Interdimensional Observer

*Triggers my Echo passive* By humanizing dragons, making them a more normal part of the living world as opposed to a nearly dead ancient relic, Tellius with the Dragon Laguz is the best handled circumstance of dragons so far. Dheginsea as Black Dragon King of Goldoa is better written than any Divine or Shadow Dragon, and he's the latter in color, but the former in nature being a hero of Ashera, he straddles archetypal lines. Ena, Nasir, and Kurthnaga are all solidly done characters as well, Almedha even. Only Gareth is lacking. Archanea's dragonology was the original thus excusable. Jugdral's integration of Archanea's dragons is neat and I'm perfectly fine with it. FE6 has the excuse of being back to Archanean simplicity, and is arguably better or worse than Archanea in dragonology. FE7 I think is the first game that poorly handled and didn't need dragons. FE8 has them as an afterthought, and they weren't at all necessary. Awakening is excusable as the kitchen sink going out of business tribute that it is. Having Dragon Veins, and Dawn and Dusk and even Silent Dragons in the lore of Fates isn't a problem for having mythos- its nice to know the gods Nohr and Hoshido worship. What is inexcusable is how Anankos ruins a potentially very human plot with braindead manipulation. SoV then turns actual gods into Archanean dragons, and handles the matter more poorly than Jugdral did. Why did Mila and Duma have to become dragons? FE can ditch the dragons completely or relegate them to a small role in the plot and world. Even if they took a more nuanced and fresh approach to dragonkind, I wouldn't want them to do it right now, I'd rather IS show it can write a plot without dragons at all for the moment. Because Fire Emblem isn't all about dragons, nor should it be. From a gameplay perspective, we need to bring back FE3 styled dragonstones if we wanted to play as dragonkind for more unit variety. Or normal classes modified to adjust for the biological advantage of dragonkind. Fates also had a decent idea in the Beastrune vs. Beaststone/+. There is a difference. Mario's plots are at best mostly lighthearted cartoonish jokes, and one of the few times it goes more straight-faced and even slightly dark- Super Paper Mario- Peach isn't kidnapped at all. Its okay for Mario to reuse Peach kidnapping because Mario games make no pretensions of being about the plot. FE wants to be taken seriously and puts on airs of grandeur, greatness and ambitious, but in overusing dragons, its lands face first and mouth wide open into "typical cliched JRPG plot" guano at times. To think on Fates for a moment, the trailers pre-release focused on showing off the characters and plot. Partly this is because FE gameplay isn't the most interesting to watch, partly out of a desire to actually try to sell people the plot as serious, dramatic, and meaningful. And guess what? Fates isn't any of those things according to general consensus despite it saying it is, so people have the right to criticize the hypocrite.

From a gameplay perspective, Ashera is quite squishy, letting anyone kill her would make it "easier", but the "difficulty" removed is very questionably difficulty if that and not just a forced gimmick. Awakening had the right idea with letting anyone drop Grima's HP to 0, but then limiting the cinematic final blow to Robin Chrom's ending is just plain worse. Giving Ike the cinematic final blow but not forcing him to deal the gameplay one would be better. Micaiah is able to deal upwards of 10 damage to Ashera. 40 Mag + 12 Mt Rexaura + 5 Mag White Pool + 3 Atk from an A Fire/Dark/Water Support vs. 50 Res. Micaiah might have a 80% Magic growth, but when its possible you don't bless Rexaura, don't recruit Nasir, and don't make a Support for Micaiah, it becomes very possible she'll never on a normal-ish playthrough be able to scratch Ashera. Not to mention her very late tier 3 promotion and limited time to gain EXP in the 2nd tier severely curtails her ability to get to 40 Mag. Of course, this could be remedied by dropping Ashera's Res a bit, or giving Micaiah a personal legendary tome (a Dark or Light called Radiant Flame with Order Incarnate effectiveness sounds good). And if lords are going to be forced into late promotions or doing certain things in the gameplay in the future, I wouldn't mind giving them Gaiden styled-promotion gains, that way they can't be screwed 100% when doing what they absolutely must do. Do note that in the Japanese at least, it is stated that Ashera and Yune cannot actually harm each other directly. Yune needed someone to channel her power into. And the approach taken for this of a combination of Ike and Micaiah sounds good and workable in principle- if they were portrayed as equals in the co-op attack- which they aren't as is. Micaiah is sadly shoved much aside in the Tower of Guidance after Lekain is offed.

