Seafarer

Bold: Can they? Where is the option, because I can't find it. The rest: would you mind quoting dialogue to support this? I don't remember anything more happening in that final scene than Xander giving Corrin a pep talk about not giving up. Also, Corrin manages to persuade both Leo and Elise to their point of view pretty easily (well, Leo needs the stuffing beaten out of him first), long before their near-death experience.

Here's the thing: flat characters aren't necessarily bad. In general, minor characters don't need to be well-developed. Villains can be perfectly effective without being developed. A flat protagonist is a bit harder to justify. Static characters also aren't necessarily bad. Even static protagonists can work, acting as mirrors of sorts for the development and growth of other characters. Flat and static characters are common enough, though they're almost invariably minor characters or the type of villain that a lot of people love to complain about. But a flat and static protagonist? The main character of a story needs to be interesting, or the story won't be engaging. If they're under-characterised, they're boring. If they don't grow, keeping in mind the exception above, they're boring. If they're both? They're not serving the story. The story's a vehicle for the author to talk about their pet. I'm curious - what growth do you see in BR!Corrin? As I mentioned, I see CQ!Corrin as the only one who actually undergoes growth. (Note that, if we're going to talk about video game avatars, some of this doesn't necessarily apply. In a game with a high degree of expression-producing mechanics, the player is expected to provide some or all of the characterisation and growth for the player character, rather than the game itself doing it. This doesn't apply to Corrin; the player's only input into Corrin's characterisation is the choice of BR, CQ or RV.) As for kishōtenketsu, that seems to just be another way of expressing Freytag's pyramid. Shō, or development, is the rising action; ten, the twist, is the climax, and ketsu is the denouement.

Thales outright says "You must survive merely because there is still a role I require you to fulfill". He contradicts himself in front of the Flame Emperor later, saying keeping the secrets of their bodies was his only aim, then tells Kronya "I'm afraid you must remain, Kronya. There is something I need you to do." I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that he saved her for Zahras, and lied about it to Edelgard to prevent her tipping Byleth off, seeing as there's obviously not complete trust between them.

Huh. They do stack. Though additively, so it's only ×3 weapon Mt, not ×4. Lance of Ruin is still better, because 22 ×2 > 8 ×3. When do you get the first Horseslayer? Or are they buyable...? I think they are, aren't they. EDIT: @Shadow Mir I got Sylvain to 80 listed hit in C6 with Lance of Ruin, so it's not like it's really bad hit rates.

Is it reasonable to have Lysithea's Reason at B in C4 if you recruit her to another house? I haven't actually used her except in the final map of Silver Snow, and being able to wreck C4!DK would give her an edge over Sylvain.

Nope. She doesn't get Dark Spikes until B Reason. Sylvain can Knightkneeler-Lance of Ruin at C Lances from C6, and he's all but guaranteed the OHKO, and he's easier to recruit early. Lysithea's great, but Sylvain's the best Anti-DK. (Funny thing: the DK has higher Res than Def.) EDIT: and I very much doubt that Horseslayer and Knightkneeler stack.

No reason they wouldn't, except that, you know, Kronya killed Byleth's father. After that, they'd have no reason to suppose Byleth could ever be tempted to their side. I haven't played Crimson Flower yet, so I don't know whether they still try to kill Byleth in Edelgard's C12, but I'm assuming they wouldn't.

Interesting take. However, allow me to expound an alternative interpretation. Firstly, I believe Thales fully expected to find either the Sword of the Creator or the Crest Stone of Sothis in the Holy Mausoleum. He's utterly unsurprised when the Flame Emperor reports what was there. I definitely agree that they were trying to get a weapon for Edelgard, but I think they wanted her to wield the Sword of the Creator, given they implanted the Crest of Flames in her. Aymr just feels like a backup plan. I also don't think Jeralt's death was planned. Kronya just stabs him on a whim because he's a "beast" who stopped one of her plans. Thales outright tells her that he only saved her so she could fulfill a purpose, which I took to mean that he would have left her to die in Jeralt's place if he hadn't needed her to fuel the Forbidden Spell of Zahras - thus, Jeralt's death wasn't an integral part of the plan. I personally believe that everything the Slitherers did after Byleth got the Sword of the Creator was aimed at killing Byleth. I mean, they hate Sothis, so once Thales figured out that Byleth had Sothis's Crest Stone, I imagine Byleth would've been a "kill at any cost" target for them. All in all, I don't think that the Slitherers were trying to alienate El and Byleth; it seems more like an unintended consequence of their increasingly desperate attempts to kill Byleth.

