Extrasolar

Old Garon needed more focus, full stop, agreeing with a few other people in this thread. Or at least, give us some hints of old Garon in new slime-monster Garon's disguise. Because it would alleviate so many of the issues with Conquest's story (the royals bending over backwards and spitting in the face of their own morals do go along with Garon's monstrous deeds because 'daddy might turn nice again,' which sucks as a justification when the audience literally never sees any of this nice Garon), and comes off as stupidly flimsy in the first place. Of course, I'd do away with the slime monster bit in the first place and have Garon have been a once decent or even good guy who slowly become disillusioned and violent with the world, but I digress. If he absolutely must be slime monster, give us some hints of the previois guy so that the Nohrian royals don't come off as so stupid and morally bankrupt when running his errands. Shura is a good one...he's set up with this tragic backstory and then just shoved into the background for the rest of the game, with only his support with Corrin providing any more background. Not to mention, he can't support with Azura, despite having been the one who kidnapped her? What's that all about?? This so much. Also Sumeragi. More about him, please. All we get is Fuga's comments about him in his and Corrin's support conversations. Build these monarchs up as people instead of plot devices.

I...actually kind of like Lucilus better as a name for that guy. Sounds prettier and more graceful. Might just headcanon that as his name from now on. Lol.

Gods don't have to be conscious of their power being invoked to grant it. That's how it's worked in tabletop for years. Hell, if a god had to divert attention and be notified each time a worshipper called their name to cast a spell, they'd go legit insane. It's on autopilot mode. I do have evidence of that. Again, in Sacred Stones, it's made clear that light magic/healing magic is faith based in a conversation between Knoll and Natasha. Micaiah is lauded as unsual with her abilities to heal and cast light magic while being unrelated to a divinity, and then we later find out that she actually is related to a divinity. Rhys in POR invokes Ashera's name when he casts his magic in dialogue a few times. In Jugdral, the cleric Lana is explicitly referred to as a nun by Seliph (nuns, religious order. all of that). Claud invokes Blaggi the priest when using his magic. Again, it's divine. All divine. There's plenty of evidence pointing it out. Different gods, same method of casting the power. Actually, dark magic in GBA also corrupts; read Canas' supports again. He mentions that his brothers have long-fallen to the dark magic, to the point that they're not really even sentient anymore, and that one always feels a pull toward darker influences. It takes a strong person to resist it. And in POR, it wasn't split at all, with each mage able to use each element. RD had it split in class name only, as every anima mage could still use each element, but could only get max rank in one. High resistance stat does not automatically equal magically inclined, though mages do often have high resistance stats. Paladins have high resistance stats, and they can't handle a staff at all. I said that the lack of resistance on units in older games points to magic being rarer or especially dangerous, as no one has any natural resistance to it unless they're a magical dragon god. EDIT: Also, paladins are meant to be divine warriors blessed by the gods. Hence, their high resistance could easily be a form of their deity protecting them from other magical energy.

For me, Fates was a mixed bag. I did fundamentally enjoy the game, but it lacked the staying power that Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn had for me, where I still look back upon those games fondly for their great storyline, characters and gameplay (some shenanigans in RD's unit availability notwithstanding) even years after I completed them. Fates, on the other hand, offered on the surface an enjoyable experience, but lacked depth imo. It was a lot of disappointment and missed potential. I think it had one of the most interesting story concepts - you, the player, forced to choose between the people whom you've known as family, and the people who you were stolen from as a child. But they botched what was supposed to be an extremely meaningful choice. But then the terrible writing of the Conquest path struck, and their failed attempts at invoking a gray morality, when Nohr and its characters are pretty clearly in the wrong here. Not to mention, you've got morally upstanding people doing heinous things for flimsy justifications, and the inexplicable out of character mangling of Xander in a lot of his supports - especially his one with Peri - and his hypocritical behavior all Conquest path long. When you're making the protagonists of the path look like worse people in comparison to the antagonist/enemy units, you've messed up. Majorly. Just...eugh. Not to mention the path itself tried too hard to try to mimic "classic FE difficulty" with its at times gimmicky chapters that were more annoying or unfair than actually difficult. And Revelation is written better than Conquest, but has infinitely worse unit balance; in a mode that's supposed to be about a bunch of people from two opposing countries coming together, you have to immediately bench a good portion of them simply because they're just not viable with their starting stats and levels. I agree that Birthright was the best-written path and is my favorite of the three paths, and it clearly feels like the morally "right" path (i.e., the non-selfish one) to choose, which in a game which is meant to invoke "there's no right choice, and there will be consequences and bad feelings no matter which side you choose" is the biggest mistake they could have made. I know villain protagonists are a thing, but it was done horribly with Corrin and the Nohrian siblings in the sense that they just aren't villains; we spend the entire game hearing about how morally decent and upstanding they are, only for them to kowtow to Garon and do his dirty work with only so much as a shrug and "well, he could go back to being the way he used to be." It's almost infuriating, really. On the plus side, Fates finally gave me the manakete lord I'd wanted for so long...but that just wasn't enough to salvage the game, imo.