Letting Sephiran live I'm pretty sure is the canonical choice (of course Awakening makes it so all possibilities happen). And because he's a playable character with nothing lost in gameplay if I don't get him, and something lost if you do (a minor something, but a something nonetheless) I always make sure to recruit him. Ignoring this and focusing on whether I personally think he should have lived or died, well part of the issue here is that Sephiran is partially suicidal. He does want to die to end his sorrow, but at the same time he doesn't want the heroes to kill him b/c that'd mean they have a chance of killing Ashera and ruining his overall plan. So to kill him is partly to do as he wishes, and if you want him to suffer, sparing him would possibly torment him more. Only in the very short term though really, since his agony is healed beyond that moment. So killing him would be the worse thing to do if you disliked him/felt he needed the most severe punishment possible. I tend to biased towards Sephiran because I like him, but standing back from a distance, IRL he would need some form of punishment for what he did- which is to say foster conflict to bring forth world genocide. It's absolutely a crime that doesn't deserve to go unpunished. Life imprisonment won't work since he's immortal of age, and solitary confinement in particular would only worsen his psychosis. It doesn't help that unlike Nergal to name a villain beyond the point of mental restoration and a chance at becoming a productive member of society, Sephiran, who is very talented, has real potential to be rehabilitated. Society certainly doesn't need Sephiran, but it'd be a loss however small if he did die, not that his ending suggests he went on to do much. Except possibly after Ashunera's return when he has his job of "Highest Servant of the Goddess of Dawn" again, which is quite important, albeit Ashunera could always hire someone new. A plus for killing him is that it keeps the end of the game from being overly happy. While randomly killing off people is bad, being too generous in who gets spared is just as much a flaw. Letting Sephiran live makes things a bit too happy I must admit. Letting Pelleas live is kinda similar, except him living isn't so bad since he is by comparison a small figure and nearly sinless. As for villains more deserving to live who die in RD, Levail and the BK, and Hetzel are the only ones that come to mind. Levail is really mostly innocent in the scheme of things, only blindly following orders from Zelgius whom he admires, who happens to be blindly following orders from Sephiran due to insecurity, beyond a little fatally excessive lust over Greil's swordsmanship. Hetzel is Sephiran-lite in some ways, since he ultimately did nothing to stop the corruption of the Senate despite having the power to do so, and he too isn't beyond rehabilitation either. Dheginsea obviously deserved to be spared as well, but its questionable whether he is a villain at all, even if you fight him. Lekain, Valtome, Numida, Ludveck, and Jarod all deserve a hanging, drawing, and quartering, or multiple life sentences, depending on the way the hypothetical judge leans on the death penalty. Sephiran doesn't take away much from Lekain, since all Sephiran did was let Lekain's corruption flourish unimpeded, though he did make some moves that clearly upset Lekain. Perhaps Sephiran actually held some hope for his reform plans, despite leaning towards wanting corruption to bring forth Ashera's judgement, he's a reluctant villain to the end after all. Lekain still engineered the Serenes Massacre, still bound Daein to the Senate (Sephiran apparently spoke with Izuka, but we don't know how much the BP of Daein and the false prince was his