Saint Rubenio
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Posts posted by Saint Rubenio
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1 minute ago, Jotari said:
What's this? Ilios has a sister? Details!
Say, now that you bring this up... My current endeavor has gotten me to look into Sacred Stones's most obscure background characters. While we talked about Hayden's wife in the other thread and discussed why she doesn't count, I can't help but notice you're also missing three other background characters - or, at least, they don't show up when I ctrl+F in the first sheet of the file. They are as follows:
- Saaga, Rausten's court troubadour. Mentioned once at the end of Hamill Canyon. They (I'm inclined to believe "she" because troubadours are female in GBAFE) are established to be the cause of L'Arachel's journey, as their words "inflamed" her. I always liked to interpret this as the court troubadour antagonizing her in some way and provoking her into going on a "journey of righteousness" to prove herself. It's the kind of tantrum that L'Arachel would throw lol
- Melina, Amelia's mother. Mentioned in her support with Duessel. She was kidnapped by bandits and then saved by Duessel, but her memories had been lost from the trauma. She managed to recall having had a daughter shortly before the game's events. Duessel looked for her before realizing he'd ran into her by chance in the Frelian army during their support, and sees them reunited in their paired ending.
- Zabba, old friend of Gerik. Mentioned in his support with Saleh. Saleh killed him during a job, but later he saved Gerik's life and they became good friends in spite of the incident.
6 minutes ago, Jotari said:What you're basically saying is that you love him because he's Frost.
......
Shit I didn't even realize...
(I mean honestly I'd call Lindon the better character, and the similarities are honestly kind of superficial but still, that's such a funny thing)
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It feels a bit weird to bring up a character from the latest FE game into this discussion. You'd think by default they'd all be at least somewhat well known. But considering like half of Engage's playerbase didn't even realize he was playable, I'd say Lindon fits the spirit of the thread. Seriously, he's the most obvious recruitable enemy in the history of the world and an insane amount of people still missed him. It blows my mind.
From his design (generic old guy priest in a sea of hyper anime fantasy designs) to his introductory and recruitment dialogue, he seems like your average wise old magic man that acts as a mentor figure to others. And he is that, he has a few supports where he acts mentorly and wise to be sure, but he's also a man full of sorrow over losing his beloved wife, growing distant from his grandchildren and the burden of his past as a soldier of a country constantly at war with its neighbor. A lot of his supports do a good job of showing a person at the twilight of his life who sometimes just can't see why he still goes on.
He copes with all this by keeping his inner child alive and feeding his curiosity. IE he's a mad scientist. A really funny one, too. Dude wants to invent popcorn by having another guy throw corn into the air so he can blast it with thoron. When the guy refuses, he tries to guilt trip him into helping using his dead wife. That's just, incredible. Also, he explodes the avatar multiple times. His supports juggle tragedy and humor in really interesting ways. In particular, his support with Saphir (another super good character that's pretty underrated by the way) is by far the best in the game, as far as I'm concerned. You wouldn't expect Engage's writing to get so dead serious as it does in that support chain. Great stuff.
...And then on top of all that, he's also a really fun unit. Most personal skills in Engage are crap, and reclassing and emblems leads to units blending together sometimes. However, Lindon has one of the most impactful personals in the game - if his enemy's weapon is a higher rank than his (and when he joins most enemies are using silvers), he gains 20 crit. This turns him into a magical berserker that can easily reach ridiculous critrates. Not the best unit in the game, certainly, but I'd call him one of the most fun.
He also gets to be the only sage that can be a sage without wearing the worst sage outfit known to the series1 minute ago, AnonymousSpeed said:FE8 was a wonderful cast of villains. I don't think there's any of them I don't like (outside the typically unremarkable early bad guys).
And even then. Even then. Novala, for instance, can leave somewhat of an impression with his sheer glee at committing war crimes, not to mention the war crime itself is quite memorable. I mean, who the heck feeds children to a giant spider?
Aside from him, Tirado has multiple appearances and an interesting little implication of being duplicitous towards his superiors, and Bazba has the interesting distinction of being the one brigand boss that actually feels like a brigand boss. While most brigand bosses are just "obligatory bad guy with a face in the earlygame bandit map", Bazba shows up, sends his henchmen to perform a raid for him and... retires to his hideout. Which he defends from you when you get there with even more henchmen. It's a tiny little "arc" that makes him stand out a bit despite being just a generic brigand boss man, I hope I explained myself properly.
...And Bone is called Bone. C'mon.
2 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:Caellach in my favorite of them, but I never picked up on the simple irony here. Wonderful. Truly the best written FE game.
