NekoKnight

Can you guys provide some specific citations for where you are getting these lore ideas? I know about the Natasha x Knoll support (Dark magic is knowledge, Light magic is faith) and the discussion of Kenneth (faith need not be in a literal god). Specifically I want to know where it is said that Elibe magic takes energy from both the tome and wielder and how Anima magic is powered by "philosophy". The matter of faith vs knowledge is a bit vague. Does merely having faith give one the potential to draw forth light magic? Is 'knowledge' studying books that tell one how to conceptualize dark magic, or is it recorded words that call forth magic? Does magic have an origin or is it created and shaped by the user?

If dying in a futile attempt to defend their country is so great a privilege, they can keep fighting even after the Hoshidan royals are killed or captured. Not stopping the war in chapter 18, isn't "giving them a chance", Hoshido has no hope of winning the war unless Kamui magically saves the day so they're just pushing their eventual defeat back. Their options are "everyone dies in battle" or "maybe we'll be killed after we surrender". You seem to think "everyone definitely dies" is the better option. Dude wat? The "lesser of possible evils" is "Hoshidans are captured but not killed. Hoshido surrenders immediately and Garon sits on the throne. Gooron is revealed and the Nohrians kill him." That golden ending, no matter how many other possible outcomes, is not possible if they let the royals go. Chapter 18 provides a wonderful controlled situation where Kamui has everything he needs to force Hoshido's capitulation. If the lives of his Hoshidan siblings matter to him, he can spirit them away from Garon, just like how he allowed Hinoka to escape in chapter 24. By letting them rejoin their soldiers, he loses control of the situation and the siblings (and countless other Hoshidans and Nohrians) are MORE likely to die. Your argument boils down to "Every contrived factor that was needed for Gooron to reveal himself came together somehow, and there are theoretically worse outcomes, therefor they made the best possible choice."

Fair enough, although I still think he ought to have stayed in Hoshido. If Conquest is any indication, Cheve by itself isn't so powerful an ally that they needed them more than Ryoma's active leadership. "Stupid as it may have been" is exactly the point. The Nohrians had no reason to rescue the Hoshidans in Conquest and it was actually contrary to their goals. There is " not being needlessly dickish to your enemies" and then there is "helping your enemies". The former is nobility, the latter is stupidity. You might compare these examples to say the Nohrians are sometimes honorable and the Hoshidans are sometimes cruel, but that's a trick of the narrative. Ryoma acted as he should have (in that situation) whereas the Nohrians were nonsensical in their "compassion".

To me, it's just a matter of "twisted but interesting" vs "Straight-laced and boring". I despise the Conquest campaign with a fiery passion but I still think Revelation is worse because it fails to engage the player. Boring is an even worse sin than bad writing. The same goes for character writing. Sakura, Ryoma and Hinoka barely do anything noteworthy in the plot and their supports aren't very noteworthy either. Conversely, the Nohrian siblings play an integral and emotional role in both Conquest and Birthright and have hints of an intriguing backstory. What does Hoshido have that says "Cool, I want to know more about that!"

1. You could headcanon that he was trying to disrupt Nohr from the inside but not telling anyone where he was going and leaving the defense of his homeland to Yukimura was not very princely of him. 2. While Corrin being in charge was dumb, that's really more of a problem of the story as a whole than Ryoma. NO ONE questions Corrin's defacto leadership. 3. I won't write much about this because it's been done to death but Ryoma had no moral obligation to help out Elise. She's the princess of an enemy nation and actively assisting in the conquest of Hoshido. Ryoma's offer was pretty merciful, all things considered.

Maybe instead of her old retainers dying, they would be sent off for some reason, like she orders them to guard the path behind while the Hoshidan army pushes forward. Effie and Arthur protest of course but Hinoka promises to be her temporary retainer until Elise finishes her business with Xander.

I think it would be cool. Some people do "all avatar" runs anyway, so it would be even better if you could make the team yourself. I think it would work best if there were a separate mode where all recruited non-story characters were replaced with them. If you would normally get 3 characters in a chapter, you would instead get 3 generics that you could fully customize.

With an additional ranged weapon type (hidden weapons) I think they deserve their own triangle. I think it is silly that Knights get a WTA on mages (not that they are likely to dodge).

Yikes, that really is convoluted. This is what happens when you have 10 siblings who came from 7 different mothers.

