Asinine Knave

Femui, Hinoka, Belka, and Crimson. Yay for the ladies I guess. :D

I really hope we've moved on from using potential complaints/backlash as a reason to exclude same-sex S supports. Yes, close-minded intolerant people might boycott the game for including it, and you MIGHT get a small fraction of consumers who will not purchase the game because of it, but you'll be making up for that by attracting more LGBT consumers who maybe are new to the series and are now interested in it because of the new feature. And so what if people complain? People are complaining now because such a feature most likely ISN'T included. And we as consumers have a right to protest all we want. Nothing is ever going to change if we just sit around and accept it with open arms. I don't identify as LGBT, but I am a supporter and I believe that representation is incredibly important. People feel empowered when they see positive portrayals of their race, orientation, faith, or even their physical characteristics, hobbies or talents. When you don't see these highly important aspects of yourself being emphasized in media, it makes you feel invisible like you don't really exist or are not an ideal member of society. Diversity and variety in all things makes a world of difference for people. A game with a roster of 50-60+ characters could stand to have a handful of LGBT ones and not detract from the gameplay nor the comfort of the typical hetero player. Sadly, marriage and the child units are returning, which makes same-sex romances extremely unlikely, assuming that S supports always result in marriage. I don't think anyone who advocated for gay supports expected same-sex marriage per se, they just wanted to see a heavily hinted at same-sex relationship between various characters. But since the marriage feature is back, I don't see how that could happen. I think the face rubbing feature is a half-hearted attempt at being inclusive of LGBT players by allowing them to be intimate with any character they choose regardless of sex, but that's still not sufficient since straight players also get that privilege and more.

I don't usually dislike a character JUST because of their looks, no, but if I really can't stand the design, it will does play a role as to how much I like the character overall. I also might be more influenced to use units that look appealing, because I don't have any other impression of them until I get to the know their character. In the case of Camilla, I don't like her design because it's ridiculously and unrealistically oversexualized. The same goes for Charlotte, who I like even less, and unlike Camilla who at least sounds nice, Charlotte doesn't sound likable at all, so she's already my least favorite character revealed so far. The oversexualization of female characters is common in Japanese media, and I for one don't like it because it objectifies women as sex objects. I might be more okay with it if there were more muscled-up, hunky, scantily-clad men in the game, but I don't think the fanservice between genders is on equal footing. That being said though, Fire Emblem isn't one of the worst offenders, and the majority of the female characters are pretty tame looking, so it's not the end of the world if a small handful of the girls are designed as fanservice, especially in a game that's likely to feature the return of the waifu system. Other than Camilla and Charlotte, I'm not a fan of Luna, Lazward, and Odin. I wasn't the biggest fan of most of the Nohr character designs to begin with, but these three really make me want to play Hoshido. They don't look bad per se, but I can't unsee their Awakening counterparts, and I would prefer fresh new faces over the same ones I saw in the last game.

On my first playthrough, I married Donnel. I'm not exactly sure why. I was originally going to go for Chrom, but I liked Chrom x Sumia so much that I wanted Sumia with him more. That pairing just works since both characters have very limited potential love interests. I thought Donnel was super sweet and adorable, and I have a soft spot for country guys as it is. Passing down Aptitude to Morgan ended up being a really great move, and Morgan's purple hair looks pretty good. And I love when the underdog wins over the hero. 'Tis cute. :P For my male avatar, I paired him with Say'ri. I wanted to marry someone who could only romance the player, and she was my fave of the lot.

I'd like to start with the original game and and then hit up each successive sequel. Or I could just play the Tellius series. Or Rekka No Ken. I'm not sure. :P And I will indeed go over the rules. I assure you I will be no trouble at all. Thanks everyone.

One of the major complaints regarding Awakening was that there were no same-sex romances even though plot wise it's definitely justifiable to some extent. That controversy, combined with the Tomodachi Life backlash makes me think it would be pretty criminal to bring back the romantic S supports and NOT include some LGBT ones. I know gay marriage isn't legal in Japan, but plenty of other Japanese games and media have included "yuri/yaoi" content. This is a good opportunity for Nintendo to show that they mean it when they intend to be more inclusive of everyone in their games. I definitely don't see future children returning, nor should it as it was a plot point of Awakening that likely would make no sense here in If's plot. I also would prefer if the characters didn't "marry." You can still get your fill of cheesy romance without having your characters actually get hitched. If we want to talk realism, the vast majority of Awakening's supports went from good friends to newlyweds in a ridiculously forced way. When characters reach an S support, they should just be listed as "companion" or "significant other." The big question is how they should approach it. Fire Emblem games feature huge casts of characters, and if they try to make the majority of characters romanceable with each other, then that's going to leave a ton of possibilities, but you have to wonder if quality of the writing will be sacrified for quantity. In that sense, I think it'd be a better move if each character had their own pool of potential love interests. Some character might only be able to romance the opposite sex, some only of the same sex, and others either both sexes or neither. Of course, this would make certain pairings impossible, and I think a lot of players just want the freedom to play matchmaker with no restraints. I realize that making every character bi is not a realistic approach per se, but in the context of a game where YOU choose who ends up with who, does it really matter? If we look past sexual orientations or mere labelings and just look at it from a love is love standpoint, or even as a game where you decide the fate of each character, it's not much more different than Awakening allowing characters to have a large pool or romanceable units. You have to wonder how many of those relationships would actually pan out to begin with. The "make everyone bi" option leaves all of the many possiblities in the player's hands. It also gives a much better probability of LGBT representation being more naturally woven into the characters' support conversations than having a select few token gays who will most likely be flanderized and/or negatively stereotyped. I'm pretty conflicted as to how I'd like LGBT supports to pan out, but as long as the system is a step-up from Awakening, (gay options or not) I'll be fairly content.

Hi everyone! I'm Asinine Knave. Fitting name, as I'm actually really new to the Fire Emblem series. The only game I've played thus far is Awakening, so I probably won't have a lot to say outside of that game. I know it's got a reputation for being a more accessible Fire Emblem title, but it's made me a permanent fan of the series! Can't wait for Fire Emblem If and I would love to go back and play some older entries if I get the chance to. Other than that, I'm mostly just here to enjoy If's hype train until it releases soon. See you all around. :3