Quiyonce

All hail the Golden Memes! I've finished the memes but don't know where to go next. BL for Dedue or BE for Jeritza?

Snow for a week. Hopefully i get snowed in and cant go to work. WYR get caught defecating on a public street or urinate yourself during a long car ride (no stops)?

Good write up. I never considered Fates' writing to be completely irredeemable but I also never thought it was actually good either. I think you've convinced me that the writing, thematically at least, is decent enough. I especially enjoyed your thoughts on Corrin's betrayal to their own ideals and how that contradiction makes siding with Hoshido or Nohr always wrong. I'm glad that Revelations actually has some thematic backup as a route and isn't just the fanservice 'no one dies and everyone lives happily ever after' side of the story. I look forward to your Revelations P. 2 analysis and possibly a rewrite to your Conquest analysis if you're up for it. I'm especially interested in your thoughts on the Hidden Truths trio. However, one of my main problems with Fates is how the second generation is thrown in without any regard to the plot or theme. In your analysis, it seems like almost every character has some relation to the theme but I can't find that connection with the second generation, not even the main character's child. Do you think there is a way to involve these children with the themes of Fates or is the disconnect between the second generation and the rest of the game just too strong?

Thanks for this, forgot I also used literally zero of the wells.

I definitely think I'm projecting a bit but the only confirmed way we have of killing a dragon is through Naga. She can say what she wants but her power speaks for itself. I'm not totally against the suicide it's more of a question if even Mila and Duma are even capable of killing each other. And if they can't would they even be strong enough to take their own lives?

Makes sense. It just didn't bother me as much. Obviously BB didn't have the best map structure, I just found it, for the most part, easier to deal with than in SoV. Rescuing and dropping units has its own set of issues but I do like at least having the option. Regardless of how many enemies were guarding the vault, Duma, whose only weakness is Falchion, will always make a better guard. The thing about Jedah's plan is that it seems to be mostly conjecture on Jedah's part. We never see Duma tell Jedah to bring him a branded, Jedah does so of his own accord. He believes it will work but there's no proof that it's the actual cure to madness. It's possible that Duma needed the souls of both branded or that his plan wouldn't work at all. Jedah making the choice to let Alm, the only possible person who could still harm Duma, roam freely and not have any backup if Celica's soul wasn't enough is completely counterintuitive to how intelligent and manipulative Jedah is supposed to be perceived as. If Jedah really only wanted Alm and Celica to fight because it would be bittersweet for Alm, then Jedah is sadistic to a fault and that character trait should've been expanded on more earlier in the game. It also wouldn't hurt if Jedah actually antagonised Alm into finding Celica if that was the case. Obviously, the game plays out the way it does because Alm v Celica is a crux of the game and dungeon crawling is a main selling point. This all makes sense gameplay-wise but I really think there was a better way to integrate these aspects into the plot. Like I said earlier, something as easy as Jedah telling one of his daughters to capture Alm or a line about goading Alm into finding Celica would've made the story flow better. Almost anything would've been better than Jedah just vanishing amd leaving Alm to his own devices.

Yeah, that's true but they don't necessarily have full control over their existence becuase of the inherent degeneration. I guess I could also be projecting Judeo-Christian hierarchy on the dragons, with Naga as 'god' and the lesser dragons as 'angels,' in which only Naga (and by extension, Falchion) has the ability to extinguish their existence.

Oh, I definitely did not use any knights past early-mid game in BB. I actually think they have more potential in SoV which is why their lack or movement bothers me more in that game; because they could be more useful. And the only non-mounted archer that didn't get benched was Klein, and that's majorily out of favoritism so I definitely get what you're saying. Personally, if I'm sending my cavs/fliers to do something extra like save a village or ferry a unit, I'd rather them not have to fight a lot of enemies as well so I just lure them to the foot units until I'm done with the extra stuff. I think the game has enough mounted units to ferry around freely so I usually just rescued instead of having my foot units play continuous catch up.