idea), and overthrew Sanaki and led Begnion into war with the Laguz. If Sephiran didn't exist as Prime Minister/Chancellor, well Lekain would gain only insofar as the new Senate head allowed him to/was unable to stop him. If Sephiran remained Prime Minister/Chancellor but acted appropriately, he could have quashed Lekain in five seconds with all his cunning, and thus Lekain would be just more incompetent that he currently is/isn't. Ashnard's relationship to Sephiran is more complicated. What Sephiran did for him was tell him about Lehran's Medallion, give him the Medallion and Lillia (almost wrote Lilina), is implied possibly to be the old man who made the Blood Pact with Ashnard's father thus putting Ashy on the throne of Daein, and then later giving Ashy the BK and a suit of blessed armor. The armor doesn't really amount to much, and he soon lost the Medallion to Elena and Lillia died. The BK on the other hand is kinda major since he was one of Ashy's top generals, albeit Ashnard's ultimate failure and a lack of a long-lasting effect from the BK following Ashnard's orders undermines this. Telling Ashnard about the Medallion is indisputably of paramount importance, since its what Ashnard funnels his life's drive into after he learns of it. Ashnard could have learned of the Medallion some other way real easy, since its existence is basic knowledge to anyone who knows the myths of Tellius. Presumably nothing would have been like having the Medallion thrusted upon you in person and Sephiran with all his intimate relationship with the Medallion tempting you with it however. Likewise, Sephiran arranging for Ashnard's ascendency to the Daein throne is incredibly important. Without Sephiran but with the BP, it becomes Ashnard recruiting a random old man for the BP, which is weird and not well done. To drop both Sephiran and the BP, Ashnard ascends only having murdered his father while a wholly natural plague took most of the rest of the potential heirs, with Ashy possibly claiming the heads of a few others. Importantly, Ashnard did not know of what Sephiran was using him for (breaking the Medallion for world genocide). Nor was Ashnard a lapdog of Sephiran the way the BK was. Ashnard did what he did because he wanted to do it for himself and nobody else. Sephiran pointed Ashnard in the perfect direction for funneling his chaotic desires, threw him one great general (who was inasmuch there to observe as per Sephiran's wants I would think), and helped place him on Daein's throne with as little difficulty as possible. But, there can be little doubt that Ashnard would inherently want kingship and did not have to be goaded into wanting it. And once king, all his actions were his own, with the BK sending no meaningful tactical advice from Sephiran to Ashy. Removing Sephiran means Ashnard: randomly recruited the BK who was serving Ashy for different reasons, found out about Lehran's Medallion and stole it and Lillia independently, and was little more dependent on luck or perhaps resilience (it depends on how you want to interpret things) getting Daein's throne. He was also in no way at all anyone's pawn. But as is, I don't think Sephiran detracts from Ashnard in a terrible way, since Ashnard is much his own agent, even if receiving moments of crucial guidance and backing from an enigmatic Sephiran with ulterior motives. Also, I realized Zephiel is another case of casting judgement on the world. However, Zephiel makes his call that humanity is irrevocably wretched entirely on his awful father and little else. While Sephiran had a much sounder basis in hundreds of years of watching Laguz and Beorc, and then seeing his many greats granddaughter assassinated and native race eradicated in three-four nights.