Hmm, I like that idea. So long as you ultimately know what you're getting into, having some flavor text to flesh out the world is fun too. I think it works. As long as I get my bard lord at the end of the day, I'm good.

While things are usually not exactly the same, they have a lot of common elements, and it's safe to say that they work in a similar, if not entirely same way. You still have anima mages in every game, invoking elemental spirits to cast their spells - Gaiden mages use their life force to focus the power as opposed to tomes. While the gods of the FE worlds may be different, the way staves work by invoking divine energy is likely the same. Hand axes still inexplicably boomerang back to the user no matter the universe, et. al.

I don't see how that's relevant to my argument that magic seems to be rare or hard to learn/cast in FE? Unless I'm missing something here?

There's evidence that Corrin was planned to be a regular, non-customizable lord originally before IS decided to put in the avatar mechanic from Awakening, so that's probably why they weren't all that customizable at the end of the day. But yeah, agreed, explicit wording is always better than vague, more "in-universe" wording like the Fates' bane/boon. I was like, "what the hell does being 'dull' mean? So in FE world, your resistance is tied to how intelligent you are? How does that make sense?" That just made me think...what if one of the background choices was "a traveling performer in a caravan," and you could start with a legendary bard lord, with an appropriately spoony outfit. That would be the best thing.

Yeah... I guess I can concede this. I definitely prefer the retcon Zelgius to original Black Knight Zelgius. I'll admit that acknowledging his threats against Greil's family strips a lot of what makes him sympathetic away. You sort of...have to excuse it by saying that he's either bluffing or that the designers changed him from being a straight villain to being an anti-villain, but that's an out of universe justification with no confirmation in-universe. The backpedaling is kind of...overt, when you examine Zelgius' journey from the Black Knight to Zelgius in RD. But if you can ignore his previous behavior as being a retcon, he still comes off as sympathetic imo, just due to his race and status in the world.

Hmm, not sure about the questionnaire deciding class...I guess it depends on the questions. If they're general temperament questions, I wouldn't necessarily say it's fair if your avatar gets stuck as something you don't want it to be. Like, let's say that it decides that you're a morally upstanding person, and sticks you as a cavalier, when you wanted your avatar to be a mage or something. I'd say a background that spells it out more explicitly would be better, and avoid players being disappointed or upset by their avatar's starting class. Though I like the option of choices perhaps affecting the plot, if only in minor ways, to the point of potentially leading to a different game chapter.

You're judging it from a modern point of view, which is a flawed way to judge it. Way back when, the way of the world was that if you were a noble, you were "entitled" to being in charge and high positions, and if you were a commoner, you were little better than a pawn or peon under control of your social betters. Looking at it from a pseudo-medieval notion, it's progressive as hell that a commoner can be a grand general possibly ordering around nobles if he's ambitious enough. Sure, it's not as progressive nowadays in our modern world, but we're not talking about our modern world. And I mean that Ashnard took the ruthless/the strong should make their own place too far. Not that his ideas were necessarily bad to start with. Crimea is definitely racist. Now, there may be certain characters that act favorable toward laguz, but don't forget about random maid woman casually saying something about "subhumans," as well as Rolf's mother being terrified that a "subhuman" was coming into her house to attack her, only for Rolf to explain that laguz aren't all that bad. Elincia tries to change it, but it's clear that the populace of Crimea as a whole holds a lot of racist sentiments toward laguz. Shinon is Crimean too, after all.