I'm not ignoring anything, the aspects you listed just didn't significantly hinder me from using my foot units. Even if the maps in BB are larger, there's more to do in them, so I can send my high movement units to save villages, unlock chests, etc. and still lure the enemies to the main bulk of my army. In SoV my units have nothing to do but engage the enemy (which were usually grouped together in one area) leaving my 4/5 movement units with nothing else to do as they're stuck behind my cavs/pegs/dread fighters. The turn count requirement for the Gaiden maps in BB were around 20-30. There was one (maybe a couple more at most) map in SoV where I had over 30 turns and iirc that was for boss abusing. Most maps fell between 5 and 15 turns for me. It's not that I don't see what you're saying, I just had a different experience/playstyle that worked for me.

I really hope Wyvern!Claude is a thing. Especially if he keeps his bow cause I'd definitely go with that

Definitely figured out the church was evil which is why he's probably gonna die early.

I'm completely dedicated to Claude but I think Blue Lions has my fav supporting cast and they're trying their damnedest to tempt me away.

I'm not sure what the averages are but I'm pretty sure my Clive, Mathilda and Whitewings got majorly screwed. My Clive is a gold knight and only has 12 spd and 13 def ???Everything kills him. Mathilda is faster but only has 1 more def point. And out of all the sisters, my Est has the worst atk, spd and def. The only thing she has over both her sisters is res. And she was the hifhest level before Celica's last map :(((((((( Also, in Endgame, I was trying to weaken Duma with Delthea and no matter how many times I reset and tried to rng scum, Duma kept hitting a 31% percent Ocular Beam. I used almost my turnwheels trying to whittle him down without her dying. No such luck.

I think I got rng screwed in SoV but blessed in BB. My SoV units ended up very frail and it felt like I had to be more agressive so my units didn't take too many hits. I also had to work fast so my bowknights didn't steal all the exp with killer bows. I had a much more balanced playstyle in Binding Blade.

These kinda contradict each other unless Rudolf and Mila conspired together to seal her, in which case I definitely missed that. From what I'm gathering, I think it's more that Mila was sealed but still conscious of the world around her. I think Mila still needed someone to pull the sword out, she just had the power to choose who, if anyone, would unseal her and when because she (somehow) sealed Falchion. Either way, I think this is a point where the writing could've been stronger because the rules between Falchion and Mila/Duma are never clearly defined. Can dragons even commit suicide? I think the Falchion is more to blame, I'm just not sure why unsealing Mila also lead to her death. Not fine as in good, fine as in fitting for her character/the narrative the story set for her.

As someone who used both Forsyth and Mycen in the final chapter (I beat it twice to hear all the final map dialogues), Mycen performs better with no effort required. I got really rng screwed with my units and Mycen tied with Forsyth for 5th place in def of all my units. I raised Forsyth to level 1 Baron. He and Mycen tie in def and atk but Mycen has better HP, skill, speed, res and, most importantly, movement. So, think of it like this: even if all your cavs get rng screwed, Mycen still has decent enough bases to provide some assistance. He basically solo'd those 3 enemies in the top left corner in Endgame. However, if all your other tanks get screwed, you have to pour in a lot of time and energy to make Forsyth usable. It doesn't help that 2/3 support bonuses are with horse units that'll always outpace him. That being said, while I rate Mycen higher than Forsyth, I still wouldn't call him the worst. I think that goes to Nomah. He comes late as a sage to a route that really doesn't need more magic users. He has no special white magic and his hp (and bases in general) is too low to really abuse his black magic. He has high res but Celica has 3 pegs, 3 dread fighters and Conrad so he's very redundant. Moreso than Mycen, I'd argue.

I guess my thing is I don't feel as rushed in Binding Blade. Im perfectly fine with letting the enemies come to me. In SoV I felt the need to play more agressive.

