blah the Prussian

Holy crap, that is pretty bad. Sadly the game didn't actually go into it. Sigh.

Of particular note is a passage at the end where it is basically outright stated that the Hoshidan forces took horrific casualties. I don't necessarily care if it was intentional or not, because it was presented as wrong (I agree) that Takumi would continue to push forwards. I consider the Gallipoli analogy to be a good one; it was the same reckless disregard for the lives of his men.

That is true of POWs, but not of wounded soldiers, because they can and will be able to fight in the future. While it is a war crime to kill wounded soldiers, it is not as such to not save them. As for what Ryoma did being morally questionable, that is irrelevant in my eyes.

The Geneva Convention was the first uniform set of rules that everyone had to follow. Anything else was de facto mercy. You also still haven't addressed the problem of Elise being an enemy combatant. You can argue that it was morally wrong to keep her from medicine all day, but it blatantly was not legally wrong.

Chapter 10, Conquest. The entire chapter is a reckless and flawed plan by Takumi where he sacrifices countless of his men (all while cowering behind them, mind you) that is at least partially motivated by his hatred of Corrin. You don't do that shit with human life.

You missed the part where Elise is clearly an enemy combatant. And, yeah, the Geneva Convention was in the Victorian Era, while this game is on alt world's Middle Ages. No Geneva Convention for you! And it is a fact that there was no concept of war crimes before the Geneva Convention.

I'd hate to see what you think of the Downfall parodies.

Yeah, no, I'm sorry, but Takumi is a Prince with responsibilities in the world that do not extend to hating Nohr. When he is ordering his men to charge blindly into Nohrian defenses that they cannot overcome, he is, as I said earlier, hating Nohr more than he loves Hoshido. It is perfectly fine that he hates Corrin, it is perfectly fine that he hates Nohr, but there is no excuse for making your own people suffer because of that. And, fine, he is a teenager, but the Hoshidans were stupid to give him any position in the first place. And you are aware that those are just jokes, right? Very few people actually consider Takumi to be as bad as a Trump, it's just a running joke I have going, that's all.

I honestly don't know why you guys were hyping up Chapter 19 as the hardest thing ever. If I do say so myself, I kicked it's ass. Once it becomes clear that you can destroy the Kitsune piecemeal, the Chapter is pathetically easy. Anyway... -Starting off, the whole reason the Kitsune need to be fought in the first place makes no sense. Corrin doesn't want to fight thousands of Hoshidan soldiers, but, I mean, doesn't Nohr have thousands of soldiers too? Obviously it can't just be the 16 or so units that you take with you to each battle, so what gives? -Edit: I bet that multitude of Hoshidans makes you wish you'd killed some when you had the chance, huh, Corrin? Dumbass. -To add to that, if Corrin and co go around the Hoshidans by way of the mountain, said Hoshidans will still be there. They will have to be fought at some point, so it is best to do it here, when, firstly, the Nohrians aren't in too deep to retreat, and secondly, when the flat plain gives the Nohrian cavalry the best advantage possible against the Hoshidans. Does Corrin really want to be fighting thousands of Hoshidan soldiers while laying siege to the Hoshidan Capitol? -So Corrin is able to convince the Rainbow Sage that he's good, despite clearly working for Nohrzi Germany (what I'm calling Nohr from now on) but not the Kitsune? Their logic for attacking him also makes no sense. "Yep, you're clearly poachers. That's why you have a whole army with you, look Nohrian, and generally look to be putting in way too much effort to just be Nohrian." The annoying thing is that this could have Ben avoided by simply making the Kitsune loyal to Hoshido. -What kind of idiot poaches from the Kitsune, anyway? They are clearly well equipped enough to pose a major threat to any potential poachers, so why not just rip off some rhino horns? What, does al-Shabab want Kitsune now? -Why do the Kitsune attack in the first place? They could have just stayed hidden. Do they attack all poachers head on like this? Add the Kitsune tribe to the long list of idiots this game has so benevolently provided us with. -I have already commented on the idiotic strategy the Kitsune employ, but it bears repeating. Who deliberately allows their army to be destroyed piecemeal? Well, besides AI programmed to give the player an easy win, of course. -Corrin is torn up about killing the Kitsune, but why? Why didn't he spare the Kitsune like he did with every other enemy ever? Okay, so that plot point was monumentally stupid to begin with, but some comsistency in your stupidity would be nice, game! -This chapter really irritates me because the conversation between Corrin and Azura at the end very much feels like a much better story scratching desperately, trying with all its heart to get out. This conversation should have been the culmination of character development of both routes, as the reason that Nohr attacks Hoshido becomes clear: a desire for farmland. Thus, with this conversation, Corrin moves on, resolving to either defend his birth home, and thereby leave Nohr to starve, or to save his adopted home, and thereby destroy Hoshido. It would have been a somber message to a kickass story about growing up, about accepting your role in life, about realizing that you cannot save everyone. It would have been... I'm sorry, I need to drown my sorrow in delicious Butterscotch Pudding. Did you not know that was a thing? You need that in your life right now. Edit: Continuing Camilla and Niles's Excellent Adventure, I do quite like this support. One problem, though: Niles is Keo's retainer! He should know exactly what kind of shit Camilla had to go through! I am warming up to Camilla as a character, though, and wish she had more character development instead of certain... Hoshidan... princes. So that was one third of the unholy trinity done! Hopefully, the other two prove to be as easy as this one was! See you then!

