Augestein

Neato. I agree this should be a sticky.

"I didn't choose the archer life. The archer life chose me." This portrait is pretty terrifying now that people mention it. It's not bad though.

This. The stories are those "I look at this the first, maybe second time I play through, and then after that, I skip it." Plus, most of them weren't even masterpieces in the first place.

Honestly, out of all of the plots, I feel like Conquest is the only one that's worthy of actually being defended to be honest. Conquest actually tries to have your character do something that might not necessarily be the right thing. Conquest actually has some form of tension and interesting dynamics out of all the stories presented. It's admittedly not done very well, but it gets major points for trying something that distinctly *not* the same as every other Fire Emblem in existence. Your character can't take the higher moral ground in arguments on the account that they are actually not entirely in the right-- with more evidence leaning towards the fact that they may be in the wrong. I like this. The team did not have the skill necessary to handle this type of story, but the fact that they tried was nice and a bit of fresh air honestly. What I like about Conquest is that Corrin sticks with his "wrong" decision and makes the best of what (s)he feels that they can do despite being woefully inept and under-prepared for the decision they make. Conquest being a colossal train-wreck is specifically because Corrin is an idiot. The game's dialogue is a bit wonky, but the fact of the matter is that things do not turn out "great" at the end of Conquest, and I like the bittersweet ending that was presented here more than the "and magically everything was good" in the very end. In that regard, I feel like Conquest captures the essence of a war far better than any other game in the series. People are happy that the war is over, but there were plenty of casualties to still cause stings overall. Some say Corrin is not a hero. But (s)he is a hero. To the Nohrian people. (S)He freed them from Garon's tyranny while simultaneously not allowing the country to be destroyed. Sure, you might say that "Hoshido was not the aggressor blah, blah, blah," but does that really mean that Nohr deserves to be trashed because Hoshido wasn't in the wrong? The answer to that is "no." This story is not very good, and definitely has some weak points, but I have seen much, much worse from video games. This story is no masterpiece, but I think people ARE a bit too harsh on it. Especially Conquest. At least it tried to do something out of the norm for Fire Emblem.

God, we need a topic where everyone writes their own "Fates" how the **** can a story have so many potential branches while keeping everything in tact? it's... Pretty nuts. Also the Crimson Harem needs to be a thing. Haha.

It doesn't have supernatural though. It could just be belief in a god. Look at it this way: Anankos isn't a god, but a dragon. That's all. He wants people to go back to having reverence for the gods. That's specifically NOT super natural. As a matter of fact, it's specifically the lack of supernatural that's even pressing him to do this. It's essentially him being like "you guys are blasphemers and should die if you don't believe." But man, evil Azura gets me, because if you make her bad, it makes so many of her actions suddenly make a lot more sense. You'd be all like "why the hell is everyone so stupid!?" And then Azura's like "Corrin, you really are an idiot! You'd help me because I acted nice? That's it!? I thought this would have been difficult, but you just fell right into my hands" She even would have been able to take a massive dump on all of Corrin's "this is for the good of the people," and "I trust everyone." She could have had kids with you, she could have pretended to like you for all that time only to laugh at you at the very end. Indeed. Heck, having characters behave differently like that would have been awesome. The problem is that so many characters just die before they can really say or do anything. I agree, this game's base is really solid, even the story itself isn't terrible at base. It's the way the plot unravels that's the problem. And this is exactly why I'd rather the lord be someone that doesn't necessarily fight, but you fight for them. Sort of like Ike's and Elincia's relationship. You're important enough to have an excuse to talk to everyone, you have enough say to dictate things without the world revolving around you, and you're the commander of the army, thus excusing why you're controlling most of the units. However, it doesn't leave every major decision in your hands nor does it make you the most important character in the game. Awakening kind of does this, but Chrom's relevance wanes later on as Robin's becomes overbearing.

That's only assuming that you really want Galeforce that much. Merc is nice for Kjelle I guess.