To be fair, I kind of just realized it just then lol. I've also been writing about this gang of characters for over two months now so I've become rather familiar with their subtleties haha.
3 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:Show, don't tell. It emphasizes his quality and definition as a character when you can recognize him without a name and face.
Well, considering half the thread didn't realize who I was talking about, maybe that fell a little flat.
...I really should've mentioned the wife. Then there would've been zero room for doubt.
4 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:Raining sunshine in cloudy day, yes?
Is like, how you say, flatulence?
Laughed for a solid three minutes the first time I read that. What a wonderful guy.
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19 minutes ago, Armagon said:
......but also there's no other country with "America" in it's name while there's currently two countries that are "United States" so ultimately "American" still makes the most sense.
Isn't the only other country that currently exists with United States in the name Mexico, and they already call it... well, Mexico?
21 minutes ago, Armagon said:
Least arrogant Statesian:
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20 minutes ago, Jotari said:
Still copious amounts of Ishtar and Julius scenes in comparison though.
...True enough. Maybe Kaga just hated Bloom lmao
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6 minutes ago, Armagon said:
*The Canadians have gone after Ruben's family for this comment*
We can't help which piece of land we are born in.
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6 minutes ago, Jotari said:
I wish someone had told Kaga that when decided to give Bloom only three sentences of dialogue.
In fairness, Thracia isn't the story of "kind of important" people, it's the story of nobodies fighting their own fight in a corner of the continent while the heroes and villains are somewhere far away. Bloom making only a single appearance in Leif's lowest point is pretty poignant in that way. Even he is too far off for Thracia's small scope.
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51 minutes ago, Jotari said:
I'd definitely choose Farden over Dvorak between the two of them, but, really...would importing Zane's portrait have been that difficult? They bothered to import Bloom for the sake of one scene. Okay, okay I know they didn't so much as import as they did redraw almost identically in slightly different style and palette, but point is the portrait and design existed. I doubt it would have been that hard to reconfigure it. And how wonderful would it had been to see "that guy" just once in Thracia where he actually has a unique face XD
I suppose the difference is Bloom's kind of important while Coulter is a Zyne. Still, it would've been nice if they adapted the proper portrait. Heck, use it another seven times, for old times sake!
35 minutes ago, Revier said:I actually kinda like John Constipation as a villain portrait. It just has a certain iconic look to it, feeling evil yet also funny. Or perhaps even cute? I'm sad to hear his portrait wasn't reused in Thracia 776.
It's attained meme status from the sheer number of reuses, but I'm inclined to agree. He looks a lot less overtly evil than other generic bossman portraits. I honestly don't think he'd look too out of place as a playable character.
Also I think John Constipation is my new favorite name for him -
22 minutes ago, Armagon said:
*Ruben was then beaten to death by Canadians for this comment*
Canada is in America. I am technically correct!
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On 4/12/2024 at 1:43 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:
Wait... "Deng-lish"? Oh, mein Gott. It all makes sense now. This whole time, "ping" has been short for "Xiaoping".
I can't believe Ping was the final boss of Hong Kong 97 all along.
On 4/12/2024 at 1:43 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:I don't know how much is in the original, and how much is the fanslation. But honestly, Ishtar vacillates so frequently between "vaguely sympathetic enemy" and "pathetic simp for the Spawn of Satan".
The funny competition cannot be blamed on anything, so already that's an issue.
On 4/12/2024 at 1:49 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:Jabarro feels intentional. Ares has been raised by this man since his life got upended -but as soon as Ares finds out that Dancer is in lecherous hands, he goes from red to blue. A flip so effortless despite the tie that should lead to strong loyalty... that -maybe I'm reading too much into it- it feels like it's a conscious act of spite against the Camus archetype. And Kaga did say Ares exists because Eldigan was a stickler-for-the-rules idiot.
Hey, that's true. Neat bit of contrast there. The father loyally serving a godawful king to the end, versus the son immediately betraying his adoptive father because he's on a dickwad's side.
On 4/12/2024 at 1:49 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:Shin: …I hadn’t asked you yet. Which clan are you from?
Fir: What?
Shin: Are you from the Bulgar clan? Or are you part of the Djute clan that betrayed us?
Fir: …I don’t know.
Shin: …… Was that…a joke?
Fir: N-No, it wasn’t. I lived with my parents, so I don’t really know much about the clans…I'd say no. Fir isn't culturally Sacaean, I doubt she knows much about that beyond some of its swordplay. She is half-Sacaean genetically, but genetics aren't entirely what defines an identity.
