WindSentinel

Apologies-I fixed it. Big oversight on my end.

Yeah, this is my problem too. The game suffers lots of bad execution plot wise, which is worse than the kinda bad/mediocre worldbuilding. I was dumbfounded at how Alear dies TWICE in the span of like...30 minutes. In what writing team is that acceptable? Or how Hortensia gets away with threatening a queen. And the scene with Zephia giving the good Veyle the ring. C'mon. They really need to think through why and how things happen. The game needs to pace itself better. Sprinkle things in more evenly. Exposition/backstories/motivations for the hounds and Veyle, Alear's two deaths, Sombron's motives, everything could've been explored little by little in the 26 chapters we get. But I get that this is a fun romp, so it's going to be a little dumb-I just wish it was a campy, fun dumb when it goes there, like some of the characters. I also get that they didn't want endless cutscenes, but I'll take a ton of them if it explains more and makes that endgame less rushed.

OH yeah I 100% agree.

I'm a tad excited for them still-bitter that a few cool things/classes (and MAYBE explanations) are behind a paywall, not too hooked on the angle I'm seeing as it's been done a lot in FE DLCs now, but if they at least round out the worldbuilding with Nel and her brother/friend? and (spoilers): Then I'll be happy. Really excited for this aspect of it. Not expecting the coolest story ever, but I love what ifs like this, especially since in game I feel they were a little wasted/had their issues dumped on us last minute and it was hard to like them for anything other than being terrible/quirky. Lastly, I will say... (kinda spoilers about classes):

Spoilered for the wall of text. TLDR. I agree to an extent, but I've solved the riddle that is 3H's janky writing. I think. This is just my take on what the hell they were thinking.

Found the notebook! So Awakening-esque. I actually really liked the little tidbits on the cast in this style, it's very cute. If there's one thing about this game I do like, it's that the camp is very well balanced with actual character beats. I especially love the many ways characters care for the pact ring, so much personality! Ahem, now for the wall of text... I'd call bull on how she was killed without a holy weapon/relic (she was sleep but surely she was huge? How did Nemesis do this?) for sure-the slaughter of her people/kids makes sense considering how they seem to be more like demigods with a dragon form rather than primarily dragons (maybe-Macuil and Indech are just chilling as a giant bird/turtle and don't miss being elves, so maybe it's like Tellius where both forms are equally the Nabatean's true self), so we can assume they lived like humans or something, it was a time of peace between all species on the continent, and so they weren't prepared for Nemesis. But yeah, the initial killing of Sothis makes no sense. Not to mention, wouldn't Sothis have retainers guarding her tomb? How did no one see a big hulking human bandit just waltz on in? Were humans and dragons just on that good of a terms, even after the dragon/EDM war, to the point that people visited Sothis for worship? Like, how does this work? I wish we got a third Fodlan game that worldbuilt pre modern Fodlan, but that would humanize Rhea too much and make Edel look too bad, I guess. The only reason I give Sothis' death a pass is because FE kinda has a rule that creator gods are immortal, but the god can be slain with items she makes (Ashera blesses the twin blades, so they can also harm her) AND/OR at least not be completely killed even when they are. I forget how Tellius handles Ashera's defeat, but for Sothis, she is "dead" but she isn't so dead she can't talk to Byleth and live through them. In fact, the game implies that even after "fusing" with you she's alive, just in another plane being irresponsible and not taking on the responsibility of the goddess and possibly giving her children closure (she only does this if you marry Rhea, when she's having a near death experience-y'know, Rhea, your grandma and, if you believe Byleth is Sothis and not their own Nabatean, your child as well! Sweet home Fodlan, I guess!) and helping correct things. I really liked Hopes for giving her personality and a role, a goddess that takes no bull and will enact vengence for the sake of those she cares about, as she did when the Agarthans tried it on her ages ago. She could've been great, but Fodlan never wants to explore or explain anything. I can see that! I think most people who play games are not hardcore gamers to the point that they'd see the meta that way and get it-that's something only people who like J/S RPGs both and know their histories well would conclude to. FE's intertextuality has always been super self contained too, so I suppose being meta about genres is something FE isn't too keen on doing. This being said, I don't think intertextuality/meta is bad if it's genuine homage to beloved tropes and the stories made from them, but I do think we're in an age where a lot of media is apologizing for being...what it is using meta, or using it for easy money. For example, in Pokemon Scar/Vio, one of your rivals has a line along the lines of "wow, that almost sounds like a video game quest, doesn't it?" when instructed to deactivate four terminals in Area Zero (should I tag this as spoilers?) and I had to roll my eyes. We get it. We're playing a goddamn video game. I know I am. You don't have to apologize or point it out. I'd go as far as to say even Undertale gets on my nerves for this junk, but it only gets meta and annoying if you go out of your way to not play the game as intended, so it gets a pass-though I do kinda think as a concept it was easy to make bank off of thanks to the meta nature. Anyways, back on topic... That is true. I think FF had team building/party mechanics before DQ actually (since the very first, you choose your party makeup, right? While for DQ, it was set party/solo until DQ3), so that also puts a dent into the idea of this Emblem being a classic protagonist from another franchise.