6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 (vicariously), 11 (started), 13, 14 and 15 Just from what I've heard on the Jugdral games, I know they'd be worse and I know it's gonna irritate me when I eventually play them lol. Idk about 6 though. I'm in the midst of replaying and it feels so much easier to me utilize all my units. I also think more of my problem with echoes is Celica's route with all the terrain. Binding Blade is way less problematic in that regard. Not if that one person is right in front of your face and you're letting him run rampant. I think I'd be more understanding of Jedah's plan if he ordered one of his daughters to stay back and kill/capture Alm. Or teleported Mila and Falchion in Duma's lair so at least it would be better guarded. No matter how hard I try to rationalize it, Jedah's actions regarding Alm just seem irresponsible.

Yeah, but isn't Jedah the one who teleported Mila's head and witch!Celica to the vault? Why send them to a room only Alm can acess without a plan to entrap him? Why risk Celica killing the only other person who could sate Duma's insanity if Celica alone cannot? I see what you're saying it just doesn't make sense to me for Jedah to let Alm run around the tower willy nilly if Alm's the only other branded. Most definitelty gonna check that out. Thanks!!!

Just got sealed? I thought Rudolf sealed her before the events of the game. The relationship between Falchion and the gods confuses me. Why did it kill Duma but only seal Mila? If Mila was already sealed, how did she seal the Falchion so no one could use it? If Mila was sealed inside the Falchion then what unsealed her? Why did she die so quickly after being unsealed? I think there's too many inconsistencies /not enough in-game explanation for me to fully believe that Mila was solely responsible for Celic's resurrection. I really need to check out all of the DLC at some point. I'd say becoming the last witch so no one else has to forcibly suffer from it is quite the fine ending indeed.

Glad you enjoyed it! While I love having most of the units available in Rev, CQ is still my favorite Fates path due to gameplay. The story has potential too, just maybe needed better execution.

But how did Mila still have her powers? I can get behind her talking because Duma talks after death too but Mila's powers have been sealed for a while now. That and the line "Trust in Falchion" led me to the assumption that Falchion is what revived Celica. It is interesting that even after having sold their souls, some witches still seem to have some autonomy and sense of self. Which makes them blipping out of existence after their body falls even more interesting (or sad). I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't want to get into another Nuibaba and Medusa situation cause that just leads to more questions than answers but that may be the only way to find a cure if it really was Mila and not the Falchion that helped Celica. I think Sonya becoming a hermit that continues to practice magic to find a cure makes the most sense to me. I just wish there was more lore to explore

Sonya's ending states that she tried to find a cure for witches and goes on to imply Sonya becomes a witch herself. But isn't Falchion the cure for witches? Also, witches in this game had their soul sacrificed to Duma. Would killing Duma not kill all the witches? And how could Sonya even become a witch if there was no Duma to sacrifice her soul to?

That makes a lot of sense actually. The Deliverance does make a name for themselves pretty early on. But even then, when another branded just walks in your front door, ripe for sacrificing, why not use both? Ian made it so I could never truly hate Berkut. Every word was laced with raw emotion. Alm's VA also impressed me in the end of Act 4 and 5. These kids are pissed. I think the accessibility of Fates' forging did spoil me a little. I do appreciate how balanced the combat is in this game, even though it can get gimmicky. Y'know the clipping never bothered me that much. Yeah, it was noticable but the models were just such an upgrade from Awakening, I was just glad they had feet lol The NPCs definitely could've used voices and definitely suffer from same face syndrome. I think these issues do become more of a money thing since the devs know the game won't sell as well as a completely new title. I get it, but when this game is this polished and on the verge of excellence, it's a shame that all of the details couldn't get ironed out. I'm glad you had such a good experience! As someone who did most of the same things you did but for 9 and 10, I can't wait to be ecstatic the day Nintendo/IS makes the Tellius games more accessible.

I think it does mean something that Massena, probs the closest to Rudolf sans Mycen, says he does but this should be more of a show not tell situation. Even if it's fairly reasonable to believe that Rudolf's harshness was tough love and to stop Berkut from killing himself trying to kill Alm before he kills Rudolf (that's a fun phrase), it would've been nice to have a small monologue from Rudolf before his final battle where he laments the choices he's had to make.