...I have no idea how to break quotes up on this forum, so this is going to be tricky to organise. A Mary Sue is a flat, static protagonist. Alternatively, a Mary Sue is a character who is served by the story, rather than the other way around. In the case of Corrin: 1) Their one piece of characterisation is that they're an all-loving hero. CQ!Corrin even trusts the guys who are clearly evil right up to the point that they're offered proof that the big boss is literally a pile of goo. There's nothing else there. They're flat. 2) They make one decision for themselves at the start of the game, then they do nothing but follow that decision to the end. Nothing that happens during BR or RV changes Corrin's limited characterisation. CQ is actually the least static Corrin, because at least they learn that it's maybe okay to do good things and lie about it to the evil people. Other than that, though? Static. 3) Tying in to the above, each time Corrin is faced with something that might lead to character growth, one or more of the other characters comes in to reassure them that they made the right choice and they have to keep going down their path because whatever they choose is correct. In other words, the "punishments" you refer to don't actually cause Corrin to change, because the other characters bend over to persuade them not to, or even prevent them from doing so. This stems from the avatar system - the developers want the player to feel content with their choice. What it does, however, is keep Corrin static and make the other characters exist largely to serve that aim. In other words, the characters serve Corrin. It's a similar story with Iago - he's obsessed with bringing pain to Corrin, with no obvious motivation for doing so other than he's evil. (On that note, Iago is probably the worst villain in Fates - Hans and Garon are still evil 4 teh lulz, but they both have believable reasons to be Corrin's antagonists.) Re: stories being contrived - yes, I agree. However, good stories aren't obviously contrived. The fact that a large number of people look at parts of Fates's plot and say "this is obviously contrived" is a pretty big indication that something is wrong (same as with the suspension of disbelief thing - one person losing it? Not a problem. Tons of people complaining about it? Problem). What makes a plot good, in general, is the building of tension to a climax, followed by release and denouement. Fates does this fairly well, on the whole, with the only problems being the "obvious contrivances". Characters serving the plot - this is about going against established characterisation to make the plot work. I haven't played Fates in a while, so I can't think of any examples right now, but this is one of the complaints that I found in my hasty search today that I remember broadly agreeing with back in the day, and I felt that addressing one or two common arguments on the subject would lend your analysis additional weight. I'm glad that you at least acknowledge that CQ C15 is pretty bad. Your actual analysis glosses over it, which I think is doing your work a disservice. A thorough analysis highlights both things that work and things that don't.

This is a very nice analysis of theme. The trouble is, theme isn't the only part of story. In the case of Fates, the majority of criticism I've seen is about the plot, setting and characterisation, not theme. Your analysis barely touches on characterisation, and doesn't look at the plot or setting at all. In particular, in order to convince me that the story overall isn't bad, you would need to address the following criticisms that I've seen brought up: 1) None of the characters are particularly deep, instead either being caricatures or behaving however the plot requires them to at any given time. 2) There are a couple of notable plot contrivances, such as Azura's crystal thing, that are significant enough to ruin suspension of disbelief for a large number of people. 3) The world doesn't feel like a world. Locations are picked up and discarded without ever being used as more than a cool-looking map. 4) Corrin is a giant Mary Sue who is prevented from having to learn from her mistakes by every other character, to the point that she's actively praised by other characters for being static. I believe that last one is a big reason why so many people dislike the story of Fates. Corrin is presented as a representation of the player, so the narrative goes out of its way to make him/her seem good, but the player has no control over their actions or reactions, so anyone who would prefer that they take other actions is very quickly going to find themselves disconnected from the character that the narrative repeatedly glorifies. Someone thus disconnected is then far more likely to notice other, lesser flaws, and also to pick at anything even vaguely odd in the hopes of finding more to complain about. Good stories get their themes across without alienating a large number of people who consume the story. Fates just doesn't come close.

I just recruited Caspar with B+ support and E+ Brawl, if you're still looking for an answer on this.