I think the issue is that they tried too hard to make one country sympathetic. The game starts out with Garon being a scumbag from the start-- kill these prisoners for target practice Corrin! And the game does its damnest to paint Hoshido in a good light. The generic random "monster" enemies in the game are naturally from Nohr, they couldn't have just been monsters in the world, and neither Nohr nor Hoshido couldn't be bothered to regulate them because they were too busy being focused on the other kingdom being a thorn in their side. Having both kingdoms being too busy fighting to pay attention to the common man would have been far better in painting both countries in a bad light. As this is a realistic thing to be done in the first place and it make the tone of the game less "this is good" "this isn't good." Realistically, there are many reasons that Nohr could be fighting, but here's one I'd like to share that people don't talk about. Hoshido being the initial aggressor. Think about it, when you visit Hoshido, all they talk about is how amazing Hoshido is, now imagine if Mikoto was a woman that was like "I should spread my peace and knowledge and greatness of Hoshido everywhere, because everyone in my country is happy." And other places are like "no, we don't want that," and then Mikoto takes a "you just don't understand. I will conquer you and make you understand just how good this is, you just don't know you want it because you've never experienced it" And this works from the plot, because my god were the Hoshido chapters getting on my nerves when I was doing them. So basically, maybe Hoshido was attempting to culturally dominate the continent with its influence, and such actions put Nohr in a bad spot, because if 3/4 of the continent believe in Hoshidan ideals, this could spark bad news for Nohr, and Garon knows it. Now, having said that, suddenly Garon sending Corrin with an explosive sword to blow up Mikoto is kind of awesome in this case. It's Garon basically saying "NO Mikoto! I've had enough of your garbage." Sure, it's not very nice that Garon was willing to use Corrin, but this is how you make gray storytelling. Where characters might do things that are wrong, but justifiable. However, it gives Hoshido a reason to counterattack, because the official declaration was an assassination of their queen. Both countries should have been portrayed as awful when you're playing as them. Like, the more you get to know the country, the more you realize that both are not very nice and have shady practices. My point here is this: there are many , many reasons for Hoshido and Nohr to go to war just based off of what we're given in the story. The issue is that there's not enough fluff given to develop any of them. Also, if Valla stays, I think Azura should be a villain. Like THE villain. In Conquest, she steers you to destroy Hoshido, in Birthright, Nohr. She's the villain to the point that Azura is the final boss with her Vallian troops instead of Slime Garon / Takumi. Revelations has you doing. Anankos can still be there, but let's make him have a character. He's mad that people don't have reverence for the god dragons anymore, and instead rely on their own discoveries and magic, and he wishes to instill that fear into the common man again. Azura, his child, is carrying out his dying wishes (yes, I'm changing it so Azura is the child instead). Villain Azura would and justify everything she does on other routes. Heck, you could even have things like Azura singing in Conquest be a hex that she was placing on Garon to choke him out, to push the Nohrians to fight harder rather than try to help him. I really want Azura to be a villain with her manipulating everyone and Hoshido and Nohr are the victims. Edit: I think the avatar should stay honestly. Having a customizable unit for your first unit instead of a boring sword locked (or just sword using in general) lord is better. Instead, have the lord be a character, and you're just his general. You fight, (s)he talks.

