Fëanen

You could still look through a list of all items in the older games: they just gave you more options for inventory management than that. IS oversimplified the Awakening inventory system, in my opinion; it's especially jarring when pretty much every other mechanic, major or minor, was refined and enhanced or at least left alone.

It's actually Ninian that's a half-dragon, and she's over 9...er, 1,000. Roy'd be a quarter-dragon at best. Sophia aged faster than Fa (see their support)and couldn't transform. Ninian and Nils could transform, as can Nah and Mamkute Morgan. I think when it comes to human-dragon hybrids there's no hard and fast rules.

For the most part, the names work. They wouldn't seem strange if we weren't already so accustomed to the fan names. I mean, most of us weren't fans until at least after FE7 came out in the west, so we weren't bothered by the fact that Ruthea became Lucius. Hell, I didn't even know it for years! It's all a matter of familiarity. Ulster's a bit left-field, but it took the fans so long to realize Skasher might be a reference to the mythological Scathach that I can't blame NoA for not bothering. The only one that really is hard for me to digest is Quan. It's a totally legit romanization, but it just seems out of place in FE.

Overall I think it's one of the best in series, and definitely the best localized game. I have a few nitpicks about things where maybe they could've done more, but the game's so massive that it's hard to justify. I think the presence of DLC, skirmishes and the like would make rankings harder to implement than the more linear games like FE5 or 7. Not impossible, but probably not a priority for the developers. I don't give a damn about rankings anyway, so I'm not bothered.

With the hair spectrum in FE being so broad, I'd hate to think of the genetics involved. Though I still want to know where Lester gets blue hair! I'm nmot sure the difference between Jugdral (usually 1 inheritor per generation) and Ylisse is really that different. Genealogy takes place a mere century after the blood pacts, whereas with Ylisse it's been much longer. That'd give the bloodline ample time to mix and thus produce multiple inheritors per generation, just like how Larcei and Ulster (still gotta get used to the names) can both have Major Odo. Especially considering we're talking about royal lines. There may be a spiritual/magical component to it that goes beyond genetics anyway. In which case anything goes, I guess.

One thing worth noting in regard to Anri's bloodline - in her supports with the male Avatar, she says that there was another hero around the time that she was born that Marth was descended from. Presumably Anri and Marcelus were his descendants, so the Mark of Naga could've easily come down to Marth that way. 1,000 years being such a long time, maybe Gharnef knew of somebody else who could wield Falchion, or was even of that bloodline himself. As for Grima...the combined Earth Dragon theory is very tempting, since FE dragons are never that insanely big and powerful. I wish Tiki or Naga had told us more.

My guess is they always lived in the northern parts of Archanaea/Ylisse that are now Ferox. A lot of that area wasn't really inhabited in FE1/3, so they could've gone mostly unnoticed. They could have come from another continent too, though I wouldn't take those three off-map continents too seriously - if you look closely you'll see that all three seem to have the same coastline!

There's one other possibility that occured to me. Out of all the powerful artifacts of Archanea and Jugdral, the only two missing in Awakening are the Aum and Valkyrie staves. Perhaps somebody was using them behind the scenes? There's no evidence, but it helps me justify the scenario. It could also be like what happened with Lev...Lewyn and Briggid.

As far as Amazon goes, I've actually had the problem before with Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Zelda: Skyward Sword. I pre-ordered well in advance only to be glibly informed via e-mail on shipping day that there was a considerable delay. I didn't even bother pre-ordering FE on Amazon for that reason, I'll just give my mother money and ask her to see if it's available at Target (preferably, she gets an employee discount), BestBuy or Gamestop at the mall once it's out.

Bride? Bows? A blue staff with a floating orb? I can't say I approve or disapprove, but...this all seems kinda random.

Lucius should really have had a support conversation with a Pegasus Knight, just for the humor value of even the pegasus being confused and letting him ride it! There is the problem of how Michalis got started, since Dracoknight is a promoted class in his games and the remakes retcon the apparently male Pegasus Knights of FE3.

Gotta say, I'm really enjoying this. Thanks.

I tend not to cheat in actual playthroughs. I've experimented with the Mine Glitch, but never saved files after using it. Similarly, sometimes I'll use AR codes on emulated games just to play around with weapons and mechanics, but usually just on dummy save files that I don't go past chapter 3 or so of Game X with. If I play a game from start to finish, I do it legit - cheats are just a way for me to poke around and try unorthodox things.

Day before Mark. I can definitely live with that.

A question popped into my brain. If Mark is the child of My Unit and a 2nd gen character, are there grandparent supports? I'd think not, based on the sheer number of extra conversations (however generic) that would add, but I can't help being curious.

Tiki/Male MU's support has a bit of an oddity regarding ancient history that's puzzling me.

http://serenesforest.net/fe1/ This page links to the growth rates and pretty much any other information you could possibly want. Note the large amount of zero growths for the healers: some stats are just impossible to raise without items. I admit that I'm only really familiar with the remake,so any veteran NES players can correct me, but just by those numbers I'd say you're probably better off not wasting time leveling healers up. In general, the growth rates page should give you an idea of which characters excel at which stats. There may be RNG abuse methods to get better level ups, somebody else would have to tell you that - it's not an area I really have dealt with in any game. There are arenas in a few chapters, so try them out and see if they're worth your time. I've personally stopped using them too heavily in any FE, too much risk (I don't use save states), but your mileage may vary. Best of luck on your playthrough.

I'd get rid of Norton now if I were you. I've been very happy with Avast.

Going out to dinner, watching some Doctor Who, maybe read a bit. Frankly, for a teetotaler like me it's just another day.

One thing on the Swords page for New Mystery of the Emblem that I think might need looking at: the "Rook's Sword". Now, I don't speak Japanese, but considering the other similar swords and lances, maybe it should be transliterated as Luke's sword?

Pffft. None of you can compete with me, I was born on Star Wars Day. Surely I am the chosen one.

Okay, I usually avoid debate, but in my eyes education is one of society's most valuable assets, so here we go... What in the world is the Texas School Board trying to do other than breed good little Republicans? Now, I don't expect said board to include large amounts of liberal propaganda in their textbooks, and it's true that in such a conservative state there's going to be an inherently right-wing slant to the educational requirements, but there comes a point where a bias becomes outright propaganda. Furthermore, some of this absurdity doesn't even gel with (reasonable) conservative views I've encountered. For example, most of my conservative friends very much value justice, and certainly seem to believe in responsibility to the public good - just not in quite the same way that a social democrat such as myself does. I believe that all education, from Kindergarten classes to doctoral studies, should be based on facts - the most accurate facts available at the time, even if sometimes we come to the inevitable conclusion that "oops, that wasn't quite right." The presentation of those facts should be age-appropriate - I'm not proposing lectures on gender studies in Kindergarten. On the other hand, whitewash, spin, and propaganda should be wiped out where spotted. Consciously calling for them is just another nail in the fence between primary/secondary education and genuine academia. If we're going to water down the social sciences this much (and don't get me started on what we do to the natural sciences in school, especially biology)then we're doing our children a tremendous disservice. Teach students real history and they'll understand their world - teach them history with this much political agenda and they'll understand the world the right wing (or left wing, I can see this happening in the opposite direction) wants them to see.