Ah, thank you for your insight. I always figured Karla more likely moved out of Sacae with Bartre than the other way around.
On 4/12/2024 at 3:03 AM, Jotari said:Well now that you're finished, its time to reveal which of these named enemies are fought in Thracia 776. The list of enemies you fight in this chapter are Muhammed, Ovo, Banba, Fotla, Eriu, Faval/Asaello, Ishtar, Bloom and Coulter. Maykov is fought after the ending of Thracia 776 and there's also Athena who you don't fight at all. Anyways, the answer is *drum roll*
1...Just one. Which one? Coulter. Which one is he? The Wyvern Knight one. Muhammed, Ovo, Banba, Fotla, Eriu and Faval/Asaello are never mentioned in Thracia 776 at all (unless you want to count the to reference Briggid having children for Faval). Bloom is mentioned semi frequently and appears a singular time to deliver about two lines of dialogue. Ishtar gets a bit more screen time appearing in three or four cutscenes, but she never takes to the battlefield and never even meets Leif. It's just Coulter. It's always been Coulter. And he doesn't even have the same face. I hate it. I love it. Fire Emblem is masochism.
I'll also answer that Tine, Ishtore and Liza from the last chapter don't make any appearances in Thracia 776 either despite being prominent people living in the place. Though at least Ishtore gets the one reference I was talking about earlier.
SpoilerI did find it rather hilarious that they cared enough to more or less keep Coulter's color scheme (he has dark, faded blue colors in both games) but then they didn't care enough to Thraciafy the constipated knight portrait so he just shrivelled up between games lol
It's not even the Thracia generic portrait that most closely resembles the constipated knight. There are no portraits that are exactly like it, and I understand wanting to stick to a recolor for this very irrelevant bossman, but they could've given him Dvorak's portrait, which is at least a lot closer than the super wrinkly face he ended up getting. Or, heck - the face of Farden (who, may I remind you, is a boss in the same chapter as Coulter) would've done the trick.
On 4/12/2024 at 7:46 AM, BrightBow said:It's not. And there is also a chance that it will cause Celice to permanently get greyed out, with the only cure being a refresh. So don't press that button.
Imagine ironmanning this game, losing the dancer, and then you accidentally have him dismount and lose the run right there.
Yikes...
On 4/12/2024 at 7:46 AM, BrightBow said:If FE8 and FE9 didn't drop that nonsense super hard, I would have never become a fan.
FE8 does have Aias sort of breaking the 4th wall to praise the player if they are able to kill him.
"Very...impressive. You've pierced the battle formations I'd perfected... No one's ever done that. Renais's tactician has earned my highest regard."
Of course, it's a much more subdued bit of player praise and it's actually earned by accomplishing something in the gameplay. Not that killing Aias is super difficult but that's a different topic of conversation.
17 hours ago, ping said:I don't know how you get from "one broken, two maybe broken if you squint hard enough, seven (*) no" to "more than half lmao"
You said "I think half the cast of Sacae is overrated", and I followed with "honestly more than half is overrated lol." Maybe the broken thing is your reading comprehension lmao gottem
6 hours ago, Revier said:TBH I still wonder what exactly about the series attracts female fans. You would think a series of stories about a righteous prince leading a glorious band of knights and nobles to defeat evil emperors/sorcerors/gods/what have you would have its appeal slanted towards young boys. Maybe it's the fairy tale like quality of the storytelling that makes its appeal more universal than it seems. The addition of romances and romancing mechanics certainly help in that regard, though they only really started showing up by Genealogy - the NES games were just too barebones to have them, after all.
Girls can like the same things as boys. Usually what keeps boys from doing girly things or girls from doing boyish things is bullying and societal pressure, not any kind of innate gendered preferences. And I suppose there's not as much chance to be bullied out of a hobby when said hobby entails sitting in a room away from civilization looking at a screen.
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30 minutes ago, Jotari said:
Oh really? That's kind of a dissapointment. I guess they did that to tip off the player that Orson was now the bad guys because he has "eeeevil eyes" even though he'd probably be less haggard than any of the heroes since he's probably been living in Renvall decently well compared to Eirika and Ephraim fighting on the run. Turning evil make you have evil eyes though, but not only turning evil, but being evil and only just about to reveal yourself as evil. What a missed opportunity. Bleh.
He probably had already begun to starve himself in the time between Ephraim's battle at Renvall and Eirika's arrival. Some time definitely passes, he probably had a good couple of weeks to sit in a room with Monica.
I agree that the portrait change should've happened after Renvall, though. Would've been more impactful to see him fall so low after all that time.
