blah the Prussian

I would have liked Elincia and Ike to be co lords, but I'm willing to accept that they aren't, because Ike's character arc is decent. My point about the Black Knight is that there is no reason for him to exist other than to turn Ike's story from being about beating Daein to beating the Black Knight.

Yeah, pretty much. I have a theory that he exists because one day everyone at IS got drunk and were like "You know what FE needs? Darth Vader!"

I liked the worldbuilding, the nuance of Begnion, Ashnard, and a bunch of other stuff. I didn't, however, like the Black Knight. I think the Black Knight in Tellius is a boring villain who distracts from the main story; defeating Ashnard. Basically, even though Ike's goal is to beat Ashnard, the Black Knight gets most of the buildup. This creates a situation where most of the buildup over the course of the game is spent on the fight with the Black Knight, rather than on the fight with Ashnard, where it belongs. Having Ashnard be the one to kill Greil instead of the Black Knight would have been far better.

Well, I always have said that Fates' greatest sin is giving us an interesting character in the form of pre-possession Garon and then throws him away. Maybe have a prequel game centered around Garon in the early days, as he tries to keep his kingdom together in the face of plotting nobles and radical revolutionaries.

I mean Clinton should probably take cues from Jaques Chirac when he ran against Jean-Marie le Pen in 2002: "Vote for the crook instead of the Fascist."

But is that really an existential threat? Basically, if America terminated its alliance with Israel right now would that be an existential threat?

Yeah, Light Platinum seems to be one of the few that deserve to be on there.

Who? I mean, at this point it's just Iran that's really a threat, right? Syria is too busy being torn apart, same with Iraq, Jordan had a reconciliation years ago, and Egypt is also friendly right now, although admittedly that could change. It seems to me that the whole "surrounded with countries that hate you" mostly ended in the 80s; your neighbors are either allies or no threat.

Right then. Takumi annoyed me at first, because I absolutely despise the edgelord character archetype, be it with Takumi, Holden Caulfield or Kylo Ren. As Conquest continued, though, Takumi as an anti villain became the only good part of an otherwise completely dogshit story for me. This is because of his slow progression into insanity; sort of like Lyon, but admittedly less well written. He was essentially the hero, because, you know, fuck Corrin, but took it too far when he got possessed.

Don't know if it was HOTY, but Light Platinum is pretty good. It's story is shit, but it's not pretentious.

But his motivation in Ephraim's route is that he's a teenager who has suddenly become Emperor of Grado after his father died, depriving him of the only family he has. Then, he learns that he is facing half of his country being outright destroyed, causing economic devastation and millions of deaths. So, faced with all this, he turns to the power of darkness. He's an inexperienced, desperate kid who's trying to do the best he can for his people, and so he makes a mistake. Most importantly, he also stays as Lyon for most of the game. I also think that Formotiis works much better as the manipulator he is in Ephraim's route, seducing Lyon and making him think he's still in control, than in Eirika's route, where he's just a generic dark lord.

Dude, for the love of god don't role play as Erwin Rommel. Seriously. In any case, the difference here is that we accept that the soldiers of the Wehrmacht were wrong; that they supported evil. You don't here even the worst Holocaust deniers declaring that the Wehrmacht had to support Hitler because otherwise he would never be exposed as a goo monster. That is why Conquest's plot is so frustrating.

Well, Sacred Stone's plot is mostly good in Ephraim's route, because that's where Lyon is at his best. He's the second best villain in the series IMO, and it all shines through on Ephraim's route. Eirika's route, meanwhile, features Glen being killed off like a bitch without a fight, someone literally betraying his country because he wants to have sex with the Queen, leading to all sorts of implications (was he supposed to be sympathetic just because he asked Calleach not to rape her?) and Eirika just up and giving the Sacred Stone to Formotiis. Sigh.

Of course not. I'm planning it to be based on Christianity vs Paganism, and have the villain be based around a Oagan style religion that were persecuted by the Church. Now, they want revenge, by reviving their God. Sort of like Gangrel written better. And anyway, I only want him as a secondary antagonist; I think it would be cool to reverse the stereotypical evil empire-dark cult dynamic you see in most FEs.

Bloody hell, the Pokecom was stupid.

Ooh, I actually have an idea of my own regarding being betrayed. Basically the evil Sorceror helps your group as a way to play your group and the evil country off of each other, and then when you start getting the upper hand he betrays you to manipulate the evil country.

I remember I tried to play this all the way through over a year ago. I got bored. Be the Nostalgia Critic of Pokemon hacks, I guess.

No, not necessarily. It's possible to have a good story with black and white morality; look at the James Bond films, or Star Wars. The problem is that Seliph, especially when compared to Sigurd, is just boring. I'm fine with having unambiguous heroes, just make them interesting. A good example of this is Monster; the hero, Kenzo Tenma, is an absolute Saint, and the villain, Johann Liebert, is... well, just read the title. But both of them are so interesting to watch and see develop that it's one of the best stories I've ever seen. Seliph, meanwhile, develops, sort of, but it's extremely understated, and it's shown, not told.

Well, all the good guys are unambiguously good, and with the exception of King Trabant, all the villains are uninteresting. The only one who is somewhat interesting is Ishtar, the Camus, for basically being FE's Harley Quinn. The main hero is such a Boy Scout compared to his dad that it becomes impossible to take the story seriously, and the politics that made Gen 1 great are replaced with a simple rebellion. Chapters 8 and 9, though, do have good stories, because Trabant is the villain for them, and he's one of the best villains in the series. Overall I'd say that Gen 1 makes up for Gen 2, though, and the gameplay is still sublime.

This brings a tear to my eye. I remember all the kids who bought the PSP and bullied me for having the DS. I mean they probably don't give a fuck now, but still.

Oh, I'm not saying you're a pedophile, obviously. Okay, now I understand, it's fine. Sorry.

His Royal Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, obviously. Seriously, is a fighter pilot, has kept Jordan together, has taken enough refugees to make Merkel look like Orban while avoiding diasaster at the same time, and sounds like Mufasa. I'm serious. How can it be anyone else.

I'll give her this: Camilla is the most interesting of the Nohrian siblings. Of course, she doesn't get any character development, and her issues are played for laughs, but I certainly think she's better than Obergruppenfuhrer Xander. Of course, good in Fates is still bad. In a better written game she would have a major character arc based around overcoming these issues. I will say that threatening to torture and kill people who hurt her loved ones isn't necessarily insane, and it's more mama bear behavior. Unit wise, she's probably the best pre promote in the series; she's somewhat Fate's Oifaye.

Regretfully, my cousin informs me that the utter visionary who directed this work of art has not made a second part in over six months. It is unlikely to happen. A shame, as the story is at least better than Batman v Superman.

Dude, you know Sanaki is like thirteen, right? In any case, allow me to nominate Tana. I don't particularly know why, I just find her cute. Maybe it's just that I'm biased because she always turns out good in my runs, I don't know.