Sephiran! Who else could it be? Sephiran isn't really anything special, just someone in the cliche where they go insane because they can't take the suffering in the world anymore. But within FE, he's one of the few if only villains to go down this path. Plus he constitutes the evil sorcerer of Tellius, but isn't "muhahaha!" and openly ugly, evil and clad in darkness. He's subtle, handsome, unpretentious, and holy. Very much an inversion for FE. Dheginsea, if not exactly a villain, is very well written too for a whatever he is. In a series that has done Medeus, SoV Duma, Loptyr, Jahn/Idunn, Grima, and Anankos for many godly dragon villains, Dheg obliterates them all by an immeasurable amount. Dheg is a very human character, helped by the lowering of the mythical pedestal dragonkind stands on in Tellius (they're still elevated, but not as remote as they are in other games), and heavily benefits from this. Gangrel wasn't bad in Awakening, for the crude, cynical, self-centered king he was, he was good. Not wholly likable, but he isn't supposed to be that way and he never detracts from things being that way. I want to like Arvis (heck I once thought of giving him his own opera), but I haven't actually played FE4 yet. So it'd be wrong for me to say so.

Genealogy of the Holy War sounds good, but at the same time its a little much- fitting for the first mega ambitious FE. Radiant Dawn sounds like a military operation's codename for better or worse (the one where Ike joins the Marines while Micaiah provides air coverage from her Thani bomber). Shadows of Valentia is eh since what is so shadowy about Valentia? Fates is to the point and simple, while the sub-subtitles work. Mystery of the Emblem is good, if the word "mystery" isn't exactly perfect for the Fire Emblem of Archanea. Heroes of Light and Shadow as in "hero in the public spotlight, and hero/ine working quietly in the shadows" sounds great in itself, if easily mistakable for Light and Shadow as in elements, which describes Awakening more when you think about it. Thracia 776 has a nice historical sounding, authentic appeal, and is nestled firmly within the world of the game. Shadow Dragon is too simple and too dull. Path of Radiance, Ike is the Hero of the Blue Flames (which radiate from the LM) in Japan, but the title is too ambitious for itself. The Sacred Stones is generic. Awakening- the Awakening of the Falchion and Grima alike are not that super important. And the title is cliched and too short too. Blazing Blade is okay, but Durandal plays almost no role in FE7. Binding Blade is a little better sounding, but not too much.

On the topic of tedious bosses, having just finished DQIV the final boss is slightly unfair. Seven phases. With one phase being able to regen 500 HP at will (this particular form has 2000 HP total, a good attack can deal 100, more with a critical, Sap, and or Oomph), and the final phase spamming Disruptive Wave nulling your Insulates and Kabuffs needed to survive 100+ single target physicals and 80+ target all breaths attacks. This said, I did it beat it on my blind first try, you can bring your entire team of 8 and swap them freely during the fight, and its the final battle, so its mostly fair. Dhoulmagus in DQVIII is much more truly unfair, either you farm Yggdrasil Dew (really feasible only in the 3DS port), or you grind Angelo to the point he learns Multiheal, that makes things massively more manageable. It's such a pity to go all the way through the Dark Ruins only to die to this monstrosity. But I like Dhoulmagus, so I don't mind him being a pain. Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean's is the definition of tedium I think. For Bravely Second, I'd call Aimee the worst boss fight in that game. She comes just on the cusp of being too early for you to have many good options for fighting her. And only more HP makes Aimee bearable, since Defaulting against her only makes her hurt you even more.

I'm the only one who picked Blazing? All three distinctly colored lords front and center in strong poses, Ninian and Nils could be handled a little better, but overall I think its the best one. Awakening's is a little out there to me, the background is a little too blank, the characters portrayals aren't terribly well aligned with the ingame aesthetic and feel, or something. But the clashing Chrom and Lucina sprites on the actual game card is cool. SoV is good and relatively simple, but a little too dull to me.

Well I’m back everyone! Just wanted to point this out. Parnasse is thrown out of my sig now that the holidays are over, and in comes the snowy backdrop from Muramasa: The Demon Blade. I decided to take a sabbatical longer than I stated I would to develop internal strength and restrain against temptation. There was some withdrawal cravings to prematurely return, but publicly announcing my withdrawal and setting a date on it were sufficient shackles on such desires to never once violate it. Why I even had a nightmare that I was on SF at one point. And even now to post again for the first time since my sabbatical, I’m afraid I’ll return to my old, wretched ways and I don’t want that to happen. I got an A- in one class, which I consider a mark of failure owed partly to SF addiction, given my usual record of straight As and having no good reason why I couldn’t have gotten an A instead. It doesn’t have an real repercussions on my current academic standing I think, but what it does mean is that no later than 3 weeks into a semester, I’ll completely or near completely (if I can moderate my behavior) withdraw from SF again until the semester’s end. I won’t let myself slip up again. I might fill in my procrastination void with something other than SF, for with guilt, I did a Corrin solo of Lunatic Rev while off SF while school was still in session (boring but interesting that its possible), plus several Lunatic CQ chapters (fun if quite challenging), but even if it is inevitable I will flee to the dark playground to some degree, tis best to minimize the places I can flee to. Unless my raison d’etat finally comes to Heroes (which would with certainty either be TMS rep or Seph, maybe something else I can't imagine), I’ll probably try to avoid overdoing it there, since that was a major contributor to my little addiction. And even for now, I’m going to try to be less on SF, since playing actual video games is so much better than rechecking a board for the 19th time for new posts and replies to myself within a 24 hour period. The holidays were nice, got a Switch, SMO, BotW, XC2, and also DQIV and Sonic Generations on the old games side of things. The remainder of this is just me blabbing about the games I got for Christmas.