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On 4/12/2024 at 3:08 AM, Armagon said:
Honestly Tui felt like a ghost town. Idk what was going on there.
Rural Spain is not doing well.
On 4/12/2024 at 3:08 AM, Armagon said:
Spain has fallen
Not to worry, I expected nothing good out of... Madrid, anyways. Ew.
On 4/12/2024 at 3:08 AM, Armagon said:
This next bit wasn't in Madrid, it was some other town i never got the name of. It's where we were staying, there was a festival
Possibly El Escorial. There's a number of dormitory cities surrounding Madrid. Probably because living there is impossible with the average Madrid wage.
On 4/12/2024 at 3:08 AM, Armagon said:
Unironically one of the most surprising parts of the trip. Never expected to see Tim Hortons on the other side of the pond.
Don't underestimate the insidiousness of American exports.
On 4/12/2024 at 4:38 AM, Venger_06 said:Now I know why Ruben hates the politicians who let this happen
They allowed the anime fester within our lands. We used to have an inquisition, you know. How the mighty have fallen.
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3 minutes ago, Jotari said:
He has another portrait with sunken eyes and we're given the impression he's done basically nothing but necrophilia since we last saw him.
Actually, his portrait already changes when he meets Eirika in Renvall. Still, the dialogue between his two guards, and later the report from Seth does very much imply he's done nothing but sit in his room with his "wife" since the last time he was seen. In fact, it's even implied he would've probably died on his own if the twins had taken longer to reach Renais, as the guy's straight up not taking meals.
...You know, this is kind of a tangent, but I take issue with Ephraim going "Orson was mad, but I think he was happy" at the end. Guy was wallowing in a despair so fierce it drove him to throw away everything, including his own life (again, he stopped eating), just to be reunited with his loved one, which in truth was only a rotting corpse repeating the word "darling" over and over. That's not happiness, Ephy, that's a suffering greater than anything you ever went through lol
5 minutes ago, Jotari said:That said, I feel he could have been mentioned a few more times. Like, correct me if I'm wrong, but do we hear anything about him ruling Rausten and how bad his regime until the actual chapter itself? I don't feel like we do. He effectively vanishes from the plot until that moment.
Yeah, exactly. That's the clunky part I mentioned - when they are right at the doorstep of Renais Ephraim starts going "gee all things considered Orson was acting pretty weirdly wasn't he." I feel like that's a conversation they should've had earlier. A couple more mentions in the interim would've been nice just to keep the guy in the player's mind, even if he's not seen again. And, all things considered, what would he have done if he made another physical appearance? All he does at that point, as you say, is sit in Renais being insane. But he probably should've been brought up a couple times.
5 minutes ago, Jotari said:One of my first attempts at GBA modding was trying to make a "both routes" version of Sacred Stones where you play both Eirika and Ephraim route. Which necessitated making more playable characters for the game (mostly to fill out Ephraim route). One of the ones I invented was a son for Orson (using the same portrait because I'm lazy), who joins Ephraim to try and redeem his family's name. It's a decent enough idea that would bring Orson's role on the story more to the forefront without interfering with anything I said above.
That's pretty good, actually. Would've made for a killer battle convo and the character would've been a nice vehicle to get more insights on Orson's past.
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12 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:
I thought he was talking about Valter.
You know, maybe my mistake was not mentioning the wife.
12 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:On that topic I've always had a soft spot for Caelach. Clearly the least plot important member of the evil trio but I think that kinda enhanches him. He's a very human antagonist from very humble origins. He doesn't serve dark gods, doesn't want to destroy the world, isn't insane but just wants a throne and a fat paycheck.
Yeah, Caellach is a really good villain. Ambition personified. And then he dies in the same sandy cesspool he loathed so. I don't know who got the most beautiful death - him with this bit of irony, or Valter spending the entire game talking the big talk and then dying with a simple terrified shriek.
9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Thanks, I hate this wording.
I aim to please.
9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Wait, isn't he inadvertently responsible for Eirika's reunion with her brother? Orson traps her in the castle, shortly before Ephraim arrives via a different entrance point. Had the bridge not been blown out, she might've fled immediately, and the siblings would just miss each other.
Also, is four appearances really so few? That seems roughly on-par with what most of the "Sacred Stones of Grado" received. Two or three backstory appearances, then the one time you fight them. Two, in Riev's case. Selena disappears off the face of the earth for Eirika, while Glen does the same for Ephraim. Orson might actually be more important than some of them.