Did someone say she was raised in seclusion? I find it doubtful that her existence was a secret. Granted, "young daughter of random mercenary" isn't 'need to know' information but if the BK knew where to find Greil, it's not hard to imagine that he had the group scouted. Either way "Hey, how do you even know I have a daughter" is the last thing on his mind when he's been impaled and bleeding out. I don't think Daein is as primitive as you make it sound. It's not literally the strong ruling the weak (although Ashnard would probably enjoy that if he got his way), it's more additional social mobility for those willing and able to take it. It sounds like it applies to military rank, not general governance (Daein is still a monarchy) so it's not like your local mayor is decided by who can best swing a battle axe. As for Crimea not being racist, the Laguz had to wear disguises while traveling through the Crimean port town and are reported to the Daein army when discovered. There were also vigilantes who were happy to assist in their capture, just because they were Laguz. Even after Crimea is being rebuilt, and getting assistance from the Beast tribe, people are still getting adjusted to not calling them sub-humans.

I like most of your ideas but this one is more dubious, in my opinion. I don't think Elise would be able to go on if her retainers died in the last battle and if they did, it would at least be mentioned. As far as Hinoka comforting her, it's a kind gesture and character development for Hinoka but I don't think Elise would be very receptive to it. She's a young girl who just saw two of her friends die. I don't think she's in the market for new retainers.

Sorry for off-topic but how are you approximating their ages? Are there context clues that give us a general sense of when the concubine war happened? Not just the "concubine wars", a lot of events in the backstory don't have a clear sequence. The birth order of the Hoshidans siblings plus the timing of when Mikoto arrived with Kamui, the timing of Kamui's kidnapping, when Garon became Gooron and when Elise was born. It's a real mess. I think this is pretty reaching, honestly. Nohr and Hoshido are largely interchangeable because so little is done to characterize them in the game. Mikoto's barrier is reminiscent of "sakoku" but I don't think the devs put much work into making Hoshido a true Japan parallel (much less allude to their own racism). As AzureSen said, the increased animosity in the localization was likely an attempt at injecting moral ambiguity (which fails anyway because they have every reason to distrust Nohr). Takumi is slow to trust everyone, that's just his personality not a trait shared by Hoshidans. As for Ryoma, I think the point being made is he was old enough to know that Mikoto is his step-mom, and he remembers his real mother who passed away.

Yeah, I could see it working in a heavily mage oriented society, or if magitech becomes a thing, a society that uses that. The point being is, for the villain's plan to work, everyone has to be using the same kind of stuff. To make a Game of Thrones analogy, rather than getting people to develop their sorcery (very few people can do this), they ought to augment every soldier with obsidian or flaming weapons to deal with the ice zombie threat.

I meant character by character. Niddo's premise would have a villain who wants people to develop their magic so that they are stronger as a society. This makes sense in a setting where EVERYONE uses technology/magic for battle, but in Fire Emblem, only a minority (9 out of 44 characters in Blazing Sword, to give an example) of characters actually use magic. Sure, there are magic weapons but those aren't supposed to be objectively better than their physical counterparts.

I think that even if he was merely feigning the intent to "visit horrors" upon Greil's children, it would still disqualify him from Camus status. He is never apologetic or uncomfortable about the hurt he inflicts. You need to be noble to balance out the villainy to be a sympathetic antagonist. Sinister + villainy just equals a straight villain. Parts of the Radiant Dawn story were obviously planned from the beginning, but I think Zelgius/BK had a lot of characterization retconned following the release of the second game. I like him as a villain in PoR, but they really ignored the man he was when we see him in RD.

This is what he said after mortally wounding Greil. Black Knight: Now then, will you give me what I came for? Greil: I...don't...have it...... ...I threw...it away... Black Knight: Ha. You, who knows better than any what it truly is, threw it away? Surely you can craft a more plausible lie. You're not even trying anymore. Greil: I'm done talking to you. Black Knight: So there's no way for me to get my answers, is that it? The dead keep their secrets, or so it is said. But you, however... You are not dead yet. I wonder... Will watching your son's face grow pale, his eyes grow dim as his life bleeds away... And then your daughter... Oh, the horrors I will visit upon her. Will that loosen your tongue, perhaps? I suppose we will simply have to see. I think murdering a man for your own amusement and then threatening to torture and murder his kids if he doesn't hand over an artifact of doom is pretty bad stuff. All through the duel and after it, he is mocking, arrogant and sinister. Edit: ninja'd

Well, if you ignore his scumbag behavior as the BK then maybe.

"Reverse" is a fan translation of "gyakuto", the localized weapons are called Dual ---, there isn't actually a connection between Reavers and Reverse, lol

It's been a while since I played SS but my impression was only a few people (Knoll among others) were really aware of the the Demon King awakening through the destruction of the Sacred Stones. Like, when Duessel questions the emperor, he's genuinely confused about the motives behind the war. Had it been widely known by the non-evil generals what would happen if Virgarde/Lyon succeeded, they probably would have turned on him immediately. Xander is hard to pin down. He was obviously intended to be a Camus but he is so inconsistent with his values that it's hard to tell if he's a villain or anti-villain. I think his writing is very similar to Nohrrin, someone who speaks to high morals but never acts on them until the end of the game when it's too late to change anything. This wouldn't be terrible writing if the game acknowledged his weakness of character but Fates treats the end of Conquest as his triumph, not his failure to detect Garon's evil or stand by his morals.