This list is mostly accurate. I'm fairly certain that Hilda's Paralogue is treated like a post-skip Paralogue, so you have to have both her and Cyril for it to show up. Nope, only Hilda needed. Note that Dedue coming back post-skip is a reward for War for the Weak, which you don't have in your sheet. It may also be worth noting that you can get the Lance of Ruin before The Forgotten becomes available, so it's not necessarily gained from that map. As for when things are available from: Weathervanes of Fódlan - C14 The Face Beneath, Legend of the Lake, Foreign Land and Sky - C15 Eternal Guardian - C16 Retribution - C17 The Silver Maiden - C19 (I don't know the corresponding months, sorry. Also, I haven't played Verdant Wind or Crimson Flower, so don't have anything on their exclusive Paralogues.) EDIT: You only get the Aegis Shield from True Chivalry if you save all the villagers. I think some of the rewards from Retribution are also only available if you save all of the blue squares. EDIT 2: War for the Weak is available in C6, which is Horsebow Moon, or the 9th month. EDIT 3: Dividing the World goes until 6/28 on Azure Moon. It was definitely 5th month on Silver Snow, though.

This one was touch and go for a while, but I eventually got it done (with everyone - even LH!Azura - at single-digit HP). Nino decided to tank a Sword Cavalier, which was amazing. I went back to record it, though, and couldn't repeat the original clear, so I found a better one where only two of my units dropped to single digits. I find my clears tend to be boring, but, given that I see some people putting up videos of Celica + 3 dancers clears, my team of 3 blues + Nino isn't actually too unimpressive, so I might join the video-posting club at some point soon.

A funny thing is happening. In Azure Moon C22, Dimitri is warning me about reinforcements, but they're not appearing even ten turns of doing nothing later. Anyone know whether it's just a mistake (maybe reinforcements are only on Hard, and the script plays on Normal too), or whether there's some other trigger that might be stopping them appearing?

The same thing happens with Lorenz in Azure Moon and (I think) Lysithea in Crimson Flower. I believe it's just the one character per route.

This. On Blue Lions, I didn't even need to use Gambits. I OHKOed with Sylvain's Knightkneeler + Lance of Ruin. This can probably be done on any route if you just refuse to give the lance back when Rhea asks.

The Flame Emperor has Counterattack (I think that's its TH name) in C11, so it's not exclusive to the Death Knight.

This one actually made me work! I ended up upgrading the Darting Stance seal so Nino could double the stupid Blue Mage. Sothis died to a nice Blazing Thunder, and I don't think Cordelia even got into Escape Route range.

I'd agree with eclipse: it's almost certainly Fates and Echoes's piecewise 1-RN fast-sine modification. I'm sure someone will crack into the game to confirm eventually, if they haven't already.

Since the notification doesn't actually say, I'm preparing for the free Byleth to be 1-star (or, more realistically, 4-star, but worst-case scenario here). And, having seen some comments above, I now also have to prepare for him to be going in the 3-4 star pool, like Kaze, rather than being a focus unit. You're right, I don't trust IntSys at all anymore.

Finished off Abyssal last night, with pretty much the same strategy as Infernal (Nino explodes the Sword Fighter on the right, Eliwood comes running to rally the Blue Cavalier, who still has no chance of surviving attacking Nino, then she kills Eliwood, and the three +10s (Nino, Reinhardt, Cordelia) tidy up with no problems), although I had to give Nino her Death Blow to get the initial kill. It was also great fun seeing Reinhardt ORKO the Green Bow. Legendary Azura is just stupid broken, as usual, when combined with double Waves on a bladetome.

Easily solved. Fliers can't get Null Follow-Up; it's infantry only.

It's truly amazing watching Nino do 1500+ damage per hit. Then Dragon Fang goes off... 😄 The mode is a little brain-dead, though. I just threw the old favourites at it, and boom! The damage racks up fast.

Oh, look, brides. I appreciate that they've put the Special Hero Revival banners on this one, especially after the panic last month about Spring Festival.

Stomped on Abyssal in front of my friend today. Went easily once I stacked enough Atk on Nino to kill the Sword Cavalier on turn 1. And who needs to double Alm anyway? Blazing Thunder Reinhardt took him out without effort. Funny thing: the Red Cavalier preferred to attack LH!Azura over Nino, which amused me.