You do make fair points. I'll admit when I was writing that I kind of considered saying "except Glen maybe lol." All things considered, screentime be damned he has a much more tightly written role than a few of the generals. I would've liked a couple more appearances in between (Ephraim talking about him right before chapter 16 felt clunky) but still, good stuff.
Then again, when I said he's a minor villain I didn't mean it as a knock on him. He is my second favorite villain in the FE game with my favorite villains, beat only by Lyon.
7 hours ago, Jotari said:If it helps, I figured out you were talking about Orson right away.
Thank you!
7 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:When I first played Awakening and recruited Gregor, I took a liking to him almost immediately. The way he spoke instantly made him stand out, and that made me want to dive into his supports. And when I did, I was happy with what I found. Gregor is a great, well-rounded character, and his "gimmick" isn't nearly as played out for laughs or pushed into your face or anything like some of the other character gimmicks in Awakening. He simply had good chemistry with pretty much everyone, gave both himself and some others some good backstory, and was a good and endearing dude. He's one of my favorite characters in Awakening. Sometimes I think he's my absolute favorite in Awakening.
Gregor is my favorite character in Awakening. He's the only character from that game for whom I read all his supports. He's such a ray of sunshine.
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7 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:
I mean, on that logic, then someone like Gharnef would be a minor villain since they also don't show up much, or do much outside backstory purposes. Which... also wouldn't make much sense.
I'd put him more as secondary villain, not minor.
I was comparing him to his own game's villains. Sure, Gharnef has like three scenes, but that's the case for every book 1 villain because book 1 has very little story in general. Compared to the villains in his own game, Orson has less screentime and does less things in the plot than the gemstone generals (Glen is arguable) and Vigarde, so I'm more tempted to call them the secondary villains and place him in a different box.
But well, we're getting lost in semantics here. Secondary, minor, I suppose it doesn't matter. He's just a good villain.
14 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:Maybe you should've, because now I thought you were talking about Vigarde, not Orson. lol
Ahahaha. Oh, well, we cleared it up now.
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Just now, Acacia Sgt said:
Okay, serious note, I think it's the first time I'm seeing someone refer to him as a minor villain. That threw me off his trail.
Like I said, most people talk about him as if he did more than he really does. But his entire involvement in the game boils down to:
Chapter 5x: He's just there until he isn't.
Chapter 8: He encounters Eirika and tells her some lies.
Chapter 9: He tries to get Eirika's bracelet, but the clap of the blade concealed within his doublet kept alerting Seth.
Chapter 16: He goes into a room, says ominous things, talks to Riev/Lyon, has the best battle convos in the game, dies.
He does have more screentime than the likes of Breguet or O'Neill but his impact in the overall plot is very small, and he's less relevant than the gemstone generals. It's just that he makes a big impact with the time he does have, thanks to how good his concept and its execution are.
Just now, Acacia Sgt said:Also, why the secrecy of hiding his name?
Ehh. Just felt like being a little dramatic, is all. I really thought it was obvious lol
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27 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:
I've played the game several times and I have no idea who you're talking about. Is it Pablo?
The boss of Ruled by Madness.
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On the villainous side, there's FE8's finest minor villain in a cast full of great minor and major villains. It's funny because the way people talk about him it feels like he's a major villain, but he only appears three times and has a total of four scenes in the game, one of which he does basically nothing in. And yet, the concept with him is so disturbing and at the same time, so pitiable, and so well-executed. He stays with you and makes you think he's a bigger villain than he was, because what little time he had, he used better than villains with four times his screentime in the series.
You can probably guess who I'm talking about. If not, go play FE8.
3 hours ago, Jotari said:Feel obligated to bring up Fates Boss Candace now. Though she's also stylized like Meg (and not made to look as cute because minor villain). Dorothy really is ironically unique in how un-unique she looks.
The Fates bossmen are funny because I find them all to have just plain better designs than the playable cast of Fates. Same for the generics. Then among the playables, the Corrinsexuals have better designs than the non-Corrinsexuals, who in turn tend to have better designs than the royals. It's like the more important you are in Fates, the worse you look lol
Anyway, all this to say, yeah, Candace is really cool. Again, we need more unconventional designs, body types, imperfect people. Variety is the spice of life, dammit!
3 hours ago, Jotari said:One thing I don't think we have seen is the parent of the villain as a hero. Closest is Alvis and his minor resistance to Julius, but he's still very much a villain in his own right (Deirdre is also technically playable but we don't really see her as a mother to Julius). Of course most villains are centuries old dragons or wizards or stuff, so a parent who needs to regretfully out their spawn down isn't really forthcoming. Now I need to petition IS to put Veld's mother into a Thracia remake. Coming to think of it, is there any Hellene in Binding Blade? Is she still living in Bern somewhere or did Desmond get rid of her at some point?
