King Jesse is actually a really weird idea

[Jotari]

So Jesse starts his own mercenary kingdom in the desert per is ending. This is in both Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia, in fact it's in a whole bunch of endings as other characters join him...isn't that kind of super random? Like...Jesse is not a major character by any stretch in either game. He's not even memorable in terms of gameplay given how low his level is when he joins. Shadows of Valentia tried to smooth it over a bit by having some lines during the game saying he wants to do it, but it still doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Who is Jesse? How can he organize this? Who goes a long with it and just accepts this random mercenary guy as, not just a leader but an actual king?

It's also weird thematically as the ending of the game focuses on unifying Valentia and healing the rift between Duma and Mila. But Jesse means they don't. Alm isn't king of the One Kingdom of Valentia, he's king of most of Valentia with Jesse just seizing a portion of it. Sure it's probably the worst part of it being all deserty and all, but still, how does Alm feel about this? He's never met Jesse outside of that one final battle. Celica might out a good word for him, but what kind of precedent does this set? Could Grey or Tobin just declare themselves kings of minor territories and everyone would go along with it because they're all friends?

And then, what does this kingdom even do? It's a mercenary kingdom, which isn't a super realistic economic model, but sure, we can accept Ilia and Thracia so mercenary kingdoms are fine in Fire Emblem...only...who are they lending their services too? There is only one other polity in Valentia aside from them. Why would Alm ever hire them? Who would they fight? Maybe local lords would hire them to fight bandits, but then that just means Alm isn't doing his job of suppressing such elements with his own knights. It seems the only really useful thing someone could do with a mercenary kingdom for hire is try to use them to overthrow Alm. Unless Jesse's market is actually on foreign shores and the likes of Grust are utilizing them. But he runs into the same issue there of Marth having just united all of Archanea and having no one to fight (well other than Pyrathi in my fan game, bit I digress).

It just seems like Jesse as a king is a ridiculous idea both in concept and execution. Any way for it to functionally make sense requires both bizarre character choices and large breakdown of peace that the games try to provide as happy endings.

[Acacia Sgt]

There's also the Terrors still being a thing, as the merchant asking for protection through the Archanean Seaway demonstrates.

Also, Jesse's ending does state this:

In times of strife, he worked with Alm to secure peace.

Which means that, yes, things weren't fully peaceful after the game. Maybe stubborn Duma Faithful remnants trying to stir up trouble or something. Also, we don't really get a sense of how much large this kingdom is. Sounds like it could be a textbook definition of Petty Kingdom. Or maybe it's a non Westphalian state, so it doesn't clash with the One Kingdom as far as "lording over territory" is concerned.

[Jotari]

13 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

There's also the Terrors still being a thing, as the merchant asking for protection through the Archanean Seaway demonstrates.

Also, Jesse's ending does state this:

In times of strife, he worked with Alm to secure peace.

Which means that, yes, things weren't fully peaceful after the game. Maybe stubborn Duma Faithful remnants trying to stir up trouble or something. Also, we don't really get a sense of how much large this kingdom is. Sounds like it could be a textbook definition of Petty Kingdom. Or maybe it's a non Westphalian state, so it doesn't clash with the One Kingdom as far as "lording over territory" is concerned.

Well terrors being about just hits the same point I made about bandits. If people feel the need to employee Jesse's mercenaries from a foreign nation then it reflects quite badly on Alm and his ability to keep peace within his own borders.

[Acacia Sgt]

11 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Well terrors being about just hits the same point I made about bandits. If people feel the need to employee Jesse's mercenaries from a foreign nation then it reflects quite badly on Alm and his ability to keep peace within his own borders.

Well, the Archanea Seaway is not part of the One Kingdom.

Also, just saying, but I would think that not every job they'd get hired for has to involve combat.

There's still the matter that we don't know how large is this "kingdom" exactly. It could just be like fifty people using Greith's old citadel as their home base for all we know.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, the Archanea Seaway is not part of the One Kingdom.

Also, just saying, but I would think that not every job they'd get hired for has to involve combat.

There's still the matter that we don't know how large is this "kingdom" exactly. It could just be like fifty people using Greith's old citadel as their home base for all we know.

Being custodians of the sea lane could certainly work, and would work for head canon that Archanea and Valentia grow closer in the post game era. Though, I wouldn't say it's actually like a mercenary kingdom being some kind of merchant guard.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

This is in both Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia, in fact it's in a whole bunch of endings as other characters join him...isn't that kind of super random? Like...Jesse is not a major character by any stretch in either game.

You underestimate the powerr of the chin.

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

Who goes a long with it and just accepts this random mercenary guy as, not just a leader but an actual king?

Jesse and Kamui. The swordbros touched tips.

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

Alm isn't king of the One Kingdom of Valentia, he's king of most of Valentia with Jesse just seizing a portion of it. Sure it's probably the worst part of it being all deserty and all, but still, how does Alm feel about this?

Yeah, he just lost a desert fortress (!), so no other rat can go and nest there. At the same time, Grieths pirates seemed to control basically every part of the eastern coast from the island with the priory, all the way to the citadel itself.

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

He's never met Jesse outside of that one final battle. Celica might out a good word for him, but what kind of precedent does this set?

Jesse did fight for Celica for a good part of the campaign, did theoretically help him to kill god and has saved Silque at one occasion I think? Not the worst resume.

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

who are they lending their services too?

I think Atlas´ ending has something about him fending of some bandits, but I can´t tell if it´s supposed to be has defended of is still defending? Also the pirates that kill Clive in his mathildaless ending and I think Pythons forsythless ending has something about some rebellion (the hell?) somewhere?

