be a foe.) Also, Alfador is confirmed male by various dialogue that has already appeared in the game, so when we do fight him, he will be a he. (And if we count Lif being undead as Alfonse, then Hrid will be the only male who did not die whatsoever in the entirety of FEH's story (since I'm certain Alfador will wind up croaking by the end of the game.) Wow. UNLESS they add another male character and actually keep him alive.)

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3 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Honestly, not sure if they're ready for Ragnarok or not. There's room for at least 1 more book before then, especially with Rearmed Lif hinting at new plot events (even hinting that he, himself will be a foe.) Also, Alfador is confirmed male by various dialogue that has already appeared in the game, so when we do fight him, he will be a he. (And if we count Lif being undead as Alfonse, then Hrid will be the only male who did not die whatsoever in the entirety of FEH's story (since I'm certain Alfador will wind up croaking by the end of the game.) Wow. UNLESS they add another male character and actually keep him alive.)

Yeah, I think we've got at least one more book due before Ragnarok. I don't know if Ymir/ Eir's home counts as Vanaheim, so if not we could get a story there to get the eighth realm out of the way before facing Alfadhor? That could tie up some plot threads instead of rushing through everything in just one Book (though they'd probably be just as likely to try that). I wouldn't be surprised if IS decided to make a filler Book to pad out the story's runtime on top of that either.

And that's not even getting into the possibility of another Book like VI where we go to familiar territory for another reason; for example what if we got an entire Book about Lif's anti-hero Avengers instead of getting that story told through TT+s (as I'm sure the Book IV one would at least partially do)?

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5 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

And that's not even getting into the possibility of another Book like VI where we go to familiar territory for another reason

We'll return to Nifl and Muspell so we can kill off Hrid and complete an idealized(?) world of only main characters and females.

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46 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

We'll return to Nifl and Muspell so we can kill off Hrid and complete an idealized(?) world of only main characters and females.

Is Xander also a main character now or is he also sweating bullets there with Hrid?

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10 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Is Xander also a main character now or is he also sweating bullets there with Hrid?

Thankfully for Xander, he's a recurring character who has his origins in Fates rather than FEH, so he's safe. The worst that can happen to him is that he either gets forced into a contract with someone with opposing goals to his own, or he just gets sent back home.

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4 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Thankfully for Xander, he's a recurring character who has his origins in Fates rather than FEH, so he's safe. The worst that can happen to him is that he either gets forced into a contract with someone with opposing goals to his own, or he just gets sent back home.

Then again, if he's Birthright Xander, his 'fate' is already sealed.

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20 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I wouldn't worry for Hrid. He never did anything important so no villain has a reason to take him out.

20 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

True enough xD

I know this is a popular opinion, but I actually disagree there. It's just that what he did was largely offscreen. He led Nifl's forces and stalled Surtr and his army's main force long enough for Gunnthra to do her part, for Fjorm to get help, and for the Askrans to arrive. Nifl may have been completely destroyed before the Askrans could stop Surtr if not for his intervention.

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13 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

I know this is a popular opinion, but I actually disagree there. It's just that what he did was largely offscreen. He led Nifl's forces and stalled Surtr and his army's main force long enough for Gunnthra to do her part, for Fjorm to get help, and for the Askrans to arrive. Nifl may have been completely destroyed before the Askrans could stop Surtr if not for his intervention.

That's fair, but he does become completely irrelevant as soon as he makes a physical appearance. You can't deny that 😛

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5 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

That's fair, but he does become completely irrelevant as soon as he makes a physical appearance. You can't deny that 😛

Hmm "soon after," yeah, but not "as soon as." He at least debriefs everyone on the situation and is either in the care of doctors for those burns or assists the Askrans about as much as all the other implied characters (including Fjorm herself, honestly.) That's not really his fault, though. Anyway, my only point was that he didn't not participate in important events -- he just wasn't focused on in the writing.

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43 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Hmm "soon after," yeah, but not "as soon as." He at least debriefs everyone on the situation and is either in the care of doctors for those burns or assists the Askrans about as much as all the other implied characters (including Fjorm herself, honestly.) That's not really his fault, though. Anyway, my only point was that he didn't not participate in important events -- he just wasn't focused on in the writing.

I see what you mean. I do wish he'd had more of an on-screen presence though. You feel the same way, right?

...but that would have likely killed him, so maybe he did the smart thing by staying out of the way of things.

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I think the next book should consider retiring Anna or Sharena from the main party in order to make the cast more manageable. They could still be around but more like how characters like Henriette and Loki only make the occasional appearance rather than being in every single cutscene. 

For about four or even five books IS clearly doesn't know what to do with the two. Whenever someone needs to happen it always centers around Alfonse and the book's waifu. Sharena and Anna are only their as background flavor going ''Hi I'm the cute sister!'' and ''I'm the serious one if we're not talking about money''. This is mostly because the main cast is usually pretty crowded and Veronica joining the team isn't going to make that any better. Now Alfonse, the book waifu, Anna, Sharena, to some extend the summoner and now Veronica too all need to fight for a very brief moment of screentime. 

Replacing Alfonse with Sharena would be ideal but the writers missed that chance. Book 4 was supposed to be about Sharena but instead she only got a subplot that the writers refused to commit to, and the main story was still directed through ''Alfonse''. Even Alfonse being incapacitated during much of book four was written in a way that ensured the cutscenes would still be driven by Alfonse and that the focus would go to someone other than Sharena. Alfonse staying behind to rule, becoming ill and in need of medicine, getting kidnapped or sealed away and Sharena stepping up would be a good way to bring Sharena to the spotlight, but with the story moving into its final stretches its too late for that. 

Or they could change things up and actually put the focus on team Embla. The summoner going on an adventure with Veronica, Xander and a new book waifu to make for a more manageable cast. 

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Well, they forgot Ash and Elm, but remembered Sharena! This is charming, and fitting, but it does stick out a little since Sharena hasn't had as much screentime or development as Alfonse, and she isn't even in either of the other movies for the book.

Also on a semi related note, I guess ascended Veronica counts as this book's 6th character, which is a little disappointing; I doubt we'll ever see Veronica's step mother now. I feel like Book 5 wrapped up better, but this Book addressed more important plot points. 

So, Alfador for Book 7?

 

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4 hours ago, Aedan7479 said:

 

D'aww, this is really cheesy but oh so sweet. A nice way to round out the Askr/ Embla plot.

Now back to the basement you go, Sharena! It was nice having you while it lasted!

(I do like this short though. So wholesome!)

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