The parent of a villain would be an insanely cool concept for a playable character, but that'd require IntSys to be creative enough to want to do anything interesting with parents. Which they just don't seem inclined to do, so uh... eh.
I'm still hoping for a game where the idealistic young teen main character dies and the parent (or parents) turns out to be the main character instead. So far I've only seen that be done in one (1) videogame in my entire life playing videogames, and even there you could also get the dad killed instead depending on your choices. Thankfully (as morbid as that is to say in this situation), though, I got the child killed and got to enjoy the more interesting storyline. And the heartache.
1 hour ago, Nauriam said:There's a lot of love for Brom here, and he deserves all of the love he gets in my opinion. For that trope though, I think Hicks does it even better. It's basically the same archetype, where you get a father fighting for a good cause for the sake of his family. Although I like Brom's design marginally better for what they're going for, Hicks also definitely looks like just a normal person. And his mullet is top tier.
Hicks also does not fill a unique roll in the game at all. Brighton has every reason to be better than Hicks for story and gameplay reasons alike (aside from Hicks' superior fcm of 2). But it's Thracia, so whoever you want can become god-like. It doesn't make Hicks more appealing to use over Brighton, but it does make him very viable if you do choose to use him.
Shameless self promo but you might enjoy this.
Definitely agreed with this. Hicks is such a wonderful literal who.
15 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:Dorothy is another character I've really come to appreciate, for many of the same reasons as Brom and many of the reasons you listed. She's so ordinary, but it works, she has genuinely good supports and is unique in how un-unique she is.
I feel like most of Binding Blade's cast is generally underrated. Understandably so, I'll admit, because their characterizations are all tucked away in FE6's horrendous support system. But when you actually get around to reading those supports, it's a surprisingly varied and interesting roster. For the most part.
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As a minor character enjoyer, I tend to gravitate towards nobodies, and this includes perhaps the biggest nobody of them all - Frost, from BSFE, later reintroduced in FE12 in such an asinine way that he went on to become one of the most, if not the most unpopular character in FE. This is not just me saying it, it's also CyL saying it, as he was the third character to end up dead last. I think the most votes he ever got was like, 50 or 60? And that was the time I voted for him three times from three different computers every day.
Let me just link the full-on essay I wrote about Frost some time back.
9 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:Lets start with one that I am probably the only person that has ever cared about them, the minor villain from Genealogy of the Holy War's chapter 4, the mercenary leader Lamia.
I mean, I cared enough to put make her a portrait and put her in my bad guys hack lol7 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:A 38-year-old (41 in RD), overwight, normal-brown-hair-color man is not the norm for FE. He looks plain, and it matches his personality. It's understated in how unique that is to FE. Brom is more or less an actual everyman, and it just makes him stand out to me in a series full of teenagers and young adults who are all super-powered in skills with the blade, and it makes him stand out against some of the older characters in the series you recruit because they're all by and large war veterans in the army or some big loud warrior of some kind. I don't think there was another Brom-type character prior to Brom, and I'm not sure any future character like this would stand out to me in the same way, because...Brom was first.
Just to be pedantic, there's a third flavor of old FE guy - the old magic man.
I'd say Dorothy from FE6 fits a similar pattern as Brom, even if not in the exact same ways (she's much younger, for one). If it's uncommon for male characters in FE to look plain, female characters being anything other than perfect supermodels is just about unheard of. Dorothy stands out as one of the very, very few women in FE with a genuinely different design that isn't conventionally attractive to a T. Heck, if you remove the really old women (all three of them) from the equation, it's basically just her, Brom's daughter and maybe Vaida sharing this distinction!
However, unlike Meg, who's more "stylized," so to speak, with her cartoonish mouth and eyes (though her design is still pretty neat don't get me wrong), Dorothy's just a regular girl. She has freckles, a slightly weird face and a rather dreadful haircut. And that makes her stand out among the sea of perfect-looking girls, much like it does Brom. She looks like someone you might've gone to school with, and I think that's really awesome and we should get a few more of those.
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1 hour ago, ping said:
Considering the skills she passed on to Ares, I believe we have to replace the old meme "Everybody from Sacae is broken" with "Everybody from Leonster is OP". Half of the playable Sacaen population is overrated, anyway.
Let's see... Who is "broken" in sacae?
Rutger, yeah.
Shin? He's very good. Not sure if "broken", but let's say sure.