Hello Everyone! I've decided to ask for a temporary ban from SF. I've been on the site way too much and it's become an addictive force in my life, with ultimately minor repercussions, but ones I could have avoided and wish I had. Not being able to stop myself from popping on anonymously, I hope that ban of on my posting abilities for a while will allow me to quit this terrible habit. The ban will be until the 26th of December, or later if I can't get a ban precisely that long, whatever Eclipse can do. Let this be a warning and tip for all- social media is be a drug, particularly if you have procrastinating habits already like me. My concentration has been hammered by the ability to easily click onto SF and check it again and again and again for new posts. And to write ridiculously long ones with also burn up a lot of time. And its cost me tens, possibly hundreds of hours by this point. It's not truly fun, it's problem and I hate it. So, see ya later. I like SF, but this is what I deserve for not getting my habits under control. I've been needing this for a while.

I try to be of good behavior online- although it is only SF I'm on. Admittedly I joined in on the toxicity when it came to Camilla in the CYL VG, which was stupid, and once in a while there might a bit of passive aggressiveness or haughtiness in my posts. I'm not perfect. Nonetheless, I aim to be sensitive in my choice of words, maintain a sense of cool, and a relaxed and polite posture even in my argumentative posts, which I try to build up empirical evidence. And throw in a few comical posts once in a while to balance things out. I certainly avoid bashing, trolling, being filled with hate. And make an attempt to accept the views of others and see the potential good in them. It's saying something that one video game I've played uses emotions gathered from the Internet to mass-summon demons, anger is probably one of the most conducive for that. So let's cut down on the hate, so fewer demons enter this world. But not until I've summoned the Silky I've always wanted.

I'm more bothered when the character's title in Heroes deviates from the Character Ending one in their actual game. Titania is not the "Mighty Mercenary" it's "Scarlet-Haired Paladin"! And Soren while certainly a "Shrewd Strategist" is formally know as the "Silent Master of the Winds". Although sometimes the titles are bad even in the origin game- Hector is not a lowly "General of Ostia"- he's the full blown Marquess of Ostia!

It's like a shark is passing by us as with float in the water, our ship destroyed in a storm. We hope it never notices we're injured/emaciated/dying. 177

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I haven't played that far into FFT (I'm at the end of Part 1 I believe, I'm already spoiled on a little thing that'll happen then, but nothing else really- my characters have been getting KO'ed left and right). Anyhow, Ramza looks very feminine: If a guy with that much of an hourglass figure and soft expression can walk in and just order a glass, Boey has no excuse.

The script says this in Chapter 1: Oddly, it is never said when and how Manfroy found out who Deirdre was, he just pops in in C3 and takes her away. But given Manfroy manipulates so much in Gen 1, he probably had informants everywhere. Also, the script explicitly says Deirdre knows Loptyr can be resurrected through her via her cursed blood. So she knows exactly what is at stake. Sigurd promises to always protect her from harm when he says he will love her and that she shouldn't be afraid of the consequences of her falling in love. But as many an FE player knows Warpskip is win! And can bypass the most elaborate of defenses. Manfroy knew this too.

Did Deirdre even know she had a half brother? I mean Cigyun hopefully told people about that, but I'm not sure Deirdre knew it. And wasn't Manfroy on the verge of finding Deirdre anyhow? That was what nearly ruined Jugdral. Not SigurdxDeirdre. Plus Seliph doesn't seem to inherit the Loptyr Blood, only Baldur and Naga Blood. This doesn't negate Sigurd's and Deirdre's crimes however- they still happened. Even if nothing bad happened resulting from them. Katarina was neither the first nor last member of the MC/Avatar worship/love group. It began all the way back with Catria, and has continued, if with breaks in the chain along the way, all the way to the current games. The big issue is that I think Awakening-Fates-SoV handled it with less nuance and made it more in-your-face than beforehand. Soren is highly unlikable for some, but his reasons for liking Ike so much have a fleshed out explanation at least, better than Faye for whom we don't have a real "why so obsessive?".