I know what you mean here. The problem is that it doesn't quite mesh with what Izuka was saying in the Pelleas fight from 4-5. Pelleas has a lot of problems being here in the plot tbh as a lot of things he says are some of the biggest contradictions and problems leading me to believe that he was never supposed to be alive. When the pact was actually made had to have been just at the end of part 1. It has to because Izuka gets out of dodge after part 1 and because Pelleas refers to himself as king when he promotes Micaiah. And your explanation is why I like Micaiah to be honest: she's put in a tough situation that she can run from, but she doesn't. She chooses to stand and fight. Even if the circumstances would have her be a villain. But both Corrin and Micaiah fall victim to the same problem, with one huge difference: Micaiah knows about the BP, Corrin doesn't know about Valla. Azura is honestly to blame here, and that makes it frustrating, because the only characters that know about it don't do anything, but the actual heroes of the story-- aside from Azura don't know. And the BP's backstory I found rather subpar, it's just like "this old wise merchant new about it," and it really brings up more questions than it actually answers. That bothers me more than a curse that was crafted by a powerful dragon. Both BP and VC are really convenient tools for events happening, but I find that its existence in RD causes more problems than VC in this case. I can see how someone can prefer this, but both have a myriad of problems. For the record, I found both stories pretty lousy, but considering that Fates is like that across the board, I find it less frustrating to take in than RD because RD is building off of PoR-- which while having an average story, didn't have problems with making sense. In Revelations, it's frustrating because Azura just straight up tells Corrin to come to the canyon and they go to Valla where she informs them immediately. The rest of the game is Corrin recruiting people until eventually Corrin rounds up enough to bring them all to the canyon again to go to Valla. It's not a very interesting story, but it sort of works. There's an end goal laid out from the start, and the characters work towards it. I played Rev first, so it's just jarring to see Azura be completely tight-lipped in the other routes while she isn't in Revelations. The story is kind of bland, but hey, so is FE1, but it works better in my eyes with that. Revelations should have been really the only path and the focus should have been only on that one instead so it could have been more developed. Characters in the plot of RD feel better, but I give more weight to the overarching plot being solid than the characters themselves honestly. This is probably why I believe Fates to be better in that regard. It's plot isn't a random set of events imo. As Thane put it, it's a linear path, and I feel that works better here.

Which still doesn't make Part 1 important at all. That literally could have happened in the 3 year time gap we get from PoR -> RD. It serves literally no purpose as part of the story in RD. And considering the BP signing, Pelleas' coronation, AND Daein's actual reconstruction happen off-screen (which truthfully, Daein isn't even truly reconstructed, so this is just nonsense from Sephrian, because the reason that Micaiah doesn't even resist much is because it *just* got its freedom and will fall apart in its state that it is in which would contradict the status of the country and her reasons for not resisting more against Pelleas' decision). But even Tibarn kinda calls him out on this and says "you're not the bad guy you want us to believe." As in Sephiran didn't do nearly as much as he proclaims and that it's more bait to anger everyone to kill him more than anything else. Like... There's nothing that Sephiran realistically could have manipulated and planned, as the original plan was simply to have Ashnard get the "dark god" revived. Part 1 is essentially PoR 2.0 with Micaiah being some weird combo of Elincia and Ike. And yeah, gotta agree with Arcaia here. The fact of the matter is that the BP wasn't needed because Daein itself was more than happy to fight. Would have simply been better if Pelleas just hated Laguz that much and was willing to simply fight in the war and Micaiah, his lead general, was worried about it. BP is just... Garbage. Like more trash than that dang curse IMO, because events become less about the character motivations and become "I have no choice, this pact binds me and makes me do things I don't want to." Hidden Truths I'm not even sure why they added, because it makes the story worse in that regard, because it merely adds more people to act like Azura and everyone else with the blood pact. It would have made for sense for them to be with Hoshido to defeat Garon. Gaidens. They could have literally been a side story. It's by no means mandatory. Like Ike's memory scene. Not necessary for the plot, but I guess it's interesting to know. Which is bizarre why Daein doesn't do it either. BP would have just randomly killed people in Crimea. How would that not be useful? It's literally a curse that just results in people dying each day. This is why an explanation for the BP is far more important than Valla's Curse. Valla's Curse is "you talk about it, you die." Short and simple. BP is "you can talk about it and there's no problem, but some guy has to activate it I guess in order for it to randomly select people that might be from your country, but not if they renounce their citizenship, so it's not even clear if it attacks the people in the country itself or people that hold relationships with the signer of some sort." Like the BP is just gross.