[Original Alear]

Jesse is kinda vaguely like Jyosua in terms of name and class. Isn't there something in his character background about being lucky? Or maybe when he gets good growths, he makes comments about the goddess of luck? I tried looking online and didn't see anything.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I assume that Jesse's "kingship" is ultimately subordinate to Alm's. Like how you had multiple Kingdoms in the Holy Roman Empire. Alm and Celica are fine with Jesse and friends doing their things in a deserted corner of the continent. If he tried to "take over" somewhere more important, then Alm might step in to stop him.

But yeah, a Mercenary Kingdom is a dumb model. Mercenaries survive by being hired by someone - be it ordinary townsfolk tired of bandits, or nobles with political intrigue in mind. By concentrating themselves in a corner of the continent with no townsolk or nobles, they've made themselves impossible (or at least, impractical) to hire. Their client base is all dried up... like a desert. Only way it makes sense is if, in the newly pacified One Kingdom of Valentia, there's no need for Mercenary work. So it's a kingdom of former Mercenaries, doing whatever it takes to get by.

On 6/6/2023 at 9:58 PM, Original Alear said:

Jesse is kinda vaguely like Jyosua in terms of name and class. Isn't there something in his character background about being lucky? Or maybe when he gets good growths, he makes comments about the goddess of luck? I tried looking online and didn't see anything.

I think so, if he gains Luck on level-up. He also refers to himself as "Mila's plaything" on promotion. The ultimate f-boy.

[Jotari]

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

I assume that Jesse's "kingship" is ultimately subordinate to Alm's. Like how you had multiple Kingdoms in the Holy Roman Empire. Alm and Celica are fine with Jesse and friends doing their things in a deserted corner of the continent. If he tried to "take over" somewhere more important, then Alm might step in to stop him.

But yeah, a Mercenary Kingdom is a dumb model. Mercenaries survive by being hired by someone - be it ordinary townsfolk tired of bandits, or nobles with political intrigue in mind. By concentrating themselves in a corner of the continent with no townsolk or nobles, they've made themselves impossible (or at least, impractical) to hire. Their client base is all dried up... like a desert. Only way it makes sense is if, in the newly pacified One Kingdom of Valentia, there's no need for Mercenary work. So it's a kingdom of former Mercenaries, doing whatever it takes to get by.

I think so, if he gains Luck on level-up. He also refers to himself as "Mila's plaything" on promotion. The ultimate f-boy.

Some kind of subordinate kingdom does make more sense, but it doesn't seem to be what Jesse is actually after. As this is what he says in his support with Saber.

A country made for folks like us, free from Zofia and Rigel both. No nobles! No commoners! Just a place where anyone can live free. And when somebody asks for our help, we go help 'em! ...For a fee, of course.

So his specific goal is to be free of external influence and his specific model is helping people for cash. That doesn't necessarily need to be fighting I guess, they could be tilling houses or something, but still awfully out of the way to set up camp in the desert.

[Aedan7479]

Don't forget, the Mercenary Country idea is also done on Elibe with Ilia. No matter if it's war time, post-war time, or a peaceful time, there would be some need for mercenaries, to fight or protect people, escort them, or just for manpower. I imagine it would work like the Ninja villages in Naruto, where teams are assigned jobs like a guild.

As for Jesse himself, well in terms of Etymology, 'Jesse' was the name of King David's father. And in the Valentian Accordian, we learn he was a noble who ran away to prevent succession issues, like Balthus without the debt, so he likely already had some knowledge about running a region.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Aedan7479

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Aedan7479 said:

Don't forget, the Mercenary Country idea is also done on Elibe with Ilia. No matter if it's war time, post-war time, or a peaceful time, there would be some need for mercenaries, to fight or protect people, escort them, or just for manpower. I imagine it would work like the Ninja villages in Naruto, where teams are assigned jobs like a guild.

Yeah but unlike Ilia and South Thracia, Jesse's mercenary kingdom isn't situated on a continent with multiple other other nations in need of service. And as silly as the idea is, Ilia and Thracia have a huge advantage on this front in that they have a monopoly on flying mounts giving them much better transport and logistics options than other kingdoms. Jesse doesn't have that (Clair is literally the only Valentian we see with a flying mount, even enemy pegasus or draco knights don't exist) and is situated on a continent with one other country (a country his territory has very recently been a part of). Even if Alm's knights are doing a poor job of protection pilgrims or dealing with bandits, Jesse's men don't have an ample supply of pegasi to just hop on, they need to hike out of their desert first and reach whomever need help and hope that their services are still needed.

I guess if we want to headcanon (that is to say fanfic) a solution, then wayward king without a country Michalis could show up to save Jesse's day, bringing knowledge of Wyvern riding to Jesse and Valentia. Jesse then having connections with Macedonia would help his ability to find jobs in both Archanea and Valentia. This would also be a satisfying explanation to Michalis' ending where he's rumoured to have conquered another continent (only loosely reinterpreting conquer to mean he conquered Valentia using the power of business!).

But obviously they weren't thinking of that when they wrote this, especially in 1992. Would be cool though, and the Accordion has introduced the idea of Valentia and Macedonia being connected with that fluff about Macedonian Vikings.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Jotari

[Aedan7479]

Wyvern Valley in awakening is roughly located where the desert in Gaiden/Echoes is. I feel like if the developers were more willing to change up Gaiden's maps, we could've gotten some wyvern rider enemies with the Pirates and Greith's army; we know that they've at least been near Macedon to kidnap Est, and Echoes desperately needed enemy variety.