Lachesis is the one big offender. Arvis has his unexplained issues with Aida, and other issues related to Deirdre, yet to be fair he didn't know Deirdre was his half-sister until later, Manfroy arranged the entire thing. Beowolf had a fling with a Conote princess, and must have left Lachesis for some unexplained reason according to T776. But the rest seems perfectly normal. I can't think of anyone else being problematic. Cousin love in the 2nd Gen sure, but I think it stops there. And mind you the existence of cousin love might be because you might get the subs instead, which aren't related to each other or the non-subs. The dialogue for say LesterxPatty is pretty generic from what i saw. SeliphxJulia is not really a thing before or after they find out the truth. Silvia was deconfirmed to be Claud's lost sister, Mareeta isn't Ayra and Galzus's daughter, and neither is Ares from EldiganxLachesis. As for AyraxChulainn- nobody knows what his exact genealogy is- it might not be so bad. ArionxAltena might count as psychological incest the same way CorrinxNohr Royal is, but Arion has always known Altena wasn't related to him. And now that I think about it, Archanea, Tellius, Awakening, and SoV are all incest free- good for them!

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Actually Joshua's physical lead isn't too great in the long run. A 20/10 Joshua has 3 HP, 2 Def, and also 2 Str over Marisa, who has 7 more Luck. 7 extra avoid in a 2 RN Hit game can make a difference.The Luck lead is almost mitigated by using a heavier sword, since Joshua has 8/9 Con and Marisa has 5/7. The 2 extra Str is more meaningful, particularly with a critical hit increasing it to +6. But will anything die die to a 1 critical + a normal hit from Joshua that wouldn't from Marisa? But still, based purely on stats, I'd say Joshua is slightly better for that 2 Str.

So a victory signifies.... nothing then? Luck plus the two crowds of players having some element of comparable size?

Well this is a chaotic unexpected mess. Not that I mind them mixing it up a bit. Of them all, Katarina doesn't appeal to me because of her Kris love- but beyond that she isn't bad. Catria took until SoV for her unrequited love to be put into a game despite being the origin of the whole dang thing- bleh. Faye, Tharja, and Rhajat appeal to me even less. Priscilla is okay, I like her FE7 design, and her personality is fine. So Sig vs. Dorcas, I'd say Sig, but Dorcas is good too. I don't take VGs seriously. They're built on popular whims and not serious well built arguments of FE characters. I like to think that if one were to do such a serious argumentation, Tharja would never/almost never win. Eventually they'll have to ration the strategic female reserve for non-Seasonal banners. SoV is already nearing complete exhaustion. But VGs don't have the issue of potentially running out of new characters- they can continually recycle them.