Fir... Was Fir even Sacaen? Bartre wasn't, but I don't know where he and Karla settled down and raised Fir. Might've been Sacae, yeah, so let's say she counts, and uh... She's not as good as Rutger, but she is rather good and comes in the perfect chapter to be trained, so uh... Yeah, sure. Stretching a bit.
Sue, no. I like her, but no.
Dayan, he's neat, but no.
Rath, no.
Every swordmaster in FE7? lol
Honestly, more than half lmao
1 hour ago, ping said:I know that what I'm laying out would be quite a lot of screentime for a single, non-Seliph character. But with how important the relationship between Sigurd and Eldigan was for the first generation, I really think that the second generation should've given Ares that time.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. Heck, he's just an interesting character that deserved it. Jabarro may've been an asshole but he did genuinely care for and raise this kid. I'd like to hear more about what his life was like there. But, I suppose permadeath.
1 hour ago, ping said:
: "Thank you sire... You'll have my loyalty, no matter what!"
Ahhh, I figured out why Hawke cannot be present in Manster if Ced exists. If they were both there, they'd just crush Thracia with the power of friendship, making Seliph's entire excursion into this area of Jugdral pointless.
Honestly? Good. I'd take that over Seliph.
1 hour ago, ping said:Enemy Rogues will steal your money if they hit you even if you kill them in the same round of combat.
1 hour ago, ping said:
To make the capture of Meath even more annoying, it seems that Fee can't even approach the Wyverns from the east, to maybe lure a few of them in that direction. The yellow zone is mostly there to make sure you can't interact with Altena, but this is a secondary effect that's kinda frustrating.
It's interesting to note that you can actually fly through a yellow zone, if you're quick enough. Not relevant here, because I don't want Fee to fly into Ballista range, but still interesting.
Oh yeah, look at the one traversable tile at the very edge. Huh.
1 hour ago, ping said:
Also interesting is that Seliph can dismount. I suppose he can use it to avoid effective damage? ...Except that he has Nihil, so I'm out of ideas why this would ever be a good button to press.
As I recall, Kaga went on record saying that the point of this was for players who want to keep Seliph's dismounted animations.
...Yeah, apparently that's it. That's why this feature exists.
1 hour ago, ping said:I do like that this conversation is there. It's nice that people don't just shrug and ignore the guy teleporting in, grabbing Ishtar, and teleporting the both of them out again. Good on Seliph for following the thread.
Yeah, it's a nice touch.
1 hour ago, ping said:That convo is so clearly assuming that Lewyn is their asshole dad... It would seem out of character for most other potential fathers, but it's especially jarring for Claude, honestly.
I mean, look at their hair. For how much of the game revolves around the pairings, they really just assumed you'd be getting a few key marriages that Kaga really liked more than others.
1 hour ago, ping said:
: "It was the legendary dracoknight Dain who founded Thracia all those years ago... With his heavenly lance, Gungnir, in hand, he dared to challenge the king of demons himself! Rumor has it that Nova of the Crusaders, ancestor of the lords of House Leonster, was in fact a sister to Lord Dain..."
[4500 gold --> Dermott]
I don't expect that this rumor will have any follow-up in the story, to be honest.
Just some heavy-handed metaphor for how the two halves of Thracia were once siblings. Or something.
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15 minutes ago, Jotari said:
I went to Hannibal first, but his beard is actually a different style to what seems there. Looks like you fluffed it up a bit.
Actually, I took his FE5 beard lol
16 minutes ago, Jotari said:You could always have four people stand on either side of him to incapacitate him and then conquer Connaught and have him vanish into the gameplay abyss instead of dying.
True enough.
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9 hours ago, Jotari said:
There. Now Genealogy is perfect. At least that's what I wanted to say, but Ruben's bearded Hawk image is now broken so I had to do this myself and I'm not good at it.
...Wait, is it? I didn't delete it at all!
Look, there it is! Musta been Serenes/Discord (where I uploaded it) acting up.
Well, for curiosity's sake, here's my version.
Honestly, don't sell yourself short, I like yours too. The full-ass Hannibal beard is funny but yours suits him better. Like, I could actually believe that being his actual design if I didn't know better.
9 hours ago, Jotari said:And to just keep sharing my ideas that no one asked to be shared, my suggestion for Asaello getting a more original backstory was to just include him here as an enemy bossman here even if Faval still exists. And to pay him to join you Beowulf style if Faval doesn't exist.
That'd been a fun idea. Separating the subs from the actual characters without feeling like it "overrides" anything, so to speak. Only problem is that I'd be sad about having to kill Asaello and get the generic anime teen archer instead. But then, I wouldn't have that problem, because I'd have had meteorites murder Bridget.