I know that they need both. My point is, what is Elincia going to do about Begnion's might? Say "no?" I mean, she already has her hands tied with facing the senators in Part 3 because Begnion is already its sovereign state. There's a reason I didn't mention the laguz here. Begnion doesn't have anything on them but slaves-- of which aren't actually citizens of any of the countries themselves. There's also the fact that the pact requires Pelleas to be heinously stupid to the point that not even a brick would be dumb enough to think you'd actually need to sign a signature in blood. Even the extended script finds this to be absolutely preposterous. Calling your own plot point ridiculous as a writer doesn't somehow make it not ridiculous. And while stupidity isn't a plothole, this isn't even just a standard spat of stupid here; I'm surprised that Pelleas can even remember how to walk. And what you've mentioned here is the one of the primary reasons that I find RD's plot to be a massive disaster of a plot. Micaiah and Pelleas are literally unnecessary for the game. Why do they need to be here at all? I don't even hate Micaiah or Pelleas, but this just demonstrates how completely pointless they are. Hell, by part 4, Micaiah isn't even really a character anymore so much as she is a walking plot device-- like she literally could have been an item or possessed Leanne instead. Part 2 introduced the GMs? Not necessary. Part 1 literally had Tormod and company go to the Laguz Alliance with Rafiel and inform the laguz of the treachery that happened which even kicks part 3 into motion. Ranulf then visits Ike to hire him as additional soldiers. Part 2 is useless. So is Part 1 because of the way Part 3 is written, and then Part 4 just takes a dump all over everything that happened beforehand and somehow handwaves peace afterward despite the fact that there's still conflicts to be had.

Ashnard used the bloodpact to rise to power. Because having Elincia even more under your thumb would be even better. Elincia's character has nothing to do with it. If you sign the blood pact, you're obligated to do their bidding, and had they done that. I see no reason why you wouldn't have tried. Like... There's no reason to not try to get anyone to try to sign a bloodpact. They could have effectively ruled every Beorc country at that point. But it isn't a nice approach. Pelleas knew, and there's no reason that Sothe or Tauroneo couldn't have left and told the other team. None. Especially because both were already associated with Ike, and Jill and Zihark can potentially defect, so it's not as though other people couldn't defect either. Especially when Sothe had already spoken out about discontent with Pelleas' decision to fight-- Micaiah as well. Micaiah even said that Sothe could leave if he wanted to. And refusing to seek help and instead dying or fighting a war with no actual hope / or plan for getting out of the BP is almost as mind blowing stupid as Corrin's plan to destroy Hoshido to not destroy Hoshido (with Corrin's being slightly less dumb, because at least the story acknowledges that (s)he is siding with their emotions rather than logically). I know what the BP was used for, it's used for about as weak of a reason that CQ and BR are: people don't want to talk because if they did, it would rip the plot in half. The issue with RD is that it has Part 1 kind of thrown to a void because there's no reason for them to gain independence if they can't actually express independence and are still under Begnion's thumb. Part 2 serves no purpose for the overarching plot. Seriously, Part 2 could have been a series of Gaidens or trial maps they are so irrelevant to the actual story. Characters like Brom, Nephenee, and Haar just kind of join because "why not." There really isn't a reason for them. And Part 3 degenerates into madness because of one poorly thought out plot point to make no one "wrong" but these evil one dimensional senators. Part 4 serves as a ceasefire if only to allow both teams to join up without the stupid BP actually being able to do anything-- which really doesn't make sense, because activated, you'd think it'd STILL have a chance to kill Micaiah and co. I mean, can it target people that are petrified and "miss" because petrify overrides death? I mean seriously, it's honestly worse just as bad, if not worse than Valla's curse.

Mighty Number 9? More like Failure Number 9 am I right guys!?

I can see that. I don't think it's that PoR is devoid of emotion, it's just that the characters speak very frank and mater-of-fact in the game. The localization is simply top-notch in RD. Very crisp, and clear. I get what's happening in RD, and as I said before, I don't feel like I ever read anything where I thought "what?" Funny you mention Greil's death, there's even a version of the script with Shinon or Gatire dead for each of them respectively. In the Shinon dead version, there's implications that Gatrie leaves not because of Ike, but he just sadly wonders off because his commander AND his best friend died with a week. So it leaves something a little bit more interesting: Gatire didn't seem to have any real personal problems with Ike like Shinon had. And I agree, little things like this are definitely lacking in Fates. And yeah, bases in PoR and RD worked wonders for world building in PoR - RD. Problem with Fates is that it's awfully filled with dialogue for a game that says so little with talking so much. That I can agree on.