You know what? Reading this over and thinking about the already meta way Engage operates, this is a really good angle. Another poster @B.Leumade a joke of it, but I think you're both more on track than the OP and I despite our long back and forth about it. Sombron's world had it's own Emblems, but there's no rule saying Emblems are FE only, this applies only to Elyos as far as we know. In his world, Emblems could easily be classic franchise protags instead of FE ones (off topic for a second, but honestly, it would be cool to see Adol as an Emblem-he'd be super powerful, I can only imagine using his ring in a war). The JRPG is the dad of SRPG, and FE is the dad of SRPGS. So I guess in a way, Engage, being the most recent entry of the franchise and celebrating it's dad status, is making a meta commentary on how Sombron is in the wrong genre despite being in a franchise born from it. If you want to be a one man show, don't come to a Fire Emblem world to do it. SRPGS are about friends and bonds carrying us through hardship, classic JRPGs are the only worlds that support being a rugged one man army, before JRPGs evolved to be more character/bond focused when consoles began to be able to hold more data and tell bigger tales.

Oh Engage, keep on being your wonky self. Literally the writers can't stop making themselves look bad, and they aren't even trying to! Awakening shat the bed in the lore/worldbuilding aspect (opens up new doors, but definitely shits the bed on a lot of established concepts for the sake of nonstalgia (sideeying at Panne, Nowi, and Priam), but Naga DOES mention in the lategame that she is no god, she can't create from nothing like Sothis and Ashunera. I think that's canon/adds up, because everything we've seen from dragons implies they create from body parts, metals, magic is still used by asking spirits (Duma calls on spirits when casting spells in Echoes so we can assume even dragons borrow from spirits to do blood pacts and dragon form storing via stones too) all of that, never just making stuff from nothing. But yeah, most games are just like, "Divine dragons are good, have green hair, and like people. The rest went insane because they're too prideful to become elves" and leaves it at that, and then games outside of Archanea just play with this base (with 3H being the most interesting way to worldbuild them imo). The FE Wiki says that in the game data for the DS games straight up call the stones "GODDESSSTONE" and the manakete class "GODDESSDRAGON_F" but I think that the Divine dragons are meant to evoke godlike presence and power (esp with Tiki's early art having feathery wings, Mila's wing hair, and Naga's ghostly look post Awakening), but not be one, especially since they can be killed.

Would be nice to have Kaga acknowledged in a post FE5 game, but him being sued for making Totally Not FE makes me think they Thanosed the poor guy from Intsys' records as soon as he left LOLLLL. I'd kill to see a Guts-like Emblem Kaga in game though, shout out to the man, he loves his dragon elves and European politics. He deserves an Emblem, as a treat. If it's the player, I will scream LOLLLLL But yeah, I think it's just more bullcrap to get us thinking a little too hard about it. Still fun to discuss though! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Oh, where did the information on her mother's race come from? I didn't see this in the game's files or in the cutscenes. But yes, whether we know the mom's race or not, they're only half, which means there are other dragons out there. I wish Engage went into what tribes existed on Elyos before Sombron's descent, and even after the implied slaughter of many of them-the game implies they're a race that are feared outside of divine ones (somehow? Though Veyle/Pandero's supports imply people are open to worshipping them all), but the wonky worldbuilding has made Alear and Veyle's ending look really bad to many on Twitter and YT. Spoilers for it: However, many people read this as...uh, incest despite the game having no subtext for it like Fates, mostly because the game is very wishy washy on just how dragon tribes work (the only non royal type we see are mage/demon dragons, so I suppose there's only three tribes?), since the plot only focuses on the specific ones from 1000 years ago and not everyone is a worldbuilding nut like me, who looks at all of the implied details of the world that isn't outright said. We never get a established overview of non royals, their powers, the names of their clans etc etc (unless they do give more details and I'm missing info-feel free to correct me on anything I say.) So yeah...more questions to be left unsolved, I suppose. RIP. And yes, I've noticed that pattern. I enjoy moral grey, but I think often it's not done well anyway, and ends up being more "straight up not a great guy but now he's somewhat human, he has family, friends, ideals and while this doesn't make his actions good it gives them context and makes him a human/feel real" and that's fine, but often the text of the work doesn't frame things this way, instead opting to paint a more sympathetic/"I had no choice, don't hate this character btw" picture, which betrays what actually happens. This being said, I would like to see more bastards as villains again, as FE has always been a franchise about what the young, upcoming lords do with their power as they discover the world's complexities, and grow and learn from their friends and experiences. More villains that just abuse power to get their needs met and maybe manipulating a supernatural force will suffice for an FE story. A Griffith of some sort. Species change would be cool to touch on again after Fodlan shat the bed with the concept, now that Griffith and FE are melding together in my head...