Well of course you can't say with 100% certainty, but lots of things are more speculation in fiction than outright fact. We don't know how every aspect of the FE universe works, but going off the small hints that we get we can draw certain conclusions. It seems like magic was meant to be rare/hard to learn and study, considering in the Archanea games, nobody even had a resistance growth or stat except for the godly mage Gotoh. Not to mention when we learn in POR and Blazing Blade that mages can actually die if they use their magic recklessly, as well as magic miscast being capable of blowing allies to smithereens. What I'm saying is that it's a different beast than physical weapons, and the games themselves back it up.

It wasn't a utopia, to be sure, but a system in which one can climb the ranks of the social ladder without being nobility is a pretty progressive notion. A society can be behind the times in certain ways (we see it all the time with our real-world societies), but be remarkably progressive in another. The thought that if you were ambitious enough you could rise to the top despite being as common as dirt was pretty new and fresh, especially if we're going by pseudo-medieval customs like FE does. Not to mention, Crimea and Begnion are just as racist as Daein, if not moreso in Begnion's case (they still have laguz slaves, for crying out loud). And Daein in RD Part I is treated as the sympathetic power being unlawfully oppressed and bullied by corrupt Begnion senators, which is what I mean by the "good" country.

I agree with Levail being a fundamentally good person caught on the "wrong" side of the war, but I don't necessarily think that diminishes Zelgius' status as a sympathetic villain/anti-villain. Zelgius is definitely more honorable and knightly than the majority of Begnion knights, and especially the Senate (granted, the Senate are meant to be slimy and underhanded, but still). Not to mention, since Levail was inspired by Zelgius to be the way he is in the first place (as well as people like Shirahim), it goes to show that Zelgius posesses some admirable traits. Sephiran's backstory is undoubtedly sadder than Zelgius', but he's also been around a lot longer than Zelgius. A lot of Zelgius' backstory is hinged just on the fact that he's a Branded - we get from Soren that the rest of the world despises them and wants them dead. If anything, I see Zelgius as similarly losing the will to live/exist, and he became something of a nihilist after Gawain flew the coop; he figures, "fuck it, the world hates me anyway, why should I care what happens to it or the people that inhabit it?" Zelgius respects his opponents in RD. I do think that a lot of the Black Knight's dickery was Zelgius putting on an act (or just plain inconsistent writing, if we're going that route). I think the tragedy of Zelgius is that in a world that welcomed him instead of scorning him, his contemplative and loyal nature could have been in the service of good rather than evil.

To be fair, the Black Knight's armor is blessed by a god...so I mean, I don't think that any ordinary drawbacks apply to it. Fancy magic and all that. But...yeah, it is kind of ridiculous. I think the Tellius designs are more accepted just because they're a bit more stylish and eye-catching overall, even if sometimes they don't make much sense realistically. They're not mean to be realistic. Whereas Awakening and Fates armor designs are just kind of goofy/dopey looking in a lot of cases, and (overly fanservice-y in others, but I digress). Maybe intentionally so (probably intentionally so in Kellam's case, at least), but that's what makes it worse in a lot of peoples' eyes. And Gatrie's shoulder plates are amazing just like Gatrie himself. I don't know any problems anyone could possibly have with them, because they are amazing and perfect Point made about Gatrie's shoulder pads. And I admit to not being sure how his leg armor is working there...

Ah, I see. My mistake, I misunderstood your post. Yeah, magic is relatively rare in FE. Though...maybe their premise could work for a country ruled by mages, or with some sort of mage aristocracy? Thinking heavily of Dragon Age, here...lol. Maybe the mage country wants to conquer the other countries, or sees magic as superior and thus those that aren't mages are inferior and/or disposable?