I've been wondering about "optimum" children guides. Are we assuming mutually beneficial things for the parents too?

Seems like it. Well considering what happened to her afterward in Hoshido and the fact that the soldiers almost killed her, it makes some sense actually. And she adopts the "legion of stupid" paradigm that Corrin supports. This might also be because I have special edition, but I'm fine with you having choices in a game that are *wrong* and the game lets you play the entire game instead of just saying "nope, you're wrong, lol you died." I mean RD is guilty of this as well with a certain choice that blocks you out of a unit and it FORCES you to take it your first playthrough. It also has the fortune of disbarring you from getting a single dark using tome user your first playthrough because... Reasons? As for the three characters from Awakening? Come on, let's look at this losers for a minute here. What were they supposed to be doing in Awakening? I assure you, not what any of them were doing. Sadly, it's consistent with their characters from Awakening (for better or worse). Thing is, characters know about the BP, but kind of shrug about it being super secretive about it for no real reason. At least they learned with Valla's curse and made it a plot point that you can't just shout it to the heavens or you blow up I guess. And the characters don't react to it for the most part because it's kind of difficult to react to something you don't know about. But... He would want that to happen. That's the issue.

Yes, and it's the same for the Valla curse in Fates. It's simply to make the characters not immediately charge down the canyon with both the entire forces of Hoshido and Nohr and wreck Anankos immediately. BP retroactively states that it's what causes Ashnard to get to where he is in PoR, it's responsible for Naesala's actions in PoR apparently. What happens with Valla's curse is literally the same type of writing. The difference is that pretty much all of the conflict in RD basically degenerates to "the senate." The same cannot be said about the conflicts in Fates. Hoshido and Nohr already have bad ties with each other, and as far as the history that seems apparent in Fates, they have never had particularly good ties. Yes, and MC Productions brings up a good point as well. Why wasn't the BP used on Elincia? Could they just read better or something? Would she even know how to recognize a BP to not sign it? How would one even refuse to sign a blood pact, because to normal eyes it'd look like they were refusing to sign an alliance / for peace. Pelleas is a better character than Corrin by virtue of not being an avatar character. Mark is like the only good one. And with the BP, there's no reason to not have someone like Jill, Zihark, Sothe, Tauroneo, or even Volug go back over to Ike's team and just plain say "Psst, there's a blood pact that's why they fight." The only thing to "stop" this is "we have invisible spies." I mean, freaking really? Really now? Weak. Like weaker than Azura not talking weak. Azura being stupid is a flaw, but stupidity isn't a plothole. Just the character being a complete moron. The only thing we get is that it might do is that it might kill at a rate of X number of people for X number of days. Killing the senates team and fixing the blood pact would definitely kill less than random deaths of soldiers from the BP. Even with it there, doing nothing would potentially kill slower than participating in a freaking war. And how long would the senate actually last against ... The entire continent? Part 4 demonstrates this: not long at all, and these were super goddess blessed senate followers as well.

Agreement. Just talkin' is all.