Oh, I agree-as mentioned, the whole point is that he's a lost cause. He went down a dark path a long, long time ago, I mean, his own children's suffering/forcing him to reflect couldn't snap him out of it.

The fact that Shex's mom is implied to be a kind Agarthian (or maybe she was only kind because they have Arval in them?) and could've examined and humanized them more-I can't stand fully evil races in games, it's a cop out for the complicated mess that is a clash of ideals and what a better world looks like. However, I was wiling to give them a pass if they at least were worldbuilt up a bunch. The Abyss library teased their religion, which is a good start, but alas, nothing came of it. Even worse, there's nothing to work with, since the information we get on them is super scant. Like, not even a ficbait amount of info. I hope FE learns from this and realizes that though a split route war story is a fantastic concept, they're going to have to put in a ton of work to make it all cohesive and satisfying. Triangle Strategy is another game that tried this and honestly flops somewhat too (mostly the endings/the almost nonsensical way you get the golden route), and for the most part the way the route split is handled is stellar...so it isn't easy. I can't claim to have the key to the issue, but I would like for FE to get back to linear stories that deliver a few themes cohesively. Anyways, as for what a "Fell" dragon is...it is a little strange to introduce this species in this game, as they don't have an archetypical appearance, power, or society like Divine Dragons do-this is fine if they wanted to add this in, but they don't show Sombron's clan, so we're in the dark, and Grima was retconned into a homunculus (the art book handwaves his origins and pulls an "oh he's a descendant of earth dragons", so I assumed during Echoe's development they changed it to this). While Sombron has Grima's horns kinda, him, Alear, and Veyle all look different. In fact, Veyle looks more like a Divine Dragon than a Fell one with her whole feather motif, Alear looked and still looks like a normal person, and the game has no manakete transformations (outside of Tiki. Great.) so we don't even know if all Fell dragons have a cobra look or what. And of course the game has the whole dragons were wiped out excuse for the reason why no dragons appear despite there being enough of a population for Sombron to mate with, so cool, another concept for the fandom to pick up the slack on. Also, yeah. I think we need more just bad people. I DO wish we had more well done tragedies, like Lyon and Julius, but our current writers can't do that and i'll respect their strengths and...attempts? At emotion.

Ugh, I could go on and on about the way 3H handled its fantasy. From the Nabateans, to the Agarthans, to the Abyss itself, everything is left ambiguous unless it feeds the main three lord's views-Edelgard's especially. As a writer myself, I too have favorite original characters, darlings that I love more than the rest, but I still have a duty to give each character and lore beat a fair examining, I can't handpick what aspects of the world I want to show to support one character's viewpoints over the others. Sothis never having a larger form or dialogue with her children outside of Hopes despite getting her memories back and the responsibility that comes with being one of the few gods in the franchise, Rhea not being treated as a 4th lord (kind of...Seteth carries SIlver Snow when it really should've been her), The Argarthans being skipped over in a game where we play as their version of Byleth, the complicated relationship between the Abyss and the Church, all swept aside to avoid making Edelgard more complex and flawed. Fodlan has landmarks, a name, and a lot of things Fates lacked, but without the writing prowess and willingness to let Edelgard (And Claude for that matter) be just as flawed as Dimitri, it's just a wasted setting like Fateslandia. Anyways, back on topic-I'm grateful this game gave us dragon fam drama after Tellius introduced it, Fates...botched it, but tried, and Fodlan skipped over it/didn't touch on it in Silver Snow like it should've, but Sombron was still 100% a letdown-the mystery Emblem being the cherry on top. I'm still holding on to hope for DLC explanations-FE let me down many times, but I wanna give it a chance, lol. I'm especially sad because Sombron had a chance to mix the dragon archetypes, and also foils Tiki like his own kids (as well as Medeus and Rhea) do. Just like Alear has Marth as Tiki did, he had his own lovely hero to look up to and fawn over if it wasn't corrupted (why do I get the feeling that fell dragons making Emblems evil was made JUST so Sombron can't have anyone to talk to?). And honestly? Seeing an FE villain go to therapy, or I guess in FE terms, let the protag touch their heart would be very amusing and welcome. We need a playable token evil race that ISN'T a cop out loli like Veyle, and we need at least one game where we can stop our friends and family from destroying the world from their insecurity/vulnerability. Honestly, for all their flaws, AwakeningFates was pretty good at juggling their junk, the only bad thing being the eh stories and the super forced deaths in Fates on each route near the mid-endgames.