Here is something I proposed in the Camus thread on the general board. This character wouldn't be a primary antagonist but would survive a good portion of the campaign, dogging the heroes and making a mess of things before his eventual defeat. As a boy, the character was a citizen of a tiny nation conquered by "the Empire". He learned at a young age that power is the only objective "righteousness" and that heroic resistance to tyranny is both selfish and futile (both of his parents died as ineffectual rebels, leaving him all alone). He joins the empire but unlike many of his contemporaries, he is kind to those who submit to his power, treating them as equals. His signature trait is offering opponents before each battle to yield and join him, or die fighting. Eventually he comes across the heroes who stand up to the Empire despite the odds being stacked against them. As the heroes take victory after victory, this only enrages the Camus further because he sees it as a defiance of his entire worldview (making him doubt that he was just obeying the natural order of the world, and was instead just a coward and collaborator) so he makes it his personal mission to prove the heroes wrong by killing them. I drew some inspiration from Inspector Javert of Les Miserables and Kotomine Kirei of Fate/Zero. I like the idea of an antagonist with a strong and alien sense of values that drives them to make the protagonist their archenemy. The character arc ends with their death, having a severe identity crisis in the process. I think Walhart is the best analogue to this. He tries to conquer the continent because he knows Grima is coming and everyone needs to stand together. I think "magical development" (outside of Final Fantasy style Magitech) is a hard concept to translate to Fire Emblem, especially since a lot of people don't use magic at all. Do they just make stronger tomes or what?

Support!Xander = Top bloke, the best of all the siblings. Story!Xander = Irredeemable wanker, worst Camus Ryoma = Pretty boring, best served with butter Camilla = Good concept as a character but underdeveloped outside of her tits Hinoka = Literally who? Leo = Blarth, Bookbro, quality "middle child syndrome" writing Takumi = Not worthy of blame, the most reasonable reaction to Corrin, despite going insane Elise: Smartest sibling in Birthright, but generally tastes like diabetes. Sakura: Quiet strength and all that but s-s-stuttering wallflower is a tired character archetype So, um, I guess they are equal. Like the rest of the cast in their respective games, the Hoshido characters are generally more boring but they aren't as offensively awful people as the Nohrian characters. Among them, I'd rate Support!Xander, Leo and Takumi the best written. Camilla is my favorite character for headcanon because that concubine war stuff sounds interesting.

I would definitely like Reverse Weapons and Axe Splitter/Pike-Ruin Club/Sword Catcher. The Ruby/Emerald/Sapphire weapons Is this FF7? are decent but I think Reverse weapons already do the job of enhancing WTA, albeit in reverse.

I'd not have it damage himself. All of the bad skills can be tweaked to retain their theme but be make usable.

To be fair, the Japanese class name for Wyvern Rider is "Dragon Knight", so while there is a distinction between Manaketes and the "Wyverns" humans can ride, they are in the same family of "dragons", as humans are to primates. Inb4 "If wyverns come from dragons, then why do we still have dragons!?" I like the 4 legged variants (Elibe and Radiant Dawn especially) myself.

Hah, after reading a lot of posts here, I'm inclined to change my vote for Lloyd and Linus. Curse you Serenes, making me like my favorite game again! I do like Selena for being a foil to the other antagonists in the game. Glen has his doubts but is killed before he can take any action. Duessel immediately sees something wrong and defects when he gets the chance. Selena's recognizes her immorality but cannot change her path because of her feelings of gratitude. Three takes on essentially good people who make different choices. The noble old guard being replaced by a sinister new guard is reminiscent of the Black Fang. Glen is Linus/Lloyd, although we don't get a Duessel or Selena in Blazing Sword. I hope future games can have this diversity of antagonists. I understand the point you are making (in this and other posts), but I disagree. Xander doesn't become a better Camus because he eventually sides with the hero (Corrin in Conquest and Revelation) he just stops being a Camus at all. A Camus is supposed to be noble but has his loyalties misplaced, not a hypocritical villain who finally decides to stand for something. The Darth Vader comparison was apt but unlike Xander, I don't think anyone besides Luke thought Vader redeemed himself. As far as how he measures up to other Camus characters, I think the virtue of the character can be outweighed by the evilness of his master. Bryce, for example, doesn't defect even after learning of Ashnards crimes but by that point, Daein is making its last stand and he feels too set in his ways to change. Compare this to Xander who has seen his father's cackling insanity since the very beginning of the game and still does nothing. i don't think any kind of relationship could make one ignore Garon's threats to destroy the world.