That's fair. I definitely see Zelgius as a villain straight through, but definitely a nuanced one with some...sort of positive qualities. I guess his horrible past doesn't excuse him from a lot of the things he's done. Explains, not excuses. Important distinction that some people forget. I guess my memories of him from POR are slightly overwritten by my memories of him from RD, where he's fleshed out as sympathetic a lot more. As I recall, that's when I really got invested into his character after finding out why he was loyal to Sephiran and that he was a Branded.

RE: Armor discussion Yeah, real-life armor was split into a bunch of smaller segments for ease of movement as well as protection. Kellam's torso armor is silly for being just one giant piece; sure, it would offer him some measure of protection if he was to just stand there and have guys just walk up to him and slash at him, but his mobility would be extremely limited and awkward. Even for a big-ass armor knight toting all kinds of armor, you need some maneuverability in order to fight another guy. Kellam is essentially stuffed into a slightly-oversized tin-suit, with just as much awkwardness as that would imply. Gatrie's armor does it right. And with a tower shield to boot.

Here's the best look at it we get (granted, it's the Cipher version, so it's slightly redesigned compared to the original). It's got...a couple random chains hanging down, what looks like a tassel, a bunch of feathers sticking out, and a fluffy furry tail-like thing... I don't understand how this exists and stays on his head, let alone functions as a hat. I mean, that can't be comfortable. Not to mention, if it's a scarf, it's got a scarf-like attachment of its own to hang around his neck and torso. o.o I mean, if "spoony bard" was what he was going for with that thing, I guess he succeeds.

Pretty much this... Besides, Lewyn's hat is the best nonsensical thing to come out of the Jugdral series. Seriously, what even is that cloth monstrosity?

Damn. I guess I forgot about that whole...thing. Yeah, that does come off as kind of unnecessarily dickish in a sense. Though I imagine Zelgius was still pissed off at Gawain abandoning everything they had back in Daein. Though it's sort of a toss up: One could argue that he's acting in order to intimidate Gawain into giving him the medallion. Considering how he acts in Radiant Dawn and especially in those backstory scenes of him, a lot of it could either be a case of changing characterization, or him putting on that act. He's pretty morose when speaking to Sephiran about everything. Kind of dead to the world emotionally, and just kind of goes through the motions to please Sephiran. Though...uh, what he says about Mist has a lot of double meanings. That is...kind of uncomfortable to think about.

I wouldn't say he enjoyed scaring Mist. He's not sadistic. Cold? Yes. Pragmatic? Yes. But as a whole, he was never a cackling "I drink your suffering and consider it hilarious" type, especially when compared to Ashnard, whose dickish actions are half the result of "I did it for the lulz." And Ike challenged him first. Zelgius wasn't going to hold back against him just because he was Greil's son, and if Mist was there attacking him/assisting Ike as well, she was just as much an enemy. If Ike hadn't been out for revenge and embroiled in the conflict between Crimea, Daein and Begnion, their paths would likely never have crossed again. Sure, maybe he knew Greil wouldn't win, but he wasn't expecting for Greil to die fighting him, since he didn't know about his self-inflicted injuries. Not to mention, considering Sephiran was literally the only person in the world whom he could turn to or who cared a lick about what happened to him (other than Gawain, who deserted him at one point), his loyalty to Sephiran is understandable. He's not malicious. But he's not compassionate. I think there's a divide between "not malicious" and "sadistic." He didn't particularly have any love lost for the world's inhabitants, since as a Branded, the world would have preferred him dead anyway. Also, making it clear that he's not a "good" guy. But I don't think calling him sadistic is fair. In other circumstances, he could have been an ally.

I mean, he didn't know that Gawain had crippled himself. All he wanted was a nice little duel with his former, estranged mentor...and then some random kid comes stumbling in. I mean, it's not like he directly antagonized Ike after Greil's death or anything...he just...happened to be working for some pretty corrupt people. Not to mention, he let Ike beat him after he found out that he didn't really beat Gawain at full strength. So I wouldn't say it's all that scumbag.

Fair enough, I guess. The OP should be reworded to make it clear that it means with the accent, since my mind didn't go there immediately,

Just because they're from Texas doesn't mean they'll be speaking in the stereotypical Texan accent. Funimation is also based in Texas, and they've got plenty of actors doing non-accented voices.