Oh trust me, Takumi is decently written, but the game around him spoils it; for example, why didn't he face any punishment for his failures?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WnAvNdVyJB0 Gotta love Swedish history themed heavy metal.

And what does Hoshido get from a won battle? The way the port is arranged means that the Hoshidans are taking horrific casualties to take it, Corrin or no Corrin. Also, wasn't Corrin the only reason Takumi Trump attacked in the first place? Regardless, so Hoshido has the port, now what? The Nohrians can now easily shift their army south and entrap the Hoshidan beachhead. The Hoshidans are being supplied over sea, which is always more tenuous than an overland supply route. The Nohrians can easily turn the city into a death trap, and the Hoshidans can only funnel more men in, who will just proceed to be lost when the perimeter finally breaks. They are also facing a hostile populace, which is a nightmare in any situation, but this one especially. A hostile populace is, quite frankly, death here. This can only be a strategic and tactical failure for Hoshido, and the worst part is that Takumi Trump faces no punishment whatsoever for his failure. A simple demotion would be nice.

Battle of Gallipoli, WWI. The Entente tried to land a force close to the Ottoman Capitol to take it, but the Ottomans had set up some damn good defenses, and ended up holding off a far superior British, French, and ANZAC force. The battle was a major Entente defeat and was characterized by the Entente commanders throwing a bunch of soldiers at heavily fortified Turkish positions, with massive casualties as the result, just like the actions of a certain Hoshidan Prince. Basically from him I got the impression of a guy who hates Nohr more than he loves Hoshido.

Yeah, but the reason Ryoma occupied the castle in the first place was to try to get Corrin back. That one castle had no strategic or tactical significance.

I'm pissed off at him as a military commander. Conquest Chapter 10 was already enough to put Gallipoli to shame.

I have already commented on this in my thread, but essentially: Elise is an enemy combatant, Ryoma doesn't owe her shit. I do have a problem, otoh, with Ryoma using his men just to try to get Corrin back, but, well, Hoshido is nepotistic as fuck, and they frankly make the Italians seem like Prussia.

Blame Takumi Trump all the way.

"Doy, I bet that evil demon Garon will totally sit on Hoshido's throne even though he should probably know it will kill him!" I'm not defending Awakening's story by any means, but it's still better than Conquest's.

Fates Conquest is as bad as the latter. At least Awakening is coherent and the characters generally aren't stupid and make the correct choices.

...which would have been a good thing to deconstruct, given that survival of the fittest is horrible. Showing Caineghis to be a Fascistic brute would have helped too. I also seriously doubt that not a single of the Begnion ships was innocent. But yeah, I do agree overall that the whole Beorc vs Laguz thing could have and should have been handled better.

Instead, we get Iago...

The only Laguz Kingdom that really applies to is Gallia, thoug. Naesala is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, sure, but they're still the wrong things. Tibarn likes going all Somalia on everyone's asses, including on innocent people. Deghinsea, meanwhile, is fucking Switzerland. I do agree that Gallia should have been more nuanced, though. Maybe point out that they're strongest becomes King philosophy isn't that different from Ashnard's ideology?

Sorry for the double post, but this just occurred to me: we are talking about WWII, Hemingway, and Japanese militarist philosophers in this FE thread. #Only in a blah the Prussian thread.

Tellius, because it does such a wonderful job at making everything so damn nuanced. There are good people and bad people in every country, and no country is truly innocent. It also has my favorite FE character ever, Sanaki. I will say I would have preferred it if Elincia and Ike were joint lords, because Elincia is a much more interesting character than Ike is, but overall, if we ignore the unfortunateness that was Radiant Dawn, Tellius kicks ass. Also, Ashnard. I already went on a big rant about how kickass of an antagonist he is in the other thread, but, basically, he is the only human FE antagonist that is no one's bitch. I like that.

I don't see any reason for why the average Nohrian wouldn't follow Garon. Hitler had the advantage of coming to power democratically, but Garon doesn't appear to be doing anything bad to his own people except for the Ice Tribe, who are an autonomous part of the Kingdom. I'd say their view is that they don't care. That was how the average person viewed pretty much everything before, I'd say 1750 sounds right.