Plot curse is stupid, no doubt and I agree that Azura not opening her mouth was a huge problem and I am of the opinion that Azura should have died as of chapter 6 on BR and CQ. However, the difference is that people just give up on trying to mention Valla. The blood pact is literally responsible for pretty much everything that happens in RD. It's literally "a wizard did it." Even the big reveal with the big bad makes even less sense because they actually didn't do anything, the BP and the senators are what did this. It even happens to be responsible for certain key characters' actions as well, which is worse in my eyes than "this one thing that makes the plot start and then is never mentioned again depending on the route because people can't mention it." I mean the blood pact has Pelleas mentioning that if Zihark and/or Jill rage quit the country they should be safe from the curse which makes me question how effective the blood pact's curse is as well. If everyone can just say "I renounce my position as a Daein citizen." And be fine? Plus, BP is literally responsible for pretty much ... Every villain that's present in PoR through a silly retcon. With that in mind, I find the introduction of the BP much worse than Valla's Curse. The fact that Valla's Curse has less info on it in this case actually does more *for* it than *against* it, because it doesn't bother trying to justify its existence through loopholes. It's simply there.And generally I prefer explanations. But here, both are so stupid that the "this is what makes the plot initially start" works out much better. Fates is a story that's stupid as you travel to the end destination. RD is a story that's stupid when you look back at the entire journey. Micaiah being called out for her actions is a good thing, but doesn't absolve the plot from its shortcomings however. Even Corrin walking around saying "trust me" doesn't work for Corrin initially in Revelations-- like ever actually. Everyone thinks (s)he's full of garbage and (s)he always has to do something to prove that (s)he wants them to listen. It usually ends with Corrin beating the stuffing out of them and leaving them in a weakened state and then not killing them that results in them not listening. It's more over than RD in that regard. in BR, Nohr is defeated. In CQ, Hoshido is defeated. Sure, Anankos isn't truly gone, but he's going to have a harder time accomplishing his goals with one group fully reigning domination over both kingdoms really. With RD, everything just kind of stops. It'd be like if in Binding Blade, this evil god appears and kills Zephiel, and then forces the entire continent to defeat it. How does that just stop the current conflicts that were happening on the continent? It doesn't. That's essentially what happened in RD. In Revelations, it's revealed that Anankos wanted Hoshido and Nohr to fight until they destroyed themselves. But one country got defeated and isn't in a state to fight, and probably won't if the new royals play their cards right. The conflict at least got beaten to a pulp in fates. It just "stops" in RD. Valla's ending is pretty silly, I agree, but considering what was happening in Revelations, it still works better; pandering or not. Like seriously, let's try RD's part 4 with some of the other ones to put into perspective of how ridiculous this is. Blazing Sword: uh... The quintessence manifests itself into its own force and tries to take over the continent. Eliwood and Nergal must team up to stop this monstrous force. After they defeat the force, Nergal decides that he doesn't want to open the gates anymore because that would be mean. The End. Sacred Stones: Just before the demon king can fully be revived, the spirits of the ancient heroes return back to Magvel! They start tearing up everything including the demon king's life force. Now the DK and everyone must unite to stop the ancient heroes from wiping out everything as we know it, even the demon king. After they do so, the Demon King realizes that he was a jerk and decides to help the citizens of Grado by stopping the earthquake. Now, demons and humans live on Magvel and get along perfectly fine. The End. Fortunately, you can't do this with FE1 with the way the story is written. Truly a masterpiece I guess. Valm's Arc also established that there are other people in the world that are willing to try to stop Grima's revival as well. This is actually good, even if it's poorly done. It also has a little bit of a story arc for Chrom on how he'd want to run his kingdom. Through violence or peace. It doesn't do it well, but it kind of touches upon the subject.

But that's some of the reason it feels artificial is because she just kind of appears out of nowhere. She dies in such a bizarre way after reappearing that it's rendered pointless.

Jagen because I wanted to see how things changed without having a mentor.

Sure, I get what you're saying, but it's the same reason that Flora's death is so ineffective as well despite the fact that Flora isn't a gameplay mechanic. She just *appears* and the proceeds to get destroyed. Azura is alive in the sense that she has goals, and she talks to you, and contributes to the plot. Even characters like your captured units would bother you more from dying as they actually have presence and they are nothing but a gameplay mechanic (capture).