9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:I've more liking for Trav' than Arv', that is certain. I don't love Travant's portrayal, it has a few issues, one of the better villains in Genealogy overall.
I agree with this, pretty much.
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9 hours ago, Armagon said:
Is it me or has this chat been in a lull lately? I haven't seen Guardian in a while too.
People come and go. That's as true online as it is in real life, I suppose.
3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Decline is okay, but if totally dies, it means back to zero social existence for me.
There's other welcoming communities out there. You'd need to seek them out, though, and take the always scary first step of making yourself known.
...And you'd probably need a discord. Forums like this in general have been on a steady decline for a long time. Discord servers are all the rage now, and unfortunately they're not as visible as places like this.
If it comes to that, though, try finding discord servers for games/franchises/whatnot that you like. You have a baseline that most everyone in there's already going to have a shared interest.
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1 minute ago, ping said:
He's probably the son of one of the constipated bossmen. I realise that Asaello's eyes aren't quite Brock-levels of squint, but maybe that's what you get when you mix those genes with those of your average big-ol'-eyeballs anime girl.
Interestingly enough, he's squinty in both his official artwork and his unused FE5 portrait, but in FE4 he's not squinty. He's doing more of a side-eye.
1 minute ago, ping said:People will also either ignore or rationalise any degree of puppy-kicking and baby-stabbing as long as the villain is cool enough. Some people will say that the Joker has a point (truly, we live in a society). Name any fascist organisation in a post-apocalyptic setting and you'll find somebody writing an essay why they're actually most moral faction (you see, in a world with extremely limited resources, slavery is prefe--).
Reminds me of a friend telling me all about how the Legion of Fallout New Vegas were his favorite faction, interesting and effective for one reason or another.
Then I met them and five minutes later I had enough of their shit and performed sequence-breaking so I wouldn't have to help them whatsoever.
3 minutes ago, ping said:I'll say that I do like Travant because of the reasons you said. It's nice to have a villain with somewhat grounded ambitions in a story where the villain is literally satan. And despite what he says in this chapter, he didn't even stab baby Altena when he was given the chance. But he really feels like his most interesting conflict was that with the Empire, which hardly comes into play in the actual plot. Sure, he's being opportunistic, but we're just going from fighting the Empire to fighting Trabant. There's no exciting fight between three factions, trying to play one enemy against the other.
Yeah, I agree, it'd been way cooler if Travant sent his recolored cronies and Altena after Connaught when Blume was still kicking and you had to beat them to the punch or they take Connaught from you and you lose.
Interestingly enough, there's a moment in Thracia 776 where they... sort of do this? Except it's not as cool as it'd been if they did it here. Oh well.
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1 hour ago, ping said:
Don't be so hard on him. Asaello also has higher Str than Feval (12+40% vs. 10+25%). The boy is trying his best to overcome the nepo advantage that Feval has.
I do prefer his face. Instead of generic-ass anime teen, he's a squinty boy, which is slightly less generic-ass.
1 hour ago, ping said:Ah.
QuoteFighting Bloom
Bloom: Ha! So long as I wield the Book of Mjölnir, what reason would I ever have to fear the likes of you?
With Arthur
Bloom: And what are you? Wait... could it be...?
Arthur: Bloom! I've waited years for this moment! You took my mother and sister from me, and today you'll finally pay!
Bloom: Gah... Impudent whelp! Just try me!With Leif
Bloom: Oho! Quan's son, I presume? You somehow still live on... I'm almost impressed.
Leif: King Bloom! You've tortured my people for long enough! Prepare to die at last!
Bloom: Hmph! A likely retort, but only one of us will die this day, and it will never be me!With Tine
Bloom: W-wait... Tine?! How dare you betray my many kindnesses...
Tine: I-I'm sorry, Uncle...Yeah, I didn't get any of these. Arthur because I warped him home to sell his Paragon band, and the other two probably would've been one-shot by Mjölnir if I had tried.
(Leif should not acknowledge Blume as "king", imo)
I find it funnier that these people have quotes with Blume in the chapter where Blume can't die. So much for revenge.
1 hour ago, ping said:"The villain is almost sounding like he might have a point! Quick, have him stab a baby to keep the black/white contrast nice and sharp!" - writers everywhere
People still love Travant. Which, I mean, can't really blame 'em for it. Travant's miles ahead of basically every other gen 2 villain by having a semblance of a personality and a few grey undertones.
Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread
in Forum Games
Posted
Yeah, and American applies to like 30 countries lmao