I'm guessing the Blood Pact can endure across generations? Just as the Blood Pact marking passes unto Micaiah if Pelleas dies, the pact-maker's role can pass on from person to person? I guess this would be the case as long as the document survives. Remember that back in 3-2, Tibarn asks Naesala how he mysteriously became king- he probably inherited the BP marking and conceals it very well. Since Sanaki doesn't get stoned, she never "dies" and thus the Pact endures on him. But then why does someone have to die to break the Pact? Why doesn't destroying the document solve everything? I feel that was an unnecessary detail. Lack of explanation once again gets in the way of things. As for Naesala in PoR, I think the Blood Pact probably didn't exist when they were making that game, which makes it one of the very few continuity issues between PoR and RD, which is something amazing that they don't have more. Alternatively, the Senate could have been largely tolerant of Kilvas piracy, since they are selfish pigs in RD, as long as it didn't get too harsh. Or so as long as it affected them roughly equally, here is a little line from Chapter 15 PoR, the scene where Oliver sees Reyson and then asks Naesala to capture him. NaesalaDuke Oliver, can we please discuss the business at hand? Per your request, we have appropriated several pieces of art from the ships of Duke Gaddos. Naesala being an opportunist, he probably had raided ships for other Senators too. And the Senate being of many Senators, if one whined about being pillaged, you'd have plenty of others stopping them from doing anything about it. The Senate was possinly not overly enthusiastic about going to war with Daein in PoR- we never see their reaction however. So if Kilvas sided with Daein, they didn't care so as long as they themselves weren't being affected. Obviously in their self-interest, they never told Sanaki about a magic piece of paper that gave her dominion over the Ravens. Also to leave this talk of the BP behind. The Recollections have these geography notes of the various countries: https://kantopia.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/178-179landscape.jpg https://kantopia.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/180-181laguzlandscape.jpg Begnion's profile is quite inaccurate since Noad and Razia don't exist, it's based on PoR in its development stages, when the map looked very different. Some political notes exist too, but they have more inaccuracies from the final games- like a few hundred Herons surviving, Gallia being 20% Beorc, and Laguz being able to walk around in open daylight in Crimea, which is totally wrong in PoR- remember the scene where Ranulf got shoved by a bunch of civilians? They're not totally useless, Dheginsea having a "one mind" policy not tolerating internal dissent and Goldoa asserting a form of racial superiority over all others (the RD scene where Dheg says Ike wouldn't understand being so short lived a species). But they're not as trustworthy as the geographical notes. The Recollections also mention that Dark Magic is associated with "the Dark God"/Yune, which is partly why it is so rarely practiced- that isn't a good thing to be associated with the world flooder. Water Magic it says isn't a thing because of an ancient association between Ashunera and water (since she emerged from a watery chaos probably) which has somehow endured despite Ashunera being forgotten, and hence nobody practices it because it is too sacred to touch. No explanation on why no Earth Magic though. The Recollections also imply that Ashera and Yune first split inside Ashunera's body- like a mental split into two personalities. Being ignored and isolated by her Orderly self who takes control of their body to try to end the increasing conflict between Beorc and Laguz, the Yune half of Ashunera causes the Great Flood and the Goddess of Dawn splits physically into two. One final offering, I know I have offered you far too much already in the course of this whole LP, here is a link to a series of 3 videos showcasing every single Critical and Mastery animation in the game. If you haven't watched them yet, have fun doing so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLoNkLC5FIU

Simple- to force you to exhaust more Orbs for more of her. You want to find that ideal nature Neph for using as a combat unit, and then have plenty of duplicates for Wrath fodder and merging into your finest pantsless Sentinel (that was a stupid move). More Orbs spent on the peasant girl-turned guard in Melior (I liked her character ending), the more pressure to go PtP, which is the meaning of happiness for this game's developers. Now who would you support your combat Neph with? Calill?

One- don't offend the actually mentally ill. Two- Move is a stat, more move is better than less, just as more Speed is better than less, and more of every stat (save Con maybe) is better than less. You don't need to be an LTC or S rank player to like higher move units. It is far easier to tackle Battle Before Dawn if I have a few high move units so Zephiel and Jaffar can be reached much faster. Need I mention turn limit Gaiden chapters, getting to chests/villages before thieves/bandits get there, the ability of fliers to move over terrain others can't? Movement isn't the end all be all- you need good stats elsewhere to back them up. Three- you promoted Nino in two fights? Well if that was fun for you, then sure, yay! But there is zero intrinsic value in that, just as you may assert there is no intrinsic value in in S ranking. Both are ultimately objectively meaningless, they only take on personal subjective value on an individual basis. But c'est la vie! Someone who likes Eliwood? Not everyone is beholden to Lyn. And maybe there is a gameplay argument that promoting him first is better than promoting Lyn first, just as you make make one arguing the opposite? Assuming you even want to bother training Lyn, or Eliwood, at all. Which is a personal decision, no something that can be dictated. I get by just fine leveling Lyn and Eliwood enough to get Linus's Four Fanged Offense, and then I bench them both generally (I might raise them- depends what I want to do with the run) because I want the EXP to go to others, and it isn't like they need to ever really fight. The few chapters where they are mandatory leave plenty of room for them to avoid combat. Other opinions exist, often but not always with some justification. I'm just politely and with detail informing you of this. -------- As for the topic at hand of dodgetanks, Raven and Gerik I guess would be my usuals.