RD has the bloodpact. A miserable plot point that's sole purpose is to make people fight that have no business fighting. The explanation for the BP is so poorly done and confusing that it deserves more than a simple slap on the wrist. It also has magical problem solving powers for no reason. I'm not entirely certain why defeating the final boss of RD solves anything. The senate isn't completely gone (even if their main leader is gone), the Laguz Alliance just stops fighting because... Yes. There's no answering to what they even *started* the war for in the first place. Sanaki is just like "let's make peace with the laguz and Daein!" Yeah, I'm sure that'll go well over there in Begnion. The only person that really gets proper resolution is Elincia. She's queen again and doesn't need to fight because the squabbles of everyone else are pretty irrelevant to her so long as they don't march through Crimea. The assassination of the Misaha is "yeah the senators did it!" Which even if true will be exceedingly difficult to just say "sanaki said it was so, so it is." Especially when the glossary says the senators have gotten more influential over the years. Fates feels considerably more "over" and resolved when it's over. Sure you don't kill the big bad from Revelations, but his plan is effectively nipped in the bud, and no one in the group is aware of it, so it makes it harder (if not outright impossible) to proceed with the plan. Birthright has Nohr defeated, Leo crowned and he's not likely to wage war anytime soon. As they actually formed an alliance afterward. Conquest has Hoshido defeated, and Hinoka is placed on the thrown with a similar mindset as Leo from Birthright. The path was stupid in Fates but the ending at least feels like the story doesn't have any more tension after this point. Sure, there might be resentment between the two kingdoms, but it'll be considerably less considering that even Nohrians weren't terribly happy with Garon as their king it seems based on some of the Birthright chapters later in the game. As for dialogue, yeah, the localization at least, is far less stiff with dialogue than PoR. That is one thing that RD does much better. It has a very clean script. There's nothing that reads as strangely as things like "my lord Ike" for instance.

I think the issue is not necessarily just that she's a gameplay mechanic, as pretty much everyone that isn't your lord is a gameplay mechanic. Azura is basically just "dance," etc. The issue here is that Lilith just kind of "appears" and then proceeds to die. So the initial reaction is "what are you doing here?" And then she dies-- and no one really has anything else to say about it. She wasn't doing anything beforehand, so she proceeds to have no effect before or after really. I mean, even a generic soldier death would have been more effective here than Lilith because it would show that the Nohrian soldiers in Corrin's group actually believe in him/her and are willing to die for their lord; They fight for more than out of a sense of duty. That solder's death signifies something. With Lilith, it amounts to... Uh... Nothing because she was effectively never "alive" in the story and she doesn't really have any goals or aspirations to mean anything outside of making Corrin feel powerless. You're right that it doesn't help that you go back to your base and she's still there, but there are a myriad of things that just make this death stink.

The issue is that it really isn't though. Caps are a strange argument, and they don't really matter much, and I agree that skills are overall more important than caps in that regard for inheritance. However, when it comes to plain unit performance, that's where Donnel's problems rear their ugly head. The earliest Donnel can be recruited is after chapter 3, so assuming you want to use him, you have to go to him immediately. And Donnel's base stats are garbage. Like, he's a frontliner and he has durability that's comparable to a mage, Miriel. I'm not even kidding. Honestly, he's less durable than she is because she has actual res, and 2 extra hp, and that's also assuming Miriel gains exactly 0 levels from chapter 2 and chapter 3. But to make matters worse, he's got an even bigger problem, offense. 4 strength with 2 skill is miserable, even with that base 11 luck. The enemies he has WTA over are generally the faster enemies meaning that he risks missing against them and then being ORKOed by them in the event of a miss. Miriel, on the other hand, has 5 skill and 6 luck, which, while shaky is better than Donnel. She can attack from 2 range and hit much harder than he can with her base of 6 (8 with her skill) magic. The only other level 1 that's there is to compare is Sumia, and she has better everything than Donnel outside of 3 points of luck. Even if I count support starved units, Anna at least starts out really good, and has staff usefulness (can be replaced by Libra), and units like Basillio at least have Rally Strength at base and can be an okay Pair Up bot in that regard if someone else has been lagging behind. It's more tan Donnel could ever do.